Hunters: A Trilogy (64 page)

Interrupting them, the woman reached into the back of the truck. ‘Red, honey, would you give me a hand with some of this stuff?’ she said, lifting out some bags of shopping.

He leapt across in his haste to help. ‘Yes ma’am, what do you need?’ he asked. She passed him two brown paper grocery bags, they bulged with their contents and he grasped them carefully to his chest. ‘Where do you want them to go, ma’am?’ he said, standing and looking confusedly at her.

‘Well,’ Jane replied, ‘you can stand there all day and let those beautiful steaks go bad, or…’ she laughed, ‘…you can take them inside before everything falls through the bottom of those bags!’

He looked at her in bewilderment and shook his head.

Jane laughed again. ‘Yes, Red, they’re for you, my love – now, come on, chop-chop!’ she said, shooing him inside. ‘Come on, guys, let’s get this food into the house, I’m starving!’ Jane chivvied the men, whilst handing them some more bags.

Red heard them laugh; with a smile of his own he politely held the door open with his large foot. They, all three, filed past him with arms full of supplies. ‘Supplies for me – oh, wow!’ he thought, juices flooding into his mouth. With a happy grin, Red rushed in behind the others, leaving the fly screen to clash shut of its own accord.

In no time at all, Jane had organised the unpacking and it wasn’t too long before Red’s previously-bare cupboards began to take on a much healthier look. There was every conceivable item of food he had ever wanted. This consisted of a large array of tinned goods, fresh steak, red tomatoes, cartons of apple juice and almost everything in-between. He recognised all of them, and if he hadn’t known better, Red would have thought the woman had somehow managed to peer inside his head, picking out all his favourite food stuffs as she did so. There was even a stack of freshly-cut farm ham. The only items that Jane didn’t find a home for were the pile of fresh meats and dairy produce.

‘Where’s the fridge, big guy?’ Mike asked, looking around.

‘Fridge…?’ Red said, looking at him in confusion.

‘Yeah, you know? Where you put stuff in to keep it cold,’ Mike said, whilst smiling at the blank look the young man gave him.

‘Oh, you mean the
cooler
, like Missus Jones has in the shop. Oh, well, I mean…we don’t have one o’ them here, Mister Mike, sir!’ Red’s face flushed with colour. They laughed and Jane told them not to worry as she was going to make some sandwiches anyway.

Ken went back out to the truck and returned with arms full of fishing equipment. Red said he should dump it on the porch and gave him a hand to ferry it across. ‘Are we still okay with the deal we made, buddy?’ Ken asked.

Red looked hesitant.

Ken helped him. ‘You know, we’ll bring the grub and you let us put some lines in your lake, remember?’ he said, with a smile.

Red grinned again, saying: ‘I shore do sir, and a deal is a deal!’

Ken looked at him and Red saw for that first time the man’s smile actually reached his eyes. They twinkled with a green light – he thought of the dream and quickly shut the door in its face.

As they were organising the fishing equipment, Ken rose to his feet. He stood scratching his head for a while. ‘Oh, damn, I’ve forgotten the floats!’ he said. ‘You go and get some of that food and tell Jane I’ve just gone into town. I’ll be back in a bit, Okay?’ He walked over to the brown truck and with a roar of the engine, hurtled back towards the main road.

Red watched the dust that Ken’s passing left. It rose into the air like clouds, red storm clouds. He watched them hang over the hedges for a while, and then, with stomach rumbling, he turned back into the house. He was just tucking into his fifth sandwich, the thickly-cut bread filled with tasty ham, which Jane had smothered with something called ‘English mustard’, when they heard Ken arriving back from his trip.

He shouted from outside: ‘Give us a hand, will you, guys?’

Red rose quickly, still chewing on his latest mouthful, and ran to the door. Pushing the screen to one side, he looked down at Ken. He saw that the man was manoeuvring a large white box over the lip of the cargo area on the truck. ‘They must be mighty big floats…’ the boy thought, as he stepped down to help.

Fifteen minutes later and he was standing in the kitchen looking at his new ‘Re-fridge-er-ator’. The boy stood and gawped. It was so big that he felt as though it would contain a whole cow, and it made ice-cubes. After they finished ripping off all the packing materials, he sat with Ken, where together they managed to finish off the whole loaf and most of the ham, too. Jane just kept it coming until they were done. Red couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten so much, and in-between mouthfuls he talked endlessly to his guests.

He told them all about himself and his life down on the farm. He promised to show them around the place any time they wanted. ‘That’s ifen yo’all wanna come on back, of course?’ he asked. They said they would, and he believed them. He enjoyed their company and whilst his three new friends sat politely and asked him about things, Red let the words pour out in their direction. They were so friendly and he felt yet another new sensation, for the first time in his short life, the young man felt friendship.

Later, after having done with the fishing, they sat upon the banks of the little blue lake and ate some apples from the overhanging tree. Red absolutely insisted they try them. ‘They’re just the finest apples you’ll get anywhere aroun’ here!’ he said, through a mouthful of the crunchy fruit. He was right, they were delicious.

They had also been very successful with their fishing. Mike was an expert and had caught twice as many as Red and Ken. Ken laughed out loud and said something about Mike and his magic, Red didn’t know what they were laughing about, but he made them put the fish back as soon as they had landed and unhooked the flapping creatures.

‘I have enuff food for a year,’ he commented. ‘Let them be free and then maybe we’ll keep a few the next time.’ They agreed, and as they pushed the slippery fish back into the water, Red caught a glimpse of Jane smiling at her husband. ‘She knows what I mean, she knows and she’s good, I like her, yessir – I like this lady with a whole heap o’ like!’ His happy thoughts fetched another big smile to his face.

Dusk approached, releasing the long shadows of an advancing night to begin their inevitable victory march over the remnants of the day. Sitting underneath the apple tree, they watched as the sky began to darken in surrender. Looking up at that sky, Jane said that maybe they should be getting back.

All the men agreed and everyone rallied round to help Ken pack the fishing equipment into his truck. Whilst Jane drove, the three men sat in the rear of the pickup, laughing and joking as they bumped their way back to the farmhouse. Red pointed things out to them along the way, his huge hands indicating the old windmill over in the distance, now sitting and dying on the horizon, its dilapidated blades motionless without any sails to catch the plentiful wind.

‘My Gran’pappy used that ol girl,’ he said. ‘I seen the fotografs of when he made bread with the stone wheel, it’s a fine place, I been up there many a times. There are thangs to draw up there, lots o’ thangs!’ Red hairs glistened on the back of his hand as he waved it towards the skeletal building. The men smiled at him and listened as the young man’s commentary rolled on. He pointed to a river over by the windmill, and then to woods, which lay darkly against the side of a sloping gully in the distance over to their left.

The truck soon reached the house and once they’d stopped, Red suggested that perhaps they should leave the fishing gear in the barn. ‘It’ll be okay in there, there ain’t anybody here but me anyways, an’ yo’all are gonna be coming back, right?’ He pronounced the words more carefully now, trying to hide the pleading tone that had begun to creep into his voice.

Ken grinned. ‘Yeah, we’d like that, Red. That’s if you’re sure you really want us to?’ he asked, whilst dumping the rods in the barn.

Red said of course they were – he’d never had such a fine day in his entire life. And then, just before they left, Mike made it even better by taking Red into the kitchen and showing him how to use the refrigerator.

‘Just plug it in,’ he said, ‘then put the stuff you want to keep cool on those shelves, and then pour some water in there.’ He pointed at the spout. ‘Then tomorrow, when you get up, you’ll have a good supply of ice cubes. They’d go pretty good with that apple juice, I think!’ He winked at Red and the boy grinned so widely that it looked as though his teeth went from ear to ear.

Jane jostled Mike out of the way and showed Red where to pack things into the big white cooler. When they were done she reminded him of the basics, saying: ‘Just make sure that you always shut the door when you’ve used it, honey, okay?’

He smiled and said he would definitely do that. Red quite liked being Jane’s ‘honey’. He guessed that she, like Mrs Jones, made him feel like someone’s Momma would make them feel. Walking out onto the porch, they turned to him and each said their own goodbyes. The men gripped his hand warmly and Jane even gave him a little hug. It made him freeze.

He stood still, holding her awkwardly. Red had never been hugged before, not ever. Hugs were so much nicer than arm-locks. Standing under the wooden overhang of the porch, he watched as Ken started the old truck. With that sweet engine burbling, he turned it around on the driveway, reached out of the window and gave Red a wave. Red waved back, ‘Yo’all come on back now, you hear!’ he shouted after them. The roar of the engine drowned out Ken’s reply.

Red stood and watched as they raced towards the gate. Through the dust he saw the pale shape of Jane’s face as she looked over her shoulder. He imagined that she would be smiling at him through the small rear window.

He imagined right.

Red stood looking at the truck as it disappeared into the distance; it was soon out of sight behind the trees which lined the track, but he stayed and listened to the sound of the rumble as it crossed the final cattle-grid, just managing to hear the engine note rise as Ken accelerated away down the main road. The boy scratched his head and swept the long, red hair from his face. He missed them already and wistfully turned back towards the empty farmhouse to spend a few moments tidying things away. There wasn’t much to do as Jane had done most of it already, so he opened the door of the cooler and stood looking at the array of foodstuffs that filled the shelves. ‘I…’ he said, out loud, ‘…sure is a lucky boy!’

Later that night, in the depths of his sleep, he was proved to be right. A lucky, lucky boy indeed, one who dreamed of a young lady with shining red lips and long, smooth legs – she smiled at him. There wasn’t a green stone in sight and not even the slightest glimpse of any Darkness, either.

They purchased a brand new motorhome, or RV, as the salesman had called it. ‘It’s the only one of its kind this far south,’ he’d said, when they were looking to buy. ‘It’s brand-new and full of all the latest gadgets too, just look at that cooker, ma’am!’ He was very persuasive and it hadn’t taken them long to arrange payment. Two days later they had found a place to park and drove their new home into the peaceful surroundings of a hidden valley.

Ken and Mike were each sipping on a cool beer whilst Jane flicked through the pages of a magazine. They’d been here for three weeks now and had met Red twice during that time. Yesterday had been the big fishing trip, the day when they had tried to go and see what he was like. See who the real Red was.

‘So, what do you think? He seems like a decent kid, I guess,’ Ken said, as he reached for his beer.

Mike agreed. ‘Yeah, I like the guy, you know… he seems lonely and a bit behind the real world perhaps, but he’s smart, definitely smart,’ he said.

Ken grunted in acknowledgment of Mike’s opinion.

Jane looked up from her magazine, saying: ‘I think we may have found the answer here, in fact, I
know
we’ve found the answer! He needs us, and I guess that we need him. I vote we go and spend as much time with him as is possible. I mean, look at the state of that place!’ She looked at Ken with raised eyebrows.

He knew what she wanted, and it did make sense. ‘Yeah, we could do the place up a bit, help out and make it better for him,’ he murmured. ‘The guy doesn’t even have a shower; I saw one of those tin baths out the back, can you believe that? He has virtually no possessions and yet he seems so happy! How the hell does he end up like he does in the dream?’ The others simply shrugged their shoulders – there was no logical answer to that particular question.

***

The trio’s own transfer had been almost faultless. Upon arrival in Red’s parallel, the Spears had morphed once again. Only this time, instead of turning into a red van, they had become brown pickup trucks. There were no weird weapons on board, and no pills or suchlike, either. The only thing that worked in the trucks was their strange, water-powered engines. All the other gadgets had ceased their magical functions. All they had were the Spears, Mike’s Communicator, and a single piece of paper.

Jane had found it lying in the glove compartment. It was neatly folded, and when she opened it, they had seen the words ‘Look and you will see…’ written on one side. The neat handwriting made Jane blink. It looked like her father’s writing and she stared at it again, mesmerised. ‘It is similar, but perhaps I’m still suffering from the effects of Shrink Down…’ she thought, mind awhirl.

The bags containing their belongings were present and correct, as were Jane’s painting things, and Ken’s guns. They had spent the first night in a motel and then the next morning had gone shopping for a suitable vehicle in a town that lay about fifty miles away. The trio didn’t want to be too conspicuous in the local town and splashing out on a motorhome may have brought them unwanted attention.

They gradually became familiar with some of the locals and did a bit of shopping here, or stopped in a diner there, perhaps. All small stuff, designed to help them find their feet and become part of the scenery. It’s never easy when you’re new around town, new and foreign makes it even more difficult. So they took their time and began to meld into the everyday way of life in the sleepy little town. After a while, it seemed as though people simply began to accept them; just by being there the trio began to put down some roots.