Authors: Adrienne Wilder
Jon jerked his chin toward the rear of the house. “Do you think he’ll mind if I go out there?”
“Not at all.”
Jon paused by the kitchen table to catch his breath.
“Do you need me to help you?”
“Nah, I’ve got it. I need to get my body used to moving again.”
Eleanor wiped her hands off on a towel. “If you want to change out of those scrubs, there are some new clothes in the closet.”
“Thanks.” Jon paused. “Wait, why would you buy me clothes if you thought I was never going to wake up?”
“Ellis insisted. No matter what the doctor said he refused to believe you wouldn’t come back.”
Jon shook his head. “He’s stubborn.”
“Stubborn has nothing to do with it, Jon. He just loves you that much.” She turned down the heat on the stove. “And now that you’re here, maybe you can get him to eat a decent meal.”
“I will.” Jon made his way out the back door. The shop was red and edged in white, making it look like a miniature version of the barn out in the pasture. He knocked on the door.
“Yeah?”
Jon opened it. “It’s me.”
“Come on in.” George waved at him. “Don’t mind the mess.”
Jon gripped the doorframe to steady himself to make the step.
A variety of car parts surrounded an antique truck occupying the center of the room. Both doors were off and it had more primer than actual paint on the body. Jon didn’t know much about cars, but he could still see the potential.
“Here.” George put a stool down beside Jon. “Sit before you fall. That is unless you want to make another trip to the hospital.”
“Thanks. Hard to imagine how weak a few days of laying around can make you.”
“Been there. But in all fairness, you weren’t just laying around.”
Jon nodded. “Then I guess for a dead man I must look pretty good.”
“Best corpse I’ve ever seen.”
Neither one of them laughed.
Jon waved a hand at the truck. “What’s this?”
George crossed his arms and his chest swelled. “This just happens to be a 1942 Chevy.”
“Better not let Eleanor find out you’re stepping out on her.” That time, they did laugh. “How long have you been working on it?”
“About three years now. I’m just about ready to put her all back together and give her a new paint job.” George lifted the hood. The chrome on the engine gleamed.
“Wow. That’s impressive.”
George laughed. “Yeah, I know. It’s a little flashy, but I couldn’t resist. I thought if I’m going to fix her up I should give her some nice jewelry to wear.”
“Where did you find a truck this old to begin with?”
“It was the first truck I ever bought. I kissed Eleanor for the first time sitting right there in that front seat.” He pointed with a wrench. “Was scared to death her daddy was gonna walk out and see us in the driveway.” George ran a hand over the top of the grill. “When it quit running, I parked it in the barn and promised myself one day I’d fix her up. Then life kinda got in the way, and then work.” George picked up a towel laying over the edge above the fender. “But she was patient, and now that I have the time, I’ve been fulfilling my promise.” He folded the cloth and laid it to the side. “Now, what dragged you out here? I thought you were going to rest.”
“I was, but I need to talk to you more.”
“Oh?” George raised an eyebrow.
No matter how Jon tried to sugar coat things it would still be bad. “Lenny took me to his father’s house.”
George held up a finger. “That reminds me. Got a search warrant for Lenny’s house. They found enough evidence to revoke his bail. Everyone’s keeping an eye out for him. When he shows up his ass will be back in the jail.”
“They won’t find him.”
“Sure they will, it’s just a—”
“Lenny’s dead.”
George rocked back. “You sure about that?”
“Yeah.” Jon waved his hand. “And before you ask, no, I didn’t kill him. It was his father. Or whatever it was.”
A wrinkle cut across George’s forehead. “You mind explaining that a little better?”
“That thing. The…
The
Big and Terrible
. Lenny’s father is infected with it. Then it…well, the only way I know how to explain it is it makes the man feed it.”
“How?”
“It lives off hate, anger, anything evil. I think when it infects someone it exploits their darker side and makes them do things they normally wouldn’t do.”
“Is that what happened to you? Is that why you…” George didn’t have to finish. The hard edge on his gaze said it all. Is that why you tried to kill Ellis?
“Yeah.”
“For a minute there, I thought I was gonna have to shoot you.” George picked up an oil rag and put it down.
“I’m surprised you didn’t.”
“Would’ve, but Ellis got in the way.”
“Next time don’t hesitate.”
A moment of pain crossed George’s expression, then anger replaced it. “You better not let there be a next time.”
“But if there is?”
George nodded and Jon exhaled relief. “Thank you.”
“I’m not even gonna humor you with a ‘you’re welcome.’” He cleared his throat. “So this thing, it gets inside people.”
“Yeah.”
“So what’d you do to get it out?”
“I didn’t. Ellis forced it to leave.”
“How do you suppose he did that?”
“I’m not sure.” Jon crossed his arm. “I know this is going to sound weird, but I think it was because he touched me.”
“Son.” George picked up the wrench he’d left on the radiator and tossed it into the toolbox on the table behind him. “As far as I could tell, he was touching you plenty when he was trying to get away from you.”
“Yeah, but it was different.”
“How so?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with the light.”
George tipped his head and doubt flashed in his eyes.
“When I was in the hospital I saw Rudy. Or dreamed or whatever. He told me that Ellis is different. Everyone is born with a grain of evil.”
“You talking about original sin?”
“I don’t know. I just know it’s there. And Ellis doesn’t have it.”
“And that made it leave you?”
“No. It was the light.”
“I’m starting to feel a Sunday service coming on here.”
Jon laughed. “No, no. I’m not preaching. At least… No. I’m not.”
“Good, ’cause I don’t have the time for a sermon.”
“Unusual for someone of your generation not to be religious.”
“Used to be, but it fell out of my pocket somewhere in Germany.” He waved at Jon to continue.
“Yeah…So, instead of a grain of evil, some people are born with this light. And it can stop
The Big and Terrible
.”
“Then why is it still around?”
“I asked Rudy the same thing. Apparently, it can sense the ones who carry it. Rudy said it’s always found them before they were old enough to face it.”
“Then why didn’t it find Ellis?”
“Rudy hid it. He said that’s why he was, you know…” Jon tapped his temple. “When he got sick as a kid he was given the opportunity to help Ellis by carrying the light. By being mentally damaged
The Big and Terrible
wouldn’t know it was there and, by Ellis staying away from people, there was less chance for it to find out.”
George stared at the truck for the longest time. “I hated seeing him shut up in his house like that.” He sighed and his shoulders fell. “Hard to believe it probably saved his life.”
“Rule number four and five,” Jon said. George raised an eyebrow and Jon smiled. “It has to happen and everything happens for a reason.”
“And what was the reason for you almost dying?”
Jon dropped his gaze. “I’m not sure.”
“Can you take a guess?”
He could. He just didn’t want to. But he was about to ask George for help and he owed the man something in exchange. “I’m supposed to help Ellis.”
“And almost dying did that?”
“I guess a better way to say it, I was given a
choice
as to whether or not to help Ellis.”
George leaned back against one of the workbenches.
Would he ask for more or would he understand? Jon had his answer when the man said, “Did Rudy tell you what it—this thing—wants?”
Jon scrubbed his hand over his chin. “It wants to infect everyone and make them destroy each other.”
“You’re not talking about just this town, are you?”
“No, sir.”
“And I bet it’s been around for a long time.”
“According to Rudy, a lot longer than we have.”
George moved some of the tools around on the bench. “I don’t suppose Rudy told you how to kill this thing, did he?”
Jon clenched his fists.
“Son?” George looked at him.
He met the man’s gaze. “Rudy said that Ellis has to go into the house, into the heart of it.”
The color in George’s cheeks went ashen. “It will kill him.”
“I know. That’s why I need your help. We may not be able to kill it, but if we can hurt it bad enough we can drive it back for a while. Maybe a long while.”
“And how do we do that?”
“The same way they did last time, we burn the Grove.”
“The fire.”
“Yeah. They weren’t trying to prevent a small pox infection, they were trying to get rid of it. And if we can do it again, Ellis will be safe. “
“What you need to do is take Ellis and get the hell out of this town.” George turned, but not quick enough to hide the fear in his eyes. He collected the rest of his tools and put them in the box.
“It’s not going to stop. It’ll continue to spread here and then eventually it will move to the next town and the next, until it covers everything.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do. I had that thing inside me. I might not know a lot about what’s going on, but I know for a fact that it’s going to spread.”
“It hasn’t so far.”
“Only because it wasn’t ready. Now it is. Now it’s strong enough to leave the nest.”
“Nest?”
“That’s what Rudy called the Grove. That’s its breeding ground.”
“Going back there is a death sentence. You saw what it’s capable of.”
“Not if my plan works.”
“And what if it doesn’t? What if you wind up dead? How do you think that will affect Ellis?”
It was a chance Jon had to take. “It won’t matter if that thing spreads, because everyone could wind up dead.”
“What’s your plan?”
“Other than burn it, I don’t know for sure.”
“I don’t think a can of gas and a match is going to do much to that creature. Not if it’s big enough to cover the Grove.”
“No. It won’t. But I’m willing to bet a tankard of gas will put a hurting on it.”
“You planning on hijacking a gas truck or running up to the local dime store and buying one?”
“Actually, I was hoping you might be able to help me on that detail.”
George smiled. “I don’t know about a semi, but I’ve got a tractor and a track tank with one hell of a liquid fertilizer system out in the barn. It’s not as big as a semi, but it will douse a good acre at a stretch.”
“I’ll do my best to get it back to you in one piece.”
“You think I’m going to let you drive my equipment? “George laughed. “You’d strip out the clutch and I just got the damn thing paid off.”
“You’re not coming with me.” It was bad enough knowing he would probably wind up dead, it was worse thinking that George might too.
“And who the hell do you think you are telling me what I can and can’t do?”
“George—”
“Don’t George me, boy. I’ve served in two wars and even with your job as a marshal, I’ve seen more battle than you could even dream of. You’re not going to just waltz in there and waltz out. You’ve seen what it can do. You think it’s just going to lay there and let you torch it?”
“If something happened to you—”
“A long time ago, Eleanor and me came to accept that one of us would leave the other behind one day. And we’ve have had forty-five years, give or take. That’s a long time. You and Ellis haven’t even gotten broke in. He’s young, you’re young. It would kill him if he lost you. You boys have too much future in front of you for you to not take any bit of help you can get. Especially if it makes your chances for survival better.”
“And what am I supposed to tell Eleanor if you don’t come back?” He looked out the window facing the house. “She’d hate me for letting you go.”
“No she won’t. But she most certainly would be pissed at me if I let you go in there without backup. I wouldn’t have to worry about that thing killing me because she’d shoot me herself.”
Jon hated the idea of taking George with him, but at the same time, it gave Jon comfort to know he’d have someone to watch his back. “Okay. Now that that’s settled, we need to come up with a plan.”
George slapped Jon on the shoulder. “No. The first thing we need to do is learn the territory. We don’t want to go in blind. It already has the upper hand and that means we can’t afford to give it any more of an advantage.”
“I guess we need to look at some plats.”
“Plats, aerial shots and topographical maps.”
“And you can get all this?”
“One of the perks of being the sheriff for almost thirty years.” He grinned. “Of course, it helps that Lucy at the planning office has had a crush on me since we were fifteen.”
Maybe it was wrong, but Jon laughed.
********
Ellis had just put on a robe when Jon came back into the room followed by the scent of cheese and meat. Their regular walks down the drive way and back were paying off. The only time he showed signs of fatigue was after a long day, helping around the house, doing things—as Eleanor said—Jon had no business worrying about.
“I thought we’d eat in here and give the Marsh’s some alone time.” Jon pulled a TV tray next to the bed.
“Did Eleanor say something?” Ellis scrubbed the bath towel over his head.
“Nope. But they haven’t had a meal alone together since we’ve been here.”
“I don’t think she’d say anything even if—”
Jon put down a plate piled high with food and sat on the bed.
“Good grief, are you planning to feed an army?”
Jon held out a fork. “Nope, just you.”
“I can’t eat all that.”
“I’ll help.”
“You’ve been helping me eat for almost a week and so far the only thing that’s happened is the plates of food keep getting bigger and my pants are getting smaller.”