Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner (79 page)

Jacob finished pulling his clothes on
and then looked at her again. She was standing a few feet from him
with her arms folded in front of her and her eyes
glimmering.

He kissed her. “I just got to go,
okay. Don’t worry.”

“All right,” Sonnie whispered. “Am I
going to see you again? I mean, before you go back.”

“Yeah. I’ll call you.”

“Okay.”

He kissed her again and turned to
leave. He felt her wrap around him.

“Jacob, are you okay?”

“Yes. I think so. But . .
.”

“But what?”

“But it’s real. It’s all fucking
real.”

“Jacob.”

“No! It’s real!”

She didn’t speak. Taking her hand, he
led her into the living room. There, he sat her down beside him. He
went against his intuition again. He told her where he had been. He
told her everything.

Chapter 6

Jacob saw Tyla standing outside the
east entrance of the nursing home when he drove by. He didn’t think
she saw him, though. Not quite ready for human contact again, he
drove down to the west entrance. Then he walked back to the center,
where he waited in the lobby with a cup of the pale coffee they
always served. For a little while, he was able to sit there,
amongst the sweet smelling flowers that adorned the entryway. A
couple of different residents passed by in wheelchairs. One called
him by name as she waved. The other turned away quickly after
making eye contact. Jacob had not seen her around here before. She
smelled so strongly of urine that it drowned out the fragrance of
the flowers.

Jacob thought a little more about
Sonnie. She hadn’t really responded when he told her about the last
vision. That had made him nervous. And now he felt sick and
authoritative for how he responded.

“You have to promise that you won’t
tell anybody,” he had said. “Do you realize what this could do to
me if other people found out?”

He thought he might try to apologize
the next time he saw her. But he still didn’t want her to tell
anybody about anything. Finally, he decided to deal with it all
later. He got up to go find his family.

His grandmother’s room was on the east
wing. That was where they kept those who were either not crazy or
not mobile. Jacob’s grandma, Oletta Putman, was the
latter.

The door to the room was closed. Jacob
gave it a knock and then heard the voice of her
roommate.

“They’re not ready yet. She’s still
getting her dressed.”

Jacob’s mom came to the door and
cracked it open enough to stick her head out. “Hi, sweetie. Give me
just a second to pull a shirt on her.”

“Okay.”

“Where’s your sister? I asked her to
wait out front for you.”

“Oh. I thought I might have seen her,
but I wasn’t sure. I just came in the middle way.”

“All right, babe. Give me just a
second here.”

Jacob waited for less than a minute
before he heard the roommate again.

“All right. I think she’s
done.”

Jacob opened the door. “Is she ready,
Mom?”

“Yeah. Come on in.”

Jacob walked in and saw the lady his
grandmother shared a room with. She was sitting over a plate of
half devoured biscuits and gravy. When she smiled at him, he saw
little pieces of her breakfast stuck in the wrinkles of her face.
His mother pulled back the curtain that separated the two old
ladies’ areas. Jacob’s grandmother sat in a recliner beside her
bed. Her back was arched straight, her body motionless except for
her right arm, which bounced up and down in spastic
movements.

“Look, Mama. Jacob’s here.”

Jacob thought he might have seen her
eyes shift just a little his way, but if they did, the movement was
so subtle that he couldn’t be sure.

“I think she’s glad to see you,
honey.”

“Oh yes. Oletta loves her
grandchildren very much,” the roommate said.

Jacob’s mother smiled at the old
woman. “Sara, look at you,” she said laughing. “Do you want me to
help you clean up?”

“I suppose you better. The aids are
busy on Sunday morning, with all the people going to church and
all.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Jacob
saw his mother move toward Sara. But the main focus of his
attention was on his grandmother. He wondered if she was truly
alive. Mercifully, he hoped not. The way she used to be, she
wouldn’t have liked the way her daughter took care of her, and she
would have been extremely annoyed by Sara.

The old woman sat there, eyes
straightforward, seemingly indifferent to Jacob’s stare. Her upper
body started to sway back and forth just a little, as if it were
pulled by the movements of her arm. There was a knock, and his
mother opened the door.

“Good morning, Uncle Luke,” his mother
said, hugging the old man.

“Good morning, sweet lady. How are you
today?”

“Can’t complain.”

“And how are you, Ms.
Sara?”

“Oh. I’m doing real good. My daughter
is bringing her kids up later too.”

“Sounds like a good time to me. And
how’s my sister?” He walked past Jacob to Jacob’s grandmother, who
didn’t even flinch. “Are you enjoying your visit with your favorite
grandson?” He kissed her on the cheek. Again, she didn’t seem to
notice.

“And what is the favorite Grandson
doing nowadays? Are you still out there conquering the
world?”

It might have been the instant of a
second that Jacob was paranoid that did it to him. Or it might have
been the humorous irony of what his granduncle asked. Whatever it
was, it got to Jacob. For a few seconds, he zoned out. When he
realized this, he brought himself back to the room and the confused
faces.

Three of those faces didn’t matter too
much to him. His mother, his granduncle, and Sara all seemed caught
up in the awkwardness. The one face that did matter was the one
that he would not have expected to respond. But now he was sure he
could see a response in his grandmother’s eyes. She no longer
seemed to be looking straight ahead at nothing. Jacob was fairly
certain she had shifted her head and was looking at him.

“No, Uncle Luke,” Jacob said, staring
directly back at his grandmother. “I haven’t been conquering the
world. I’ve been saving it.”

The light in her eyes seemed to
change. And there was ever so slight of a movement in her eyelids.
Jacob nodded.

His granduncle laughed. “Well good.
And I know your grandma is proud of you. Ain’t that right,
Sis?”

His grandmother’s face had returned to
its usual state.

“All right, Nancy. I met your other
young one outside. She’s out in the car waiting for us
now.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, I don’t remember the last time
I saw you and your young ones together. So I thought you might let
me take the three of you for breakfast.”

“Uncle Luke. That’s so nice. I’ll
finish up with Sara and we’ll all go.”

“Oh no you don’t. You go on with your
family. Let the nurse aide take care of me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Now you get out of
here.”

Jacob’s mother kissed the old lady on
the forehead. Then she came over to his grandmother. “We’ll be back
after breakfast, Mama. Then I’ll take you for a walk
outside.”

Jacob waited as his mother moved
toward the door.

“Are you coming, Jacob?”

“Yeah, mom. I just want to say goodbye
to Grandma.”

Jacob felt awkward as he leaned over
toward her. He felt awkward because it was not like him to kiss a
relative goodbye. And he was aware that his mother knew it was not
like him. But he could think of no other way.

He kissed her on the cheek, facing
away from the other three people in the room. “What is it Grandma?”
he whispered into her ear, loud enough that they would know he
whispered but not so loud that they would know what he was
whispering. He looked up and saw that her face was still blank.
Then he looked at his mother’s face, which was, as he expected it
would be, pleasantly shocked.

After his mother shut the dividing
curtain, the three of them walked out. His mother and uncle had
their arms locked together. Jacob walked off to the side of them,
almost rubbing against the wall, ignoring the weight of his
mother’s stare. He felt excited that he might have made some kind
of contact with his grandmother. But, at the same time, he was
pessimistic. He remembered seeing pictures on the wall, with eyes
that seemed to follow him. He hated to think that that was all it
was, and his grandmother was no more than a zombie with painted
eyes.

They passed the nurses’ station at the
end of the hall. An aide at the desk smiled briefly at them and
then went back to a big blue chart book. It was when they turned
onto the hall that led out to the east door that Jacob heard the
old woman’s voice.

Jacob stopped. “Did you hear
that?”

“Hear what?”

“I thought I heard Sara
yell.”

His mother turned, but Jacob grabbed
her arm.

“No Mom. Let me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I think I left my keys up by
the front desk anyway. I’ll just stop in on my way to get them.
I’ll get the nurse if there’s a problem.”

“But babe, I don’t . . .”

“Oh Nancy,” his granduncle
interjected. “Let him go. You do this everyday. The boy gets to see
her once a year.”

Uncle Luke smiled at his mother. Then
he looked over her shoulder at Jacob and gave him a wink. “We’ll
wait out front for you.”

“Thanks.”

Jacob’s mother moved hesitantly to the
door with his uncle. While he waited for a few seconds, Jacob heard
Sara again. This time he could make out her words—“She’s doing
something.”

Right before his granduncle and mother
made it out, Jacob turned and hurried back to the room. He knocked
on the door, mainly for the sake of the aide standing in the
hall.

“Come in. Hurry!”

Jacob opened the door to
Sara.

“Would you look at that. I don’t think
I’ve ever seen her do that before.”

Through the curtain was the shadow of
Oletta Putman flailing away. And there were the sounds of skin and
stiff old bones coming together. Jacob walked around the
curtain.

This time he was sure of it. His
Grandmother’s head had turned and she was looking at him. Her lips
were curled into an expression of pain, or maybe exertion. With
stiff movements, she was now moving both arms. Her right arm was
flailing into her left, brushing hard against the thick pink
bracelet that she always wore. Her left forearm was already turning
red against the pressure.

Jacob took hold of those arms.
“Grandma. Is there something you want to tell me?”

He gazed into her frightened eyes and
watched the green iris change in size.

“If there is, can you
blink?”

For nearly half a minute he stood
there and waited for her. Then he felt her arms grow limp in his
hands. He set them down in her lap.

“Sara?”

“Yes.”

“How long have you been with my
grandma?”

“Oh. I suppose about ten months
now.”

“And you never saw her do anything
like this?”

“No, hon. Never.”

“You ever seen her try to talk to
anyone or communicate in any way.”

“No, not lately. Used to be that she
wrote. But she stopped that a couple of months after I came
along.”

“Oh really? What did she
write?”

“Mostly things like she wanted a cup
of coffee or her bed was wet.”

“I see. And you say she
stopped?”

“Yes sir. I think it made her kind of
tired. It took her forever to write the littlest of things. I don’t
think she can do it anymore, the way her right arm is always flying
around like that.”

“You don’t say.”

Jacob went to his grandmother’s
dresser. In the second drawer he opened he found various odds and
ends. Among them was a cup full of writing utensils from which he
took a red crayon. He also grabbed a big white notepad. He set the
notepad on a dinner tray and sat the tray on his grandmother’s lap.
Then he tried to lodge the crayon in between two of her
fingers.

When his grandmother began to slap at
his hand, he moved it away. But she kept moving the same hand she
had hit him with. He saw her fingers and thumb curl slightly and
knew what to do. He placed the crayon upside down in her fist. He
met no resistance. He closed that fist around the crayon and felt
it stick there. He nodded at her and then walked out.

#

Jacob was very aware of every second
they had to wait for their waitress to come. He noted every
idiosyncrasy of the orders that would draw out the time he had to
spend there. He made no attempts at discussion himself, and he
answered all questions as succinctly as possible, not caring about
whether he offended anyone. Then, when their plates finally
arrived, he forced his food down against the excitement in his
stomach that was telling him that this was no time to be eating. He
left them all sitting there with their plates still barely
touched.