Chapter 145
Back downstairs, Elliott was happy to see that Frank had taken a seat in his recliner. He looked paler than he remembered from the last time he’d visited, which had been a few weeks ago. “How you doin’, Dad?” he asked. “Feelin’ any better?”
Frank managed a smile. “I’m doing okay.”
Peggy had a worried look on her face, and Elliott attributed it to her husband’s failing health, as well as Jimmy’s changing disposition. “Doc have any idea what it might be?”
“Well, for now, they say he has a pneumonia in his right lung, but they think it might be more than that. They’re running a few more tests.” Peggy chewed on her thumbnail, a habit Elliott couldn’t remember ever having noticed before.
“Could be cancer, son,” Frank said, matter-of-factly. “Doc said it might be the cigarettes.”
“Cigarettes?” Elliott couldn’t believe that would be the cause. “Really? You give ’em up yet then?”
“Working on it,” Frank said with a smile that said he wasn’t quite there yet. “Anyhow, don’t worry about me. You’ve got plenty of other people to worry about.”
The truth of the matter had Elliott shaking his head. “What about the farm? You hired people to do all of that?” He had heard Peggy mention something about that not too long ago.
“Yeah, it’s taken care of. So, what did your brother say?” Peggy dismissed his question as quickly as possible to get to what she really wanted to know.
Elliott considered the promise he’d made to his brother and took a deep breath, attempting to figure out how to best answer that question. “Well, I sort of told him I wouldn’t tell you what’s bothering him, but I think he’ll work it out.”
“Are you serious?” Peggy asked, her mouth hanging agape for a moment before she added, “How am I supposed to help him if I don’t know what it is?”
“Maybe he doesn’t want or need your help,” Frank offered, his tone sympathetic but honest. Peggy looked at him incredulously.
“I really don’t think he does—not with this particular problem.” Elliott thought back to what Jimmy had told him about the strange man in the forest and his own experiences. He ran a hand through his hair and quietly said, “But on a related note—there’s something I want to ask you about.”
That got his mother’s attention. She was a smart woman and understood what he was getting at. If he could find a way to tell her what Jimmy was upset about without ratting his little brother out, then he would do it. “What is it?”
“Well,” Elliott began, not really wanting to think back to the night Reggie had died and Nancy had gotten pregnant but realizing he would have to, at least to a degree. “You’ve lived here a while right?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Peggy shrugged. “Long enough. Why?”
“I’ve lived here my whole life,” Frank reminded him, and Elliott nodded at him.
“Well, I was wondering, have you ever heard any stories about the woods out around Lawson’s Point? Or anywhere else for that matter?” The place where Jimmy reported seeing something was a few miles from the legendary lovers’ spot, but Settler’s Creek joined the two.
Peggy and Frank exchanged glances before he asked, “Why don’t you explain why you’re asking?”
With another deep breath, Elliott said, “One night, when I was out there, I thought I saw someone—something—maybe a few of them, in the woods. I wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but it was weird looking. Pale skin, dark eyes, with red around them. Anyway, I’m not the only person who’s seen something like this, and I was just wondering if maybe there’s a story to go along with it. Or, hell, maybe I’m looney tunes.” He decided to keep the story about the bus driver up his sleeve for now and waited patiently to be told they’d be calling the people with the white jackets to drive him away.
The looks shared between the couple told him there was something they weren’t saying, though, and he questioned whether they knew more. He wondered if they would tell him the Lawson bunch were a group of weirdos, or there was an old lunatic asylum up in the forest. He didn’t expect what they actually ended up telling him.
Frank spoke first. “It’s time, Peggy.”
“Frank—” she said harshly.
“Peggy, you promised you would. He’s old enough.”
“But now’s not the time, not with the baby, and everything else.”
“Peggy, you may as well do it now that he’s asking before someone else does it for you.”
Elliott listened to the conversation with his forehead crinkled, wondering what in the world they were talking about and thinking maybe they also needed psychiatric evaluations. But he was patient, and when they were finished, Peggy finally turned back to face him. “Elliott, there are some things in this world not everyone needs to know about. Only certain people have the capacity to change them, so only certain people are granted the burden of knowing.”
“Some might call it a privilege,” Frank chimed in with a small smile on his face, drawing Peggy’s stare momentarily.
She cleared her throat and began again as Elliott waited for further explanation. “I do know what it is that you saw, and if I had any idea you were going out there, I would have told you not to years ago. I didn’t realize the kids were hanging out in that neck of the woods. I sure hope you aren’t saying that Jimmy’s been out there, too.”
“No, he hasn’t. But he has been down by the Miller place, by the railroad tracks.”
Peggy’s eyes enlarged to the size of saucers. “That’s close by.”
Elliott nodded, realizing she caught his drift.
“All the more reason to tell them,” Frank said, emphasizing the “them.”
Peggy turned to face him. “You can’t be serious. Jimmy is only thirteen. He has four more years.”
“Yes, but if you tell him now, he’ll be more careful. Peggy, if they were that close by, there’s a chance…. He’s not safe. Elliott can protect himself now, most likely, but Jimmy….”
Peggy didn’t seem to want to accept whatever it was Frank was getting at, but with an exhale loud enough to have been the product of a car’s exhaust system, she stood and went over to the stairs. “Jimmy, will you come down here, please?”
It took a moment, as if Jimmy were engaged in something really important, and Elliott turned to look over his shoulder at the stairs as Jimmy came down them, dragging his feet. He gave his older brother the stink eye.
“I didn’t tell her anything about what we talked about, I promise,” Elliott said, looking him in the eyes. Jimmy’s expression softened, and he took a seat next to his brother on the couch while Peggy resumed her position on a smaller sofa she’d purchased a few years aback, adjacent to them.
“Boys, there’s something that you should know. I’m not particularly skilled at explaining this information, so I’ll do my best, and if you’re still confused or you have questions, there are others who might be able to explain it better than me.”
Elliott and Jimmy looked at each other and then back to Peggy.
“What you saw in the woods, Elliott,” she emphasized, letting Jimmy know she had no idea he had also seen it, even though that was a sure fire way to let him know she really did have that information, “was a… Vampire.”
