Chapter 8 #3
for her beauty. Then she could hear Cody’s voice in her ear, talking about how he wasted his talents. Looking at his drawing,
it didn’t seem like he was wasting them at all.
Some branches snapped across the cauldron, pulling her attention. Somebody was coming through the woods toward the falls.
Thora wasn’t deeply familiar with the roads in this area, but she wondered how far this person had to hike from that direction.
There didn’t seem to be a clear trail, and the woods were thicker on that side, shading the person out. They should have come
over on this side and enjoyed the sunshine. Some visitors were occupying one picnic table, but the other was free.
The person was bundled in a long dark overcoat, scarf, and hat. They were presumably a man from height and build, but it was
hard to tell from the dark shape across the way. Thora wasn’t sure why they captivated her so. They moved slowly and deliberately,
as if they were of advanced age.
Briefly, Thora considered getting another pair of eyes on this person out of concern for them, but she didn’t want to bother
Lee or the picnickers, who seemed to be on a date. Thora took it upon herself to observe in case they needed help.
The person stood maybe ten feet back from the edge of the cliff that rose out of the deep pool. A safe distance, she reasoned.
There was no underbrush there, only a coppery bed of conifer needles before the ground gave way to bare rock.
The figure started undressing. Thora turned her eyes away, confused. Perhaps they were simply doffing their overly heavy coat
on this warm day, but it felt wrong to stare. She focused her vision back to the water, following bubbles and bits of foam
as they slid out of the cauldron, over rocks in the rough part of the river before finding smooth water further downriver.
But her curiosity pulled her eyes back up to the cliff.
The person had indeed taken most of their clothes off, now dressed only in a white T-shirt and boxer shorts. The clothes hung
on their gaunt frame. Thora wasn’t entirely sure because they were in the shade, but the clothes seemed old and dingy, if
not from the color then from how they draped, as if the elastic had died and the fabrics were threadbare. This person was
a sad sight, undressed as they were. And shoeless, apparently.
Now she wanted to speak up, but found her voice caught in her throat. She wanted to turn to Lee, a sense of dread buzzing
through her like television static, but her eyes were transfixed, unable to look away.
Finally the person came out from the shade into the full sun of the cliff face.
He looked like George.
Exactly like George. Who would jump into Devil’s Cauldron in underclothes exactly like these, to her and her family’s mortification.
He was poised to jump.
Thora tried to call out, to tell him to turn back, that this warm air belied the iciness of that water. Swift currents could
drag unprepared swimmers over the rocks and flay them alive.
All she could do was watch.
The person—George—took one deep breath and swan dived into the deepest part of the pool, exactly as he’d taught her to do.
She held her breath, waiting for him to surface.
But he didn’t. The ripples from his entry expanded to the entire width of the pool and then disappeared, as if he’d never
entered at all.
“Lee!” she screamed, even though he was right next to her.
He jerked back and looked at her. So dramatic, people always said she was. But she didn’t care.
“Did you see the person across the river? They jumped into the water a moment ago but didn’t come up.”
“I didn’t see,” he said, calm but serious.
She studied the area where he undressed, trying to see his clothing among the pine needles. Maybe those were his clothes.
But they could be rocks or stumps or shadows. Inspecting the cauldron again, he wasn’t there, nor was he in the rapids, nor
floating downstream.
“Are you sure?” Lee asked.
“Yes, he’s still down there somewhere.”
Lee stood and shucked off his boots. He launched himself, fully clothed, from the cliff face into the water. Fear clawed at
Thora’s throat. What if Lee drowned trying to rescue this man? Wasn’t that a common tragedy?
Relief coursed through her as Lee surfaced a moment after.
“Do you see him?” Lee called up, his skin instantly flushing from the cold water.
Thora shook her head. Lee dove down, and all she could think was that he was going to bring a rock from the bottom. That this
was a silly game and not a matter of life or death.
He surfaced once more. Thora shook her head, mouth turned down as she fought tears, and he dove again. This happened over and over, until she was crying, knowing no one could survive much longer in the water. Knowing Lee was risking his own life. For a stranger, at her word.
After a few more minutes, he pulled himself out of the pool and scrabbled back up to her. His lips were blue.
“If there’s someone down there, I can’t find him.”
“I saw him, Lee,” Thora said through streaky tears. However strange it was for Lee to talk on the phone with George’s disembodied
voice, seeing him on that cliffside was worse. Why was he haunting them?