“By the way, I did an internet search for ‘Gold Sunshine Resort’ while I was waiting for you to finish trading insults with your monkey.”
“He so started it.”
“I couldn’t find any news reports or anything,” she continued, “but I did find a missing persons report for an Isabelle Albin.”
Isabelle…
“Says she went missing from Gold Sunshine Resort in nineteen-seventy-eight at the age of thirteen. That’s really sad.”
“Is there a picture?”
“There is.”
“I have a picture, too.”
“You do?”
“I snapped it while we were waiting for Altrusk and his devil house to calm down so we could make a run for it.”
“There’s something you don’t hear every day.”
“It’s a day of firsts all around.”
“It is. Send me the picture. I want to see.”
Eric hung up and sent her the picture. In just a few seconds the phone rang again.
“That is just freaky!”
“Same girl?” As if he really needed to ask.
“It is. I can’t believe it. This is totally nuts.”
“That’s just the kind of day I’m having.”
“Crazy,” she said again. “I can’t believe she’s been there this whole time.”
“I know.”
“Wow.”
“Did you find anything about Isaac Altrusk?”
“I didn’t. I should look for him.”
“Isabelle said it was a fake name. He was a con artist before he became…whatever he is now.” Eric recalled Isabelle telling him that he used to be Isaac Altrusk, but now he was just Altrusk. Her words were no less creepy now than they were then.
“I’ll see if I can find anything. You keep that boat on top of the water.”
“Aye-aye, Captain.”
“Bye.”
Eric pocketed the phone and resumed his paddling. A full minute had not passed before the phone rang and he had to stop again to answer it. This time it was Paul.
“Hey. I just turned off the Interstate down here, looking for your Cruiser.”
“That was fast.”
“I finished early. I brought Kevin to drive my truck back.” Kevin was Paul’s nineteen-year-old son.
“Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.”
“Sure thing. What’s going on, anyway, where are you?”
He considered lying, but he didn’t see the point. “I’m in a leaky old boat, trying to make my way across a lake without any oars.”
“Okay…” said Paul. “That’s…um… Okay. So you’re okay, then? Doing all right?”
“Yeah. Just tiring. Hard to row with your hands.”
“Have you tried using your shoes?”
“Thought about it. But a shoe doesn’t have much more surface area than your hand, when you think about it.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Eric smiled. It was always fun tripping up his brother. Thinking of Isabelle, he asked, “So you think I’m completely bugshit yet?”
“I wouldn’t say completely. Yet.”
“What did Karen tell you?”
“Just about the dream.”
“It was more than a dream. It was all real.”
“Real, huh?”
“Yeah. Everything’s coming back to me. And then some. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve seen today. I don’t even know where to start. The mutant livestock. The wardrobe monster. The nudist resort. I was almost eaten by a goddamn house!”
“Nudist resort?”
“Really? All those things I just said and that’s what you want to hear about?”
“I’ve never been to a nudist resort,” Paul pouted.
In the background, Eric heard Kevin announce that he wanted to check out the nudist resort.
“You’d make an awful nudist,” Paul affectionately informed his son.
Eric heard Kevin point out that nobody would want to see Paul’s fat ass naked, either.
“It’s been abandoned since the seventies,” Eric said.
“Bummer.”
“You don’t believe a word I’m saying, do you?”
“I believe something’s going on,” Paul assured him.
“Right. Well then, hang up.”
“What?”
“Hang up. I’ve got something I want to send you.”
“Okay…”
Eric disconnected the call and located his picture of the ape creature. He sent it to Paul’s phone and then resumed paddling while he waited for him to call back. It didn’t take long.
“Hello?”
“What the hell is that thing?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I just barely got into this boat before it tore my face off.”
“That’s the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen!”
In the background, he heard Kevin exclaim something about the thing’s wicked-looking teeth using more expletives than strictly necessary.
“I wish I could tell you it’s the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen, but this guy’s not even close to the same level of freak as Altrusk.”
“Are you really serious? I mean, really? This isn’t some stupid practical joke?”
“Because everybody knows what a mean practical joker I am?”
“Well… No. I guess not. I just… I mean… This is weird, okay?”
“I know it’s weird. I’m the one out in the damn leaky boat without any oars!”
“Eric, this is really messed up. Maybe we should come find you.”
“No. You can’t. I don’t even know where I am right now. I could be hundreds of miles away. And it’s way too dangerous to come the way I did. There’s way worse things than that pissed-off monkey blocking the path.” Specifically, he was thinking of the resort monster waiting to devour anyone who passed through the kitchen to use the stairs to Altrusk’s yard. “Just get my car back home for me, okay? I’m going to have to go. I have to bail the water out of my boat again.”
“You’re really in a damn boat? Really?”
Eric held the phone out over the water as he splashed with his free hand. “This is the sound of me paddling a goddamn boat with my hands,” he said loudly enough for his voice to carry to the receiver. Putting the phone back to his ear, he said, “Good enough?”
“I believe you.”
“Good. Now really, I’ve got to hang up before I sink.”
“You’re going to call me back, right? Tell me what’s going on?”
“Call Karen. She’ll catch you up. She can send you some more pictures, too.”
“No shit?”
“None at all. Now I’ve got to go.”
“Okay…”
Eric hung up the phone, considered it for a moment, and then snapped a quick picture of himself giving a thumbs-up against the backdrop of the lake. He sent the picture to Paul and then pocketed the phone and began splashing water out of the bottom of the boat.
When he’d rid himself of as much lake water as he could, he sat up and looked around.
He was still a long way from the far shore. And he had no idea what might await him when he finally reached it.
As he dipped his hand into the water again, his eyes drifted back to the dock and the path that led into the forest behind it. Over the tops of the trees, he could just see one of the highest peaks of Altrusk’s house.
It still felt wrong that he was leaving Isabelle.
But he had no idea how to help her. All he could do was hope that someday he could find a way to come back for her.
It was the only thing that made it bearable.
Chapter Fifteen
Eric eventually found that by stretching out over the bow of the boat and dipping both hands into the water on either side, he was actually able to propel the craft at a more respectable speed.