Moonweavers (9 page)

Links ventures on his way back up the steps squatting and ducking down, easily slipping through the third time up, more limber than before and catlike.  Scott, all of a sudden, hears a electric hum come on.  The pulse surges then goes back to the hum.  The hum surges again and goes back.  Scott pats down to his bowl on the floor and devours the tasty substance inside and then washes it down with the water in the bowl next to it.  He slurps almost all of it up, saving a little for later and then jumps back onto the bed. 

                                                       
6

Rob rises from his canine carcass back up in the cave.  He has his human form again, but in a different plain of existence he notices. 

“
Holy crap, I’m a ghost.”

At that very time a shadow against the wall speaks and Rob jumps back ,
“What the hell was that?”

“
I am the black matter”, the voice says.  “No form whatsoever, just a patch of dark.  Not resembling anything at all.”

Rob scurries behind a rock stunned and looks at the shadow as it approaches closes and closer toward his end of the cave.  Backing up farther and farther, Rob finally backs straight into the caves wall.  The dark black form clouds over him.  Rob feels a burn through all of his blood vessels, running its track all through his inner body and out the other side just like the wind blowing through a screen door.  He prepares for the impact of yet another wave of the immense heat.  Rob screams at the top of his lungs, wanting relief any way he can from the shock of the waves of pain.  Again, and another wave like they are going faster now.  Rob drops to his knees with the blackness completely around Rob, hitting him faster and faster as the waves increase in speed until finally it goes so fast that it murmurs, flickers like a star, a star of blackness.  Robs bone seem to flex and bend repeatedly like a ripple from a fish that just flopped and interrupted the calmness of a windless lake.  Wiggling and wobbling repeatedly.  Rob completely vanishes into the darkness of the shadow and the shadow grows just a little more.  Then moves deeper into the cave and completely vanishes into the darkness once more. 

                                                       
7

Frank sits on the couch still dwelling about the incident earlier with the ghost. 

Patty says,
“I ran into my aunt at the store and she said that there is a position open down at her bar where I could work as a waitress for awhile.  I could make some pretty good tips down there, so I think I’m gonna do that.  You still wanna stick around right, Frank?”

Frank replies,
“I think so.  I’m not sure.  There is kind of an incident.”

“
Oh my god, is there something wrong with one of the animals?”

“
No, no, nothing like that.  Are there a lot of ghosts here or where you come from?” asked Frank in a shaky to paranoid to spit the words out .

“
No”, she laughs at Frank. 

“
Well I was at the barn earlier and you might not believe this, but a ghost came up to me and spooked the animals quite badly.”

“
A ghost,” she says now more serious and stern in her tones.

“
Well, yea.”, Frank replies.  She had blonde hair and a blue jean jacket.”

“
Hold it, hold it, hold it.” said Patty.  “You’re not talking about my mother are you? Look.”

Patty hurries over to the mantle to show the pictures of her mother to Frank.

Frank remembers the pictures and it dawns on him.  That was who the lady was.  It was the lady in the picture.  Patty’s mother.  Of course.

“
That’s amazing, but yet it doesn’t surprise me”, Patty says.  “She loved the farm.  It was the best place on earth, she used to say.  The ranch was the best place on earth.  Did she talk to you?  Did she say anything?”

“
Uh, kinda, she asked who I was.  She really creeped me out Patty.”
“Oh my god.  You actually had contact with her?”

“
I suppose so.  Is that normal?”

“
No.  Amazing.”

Scott thinks to himself,
“I don’t want to tell her where I am from yet.  It might be dangerous.  Hell, they would probably put me in a loony bin if they’ve ever met one of us.”

“
Dang it.  I told Aunt Shirley that I would work for her tonight.  But after that I will be working more towards noon.  At lunch hour, she seems to be the busiest.  One of the bartenders just quit on her.  I gotta fill in for her for just a little bit while she runs to get more meat down at the butcher shop for her notorious pork chop lunch special tomorrow and the various ones throughout the week.”

Patty goes and unloads the bags of groceries into the fridge and various others onto the shelves above.  Then she slowly walks into the living room and sits next to Scott and sits beside him on the leather couch. 

I know you’re freaking out, but its my mom.  My mom would never hurt me.”

“
Ok, I can stay for awhile.  It might be interesting.”

“
Great!  You must be hungry.  If you want, I can cook you some food up.”

Frank was thrilled at the notion that Patty would fix another meal before she had to go back into town to work for the night.  Patty always had leftovers, so all she really needed to do was warm up some meatloaf real quick from the prior night.  She also whipped up some instant mashed potatoes and had the whole thing done when she put some corn out of the can into the microwave and put it on the plate too.  Frank picks up the remote and fumbles with it quite a bit before he learns which button turns the damn thing on.  After that the rhythm of the channel surfing began and he finally lands like a roulette wheel onto some documentary of the mating rituals of the red headed Missouri animal on the instinct list, the redheaded woodpecker, which was basically no more than a picture of a forest and strange sounds of banging on trees.  Knock, knock, knock. Silence.  Knock, knock, knock.  Silence.  Knock, knock, knock and then the knocks strangely turn faster and faster. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.  Then Frank proceeds to television surf some more.  Now as he stops the roulette wheel of entertainment,  it lands on the preview to a new show where all the characters are smiley faces on popsicle sticks.  Franks not feeling entertained whatsoever, decides to turn the television completely off and set the remote on the coffee table in front of him. 

At this time, Patty yells from the kitchen.  “Come on in and get you something.  The meals already to go.”

Frank hurries into the kitchen, ready for his second helping of happiness.  He sits at the long table at the very end, where Patty already had his plate and utensils prepared.  It was the prettiest paper plate of food that Frank had ever seen.  He was always fascinated with the food they call meatloaf.  He thinks of a documentary that meatloaf was made for quick nutritious meals, where a little went a long way to feed many people.  Frank kind of thought of himself as a galactical meatloaf in a way.  Just adding one more pinch of seasoning and a little sprinkle on top.  Frank really proceeds to shovel the food into his mouth this time, hardly taking the time to chew, much less breathe as he inhales every little morsel on the paper plate, then wipes his chin with a paper napkin that was under the spoon and knife, remembering how awkward he felt earlier with the egg matter all over his chin.  Patty still kind of looks stunned from Franks eating habits, but he never seemed to care.  It was like that was his whole mission in life when the food hit his pallet that first time. But she always shrugged it off and proceeded to cut her meat up with the end of her fork as it slid straight through with ease through the meatloaf substance.

“Frank, you eat funny.”, Patty says.

Frank sits back in the chair and sits straight as an arrow, arms completely folded down, staring straight forward into space at the table.  Patty notices and keeps a wondering eye up and down as Frank sits perfectly still.

Patty says to him, “Hello…..hello?”

Frank senses something, but he don
’t know what it is.  It kind of paralyzes him in the chair.  Its like he feels the presence of another danger.  

“
Frank, there’s something about you,” Patty says. “Its just not quite right.  I mean, what planet do you come from anyway?”

Frank looks up straight, from the notion of what Patty just said and Patty backs off a little in shock at this and says,
“What? Are you trying to get me to believe that you’re from another planet?”Yes he said back

Franks eyebrow rises a little at the notion.

“Oh really martian man?  Tell me more,” as Patty approaches the table, turns the chair around and sits positioned in front of Frank. 

“
Well, ok.” Frank says.  “I’m from the moon.”

“
The moon?” she replies.  “First you see a ghost, now you’re trying to tell me you’re from the moon?  I mean couldn’t you come up with something better than that?  I mean, the moon.  There ain’t nothing up there.  What about Mars or Saturn or a completely different universe?  The moon?  Come on now, Frank.”

“
Oh, it’s true.  I come from the moon.”

“
Well, if that’s true, where’s your spaceship, big boy?”, Patty asks sarcastically.

“
We kind of teleport down off light during the full moon, if you really need to know.  We don’t own any spaceships.”

“
What? Like you just appear?  How is that even physically possible?  You can’t do that.”

“
Our structure is different on that plain.  It’s very different there.  Let’s just say that, okay?”

“
Alright, mister moody moon man.”  Patty replies, then laughs.

Patty
’s heart flutters a little towards the quick imagination of the new found friend, because he seems so innocent and naïve in everything that happens.  Like the way he eats, or walks up the stairs funny, she notices.  Like he’s doing everything for the very first time.  She can’t explain it.  Is he just a little kooky?  Is he playing me?  Is he trying to catch me off guard with some act he’s rehearsing to get in my pants or something?  Oh now, I’m thinking he’s wanting to get in my pants.  Oh, shit.  Patty you’re not falling for the kook ball, she says silently to herself again a little louder than before.  Frank just looks back grinning. 

“
Well look, goober,”  Patty says out loud now, “I’m gonna have to go down to Shirley’s and cover for awhile.  I’ll be back as soon as I can.It’s hot  If you can go out and check and make sure the animals have water and food before it gets too dark, that would be great.  Take care of yourself, okay Frank?  And don’t invite any of your moon friends over to have a big old moon blast out, okay?”  Patty yells at Frank, giggling a little.  She grabs her keys off the counter as she enters the kitchen, turns, gives Frank a nice big wave, then a wink.  In a strange voice, she says, “I’ll see you later, gator.”  Then she slams the door.  Frank hears the truck engine purr as it starts and the gravel flies as Patty commences on down the gravel road and a heap of dust is all that Frank sees from the girls departure. 

             
Aunt Shirley’s place always had people in it, but never quite a lot other than dinner time or lunch or breakfast.  After that it was pretty much a ghost town of sorts.  People would wander in and out getting whatever they needed to get before they went home and didn’t want to go all the way back into town.  Her place was a truck stop for the working man.  It’s where the community went for a taste of Shirley’s cooking.  Everybody greeted Patty, when she walked in through the screen door to the establishment, all the way from across the room.  She knew all their names from working on and off for her kind aunt. 

“
Hi guys!”, Patty replies as she  hustles around the counter to greet Shirley behind the bar. 

“
You’re late”, Shirley says with a hard tone in her voice.

Aunt Shirley was one you didn
’t want to get riled up, she always said.  Although later on in age, she was tough.  She had an old time beehive hairstyle on the top of her head that made her unique in this time and age.  With a strong voice, but kind eyes and smile, she was always willing to let a meal slide here and there if there was financial difficulties in the family of her customers that were loyal to her.  Some she just fed almost all their meals, like her food had some kind of wicked addiction to it or it was just that good. 

Shirley says to Patty,
“I’ll be back soon.  Keep the savages happy.”  She grabs her purse and bolts for the door.