Bright headlights flashed over the diner’s windows. Colleen’s head jerked up, fingers gripping her coffee cup until the knuckles turned white. She watched the truck park and a man in camo and Carhartt climb out. A long breath escaped her. Her shoulders relaxed.
“You okay, miss?”
Colleen flinched. She looked up at the waitress. “No, I’m fine.”
The waitress raised a peroxide blonde eyebrow. Her name tag read ‘Krystal’. “Ya don’t look fine.” She gestured with her coffee pot. “Want a top up?”
“Yes, please.”
The man entered the diner and headed straight for the bar.
“Welcome to Smith’s,” called out Krystal as she poured for Colleen.
The men called back, “Stop actin’ like you’re a professional or somethin’, Krys.”
She smirked. “You shut your mouth, Bobby.” Finished, she sauntered over behind the bar. A loud back and forth ensued, with lots of laughter peppered in. It sounded like the pair had known each other since high school, however long ago that had been.
Colleen sipped her coffee without tasting it. She looked back out into the parking lot.
“Colleen, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying they’ve been lying to us.”
She swallowed hard, her heart rate picking up as she recalled the whispered conversation with her roommate, Elizabeth.
It was the end of the day. The evening Farewell Sun ritual had concluded, dinner was over, and the kitchen cleaned. Grand Silence was upon the whole property. And Elizabeth had walked into their room to find Colleen packing her suitcase.
Back in the diner, Colleen stared hard at the pale beige table, letting the memory of that conversation well up in her again.
Elizabeth hissed, “I don’t understand why you even called Amy. You know we have to be careful about talking to those who leave.”
“Yeah. So careful that it’s best to not talk to them at all.”
“Exactly!”
Colleen took a deep breath. “Things have been weird for a while. Haven’t you noticed? James’ rants about people who leave, calling them traitors. His claims of secret knowledge of what’s happening in the government. How he keeps saying that people are always misunderstanding him. The constant warnings about sharing anything outside the Family.”
Elizabeth laid her hands onto Colleen’s, stopping her in the middle of shoving her toiletries bag into the case. “But why did you call someone who left? This distrust of the Family is coming from somewhere.”
Colleen pulled away. ‘Distrust’ was a common term thrown around whenever a question was raised. She never thought, though, that it would ever be leveled at her. “I knew why Mike left but the reason James gave—that Mike had lost faith in the power of Mother Earth—wasn’t true. I knew it wasn’t true. So, yes, I called Amy and asked why she left. And it wasn’t for the reason James gave. Amy didn’t leave to join the Peace Corps. She left because Tony wouldn’t stop trying to get in her pants.”
“Tony wouldn’t do that.”
Colleen slapped the suitcase closed and zipped it shut. “I believe Amy.”
“So, you’re leaving?” asked Elizabeth. “Just like that? Without talking to someone.”
“I tried talking to my mentor. And she made it all about me, like they always do. Whenever someone raises a concern, the problem is always with that person and the concern is swept away.”
Headlights flashed over the windows again.
“For so late at night, we sure are busy,” said Krystal.
Colleen looked back at the parking lot and the blood drained from her face. Three men were getting out of a dark sedan. She recognized them under the bright parking lot lights. It was her former brothers: Tony, Greg, and the new guy, Ryan.
“Is there a back way out?” Colleen asked, getting to her feet.
“What?” asked Bobby.
“I’m leaving a bad situation. Those men followed me.”
Bobby set his mug down. “Krys, lock that door.”
Krystal ran around the counter and got to the door just as the men neared it. She turned the lock, sending the bolt home. She smiled brightly at them through the glass door.
“Sorry,” she said. “Closin’ early. The stove broke.” And she flipped the open sign to read ‘Closed’.
The men looked at each other and then walked away. Tony spared one glance over his shoulder at Colleen. He waved at her.
Colleen collapsed back into her booth. “They’re just gonna follow me home. They know my mama’s address. It was so stupid coming back to Hammondville.” She hadn’t even fully decided to go back to her mother’s house, either. Had she just put Mom in danger?
Bobby turned around in the stool and watched the men pile back into the car. The car didn’t move.
“Where does your mama live?” he asked. “What’s her name?”
“Mandy Owens. She lives at the end of Possum Lane.”
“How come you stopped here and didn’t go straight home?”
She dropped her gaze. “She and I had a fight before I left.”
Krys asked, “How long ago was that?”
“About five years.”
“I bet your mama has been worried about you. Why don’t you give her a call?”
Colleen shook her head. “I don’t have a cell phone.” It had been the one given to her at the Center of Attunement with Nature, so she left it behind.
“Well, you can use the diner phone to call her. Bobby, call the police station. Tell ‘em what happened and that those creeps ain’t leavin’. I bet it’s Carrie at the desk, this time of night.” Krys smiled at Colleen. “Don’t worry, honey. We’ll get this fixed in no time.”
Tears pricked her eyes. “I don’t even know y’all.”
“You’re from Hammondville. That makes us family.”
Tony cranked up and left the parking lot as soon as he saw the black car with Hammondville Police emblazoned in yellow across the side.
“Now what?” asked Greg, followed promptly by a yawn.
They were all tired after a long day of work and had been snug in their beds when Elizabeth had roused the main house.
Elizabeth and Colleen shared a small house on the edge of the property. According to Elizabeth, Colleen went crazy and locked her in the bathroom. It took Elizabeth an hour to get out. The poor girl had been hysterical. James, grim, sent the three of them to find Colleen and bring her home.
“Something has disrupted her mind-soul pathways,” James said. “We need her back before she hurts herself.”
Luckily, Colleen had taken the car assigned to her by the Center. It had been LoJacked, so it was only a matter of going to the dot on the map.
Tony said, “Now, we go to her mom’s house.”
Greg took out his phone and called up his Maps app. From another pocket, he pulled out a piece of paper with an address written on it. He began inputting the address.
“Hey,” came a voice in the back.
Tony glanced at Ryan through the rearview mirror. “Yeah?”
“Why don’t we just wait until the morning?”
“James wants Colleen brought home tonight. He’s worried about her. We all are.”
“But it’s obvious she’s safe. We can wait until the morning, talk to her after she’s had some rest, and then bring her home if she’ll let us.”
Greg looked up from his phone. “And it looks like they might’ve gotten the police involved.”
“We’re not doing anything wrong, though,” Ryan countered. “We shouldn’t have to worry about the police.”
Neither Greg nor Tony replied to that, though they did exchange looks. Ryan was new. He didn’t understand yet how government agents were trying to stop the Center.
“Call James.” Tony pulled into the lit parking lot of another store. A redlit sign proclaimed it to be Sampson’s Feed and Seed. He tucked the car into shadow, next to a dumpster at the far side of the building.
Greg did. Tony lightly tapped the steering wheel, listening as his friend explained the situation to James. While Ryan did have a point, Tony still worried about Colleen. If James sided with Ryan, then fine, but Tony wasn’t going to be happy about it.
Greg hung up. “He says go on to the mother’s house.”
Tony let out a gusty sigh. “Good.”
He cranked up the car, which flared to life and died immediately.
“What the hell?” he said. He turned the key again. No response.
“Does it have gas?” asked Ryan.
Tony clenched his teeth and called upon his spirit guide for patience. “Yes. Of course. I filled it up from some cans before we left. It could be the battery.”
He turned the knob for the headlights. Nothing happened. Tony switched them off.
He popped the hood and got out. Rounding the front, he opened it and took out his phone to use as a flashlight. Nothing jumped out to him as The Problem. He didn’t smell any burning or smoke. The battery looked normal. The oil stick showed there was enough oil.
The car doors opened.
“We might have to call for a tow,” Tony said, his head still under the hood. “We’re dead in the water. This is so weird.”
No answer.
“Guys?”
“Tony.” Greg’s voice was hushed and full of awe.
Tony stepped out from the front of the car. Greg and Ryan stood by the open doors of the car, looking out into the parking lot. He followed their gaze.
Wonder, mixed with fear, seized his chest.
The creature had to be eight feet tall. It stood on two legs and was broad in the shoulders like an NFL linebacker. With pads on. Shaggy fur covered it. The fur seemed to absorb the light, obscuring the facial features.
“Is that Bigfoot?” whispered Ryan.
“The Protector,” replied Greg in hushed tones.
It felt as if time stopped, stretching into eternity, as they stared at the creature, and it stared back.
Tony willed himself to step forward. He might not get another opportunity like this. “O Great Guardian…”
He continued forward. Greg’s hand brushed against his arm, as if to stop him, but Tony shrugged him off. Calling upon his own spirit, Tony imagined his energy reaching forward, through his hand, to touch this Protector of Mother Earth, this--
The creature bellowed and surged toward them. The three men screamed. Ryan bolted around the building. Greg launched himself into the dumpster. Tony made a bee line for the chain link fence surrounding the back lot. He scaled it, landed on the other side, and started running down the street.
Behind him, the fence rattled and something heavy hit the ground.
Kelsey wished she’d been allowed about an hour longer in bed. With Yeti thermos in hand, she walked into the police station for her shift.
The Hammondville Police Department was tiny, with a chief and four patrol officers in total. As she came in, the two night shift guys were packing it in. She passed the cells and noted that, for once, there were faces in there that she didn’t recognize. The smell of garbage made her wrinkle her nose.
She set her thermos onto her desk. “Hey, Palmer.”
Palmer, on his way out, paused in front of her. “Yeah?”
She jerked a thumb at the three guys who looked like they’d been dragged through ditches and worse.
“Oh.” He grinned. “They were followin’ this woman who was leaving this nature cult and just tryin’ to get home. They got spooked when me and Jason answered the call at Smith’s. They decided to park over at Sampson’s. Guess who they met there?”
Kelsey thought for a second and then started to smile. “Gus?”
“Yep. Right next to the dumpster. They were trying to commune with him.”
The pair laughed. Gus, their resident Sasquatch, was sort of like a bipedal racoon who loved digging into Sampson’s dumpster for expired jerky. Kelsey glanced over at the men, who stared back, shell-shocked.
“Anyway,” Palmer said. “They’re just bein’ held until the chief gets in. Their car is in the lot. Chief’ll probably have you give them an escort out of town. The woman got home just fine, by the way. Her mama was real happy to see her.”
“That’s great. Now, go get some sleep. You look like shit.”
“At least I don’t smell like it.” He gave a little wave and walked out.
Kelsey chuckled and drank from her thermos. Just another day in Hammondville.
Hooked
This was heart-stoppingly tense and then hilarious as Tony, Greg and Ryan got their comeuppance. Great story!