The Dragon Tree (4 page)

             
Billy’s toe caught on something and he lurched forward. He waved his arms frantically to regain his balance. He drew a deep breath and squatted to see what he’d kicked and discovered strange black objects jutting through the rock. He was sure they weren’t rocks, but he couldn’t tell what they were if
not
rocks. They were shaped like inverted ice cream cones and hard to the touch. But textured. Such a strange texture. Were these the branches he saw from the cliff?

             
And then he saw it. Just beyond the edge of the shelf. More of the strange black protrusions but much longer and thinner. From a few feet away, they did look like branches. He crept toward them, now watching his step as he advanced. And when he reached the edge he peered over and saw… the
camera
!

             
It was hanging on one of the black protrusions, its strap dangerously close to slipping over the tip and sending the camera down to the churning harbor.

             
“I see it! I see the camera!” yelled Billy. “Gotta climb down farther to get it though.”

             
“Forget the camera! It’s not worth it!” yelled Hiroki from above.

             
There were more handholds on the inside of the rocky curtain that shielded the view of the cliff. And unlike the cliff face, this surface was dry. Billy ignored Hiroki’s warning and leaned over open space to reach the rocky wall. He found a good grip then began the next stage of his descent.

***

              On the plateau, Eva couldn’t take the tension any longer. She threw open the door of the Buick and stomped her way toward the cliff edge. Hiroki was still leaning over the edge and peering down. When she touched his foot, he was so frightened he nearly vaulted off the cliff.

             
“Don’t do that!”

             
“You do that to me every time you come to my window!” she yelled indignantly. “Where is he?”

             
“I don’t know. Can’t see him. He was on this… this shelf thing, and then he just disappeared.” Hiroki sat up and brushed grime from the front of his shirt. “Do you think he…”

             
“No! Don’t even say it. He’s fine.” Eva was trying to convince herself more than Hiroki. “He’s probably just resting.”

             
Hiroki forced himself to nod agreement, but it was clear to both of them that he didn’t mean the nod. He was afraid they would have to drive back into town and explain to the police that no one pushed Billy off the cliff. No one murdered him in a fit of teenage rage. He climbed down the slick cliff because… because he wanted to!

             
They would go to jail for a long time. He was sure of it.

             
Eva started to shake. The sun was up now and it wasn’t cold, but she was shivering where she stood. “Billy! Answer if you can hear me! BILLY!”

             
“Okay, all right! Stop yelling at me,” hollered Billy as he climbed back over the edge of the cliff. “The two of you are like a couple of fire alarms when you start yelling. Anybody ever tell you that?”

             
Hiroki helped to pull Billy over the edge and back onto the safety of the plateau. In return, Billy handed him the camera that was dangling against his back, its strap digging into his neck.

             
“I can’t believe you got it back! Doesn’t even look broken!” Hiroki was ecstatic.

             
Billy kneaded his sore hands and shrugged. “Told you I’d get it. But forget your stupid camera… Check these out.” Billy had tucked in his t-shirt. There were several lumps down by his belt. He carefully extracted the objects causing the lumps. “It’s fruit. I think it is, anyway.”

             
Eva crept closer. “That doesn’t look like fruit to me.”

             
The objects in Billy’s hand were each about the size of a tennis ball. They were ovular and covered with coarse black fiber that looked almost like hair. At one end, the objects had a twisted spike that glistened like it was oiled.

             
“That’s how it was attached to the branches. That spiky thing. It’s like a stem,” He handed one of the objects to each of them. “The tree they were on… Like nothing I ever saw before. The whole thing is as black as the fruit. It’s got no trunk, just a bunch of branches all twisted together like a braid. The branches are twisted all over each other too. And rock hard. I mean, you couldn’t snap one of those branches if you tried. The leaves were big and black, like giant moths or something. They look thin and light, but they don’t blow in the breeze. I mean, not at all. Super weird.”

             
Hiroki studied the object in his hand with one eyebrow raised suspiciously. “There’s no way this thing is a piece of fruit, and there’s no way there’s a tree growing out of bare rock.”

             
“You calling me a liar?” asked Billy. “I just risked my neck to save your stupid toy and you’re calling me a liar?”

             
Eva stepped between them. “No fighting. I’m serious.” She took the object from Hiroki and compared it to her own. “Maybe it’s a nut. Hard to crack open.”

             
“They’re not hard to crack open,” said Billy. “A few of them were lying on the rocks, busted open. I think you just peel all this hairy crap off of it.” He narrated as he stripped the object of its rough exterior, exposing the black flesh underneath. His fingernails easily dug into the skin of the fruit and red juice streamed out over his fingers. “I’m eating it.”

             
“You can’t eat that! It might be poison!” Eva yelled.

             
“Get serious. I’m eating it,” said Billy. And with no hesitation, he dug his teeth into the black flesh and tore off a chunk. It erupted in his teeth, more of the red liquid squirting out and running all over his hand and his chin.

             
“Oh my god. That looks like blood,” said Hiroki, his stomach gone suddenly queasy. “How does it taste?”

             
“Worst thing I ever tasted in my life! A cross between a rotten egg and an old penny.” Billy coughed and tossed the piece of fruit over the edge of the cliff. He furiously wiped the juice off of his chin, but it left a light red stain on his skin. With a big grin he turned to Hiroki. “I’d rather lick your toes than eat another bite.”

             
Eva couldn’t help but laugh. Hiroki looked up at her, horrified, and she apologized with a glance. “Can we get out of here now?
Please
?”

             
Hiroki nodded. “Let’s go.”

             
As they walked toward Hiroki’s car, Billy was still wiping his chin. “The tree… it was upside-down. Growing right out of the bottom of that big rock shelf.”

             
“What kind of tree grows upside-down?” asked Eva, a bit awed.

             
“No kind,” spat Hiroki. “He’s making it all up.”

             
“Yeah? I brought back the fruit to prove I saw what I saw, but you still think I’m making it up?” Billy slid into the back seat of the Buick with a self-satisfied smile. “Well check your precious camera, smart guy. I took
pictures
.”

CHAPTER FOUR

             
Billy’s stomach was gurgling something fierce. While his father watched the football game in the next room, he raided the fridge.

             
There was half a roast chicken left over from a few days ago. He thought about nuking it but couldn’t wait that long. Before he realized it, he had already downed every last bite, licked the grease off the bones and stuck his head back in the fridge. There was nothing left but a loaf of store-bought white bread. It had gone stale from neglect, but Billy was so ravenous he tore open the bag and attacked the loaf like it was hot from the oven. He was halfway through the loaf when he remembered all the condiments in the fridge door. The bread tasted amazing to Billy even without the added flavor, but dumping ketchup and mustard on slice after slice helped fill him up faster.

             
Except it didn’t fill him up. Not by a long shot. He raided the cabinets next.

             
There were two half-full boxes of cereal but no milk. He scarfed down the dry cereal and started opening tin cans. He started with chili, but spooned out every bite so fast he was onto beans in a matter of minutes. From beans he moved on to vegetables – never a favorite – and didn’t bother with a spoon. He upended a can of green beans, two cans of peas and a can of cooked spinach like he was guzzling a can of his father’s beer.

             
Vegetables never tasted so good.

             
“What are you doing in there?” hollered William from the front room.

             
Billy finally stopped eating long enough to look at the mess he’d made. The kitchen’s small counters were littered with torn plastic packaging, cardboard boxes and empty tins. Had he really eaten all of it? He
had
, and he wasn’t done yet.

             
“Nothing, pops. What do you need?”

             
“I need you to stop stomping around the kitchen like an elephant,” William hollered with beer-fueled volume. “I need you to go to bed.”

             
Billy rolled his eyes then returned to the cabinets. He hauled out a few tins of tuna fish and a box of stale crackers. Nothing else left. He spun around to the fridge and raided the door’s condiments once again. His arms loaded with salad dressing and other items, Billy headed back to his room.

              He had run out of food an hour ago. Amazingly, he was still hungry. He spent almost three hours just pacing from one end of the room to the other.

             
It’s almost morning, you savage. You can eat in the morning.

             
He caught sight of his hands. His skin had… changed. The color of his skin hadn’t changed at all, but the faint lines on his palm had turned much heavier. And there were more lines than he’d ever noticed before. Some were like deep grooves. Others were more superficial. But all of the lines were in a pattern he’d never seen on human skin. They crisscrossed, making his flesh look bumpy. Almost like the skin of an orange. No, that wasn’t quite right.

             
Like lizard skin.

             
The pattern extended to the back of his hands and up past his wrist. He pushed up his sleeves and saw the scaly flesh extending nearly to his elbow. And moving higher. Moving up his arm. New scales were appearing adjacent to the old scales, like a rash spreading across every inch of his body. He pulled up his pant leg and saw the same pattern there as well!

             
What is happening to me?

             
His bumpy skin was itchy. He scratched the scales with his fingernails, but his skin was hard to the touch now and his nails didn’t even leave a mark. His nails had changed as well. They looked thicker than they should have been. And where they should have been rounded, each nail came to very subtle point.

             
Suddenly nauseous, Billy ran from his room and down the hall. His legs and feet were heavy, as if made of lead. He heard the floor groaning as he stumbled through the bathroom door. He fell to his knees with a surprising thud. He was too busy flinging open the toilet seat to notice the floor straining under his weight.              When he finally vomited, none of the food came up. Only a thick red fluid that looked suspiciously like blood. The sight of blood in the toilet bowl caused Billy to gasp and clutch his stomach in a panic, but then he remembered.

             
He remembered the fruit. The
juice
from the fruit.

             
He struggled to his feet and stood over the sink, leaning forward to study his face in the mirror. His irises were normally pale blue, but they had gone dark blue. And the color was darkening still. The skin on his face was taking on the same scaly appearance as his limbs. His pores were gaping, and thick black hair had begun pushing through them.

             
Disgusting!

             
He turned on the faucet and snatched up his father’s razor, desperate to scrape away the dark hair.

             
William must have sensed that Billy was touching his things. He lumbered down the narrow hall and pounded on the bathroom door. “Get out of the bathroom! If you’re gonna wake me early with all that stomping and groaning, at least let me take a piss in my own toilet!”

             
“I’ll be out in a minute!” Billy hollered back, still trying to scrape off his new whiskers. They were stubborn little bastards. He couldn’t cut them with the razor. He could barely
bend
them.

             
“Billy, I got six cans of beer in my bladder that want out! Get out of there right now or I’m taking a leak in your closet!”

             
William was tugging on the bathroom door now. Billy frantically locked it.

             
“I’m on the toilet! Give me a minute!”

             
The bathroom didn’t have a window, but there was a tiny ventilation shaft near the ceiling. Its slats were just wide enough to let in the first morning light as dawn broke and a new day began.

             
Billy was staring at his arms when the transformation halted, then
reversed
. Before his eyes, the scales that had spread across every inch of his body began to fade. In a matter of seconds, every frightening new detail of his appearance was
gone
.

             
William finally yanked open the bathroom door. “Are you gonna let me pee or aren’t you?”

             
Billy was so relieved to look like himself again he couldn’t help but smile. He nodded eagerly and slipped past his father. He was halfway down the hall when he started laughing nervously.

             
“Hey Billy!” William yelled through the closed bathroom door. “Since you can’t go to school, you might as well work. If the foreman at the timber site okays it, I’ll call Al and tell him to pack an extra sandwich for you.”

             
“Okay pops. Thanks.”

             
He was exhausted after a night without sleep. But he was hungry too.

             
Food costs money
, he thought as he pulled on jeans and a flannel shirt.
Gotta work if you wanna eat.

             
And he did. He
did
want to eat.