Nathaniel (22 page)

Janet swallowed, determined to control her temper. “Amos has been very good to me, Mr. Findley—”

“Has he, now,” Findley growled. “Well, it’s none of my business. All I want to tell you is to stay away from here, Mrs. Hall. Stay away from here, and keep that brat of yours away, too.”

“Is that a threat, Mr. Findley?” Janet demanded, her voice icy.

“If you want to call it that.”

“I do, Mr. Findley. And I can assure you that Michael will not be trespassing on your property. But in the event that he does, I will expect you to confine yourself to sending him home.”

“I’ll do what I have to do,” Findley replied, his voice grim. “I don’t like people around this place, and I particularly don’t like kids. So you keep your brat to home, and everything will be fine. Is that clear enough for you?”

“Entirely,” Janet snapped, boiling with fury at the old man. “I’m sorry to have bothered you. I can assure you it won’t happen again.”

“I’ll count on it,” Findley said. The door closed in Janet’s face.

Seething with anger, Janet turned away once more, and began walking down Findley’s driveway. If he didn’t want his fence climbed, then so be it! She would damned well walk all the way down his driveway and along the road, to her own house. Her back held ramrod straight, she marched along, feeling his malevolent eyes boring into her every step of the way. Only when she had reached the road did she pause and turn back to glare once more at the rundown shack the old man was so possessive about. And then, allowing herself the luxury of venting her rage in what she knew was a thoroughly childish way, she raised the middle finger of her right hand in a mock salute.

It was nearly eleven before they decided that the house was finally theirs. Their clothes hung in the closets, what little furniture there was had been placed to Janet’s satisfaction, and the kitchenware had been stored away in a manner that, though she insisted it was only temporary, Janet knew would probably never be changed. Their beds, made up with the first bedding that had come to light, awaited them upstairs.

Now the two of them sat at the kitchen table sipping the cocoa Janet had made, while Shadow sprawled contentedly on the floor. “Well, what do you two think?” Janet asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen over them. “Did we do the right thing?”

Shadow’s tail thumped appreciatively against the floor, but Michael only glanced up at his mother, then away, his serious eyes roving restlessly over the kitchen. “I guess so,” he said at last, but his voice betrayed his uncertainty.

“You don’t sound very sure. Is something wrong?”

Michael opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it abruptly. Puzzled, Janet repeated her question. “Is something wrong?”

Michael fidgeted in his chair, suddenly interested in the gummy layer that was forming on the surface of his untouched cocoa. He touched it with his spoon, watching it wrinkle, then reached down and carefully picked it up with his thumb and forefinger. “Ryan’s mad at me,” he mumbled at last.

Nonplussed, Janet stared at her son for a moment. “Mad at you? But why?” Suddenly she frowned, as she realized that it had been a while since she had seen Michael with his cousin. On the occasions Janet had been to visit Laura, still weak and bedridden from the stillbirth, Michael had not accompanied her, and she had chosen not to press the point. Now though, her anxiety was aroused. “Did you two have a fight?” she asked.

Michael shrugged. “I—I don’t know,” he mumbled. Then he looked up at her. “Is it okay if I go to bed now?” Without waiting for a reply, he scurried out of the kitchen, and she heard him hurtling up the stairs to his room. A moment later, Shadow followed his master.

Janet finished her cocoa, then slowly cleaned up the kitchen. At last she wandered through the downstairs rooms of the little house, locking up, and eyeing the mass of boxes that still waited to be unpacked. Finally turning out the lights, she went upstairs, but paused uncertainly outside the closed door to Michael’s room. Though no light showed through the crack at the bottom of the door, neither did she hear the regular sound of her son’s breath as he slept. She waited a moment, listening carefully, then tapped softly at the door. When there was no answer, she opened the door and peeped in. Michael, still fully dressed, sat on the floor beside the dormer window, staring out into the night. Shadow lay beside him, his big head cradled in the boy’s lap.

“May I come in?”

There was no answer, so Janet stepped into the little room, closing the door behind her. She crossed the tiny alcove and joined her son on the floor. She let her eyes follow his and, in the distance, saw the dark outline of Findley’s barn silhouetted against the star-filled sky.

She frowned, remembering her conversation with Ben Findley that afternoon, then decided the view had nothing to do with the crotchety old man. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“I like it,” Michael replied in a neutral voice.

“Would you like to tell me what happened between you and Ryan?”

“He didn’t believe me,” Michael said. “He said I was crazy.”

Janet’s frown deepened. “Didn’t believe you about what?”

Michael turned, his eyes searching his mother’s face in the gloom. “I saw something that night,” he said, and Janet knew instantly the night he was referring to.

“You mean something besides the car that almost ran over you?”

Michael nodded.

“I see,” Janet said. “Would you like to tell me what you saw?”

Michael shrugged. “You won’t believe me either. It sounds crazy.”

“Try me,” Janet offered, gently stroking Michael’s hair.

“Never tell them the truth.”

The words resounded through Michael’s mind, and though he tried to ignore them, he couldn’t. He wanted to tell his mother what he remembered, but he
couldn’t
. Twice, he opened his mouth to tell her about Nathaniel. Each time, he felt Shadow stiffen under his hands, and thought he heard the dog growl softly. Twice, he closed his mouth without speaking, and felt the dog relax.

Finally, an idea came to him. “I—I think I saw Abby out in the field that night.”

“Abby? You mean the ghost Grandpa told you about?”

Michael nodded uncertainly. “I—I think so. Anyway, I saw
something
out there.”

“Maybe you only imagine you saw something,” Janet suggested, but Michael shook his head.

“But I can’t remember it very well anymore.” He looked puzzled. “I can
sort
of remember what happened, and
sort
of remember what I saw, but I can’t really remember how it
felt
anymore. You know what I mean?”

“Of course,” Janet told him. “It’s like a dream. You can remember every detail when you first wake up, but then, a minute later, it’s gone, and all you can remember was whether it was a nice dream or a bad dream. Is that how it is?”

Michael nodded. “And I had a headache that night. But when I saw—” He hesitated as Shadow tensed, then: “When I saw her, it went away.” Shadow’s body relaxed. “Ryan thinks I’m crazy.” He stared at her now, his large eyes frightened and appealing. “I’m not crazy, am I, Mom?”

Janet got to her feet, thinking hard. He hadn’t mentioned having a headache before. Could that be the explanation? She reached down and touched his head, stroking his hair with her fingertips. “Of course you’re not crazy. Don’t ever think that. You just thought you saw something that wasn’t there, that’s all. It was probably the headache. They can do that to you, you know. Was it bad?”

Michael hesitated, then nodded. “It was a throbbing in my temples.”

“Did you take anything for it? Did you ask Mrs. Simpson for some aspirin?”

“No. I didn’t get it ’til I was on my way back to Grandpa’s house.”

“Have you had headaches like that before?”

Again Michael hesitated before he said, “A few. But they aren’t too bad, and they don’t last very long.”

“Well, that’s good, anyway. But I think tomorrow we’ll go have a talk with Dr. Potter. Maybe you’re just allergic to something in the air. In the meantime, you just get a good night’s sleep tonight. All right?”

Michael stood up and switched on the light that hung suspended from the center of the ceiling. The glare from the naked bulb filled the room with a harsh light that made Janet squint, but as her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she studied Michael’s face. For a moment, his eyes met hers, then drifted away, back to the window.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” he said quietly. “You don’t think I saw anything.”

Now it was Janet who hesitated, and when she spoke, she chose her words carefully. “I believe you
think
you saw something, and that’s what counts.”

Then, in an instant, a searing pain slashed through Michael’s head, and his eyes, frightened only a second earlier, suddenly turned furious. “I saw him,” he shouted, his face twisting into a visage of anger. “I saw him, and I talked to him, and he’s my friend. I don’t give a fuck what anybody says.”

Without thinking, Janet stepped forward and slapped her son across the face. “Michael! Don’t you ever speak to me that way!” From the corner of her eye, Janet saw Shadow’s hackles suddenly rise and felt a sudden pang of fear. What would she do if the dog decided to defend his master?

But as quickly as it had come, Michael’s fury was gone, and as he calmed down, so also did the dog. Dazed, Michael stared at his mother, his left hand massaging his stinging cheek. “What did you do that for?” he asked. “Why’d you hit me?”

“You know why,” Janet replied, her voice coldly controlled. “Now go to bed and go to sleep, and we’ll forget all about this. But it won’t happen again. Is that clear?” Without waiting for a reply, she turned and left Michael alone in his room, pulling the door shut behind her.

Michael, his cheek still stinging from the slap, undressed and then turned off the light. But instead of getting into bed, he went back to the window, staring out into the night, trying to figure out what had happened.

She’d said she believed him, and then she’d slapped him and told him not to talk that way again.

But he hadn’t said anything. There’d just been a sudden pain in his head, and then the slap.

Still not sure what had happened, Michael crept into his bed. When Shadow climbed up to join him a moment later, Michael slipped his arms around the big dog, hugging him close.…

Him
. I saw
him
. I talked to
him
.

The words echoed through Janet’s mind as she tried to fall asleep, and as she recalled the words, she pictured his face. Her son’s clear features had been distorted with rage, his eyes glazed with a fury she’d never seen before.

What had he been talking about? It was Abby he’d insisted he’d seen that night. So who was
he?

She turned over and closed her eyes, determined to sleep. And yet, sleep would not come.

It was the house, she decided. The strangeness of it, and the emptiness—that was all; that, and her loneliness.

At last, unable to sleep, Janet left her bed and went back to Michael’s room. She found him asleep, his face peaceful, one arm flung carelessly over the edge of the bed, the other encircling Shadow’s neck. And yet, as she watched his face, she thought she saw something besides peace.

She thought she saw the same loneliness in Michael’s face that she herself was feeling.

Gently easing Shadow aside, Janet crept into the narrow bed and gathered Michael into her arms. And then, with her son’s head cradled against her breast, she at last drifted off to sleep.

Charles Potter emerged from his office, wiping his hands on a kitchen towel. He smiled at Janet and Michael Hall, who sat side by side on the sofa in the bay window. “My goodness—the whole family today? We’re not having some kind of epidemic, are we? Nobody ever tells me anything around here.” Then his eyes came to rest on Janet, and his smile faded into an expression of concern. “It’s not you, is it?”

“No, no. I’m fine,” Janet assured him. “I haven’t even had any morning sickness since Monday. It’s Michael. He’s been complaining of headaches, and I thought you might have a look at him. I—well, I was thinking of allergies, or something.”

Potter sniffed disdainfully. “I don’t believe in allergies. It’s what incompetent doctors diagnose when they can’t find out what’s really wrong. An allergy is simply an imbalance in the system, and there are remedies for that. Trace elements, we call ’em. Ever hear of homeopathy?”

Janet shook her head.

“Figured you hadn’t. Best kept nonsecret in medicine. It’s too cheap, and too easy. No money in homeopathy, which is why I’m so poor, I suppose. Well, come on in.” Janet stood up and, with Michael trailing her, followed Potter into his examining room.

“What kind of headaches are these, son?” Potter asked when Michael had stripped off his shirt and perched himself on the edge of the examining table. Janet leaned against Potter’s desk.

“I don’t know. Kind of like a throbbing, I guess.”

Potter frowned. “Where? In the front? The back? All over? Just the temples?”

“The temples mostly, I guess. I don’t know.”

“Well, let’s take a look at a couple of things.” He wrapped the sleeve of a sphygmomanometer around Michael’s upper arm. A moment later he began pumping air into the sleeve, his eyes on the pressure gauge, his stethoscope plugged into his ears. Finally he nodded, grinning. “Guess what? You’re not dead.”

“Is his blood pressure normal?” Janet asked.

Potter shrugged. “Within reason. It’s a little high, but that’s not surprising. Has he had any nosebleeds?”

Janet turned to her son. “Michael?”

“No.”

“Well, you might,” Potter told him. “If you do, it’s nothing to worry about. Just apply a cold compress, and take it easy for a while. Let’s have a look at your eyes and ears, then hit your funny bones.”

Ten minutes later, Potter finished his examination, and Michael, buttoning up his shirt, went back to the waiting room. Potter seated himself behind his desk and made a few notes, then peeled off his glasses. As he absentmindedly wiped the lenses with his fingers, only worsening their condition, he smiled at Janet, who was now sitting opposite him. “All in all, I’d say there’s nothing really wrong with him. The blood pressure’s a little high, but as I say, that doesn’t surprise me. The stress of his father’s hleath could have brought that on. And it, in turn, could exacerbate a headache. Has he ever complained of headaches before?”