Just Stay Away, page 6
Craig leaned his head back and blew out a breath. “I know, but . . .”
He felt her squeeze his arm. “You’re going to write an amazing book. I know this. All I’m saying is don’t put all this pressure on yourself. We’re going to be fine.”
Craig put his hand on top of hers and looked over to find her brown eyes. She’d always been there for him, and he was determined to prove her right.
Courtney winked and turned toward the backyard. “So which one is Levi’s house?”
“It’s right up on the edge of the woods, but you can’t see it from here.” Craig pointed toward the woods in what he figured was the general direction. “If you head into the woods from behind the swing set, eventually there is a path. Take a left and head up, and it comes out right in their backyard.”
He hadn’t told her about the incident with Levi’s mom, because he’d assumed it was nothing but a mix-up that would soon be forgotten.
But if it was nothing, there’s no reason not to tell her about it.
A mosquito buzzed in his ear, and Craig swatted at it.
“How do you know?” Courtney asked. “You been snooping around in the woods?”
Did she know? If Dan and Kay had heard about it, how long before Courtney would? She wasn’t a Facebook user, but rumors seemed to fly quickly in this town. Would it be better to tell her his side of the story now so she wouldn’t be blindsided when she heard it from someone else?
“I was back there the other day dumping those sticks, then just kind of explored around a bit. You can see where Levi cuts through down the hill. If he keeps coming down through the woods the same way, he’s going to carve a new path that empties out right behind the swing set all by himself.”
“Levi of the Forest,” Courtney said. “Beating a path to our door.”
Craig took another drink from his beer and let the night speak for him.
“Some nice houses up there,” Courtney said. “Levi might be rolling in it.”
“Dan said his dad is head of neurology or something.”
Courtney looked over at him. “Stephen Ryan? Wow. He’s a big deal.”
“You know him?” Craig asked, happy to steer the conversation away from the Ryans’ backyard.
“Haven’t met him, but I’ve heard of him. Like I said, he’s a pretty big deal. Xenida has a huge thing going with neurology, so we’ve got people over there all the time. It’s basically what they hope our project becomes in a few years.”
“I guess Kaylene’s company worked with him for a while. Said he was kind of a prick.”
Courtney laughed. “That wouldn’t surprise me at all. Tends to go with the job description a lot of times.”
Craig finished off his beer and considered how another would affect his writing the next morning when Courtney sat forward in her chair.
“What is it?”
Her face didn’t show any concern, but she was staring intently at the woods. “I thought I saw something move behind the swing set.”
Craig looked down into the dark but couldn’t see anything out of place.
“Could’ve been a deer,” he said. “We see three of them back there almost every morning.”
Courtney shook her head. “No, it wasn’t a deer.”
The play set was visible in the moonlight, but the shadows behind it blended into the woods and offered a lot of hiding places to whatever was back there.
If there was anything back there at all.
Courtney stood up and walked over to the railing. She stared into the dark for a minute, then let loose a high-pitched whoop.
A dark spurt of movement flashed from behind the play set, followed by the crash of underbrush as whatever was back there tore off through the trees.
“What was it?” Craig assumed raccoons, foxes, and deer all wandered their backyard at night.
“Don’t know, but it sure sounded big.” The crunch of its escape faded, and Courtney turned away from the railing. “Oh well. I’m going to head in.”
She patted Craig on the shoulder as she pulled the sliding glass door open and went back inside. The kitchen light flicked on.
Craig took one last look toward the woods, but the light glowing out of the windows behind him made anything in the backyard impossible to see.
He gave up and followed his wife inside.
Craig’s eyes snapped open as his body washed ashore from the nightmare he’d been drowning in. Careful not to wake Courtney, he gently slid his half of the sheet off and let the cool air of their bedroom raise goose bumps on his sweaty skin.
Threads of his dream were pulled across his mind, but he didn’t grab at any of them. His memories were enough that he knew he didn’t want to remember any more of the nightmare. It had been a long time. Long enough he’d hoped the boy would never invade his thoughts again, but Craig should have known better.
Some ghosts can’t be exorcised.
He rolled onto his side, and his alarm clock told him just how middle of the night it was. The house was silent, allowing the ringing in Craig’s ears to take center stage as he tried to fall back asleep. He didn’t know if there was any science behind it, but nobody ever had two dreams in a night, right? It was one dream, wake up, shake it off, then back to sleep until morning.
At least that’s how it had always been for him, even when nightmares had been a regular thing.
Craig returned to his back and stared up at the ceiling.
It made total sense that the dreams would come back, no matter how long it had been. Weirdo kid shows up, wants to play.
Levi even looked a little like him.
He closed his eyes as if he could just will the memories out of his head. Shake it like an Etch A Sketch and erase the lines that had been cut from existence.
They’d offered counselors at school after it had happened, but that wasn’t an option. His friend Andy rolled his eyes at the suggestion. Why would anyone in their grade need to talk about what happened to some little kid? Craig agreed, and by the time he realized that maybe he should talk to somebody, everyone in school had moved on.
Everyone but Jacob Westerholt, obviously.
CHAPTER NINE
“Need any more juice, kiddo?”
Alice sat at the kitchen table, mouth full of pancake, and shook her head. A thick dribble of maple syrup hung off her chin, and Craig watched her wipe it off with the back of her hand. He grabbed a washcloth, ran it under some water, and brought it over to his daughter.
“Just in case you need it.”
The morning was still a little gray. Storms had rolled in the night before, and while the rain had stopped, the clouds were stubborn. When he’d heard the rain pounding against the bedroom windows around 3:00 a.m., Craig had worried the storm would continue through the morning and keep Alice inside for the day. He’d thought up a juicy little twist for his book and was itching to get it down.
When he woke up again with Courtney’s alarm and the storm had passed through, he was relieved he’d get the chance. It was probably still soggy in the backyard, but a little mud never hurt anyone.
Craig had just grabbed himself a banana when the doorbell rang. The sound surprised him since it was way too early for any deliveries or visitors.
He left Alice to finish up in the kitchen and answered the door.
Levi stood on the front stoop.
“Hey, buddy,” Craig said. “How are you doing?”
He stood solid, the normal fidgeting of a boy his age absent.
“I want to play with Alice.”
Craig glanced at his watch and saw it was barely 7:30 a.m. His daughter was still in her pajamas. “Well, Levi, it’s kind of early, and she’s not quite ready to play yet. But she can come out in a little while. Is that cool?”
Levi didn’t respond.
“You know, buddy, she still has to get dressed and stuff, so why don’t you come back after a while, okay?”
The kid held eye contact long enough that it became uncomfortable, then turned away.
“Fine.”
Craig stood in the doorway and watched him leave. A pair of brand-new white sneakers were stuck on the end of his scrawny legs, caked in mud from the trek through the woods. Craig could imagine Cassandra Ryan’s reaction upon seeing that.
Poor kid.
He closed the door and headed back to the kitchen, where Alice was polishing off the last of her breakfast.
“Who was that?” she said.
“It was Levi. He’s ready to play with you.” A whiff of disappointment crossed Alice’s face. “Come on, that’ll be fun. Won’t it?”
She slid out of her chair and picked up Pete the Bunny. He had been her go-to stuffie since she was born, and usually didn’t leave her side until she was dressed for the day. The old guy had been loved to death and was pretty threadbare. “I want to play dollhouse.”
Alice’s reluctance sent a little warning flare up in the back of his head. “You like playing with Levi, right? He’s a good friend?”
“Yeah, but it’s yucky out today.”
He’d known this day was coming. No matter how much Alice liked playing out back, eventually she was going to want to do something else. Something that didn’t mesh with his writing schedule.
Craig looked over at the calendar. MinnLit was twenty-nine days away, and his writing pace had slowed a bit over the past few days. He needed to keep pushing.
“Oh, it’s not too bad out. Besides, the sun will be out soon, and it will end up being a really nice day.”
“We always play outside,” Alice said in a voice that told Craig his weather-related argument wasn’t helping. “I want to play dollhouse today. I’ll be quiet. I promise.”
Shit.
He picked up her syrup-drenched plate and carried it over to the dishwasher. He didn’t want to make her do anything she didn’t want to do, but if he didn’t get this draft done and polished, he’d blow a golden opportunity.
All they had to do was get through his meeting at MinnLit and everything would change. By then Alice would start school and he’d have all day alone in the house to write.
They just had to push through until then.
“Maybe you can play outside during the morning, and then after lunch we can do something fun.”
She didn’t look convinced. He didn’t want to force her out back, but he needed some quiet time.
“Tell you what . . . if you play outside this morning, this afternoon we can go out for some ice cream. Deal?” He hoped the mention of an ice cream run would perk her up, so he stepped on the gas. “What do you say, huh? You can get a double scoop if you want. Cookie Monster and birthday cake?”
As much as he wanted to frame it as a fun chunk of daddy-daughter time, Craig knew better. It was bribery, plain and simple. Unfortunately, he had no other ideas.
Out of the corner of his eye, Craig noticed Levi hadn’t gone home but was waiting by himself on the swing set. “Look, Levi’s already out there waiting for you, kiddo. Better hurry up and get dressed, huh?”
Alice looked out the window at her friend, then turned back to go upstairs. But she definitely moved with more resignation than excitement.
He reminded himself that she always loved playing back there and once she got going she’d have a blast. But the guilt was like a rock in his shoe. Every step he took it was there, reminding him of its presence.
And he couldn’t seem to shake it out.
Craig struggled to shake the disappointment on Alice’s face that day, and it stemmed the flow of words enough that he didn’t hit his goal until almost one o’clock.
To her credit, Alice had done her part, and he hadn’t heard a peep from her all morning. Hopefully that meant she’d been having fun out back with Levi. The sun had never really broken free of the clouds like he’d promised it would, and it still looked relatively dreary outside.
Craig headed out back to find the kids, but the yard was empty.
“Alice?” His voice echoed back from the trees.
Craig wandered down to the swing set, half expecting Alice and Levi to come sprinting around the corner of the house at any second.
There were plenty of fresh, muddy tracks all over the play set—on the ladder, down the slide, all around the swings—so they’d been there not that long ago.
A shriek cut through the woods and ripped through the damp air.
“Alice?” His voice was much louder this time—worry elbowing its way to the front of his mind and pushing him into the trees.
Muffled voices came from up ahead, and Craig crashed through the underbrush toward them. Random branches and exposed roots threatened to trip him up, but he navigated his way as quickly as he could before eventually bursting out on the path he’d found the week before.
Alice and Levi walked toward him along the muddy rut.
“Hey, guys, everything okay?”
“Yes.” Levi offered no other explanation, his voice curt and emphatic, like he expected no more questions. Craig didn’t see any injuries or tears as they got closer, so the buzz of fear in his gut fizzled out.
“I thought I heard a scream.”
“I fell off a log,” Alice said. “There’s a bunch of logs over there, and if you fall off, you get eaten by crocodiles, and I almost made it to the end but fell.”
“And the crocodiles bit her head off.”
Craig tried not to wince. He took a quick scan of Alice, who was a little dirty but otherwise no worse for wear.
“Okay, then. You guys must be starving. I was writing so much I didn’t realize it was so late.”
Alice nodded, and Craig glanced down at Levi. His parents obviously weren’t too concerned about getting their boy any lunch, considering he was still down here with Alice. Levi’s mom was probably too busy talking shit about Craig on Facebook to worry about lunch.
An idea sparked in Craig’s head and brought a smile to his face.
“Tell you what . . . Alice and I had talked about getting ice cream this afternoon. What if we all went out for lunch first? We could go grab some burgers, then get ice cream afterward? How’s that sound?”
Levi looked at Alice as if he were more comfortable answering her than her father. She nodded, and a tiny smile crept across Levi’s mouth—it had probably been a while since an adult showed any interest in him. Craig couldn’t control the kid’s family situation, but if he could be a positive influence while he played with Alice, then that was something he was willing to do.
A lot of his odd behavior was probably nothing more than a plea for attention, and Craig certainly wasn’t going to ignore a kid who just wanted a little attention.
“How about this—we’ll head home and change while Levi goes and cleans up and asks his parents if it’s okay. That work?”
Levi headed home without a word. Craig was legitimately interested to hear what Cassandra Ryan decided. It was not just a way to do something nice for her son, but something of an olive branch to her. A way to show no hard feelings remained from the misunderstanding in the backyard, and to prove to her he was a good guy.
And if she said no, that would be fine also. He’d made the effort to extend his hand—if she knocked it away, that was on her. If her reputation was what Dan said it was, all he had to do was let people see who he really was and let them decide whom to believe.
Craig offered his hand to Alice, and they started back home through the underbrush. He felt the warmth of vindication, able to get a ton of work done and still be a good dad. Not that he’d done it to prove anything, but he had to admit he’d enjoy listening to Alice tell her mother all about their spontaneous trip during dinner.
Craig tramped down the underbrush and held a branch aside for his daughter.
“So what were you guys doing back here?”
“Just playing.”
Craig took a big step over a fallen log. He’d have to be careful about man-eating crocodiles.
“Does Levi play back here a lot?”
“Yeah. He’s got a fort. There’s this fallen tree back there, and he put up a bunch of branches along each side.”
“Cool. What’s he got in his fort?”
Alice kept her eyes on the ground as she walked so she could step around the branches. “He wouldn’t let me go inside, because it’s secret. But I didn’t want to anyway because it smells bad.”
The dank, earthy smell of decaying leaves and dirt pretty much covered the woods back there. A skinny sapling snapped back onto Craig’s shin as they continued through toward their backyard. They eventually emerged and headed up the deck steps, where they took off their shoes outside the patio door. Alice ran upstairs for new socks and was back down just as Craig saw Levi emerge from the woods again. Craig and Alice stepped out the back door to meet him.
“Your parents say it’s okay?”
Levi nodded. He hadn’t changed out of the dirty collared shirt he’d been wearing, and his shoes and socks still had a lot of mud on them. It would probably make a hell of a mess in his back seat, but their SUV was due for a major cleaning anyway. There were probably enough crumbs to reconstitute nine boxes of granola bars back there already, so a little mud wasn’t going to change things.
“All right, then. Let’s do it. Levi, do you have any food allergies I should know about before we go?”
He looked up at Craig, a little confused, and Alice jumped in before he could answer. “Daddy and I are both allergic to fish.”
“That’s right,” Craig said. “We’ve got to be careful, don’t we, Alice?”
“If we eat even just a little bit of fish or even if they cook my food with the same stuff they used for fish, my throat will swell up shut and I can’t breathe until Daddy gives me a shot. It’s called anna-plaxis.”
“Anaphylaxis,” Craig corrected.
“The shots are automatic, and you just hit a button on top and POP. We keep them in the drawer by the table so they are right there just in case, and we have to bring one when we go out to eat because they don’t have them there. Can I show him, Daddy?”
Craig chuckled. “Levi doesn’t need to see our EpiPens, kiddo.”
Alice absolutely loved telling people about their shared allergy. He and Courtney had worked hard to normalize it for her so she never felt embarrassed or tried to hide it, because a mistake could legitimately kill her. She might draw out their restaurant experience by explaining every detail to whatever poor waiter drew their table, but it would keep her safe as she got older and didn’t have her parents around all the time to ask questions.
