Accidental Evil (20 page)

“What are they?” Bruce whispered. He looked back to Dunn. The man didn’t cut such a formidable figure now. He looked just as frightened as Bruce felt. But Vernon simply shook his head and the fear disappeared. He looked confident and in control once again.
 

“Where in the kitchen?” Vernon asked. He was moving again. Vernon was circling the house. Bruce didn’t take his eyes from the shifting surface of his house, but started to follow.

“There’s a set of hooks next to the microwave. You’re not going in there,” he said.
 

It wasn’t a question, but Vernon answered anyway.

“I suppose I have to.”

As they walked along the side of the house, Bruce’s eyes started to make sense of the house. It was covered with little creatures. They were exactly the same color as the paint of the building and they took up every inch of the house. As they crawled over each other, he got a sense of their size. Each of the things was about the size of a box of matches. Bruce trotted to catch up to Vernon. The man was stalking quickly towards the back door.

“Wait,” Bruce said. “Is it safe?”

“The phones are out, right?” Vernon asked. “That’s what you said.”

Bruce nodded.

“And this is the closest car. I’m going to get my wife and son over to Maine General. I don’t suppose I have a choice.”

He walked forward.

Bruce revised his earlier opinion as he watched Vernon swing open the screen door. The bugs couldn’t be the same color as the house, because the ones on the frame of the screen door were clearly black. In a burst of insight, he understood. Each bug was the color of whatever it was standing on. They were like little chameleons.
 

Bruce stood there while Vernon walked through into the kitchen. When the screen door slammed shut behind him, several of the little things were dislodged and hit the porch. He watched them change to the gray of the porch and then scurry off. When they hit the grass, they changed to green. Bruce backed up a step. He couldn’t tell where the things had gone. Suddenly, it seemed like he could feel them crawling up his legs. Bruce backed up another step.
 

Vernon came back through the door.

One of the little things dropped from the doorframe and landed on Vernon’s shoulder.

Bruce opened his mouth to say something, but his mouth was completely arid. He couldn’t make his tongue work. Unable to speak, Bruce lunged forward and swatted the thing from Vernon’s shoulder. It flew off and hit the side of the house. Vernon gave him a little nod and then moved around Bruce. He was walking for the van.

[ Van ]

Vernon got behind the wheel before Bruce could object. He moved around to the passenger’s side while Vernon cranked the engine. Bruce closed his door and put on his seatbelt. His finger itched where he had touched the little bug thing. It felt like he had touched a thistle—like there were little invisible hairs stuck in his skin.

Vernon looked at him.

Bruce realized why—the engine was still cranking. It wouldn’t catch.

“This thing normally run?” Vernon asked.

“Always,” Bruce said.

Vernon took in a breath and expelled it through his nose with obvious frustration.
 

“I’m beginning to think there’s something screwy going on here,” Vernon said. He looked at Bruce.
 

Again, he was reminded of Elmer Fudd.
 

Again, he frowned to stifle a nervous laugh. Vernon took the keys from the ignition and handed them to Bruce. From his pocket, Vernon pulled a second set of keys. Bruce recognized these—they belonged to his sedan.

That’s where Vernon headed. He left the door to the van open and slipped behind the wheel of Wendy’s car. Bruce didn’t bother to follow him. He stood in the driveway and watched while Vernon cranked that vehicle. It wouldn’t start either. Bruce’s eyes turned back to the house. It was hard to look at. The shifting surface make him feel seasick. There was nothing to fix his eye on.

“Anything else? Motorcycle?” Vernon asked.

Bruce shook his head. The big man closed his eyes and took in a breath.

When he opened his eyes, he immediately started walking towards the road.

“Vernon,” Bruce called. “Take the path. It’s faster.” He pointed.

Vernon nodded and changed course. He seemed to be talking to himself, but it was loud enough for Bruce to hear. “I’ll haul them out on my back if I have to. There has to be a goddamn working car somewhere around here. I should hook a trailer up to that Polhemus broad. She goes better’n my truck anyways.”

Again, Bruce was running behind Vernon, trying to keep up. He stole a couple of glances back at his house. It hurt his eyes to look at it, but his brain refused to believe in it when he wasn’t looking. It seemed like it would be back to normal, but then he would look and it was still crawling and shifting.

“This day can’t get any stranger,” Bruce said.

Vernon turned and looked at him. They were right on the margin of the yard. Vernon had stopped just before the path that led through the patch of woods.

“You’re right,” Vernon said.

“Pardon?”

“This day couldn’t get any stranger. It started weird and then it got worse,” he said. He nodded as if he was agreeing with himself and wanted Bruce to join him. “The deer, the truck, the rock, and then the lumber yard. By the time I was racing home, it almost seemed like a dream.”

Bruce shook his head. “Dreams are never this consistent. Reality shifts in a dream. Nothing stays constant.”

Vernon pointed back towards the house.

“Point taken,” Bruce said.
 

“Do I run, or hunker down and try to wait it out?” Vernon asked.

Bruce shrank back from the question. He wasn’t ready to have Vernon’s confidence invested in him. But he wanted to answer. At least he wanted to have something intelligent to say.

“You won’t regret trying,” Bruce said.

Vernon looked disappointed. He turned back to the trail and began walking quickly through the woods. Bruce tried to keep up.

[ Control ]

T
HIRTY
SECONDS
WAS
ALL
that Mary Dunn needed. She just need one-half of one minute without pain and then she could cope with whatever else the day was going to bring. Ricky was looking more like himself again. Now that he was in dry clothes and had caught his breath, he looked much better. Mary wished she could say the same. She hurt all over. Her hands and her neck were on fire with friction burns. Her ankle was only holding together because it was so swollen that the joint wouldn’t move.
 

“George!” she yelled. Her youngest showed up a few seconds later. “Watch your brother for me.”

Mary made her way around the corner and slipped into Louise’s office. There was a private bathroom off the back. Mary locked herself in so she could have a moment of peace.
 

She didn’t make it the full thirty-seconds. Mary stood back up when she heard her husband’s rumbling voice through the walls.

“Where’s your mom?” Vernon asked.

Mary came out through the door.

“We got wheels?” she asked.

Vernon shook his head. “Nothing we found works. We can keep trying, but I don’t think we’re going to find a car that runs.”

Sometimes it seemed like she could communicate with her husband just with a glance. She searched his eyes. Unfortunately, this was
not
one of those times.

“What?” she asked him. “What are we supposed to do?”

“I’m open to suggestions,” he said. “You’d think the park would be crawling with cops, but there’s not a soul out there. Nothing runs and the phones are out. I’m fresh out of ideas.”

Mary thought about it for a second. It seemed like everyone, not just her family, was waiting to hear what she would say. The rest of them would have to make their own way. Her first priority was caring for her own.
 

“Let’s get home, Vernon,” she said. “Ricky looks okay and I’ll live. We’ll wait it out and let the world sort itself.”

Vernon nodded. “Let me go scout it first. There are some strange things afoot. George, you stay here and help your mom.”

“I want to go,” George said.
 

“I know you do,” Vernon said. “I’ll be back in two shakes.” He turned and was gone before George could object. George ran to the window next to the maple syrup display. Standing next to the door, Bruce Hazard looked just as left out as little George. Bruce went to confer with Wendy, who was over near one of the collections of knick-knacks.
 

Sarah came back to Ricky and crouched down in front of him again. She looked like a peasant about to swear her fealty.

“Ricky? Can you tell again what happened? How did you get stuck up there?”

“Oh, no,” Mary said. “You girls go on and find something else to do. Ricky has had a trying day, and mine hasn’t been much better. We’ll all be better off if we can move forward and stop looking back.”

Sarah turned her attention up to Mary.

“Mrs. Dunn, don’t you think it’s crucial that we figure out what is going on? Do you want something else to happen before we’ve had a chance to make some sense of everything?”

“Ricky took one of his tricks too far. He’ll stay out of trouble as long as he remembers that,” Mary said.
 

Sarah frowned at her. Mary liked the girl well enough, but thought that Sarah would do well to get out from under her dad’s influence and maybe pick up some manners.

“Mrs. Dunn,” Sarah started.

“Nope,” Mary said. “That’s enough. Give Ricky some room. He needs a little space, okay? Like I said—tough day so far.”

Sarah looked ready to argue, but Lily Hazard took her arm and coaxed her away. The two girls formed their own little committee over near the pillows and sachets.
 

“George? What did I say?” Mary asked. “Didn’t I ask you to come over here and see to your brother?”

“That’s just while you were in the bathroom,” he said. He kept his nose pressed to the window.
 

“Now I’m asking you again. Please come over here and see to your brother.”

She heard him grunt before he came away from the window. Mary’s mother had a saying: “If everyone around you is grumpy, it’s probably you who’s making them that way.” Her father had a more colorful version of the same. Mary recognized the truth of it, and had enough sense to know when her mother had a point.
 

She looked at Ricky. He seemed okay. He was clearly tired, but he didn’t seem out of sorts aside from that.
 

Mary went over to her youngest son, George. She leaned over to get her face close to his. “I know you wanted to go with him, but your dad moves really fast when he’s on his own. I’m certain he just wanted to get there and back so he could collect us up and we will all go home.”

“I’m not worried about him,” George said.

“No?”

“No,” George said. His face was still up against the glass. “I’m worried about them.” He stabbed at the pane with his finger and pressed so hard his fingernail turned white.

“I don’t know what you’re pointing at, George,” she said.

“That’s one of the things I’m worried about,” he said.

Mary stood up straight.

[ Return ]

“Girls,” Mary called to Lily and Sarah. Over towards the knick-knacks, Wendy perked up, like Mary was addressing her. Mary waved to Lily and Sarah. “George sees something out there. I don’t see it. I want to know what you see.”

Mary sensed the arrival of others. She glanced back to see Wendy and Bruce hovering behind her. She didn’t need their opinion. She was looking for a younger perspective.

“Yes,” Lily said.
 

“What are you talking about?” Sarah asked her friend.

“Right there,” Lily said. When she pointed through the window, George nodded.

“I don’t see it,” Sarah said.

“I don’t either,” Mary said. “Describe what you see.”

“It’s a bug,” George said.

“Over by the woods,” Lily said. “There’s a thing about the size of a football. I’ve seen one before. Gerard caught one near my house.”

“Dingus?” Mary asked.

When Lily nodded, Mary said, “Oh, brother.”

“Wait, but what is it?” Sarah asked. “What are you looking at?”

“I don’t know if I can describe it. It was the size of a football, and it was gray, or metal colored I guess.”

“It’s a robot,” Gerard said. Trina ushered him through the door. She closed it behind herself. In her wet clothes and with her hair flattened to her head, she looked old and worn out. “We’re going to have to get out of here right away.”

“Nonsense,” Wendy said.
 

Mary looked around at her. Between Gerard Dingus and Wendy Hazard, Mary was inclined to disagree with both of them. Unfortunately, they already disagreed with each other.

“No, Mom, he might be right,” Lily said. “I saw it too.”

“I thought you didn’t know what you saw,” her father said.

Lily looked away.

“Forget I asked,” Mary said. She didn’t like the way that Bruce and Wendy dismissed their daughter. It was uncomfortable to watch.

“I’m not sure we should forget about it,” Bruce said.

“Whose side are you on?” Mary asked him.

“I didn’t dispute that there’s something out there,” Bruce said. “I’m simply questioning if ‘robot’ is the right term for it.” He was rubbing his hands together while he talked. “I saw some things back at the house.”
 

He held out his hands to Mary, as if beseeching her. “Your husband saw them too. I would describe them as bugs.” He gestured towards George.
 

He looked back to his own daughter. “They were
not
the size of a football. They were much smaller.”

“Maybe they were different,” George said.
 

Mary looked between them. The four people—George, Lily, Gerard, and Bruce—couldn’t have been more different, but they were all talking about seeing strange things. It was like they had been hypnotized. They had been taken in by a compelling trick, like Ricky’s trick at the end of the show. People could convince themselves of anything.