“Did you know that Josh did that to my mother?” I whispered as I pulled Hap to the corner of the kitchen to speak with him in private.
“No. How do you know?”
“She told me.”
“So, she’s starting to remember,” he said as he headed out to the patio. “Kenton, my boy, I’m in the mood for a smoke. How about keeping me company?”
Kenton shot me a quizzical look, but gave Hap no argument as he followed him outside. I did my best to read Hap’s lips, but when my mother came to me to discuss our evening meal, I had no choice but to look away.
My curiosity about why Hap wanted to confer with Kenton about Josh attacking my mother was all consuming to the point that I had difficulty keeping up with the table talk over dinner. If anyone noticed, they made no mention of it.
My mood was such that I would have preferred to take off after dinner and find m
I was in the stable, tending to the horses, when Cindy finally ventured out of the safety of her room. I stood in the walkway and watched as she snuck from the house to the stable like a thief in the night.“What’s with the I spy routine?” I asked as I went back to mucking out Peter’s stall.She grabbed a pitch fork and began cleaning Daisy’s stall. “I was worried that Hap was still here.”“He left around eight,” I said. I dug the tines of the fork into the soft floor of the stall and asked, “What’s wrong with Hap?”She wiped at the tears as she said, “I saw him bring those girls in the night. He had them handcuffed and tied together like cattle.”“Hap?” I practically screeched with surprise.“I know,” she said. “I thought that he and my uncle hated each other. You can imagine my surprise when I saw him de
I cradled Cindy in my arms. Hap had allowed us one dim light so that we wouldn’t be completely in the dark; for which I was grateful. Unfortunately, it didn’t give me enough illumination to get a good, clear look at the damage Joe did to Cindy. To add to her misery, there was no bathroom to clean up in. Clearly, the room was not intended for housing anyone for any length of time. We’d been provided with a bucket to do our business in and a few bottles of water and a rag to clean Cindy up with.I quickly discovered just how twisted Hap was when he offered me two bottles of water and, with an evil chuckle, said that they had to last me a day so use them wisely. We literally had to choose between cleaning Cindy’s wounds and quenching our thirst. It didn’t help that the drug Hap gave Cindy left her with an unquenchable thirst.I grew angry with my parents for not telling me that I had magical blood inside of me. H
I was approaching my sixteenth birthday when my father, Walter Cramby, walked out on my mother, Maryanne Cramby, and our lives were forever changed. My brother, Josh, was at the end of his thirteenth year.To add to my mother’s woes, she was laid off not long after that from her job as a fifth-grade school teacher in the suburbs of Detroit. “Cut backs,” they said.Fortunately, my mother was in possession of a recent, sizable inheritance from her grandmother who managed to survive her husband. My grandparents were killed in a car accident when mom was in her teens. My great grandmother finished raising her. She was a spry old woman who we thought would never die. In fact, we wondered if she might outlive us all. Because of that inheritance, we weren’t destitute while she searched for work.Unfortunately, it took mom a while to get her act together to even look for employment. She spent
It turned out that the forest bordering our land was an animal reserve. Therefore, hunting wasn’t allowed; which made me feel mighty safe on horseback. They did, however, allow fishing in the large river that was located on the south end of the eighteen-hundred acres.I discovered hiking trails that were suitable for my horse and me to explore. There were even occasional markings to indicate what part of the reserve we were in. It was because of these markings, and my fear of getting lost being eliminated by those markings, that I ventured to the opposite side of the forest.There was a large farm in a high valley on the northeast edge of the state land. It looked to be in good repair, but, whenever I rode that way, I saw no signs of life. Of course, I didn’t go onto the property. I stayed on the edge of the tree line and looked down at it.The house was a typical two-story farmhouse. I’m not an expert on architect
My sleep that night was riddled with unsettling dreams. I’d wake up from one and, when I finally managed to get back to sleep, dive into another. The dreams were both different and the same. They were different in the respect that I was in various locations. The sameness was in the fact that, no matter where I was or what I was doing, I ended up in the company of a very large wolf.In the first dream, I was riding Roger through the woods at dusk when a large black wolf with dark beady eyes came at me from out of nowhere. Roger reared up and I fell; hitting my head on a rock. I remember the pounding of my heart as if it had really happened when the wolf began to lick the blood from my wounded head. Something tall came up and the wolf craned its neck to look up at it. I have no idea who or what it was because that’s when I woke up.In the next dream that I recall, I was walking through my old neighborhood in the Chicago suburbs w
I’d never attended a last-minute picnic that was so put together. There were about thirty adults in attendance, ranging from early thirties to late sixties. I tried not to look obvious as I searched the crowd for someone my age. I also did my best to hide my disappointment when I found no one.“I’m so sorry, Missy,” Lila said as she sauntered up next to me as I filled my plate with delicious smelling baked beans, barbequed ribs, potato salad, and ambrosia. “I was told that Michael Jefferson’s two boys would be here. Their cousin is visiting, and they were supposed to bring her along.”I shrugged my shoulders while trying to act nonchalant. “It’s fine. I don’t mind.” Since I was never happy when the attention was on me, I quickly changed the subject. “This food is great. How’d you manage to pull it off on such short notice?”“Truth?”
Surprisingly, I slept like a baby that night; for which I was grateful. I attributed it to the busy day and strenuous walk I took; added to an already exhausted body. Whatever the reason, I was glad.I spent the day caring for the horses and daydreaming about what it would be like to meet Kenton when I was looking my best. Upon my mother’s request, I rode in the ring instead of on the trails. I didn’t mind. Admittedly, I was a bit shaken by being so close to the tree line when the wolves howled.Think me a wimp if you want, but they don’t have wolves in Chicago and that howl was just plain scary.Mom was a little out of sorts at dinner. It wasn’t until we’d cleaned up and Josh went to his room to play on his Xbox that she asked me to sit with her on the patio. She had something disturbing to share with me that she didn’t want Josh to hear.Even if I was old enough to drink
I couldn’t sleep. My mother’s voice, insisting that we were surrounded by werewolves instead of wolves, taunted me every time I closed my eyes and started to doze. I mean… wolves I could understand. We’d moved to the country on property that bordered a nature reserve, but werewolves? Frustrated, I climbed out of bed, slipped into a lightweight robe and slippers and headed downstairs.With no close neighbors to worry about, mom rarely closed the blinds on the back door leading to the patio. The brilliance of the moon illuminated the kitchen to the point I didn’t find a need to turn on the light. Helping myself to a tall glass of milk and a few homemade peanut butter cookies, I went out onto the patio to enjoy my snack and the beautiful night sky.I must have been so lost in thought that I didn’t hear Kenton approaching. It wasn’t until he said, “Hello” that I saw