The Crescent Stone

by E G McNally

  “Okay cool,” she said, taken aback by the idea that someone other than herself was thinking about her needs, and genuinely seemed to care. She hadn’t even begun to think about school, and with only a couple of items in her backpack, it was probably a good idea that she purchase some new things. She was still hesitant to fully open up to Grandma and Grandpa, but she felt less and less like she needed to be on her guard around them, and decided to soften her tone. Hoping that they won’t hurt her like everyone else has.

  “We better get going, Grandpa will wonder if we’ve drowned.” Grandma said, clambering back up the old staircase, waiting for Taylor at the top, before entering the house.

  Taylor caught another snippet of the news as she wandered over to Grandpa in the living room.

  “Forecasts suggest an early winter this year, with expected snowfall accumulation to rise above last year’s thirty-two feet. Experts claim global warming is the cause; others claim it is a test. Join us with local weatherman Jim Boneo while he discovers just what kind of test the locals believe this is. Jim . . .”

  “Thanks, Tom.” The local weatherman replied as the camera switched to him. He was standing beside a frumpy looking old man outside a Hannaford grocery market, holding a microphone. “Sir, can you tell us a little about global warming, do you think the ice caps are melting?”

  “Oh global warming, that’s just some well thought up scam to get people to buy all these new ‘energy efficient’ vehicles and crap.”

  Jim pulled the microphone back to himself. “So can you explain why the weather has become increasingly severe and dangerous?”

  The frumpy old man shook his head vigorously in agreement. “Oh yes I can, indeed, Sir. You see it’s the end of days coming, it is.” He proclaimed it like it was matter-o-fact. “You see the problem is all this racism and terrorism, and the government using all those chemicals that people don’t even know about, and killing people, and all those underground porn rings and stuff, you know. I’m telling you it’s the wrath of God coming down on us. If you ain’t a Christian than you better be saying your prayers, cause bad stuff is coming.” He waved his hands at the sky as if proclaiming the truth.

  The reporter stood speechless for just a second before responding. “Well there you have it; bad weather is the Wrath of God, ladies and gentlemen. Tom, back to you,” the camera switched back to the news reporter sitting in his cozy desk. Taylor decided it was a good time to interrupt Grandpa.

  “Wow, you believe that crap Grandpa?” She asked, confused why the news was broadcasting such an extremist view on the weather changes.

  “Well darling, I’m not sure what to believe anymore, especially with all these kids disappearing out of school. It’s like no one is safe anymore.”

  His comment reminded her of why she came into the house in the first place. “Oh, speaking of which, Grandpa. Grandma was going to take me into town to get some school supplies; did you want to come with us?”

  “Oh that sounds fine, I’ve been meaning to pick up some medicine from the pharmacy.” He replied, easily forgetting what they had just watched. He noticed Taylor’s gaze, fixated on the front door. “Feeling a little cooped up, are we?” He asked, regaining her attention.

  “Oh sorry, are you guys ready to go?” She said. As far as she was concerned, the sooner they left, the sooner they might get the shopping done, and then the sooner she might get a chance to explore before dark. Not that she was afraid of the dark, but she doubted they would let her stay out after dusk, with it only being her first day in town.

  Grandma grabbed her purse and followed Grandpa as he went out to the car to start it. Taylor ran upstairs and fumbled through her backpack until she’d found her trusty old pocket knife, placing it in her back pocket and then ran quickly outside, joining both her grandparents in the car.

  “Taylor, did you know that even as close as these two towns are together, with only the bridge separating them, they are still two separate towns, because the river is a boundary line . . .” Taylor peered out the window as her grandmother rambled on about the history of the town and the neighboring towns. Not particularly fascinating information to Taylor, however, the rustic appearance of the buildings and the over a hundred year old dates engraved into the more senile looking ones, caught her attention and she wondered about what life would have been like before cars existed.

  “I guess that makes sense why they’re so close together.” Taylor mumbled, as Grandpa pulled alongside one of the older buildings and parked the car.

  “What makes sense?” Grandma asked.

  “Sorry, I was thinking out loud. I just figured that back before cars, people would have had to walk, or take horses to get into town, and so having each little area be its own town just made sense. No one wanted to walk very far to get where they needed to go unless they had to. Well at least that would be my guess.” Taylor explained, shrugging her shoulders. She didn’t really care if her guess was right or not, but she thought it was a pretty good assumption.

  Walking into the building together, an old musty smell welcomed the three of them, causing them to crinkle their noses in response to the aging smell of the store. Grandpa disappeared down the opposite end of the building and Grandma escorted Taylor over to the clothing section, handing her random articles of clothing for her to try on in a dressing room.

  “Do all the buildings smell like this?” Taylor asked, finding a place in the two-stall dressing room to try on the clothes Grandma had handed her.

  “Just the older ones, but you get used to the smell.” She replied. “Almost all the buildings on this side of the river have experienced some level of water damage or another. Anytime the river fills over twenty-five feet, it floods into this part of town.” Grandma casually explained, as if a river rising twenty-five feet was a normal occurrence.

  Of course, maybe around here, the river rising twenty-five feet was a normal occurrence, she thought. The idea sent a shiver down her spine.

  “Well these all fit just fine,” Taylor said, stepping out of the changing room with a pile of clothes. Two longer sleeved sweaters caught her eye, hanging on one of the racks. As she hurried over to pick them both out, she flashed a puppy dog look to Grandma, waiting for her approval of the two Dot Rosette Crew Cardigans, one in black, and the other in a silvery grey color.

  “Well those certainly look nice, although I’m not sure how warm they’ll keep you.” Grandma commented.

  “Yeah, well I got to have something my style for school.” She replied; a satisfied smile stretched across her face.

  After they finished picking out all the new clothes Taylor needed for school, she followed Grandma into the school supply section of the store and rummaged through some basics, like notebooks and pens, until they found everything she needed.

  “Now, where do you think Grandpa went off to,” Grandma said, looking around the aisles.

  “I thought he went to the pharmacy?” Taylor replied.

  “Oh I’m sure he did, honey. But it’s been over two hours, I’m sure he’s done with that by now.”

  “Wow, two hours, already? It didn’t feel like that long.” Taylor replied, amazed with how fast the day was passing. Still enjoying the time she was spending with Grandma, Taylor diligently followed her, aisle by aisle, until they finally found Grandpa in the fish and wildlife section.

  “There you guys are,” he sounded all innocent, like he’d been searching for them the whole time.

  “I should have figured you’d be in the fishing area. Silly me, for thinking you’d be anywhere else.” Grandma chuckled.

  “Well I figured if I’m going to teach Taylor how to fish, then I’d better get her, her own fishing pole.” He said, winking at Taylor.

  “Grandpa, you don’t have to do that.” Taylor said, frowning.

  “Just think of it as a welcoming present, that’s all.” He replied.

  “So you’re really going to teach me how to fish?” She asked, half afraid that he’d say no, he
was just messing with her, but he didn’t. He just shook his head yes with a big smile and led the way out to one of the cash registers to pay for everything.

  Taylor held back a huge smile that was forming across her face. She didn’t want to give away the excitement that she felt. Parents never wanted to spend time with her, especially doing something like fishing together. Hopefully she wouldn’t do anything that might mess this up because so far she really liked Grandma and Grandpa.

  Taylor followed behind in thought as Grandpa pulled out his credit card to pay.

  “Can you believe it about that attack in Hong Kong?” The cashier said, making quick conversation with Grandpa. “They say it’s going to hurt the global economy worse than the World Trade Towers.”

  Grandpa’s face hardened, as if the mentioning of the towers brought up some bad memories. “It’s too bad, that’s for sure. I don’t know how much more the economy can take these days, although I’m not sure if I believe it was an uprising from China that caused the accident.”

  The cashier nodded in agreement, bagging up the merchandise and handing the receipt to Grandpa. “You folks have a nice day now, and don’t let any of this bad news ruin a nice day like this.”

  “We’ll try not to,” Grandpa responded as they were walking away.

  “Shall we grab a bite to eat and head down to the boat park? I’m thinking there’s a certain railroad track that leads along the river and that a certain someone might want to explore around before dark.” Grandma smiled, directing the question to Taylor.

  Taylor beamed with excitement, “How’d you know I wanted to explore the old tracks?”

  “Just a hunch I guess, plus it’s not hard to imagine with you staring over at the tracks every chance you get.” Grandma smiled a warm understanding smile. “I was a kid once.”

  They dropped the shopping bags off in the car and then walked over to the dinner next door and picked up some pizza slices, before strolling down to the boat park. Grandma and Grandpa picked out a bench overlooking the river with an open view of the railroad tracks and sat down to eat. Something about the way they sat silently together enjoying the peace from the river, made Taylor realize just how much in love the two of them must have been. She liked to imagine that they needed only the comfort of each other’s presence to feel completely happy. And then she remembered that she felt like that sometimes, with Jake.

  She didn’t live in Port Angeles anymore, and that was unsettling to say the least. Would she ever see him again? The thought crossed her mind; she never did get a chance to date him, a chance she might take now.

  In order to keep from becoming depressed, Taylor decided that she wouldn’t think about it anymore. There was nothing she could do about it and therefore she should just move on.

  “Are you going to eat that?” Grandpa interrupted Taylor’s otherwise complete thought, pointing at the pizza.

  “Oh no, you can have it. I’m just too excited to go explore, I think. Do you mind if I take off?” She replied. She was hiding the fact that her little bought of depression actually caused the loss of appetite.

  “Sure thing, just be back here in a couple of hours. We can wait around a little while. Plus I can give the fishing pole of yours a test to make sure it works.” Grandpa explained, giving Taylor the okay to take off.

  “Oh, I forgot something earlier.” Taylor whirled around toward Grandma and Grandpa, realizing she hadn’t thanked them for anything they’d done.

  “And what’s that?” Grandma asked curiously.

  “Thank you guys for everything so far, the clothes, the school stuff, the fishing pole, and even for giving me a home.” She struggled with the words. “Sorry, I’m not used to being taken care of,” she admitted, nervously picking at her fingernails.

  “Well you’re welcome darling, now you just go have some fun.” Grandma dismissed her, and both she and Grandpa watched as Taylor held back a skip in her step and quickly disappeared behind some bushes, hiding the old railroad tracks.

  Taylor thought about the news clip she’d caught on the television earlier. It was strange how the world seemed so chaotic at a time like now, especially when she was becoming so comfortable in her new home. Leaping over a fallen tree branch and onto the next track, she noticed a bridge just barely visible among the river’s edge further down the tracks, and that caught her attention.

  Collecting some stones and thinking back on the boring week she spent in juvenile hall, Taylor slowly but surely made her way down to the bridge, hidden within a small alcove of the river, and sat, legs dangling, on the edge of a large wooden tar covered track. She fidgeted with the stones until she found just the right shaped one to skim the surface of the river as she sat. The flat, smooth rock, nothing like the stone she’d swallowed, reminded her of the day at Lake Crescent, the one that would forever change her life.

  Wondering why the rangers never pushed the issue of what was in her hand, she realized that they didn’t even notice the strange surge. She could have sworn it felt like an earthquake. Of course, she did throw up after she swallowed it, so maybe something was wrong with her vision. And she did see a strange shape in the trees last night, maybe she’s just too stressed out from all the changes in her life, and she really is seeing things. But just then, another shape distracted her, hidden in the bushes across the river.

  “What,” Taylor gasped, peering desperately into the thick shrubs. Closing her eyes as if to rub the shadow out of sight, Taylor looked back at the same spot in the trees but the shape had disappeared.

  Looking frantically around, hoping that she wasn’t going insane, she noticed the sun was setting and it was casting a heavy stream of shadows across the riverbanks. Maybe it was just the shadows, hopefully, but still, seeing shadows twice in the last twenty-four hours was bad.

  “Oh my God, oh my God, this is soooo not good. I need to get back to the house, I’m going nuts.” She said to herself, as a sort of command to force herself up from the ledge, easily hanging over a small part of the river.

  She hopped over the rail and back onto one of the wooden tracks, but a rustling noise in the bushes caught her off guard. She slipped. Crack. Her leg twisted unnaturally between the tracks, as the rest of her body thudded on the hard tar covered planks catching her from crashing into the water and rocks below.

  “Ah,” she screamed out in pain, looking around at the absence of humanity in the fading light. If no one could hear her, then she’d better try and get up or else who knows what could happen.

  She pressed both her hands firmly against the wooden beam and tried to lodge her other leg against the opposing beam for leverage, but as she lifted to bring her leg out of the gap, the weight of it dangling forced her to scream out in pain again and drop her body back against the beams.

  She shifted around to get a look at her leg, hanging lifeless in the air, and as the rusty scent of iron hit her nostrils, and seeing the gushing wound where the bone snapped through her thigh, caused a wave of nausea that sent her head spinning.

  “Help,” she yelled, “somebody help.”

  But nobody could hear her. She’d been so lost in thought during her trek it never occurred to her that she traveled close to three miles down the track which lead her quite a distance from the town.

  She cried for help nearly ten minutes before the loss of blood and mind-numbing pain began to beat away at her consciousness. As the last few pleads, barely escaped her mouth, the dark engulfed her and she surrendered to the calm of the deadly sleep threatening to take over.

  Her eyes were closed as she sniffed the air outside, forgetting about the sharp pain in her leg.

  “Yum, that smells good,” she said, blinking open, her eyes.

  There was a strange old man standing beside her, and a thick smoky bacon aroma filled the air, enhancing the familiar seawater smell on the beach, which she recognized as Salt Creek.

  “What’s roasting in the fire?” She inquired, startling the old man.

  “Oh my, y
ou surprised me.” He steadied himself, bracing her shoulders.

  “Let me help you, Sir.” Taylor offered a hand, as he looked up at her face and paused in pure disbelief.

  “Oh no . . . you shouldn’t be here.” He pushed away from her.

  “Oh yeah, and where should I be?” Taylor became defensive; realizing that the last thing she did remember was passing out on the bridge with her injured leg. Was she in some sort of afterlife, she began wondering.

  The old man grumbled as he reached into the bonfire and pulled out a long walking stick, burning at the end with a strange blue flame.

  “Do you know what today is?” He cocked his brow, leaning his weight on the stick.

  “Of course I do . . . it’s Tuesday,” she proudly replied.

  “Of course you wouldn’t know. That’s why you don’t belong here.

  “But aren’t I dead? Isn’t this like my afterlife or something?”

  “No it’s not, and you wouldn’t be here if you were dead. So please try to understand, and go back home.”

  “But I don’t even know where I am. How can I leave when I don’t know where to go?”

  “You must leave the same way you came here, and do it soon before you change anything.” He waved the glowing end of the stick in her direction.

  “What, what do you mean?” She glared at him, because he was only confusing her more. “I don’t know how I got here. I hurt my leg and passed out. I most certainly didn’t do anything crazy to get here. Will you just tell me something useful, old man?” She barked, but before she had a chance to yell at the old man again, a distraction in the sky caught her off guard. Four brilliantly colored gargoyles crossed the sky, like the blue angels at a super-bowl game, until they disappeared beyond the mountains. “What on earth was that?” Her jaw dropped.

  “I can’t tell you more about this place, only that you are not allowed here. You have a purpose sometime else.” He said ignoring her question, “and you must leave.”

  “Sometime, don’t you mean someplace else?” She was becoming extremely frustrated with the man’s ramblings.