But now I’ve gone and started rambling again. I’m wearing this pencil down to a nub (I keep sharpening it with my pocketknife) and we’re not even halfway done yet. And the pain is getting worse.
Anyway, Carl and I stood there on Earl’s property, staring at that hand-lettered sign. Splotches of the white fungus I’d seen in the hollow grew on the trees along the lane. Carl reached out with his finger.
“Don’t touch that stuff,” I warned. “You don’t want to get it on your skin.”
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure, but I saw it growing on a deer this morning. Can’t imagine it’s too healthy.”
Carl shuddered. “No, I don’t reckon it is. Hope it’s not airborne.”
We turned away from the fungus and stared up at Earl’s shack.
“I still don’t think this is such a good idea,” Carl whispered.
I didn’t reply. I was thinking about that bloodstain on Dave and Nancy’s wall, and the weird slime that had covered everything.
And about missing houses and buildings swallowed up by the earth.
And about what I’d seen happen to the bird earlier in the morning.
I shivered, and it had nothing to do with the cold or dampness in the air.
We trudged through the mud towards Earl’s shack. The clearing was deathly still. Even the rain seemed to fall without sound. We were about halfway there when an explosion split the air. At first, I thought it was thunder. Then Earl Harper shouted, “Stop right there, you two, or I’ll blow your goddamn heads off!”
He emerged from the trees, dressed in combat fatigues and a floppy-brimmed rain hat and pointed a twelve-gauge shotgun at us. Smoke still drifted from the barrel. He was soaked, and I wondered how long he’d been outside.
“Howdy, Earl,” I tried. “Let’s just settle down now. We don’t mean you no harm.”
He glanced at the rifle in Carl’s shaking hands and motioned with the shotgun.
“If you don’t mean no harm, Teddy Garnett, then turn right around and head back the way you come.”
“We just wanted to see how you’re holding up,” Carl explained, carefully pointing his rifle away from Earl. “Ain’t no call to shoot at us, Earl.”
“And there ain’t no fucking call to be trespassing on my property, neither, Carl Seaton.” Earl’s eyes were wide, and his wet face seemed to shine. “You’ve seen me, and seen that I’m all right. Now get on out of here!”
“Listen now, Earl,” I said, fighting to keep my voice calm. “We’re fixing to leave in just a second. But I need to ask you something important first.”
“What?” He kept the weapon pointed at me, and his expression was suspicious.
I stared down the barrel of his gun, and felt my nuts tighten. “Have you seen or heard from Dave and Nancy Simmons within the past few days?”
“No. I ain’t seen them. Not that I’d want to anyway. Why?”
“We just stopped by their place. It looked like there might have been a struggle. I’m worried about them, and just wondered if you might have heard anything.”
His eyes narrowed and his grip tightened on the shotgun.
“You accusing me of something, Garnett?”
“Not at all. Just worried about them is all, and you’re their closest neighbor.”
“I ain’t seen nothing of them, but I’ll tell you this. Whatever happened to them will happen to you fellas too. You just wait and see.”
Carl frowned, and the rifle twitched in his hands. “What are you talking about?”
“There are things in the ground, turning under our feet, crawling through the maze beneath the earth. I hear them at night. They speak to me, and tell me things.”
I froze. Carl shot me a wary look.
“I—I think maybe I’ve seen them too,” I said. “What are they, Earl? Do you know?”
“Maybe I do and maybe I don’t.” He smiled. “But I ain’t interested in discussing it with you, Garnett. Reckon you’ll find out soon enough. Now you two get out of here. I mean it!” He jacked the shotgun.
Carl and I kept our eyes on him and slowly backed away. I stepped in a puddle and cold water soaked though my sock.
Earl began to laugh. “You look like a pair of drowned rats!”
“Nice seeing you again, Earl,” Carl muttered. “Take care now!”
“You boys think it will rain today?” Earl called.
Carl leaned towards me and whispered, “I told you so. He’s crazier than a copperhead in a mulberry bush on a hot day in July.”
I nodded. “I already said you were right. Let’s go.”
But Earl wasn’t finished. “Y’all thought I was senile. Crazy! Talking about me, whispering behind my back down at the Ponderosa and your precious church functions. But you’ll see. Here’s the proof! I warned you about the government’s HARP project. Weather control. Heard about it on the radio. Tried telling you, but you just fucking laughed, didn’t you? Well, I guess I’m the one laughing now, ain’t I?”
“You take care, Earl.” I waved. “We’ll be heading on home now.”
He fired another shot into the air and ejected the shell. It landed in a rain puddle. Wisps of lazy smoke curled from the barrel.
“I see either of you skulking around here again and I’ll blow your fucking heads clean off your damn shoulders. Ain’t nobody gonna take what’s mine, goddamn it!”
Carl pointed his rifle up into the air and held his free hand out, the palm facing Earl. “You don’t have to worry about that. Not that there’s anything here worth taking anyway.”
Earl scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean, Seaton?”
“Meditate on it for a bit, why don’t you. You’re a bright one. I reckon you’ll figure it out.”
“Carl,” I hissed. “Quit antagonizing him. Let’s just get out of here.”
“Don’t you come back, either,” Earl warned. He faded into the trees like a ghost, but we could feel his eyes on us, watching as we trudged down the lane.
We made it back to the truck in one piece and climbed inside. The heater warmed us while we got our pounding pulses under control. Then Carl pulled away as fast as he could, spinning the tires and spraying mud and gravel all over Earl’s homemade sign.
“Well, the rain certainly hasn’t helped his disposition, now has it?” I joked.
Carl shook his head. “No, I don’t reckon it has. I told you this was a bad idea.”
“I know you did. And you were right. How many times you gonna make me say it?”
“Sorry. But boy, he was fired up. What the hell was that all about, anyway? A maze underneath the earth and such?”
“I’m not sure. Earl was always a crazy son of a bitch, but now…”
Carl’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the steering wheel harder. “You think he killed Dave and Nancy?”
I hesitated, considering the possibility. “I would, but you saw the house for yourself. Earl’s not as old as us, but he’s no spring chicken, either. I don’t think he’d have had the strength to do all that damage. Then there’s all that slime, and…”
Carl turned towards me. “And what?”
“I saw something earlier this morning, before you showed up. Something odd.”
“What was it?”
“Well…I—I think it was a worm.”
“Oh Lord, Teddy, that’s nothing. I saw them worms all over your carport too. Sure, that was peculiar, but it ain’t worth carrying on about.”
“I’m not talking about that. This was earlier, just after dawn. I couldn’t see it very well, on account of the rain and fog, but…”
“But what?”
“It looked like a worm, but it couldn’t have been. It was too big. There’s no worm on earth that big.”
“I saw a picture once, in an issue of National Geographic. One of those native Bushmen fellas was holding up an eight-foot-long night crawler. Gave me the willies something awful. Of course, that was in Africa or some such place, not in West Virginia.”