Chapter 137
Nancy climbed off of him, but it took him a few moments to regain his orientation and begin to search for his missing britches, which he found shoved beneath the front seat. Nancy was buttoning up, a smug smile visible on her face in the moonlight. “That was great, Nancy,” he said, wiggling into his boxer shorts and then his jeans. “But next time, I’m going to be the one in control. You can just sit back, and let me show you the time of your life.” He was pretty sure he had two shoes when he came back here, but now he could only find one.
Nancy pulled one boat sized brown loafer out from behind her back and handed it to him. “Here you go, darling.”
“Thank you.” He slipped his foot inside, smiling at her. “And I don’t just mean the shoe.”
“What can I say?” Nancy asked, a glint in her. “I’m not like all the other girls from Norman. I know how to give my man a good time.”
“You certainly do.” He leaned over to kiss her, but as his lips connected with hers, something moving outside caught his eye.
The windows were steamed up a little, so it was hard to tell if he’d actually seen something or not, but as he continued to kiss his girlfriend, he wiped at the glass with the back of his hand and then turned his head to see that there really was something moving in the trees.
Elliott pulled away. “What the hell is that?” he asked her.
“What’s what?” Nancy sat up, turning her gaze out the window.
“Over there. In the trees.” There was an outline there, the form of a person, and behind it something else, maybe two people. Or three. Except, they didn’t exactly look like people. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it seemed like there was something different about them. “You see them, right?” Elliott asked, still hovering over top of her.
“Yeah, I see them. What the hell?”
“Do you think Cliff and some of his friends are out there just trying to scare us?” Elliott asked as the person—or creature—in front moved slightly to its left, it’s hunched shoulders moving in a way that seemed too quick for a human. Its arms seemed elongated slightly.
“I don’t think he’d do that,” Nancy whispered. “He’s… a little bit afraid of these woods.”
“Why is that?” Elliott asked, turning his head away from the window for a second to look her in the eyes.
Nancy swallowed hard. “He saw something here once, too.”
Elliott’s eyes were on the trees again, and as they form shifted once more, coming closer, he realized he could see their eyes. The whites of them were nearly glowing in the moonlight, the irises dark, and beneath them, an eerie red. “Okay. That’s it. We’re getting out of here.” He was just about to climb over the seat when a pounding on the window behind him had him jumping up, screaming, and Nancy let out a shriek, too. How could he have been so foolish to put all of his attention on what was in front of him and leave his flank exposed?
Only the sound of laughing followed, and he realized it wasn’t a creature from the trees sneaking up on them, it was Reggie.
“Son of a bitch!” Elliott exclaimed, turning back to the woods. Whatever it was staring at them before was gone now, and he began to think he might have imagined the whole thing. Shaking his head, he popped open the door. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Sorry, it’s just, Cliff showed up a little bit ago and was all pissy. We told him that you’d decided to drive Nancy home, so he headed back into town. I thought I’d warn you. What the hell is that smell?”
Elliott ignored the question, assuming he was picking up on whiffs of their lovemaking. Nancy climbed out of the back passenger side door and hurried to the front of the car, sliding inside. “That’s probably what we saw,” she shouted as Elliott opened the driver’s door. “It was probably Cliff and his friends messing around.”
“Yeah,” Elliott agreed, though he doubted that was the case. He was done for the night, having accomplished more than he’d set out to. “You wanna ride back to town, Reg?”
“Are you kidding? You want me to ride back there? It smells like ass. I’ll hitch a ride with Linda and her brother Marv.”
“Be careful. Marv likes to get plastered and drive anyway,” Nancy called. “Tell Linda to be careful, too.”
“It’s better than riding in the back of a car that smells like—”
“Okay, Reggie, we heard you,” Elliott said, rolling his eyes at his friend. He figured Reggie was just jealous that Elliott had gotten some and he hadn’t.
“Be careful going back to the point, too,” Nancy insisted. “You just don’t know what people will do.”
“You seem awfully concerned about his welfare,” Elliott mused, sitting down behind the wheel.
Nancy’s shoulders shifted up and down. “I’m not. I just…” her eyes flickered back to the woods. “I just don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
“See you on Monday,” Elliott called to Reggie and closed the door. Reggie waved and took off running back toward Lawson’s Point. He was fast as lightning, one of the reasons he made such a good cornerback, and Elliott figured he’d be back with their friends by the time he got the car turned around and moseyed on back down the gravel road, careful to protect the sage green paint on his baby.
They waved in the general direction of their friends as they passed by, Reggie included, and then headed back into town. Nancy was strangely quiet, and Elliott wasn’t sure if it was what had happened between them in the back seat that had her so reflective or if it was what they’d spied in the woods. But she had a firm grasp on his hand, and he felt that their lovemaking had certainly brought them closer together. In fact, he started to think he might need to be saving up for a ring.
Nancy’s house was on the other edge of town, so he had to drive all the way through Norman to reach it before heading back out to the farm, but he didn’t mind. She wasn’t even going to be late for her curfew. Boy, had he gotten lucky with Nancy Farr—both figurative and literally. Not only was she willing to put out, she sure was a sweet girl.
He pulled the Monterrey to a stop in front of Nancy’s house. “Would you like for me to walk you to the door?” he asked with a smile.
“No, that’s okay,” Nancy replied, turning to face him. “I told my folks Linda’s brother was bringing me home. They don’t know about you yet. But I’ll tell ’em soon.”
“Okay.” It seemed like a decent explanation to him. “Well, in that case, guess I’ll see you at Monday on school. I mean, on Monday at school.”
“What’s the matter, Elliott? Do I leave you tongue tied?”
He laughed, her eyes intoxicating as she leaned in closer to him. “I guess you could say that.”
Nancy giggled and then pressed her mouth against his, forcing him to part his lips as her tongue tied his every which way possible. After a long moment, she pulled away. “See you, handsome.”
“Bye, doll.”
She slipped out of the car and headed up the sidewalk, straightening her dress as she went, and Elliott watched to make sure she got safely inside before shifting into drive and heading on back across town.
Images of what he’d seen in the forest threatened to invade his mind, but he pushed them away. Finally, he’d gotten some! Now, it would no longer be necessary for him to make up stories about the girl at church or the country girl down the lane, although those were still good stories to hang on to, should anyone ask about his early experiences. Being with Nancy was different than he had imagined, but it was still great, and he couldn’t wait to see her again. So what if Cliff had had her first? He was having her now.
Elliott drew close to the road that led out of town to the farm when he noticed lights in his rearview mirror. He pulled over and sucked in a deep breath. Whatever had happened, the cops were headed there in a hurry. Common sense told him to drive home, but instinct told him to follow the police car, so he did. Something wasn’t right. He could feel it in his gut.
About a half mile down the road, he saw an ambulance coming up quickly behind him, so he pulled off again. This time, when he pulled back onto the road, he hit the gas pedal, sure something was wrong. Maybe he was just uneasy about what he’d seen in the woods, but he had a feeling that whatever this was, it was bad.
