by B. N. Toler
“Slow down!” Hudson shouted from the back seat.
I turned onto our street what felt like an eternity later, and closed in on a mass of police cars, fire trucks, and neighbors standing outside watching our house burn to the ground.
Whit yelled something, maybe cursed, I’m not sure. I only heard the sound of my own heart as it tried to beat its way out of my chest.
Flames erupted from the rear of the house while black smoke funneled out of every window. Lucy was in there, burning to death.
I jumped out of the car, not even putting it in park, but Whit hit the parking break and twisted the key before he jumped out himself, followed by Hudson.
“Lucy!” I yelled through tears and panic.
The sounds of glass shattering mingled with the whispers of the pedestrians watching. Dark smoke billowed out of the windows and stung my eyes. Vibrations pounded me from every direction, as if my ability to sense energy was magnified. “Lucy!” I kept yelling as I ran towards the house.
A large, black, male police officer grabbed me and held me back.
“Ma’am, calm down. Is this your house?” He tightened his grip.
“My Aunt is in there!” I sucked the energy out of him like drinking soda through a straw. His hold released, and he fell to the ground like a ton of bricks. I moved forward, more energized and strengthened.
“Aldo!” Whit called, panic in his voice.
I reached for the front door and felt the presence of four people behind me. I turned and pulled hard. It was a weakening pull for me, mentally, because I had not touched any of them. Whit stopped, as the bodies collapsed beside him, shock and disbelief on his face.
Dizziness swirled my head, but I had to save Lucy. The heat of the door knob scorched my hand, and my lungs burned from the smoke. The skin on my hand sizzled, but the pain did not stop me. Most likely, because of the adrenaline surging though me and the energy from the officers I drained.
“Aldo! Stop, damn it!” Hudson yelled as he and Whit approached the front door. I took a step forward, when someone grabbed me. My body lurched. Whit had started pulling from me, trying to stop me. I yanked back and felt his pull snap back like a bunji cord that had been stretched too far.
I took another step forward, but he pulled again, harder this time, and I couldn’t break the connection. I struggled, yanking back mentally as hard as I could, but fatigue won over. Whit knew he had to drain me unconscious because I would enter the house if he didn’t. It took only moments and I was out.
In my subconscious, Lucy stood in my field from Montana. The day was bright and warm, heavenly.
A beautiful place, where a beautiful soul deserved to be.
My beautiful Lucy.
Her gray hair swept her shoulders as a light breeze blew. She looked younger and rested. The ornate flowers of red and purple reached her waist and she picked one before she released it into the breeze.
She looked at me softly. “Aldo, were you really going to run into a burning house?”
“To save you,” I whispered through tears.
“You knew I was gone.”
Sobs broke out from within me. “Lucy, why did you make us leave?”
She walked over to me and hugged me.
“Because I had to.” She hugged me tighter.
“What happened?” My board appeared behind us, which contained one black picture. I looked to her, but I knew she couldn’t tell me what it meant. I last touched her before she died. If she didn’t know what was about to happen, there was no way I could have absorbed it from her.
“Vampires?” I asked.
“Maybe.” She shrugged.
“Why are you gone now? What happened with the fire?”
“I don’t know.” My subconscious answered this way because it didn’t know what happened.
“Did you start the fire?”
“What fire?” Her eyes widened.
“Did you know this was going to happen?”
“I’ve always known.”
“What do you mean?”
“I knew one day they would find us.”
“Who, Lucy? Vampires?”
She stared at me blankly. I stared back, trying to figure out what happened. Lucy might not have known what was going to happen, or maybe I was so distracted with Thomas that I didn’t absorb anything from her.
“Who was the woman you were scheduled to heal?”
“I don’t know. Thomas referred her.” She proceeded to pick flowers, making a bouquet.
“Was he here?” I jerked them out of her hand and tossed them.
“I don’t know.” She frowned as she watched her flowers scatter in the wind.
I wanted to scream and punch my subconscious in the face.
“You know you can’t go to college, Aldo.” She placed her hand on my shoulder. Her eyes met mine and the pain in her eyes pierced my heart. It was killing her to say goodbye to me, but she maintained a steady voice and did not allow herself to cry. “I’m sorry. This is our life. You will never get to live in one place. We made it a long time here, Aldo. Everything told me we should go, but I wanted so badly for you kids to have a little normalcy. It made me so happy to see the three of you happy.” She smiled softly. “It’s time for you to wake up now. Remember the tree in the park where we had the picnic with Thomas that day?”
I thought briefly about this. It was one of my favorite memories. Thomas taught us to fish that day. The thought wrenched my heart and I started to sob again.
“Focus, Aldo!” Lucy snapped me back from the puddle I was allowing myself to melt into.
“Yes ma’am,” I whispered.
She picked a red flower and tucked it gently behind my ear. “Go there. There are instructions waiting for you.” Tears formed in her eyes.
“I can’t get in touch with Thomas,” I sobbed
“You need time to accept what that is.” She replied plainly, stepping back from me.
“Accept what?” I questioned.
“He’s gone, Aldo. He’s never coming back. You must forget him.” Her voice was firm.
“He’s dead?” I fell to my knees.
“You must forget him.” Her tone was stern, lacking any compassion as she stared down at me.
I felt my heart rise to my throat. “Why?”
“It’s time to wake up.” She ignored my question.
“What happened to Thomas?” I insisted.
“Go to the lake where Thomas took us fishing that day. Remember the tree?” She asked.
“Yes, but—”
“There is something there to help you.” She patted my hand and kissed it gently.
“I have to go now. I love you, and I will always be with you.” She kissed my cheek.
“I love you too, Lucy.”
Then she was gone. Just like that. My dream went dark.
I sat in the pitch black, hugging my legs, crying for what felt like hours. I had to wake up. Waking up was the last thing I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure I could face a world where Lucy and Thomas were absent. I wished I could just hide away in my subconscious from the truth, but that wasn’t possible.
Voices echoed in my head as my subconscious tried to break and send me back to the world I now feared. The world where I would have to wake up and face the horrible truth. I fought it and hid in my dreams, in that deep dark hole many people wish they could crawl into when despair strikes.
Whit and Hudson’s voices repeated my name, over and over, begging me to wake up.
I crawled deeper into the darkness of my mind and tried to drown out any sound from the outside world. I couldn’t put rational thoughts together because nothing made sense anymore, so I continued to crawl. It was all I could do, until the darkness swallowed me, numbing me. I stayed there for a long time and decided I would stay there forever. Suddenly, I was being dragged by my ankles by an invisible being. I twisted, digging my nails into the ground, but it made no difference. The ground was soft, like clay, and allowed me no traction. I jerk
ed my legs and kicked at the being that held my ankles when it released me. I sat up, staring into the darkness; a faint light twinkled in the distance. It was my portal back to consciousness. I turned away from it, not ready to wake up. I walked, but began sinking into the ground as if it were made of quicksand. It sucked me under, devouring me until it dropped me hard onto a stone floor. I stood up and continued to walk when something snapped. I fell to the ground, seized by immense pain. I shrieked, but someone shook me.
When I woke up, I lay on a gurney, staring into a sky, still tinted with smoke. I looked to my left and saw my lake, my favorite scene in my dreams, but when I blinked, it was gone. I looked to the other side and found my brothers.
Whit stared down at me, his hands on my arms, shaking me. “Aldo, wake up!”
Voices and vibrations surrounded me, and someone held my hand.
“Aldo,” Hudson whispered. I sat up and turned to slide off of the gurney. I felt woozy, but managed to swallow back my nausea.
“Ma’am, please lay back down.” The same paramedic who insisted I go to the hospital when I saved the little girl in the parking lot—the day I met Thomas—looked down at me. She had lost some weight though.
“Ma’am, I’m fine. Really,” I sighed, clearing my throat.
“Miss Lawson.” A deep voice said my name from behind.
Hudson eyed me, cautioning me.
“I’m Detective Ronald Burlop. I’d like to ask you a few questions, if you’re up to it.” A round, pasty man with red cheeks and a receding hair line stepped into my line of sight. He wore brown slacks and a button up, short sleeve shirt that was tucked in, despite the major done-lap his stomach produced over his pants.
“Of course,” I mustered through my tears and hoarse voice. Behind him two officers pushed a black body bag on a gurney, and then slid it into the back of the coroner’s van.
I broke into sobs again.
“I’m sorry ma’am.” He cleared his throat. “Miss Lawson, your brothers say that you left to go shopping while your aunt remained home.”
“Yes, sir,” I sobbed, using the sleeve of Whit’s jacket he had covered me with to wipe my nose.
“Was your aunt expecting company?”
“No.” I lied to his face. He couldn’t know what she did or who came over.
“How long were you gone?”
“I don’t know, about six hours.”
“That’s a long time to be at the mall.”
“We went to a friend’s house afterwards. My brothers can give you our friend’s name and address.” I tried to calm myself. This man was just doing his job, but our lives had just been turned upside down. Being questioned was not helping.
“Miss Lawson, we suspect foul play. We’ll need an autopsy to confirm it, but we think someone murdered your aunt and the culprit set the house on fire.”
Hudson and Whit’s eyes grew wide.
“Did you find another body inside?”
“No, ma’am.”
I sobbed again.
“Do you have any family nearby?” He eyed all three of us.
“No sir,” Hudson replied, “but we’re all eighteen years old now so we can do for ourselves.”
“I see.” The detective’s voice deepened.
“Well, here is my card, and the coroner’s number is on the back. We’ll talk to your friend later today to verify your alibi.”
“Are we suspects?”
“No, ma’am, but we have to verify your alibi.”
“My aunt wanted her body donated to science.” I stood up and nodded towards the van holding my beloved aunt’s body. Whit shot a look of disapproval my way, but I ignored it. How did he propose we would pay for a funeral?
“Did she have a will?”
I shook my head. “No. She didn’t have anything to will.”
“Well, you will have to fill out the coroner’s paperwork so they can transfer the body.”
“Okay. I’ll call tomorrow. Can we go?” I slid off of the gurney and fought the urge to collapse to the ground. My body felt like I had been hit by a train.
“Yes. You’ll need to contact me tomorrow by two. Your brothers say you don’t have a cell phone?”
“No, my aunt was raising three teens by herself. Cell phones weren’t in the budget.”
“She sounds like a fine lady. I’m sorry for your loss.” Burlop nodded.
“She was. Thank you. I’ll call tomorrow.” I embraced my brothers. We stood as we hugged each other, sobs escaping from our huddle. Neighbors still watched, but we didn’t care. When we finally got ourselves together, Hudson took Fred and put him in the back seat of our car, bringing the plastic Tupperware dish he had left water in for him earlier.
We sat in the car together in silence for a while. I let the day’s events turn over in my head. Why did she make us leave? My emotions ranged from anger to sadness. With the loss of Lucy, came another pain. Why did she say Thomas was gone? I pondered if it was only my subconscious saying he was gone because I worried about it all day.
As we drove off, heading North on the interstate, I explained to Hudson and Whit what little I knew.
“Where are we going?” Hudson asked.
“The park to find that tree. She said we would find instructions there.”
“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Whit sighed. “I guess this means we have to leave.”
“What about Lila?” Hudson asked from the backseat.
“I don’t know, Hudson. Let’s just see what Lucy left and go from there.” I kept thinking about Thomas. Where was he? I pulled into a gas station.
“What are we doing?” Whit asked.
“I have to call Thomas.”
“Yeah, he’ll know what to do.” Hudson sat up, assuring me.
I was grateful to find this local station had a pay phone. There aren’t many left these days. I got out and pulled three quarters from my purse. My hands shook as I inserted each coin. The black receiver was greasy, and I held it away from my face as I dialed Thomas’s number.
After one ring, an automated voice said, “We’re sorry, this number has been disconnected. Please check your number and dial again.”
I hung up and my heart sank to the very lowest part of my stomach. I picked up the receiver and dialed Thomas’s number once more, but the same automated voice answered. I fell to the ground sobbing and dry heaving. Whit jumped out of the car and looked around.
“Aldo, get up. We have to go,” he warned.
I couldn’t move. It was as if my hands and knees were cemented to the sidewalk. I wanted to melt into the ground and hope I was evaporated. Whit quickly picked me up and carried me to the car, where Hudson had already opened the passenger door. They both got back in quickly, and Whit drove us towards the park.
“His phone is disconnected,” I sobbed. “He’s gone, too.”
I cried all the way to the park. When we pulled into the parking lot, we sat in the car until I could compose myself, and then we walked to the lake, waiting for a young couple sitting under the tree reading books, to leave.
“Great, we’ll be here forever.” Hudson rolled his eyes.
The lake was still, interrupted by occasional little flicks in the water’s surface when a fish came up to capture an unsuspecting insect. We sat by the lake, quiet for some time. I’m sure they were mulling over the events of the day just as I was. Fred ran along the shore and barked, trying to get one of us to join him, but we just sat and stared out over the water. We were all realizing that with Lucy’s death, Fred and the clothes on our back were all we had. Oh, and the yellow beast.
Finally, after about three hours, the couple left. We walked to the tree and the three of us circled it, looking up and down as we tried to see anything out of place or some sort of sign. A small pile of stones sat at the base of the tree facing away from the lake. The stones had writing on them. Really, Lucy?
“Pick these up.” I pointed.
“Why?”
“Those stones have
our message.”
Whit held his shirt out as Hudson and I filled it with the stones. We walked back to the car, opened the trunk, and laid them out. We spent an hour, deciphering each stone. Some stones had writing in English and some were in Greek. The Greek stones had words like, energia, on them; the Greek word for energy. Some of the stones had words like family or stay together. The last stone I picked up had Blue Cavalier, left corner of parking lot. We all glanced to the left of the parking lot, and sure enough, there was a blue Chevy Cavalier.
The car was an older model, but clean. Lucy would never buy a new vehicle.
“Keys.” Hudson held up a set of keys. “They were in the gas tank.”
“Open it,” Whit ordered him.
We all climbed in. Hudson into the driver’s seat, Whit the passenger seat, and I climbed into the backseat, along with Fred.
“Go look in the trunk, Whit,” I ordered.
He did so, without hesitation. He came back, his face pale, with a small wooden box. He handed it to me with shaky hands, and I sat it in my lap, staring at it. Lucy arranged all of this. She must have known she was going to die. The box had an envelope taped to it which I removed and handed the box back to Whit. I leaned forward to watch him open the box, anticipation gnawing at me. What did she leave us?
He opened it slowly. “Holy shit!” His jaw dropped, and he gazed down into the box full of cash.
I was speechless. Where did Lucy get so much money?
“Where did she get all of that money?” Hudson spoke what I was thinking. He looked at me with his big brown eyes.
I quickly tore open the envelope, desperate for Lucy’s words. What were we supposed to do now? I unfolded a typed letter. That was odd. Lucy didn’t know how to use a computer. Maybe someone typed it for her. I read her letter out loud.
My darlings,
I know you are scared. I’m so sorry this has happened, but know I’m in a better place. Do not fear death, my loves. The afterlife is beautiful. Your lives are precious, more so than others. You are God’s miracles. Remember that. You’ve been blessed with a gift that saves lives. Cherish that. Don’t resent it, abuse it, or hide from it. It is who you are. I know it has limited your lives in ways, but it has strengthened it, as well. I’m so proud of all of you. Really. You made my life complete. Stay together. Protect each other. There is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in this box. It is enough for you to travel safely, buy clothes, food, toiletries, etc. It won’t last forever. You will have to heal for money eventually, but it’s enough to allow you to take some time off. Remember what I’ve taught you. Be cautious. Never stay in one place long. Make a point list and memorize it. Leave now. Your new identities are in the glove box. I love you all, and I am always with you.
