Wild Woods
11
Emergence
A Child Returned
GEE PICKED KAREN UP up and carried her to the sofa in Wayne’s living room.
“What on earth happened?” Jo asked, coming in from the kitchen.
“Gee, let us take care of Karen so you can tend to Nina. She’ll trust you more than me.” Wayne directed. Gee reluctantly gave care of his lover over to Wayne and Jo as he ran outside to see Nina now swinging quietly on the rusty chains. Gee approached her slowly.
“Nina? Are you okay, honey?” She looked up at him with eyes gradually focusing.
“Gee? I had another mommy and daddy once upon a time. I don’t remember them. Isn’t that strange? I just remember the funny number and swinging.” She swung back and forth one more time then hopped up. “My bottom’s cold now! Can I have a swing at home, Daddy?”
“Yes, of course you can,” Gee said. “We might have to wait until spring to get it in the yard, but you can swing all you want. Who is Rocko?”
“I don’t know. Rocko is what you yell when you go swing.”
“We’ll find out. You’ll remember whatever you want to. Let’s go see how Karen is doing.” Gee took Nina’s hand and they walked to the door. She giggled and spun the funny number one more time before they entered. When she saw Karen, Nina rushed to her.
“Did you fall? Are you okay, Mommy?”
“Oh, sweetheart! Is it really you?” Karen cried. She held Nina in a close embrace. “I swore I’d never stop looking for you. I promised I would find you one day. Is it really you?”
“Mommy, it’s me, Nina!”
“Yes, of course it is. I love you, Sweetie.”
“I’m not sure I understand what just happened,” Jo said as she brought water for Karen. Gee pulled her and Wayne aside, giving Karen time to just hold Nina.
“Your house has a history, Wayne,” Gee said. “Fifteen years ago, a child was kidnapped from the swing set out front. She was three or four years old and never heard from again. Karen had been babysitting.”
“Oh, my God!” Jo breathed. “Nina?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. The street number and swing set triggered a memory.”
“Then she must be the little girl,” Wayne concluded.
“Back when Karen was kidnapped and force-fed nuts… You know her phone was destroyed and lost. I expect it’s one of many secrets we’d find in the quarry if it were drained. I got her a new phone and set it up to have her old number forwarded to it. She’d no more than turned it on when she got a message. It was a picture of your front door and the text, ‘We aren’t through with you yet, little girl.’ We’ve always suspected Karen’s kidnapper was connected with the event fifteen years ago.”
“Karen and Nina could be in danger,” Wayne said. “All of you. We need to be alert all the time.”
“We’ll have the DNA test results back soon. That will confirm things.”
“Why would that help? Do you have DNA from the parents?”
“In a way. The little girl who was kidnapped from here was Collin Meagher’s great niece. The DNA test would show that Nina and Violet Lanahan have a common grandparent or great-grandparent.”
“I don’t care,” Karen said as she sat up straighter and pulled Nina with her. “It doesn’t matter what the DNA says. It doesn’t matter what the history is or if her memories come back. What matters is that I have Nina here and now. She is no different than the sweet girl Gee and I adopted into our home and our lives in the first place. If she is Collin’s great niece, it still doesn’t matter. She is Nina and is our daughter.”
“I agree,” Gee said as he stood beside Karen and wrapped his arms around both women. “We are a family. We came from different directions and adopted each other.” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as tension drained from the room.
“Well, family,” Jo said. “Why don’t we gather at the table. Dinner is ready.”
The dinner of spaghetti squash with tomato and meat sauce was a delight. Nina wanted to know all about the strange squash and asked if Karen would help her shop for one and cook it at home.
Nina’s use of the word ‘home’ did more to relax Gee and Karen than anything else. She had asked if she could have a swing ‘at home.’ She wanted to cook ‘at home.’ She told Jo about her room ‘at home.’ To Nina, the mansion was home and Gee and Karen were her family.
They had not progressed far into the meal when someone knocked at Wayne’s door. The knocking was persistent and sounded almost desperate. Gee moved to stand opposite Wayne as he answered the door. Events of the evening had been too bizarre to take chances on an unexpected visitor.
An old man stumbled forward when Wayne opened the door. He had a scarf wrapped around his face and a long coat. Wispy gray hair fluttered around his head. His hands were bare and as Gee caught him, stopping a headlong tumble into the house, he noticed the man was dressed in pajamas and wore slippers.
“Here,” Gee said, holding the man up. “Take it easy. We’ve got you.”
“Come in and get warm,” Wayne said. “You aren’t dressed for cold and snow. Who are you?” There was a muffled sound as Gee helped the man unwind his scarf.
“Collin?” Gee said. “Are you well, Mr. Meagher? Should we call an ambulance.”
“No,” rasped the old man. “I had to come here. I haven’t been in this house in fifteen years but I had to come.”
Jo and Karen shuffled dishes at the table and pulled up another chair. Jo set an additional place and poured hot coffee for the man. He was seated in his pajamas and bathrobe and gratefully sipped the hot liquid.
“Your feet must be freezing,” Wayne said. He ran up the stairs and was back a minute later with a pair of wool socks, a towel, and a heating pad. “Let’s get your wet slippers off and dry your feet. When Granda stays over, he often gets cold and has a heating pad in bed with him.”
Collin was still shivering and Karen grabbed the quilt she’d leaned against on the sofa to wrap around Collin’s shoulders. The whole time he was being fussed over, Collin did not cease staring at Nina. He finally heaved a big sigh and focused on the others at the table.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I had to come here. He didn’t give me time to dress.”
“He?” Gee asked.
“The tree. The nut. I don’t know who talks to me anymore. Maybe I am the nut and I’ve fallen from the tree. I just had to come here and see. My little Renee is home.”
“Eat some dinner with us,” Wayne suggested. “We’re all trying to work things through. Please, relax and get warm and fed. We’ll work out what happened.
Nina looked curious as the old man was settled at the table but showed no sign of recognition. No one had said she should stop eating, so she continued to lift a fork full of the squash and sauce to her mouth. Jo placed a helping on Collin’s plate and he finally took note of it, his quaking hand eventually calming.
“Compulsions,” Collin said. “Heinz always maintained he felt nothing when he ate the nut. But his cousin died. You know. You’ve eaten the nut,” he said pointing at Gee and then Karen. They’d moved into the living room after dinner and Jo prepared hot chocolate for all of them. There was inadequate seating in the sparsely furnished room, so Wayne brought a dining chair to sit on.
“It’s like having hallucinations,” Karen said. “Sometimes I look at something familiar and it is suddenly something entirely different. It takes a while to straighten out which is real.”
“They’re both real,” Collin said. He looked toward Gee.
“I don’t know,” Gee said. “The first time I heard a voice in my head and carried on a long conversation. The second time… at the Patriarch… I felt that I’d just made a huge commitment to the woods. The only message I heard, if you will, was ‘I’m bringing my children home.’ We’d already found the children and then Nina showed up.”
“Thank you for your hospitality, Savage,” Collin said to Wayne. “Thank you for preparing the place for her to awaken.”
“Why don’t you spend the night, Mr. Meagher?” Jo suggested. “Wayne has a room fixed for his grandfather’s visits. In the morning—in the daylight—we can get you back home and not worry about you freezing.” Gee smiled at how familiar and at home Jo was in Wayne’s house. All evening, she’d acted like she lived there. Perhaps she did now.
“So kind of you. So kind,” Collin said. “You wouldn’t have a drop of whisky, would you?”
“Can you stand scotch instead of Irish?” Wayne chuckled.
“Nothing wrong with my neighbor’s whisky,” Collin said. “I’ll continue to have Violet as my heir,” he continued after Wayne handed him a glass and he took a sip. “She is prepared for it and she visits me every day. Fine young woman. And it would be unfair to saddle Renee with that after so long isolated from us. Violet will take care of her.”
“We’ll take care of her, Collin,” Karen said.
“Yes, you will. You swore to never stop looking for her. I thought it was just the raving of a distraught twelve-year-old girl, but you never stopped. You fulfilled your promise. Renee could not have a better home.”
“Can Renee come to live with us?” Nina asked. “We have a big house and I would be her friend.”
“Renee is a… nickname Uncle Collin remembers calling you,” Karen explained. “It was a long time ago and he forgets you are Nina sometimes.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I forget lots of things,” Nina said. “But we do have lots of bedrooms, ya know.”
Talking to the Tree
After the busy weekend, Gee took Monday off and went shopping with Karen and Nina. It was an educational excursion and the three went into every store on Main Street between the river and Jitterz. In addition to clothing, antiques, jewelry, art, and cellphones, Karen took them into the offices of The Elmont Mirror where she was greeted warmly as a former colleague. Seeing her with her family, even Axel seemed less caustic and said they missed her.
After lunch at Jitterz, they continued south to the Rexall Pharmacy and across the river to Grimm’s Market and the Farm Fleet Store. It seemed like a much longer walk going home than it had been going south.
“Gee, I’d like you to take a walk up to the Gem Estates,” David said Tuesday morning. “The seven Families weren’t the only residents of this area who filed claims to land. And not all were interested in the Forest. The original owner of that plot of land didn’t get along with the Families at all. We’re talking ancient history here, back before the Civil War. When the City was platted, that piece of land was included and there was a lot of pressure to include his land in the Forest. Instead of succumbing to the pressure, the bastard went out and cut every tree on his land. Every single one. The trees were hauled out and used for firewood from what I’ve heard. Eventually, the land was acquired by a developer who wanted to build big country estates to rival the homes of the Families.”
“I’ve seen it from across the lake,” Gee said. “It didn’t register that it was even a part of the City.”
“Well, the development was a disaster. They’re big, cheaply-built houses, that are in less than great repair now,” David said. “But as part of the City, there’s quite a bit of public land that was never developed. The developer defaulted on his loans and the City bought out about half the area—all undeveloped. Now that we’ve started talking about transplanting trees and are acquiring the farms next to the Wild Woods, we’re thinking about planting on that undeveloped land. Of course, none of the land along the lake is available or along the creek that borders the south edge. But that leaves about fifty acres up there that we could plant on. There are survey stakes that should be sticking up from the ground high enough to be above the snow.”
“What do you want me to do?” Gee asked. David sighed.
“I try not to get mystical about the Forest,” he said at last. “But the trees grow best where they want to be. Just go out and look it over and tell me if you get any strong feelings one way or the other. We’ve decided you represent the Forest. Not its management, but the trees themselves. Tell me what you think and whether some of the transplanted trees from the Wild Woods would like to make that their home.”
Gee thought it was a strange request, but he grabbed his walking stick and set off to explore.
The development was depressing. The surveyed land was kept mowed in the summer so it wasn’t overgrown like the Wild Woods. It stretched out in front of Gee as a smooth white sheet of snow. The dense wood of the Rose Hickory staff in his hand was comforting and, despite the cold, Gee stripped off his glove so he could feel the wood as he walked. Cut from the wedding tree, the staff had been given to him for his part in the ceremony—falling out of the tree. But it gave him a link to the Forest that he carried with him always. He could feel energy flowing from around him into the staff.
It seemed that even the staff was depressed when he walked across the bare field.
He was impatient to get back into the Forest where the air seemed to change his outlook on life. The Forest was alive and lovingly cared for.
At the south edge of the Forest, he crossed into the Wild Woods and the vibrations from his staff changed again. They were untamed and even a little dangerous. Gee walked all the way to the south edge of the Wild Woods where he could see the offices and piles of sand and gravel at SSG.
He decided to visit the cabins on his return to the foresters’ office. The day had warmed considerably and he was confident no one would be at the cabins. He would just check the supplies he and David had left there a week ago.
The first cabin he came to seemed untouched. He saw no tracks nearby and checked the gauge on the propane tank to verify that it was full. This had been the cabin Darrell had first discovered was out of fuel. There was no sign anyone had been back to it. He continued working his way north through the woods until he reached cabin four, the one they had labeled the lab. Here the situation was different. The propane cylinder registered at half-full. Inside, foodstuffs were missing as was a tarp and poncho. There was no guarantee this was used by children. Any homeless refugee might have made it to the cabin along the new paths that had been cut. Yet Gee could feel the presence of children who had been held there against their will. Over the years there may have been hundreds. And they had rescued only four. He needed to find the others. As many as possible.
Gee looked out along the path that led toward the Patriarch and started walking. In the clearing beneath The Tree, Gee found a hollow of a root and sat down. Looking up, he smiled at the thought of Nina sitting on the lower branch, swinging her feet as she talked to Karen about the upcoming wedding.
Secure in his niche of the tree, Gee lay his staff across his lap and thrust his ungloved hand in his pocket to warm it up. After a few minutes, he took it out again and looked at the oblong white stone he held. It was so much a part of him and he held it so often that he seldom thought of it. He looked at the pattern etched in the stone. A single vertical line, crossed by five lines, not quite perpendicular to the vertical. Or perhaps it was the other way around and was a horizontal line crossed by five vertical lines.
He held the stone against his staff and positioned it in various ways. He wanted to sketch it there but all he had was his pocket knife. With the point of the sharpest blade, he slowly etched the design into the wood of the walking stick. Looking at last at his work, he nodded his head and put away the stone and the knife.
He leaned back against the tree with the staff still across his lap and went to sleep.
An hour later, he woke from a peaceful if chilly nap. He needed to come out here more often, he thought. He needed to just walk in the woods and talk to the trees. He needed to be here when The Tree called his children home.
Tension on the Council
“So, you believe she’s your niece’s daughter?” Jan asked Collin. Eight people sat around the table now. Violet Lanahan, a bit confused over what she was seeing, sat behind her Uncle Collin. Family Roth, Karen Weisman. Family Poltanys, Jan Poltanys. Family Nussbaum, Heinz Nussbaum. Family Cavanaugh, Loren Cavanaugh. Family Lazorack, David Lazorack. Family Savage, Pàl Savage. Family Meagher, Collin Meagher. And Gee Evars of the Wild Woods. It was the first time all the Family heads had been together at the table in many years.
“She is,” Collin said. “As much my niece as Violet is.”
“And your heir?”
“My choice stands. Violet is my heir.”
“And you don’t want any more proof than her response to a house number? We required more than that of Celia and Jo Ransom.”
“The DNA test results should arrive in the next day or two,” Karen said. “They should show the connection between Nina and Violet.”
“Have you ever heard from your niece, Collin? I mean Renee’s mother, Dora Lisle?” Loren asked.
“She went downhill faster than I did when Dirk committed suicide. Always drunk and finally just wandered off. She might still be living or she might be dead,” Collin stated flatly.
“We could request an exhumation of Dirk’s body and get a DNA match from that. It would be the closest,” Heinz said.
“Why do you care?” Collin exploded at the gathered Family heads. “Fifteen years ago, when there was a fresh trail, none of you would help me find her. None of you would use your resources to track her down. You know who took her! You’ve always known. I was the one who stood up and resisted SSG’s move to clear-cut the Wild Woods. I was the one who organized the proxy battle. And I was the one they came back at to get revenge. They took my little Renee and you did nothing!”
“We were under sàmhach,” Heinz said. “You know we were banned from investigating independently.”
“And who imposed sàmhach?” Collin demanded. “You let a misused notion of Family honor prevent us from taking action when we could. Delayed just long enough to lose all trace of her. Who declared sàmhach?”
“Ross Lerner,” Jan replied. “The old police chief. Dad was upset about it. He was already beginning to lose his bearings. He raved about the secrets of the quarry all the time.”
“He told me about that a few days ago,” Gee said. “I don’t know that we’ll ever find out what those secrets were.”
“You talked to August? He hasn’t said a word in five years,” Jan said.
“He called me George. Said we couldn’t go back to the quarry again. Asked me not to eat the nut.”
“George was his cousin. Dad wasn’t going to challenge him for Family leadership. He wanted to be a doctor. George insisted that the only way he’d truly be head of the Family was to eat the nut. He did and died,” Jan said. “Some of the Family accused Dad of goading him on but grandfather made him his heir anyway.”
“It didn’t move him enough to help in the investigation,” Collin said, determined not to let the conversation stray. “None of you. None of your Families would help. Now Renee is back.”
“And nothing else matters,” Karen said vehemently. “Nothing changes from the way it was a few days ago. Nina is Gee’s and my ward. She calls us Mommy and Daddy and I will protect her like my own flesh and blood. It means nothing more to you than to a brood of old hens. Let’s get on with what the meeting is about.” The older men at the table scowled at her but none said anything.
“Well, then,” Loren finally broke the silence. “I move we approve the expansion of the Forest through acquiring the two suggested farms, and others if we can, and transplanting trees from the Wild Woods.”
“Is there any further discussion needed?” David asked. “Gee and Collin, you weren’t here for the previous discussion. Anything to add?”
“I yield the floor to my esteemed colleague, the City Champion,” Collin intoned, reverting to the slightly crazy persona he usually appeared as. Gee raised an eyebrow.
“I spend a lot of time in the Wild Woods. I know it’s too dense but I’m committed to saving every sapling,” Gee said. “Those that can be transplanted with a reasonable expectation of survival should be. If the larger ones near the Patriarch can’t be moved safely, they should be left where they are. They’ve stood in the shadow of the Patriarch for this long and have grown straight and true. They are his children and he has called them home.”
“It’s not good for productivity to have too many of them too close together, Gee,” David said. He’d heard the argument before, so Gee assumed he wanted the other Family heads to hear as well. “You might need to consent to thinning some of them.”
“I’m not concerned about productivity,” Gee responded. “The Wild Woods should stay wild.”
“It’s a danger to have it like it is, Gee,” Loren said. “A wildfire could destroy more than the Wild Woods itself.”
“I understand the concern, Loren. I need to do some maintenance that we’ve already started. Clearing the fencerow has been an important part of the process. Mapping the trees should continue, as well as cutting more trails. Certain invasive species should be removed and controlled, especially the firethorn. But the Wild Woods has a different ecosystem than the Forest. There’s wildlife, for example. Clearing the dogwood, holly, hawthorn, and ferns would upset the natural order of it. It could even have a harmful effect on the water table. It isn’t another nut orchard. It’s wild.”
There were sighs around the table as the heads realized their commitment to the Wild Woods was in Gee’s hands. He was passionate, not only for the trees themselves, but for finding any additional lost children. Since Thanksgiving, nearly all the work in the Wild Woods had been done by Gee and his high school volunteers.
“Agreed,” Pàl said.
“Agreed,” Karen joined. At last all seven Family heads had agreed to Gee’s conditions.
“I’m too old and feeble-minded to sit at this table,” Collin said. “Newspapers are better company. I’m assigning Violet as my permanent proxy. She’ll tell me anything I need to know.”
“There’s precedent for that,” Karen said. “Ben assigned the same role to Leah until he made me his heir.”
“I’d like Jessie involved,” Loren said. “My sons are worthless regarding the Family. Clark’s a competent business manager but he only sees the business. He can’t see the Forest for the trees, as they say. And Troy… He’s gone. I don’t expect him to ever be back.”
“I won’t push Jonathan into the role,” David said. “But I’ll let him take as much as he wants. If Jessie gets more involved, he will as well.”
“Wayne won’t return to teaching next year,” Pàl said. “He’s agreed to start an orderly transition into the company. I’m sad his heart isn’t in it. I’ll stay active as long as possible.”
“Fine boy,” Collin said. “Gave me a nice bed to sleep in one night. Fine boy.”
“I don’t think the council is ready for Cameron,” Heinz said. “Or that he’s ready for the council. We’ll work together for a while. As long as my health holds.”
“That’s how I’m handling it with Zach,” Jan said. “He’s got a good head and is handling some of our business. He just needs more experience.”
“And Gee is Gee,” Karen laughed at her fiancé. “And on March sixteenth, we’ll go to work trying to make sure there are suitable heirs for the Roths and the Forest.”
“Are you announcing something to us, Karen?” Pàl asked.
“Yes. I hope you will all join us at the Patriarch to witness our wedding vows on Saturday the sixteenth. You are at the top of our guest list.”
“We’ll work on making sure the path is easy to follow, with your permission, Gee,” David affirmed. “I think the Patriarch will become a place of pilgrimage when people learn about it this summer.”
Cutting Losses
Things were easier when the monk was around. He could tell the recluse to do something and it would get done. If he had a dependable lieutenant now, Deacon might have stayed and milked the business for everything he could get out of it. SSG had been profitable enough to give him a steady flow of income but strategically, it had been a good cover for his other interests.
He didn’t own enough shares to need to file his intent to sell so had started dumping his stock right after the damned Scotsman had shown up. As Nixon said, “Once you’ve sat at the head of the table, there isn’t any other seat of interest.” Great man. Opened China. All those lovely women and willing workers wanting to get out. That was a profitable time.
He knew who was buying his shares, of course. The damned Families all had buy orders under various covers. But at the inflated price Deacon was selling his shares for, they were funding his retirement from the trafficking industry. They’d crap if they knew.
The other rats were abandoning ship as fast as they could scurry. Or dying aboard. Dr. Jones was no longer a threat. Simon Alexander and his wife were always nervous and threatening to go to the police. Deacon had been there that Friday night to deliver cash to them. The smug smiles of self-satisfaction died on their faces as the light went out of their eyes. The Daniels had left before the ink was dry on the sale of their farm. He’d handled many of the product transfers from his barn.
Deacon hated getting involved directly.
Getting Troy to do the job on Jones was easy. He had no conscience at all. And he could never open his mouth without admitting to murder. That got rid of the failed experiment as well. Jones had been so certain that he could alter a child before birth under the influence of the drug that Deacon personally endorsed it. All he succeeded in was creating a retarded ghoul. It took months of careful reprogramming to get Taryn back to a usable condition. She was a nearly perfect little Stepford Wife and would never stray from devotion to her husband and son.
That left the preacher. Lance Beck’s obsession with the girl in the hospital, Rena Lynd, was dangerous. That was Deacon’s failing. He didn’t realize how they had bonded and when Beck sent her to the cabin ‘for safety’, Deacon had allowed Jones to treat her like any other reprogramming candidate. Deacon used the girl to summon that damned reporter and then got rid of her. Or so he thought. Who knew some snot-nosed kid hero would dive into the quarry to save her? The quarry hid a lot of secrets. She could have been one more. She had to go. And so did Beck. It remained only to determine how.
And then Deacon Stewart could quietly retire with no one the wiser.
Floodwaters
An Eastern Seaboard weather front pushed days of torrential rain inland. It melted the snow but the ground remained frozen. The runoff from the north flooded the canals and the Rose River overflowed its banks.
“Haven’t had floods like this in fifty years,” Gabe said from his corner chair in the foresters’ office. Gee, Jonathan, and Jessie sat with him, monitoring the situation. All other foresters had been called out of the Forest to volunteer in town and around the area with emergency services.
“According to the last report, the water is almost up to Riverside Drive. The Fairgrounds are flooded and there’s a report of coal being washed into the West Branch at the Exchange,” Jonathan said as he marked areas of the map.
Gee’s phone rang and he listened intently.
“Nathan says Silver Creek has backed up at the confluence with the river. There’s water across Main Street just south of the Market. He’s been in touch with other merchants and all the way south to Walmart, they have crews moving merchandise off lower shelves because water is coming through the doors from the parking lot. Nathan’s doing the same thing at the Market.”
“Does he need anything?” Jessie asked.
“He’s staying open as long as possible. There’s a line of people stocking up on supplies. It will probably take a week to restock after this is over,” Gee answered. The office phone rang and Jonathan snatched it up as he marked the map with the new information.
“Darrell’s with the volunteers at the hospital,” Jonathan said when he hung up. “They just went on emergency power and it looks like most of North Main is dark.”
“That means your place is probably dark, too, Gee,” Jessie said. “You should be home with your family. Why are you even here?”
“I ask myself that question a lot,” Gee chuckled. Then he got serious. “I… I need to go check on the Wild Woods. The Patriarch.”
“In this?” Jessie exclaimed. “The Patriarch has surely stood more than this in its life.”
“Do you think it’s too dangerous to go?” Gee asked. They looked over at Gabe to get an answer. He rocked his chair onto all four legs and stood to shuffle the City map off the map of the Forest and Wild Woods.
“Stay away from the gully,” he said. “If Silver Creek is backed up, the gully will be flooded as well. Water will be washing into the quarry. The safest area is probably the path you’ve cut along the fence. The land rises to the east. Be watchful for unexpected new creeks or gullies created by the runoff. If you cut from here to Cabin Three, you could pick up the finger path to the Patriarch over here. I don’t think it’s too dangerous but that doesn’t mean it makes sense. What do you think you’ll find?”
“I don’t know,” Gee said. “The trees are calling. I need to be there.”
“Take an ATV. You can navigate the paths at least as far as the cabin with it,” Jonathan said, pointing out the features on the map. “Take a four-wheeler, not a three. The path Gabe mentioned is the shortest, but this one is wider. It’s where Jessie and I have been working.
“Thank you,” Gee said. “I’d better call Karen first.”
“The lower grounds are underwater but the mansion was built above the floodplain,” Karen said. “We’re all safe. Jude, Laura, Grandma Sue, and the children are all here with us. Raven’s been on the phone every half hour to make sure Timmy stays at the Market and helps, even though his shift is over. Nathan is keeping him working. It’s safer for him than driving back here.”
“How is Nina doing? And the children?”
“Uncomfortable. Jeanie plans to come join us this afternoon if the bridge is clear. It’s built high so that shouldn’t be a problem,” Karen said. “I don’t know what else to say, Gee. None of the kids have done anything strange but they are almost as quiet as when they used to go into their waiting state. They keep looking up at the windows like they expect something.”
“Is there anything you need before I head into the woods?”
“Emergency power? I can’t believe a place this size doesn’t have its own generator. We have candles and Raven found a stock of electric lanterns and batteries. We have food. Just come back safely to us. Soon.”
“I will, Love. I don’t know why I feel…”
“Do what you need to do, Gee. We’re safe.”
Gee started the four-wheeler, letting the engine settle into a smooth purr before putting it in gear and easing out of the foresters’ equipment shed. He stopped to close the door, wishing he had a canopy on the open vehicle instead of just his poncho. Keeping to the higher ground on the east edge of the forest, he entered the Wild Woods on the fencerow path his crew had worked on through the winter.
He recognized the side path they’d cut from the fence to Cabin Three, the spot where Nina had panicked and run. The place was still spooky. He looked through the door of the windowless cabin and flashed his light around the interior, hoping to see someone sheltering there. He thought the survival kit had been opened and a poncho was gone.
The canopy as he moved deeper into the Wild Woods was denser than the Forest. Even without leaves, the thick branches above diverted the water stream so it was less torrential as he eased the ATV down the wider path.
At the end of the trail, Gee jockeyed the ATV around until it was facing back the way he had come. Taking his bearings, he started pushing his way through the low scrub and ferns toward the center of the ring of saplings. When he reached the shelter of the Patriarch, he breathed deeply—perhaps a sigh of relief. He was home. A leaky, drafty home, but home nonetheless. He leaned against The Tree with his staff in hand and breathed in the energy of the Patriarch.
Are the trees here sentient? Does he really speak to me? Or am I simply accessing some primitive part of my brain that draws me to him?
Gee closed his eyes and let the calm wash over him. He slowed his breathing and let the sound of the rain fade from his consciousness. He could hear his own heart, his own breathing, and the breathing of others.
His eyes snapped open. He could still hear the soft breath nearby. Moving as slowly as he could, Gee turned to face the tree and look up. Up into the eyes of a child. Then Gee saw a second child, arms protectively wrapped around the first, sharing a single poncho. A dull blanket stuck out from under the poncho, perhaps providing some warmth. The army surplus camouflaged poncho almost disappeared into the tree’s protective shelter. Gee’s hand moved slowly to the pocket of his emergency pack. He found the energy bar he searched for and unwrapped it, trying not to create any sudden movements that might panic the frozen children. He brought the bar to his mouth to take a tiny bite and reached out to offer the bar to them.
“Food,” he whispered. “I will not hurt you.”
Hunger overruled fear and one of the children reached out for the bar, offering a bite first to the other before taking a bite himself. Him. A boy and a girl about the same age. Perhaps just adolescent.
“I can help you get warm and dry,” Gee said softly. He leaned his walking stick against the tree and the girl tracked it. She reached out her hand but couldn’t touch it. “Do you want to touch the stick?” he asked. Still worried about frightening the children, Gee exercised all his self-discipline to move slowly and lift the stick toward the children as if offering his hand to a small animal. The girl touched it, her eyes drifting closed. The boy also reached out and gripped the staff, his eyes closing. The three, connected by the staff, Gee heard a whisper deep inside himself that said simply, “My children.”
Once they had established contact through the sharing of food and the touching of the Rose Hickory walking stick, the children became docile, losing the frightened look he had first observed. When he lifted his arms to them to help them down from the tree, they glanced at each other. The boy slipped down beside Gee. He lifted his arms to the girl.
Gee was certain the boy could not be strong enough to catch the weight of his companion and stood ready to catch the girl and support her helper. But she did not attempt to get down. Instead, the poncho shifted as she lowered a tiny bundle to the boy. Then she let Gee lift her down from the tree. He reached into his pack again for an emergency ‘space blanket’ and put it around the boy to keep him somewhat dry and hold in his body heat.
The children were compliant and held each other under the dual protection of the blankets and poncho. Gee started the ATV and headed out of the woods. He thumbed his cellphone as soon as he had a signal.
“Karen, please notify the hospital that I am on my way there with children from the Wild Woods,” Gee said calmly.
“Children! Gee, do you need an ambulance? How many?” Karen shouted.
“I think I can get to the hospital in the ATV more quickly and safely than an ambulance could get here. The rain has let up a little and I have the children sheltered. I have a boy and a girl, post-pubescent. Perhaps twelve or thirteen years old. And a baby.”
Genesis
Karen met Gee at the hospital, doctor and nurses at the ready. Gee asked them to proceed quietly like they had with Nina and the children. Instead of being led to an emergency room, they were taken to the room the children had occupied when they came to the hospital. They walked calmly, occasionally reaching up to touch Gee’s walking stick as he walked beside them.
“Clean up and dry clothes first,” Adam said softly. “They seem steady but underfed. We need a natal check on the baby as soon as we can. And soft clothes. I don’t want them stripped and left in hospital gowns.”
They removed the poncho and dirty blankets as Ellie prepared a tub for the teens. Gee took the baby from the girl and she watched as he looked at her child. A natal nurse arrived with a scale and baby bath and set up to do her assessment. She noted Ellie gently stripping the teens out of their clothes and helping them into the tub.
“Together?” she asked, alarmed. “It’s a boy and a girl!”
“I don’t think they have any secrets from each other,” Gee said softly, handing the nurse the baby, now revealed to be a little girl.
“You mean… she’s theirs? I thought she was a little sister,” the nurse sighed. “I guess I’m not quite as liberal-minded as I try to convince myself.”
“How is our baby girl’s health?” Karen asked as she replaced Gee in the crowded bathroom.
“Seventeen inches,” Nurse Edmonds responded. “Are you the grandmother? Eight pounds, two ounces. She’s undernourished but if that tiny thing in the bathtub has been nursing her, it’s a wonder she hasn’t starved. They’re all so quiet.”
“How old do you estimate the baby is?” Karen asked.
“You don’t know?” the nurse asked. “Can’t the little girl tell you?”
“Please guess,” Karen prodded her.
“We deliver many babies who weigh more at birth than this little one. I would guess two weeks under normal development but the little girl needs a maternal exam. She looks to be well-healed if this is her child. I’d guess more like a month.”
Karen stifled a sob and looked at Ellie. “In the coldest part of winter. Alone in the Wild Woods.”
“The Wild Woods?” Nurse Edmonds asked. “Are you saying these are children rescued from that dark place? God have mercy on us!”
“You weren’t briefed?” Karen asked. “Of course you weren’t. We just requested a post-natal checkup. How would you have known?”
“But I thought the three children rescued were younger,” the nurse said. “These were just found today,” Karen said. “Which means there could still be more out there.”
“One hears such strange stories,” the nurse mused. “I’m not superstitious but the idea of children living wild just a mile from town is hard to grasp.”
“We’d appreciate you keeping this quiet until we’ve had a chance to make an announcement,” Karen said. “I’m going to contact the police and newspaper now.”
“Of course. I’ll… um… wait until the news is official before I say anything.” She swaddled the baby and handed her to Karen, then gathered her equipment and the vial of blood she’d extracted. She handed Karen a bottle of infant formula. “Feed her. Often,” she said. Adam took the vial of blood where he was preparing to examine the teens. Karen sat on the commode where the teens could see her feed the baby while Ellie worked efficiently to wash their hair. The kids seemed to enjoy the attention, grooming each other as Ellie washed them.
After the bath, they were dried with big towels and wrapped in fluffy white robes. The girl went immediately to Karen and held out her arms for the baby. Karen smiled as she handed the baby over.
“What’s your name, Sweetie?” she asked the girl. The young mother just shrugged. Gee turned to the boy.
“Can you tell us your names?” he asked. The children seemed to have no difficulty understanding what they were asked but shook their heads. “Well, for right now, why don’t we call you John and Jane,” he smiled as he led them to the bed where Adam was preparing to examine them.
“If you call that sweet baby girl ‘Boy’ we are going to have words,” Karen admonished. Gee smiled at her.
“No, I think Grandma should think of what to call the baby,” he grinned at her. Karen opened her mouth and closed it again. “Now, John, the caregivers here want to check to make sure you are healthy. They want you to grow big and strong so you will be able to care for Jane and your baby. Can you hop up on the bed and show Jane how you can help Caregiver Adam do your examination?” Gee carefully avoided using the word ‘doctor’ around the children, based on the reaction the younger children had just three months ago. Nina had also been nervous when they mentioned the doctor.
Adam nodded his approval and gave the boy a thorough examination, finishing by taking blood. That was the only part the boy didn’t like, but he put up with it. Ellie gave him a sweat suit to wear and he pulled the fluffy robe over it.
Jane handed the baby back to Karen and got up on the bed. She shed her robe, showing a developing body and a bit of milk leaking from her nipples. She was obedient to every request of the doctor, even during the pelvic exam that would have freaked out most teenagers. She disliked the prick of the needle as much as John had. She donned the new sweat pants but just pulled the robe over her shoulders. She took the baby and held her to her breast.
“We’ll need to watch that carefully to see that the baby is getting enough nourishment,” Adam said. “I’ll know better when we get blood tests back from the lab. All three children seem to be in reasonable health, though a little stunted in their growth due to a subsistence diet. I’ll order food and it should be here shortly. It looks like you’ve just been elected to more hospital duty. I’ll get more helpers in who were involved last time but this will be different than working with the little children. You won’t have Laura to spend the nights, either. The kids must have had some kind of shelter to be able to survive a birth in the coldest weather of the century.”
“How will we ever know?” Karen asked. The baby stopped sucking and Karen held out her arms. Jane gave up the child but kept her eyes on Karen as the baby was bounced and patted until she had a big burp.
“So,” Adam continued, “names so we don’t get things mixed up in the lab. John, Jane, and…?”
“Gen,” Karen responded.
“Jen as in Jennifer?” Adam said.
“No, Gen as in Genesis. A new creation has come to the Wild Woods.”
Though very quiet, John and Jane did not seem unable to make themselves talk, unlike the little children a few weeks ago. But their whispers to each other were so soft, they went undetected for several hours. Gee left Karen with the children as he went home to collect Nina and bring her to visit. Jeanie accompanied the Woods family to their home.
Nina had been helpful immediately, hearing the whispers first. She joined the whispered conversation. These children were more on a par with where Nina had been when she arrived than with the younger children.
Following old patterns, Gee settled into the beanbag chair in the evening and read aloud. The little family joined him on one side with Nina and Karen cuddled on the other.
“You need to write stories, Gee,” Karen suggested.
“What would I write?”
“Stories of the Wild Woods, where our children were found.”
“Our children?”
“I believe we are about to have more residents at Roth House.”
The Nest
“The question is, ‘Are there more?’ We’ve been scouring the woods all weekend. We’ve replenished all the propane tanks and survival packs. I don’t know what to say. There are a thousand places they could hide if they had the skills,” David said to the gathered group of foresters on Monday morning. “The flood waters are receding but there are still treacherous places, especially around the creek, gully, and quarry. We can send more foresters out there but what are we looking for?” Everyone turned to look at Gee, expecting him to have an answer since he had found the little family. It was apparent that David was frustrated with the search. No one knew if there was anyone still out there.
“Nests,” Gee whispered suddenly. Then more loudly. “We’ve been looking on the ground. The children were in the branches of the Patriarch. I’m betting they had a nest, possibly moving to lower branches during the worst part of the storm. There are no more cabins. We should be looking up.”
“And you’re all too noisy,” Gabe admonished. “When a human goes thrashing through the woods, the animals take shelter and are still.”
“They aren’t animals,” Gee protested.
“Don’t get your undies in a bunch. They don’t deal with people. They’re there to survive. You said it yourself. When you found them, they stayed still as if willing themselves invisible. For self-preservation, they’d do the same in their nests when they hear ATVs and noisy people. They won’t come out until they sense the intruders are gone.
“Which is probably how they stayed hidden from the doctor. He would never have climbed a tree to look for a runaway. And if anyone is still out there, they don’t know Jones is dead,” David said. “They could believe we are all his minions.”
“I’m going back to the Patriarch,” Gee said, picking up his walking stick. “No ATVs making noise. Just have them at the edge of the Woods where we can call for them if needed. Jonathan and Jessie, are you in?”
“Definitely,” they answered.
“Start at Cabin One and look for access up into the trees. Maybe from the roof. If you find it, settle down and wait. You’ll have to see if you can outwait a rabbit.” They nodded.
“Why go back where you were if you already found the children who were there?” David asked. “Shouldn’t you move to one of the other likely access points?”
“I need to climb The Tree,” Gee replied.
Gee was silent as he approached the Patriarch. He found it easy to move through the Wild Woods without making noise, even with the boots he wore. The massive tree seemed unusually quiet. No breeze rocked its branches causing squeaks and cracks. No birds or animals scurried about. Ten feet overhead, branches became so tangled, Gee wondered if he could make his way through them.
He looked at his equipment, inspected by David before he left the office. Pulling himself to the first limb, he sat where Nina had a few days previously. It didn’t seem right to attack The Tree with all this gear as if it were a mountain to be conquered. It was a friend who had sheltered the children. One item at a time, he removed gloves, goggles, hard hat, and boots, dropping them to the ground next to his walking stick. Finally, he dropped the safety harness and his coat. The temperature was above freezing but it would not take long for the cold to hamper him.
He stood on the limb, his toes feeling the rough texture of the bark, and began to climb. Whispers of encouragement in his mind guided his feet and hands as he rose higher above the ground. At thirty feet, he could barely see glimpses of the ground below. He used his cellphone to capture pictures of the new world he had entered. And then he continued to climb.
Above, branches thinned and he could see the sky but no sign of a nest. He wedged himself into a fork of the tree to rest, looking around and then down. Ten feet below him, he could see it. The nest was so well concealed that he had missed it while looking up. He snapped a picture from above and climbed back down to where the children had lived. Perhaps for months. Only the incongruous presence of dried ferns laid over the top of the canvas had exposed the nest to Gee from above. Still, the nest was wet from the recent rains.
It was large enough for the children to cuddle in. One of the microfiber blankets from a survival kit lined the bottom. A pile of dried mushrooms was covered over by more fern leaves. And next to it, Gee found a stash of hickory nuts.
Comments
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