Moonweavers (10 page)

One of the men say,
“Patty, how have you been?”

“
Oh pretty good.  Trying to get the old ranch together.  You know, full time job and then some.”

“
Aye.”, the man says in a pirate like voice.  “You might want to watch those animals.  I heard some coyotes or something last night.  They kind of sounded like they were heading your way.”

“
I’ll get out the old shotgun and spotlight.   Maybe I can take care of that before it gets too hairy.”, replies Patty.  “I finally got me a hand at the ranch now too.  That’ll be a lot easier after things get rolling around with the harvest coming and all.”

“
Yep yep”, the man replies.  “My boy is out plowing right now.”

A white truck pulls in frantically and parks in the gravel drive, dust filling the air as it stops to its final descent.  Then a mans shadow emerges towards the entrance of the bar and opens the door and walks in.  Everyone turns their heads to look at the new potential customer and yells,
“Hi Joe, “  all simultaneously.  It’s a game the five men always did when someone entered into the bar.  They loved to greet their new found drinking buddies with a cheery grin.  Joe walks up to the bar and quickly orders a shot and a beer. 

“
Bottle, can or draft?”, asks Patty.  “The special today is all drafts for 2 bucks.  Want one of those?”

The man happily says,
“Yes.”and a shot of Jack.

Joe downs the shot as quick as its poured and then drinks half the beer all at once.  He sits down, arm shaking just a touch.  Ted, a man sitting next to Joe, notices the shaking.

“You alright, Joe?” he asks.

“
I just got the shit scared out of me when I was out in the barn working on the truck.”

Ted stares at a red gash on Joe
’s head.

Ted asks,
“What the hell happened?”

“
That’s what I’m trying to tell you”, Joe says.  “I was under my truck working on the brake line.  I heard someone and then they said hello.  I got startled and hit my head on the truck.  Well, now I’m pissed and I slide out from under there ready to give somebody a fucking talking to and there’s this wolf.  There’s a black wolf staring straight at me and I freak, man.  I mean I just freak and I went to get my gun and I was gonna shoot the little bastard.  What the hell is a wolf doing around here anyway?  I aint never seen no wolf in these parts.”

Ted says,
“I don’t know.  There aint never been a wolf around here ever that I know of, but I did hear some coyotes last night too guys and let me tell ya, it didn’t sound right.  Maybe there are some wolves out there.  I don’t know.”
“Stranger things have happened.”, replies an older man sitting in the corner.

“
Don’t start talking about your Bigfoot again, Dan.”

“
Its real, I tell ya.  I seen it.  Up there in the mountain.  It stared right at me.  I couldn’t move.  I had my gun and everything and I just couldn’t move.  I even tried.  I remember, I tried to lift my arms and nothing happened.  Like I was bound with invisible rope or something.  I just couldn’t move and then it just vanished before my very eyes.  I freaked out, I did.  Then when it was gone, I could move my arms and legs and I got the fuck outta there and I aint ever been back.  I don’t go back in there.  Nope, not for a million dollars would I go back in there.”  He stares into Patty’s eyes and says, “It’s evil.   Can I get another beer?”

“
Yea, then lockness came out of the Mississippi river and ate him up, right?” and all the men and Patty laughed, except for Joe and the older man.

“
I’ll get his drink”, Joe says.  “And get the other guys one too.  You know, if you guys aint busy later, maybe we can all go out there and try to hunt it down.  I’m guessing if there’s one, there’s more than one.  There’s probably a whole pack out there.  Them bluff’s are littered with shafts and caves.  Maybe if we surrounded them we could entrap them down there at the quarry.  We’ll just fan out and get ‘em all at once.”

“
Worth a try.”, one of the men say.  “We need a few more boys.  You think you could get your kids out there too?”

“
Nope.  Gotta have them boys fresh for in the morning.  You interested, Patty?”

“
I kinda got my own dilemmas at home, but if I hear any wolves out there, I’ll grab my shotgun and meet ya outside for sure.  Good luck boys and be careful.  If we’re lucky, maybe we can all get one of those wolves stuffed.”
The old man says, “I’m in, but I’m staying the fuck away from that mountain.  You can put me on this side of it, thank you very much.”

“
I might be able to round up some guys.”, Joe says.  “Pour me another one of those shots of liquid courage.  I’m gonna need it, Patty.  Guys, there was something wrong with that thing, I’m telling ya.  He just looked different.  I can’t place what it is.  And I ain’t too familiar with them damn wolves anyway but there’s something different about that one.  For one, it was all black.  Have you ever seen a black wolf?”

“
Well I would imagine they come in all shapes, sizes and colors.”, says one of the other men.  “Just like any other species.”

“
Yea maybe but his eyes.  I mean that wolves eyes were dark.  Aren’t they supposed to be like husky eyes and shiny and shit?”  asked Joe.

“
Maybe they were just real dark brown.”, someone mutters from the crowd.

“
Naw, they were black, I’m telling ya.  It wasn’t right. No pupils, no nothing.  Just black.  Like some kinda horror movie.  I looked around the corner of the barn where I shot at it.  I don’t think I hit it.  I didn’t see no blood trail.  Man, I tore the shit out of that corner of the barn tho.  It had to be pretty hungry to come down into the barn like that.  That or it just don’t know what humans are all about.”

“
Maybe you outta go in the morning.”  Patty says.  “You’re not gonna be able to see a damn thing out there tonight.”

“
Aw, nonsense.”, Joe says.  “The moons shining down.  Shouldn’t be too bad.  You’d be surprised how much light that thing puts out.  Especially if we get it out in the open there.  Get a couple guys at the edge of that bluff.  Hell, it would be like shooting pigs in a barrel.  It’s settled then.  You guys meet up at the barn and we’ll track em and pack em.” 

“
I got about four walkies and some flares, if there’s any trouble.”, says the old man in the corner.

“
We all load up all our four wheelers.  We could track all kinds of ground.”, speaks a younger guy at the end of the bar. 

“
What’s the problem that you can’t go out and have some fun, Patty?”, Dan interrupts.

“
Well, Frank, the new guy I got helping out around the ranch said that he saw my mom.”

“
What a ghost or something?”, asked Dan.

“
Yea, I know.” Patty answers.  “That’s what he said though.  He saw her in the barn and again in the house asking who he was.”
The old man looks up startled at this as well.  “I could see that happening.”, he replies as he pulls on the frosty mug before him and takes a big swig, then wiping the foam of the beer off his chin with a wipe of his sleeve.  “If anyone was gonna haunt that damn ranch of yours, it would be your mother.  She had that plot of ground picked out since she was ten years old.  She would sit in that very seat you’re sitting in now, Patty, working for your aunt.  Fifteen years later, building the home of her dreams on that very same plot of land.  Have I ever told you that?”

“
Why, no, I don’t believe you ever had.”, Patty says.

“
Well, that’s not very surprising.  You were probably no more than two years old at the time.”  “Let’s load up, boys.”, Joe says.  They all quickly down there beers before they head for the door.

“
It’s gonna be a long one.  Come on by at nine sharp.”, he tells the men before he gets into his truck to take out back to the farm.  The other men prepare to do the same.  The gravel dust appears again as the men leave the parking lot simultaneously from the small bar and grill to their homes and farms. 

Now not a soul is left in the bar but Patty and she tends to washing up the scattered beer mugs and dirty ashtrays and wiping down the counters of the corner of the bar where the activity was more profound. 
“I hope Frank will be okay at the ranch all by himself.”, she thinks.

Twenty minutes later, Aunt Shirley returns with a car full of supplies.  Patty helps her quickly put them away into the walk in freezer in the back.  Shirley thanks her for her help and asks her if she wants to work the lunch hours with her tomorrow.  Patty agrees.  Then Shirley opens the register and pays Patty fifty bucks for watching the bar.  Patty gives Shirley a big hug and leaves to go check on Frank back at the ranch.  Patty finds herself surprised at how anxious she is to return home to meet back up with Frank. 
“He’s so different.”, she thinks to herself.  “And honestly, he fills those jeans out pretty darn good.”  Her heart flutters a little with the thought.  “See ya tomorrow, love ya.”  Patty tells Shirley as she slowly turns her head before she exit’s the screen door and rapidly returns home. 

The last glimpses of daylight yield out when Patty  drove into the driveway of the ranch.  She touches up her makeup in the rearview mirror.  Something she rarely did.  She hardly ever wore makeup to begin with being so isolated on the ranch from anyone.  She finds Frank passed out on the couch as she enters the front door.  She gives a wicked smile and her eyebrows grow upward as she takes her shoes off and slips closer towards the sleeping man,  giggling just a touch with every step.  Frank quickly opens one eye, then shuts it and starts to giggle a little too.  She jumps on Frank and gives him a big wet kiss.  Then all of sudden they both get startled  a sound of a wolf howling very close.  Then the sound of even more wolves tuning in to the howl and picking up where the first left off, so it was one constant alarm.  So there was no gaps of silence whatsoever.  They both run to the window and look outside.  The moonlight shines down on Franks left side of his face.  He feels recharged.  Energized, like when he came down that first night.  All his senses are quite a bit heightened.  His sense of smell.  He smells an animal, most likely the wolves, in the distance, not too far.  He can see the way they glow in the moonlight.  He tunes in now his keener sense of vision a little deeper and harder.  He can tell there was a whole mess of them on the ridge.  Patty bolts for the shotgun and then returns to the window.

“Can you see em?”  Patty asks.

Frank answers,
“I think they’re up on that bluff.”

“
What are you talking about?  I can’t even see the bluff from here.  It’s pitch black.”
“I swear.  That’s where I saw them.”

“
They sounded a lot closer than that.”  Patty replies.

“
Look, maybe you ought to go back into town or something.  I don’t think this is gonna be very nice tonight.”

“
I wouldn’t go running out there, because them boys are gonna be coming and they’re gonna be hunting down them wolves that we hear.”

“
What?” Frank asks.

“
The boys down at Aunt Shirley’s said they were gonna come out and hunt em down.  I guess one of them wolves there wandered onto Joe’s farm and spooked him bad.”

“
Aw, great.”  Frank thinks to himself, but not quite to himself, because Patty hears him.

“
What’s wrong?”, she asks.

“
I don’t think those are wolves out there.”  Frank replies.

“
Well sure they are.  You could hear them.  They do sound kind of different don’t they.”, Patty says as she listens a little harder.  But as quickly as she says it, everything turns silent.  Then as quickly as that noise stops, another appears.  But these are engines.  Four wheeler engines, racing in the woods, all around the ranch.  Then quickly as the sound approached, they slowly disappear into the woods towards the ridge.  Flickers of the headlights bounce off the trees, leaving little impressions that twinkle now and again, like little stars.  The moon was big and bright like the night before, casting its glow.  Patty turns to look at Frank as they are crouched next to the window.  Frank looks at Patty.  Their eyes meet.  Patty gives Frank a quick wink then cocks the shotgun and peers back out the window.  Frank does the same. 

                                                       
8

The wolves caught on to the guards approach back at the mine and headed to higher ground.  Zoth, the proud leader, lead the gang toward the bluffs.  When the moon finally hit them and they changed into werewolves, they stopped to retreat.  Zoth yells for them to hold.  They all do simultaneously and group back together in a perfect form, two by two.  They run faster and faster and faster.  Like a dog sled, without a sled attached, they keep the form and charge onward.