Homing (32 page)

For as he'd walked, his whole mind had been consumed with trying to make sense of what he'd seen in the cave, trying to figure out how to tell his stepmother what he'd seen.

But now that he was home, and Karen was looking anxiously at him, waiting for him to say something about Julie, the words wouldn't come.

"I-I went looking for Julie," he said, thoughts and words suddenly coming unbidden into his mind. He gestured vaguely back the way he'd come. "J-Jeff came over, and we went up into the hills."

Karen's breath caught in her throat.

They'd found Julie.

They'd found her, and something terrible had happened to her.

She could tell by the tone of Kevin's voice.

Jeff was still up there, staying with Julie, and Kevin had come back to get help. "Where?" she finally managed to ask. "Where is she?"

Kevin only looked at her as he struggled Against the irresistible urge to speak the lies that suddenly seemed to flow so easily out of his mind and off his tongue. What was happening to him? Was he going crazy? What had Jeff done to him up there?

"You found her, didn't you?" Karen pressed. Her voice rose, tinged with panic. "Didn't you find Julie?"

The image of his stepsister clear in his mind, Kevin opened his mouth to speak once again, determined that this time he would tell Karen the truth.

But again the power within him overcame his own will.

"No," he heard himself say. "We looked, but we didn't find her."

Wanting to scream-not merely from frustration, but from the sheer terror of what had happened to him-Kevin struggled Against the new will that had invaded his mind and body.

Struggled to scream, to speak-anything!

Struggled, and failed.

I'm telling you for the last time," Marian Bennett said, exasperation etched in her voice. "I'm already late for my hair appointment, and if Jolene gives my time to somebody else, you're going to be a very sorry young man!"

"So go get your hair done," Andy replied, barely even looking up from the copy of Field & Stream his father had left on the kitchen table that morning. "I already told you I don't need to go to the doctor."

Marian's level of exasperation escalated another notch, and she knew she was on the verge of getting really angry, which she hated to do. She had read an article in one of the tabloids last year or maybe the year before-that said anger was very hard on the skin, and ever since then she'd been determined she would not let her temper age her prematurely. She simply wouldn't do it! But sometimes-and this was one of those times-Andy's attitude just annoyed her beyond human endurance! She could see that something was wrong with him-anybody could! But he just kept insisting that he was fine.

Just fine!

Well, she knew better, and whether he liked it or not, he was going to the doctor! Marian's lips pursed tightly for a moment before she remembered the tiny crease lines that were beginning to form around her mouth. "Do you want me to call your father? Is that what you want?"

His eyes still on the magazine, Andy tried to figure out what to do. The truth was, he didn't feel well at all, despite what he kept telling his mother. And he didn't dislike Dr. Filmore-in fact, for someone who was always telling you about how bad for you all your favorite foods were, she was pretty nice. At least she didn't really expect you to quit eating hamburgers and french fries at the A&W every afternoon. So why was he refusing to go see her?

It had started yesterday, right after she'd given him that shot for the bee sting, and he felt like he was going to die for the first few minutes, even though he kept insisting he was fine. But then he started feeling better, and figured that by this morning he really would be fine.

But this morning he still felt itchy-like there were some kind of fleas or something that had actually gotten under his skin and he was really hungry, too.

He'd already eaten three bowls of Fruit Loops, and a fourth one was sitting in front of him right now. Which was weird, because all he ever ate for breakfast was a piece of toast. In fact, he hated cereal.

Then why was he eating it?

And why had he kept telling his mother how great he felt, when it was a big lie? But every time he opened his mouth to tell her how he really felt, he just kept saying the same dumb words over and over again: "I'm fine! I'm fine!"

But he wasn't fine at all, and even though he wasn't about to tell his mom or anyone else-he was starting to get scared. What if he really was sick? Even worse, what if he was cracking up?

Just the thought of that possibility sent a chill through his body, a chill, to his relief, that his mother didn't miss.

"That's it," Marian said, her eyes narrowing and her brows plunging @ exactly the kind of deep frown she had carefully avoided since the morning last year when she'd discovered two vertical wrinkles starting to form just above her nose. Now, just so to be on the safe side, she slept with heavy tape on her forehead, and a string running around the back of her head as a safety precaution Against frowning in her sleep. Chuck might laugh at her-in fact he often did-but he'd appreciate it in a few more years when the other women in town started to show their years.

Now, in the face of Andy's sudden shudder and the feverish look he'd had in his eyes all morning, the last of her beauty concerns was finally driven from her mind. Picking up her purse in one hand, she grabbed Andy's arm with the other and almost violently pulled him up to his feet.

"Come on," she snapped. "No more arguing!" Her perfectly manicured nails digging into the flesh of Andy's arm like the talons of an eagle, she marched him out of the kitchen, through the service porch, and into the garage. As she pressed the button that would raise the garage door, she nudged her son-who was almost a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than she-toward the Le Baron convertible that Chuck had bought her for her fortieth birthday last year. "Get in."

"Let's put the top down," Andy suggested as she backed the car out into the brilliant morning sunshine.

Marian shot him an exasperated glance-aside from the fact that he was obviously sick, surely even Andy knew how bad the sun was for her skin!-and pulled the car into the street.

They drove in silence until Marian started out- of town on Main Street and came to the foot of the park, where the enormous stanchions supporting the power lines marched down the hillside to run parallel to the road for the next ten miles. As always, Marian sighed at the sight of them.

"I know everyone thinks they're a terrible eyesore," she said, parroting once more the identical words she spoke every time she drove this direction, "but I just love them.

They remind me of ..." She paused, waiting for Andy to finish the sentence she'd said so often it had become a family joke, but instead of groaning the words "marching giants," he said nothing at all. She glanced over at him, and seeing the strange expression on his face, her right foot left the accelerator and hovered over the brake.

"Andy? Andy! What's wrong?"

Andy could barely hear his mother's voice, for as they'd come to the power lines, he'd begun hearing a strange humming noise.

A humming noise that affected him the same way as fingernails scratching across a blackboard, setting his teeth on edge and sending shivers down his spine. Except that this was even worse.

He hadn't any idea where the horrible noise was coming from, but it was almost like a dentist's drill screaming in his head. His hands went up to cover his ears and press Against his temples, but it didn't seem to help at all.

Now he was starting to get sick to his stomach.

"Andy? Andy!"

He heard his mother's voice, coming as if from a great distance, and slowly Andy turned to look at her.

But the humming was getting even worse, making it feel like his whole body was buzzing with electricity, and he could hardly see his mother through a strange fog of black specks that clouded his vision.

Marian's eyes widened as she stared at her son.

His face had gone pasty white, and a sheen of sweat was standing out on his forehead.

His hands were clamped over his ears so tightly that his knuckles had gone white, and his whole body seemed to be trembling.

And though his eyes were fixed on her, she had the strangest feeling that he wasn't seeing her at all. She pressed hard on the brake, and the tires screeched as they lost traction on the pavement. The car fishtailed for a second, then came to a stop, its right-side tires kicking up a cloud of dust as they left the pavement. "Andy, what's wrong?" Marian demanded. "I swear to God, if you throw up in my car"

But Andy had jerked the seat belt loose and was shoving the door open before the Le Baron even came to a complete stop. He scrambled out, then stood next to the car, his hands still clamped over his ears.

But the sound boring into his brain was even worse outside the car, building to a terrifying cacophony that made him feel as if his head might explode at any second.

"Andy?" Marian cried again as she jerked her own door open and got out. Leaving the door standing wide open, she rushed around the front of the car to her son. "Andy, what is it?" she pleaded, reaching out to him. "For God's sake, what's wrong with you?"

Andy twisted away from his mother, staggered a couple of steps, then turned and ran, dashing around the back of the car and across the road. Marian started to follow him, then stopped short as an air horn blasted a warning. Turning, she saw a semi rolling toward her and instinctively stepped back off the pavement. Then, as she looked to see where Andy was, the horn blared again, and this time she saw the driver frantically waving and pointing.

Too late, she saw both the oncoming car, and the open door of the Le Baron. Her hands flying up to cover her mouth as she realized what was about to happen, she took another step backward, then turned away, dropping into a protective crouch, her hands and arms covering her head.

Time seemed to stand still as she listened to the hiss of the truck's air brakes and waited for the impact when the semi struck her car.

When it finally came, the crash was much softer than she'd expected it to be.

Her heart pounding, Marian looked up, and for a moment thought nothing had happened at all. Then, as she rose to her feet and saw the truck slowing to a stop fifty yards farther down the road, she also saw what it had hit.

The driver's door to her beautiful convertible-her fortieth birthday present-was leaning Against the fence across the road, so battered that she was only able to recognize it by its color.

And Andy, halfway across the field on the other side of the fence, was still running, oblivious to what had happened.

Karen paced restlessly from the kitchen into the living room then back again, her eyes automatically going to the clock, as they seemed to be doing at least every two or three minutes. Finally she went out the back door, circled the house as she had done half a dozen times in the last hour, then went back in.

As usual, all she'd seen were Russell and Kevin, working down by the barn as if nothing had happened.

How could they?

Didn't they care that Julie was missing?

An hour ago, when Russell told her he couldn't go on searching until he'd at least fed and watered the animals, she'd barely been able to believe what he was saying.

She'd had to struggle to keep from screaming at him in her fear and frustration, but in the end, when he explained that no matter what had happened, the animals still needed to be fed and watered, she reluctantly agreed.

Now, though, it was starting to look as if he had no intention of going on with the search.

The hell with him!

Maybe Julie was right after all! Maybe marrying him and moving back to Pleasant Valley had been the stupidest thing she'd ever done.

Well, when Julie came back, she knew exactly how to fix it. She would simply pack Julie and Molly up in her car, and the three of them would drive back to L.A. If she groveled enough, the law firm where she'd worked would take her back, and maybe they'd even handle her divorce at a rate she could afford!

But in the meantime, she had to do something something constructive or she'd go crazy.

The police!

Of course! Why hadn't she thought of it before? It was one thing for them to tell Russell on the telephone that they couldn't do anything until Julie had been gone for twenty-four hours, but if she was actually there, standing in front of them "Molly!" she called, galvanized by the thought that there was, after all, some positive action she could take.

"Molly, come on!" She was already searching through her purse for her car keys when Molly came into the room, looking at her questioningly. "We're going into town, sweetheart," Karen told her. "We're going to make the police start looking for your sister."

"But Russell said-" Molly began.

"I don't care what Russell said," Karen snapped, instantly regretting both her tone and her words when she saw the devastated look on her younger daughter's face.

Quickly, she knelt down and pulled the little girl close.

"I'm sorry, darling," she whispered. "I guess I'm just upset, and I want to do something to find Julie. So you and I are going to go into town ourselves, and explain to the police that Julie isn't the kind of girl who would have run away. Okay?"

Molly, sniffling and wiping at her damp eyes with the sleeve of her shirt, nodded, and a moment later the two of them were in the front seat of the worn Chevy that had barely gotten them to Pleasant Valley in the first place.

"How come we're going in Kevin's car?" Molly asked.

For a moment Karen didn't have the slightest idea what Molly was talking about, and then it suddenly came back to her.

My God, she thought, I don't even have a car of my own anymore. But even as the thought came into her mind, she decided she didn't care who the car technically belonged to. Julie was her daughter, and this had always been her car, and if she had to take care of herself and her daughters with no help from Russell, she would damned well use her car to do it!