The Forgotten Eden (41 page)

“‘
That’s her, isn’t it, Jack?’ asked Grandpa, his reddened eyes bore a glint of excitement. ‘Elsie said it was a face and not some defect in the film when we first got the pictures developed. She later told me about a young girl she saw sitting in the tire-swing, a week after your folks were gone, that had light hair and very blue eyes. But, until I heard your story last night I still wasn’t sure, even though I’ve seen the empty swing moving through the air as if someone sat in it from time to time. You’d think after everything I’ve personally experienced, including Julie and Frank’s disappearance, it’d knock some sense into my head.’

“
He moved over to the dining room windows, peering through the blinds once more. The abundant light from the full moon still at its brightest, the backyard lay illuminated nearly as much as when bathed by the mid-afternoon sun. He closed the small crease he’d created between the blinds and turned to face us again.

“‘
I’d say we’ve spent enough time tonight in this room,’ he said. ‘How about we forget about that album for now and go out on the back porch for a while? The moon’s out and it might be kind of nice.’

“‘
What about that presence you felt earlier?’ I asked, thinking about my strange experience in the garden that afternoon. It didn’t help matters I’d just seen a picture of the owner of the voice that sent me sprawling face-first into the garden’s mud.

“‘
I believe whatever tried to peek in on us has left. I really do,’ he advised. ‘Just in case I’m wrong about that, I’ll bring the gun with me. So, we’re good.’

“‘
It’s all right with me if we go out on the back porch for a while,’ offered Jeremy. ‘I can always use another smoke. We can check the pictures out some other time, Jackie.’

“
My brother reached for his breast pocket, and Grandpa led us through the kitchen and on out to the back porch.

“
Once outside, we all remarked on how it felt so much cooler than normal for the time of year, especially July, and the strong scent of burnt wood filled the night air. But at least there was no sign or feeling that Genovene or any other menace was in the immediate area. Everything felt very peaceful, like it usually did until three days ago.

“
Grandpa sat down on the porch steps and looked out into the backyard with his shotgun cradled between his knees. He struck a match to relight his pipe and allowed Jeremy to use the rest of the flame to light his cigarette. My brother leaned up against the support post closest to the steps. I stood across from him, leaning on the porch rail and watching the steady smoke stream from Grandpa’s pipe rise into the air, seemingly chased by the small row of rings Jeremy created with his cigarette.

“
Grandpa had turned the porch and security lights off just before we ventured outside, as there wasn’t a need for artificial light. The entire yard aglow from the moon’s brightness, even the giant oak and the mimosas, along with the backyard’s assortment of rusted junk, were fully illuminated. The stone sphere looked ominous and eerie near the back wall, though we only caught glimpses of it through the oak’s branches and leaves.

“‘
Tomorrow, I’m going to start cleaning away all of this garbage back here,’ Grandpa announced as he puffed on his pipe. ‘It’s finally time to get that done. I should’ve done it years ago, but could never bring myself to care much about it after Elsie passed away. That damned sphere has always reminded me of what’s happened every time I’ve laid eyes on it. I gave up on removing it after the NASA fiasco happened long ago…. I can tell from both of your faces that you’ve heard that story before.’

“
We both confirmed we had, but I hoped he’d tell us more.

“
After all Elsie and I had to contend with, I was so overwhelmed by grief that I just wanted the goddamned thing out of here,’ he explained. ‘But, I’ll never try that again.’ He smiled wanly as he said this. ‘I’ll bet she’d be glad to know I’m finally taking care of this eyesore.’

“
Jeremy and I told him we’d help him get that done, which brightened his smile some. He looked up toward the sky. Despite the moon’s powerful presence in the sky, we could still trace some of the constellations and identify the brighter nearby planets and galaxies in the summer night sky. Grandpa quizzed us, as he sometimes did, on the celestial bodies we could identify and the various zodiac myths.

“
We spent maybe an hour doing this, until we started getting tired around midnight. The three of us went back inside the farmhouse, the steady din from the crickets, tree toads, and cicadas no longer audible as we walked back into the kitchen and closed the storm door behind us. Grandpa turned the porch light and the security floodlights back on. Then he and Jeremy walked into the living room to relax a little before retiring for the evening.

“
As for me, the full affects of my adventure from the day before had finally caught up to me. I said goodnight to them both and headed upstairs to bed.

“
Once I reached my bedroom, I left the light off since moonlight poured in through my window. I walked over to it and looked out into the backyard. Through gaps in the oak’s foliage, the blackened remains of the woods glistened. Amazed at the contrast between what I beheld now as compared to the same view two nights prior, I stood there several minutes before turning away.

“
Really exhausted, I climbed into my bed with half my clothes on. But I couldn’t sleep, still too excited about everything that’d happened. I remember how I laid awake for quite a while, staring up at the ceiling. In an effort to distract myself, I tried to think about anything other than the events of the past few days.

“
Soon after, I finally started drifting off to sleep. A warm presence invaded my room. Before I crossed over into the world of dreams, I heard my mother’s voice softly say, ‘Remember, Jack… no matter what happens, I’ll always be with you.’

“
I forced myself awake again, hoping to capture the quiet warmth that now enveloped my bedroom.

“‘
Goodnight, Mom...wherever you are,’ I whispered.

“
A light chuckle came from somewhere near the window and then, ‘Goodnight, my son’. I smiled and closed my eyes, soon fast asleep.”

A Season’s End

Jack leaned back in his chair, silent, his story now finished.

So engrossed by the chronicle’s conclusion, at first Agent McNamee didn’t recognize his body language. Until he heard Jack’s stomach rumble again. He straightened himself in his chair and leaned slightly across the table. “So, that’s
it
?”

“
Yeah. Pretty much anyway,” Jack told him.

“
Then there’s more?”

“
Well, I guess if you want information on the tornado and such, there might be.”

“
Please tell me about that, too, Jack,” said Peter, holding his ball point pen near his face as he relaxed in his chair once more.

Click-click.

“
I’ve said all along I want to hear everything. That includes
anything
else you can possibly tell me about what happened back then. Again, if you want to take a dinner break first, that’s fine with me. I don’t want to leave here tonight until you’ve shared all you know.”

Click-click.

Jack stared at the pen in the agent’s hand, his current state not reacting well to Peter’s nervous habit. Peter stopped clicking his pen, as if suddenly realizing its affect on his subject.

“
I can still wait on dinner,” Jack said, glancing at Peter’s hand that now rested on the table, still holding the pen. It proved enough for the agent to set it down and withdraw his hand from the table. “But, before I tell you anything more, I need to know what you honestly think of everything. Especially my grandfather’s story. I mean, do you believe it? Or do you think it’s a load of bullshit?”

Peter’s expression turned serious as he pondered Jack’s question.

“
No, I don’t think your grandpa’s story is a load of crap,” he said finally. “All I wanted to stress to you earlier is that this stuff may not fly too well with the other agents listening to us now, or whoever reviews the transcript later on. Hopefully you now realize that if anyone from this agency can be your ally, it
must
be me. Like I said earlier, you’ve got to trust me, Jack.”

Jack studied the agent’s face, nodding slightly to confirm his belief in Peter’s honesty.

“
All right. But, I warn you the rest of what I’ve got to say will remain on the other side of ‘normal’—same as nearly everything I’ve told you so far,” he advised. “Much of what I know of the tornado that destroyed our home came from a trio of other eyewitnesses—
not
the Palmers, by the way.

“
So, there’s nothing at all to add from the Palmers?”

“
D
efinitely
not anything from those sons of bitches!” said Jack in disgust, his mouth curved downward in an angry grimace.
“
Hell, no!
The only eyewitnesses I’m talking about are Freddy Stinson, Jeremy’s best buddy, and his little brother Kyle. Along with another of my brother’s pals, Ronnie Holmes.”

Peter frowned and picked up one of his journals again, paging quickly through it as he sought to confirm this latest revelation.

“
It’s not in there, I assure you,” said Jack. “None of them ever came forward. At first it was because they didn’t want to be ridiculed for what they saw. Then, after Carl Peterson and Sheriff McCracken were murdered, they swore one another to secrecy. They finally told Jeremy almost two years later, after my brother first told them he’d turned his life around and quit carousing and smoking—cold turkey on both accounts. He’d just gotten his high school diploma and was already accepted into the University of Alabama. The clincher for his buddies came when he revealed his dream of becoming an archaeologist. They told him everything at that point.”

“
Then Jeremy told you. Is that assumption correct?”

“
Yes. That’s right,” said Jack. “The account I’m fixing to tell you is a mixture of sorts. Some information is from me, along with Jeremy and Grandpa. The rest is from the stuff Freddy, Kyle, and Ronnie told Jeremy. Are you ready?”

“
Ready when you are!”

Peter resisted the urge to pick up his pen, relaxing sheepishly in his chair.

“
All right, then.” Jack straightened in his chair and leaned forward again. “Sometime around two in the morning, after Grandpa and Jeremy had gone to bed, Freddy, Kyle, and Ronnie snuck behind our property. They were determined to verify the damage caused by Vydora. As you can probably guess, Jeremy couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

“
I don’t imagine my brother figured his buddies would ever venture into the woods without him—especially not that soon. When they reached our back wall and saw the multitude of blackened trees, Kyle, who was fifteen at the time, chickened out. Freddy and Ronnie were furious at him, since they’d gone to the trouble of bringing him along at his insistence. Freddy adamantly told him no way in hell they were going home, at least not until Freddy and Ronnie were ready to do so.

“
Kyle began to whimper. As the older boys were afraid he’d start bawling and either wake us or the Palmers up, they tried to calm him down. That didn’t happen until Freddy told Kyle he could wait for them near our property, and then also promised him that he’d be given full access to Freddy’s mature-rated video games for a week. Freddy and Ronnie helped him climb over the Palmer’s wall, since it was lower than ours. Kyle crouched in a corner next to our property to avoid detection by anyone, while Freddy and Ronnie began their trek to the clearing through the woods.

“
I doubt they’d ever ventured into these woods before, but I can imagine how eerie it was to travel through a burned-up forest under a full moon. It didn’t take them long to reach the old bridge that crossed the Black Warrior River. Half an hour later they stood in the midst of the clearing.

“
The night older by then, the sky was clear. The moon had traveled toward the northwest corner of the sky, leaving the multitude of stars more visible. Finding the old fort ruins proved fairly easy, since the clearing was brightly illuminated.

“
Freddy and Ronnie moved over to the ruins, excited to verify the scene from Jeremy’s run-in with the strange critter from the previous afternoon. While examining the building closest to them, they noticed a blue glow emanating from the top of the rock formation.

“
Jeremy’s buddies were a lot like him in that their foolhardiness usually ranged from moderate to outright insanity. Needless to say, they were attracted to the strange blue light like mayflies to a bug zapper. They ran over to the rock formation and quickly climbed to the top. I’m sure you can imagine their surprise when they discovered the source of the blue glow was actually a fiery mass throbbing, fervent, from the depths of the bubbling pool itself.

“
They nearly fell off the ledge scrambling to reach the bottom. No sooner than they touched the ground, a murmur and thrashing sound came from above them. They didn’t see anything when they looked up, other than a mist hovering above the top. Not wanting to stick around and find out if a critter like the one that went after Jeremy and Grandpa was coming after them, they took off running. The bugs and nocturnal animals swarmed and scurried around them as they ran. Then, suddenly, every living thing around them stopped moving. The clearing became deathly quiet.