Chapter Twenty-Nine #4
“Then I’ll look for more firewood,” Johnny said. “There’s no way you’re leaving this tree to expose yourself in the open. I’m bringing back help. This isn’t negotiable.”
“We’re not babies,” Sharise said. “We’ve been taking care of ourselves since it happened. We’ll be fine if we go with you. You have a whole concussion, Dad. Sorry, but you said you were talking to dead people.”
No matter which plan won, Imani couldn’t bear to see her precious fire die down to ash.
She didn’t want her father to see how close she was to crying despite her vow, so she slid to the rear of the hollow to search for wood scraps she might have overlooked. She crept her flashlight’s bright beam across the macabre pile of bones, which she had swept to one side.
Imani shined her flashlight into the rear tunnel opening again, illuminating the rough gray-brown walls, while Daddy and Sharise argued, their voices rising. She plunged her arm inside as far as her elbow to see if she would get lucky and pull out a thick, dry tree branch.
She wriggled her fingers. Nothing but cool air inside.
But she couldn’t reach far because the tunnel forked in a different direction.
Imani yanked her arm out the way she did when she pulled silverware out of the garbage disposal at home.
That Beast might have babies with teeth, after all.
Anything was possible in the world that had created it.
“So we’re just supposed to wait out here and see what happens? What if it crashes in here like it tried to before?” Sharise said. “If this was its nest, it’s not gonna leave us alone. We saw those teeth up close, Dad. You’re not thinking straight.”
Imani had learned long ago that if she and Sharise were on the same side of an argument against Dad (or Mom), her sister was like a high-powered lawyer.
Imani didn’t have to say a word, especially since tact wasn’t her biggest strength.
A part of her was glad Sharise might convince Daddy to change his mind so they could all leave together. And yet…
This hollow was her womb. She couldn’t explain it to Sharise or her father, but she felt as close to Mom now as she had when she was sitting behind her in the RAV, her last moment of happiness, with Mom telling her to put on her seat belt.
Had those been her last words to her?—the last spoken words, not the words in her head she’d been so sure of, that had come to her when all she could see of Mom was those patterns in the snow.
(I’m still alive.)
That voice had motivated her to leave Daddy behind and convince Sharise to chase the tracks this far, nearly getting them both killed.
(I’m still alive.)
That voice had only whispered to her once, but every time Imani remembered it she felt warm breath in her ear.
(I’m still alive.)
Imani was so lost in longing to hear her mother’s voice again that she almost missed it.
This time, the voice didn’t come with a smile or warm breath. This version of Mom’s voice was terrified, nearly unrecognizable in its wailing, close in one instant, so distant the next. This version was winding on a journey, and it was terrified.
Was she hearing things?
Instinct made Imani lean closer to the small tunnel opening, pressing her ear against it. She was no less worried that a tiny version of the Beast might spring out and maul her face, but the necessity of knowing overrode her fear.
“Help! Someone… I need help!”
Far, far away. Somewhere at the end of this tunnel, maybe as far as the caverns. The space sounded hollow around her.
“Mom!” Imani screamed back with all her breath. “We’re here!”
“Who’s she talking to…?” Imani heard Daddy say.
Sharise, voice lowered discreetly: “She thinks she hears Mom’s voice.”
Imani swung to look at the two faces staring at her in the dying firelight. Daddy was leaning into the hollow now that the fire was so low. Their eyebrows were lowered with identical concern, eyes brimming with their shared grief.
“Hon…” Daddy began, lip quivering from the frank talk he was about to give her.
“I am hearing her voice! Come listen, Sharise!”
Sharise gave Daddy a look, as if to say, I’ll handle this. Without arguing or mocking her, Sharise bent over to take Imani’s place in the rear of the hollow. Imani shined her flashlight so Sharise could see the shadowed mouth of the tunnel. Imani was breathing too fast. Too loudly.
“I don’t hear anything, Imani,” Sharise said.
“Bend down. Put your ear next to it.”
Sharise gave her a look of unbearable pity before she bent over to put her ear against the cool tunnel air. Imani watched Sharise’s face for clues about whether she was just in shock. Maybe she was no better than Daddy thinking his dead uncle had led him to this tree.
A knot on a twig popped from the firepit. Then Imani stewed in the pure quiet.
“Help me! I’m trapped in here!” Mom’s voice called from the tunnel, the way Mom might sound if she were a mouse in a cat’s grip, her voice tinny and small.
Johnny gasped from the entrance. He had heard her too. Frantic, he tried to angle himself inside the hollow, but he barely got as far as his shoulder and elbow before hot embers scorched his knee. He kicked the fire’s remains aside, trying to get closer to Tasha’s voice.
“We’re here!” Johnny yelled. “Tasha, we’re right here!” His voice shook the tree.
He and his daughters were afraid to breathe, or they might not hear her again.
“Johnny?” the voice called back. Shocked. Elated. Shattered. “Is that you?”
The tree hollow rang with their cacophony of joy.