Over the Hedge
“Did you remember all the stuff I asked you to bring?” I asked Rick, who was standing at the front window of the cabin sipping on a coffee.
“Yeah,” he said, not turning away from the window, “I already set it all up in the other bedroom upstairs.” “Oh, good. So, when are we doing up?” “After they get back.” “Rick, honey,” I said, leaning on him and wrapping my arms around his chest. “The entire idea was to have our own little vacation while they’re at the reservoir.” “No, I don’t mean when they get back tonight. I asked Alice earlier if she’s ever driven Alpha before, and she said no. This won’t last ten minutes.” “Oh.” I rested my chin on his shoulder and looked out through the window with him. He took another sip of the coffee, then raised to my lips so I could get one, too. Then we saw Alpha pulling in, and Alice came inside and asked Rick if they could borrow his car. He acted surprised and told her where his keys were in the kitchen, and off they went again. “Now are we going upstairs?” “Wouldn’t dare miss it.” We spent basically the rest of the day in that room, with a short break for lunch, and when we saw the light from the windows start to fade we slipped across to our room to get dressed. “Didn’t you wear those jeans yesterday?” he asked as I was buttoning them on. “Yeah. They’re the best ones I have for hiking. I wasn’t expecting to be going into the woods again tonight when I packed so I didn’t grab another pair.” “I still don’t like the two of you going alone.” I knew he didn’t. He and Alice had resisted, but we all ultimately agreed that the best plan was for Matteson and I to go and scout out what the cult was up to. Once we had information, we could tell whether or not we’d need their help, and in the meantime, they could keep safe here and prepare for whatever was going to happen. Honestly, I was mostly hopeful that staying with Alice would be enough incentive to keep him out of danger and out of our way, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. Besides, he was responsible for cleaning up the other bedroom tonight. By the time the others got back I was lounging in the living room with the fireplace lit and Rick was nearly done grilling a dinner for all of us. We all ate, and joked around, and sorted out how we were going to contact one another if we needed to. We laid around the fire and told stories, and around 10 Matteson and I kissed our respective partners and slipped out the back door. It was a full moon, so even though we had a flashlight, we had agreed to use it as little as possible to reduce the odds of being spotted. It would take a little under an hour in ideal conditions to reach the clearing, and we knew it would take longer trying to sneak in the dark. We were also pretty sure they would be shooting for midnight. Dawn and dusk would also work, and the following midnight, but this midnight seemed more likely to me. And if we were wrong, that would just buy us more time to assess preparations and make a plan of attack.
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29 April 2007
When I woke up in the cabin, Rick was gone. He wasn’t gone from the cabin, of course, but he wasn’t in the bedroom and when I slipped into the upstairs bathroom for a shower he wasn’t there. The whole thing was odd, but I didn’t linger on it. I got my shower, got dressed, and headed downstairs where I found him finishing up in the kitchen.
“I didn’t know you even knew how to make pancakes,” I said, looking over the assortment he was laying out on the table. “Well, it’s a special trip and I thought I’d try doing something special,” he answered. I kissed him and sat down. “Do the others know? We don’t want everything to get cold.” “I knocked on their door a little bit ago, they said they’d be right out.” He put the last of the food on the table and sat down next to me. I started making a plate, trying a little bit of everything. “You know they have real maple syrup in the fridge here?” “As opposed to what?” “I dunno, but you have to taste it,” he said, handing me the glass jar. I was pouring it on my pancakes when Alice and Matteson joined us. We all got to talking, and everyone was impressed with the breakfast. I told Rick I might have to keep him around and he gave me a smile and a nudge. Matteson mentioned hearing some noises in the woods last night and Alice said that there’s always noises in the woods at night, but Rick said he heard them as well and thought they sounded more like people. We agreed to keep an eye out but Alice noted that sound carries a bit out here and the next cabin was a couple miles away, so it was probably just some hikers. Either way, we had plans for the morning and didn’t see any reason not to do exactly that. So after breakfast, we all headed down the yard to a trail through the woods behind the house. We’d packed a lunch, and it took us a couple hours to get to the vantage point Alice was telling us about. It was a magnificent view, and we hung out there for a while and had lunch before heading back. On the way back, however, Rick dropped his water bottle and it rolled downhill through the trees away from the trail. We all went looking for it, and found it at the edge of a clearing with a large stone in the middle of it. Alice said she’d never known it was there, but it looked nice, so we all went in. Something felt off to me about it, and when I glanced over to Matteson he looked tense. “Are you sensing something here?” I asked him. He grunted and nodded. “What is it?” Alice asked. “I don’t know,” he said. “Something feels wrong.” We went ahead more carefully, and when we got close enough to the stone we all, aside from Alice, stopped suddenly. It had a red spiral engraved on it. 25 January 2007
“How was your trip?” Alice asked, as we stood next to the baggage claim in Pittsburgh. The machine kicked on and a couple bags started to emerge from wherever they are before they get here.
“It was very good. Got to see some friends, had some time to relax, got some work done.” “Yeah, I know you were looking for answers about something. Did you get them?” I thought for a second. “Not as much as I was hoping. But I got some, yeah.” My suitcase came around, and we grabbed it and made our way to the car. Alice was filling me in on things I’d missed—it wasn’t much, really—for the first bit of the drive, but she changed tone once we were settled onto the highway. “What happened?” she asked. “In Chicago?” She nodded. “You seem like you have a lot to say, but you aren’t saying it. And your eye is different.” I adjusted in my seat and thought about how to answer her. “I saw the future,” I said, finally. “Some of it, anyway.” “Was it bad?” “Nothing that I saw was bad. It was just a lot. I saw the four of us, you and me and Matteson and Rick, at a cabin. That looked nice.” “Oh, that’s a good idea! My family has a cabin, over in the mountains. I should talk to them about letting us use it, you know, when it warms up some.” “Yeah, that would be nice. I saw bits and pieces of things, I didn’t really manage to stay in one place long enough to get any real information. I was eventually pulled aside by The Two and told there were things I couldn’t see yet.” “Who are The Two?” “Oh, uh…they’re like, well they aren’t in charge of the metaphysical realm, necessarily, but they kind of embody it?” “Oh, the King and Queen?” I stared at her. “Where’d you get those names?” She shrugged. “That’s what Matteson calls them. Said only the Queen ever talks to him.” “Do you know where he got those names?” “From the way he described it, it sounded like he just came up with it. When he first met them. I’m surprised he hasn’t told you this.” “I guess we haven’t really talked about it.” I looked out the window, thinking, for a couple minutes. “Wait, he started calling them King and Queen, unprompted?” “Yeah. He said they didn’t give him anything to call them, so he just called them that, and they were okay with it.” “Matteson named them?” “Oh, I don’t know about that.” “No, but, I was told they were given the titles King and Queen by the one who named them. And you’re telling me Matteson gave them those titles. That means Matteson named them, and it means Matteson, for some reason, had the right to name them.” “That sounds pretty important.” “It is important. There’s no way Matteson should have the power to name them, nothing that I can think of would give him that kind of authority.” “You think he has authority?” “No. But, it almost seems like he’d have to, doesn’t it?” We rode in silence for a while. I tried to piece these things together, but nothing was clicking. There was some piece I was missing, I knew it. But if that was the case, I probably wouldn’t know what that piece was until I was much older. The mother at the not-Crossroads, she seemed like she had only just figured it out. Was it really going to take me twenty years to get the missing piece? Or was there more than one missing piece? “Well,” Alice finally said, “this all assumes he named them, and didn’t just stumble on a name they already had that he just didn’t know about, right?” “Yeah. Yeah, I guess.” “Did you see me in the future?” She smiled, clearly trying to change the subject. “I did. And you were wearing a wedding band.” She gasped. “Really? When was this? Who did I marry?” I shrugged. “I didn’t find out what the date was. And you weren’t standing next to a husband, or wife for that matter, so I don’t know. I couldn’t exactly ask you.” “Husband,” she said, with finality. “It would be a husband. Nothing against it, but that’s not for me.” I chuckled as I leaned back into my seat. “Time is not stone, Alice. None of us really know the future until we get there.”
The porridge Nan had made for breakfast was warm and comforting, and I didn’t realize how hungry I was until it was in front of me. I had two bowls before I was finally able to relax and talk, with Sergei and Nan patiently waiting. I started telling them what I saw, and they were very excited to hear about my brief stop at my wedding. Sergei asked when it was, so they could plan a vacation, but I didn’t actually know. But when I got to the part about The Two, they both went silent and listened intently.
“So she put the thread in your eye?” Nan asked. “Is that what the new gold flecks are?” “Seems so.” “And it isn’t going away?” Sergei asked. “I saw the same flecks in the eye of every future version of myself I’ve met.” “But nothing more,” Nan pressed, “this isn’t becoming a habit, you doing things to your eyes?” I chuckled. “As far as I can tell, this is it.” “If things do not change,” Sergei said, wagging his finger. “I don’t think they can change.” “Of course they can! Time is not stone, it moves. It changes! It can change.” “We’re talking about fate, dear,” Nan said, resting a hand on his knee. “Pft. Fate. Is nice word, but time changes.” She rolled her eyes. “The Two said they’d seen it all before!” “And they said they had to keep things same. Which,” he held his hands out and shrugged, “is chance for it to not stay same.” “I think I’m going to try and stick to the script, if you don’t mind,” I said, setting the bowl down and picking up my drink. “But you choose that. This is what matters,” he said, turning to Nan, “is that she chooses.” “Of course, dear.” She patted his knee and then turned her attention back to me. “But you didn’t get the answers you were looking for?” “I got some,” I said, “and I suspect, over time, I’ll realize that I got more than I know. But I couldn’t have gotten anywhere without your help. Both of you.” “Well, we’re not done.” Nan walked to the other side of the room, grabbing some papers off a shelf. “Sergei had some more detailed theories for you, but had to write them in Russian. I translated them for you.” I flicked through and found pages detailing various forms Sergei believed Hecate had taken over the years, beginning with… “Is this Atlantis?” I asked. Sergei nodded enthusiastically, and Nan sighed. “Yes. It’s a pet idea of his. You can do what you want with the ideas. They’re theories—” “Correct theories,” Sergei added. “—that you can take, and decide for yourself how useful they are.” “Thank you,” I said. “But shouldn’t the store be open by now?” “Is time,” Sergei said, waving the question off, “it changes.” |
Image courtesy of ummmmandy's picrew.
AuthorThe blog of Jackie Veracruz. Boost on TopWebFictionTall Tales: Volume Two now available
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