The Cabin on Grey Lake, page 19
“No. That isn’t it. I feel uncomfortable being here… In this cabin. Are you ready to go into town?”
“Sure. We can have breakfast at the lodge and you can get a room.”
Randy went to the door and grabbed his coat. He then handed Mack’s coat to him.
As they walked out into the snow, Mack’s cell phone rang. He looked at the display and shrugged. “It’s Venus,” he said, then answered the call. “What’s up? We were just heading into town. What? You’re kidding...”
Chapter 53
Randy and Ben stood at the courthouse window and watched the salt truck follow the snow plow toward the center of town. Once the vehicles passed, they could see Mack and Venus crossing the road from the strip mall on the other side. Mack had a frown on his face as he walked. Venus was carrying Tessa and laughing heartily, apparently at something Tessa just said.
Once they entered the courthouse, Randy walked to Venus and offered to take the child from her. “Thanks for taking Tessa with you to grab some lunch,” he said.
“She was no trouble at all,” Venus replied. “Was she, Mack?” When Mack didn’t reply right away, she nudged him in the ribs.
“What? Oh. No, she was a delight. People kept asking if she was our grandchild. Her appetite is very healthy, by the way.” Once he answered, Mack went back to looking distracted and uncomfortable.
“You’ll have to forgive Mack,” Venus said. “He’s always like this when something he can’t readily explain bites him on the ass.”
Before Venus could say anything else, Mack spoke up. “Aw, I’m just wondering how long this is going to take. I’d like to be out of here soon enough to make it back to Pittsburgh before the roads refreeze.”
“The last time I peeked in there, Ted and Sheriff Nance were still arguing about whether or not any laws had been broken last night,” Ben said. “They’re looking at the security camera footage again.”
“Again?” Mack asked. He frowned more heavily.
Just then, the door to Burt’s office swung open. Burt and Ted stepped through. They were obviously not finished discussing things, but must have decided the office was getting stuffy.
“Let’s go over this one final time, Sheriff,” Ted said. “The camera in the holding area may have mysteriously stopped working for an hour and thirty seven minutes, but the cameras on all the entrances to the building, the front desk and the parking lot were working just fine. We didn’t see anything on those feeds during that time except for the jailer waking up from his nap to step outside and smoke. I guess we’ll never know how the child got into the cell with her mother, but if my client had somehow broken out of the cell to go looking for her, one of the other cameras would surely have caught it, don’t you think?”
“Okay, I’ll give you that,” Burt said. “But, there’s still the matter of custodial interference. I have to hold Mrs. Patterson until Pennsylvania tells me otherwise.”
“I’m not going to press charges,” Randy said. “I’ll talk with the hospital, too. I imagine they’ll go along with me if it means they don’t get sued for having such lousy security.”
“The corporate division of my firm represents them,” Ted said. “I’m sure I could convince them it would be in their best interest not to pursue the matter.”
Burt finally relented. “Well, okay then,” he said. “As soon as I get a call from Pennsylvania saying she’s clear, I’ll release her.”
Within seconds of each other, Ted and Randy had their cell phones out and were dialing.
“Does this mean you’re ready to leave?” Mack asked Venus.
“Sure,” Venus replied. “I already talked with Nicole and she seems to be doing well. She has no idea how Tessa got into the cell with her. She doesn’t remember waking or anyone visiting her. She just went to sleep after we talked last night and the next thing she knew, the jailer woke her for breakfast and Tessa was there.”
“Are you going to pursue this under hypnosis?” Mack asked.
“Maybe. Maybe not. It’s up to Nicole,” Venus said. “If she wants to discuss it, we will.”
“Well,” Mack said, “I have a lot of things to discuss on the way home.”
Venus smiled. “I thought you might.”
Epilogue
August 4th – Two years later.
Randy reached out his hand to the man stepping out of the large SUV. “I’m Randy Henderson. It’s nice to finally meet you Mr. Walters. You didn’t have any trouble finding the place, did you?”
“No, I didn’t, Randy. Please call me Dennis.” He gave Randy’s hand a firm shake and looked around. “Wow. The photos don’t do this place justice.”
“You’ll like it even more after you walk the property a bit. It comes with about one hundred feet of shoreline,” Randy said. He watched the rest of the doors on Dennis’ SUV open and passengers step out. Two boys, a young teen and a middle-schooler, rolled out of the rear doors.
“You have boys,” Randy said. “They’ll love the fishing pier. You can use it as a canoe launch as well.”
“That sounds fantastic,” Dennis said as the boys walked up. “Would you two like to go look at the lake?”
“Sure, Dad.”
Randy pointed to the path in the trees. “The lake is about thirty yards that way. You can see it through the water maples.”
As the boy ran toward the lake. Dennis walked back to the SUV to assist his wife, who appeared to be gathering something from the back seat. When she emerged from behind the door, she was holding a male child. When Randy saw the child, he immediately felt a connection with Dennis and his family.
Randy smiled as Dennis and his wife approached with the child, about two years old, blond and blue-eyed. A sharp contrast to the rest of the Walters’ dark hair and eyes.
“This is my wife Christie, Randy,” Dennis said.
Randy held out his hand. “It’s really nice to meet you, Christie. The front door is unlocked if you would like to take a look inside. I think you’ll like what you see. I just refinished the floors and put in new appliances.”
“Yes,” Christie said. “I can hardly wait to see it. The outside is beautiful.”
“You go ahead, Sweetheart,” Dennis said. “I want to talk to Randy a bit.”
“I like the place, Randy, but I have a few questions,” Dennis said as he and Randy watched Christie walk to the front door.
“I can understand that,” Randy replied. “I think I have a couple of questions myself. If you don’t mind me asking, why are you interested in my place? Charlotte is a good six hours from here.”
“I don’t really know,” Dennis said. “I looked at a lot of vacation properties closer to home, but the areas they were in seemed too busy. I wanted a place I could go to and not look at another human being if I didn’t want to.
Randy laughed. “You sound like my dad. That was one of the things he liked about this place. It’s only twenty minutes from here to the center of town, but you aren’t likely to get any unannounced visitors.”
“Now, if you don’t mind,” Dennis asked, “why are you selling?”
Randy thought about it for a few seconds before answering. “I really don’t want to sell, but I think it’s time I did.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“I have three daughters and they aren’t as fond of coming here as I was when I was a boy. I had thought about leaving it to them when my time came, but I’m afraid the first thing they’d do after I was gone would be to sell it for less than it’s worth.”
“I see.”
“Besides, I just got remarried and I could use the money.”
Dennis smiled. “I can sure understand that. I think I’ll look around for a while.”
“Take your time,” Randy said. “I’ll be here if you have any questions.”
As Dennis joined his wife inside the cabin, Randy heard a car approaching from the highway along the gravel drive.
Burt pulled his cruiser up to where Randy stood and got out. “I see your buyer made it,” he said. “Any feel for how it’s going?”
“I think I have it sold this time,” Randy said.
Dennis’ sons came running back up the path from the lake.
“Did you two have a good look at the water?” Randy asked them.
“It was great,” the older of the boys said.
“You should go inside and tell your mom and dad about it,” Randy replied. “They should go see it too.”
The boys ran to the cabin door and disappeared inside.
“You may finally have it sold at that,” Burt said. “What are you going to do with the money?”
“The first thing I plan to do when the check clears is buy two tickets to Hawaii,” Randy said. “I’ve always wanted to go, but never got the chance.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Burt replied. “By the way, did you know Mack is in town having a signing for his latest book?”
“I wondered why the strip mall was packed.”
“The Mission Ridge Abductions,” Burt said. He smiled and held up a copy. “Catchy title, don’t you think? I see Doctor Markel wrote the foreword for him.”
“Yeah,” Randy replied. “My copy is still on the shelf at home. I haven’t read it yet. Sounds a bit scary for my tastes.”
“I see what you mean,” Burt said. “I’ve enjoyed the peace and quiet around here since all that’s been over with.”
Burt’s attention was drawn to the cabin door. The whole Walters family exited and made their way down the path toward the lake. Burt paid special attention to the two year old with blond hair and blue eyes that Christie carried.
Burt’s face turned pale. “You don’t think I spoke too soon, do you?”
For Further Reading
Fowler, Raymond E. The Andreasson Affair. Prentice-Hall, 1979.
Fuller, John G. The Interrupted Journey. Dell, 1987.
Strieber, Whitley. Communion: A True Story. Beech Tree, 1987.
Appendix
58 Signs You May Be an Abductee
[From various published sources. Google “58 signs of alien abduction” for a list of links]
The following is a list of 58 characteristics people who claim to have experienced alien abduction generally share. The greater the number that apply to you, the greater the chance you’re an abductee.
People who report being abducted have experienced most or all of the following:
Unexplainable missing or lost time of one hour or more. (i.e. Looked at the clock to see the time and looked at it an instant later to find much time had passed. Noticed a trip took much longer than normal, but don’t remember any delays.)
Being paralyzed in bed with a being in their rooms.
Unusual scars or marks with no known explanation of how they received them. (e.g. small scoop indentations, straight line scars, triangular marks, scars in roof of mouth, in nose, behind or in ears, etc.)
Seeing balls of light or flashes of light in their homes or other locations.
Memories of flying through the air which could not be a dream, or many dreams involving flying.
Strong “marker memories” that will not go away. (e.g. an alien face, an examination, a needle, a table, a strange skinny baby, etc.)
Seeing beams of light outside their homes, or seeing beams of light come into their rooms through a window.
Dreams of UFOs, beams of light, or alien beings.
A single shocking UFO sighting or multiple UFO sightings spanning their whole lives.
A cosmic awareness, an interest in ecology, environment, vegetarianism, or being very socially conscious.
A strong sense of a mission or important task they must perform, sometimes without knowing where this compulsion is coming from.
A secret feeling of being “special” or “chosen”, maybe for a purpose they aren’t aware of.
Unexplainable events occurring in their lives, and feeling strangely anxious afterwards.
Psychic abilities. (e.g. premonition, precognition, clairaudience or clairvoyance.)
For women only: False pregnancies or early term miscarriages that were unusual. (i.e. Pregnancy test was positive, multiple periods were missed, then normal periods started again – possibly with prior evidence of a fetus that was no longer there.)
Going to sleep in one place and waking in another, or not remembering falling to sleep. (i.e. Sitting up late in one room and finding themselves in bed the next morning with no knowledge of how they got there. Waking up with their heads at the foot of their beds. Waking up outside or in their cars.)
Dreams of eyes such as animal eyes (like owls or deer), or remembering dreams of animals looking in at them. Some also have a fear of eyes.
Waking in the middle of the night startled.
Strong reactions to the cover of the book Communion, by Whitley Strieber or other pictures of aliens. Either an aversion or attraction.
Inexplicably strong fears or phobias. (e.g. heights, snakes, spiders, large insects, certain sounds, bright lights, personal security or being alone).
Self-esteem problems for much of their lives.
Seeing someone with them become paralyzed, motionless, or frozen in time, especially those they sleep with.
Memories of a special place with spiritual significance, when they were youngsters.
People in their lives who claim to have witnessed UFOs or aliens near them, or claim to have witnessed them going missing for a period of time.
Finding blood or strange stains on sheets or pillows at various times, with no explanation of how they got there.
Strong interests in the subjects of UFOs or aliens. (i.e. Perhaps feeling compelled to read about them.)
Extreme aversions towards the subjects of UFOs or aliens. (i.e. Don’t want to, or may even be afraid to talk or read about them.)
Sudden compulsions to drive or walk to an out of the way or unknown area.
Feelings of being watched much of the time, especially at night.
Dreams of passing through a closed window or solid wall.
Seeing a strange fog or haze that should not be there.
Hearing strange humming or pulsing sounds, and not being able to identify the source.
Unusual nosebleeds at different times, or waking some mornings with nosebleeds.
Waking with soreness in their genitals that cannot be explained.
Back or neck problems, T-3 vertebrae out often, or waking with an unusual stiffness in any part of the body.
Chronic sinusitis or nasal problems.
Electronics around them going haywire or oddly malfunctioning with no explanation. (e.g. street lights going out as they walk under them, TVs and radios affected as they move close, etc.)
Seeing hooded figures in or near their homes, especially next to their beds.
Frequent or sporadic ringing in their ears, especially in one ear.
Unusual fears of doctors or the tendency to avoid medical treatment.
Insomnia or sleep disorders which are puzzling to them.
Dreams of doctors or medical procedures.
Frequent or sporadic headaches, especially in the sinuses, behind one eye, or in one ear.
Feelings that they are going crazy for even thinking about these sorts of things.
Paranormal or psychic experiences, in those who don’t have recognized psychic abilities, including intuition.
Susceptibility to compulsive or addictive behavior.
Channeling telepathic messages from extraterrestrials.
Hearing voices in their heads they were certain came from outside them, speaking to them, perhaps instructing or guiding them.
Fear of a closet, either as a child or an adult.
Sexual or relationship problems. (Including frequent infidelity, ambivalence and inability to commit. Often manifested as an odd “feeling” they must not become involved in a relationship because it would interfere with “something.”)
A compulsion to sleep against the wall or sleep with their beds against a wall.
A fear that they must be very vigilant they will be taken away by “someone.”
Difficulty trusting other people, especially authority figures.
Dreams of destruction or catastrophe.
Feelings that they are not supposed to talk about these things, or that they should not talk about them.
Experiencing many things on this list, and/or recalling their children or parents speaking of similar experiences on occasion.
Inability to resolve any of the previously listed issues.
Possessing many of these traits but, to their knowledge, never seeing a UFO or having encounters with alien beings.
About the Author
Robert Dean Hall currently lives along the Ohio River with his gorgeous and adoring wife Bethel, who inspires him to keep writing, and two needy dachshunds, who shall remain nameless, that conspire together to get him away from his keyboard as often as possible.
He comes from a family chocked full of educators, journalists, medicos and politicos, as well as, the odd attorney here and there. He has worked for a subsidiary of a major oil company, the Department of the Interior and the Department of the Army among mixed groups of civilian and military employees.
