Meadowview Acres (38 page)

Hunter was still standing on top of the bulldozer. He watched as Eli took the safe from the sheriff and started down into the pit. “Go,go,go…,” he chanted in his mind.

Eli was back quickly, sauntering up the ramp as if he had just gone for a Saturday afternoon stroll. He had a peculiar look on his face. Hunter was about to yell down to him when they all heard something. It was the engine of a car. Hunter looked back the way they had come and saw Clara’s bright yellow VW Bug tearing toward them, a puff of dust stirring up in her wake.

“What the…,” Hunter began.

Sheriff Buchanon walked crookedly back down the path to the Blazer. Clara had just parked the VW and was getting out. Hunter jumped down from the cab and jogged over, too.

“Well, hello guys,” she said coming over to plant a kiss on Hunter’s cheek. “We thought you could use a little girl power.”

The sheriff had no intention of refusing help. Actually, he was pretty happy to see her. He was alarmed at how quickly the situation was deteriorating.

“We sure could, Clara. Darren’s in the back of the Blazer. He needs to get out of here. I want Eli to go, too. Can you do that for me please?” He blinked continuously now, trying to clear his vision.

“Eli?” Hunter said. “Why Eli, what’s wrong?”

Sheriff Buchanon looked at Hunter and said, “I’m just a little worried about his head. I’d let you go too, but we have to get the slab into place with the dozer.”

“I’m fine,” Hunter said as he spit once more. “And good luck getting Eli to go. He wants to see this end as much as I do.”

Hunter looked at Clara then, proud that his girlfriend could return the favor he owed Darren. “Take Darren out of here, we won’t be long.” With that he walked over and slipped an arm around Clara’s waist. Pulling her to him, he kissed her cheek gently, then looked at her and said, “I’ll see you soon.”

Clara was overjoyed at Hunter’s reaction to seeing her there. She was ready to do whatever he said. She followed the sheriff to the Blazer and helped with the doors as he and Hunter lifted Darren out and got him settled in the VW.

Hunter winked at her and sauntered back to the Caterpillar. Sheriff Buchanon said, “Thank you, Clara. And please tell everyone that we’re alright and we’re almost finished.” With that, he wobbled back to the dump truck.

When he got to the truck, he saw Deputy Clay in the driver’s side. Michael started the engine and leaned out the window.

“Am I good to go, Don?” He yelled down.

Sheriff Buchanon was happy that Michael had taken over the job. His vision was worse than ever. “You’re in line, Mike. Let her go!”

The dump truck made a series of grunts and squeals as the load started to tip. The gravel and sand mixture trickled out slowly until the bed was far enough that the whole load seemed to fall at once with a mighty “Whoosh.” The back flap slammed against the truck three or four times, banging loudly.

Eli felt like crying. Standing beside Hunter, he felt more tired than he had in all of his sixteen years. He had aged a lifetime. He understood exactly what Professor Monroe had felt.

Hunter knew what his best friend was feeling. He felt it too. He clapped Eli on the back and said, “It’s almost over, Bud. Let me put the cap on this thing.”

Hunter jumped back up into the cab of the bulldozer and started it up again. He maneuvered the Cat over to pick up the concrete slab. Gently, he got it balanced on top of the bucket and slowly made his way over to the site. He rolled over the gravel and sand mixture to pack it then positioned the slab on top of the hole. He slowly lowered the bucket and rolled the Cat backward until the concrete slid off with a solid thump.

The Rock of Varuupi was entombed.

The four of them looked at each other. No one was smiling; there were no jumps of joy. This had taken a toll on them all. They only wanted to go home.

“Hunter,” Sheriff Buchanon said. “Put a few buckets of that dirt over the slab. We’ll help with the shovels.”

Feeling better than he had in over a week, Hunter started on the last job of the day. He felt his stomach start to unclench. The bile in his throat was receding. He scooped up load after load of the discarded dirt and poured it atop the concrete grave of the beast. With each scoop, he felt stronger.

Sheriff Buchanon’s headache was subsiding, but the lights in his vision were still sparkling. They weren’t as bad, but they would take a while to go away completely, if they ever did. He noticed that Deputy Clay’s nosebleed had stopped as well. He said a silent prayer of thanks and looked around for Eli. He spotted him over by the bumper of the dump truck and went to the boy.

“Good job today, Eli. I know this has been really hard on you,” he said. The boy looked like hell, but he guessed they all did. “How about we get out of here? Since Hunter has to take the bulldozer out, why don’t you drive the Blazer?”

Eli was staring off into the distance. “I don’t think that’s going to be possible, Sheriff.”

“What’s the matter, Son. Are you still feeling pretty sick?” He asked, concerned about Eli’s head.

“No,” Eli answered. “My head feels fine. It’s just that…I can’t see anything, Sheriff. I think I’ve gone blind.”

CHAPTER 37

Meadowview Acres

C
lara had eased off of the gas a little on the way back out of the woods. She noticed that the farther away they got from the dig, the better Darren seemed to feel.

At first she was afraid. To see Darren, this guy who was so strong and intimidating, be so out of it was unsettling. She was nervous that something could happen to him on the way back. Her nerves calmed a little when he started to come around.

“Wha…what’s happening?” He asked as the fog lifted from his brain. He was surprised to see that he was in Clara Stagg’s car. He had no memory of her at all.

“Good morning,” she said, glad to see him awake. “You’ve been out cold for a while. Sheriff Buchanon asked me to take you away from the site. I guess the rock was starting to affect you.”

Little pieces of memory were starting to come together. Darren remembered the awful feeling of falling into the pit. He thought that was just a dream, but then he remembered more. His hands and arms didn’t work. They wouldn’t move. He brought his hands up to his face to check. Wiggling his fingers, he remembered more. They had put him in the back of the Blazer. Hunter was asking him questions about the controls in the Cat.

“Did Hunter finish digging the pit?” he asked.

“They were just finishing up when we left. I’m not sure what was left to do, but the sheriff said that it wouldn’t be long.” Clara eased back on the gas a little more. They were almost to the gravel road. It would be a much rougher ride.

Darren was still confused. “Why were you there? How did you get there?”

Clara wondered how much she should tell Darren. She didn’t want to stress him out about Shasta, so she said, “Well, we were all at the Port’s waiting this thing out, and Shasta got a little nervous. Then your mom got nervous. I just decided that we should come out and check on things.” She saw his brow furrow with worry. “It’s fine, though. Shasta was feeling better when we left, and your mom is with Mr. Port and Mr. Hamilton at the entrance to the woods. I told her I’d bring information back as soon as I could.”

“Nice work, Stagg,” Darren said as he closed his eyes and laid his head back on the seat. He was still exhausted.

Clara smiled to herself feeling proud. “Yeah, nice work, Stagg,” she thought.

Sheriff Buchanon looked at the boy. His eyes were focused on some far off point in the distance. He was praying that it wasn’t happening – that Eli wasn’t blind.

He grabbed Eli by the shoulders and stared into his face. “Eli, can you see anything? Anything at all? A shadow, a blur?”

Eli was calm when he answered. “No, nothing.”

Hunter had finished scattering the pile of dirt over the concrete slab when he noticed the sheriff grab Eli by the shoulders. He cut the engine of the Cat and hopped out. By the time he was behind the sheriff, Deputy Clay had arrived as well.

Sheriff Buchanon gave each of them a sorrowful look. Hunter thought he saw tears in the big man’s eyes.

“What’s happening?” Hunter asked. Moving forward to Eli, he said, “What’s wrong, Buddy. What’s going on?”

Eli, still looking far off into the distance said, “Hunter, remember what happened to Professor Monroe? Well, it looks like I’ve been cursed the same way.”

Hunter felt a blow to his stomach. The effects of the curse on him had been steadily wearing off. He just assumed that Eli would be feeling better, too. They all had.

“Eli, are you sure? Maybe it’s just a temporary thing. Let’s get out of here, and it might get better.” Hunter was grasping at anything to give his friend hope, but he knew as well as Eli did that there was none.

“I think I’ve known all along,” Eli told them. “The headache never went away, even when I wasn’t near the rock. And every morning when I woke up it seemed like it took longer and longer to clear my head. This morning was the worst. I think I’ve been waiting for this all day.”

“It’s time for us to leave. We need to get you out of here, Eli,” said Sheriff Buchanon. “We’ve done what we came to do. Now let’s get you to the hospital.”

There was no arguing with the big man. No one wanted to anyway. They were all emotionally drained and physically fatigued.

“Michael, you’re driving the dump truck,” he continued. “Hunter, you’re on the Cat. Eli and I will take the Blazer.”

He took the boy’s hand and guided him to the passenger side of the SUV.

Bug had been watching Shasta for about half an hour. She seemed a lot better. Shasta wasn’t aware of it, but the whole room had been using her as a barometer since Clara and Agnes had left. As weird as it seemed, the girl’s emotional attachment to Darren was the only link they had to their missing loved ones. Considering the strangeness of the last two weeks, maybe it wasn’t so weird after all.

“They’re finished, aren’t they?” Bug asked her.

Shasta’s head popped up as if she had just woken from a dream.

“I think so,” she said. “I just feel really calm.”

“Oh, thank God,” said Margy, and she started to cry. The fear she had been holding inside finally escaped.

Val and Ann looked at each other and smiled thinly. Lara and Gina hugged each other tightly. All they wanted was to hear something, anything, that would give them hope.

The phone rang and Val, pushing the talk button as she did, scooped it off the table. “Hello?”

“Honey, it’s me,” said Bill. “Clara and Darren just made it back. He’s had some sort of reaction, but it seems to be wearing off. Mark’s taking him and Agnes to Community right now.”

“Hold on,” she told him urgently. To the room she said, “Clara and Darren are back. Mark’s taking Agnes and Darren to Community. He’s okay, but needs to be checked.”

She punched the speaker button on the phone and back to Bill she said, “What about the others?”

His voice came through the speaker so everyone could hear. “Clara said that Don told her they’re finishing up, and it shouldn’t be much longer. She said it didn’t look like anyone else was having a problem except that Don was a little wobbly.”

The sighs in the room were audible to him over the speaker.

“It looks like this might be over,” he finished. “I’ll call back when the rest of them come through. I’m going to wait here with Clara.”

“Thank you, Honey,” Val said. “We’ve been dying for news.”

She hung up and looked around the room. The women all had expressions of shock. They were worn out from worry, but they all seemed relieved – all except Bug. Clearly distressed, she was still looking out the window.

“What’s wrong, Bug honey,” Val asked. “It sounds like everything’s alright now.”

Bug turned from the window and said, “I’ll just feel better when we see all of them for ourselves.”

“I know what you mean,” said Shasta. “Mom, will you take me to the hospital? I want to see Darren.”