The Forgotten Eden (38 page)

“
What’s up now, Grandpa?’ I asked.

“
I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Maybe it’s just paranoia or perhaps the fact I haven’t slept well these past few nights. I keep feeling like someone’s listening to us over here by the windows. It’s not necessarily a bad feeling, and I’ve checked three times now and there’s nothing going on outside that I can see.’

“
He closed the blinds again, shaking his head as he returned to his chair.

“‘
I almost got one of these for you, Jack,’ he said, pointing to his bottle, ‘but I still think you should wait a couple of years before indulging in this stuff. Hell, Jeremy had to wait until he was nearly sixteen before I agreed to let him have a sip.’

“
He added a playful wink.

“‘
That’s okay,’ I said, thinking to myself how little he knew about my older brother’s exploits over the past five years.

“‘
Well…there weren’t any more encounters with a talisman around here, at least not for many years,’ resumed Grandpa. ‘Not until Julie was all grown up and married, and you two lads were among us. Oh, but
wait!
… There was
one
encounter I’d almost completely forgotten about until last night. Jack, you know the little girl in the village you told us about, the one called Allyson?’

“
Yeah.’

“
Your mom had a friend, her best friend, named Allyson Carter. She disappeared without a trace when your mom was a little girl. Allyson lived on the other side of the Palmer place with her mom and older brother. There used to be a house sitting in the field over there, up until maybe twenty years ago.’

“‘
I’ll bet anything it’s
the same girl, Grandpa!’ I agreed, eager to learn what he knew about her.

“‘
You told us last night that your mom’s spirit seemed partial to her,’ he said. ‘For Jeremy’s benefit, and to fill in missing information, Jack, I’ll tell you both what I remember about her disappearance.

“‘
Allyson’s mom, Mamie Carter, told Elsie and me that her daughter wasn’t acting like her normal self. This started about a week before she disappeared. She’d sit on her back porch and stare off toward the woods with a peculiar smile and faraway look on her face. Mamie told us she heard Allyson talking quite a bit with an ‘imaginary friend’, too. She overheard her little girl arguing with the pretend person, saying things like ‘No, I can’t go there. I’d get in big trouble’, or ‘My mom says there’s lots of things in the woods that’ll hurt you’.

“‘
Allyson’s disappearance devastated your mom, and the timing couldn’t have been worse since it happened just a week before Julie’s eighth birthday. We had to postpone her birthday party on account of it. Your mom would sit for hours out back on that old tire-swing, staring off toward the woods as if waiting for Allyson to return.

“‘
I’ve wondered if Julie saw anything like the golden object I found as a little boy in Allyson’s possession, because one day while she grieved I overheard her say something very strange. She said ‘I told you not to listen to them!’ When I asked her about it, she clammed up, and never told me what she meant by her words.

“‘
Julie eventually healed from her loss and made new friends. Much more interested in school from that point on, perhaps staying busy with her studies kept her mind occupied and the sadness away. I don’t know.... What I do know is she grew up to be such a wonderful young woman. She excelled in high school and was offered a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, England, as you both know. She decided to stay closer to home, attending the University of Alabama on a full-ride scholarship instead. That’s where she met Frank, from Baltimore and attending school on a football scholarship.

“‘
Now, I realize ya’ll know a lot of this stuff. So I’ll skip over as much as I can. Just let an old man tell his tale without interruption, okay?’ We nodded and he continued. ‘Shortly after graduation your folks got engaged and moved to Atlanta, where Frank enjoyed a brief career in professional football playing for the Falcons as a reserve linebacker. They decided to get married the following spring, and did so in Tuscaloosa.
Boy
, what a fun time that was! I’m sure glad Elsie and I didn’t have any other kids or we wouldn’t have had near enough money to throw her an incredible wedding like we did!’

“
Grandpa laughed again, but then sighed deeply.

“‘
Your parents soon got their masters degrees at Georgia Tech in Atlanta,’ he said. ‘Frank’s was in journalism and Julie’s in bioengineering. You were already a toddler by then, Jeremy, born four months after your folks got married. We had no idea your mom was pregnant until she was in her sixth month. Elsie thought for sure you’d be a sickly child. She sure was wrong about that, as you’ve grown up to be a strong and healthy young man.’

“
Jeremy smiled smugly, nodding his head slightly to confirm this assessment of himself. As for me, I sat almost motionless listening to Grandpa. Starving for information about my parents, I was determined to store every bit of it in my memory.

“‘
I know I’m still beating around the bush a little, but we’re about to get to the worst part for me,’ Grandpa told us, his expression much more serious. ‘It ain’t easy, but I’ll get through it as best I can.’

“‘
That’s all right,’ I said gently, glancing at my brother. ‘You just tell us when you’re ready.’

“‘
Thanks, son,’ he said, taking a few more deep breaths. ‘You were soon on the way, Jack, and despite that, Julie managed to land a very lucrative position with a genetics-testing firm in Atlanta. They even allowed her to stay on and work flexible hours after you were born. Frank had worked his way up in the sports department for a local television news station, and had been in that position for nearly four years.

“‘
Twelve years ago this summer, your folks decided to finally spend a couple of weeks with us down here in Carlsdale. Frank hadn’t been here since before the wedding, and your mom hadn’t since she finished her schooling in Atlanta. Neither of you kids had ever been to Alabama yet.

“‘
Anyway, we finally got to see all of you on our own turf. The first week was wonderful. Jack, I know you don’t remember anything, though Jeremy, you should remember some. Definitely a great time, until your mom and dad started acting strange during their second week here. They both grew real distant from Elsie and me, and even from you boys. Your mom and grandma started snapping at each other—something I’d not seen them do since Julie lost Allyson, nearly twenty years before this....
I wish to God I’d paid closer attention!!
’

“
Grandpa lowered his head and began to sob, fighting hard to hold the tears back, shaking and gritting his teeth. He raised his head and looked at us with teary eyes that pleaded silently for understanding. Jeremy and I reached across the table, each one clasping his hands. This surprised him, I think, especially coming from my brother, and he seemed to draw strength from it.

“‘
Your mom and grandma kept on fighting,’ he said, once he regained some composure. ‘Even your dad grew hostile. Frank was always quiet, but warm and friendly when you got to know him. Now, that warmth had completely disappeared. He regarded us with suspicion no matter what we said or did.

“‘
On each of the last four days of their stay, they left you boys with us and went on picnics in the woods. Very peculiar, and gone for hours at a time. They seemed quite content with this ritual. In fact, on the day before they vanished for good, your mom and dad were gone for nearly seven hours! Their bizarre behavior had us deeply worried, and, to be honest, pretty ticked off.

“‘
I should’ve recognized the signs, but you know, I never once thought about the golden object, the ‘Season’, or any of the old stories—
not once!
Not one frigging time, ya’ll!!
I wish to God I knew why I hadn’t!!!
’

“
He sat up straight, tears streaming down his face.

“‘
The night before that fateful day, Julie and Elsie had a major blowup,’ he continued, his voice cracking. ‘I never found out what it was all about. I only remember your mom shouting ‘It’s my life, Mother, and I’ll live it
exactly as I damn well please!’ I got mad and hollered at her, and then your dad joined in and it got uglier from there.

“‘
Everyone went to bed upset that night, and your grandma and I tossed around and didn’t sleep at all…. Early the next morning, your folks were going out the back gate with their fully packed picnic basket again, and this time they had you boys with them. A horrible feeling came over me, so I grabbed Elsie and we stopped Julie and Frank just before they made it through the gate with either of you. They allowed you to stay with us, and both were quite pleasant for a change.

“
After they left, I thought about Julie’s strange smile. Faint, with her eyes absent of their usual glow. I suddenly remembered Mamie’s description of Alyson’s strange expression long ago. By then they were deep in the woods. I should’ve tried to cut them off along the road we took earlier today, but like everything else, that option never occurred to me.

“‘
I needed to pick up a few things from town, and decided to take you, Jeremy, along with me. I told Elsie we’d be back in an hour or so. A beautiful sunny day when I left the house, without a cloud in the sky, it took me roughly an hour and a half to get everything I needed. On the way home, I noticed a bad storm blowing in from the west. So, I stepped on the gas in order to get us here before it hit. I ran inside, thinking Elsie and you, Jack, would be protected from the weather. But neither of you were in the house. I panicked and told Jeremy to stay put until I returned.

“‘
It’d just started raining hard when I ran out onto the back porch. I didn’t see anything or anyone right away, so I ran down the porch steps and on over to the oak tree. The first thing I noticed from there was the sphere sitting in front of the back gate. Taken by surprise at the strangeness and enormity of the thing, I could only stop and stare stupidly at it. I finally noticed Elsie holding you, Jack, on her knees near the thing. Several bright flashes of lightning struck the ground between the oak and the sphere. I whispered a prayer and ran over to where you and your grandma sat huddled together.

“‘
I tried to get her to come out of the rain, but she wouldn’t budge,’ said Grandpa, regaining some steadiness to his voice. ‘She wouldn’t tell me what’d happened, either. She just kept muttering about the ‘angels and the sphere’, and some other mostly incoherent stuff like ‘they’re gone’ and ‘protect the baby—keep Jack safe’. She said this last phrase over and over.

“‘
I ran back inside the house and got a thick blanket. Struggling against the rain and a pretty fierce wind, I wrapped her in the blanket and took you, Jack, into my arms. I then hurriedly brought you both inside the house.’

“
Grandpa grew silent again and looked toward the living room, where the light from the full moon poured in through the front windows. He shook his head slowly and turned back to our expectant faces. He tried to smile, yet the sadness in his eyes spoke volumes, his grief so profound.

“‘
Elsie never recovered,’ he said softly, his voice straining just above a whisper. ‘She might’ve been able to, but they wouldn’t let her.
They just wouldn’t do it!!!
’

“
He dug his finger tips into the dining room table, nearly pushing the embroidered lace of the table cloth into the thick mahogany. He grimaced painfully while fighting the torrent of emotions threatening to overtake him. Once the tempest subsided, he realized we were staring helplessly at him, unable to disguise our worry. Until then, he’d been the role model of peace and self-control for as long as either of us could remember.

“
Jeremy was the only one willing to push him further into his pain.

“‘
What do you mean by ‘they wouldn’t let her’?’ he asked, trying to broach the subject as gently as his blunt nature would allow. ‘Who are
they?
’

“
Grandpa regarded him suspiciously, perhaps deciding if his query was noble or not.

“‘
They
are the ones who slowly drove your grandma down into the ground, twisting the disappearance of our most prized possession in the world, your mom, like a dagger through her broken heart and soul,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t enough that we’d never see Julie, or Frank, ever again. Almost immediately, other problems began to complicate what was already a nightmare—problems far bigger than we could’ve ever imagined at the time.

“‘
That very day, I called Carl and some other close friends of mine to form a search party and head out into the woods. We waited first to see if your folks came back. But when they still hadn’t returned by late afternoon, my buddies and I set out after them. We searched everywhere, including the old fort and hot spring.

“‘
By then, some of us got to thinking about the local legends concerning the ‘Season’ and all. We even extended our search to the burial mounds and beyond, up to a mile in every direction. The place seemed especially eerie in the fading twilight, I recall…. We didn’t find a single trace of them, even with help from a small team of bloodhounds. We finally had to turn back and go home, where Carl and I contacted the state authorities. That’s when our problems got a lot worse.