Chapter 4 Fresh Wounds #2
“You know the term ‘emotional labor,’ Green? You understand that it’s more than a little inconsiderate to go someplace semi-dangerous, requiring specialized knowledge, and just sorta expect that it will all work out.
Who exactly do you expect to make it all work out?
My mama used to say, ‘Be mindful of the work you leave for others.’ Are you following my train of thought here? ”
“I get it. I’m sorry. Just coming here frightened me so much, I guess I was too focused on getting here, you know? That was the big problem to solve. And I really assumed…I don’t know…I could get away with a few simple nights without knowing much.”
Dancer’s expression softened.
“Well, most times you might have been correct. Pal, if you were so afraid, why did you come out here?”
“That’s hard to explain. I’m still trying to put that together myself.”
“I guess a morning like this will help you figure it out. One way or another.”
She snorted. Retrieved her tea. Took a sip and drummed a fingernail against the cup.
“Okay. That’s enough scolding the injured, shivering newcomer. Man, but you are a horror. That face should come with a content warning.”
She opened the back door again and pulled out a roll of paper towels.
“Here. Dip a corner in your tea. Do me a kindness and get some of that gore off your face before I’m forever changed.”
He did. Using his cellphone camera as a mirror, he mopped at the blood. The no-service indicator winked at him as he worked. His chin ached and it hurt to touch anywhere near his nose, but the heat felt wholesome.
Dancer appraised his work.
“Still terrible and also much better. You got two black eyes ripening nicely. You’re gonna be a raccoon for a fortnight.”
“Thank you. And sorry again.”
“Well, being the ‘apologizing when wrong’ type might get you some points back on the scoreboard. And I guess I own the place, so maybe I share a bit of the blame. Now. I have had the stoic patience of the patron saint of bedrock, but if you don’t tell me more of that story you doubt I’ll believe, I am going to catch fire. ”
Green looked Dancer in the eye, then took stock of what he had to lose by telling the full truth. He decided the answer was very little. So, he told her all of it.
“So?” he asked when he finished. “Do I sound crazy? Glowing deer and monster wolves. Do you know about that wolf thing? Will it come back?”
Dancer pursed her lips.
Green held his breath.
“Bud, I have no idea what you saw and I honestly can’t guess.”
He let his breath go and closed his eyes.
“But you live out here. You live here. You’ve never seen something like that? Even heard about it?” he asked.
“Happily, no. Not exactly.”
“You think I made them up?”
Dancer chuckled and kicked at a chunk of broken windshield.
“No. No, not at all. I’m sure such things exist. I’ve heard weirder stuff than that from more established sources than you. Like you said, I live here. As I understand it, some people see things like that pretty regularly, I’m just not one of those people. Knock on wood, I never will be.”
Green gestured at his car.
“That wasn’t done by my imagination.”
“You’re misunderstanding me, fella. I’m not being patronizing here. I mean it. I believe creatures like what you described exist. I believe you. It’s just that such things are a part of some people’s worlds and not a part of others’. You get me?”
“No. Not really.”
She hooked her hands into her coat collar and looked up into the branches.
“I’m not the right person to explain this,” she said.
“Well, who is?”
Dancer smirked.
“Funny you should ask that. The best expert I know on such things is your very own neighbor.”
“Valerie?”
“It’s Valentina. Valentina Blackwood. A’yup.”
“That’s quite a name.”
“Heh. A’yup again.”
“So? What? I should tell her about the monsters?”
Dancer wobbled her head in a way that meant Yes, you could do that, but…
“Is there something else I should do first?”
“Green, let’s return to the lesson of being mindful of the work you leave for others. Most people out here have some healthy boundaries. I’m one of them. Incidentally, Valentina is another. I need you to assure me of a few things.”
“I’ll try.”
Dancer nodded.
“If you decide to stay, I’m concerned with simple, everyday things of a less scintillating nature than demon dogs and incandescent critters.
Mundane things like you starving or freezing to death or dying of infection or dehydration.
Now, this day, like most, is gonna come and go.
It’s probably gonna go pretty quickly from your rattled standpoint.
You aren’t planning to leave those problems for me to solve, right? ”
“Right.”
“Make me believe it, Green. I’m trying to determine if I’m talking to a man who made an honest mistake and has been generously corrected by his most patient new acquaintance or if I’ve just found an unaccompanied toddler wandering on a highway and a moral obligation to take control of the situation is settling heavily on my shoulders. ”
“No, I’ve got this. I’ll fix this or I’ll leave and regroup. Honestly, I’m not sure what’s best yet, but I won’t make it your problem.”
Green looked toward the valley and the mountains beyond.
The acorn in his pocket seemed to have its own opinion.
You couldn’t leave this. Not now. Not after you finally made it here.
The thought made his fists clench.
Yes, I absolutely can leave this. I’m not giving that monster another chance to decide if I should live.
Dancer watched the debate dance across Green’s face and raised an eyebrow.
“Alright, bud. Well. Stop in the office when you decide what you’re doing.”
“Yeah. Thanks. I will.”
She sighed.
“I hesitate to tell ya this, but if you do head out this morning, you might pass some police. A man died a little ways down the mountain last night. Right on the side of 32.”
Green felt his pulse quicken.
“What? How? The wolf?”
She shook her head.
“No, no. It’s a tragedy, no question, but I heard they think it was heart failure. Just died next to his pickup on the roadside. His family sent the police looking for him when he didn’t come home. I heard it on the scanner while I was eating my cornflakes.”
“Truck on the roadside? I think I met that man. I asked him for directions here.”
Dancer frowned.
“Lotta pickups around here, but I guess it’s possible. Look, just go talk to her before you make other plans today. Alright? Normally, I wouldn’t suggest such a thing, especially with Val, but this feels like an unusual circumstance. Tell her I sent you.”
Dancer looked Green up and down.
“Tell her I sent you before you say anything else.”
She poked her chin toward his campsite.
“And I wouldn’t waste that view of the morning if I were you. It’s medicinal.”
She retrieved her thermos and turned to leave.
“Hey, you want your cup back?”
“Bring it to me later,” she said over her shoulder.
Her brown coat and broad shoulders made her look like a refrigerator box striding away into the trees.
He walked back to his empty camp and turned his eyes to the dawn coloring the mountains across the valley.
The part of him that treasured the acorn in his pocket, that believed magic was waiting for him in nature, cherished that view.
Yet, that part had been conspicuously quiet hours earlier when a nightmare arrived to tear out his throat.
“It’s pretty here. And I am absolutely not going to stay another night.”