Christopher Buehlman - Those Across the River

Estel spoke up then, saying, “He’s probably crossed the river. I’m sure he’s crossed the river home.”

And if he hasn’t, I can’t bear to find him, I could almost hear him thinking. My steps are heavy with the fear of bumping a foot into him; I will shake myself to pieces, Selah. Lord give me one night of rest before I see anything else that makes me see Thy throne empty and my own death close and final.

Those who wished to leave grabbed at the sheriff’s weakness, tried to hide their own behind it. They were sure the boy was home. They promised to come back tomorrow.

I was as scared as any of them, maybe more scared.

I have seen something in these trees, and something worse in others.

But still I spoke up and said,

The woods have not yet forgotten how to gobble men up

“Who volunteers to tell the boy’s father?

that monsters got his youngest boy

or do we let Lester do that?”

“I ain’t leavin without my brother,” Lester said.

“Now it seems we got to all go or all stay,” Buster said, “and I’m for all stayin.”

“Me, too,” I said.

“You damn fool, the boy’s gone home,” one man said. One of those who shot.

“That’s right,” another said. “He’s waitin on us.”

“Who’s goin to tell our wives if we stay?”

“And if he ain’t home, you gonna look your wife in the eye and tell her you left a boy in the woods? Cuz I will.”

The man wanted to say something back to Buster but didn’t.

His friend said, “Now, I ain’t no coward, but I ain’t no fool neither. Seems to me if they ain’t nothin bad out here, the boy’s alright. But if they is, they’s goin to give us hell tonight an us with no light or nothin.”

“I’d rather be a fool,” Buster said. “If we start now we can pick good ground and make a fire. Camp here and start first thing in the mornin stead a wastin all that time walkin home and back.”

I said, “Whatever we do, I agree that we should do it together. We’ve got good enough numbers now to discourage an attack, but if we divide, the smaller party will be…”

“Shit out a luck,” Buster finished.

“Well, I ain’t leavin,” Lester said.

“And I ain’t stayin,” one of those who shot said.

I saw that the sheriff was gone to pieces and where a good leader might have kept the group together, there was none. God, I did not want to stay out if the group was going to split, but I saw that Lester would stay and I couldn’t leave the boy alone.

The light was going.

“Seems to me we should all stay,” Buster said again, but with less strength. I was suddenly sure that Buster would leave, too, and that’s what happened. Ten left for the river. Then the sheriff, looking beaten. Then Buster said, “Come on, you two. If these sons a bitches won’t stay.”

Lester shook his head and I stood with him.

Buster handed off Saul’s Enfield to me, saying, “Here, you might want somethin more than that piece on your hip.”

“Thanks,” I said, taking it. I hadn’t held one since I was nineteen, but it felt heavy and wicked and only too familiar in my hand.

“Hand down that light,” Buster said.

“We gonna need it to cross the river,” one of those who shot said.

“Hand down the light afore I break your head.”

He did.

Then Buster gave the light to Lester.

And then he left, smaller than he had been.

WE HEADED FOR Uphill Rock because it looked like a good place to have against our back. While we gathered wood by the last of the daylight Lester thought he heard something, so we got our rifles ready and Lester called “Saul!” but nothing happened. I thought of the boy with no pants and then I made myself stop thinking about it. We got a fire started just as night came on. We smoked, but didn’t talk more than we had to. We agreed to take turns sleeping but neither one of us could for the first part of the night, and then, near morning, both of us wanted to. Several times Lester heard walking and once he thought he heard voices and we pointed our guns, but we did not call out into that darkness. If the boy was out there, he’d see the fire and come to us. We were perfectly visible. I knew how easily we could both be shot with the fire going, but there was no question of staying in the dark. There were worse things than being shot.

I let Lester sleep for two hours but then I could keep my eyes open no longer and I began to dream. In my dream, a naked woman walked to the edge of the firelight eating from a pig’s head. Blood was all down her front and the pig’s head was so fresh it jerked. I jerked, too, and woke startle-eyed. I shook Lester awake and reclined into the moss and earth, trying not to think of anything except pennies, which I counted in my head, seeing each one fall into a mason jar. I had seven dollars before I slept again and this time I didn’t remember any dream.

Lester shook me. First light. The sky glowed dimly between the cane ash branches above us and the trees were alive with birdsong. The fire was out. We had both slept.

Lester leaned down over my face.

“They’s a bell. I hear a bell.”

“Like a cowbell?”

“Smaller. Tinkle-tinklin.”

“Where?”

We readied our rifles and walked crouching as Lester led me towards the sound. It would stop for a while and Lester would stop and wait, but then it would sound again. Soon we saw the bells.

Three bells.

Saul Gordeau stood shirtless, stumbling in the brush, his skin very white against the dark foliage around him. He was blindfolded with what used to be a strip of his shirt, and gagged with a crab apple and another strip. His hands were bound behind him with rope. The most disturbing thing, however, was the cruel iron collar he wore, with three iron rods coming up from the neck, each ending in a small, tinkling bell. Had his hands been free, a padlock would have been necessary to secure the collar. As it was, only a braid from a hank of rope held the contraption in place. Every time he bumped into something, or even moved, the bells announced his location.

The birds sang on with good cheer.

Lester walked straight towards Saul but I stopped him and made him hang back with the rifles while I went to the boy. When I got close enough for Saul to hear my steps, the boy started shouting hoarsely through his gag and whipping his head around so hard I thought he might injure his neck.

God forgive me, I was so tired and numb I didn’t want to take his gag off; I didn’t want to know what had happened to him.

THE BOY WOULDN’T talk for a long time after they got his bell collar off. I lent him my coat. Saul just sobbed and walked with us towards the river, Lester’s arm around him. His tremors came in waves. When at last he spoke, he wanted to speak to me away from Lester because he didn’t want family to know what he had to say. But he had to tell so someone knew what they were.

“THEY SO STRONG, the men and women. When they grab you it’s like you’s a little kid again. I saw a white woman with curly wild hair and a nigger woman and a white man. They was more, but they pulled my shirt up over my head quick, so I didn’t see em all, an I didn’t know where they was takin me. They carried me and they went fast, but it don’t seem like we went all that far. They smelled bad. Like animals that’s been out in the rain or down in a burrow. We went down to a kind of cave cause I felt us go downhill and there was a echo. Everythin they said had a echo.

“They stripped me down and tied me down then and put their mouths to me. The men and the women. I didn’t want to, I promise I didn’t, but I came off and I never knew for who. One of them was the Devil. Had to a been. All them stories was true. He put my hand on his chest and changed hisself to a animal so I could feel the fur come in on my hand. I felt him drop to all fours and stand there pantin his stinkin breath on me and then he changed back. Said he could do that whenever he wanted cause he was old. But some of the others only did it when the moon came. That they had to then. That they liked eating pigs then, but they were gonna eat something, so why didn’t we just send the pigs?