NINE
He opened his eyes but still he couldn’t see anything. The pain had gone again and his head was clear, but why couldn’t he see? He was kneeling as if in prayer. He looked up and realised it was night, the only meagre light coming from a misty half-moon that seemed to glow and shimmer behind a thin veil of clouds. As his eyes adjusted he could tell from the tall pines, the smells and muted animal noises around him that he was back in the forest. He remained still for some minutes, alert to every little noise and movement around him as his sight grew steadily better. Finally, he rose to his feet and recognised the clearing, but this time he was on the side that his would-be assailant had entered from. In the half-light, he could just make out the large trunk of the tree that he had hidden behind earlier. Was that today? Yesterday? Forty years ago? He just didn’t know. He stood still for a few moments more, ensuring that he was alone. Except for the smallest of critters rustling in the undergrowth, he felt sure that he was on his own this time. Tentatively, Ed moved across the clearing to where he thought he last saw the man in the checked shirt. Sure enough, there was some disturbed ground that was raised a little from the surrounding area but the mossy overgrowth had been replaced on top of the mound. He had no shovel or any tools to start digging around, but he didn’t need to. Ed knew exactly who was buried in the moist soil. He knelt and placed his left palm on the mound. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you Gracie”, he said in a whisper, “but I promise I will find out who did this to you, and I promise I will get you home”. In the far distance he heard the long mournful wail of a large truck horn on the freeway. An owl perched high up on a branch seemed to reply with a long hoot. He stood and turned toward where he thought the freeway was, the same direction the other man had come from, and headed away from the freshly dug grave.
The going was tough, almost virgin territory, with no tracks that he could see, the pines were so close together at times he had to go around what seemed to him to be an impenetrable fortification and try and get back in the direction he figured he should be going but the thick overhead boughs cut out almost all of the moonlight so he had to feel his way through. Low branches grabbed at his hair and tore at his face and arms while the stumps and roots tried to unsteady him. After a few hundred yards of battling through the trees he came upon a small stream that looked to be no more than a foot deep in places but just too wide to jump. He turned left and followed the stream as it meandered down through the forest until he found a large stone reflected brightly by the moonlight. The shiny stone, rubbed smooth by years of running water, sat near the centre of the stream, making a perfect stepping stone across to the other side. The low banks were six feet apart here but the stone would help. He backed up a few feet into the tree line then ran for the water’s edge, his long legs pumping hard. With a grunt of energy, he leapt forward into the night. The stone rocked precariously as he touched down but Ed was only on it momentarily then off again, with another long leap he was safe on the other side. The forest seemed less dense on this side of the stream and he continued to move towards the direction he thought the road would be. After ten minutes he picked up the smallest of tracks that appeared to be going in the direction that he wanted to go. It meandered steadily down through the foothills until he could now clearly hear the sound of the occasional vehicle speeding along the highway. The track got wider but became steeper. Finally, he came around a left turn in the track and could make out lights in the distance. Leaving the dirt path he pushed through the trees to get a better look. He came out of the trees and almost fell as he came out at the top of a sheer drop. He leant forward and looked down but he couldn’t see the bottom, but looking into the distance, the lights of a town, Ludlow he assumed, twinkled softly in the night. They were still a good few miles away and steeply down from his position so he could see over the area. He looked left then right to see which would be the best way to descend from the hills. He decided to carry on in the direction he had been going but as he turned back towards the track, he felt the soft earth under his feet start to give way. He reached out instinctively, for a branch, anything to hold on to. His left hand grasped a piece of ivy hanging down from a tree; he quickly brought his right hand up and desperately hung on. Ed breathed a large sigh of relief then tentatively started pulling himself back up towards firmer ground. He could see a more substantial branch just to his right, he reached over to grab it but as his palm brushed against the fir fronds the ivy suddenly snapped and he fell away from the trees into the inky blackness of the drop, arms flailing madly and a scream on his lips.
TEN
“Noooooo!” He woke up with a start to see bright white light in front of his eyes. He immediately flinched as he presumed the searing pain would follow. Instead, he heard the anxious but soothing sound of Linda’s voice. She bent over him and looked into his eyes, concern wrinkling her brow. He realised that he was lying on the floor of the library looking up into the white lights in the ceiling.
“Mr Saunders, are you okay? Ed, can you hear me? Ed? She helped him sit up and lean against the wall by the doors.
“I’m fine, I think. Did you get me in here? What happened?”
She knelt as best she could opposite him and felt his forehead for a temperature.
“I heard a loud thump on the door and just as I was coming over to see what it was, you fell through. I think you must have collapsed against it and pushed it open. You’ve been out for a couple of minutes. I was just about to call 911 when you started to shout and wave. It was like you were having a nightmare. Do you want me to call an ambulance? Goodness, I was so worried; I didn’t know what to do”.
“No, I really am okay now. I think I must be getting used to these things, and yes, it is a nightmare”.
Linda looked surprised. “You mean this has happened to you before? Did you have a seizure? Is it epilepsy?”
“Yes, I mean no, I mean…” he replied meekly, “What I mean is yes, it has happened before but I’m not epileptic, it’s only since I got into town it started, but this is the third time now.”
“I think you should go see a doctor and get checked out, you were completely gone! And how did you get all those scratches on your face and arms, what happened to you?”
He looked down at his forearms at the dozens of fresh small scratches then slowly looked back at Linda. “You wouldn’t have any coffee here would you?”
She helped him to his feet, not that he needed it but it felt good when she put her arm around his waist. Once again he could smell her fruity perfume. They walked to the rear of the library to a room marked ‘STAFF ONLY’.
He sat down heavily in an old armchair while Linda poured a mug of steaming coffee from a percolator on the other side of the small room. He looked around at what he presumed used to be a storeroom and still held some odd boxes among the four miss-matched chairs and a couple of tables.