1
Let us begin as the voyeurs we are.
Morning.
We are looking out a second story window of a house. The backyard is large and green with a wooden jungle gym, worn from use. A single tree throws shade onto a barbecue and a picnic table.
The backyard is lined by crops. Corn. Golden and brown. Six feet high.
Everything is perfect. Like a postcard. And then we hear a child scream.
It's far away, drifting on the wind.
Ianto Jones wakes up from his sleep. He thought he heard something. He listens.
He hears the fridge downstairs, a creaking swing in the yard…birds
Ianto climbs out of bed. He moves in his pyjama pants and Welsh Rugby shirt towards the bedroom door.
Ianto stands in the hall landing where three bedroom doors meet. He moves to the door that has children's drawings taped to it. He puts his ear close. Listens. Beat.
He relaxes. Ianto leans down and picks up two balled up sweat socks and a child's sweater from the hallway floor. He puts it in the hallway hamper before heading back into his bedroom.
A bathroom door is open.
Ianto is brushing his teeth as he tries to remember what he had planned for the day, it seems to have already flitted away with the startled wakening.
Outside the bathroom on the bedroom wall is the sun faded outline of where a large catholic cross used to hang. It's ghostly stained forever on the blank wall.
A child screams in the distance.
The water from the sink stops. Ianto steps into the doorway. Toothbrush and foam in his mouth. He becomes very still.
The bedroom door bursts open next to the bathroom. Ianto steps into his children's room. There are children's books everywhere. Overflowing off shelves. Piled in corners.
Ianto's eyes move to the small messy beds. They're both empty.
The voices of the children waft up around the garage and the flat above said garage. Jack Harkness throws the bed sheets off himself as he swings onto his feet in one quick motion. He is hyper-awake.
Jack is in his late thirties. He is well build. His muscles are tense as he stands in his red bikini briefs and looks around bewildered.
Ianto bangs open the back screen door and runs into the backyard. He spins as he looks around.
Jack, now with a T-shirt and jeans, rumbles down the side stairs adjacent to the garage building.
Jack and Ianto make eye contact as they approach each other across the yard.
"Where are they?" Jack demands of his brother-in-law.
Ianto looks around - panic growing in his eyes.
"Unccccle!" a faint cry is heard. Ianto and Jack in unison turn in the direction of the yelling. They look away from the house, across the yard and into the high wall of crops.
The tall stalks of corn smack Ianto and Jack's faces as they run through the crops.
A little girl appears in the crops thirty feet ahead of them like an apparition. She is in her nightgown. She is four.
They reach her fast. She stands unaware of them in a daze.
Her hair is messed from sleep.
"Toshiko where's Owen?"
Toshiko stands peacefully lost in her thoughts.
"Tosh?" Toshiko finally looks at her Uncle.
She smiles softly.
"Are you in my dreams too?" she asks dreamily.
"This isn't a…"Ianto begins.
"Uncle!"
Ianto looks in the direction of the boy's voice. He's close. Ianto picks up Toshiko and rushes through the crops.
He finds Owen standing with his hands in the pockets of his pyjama bottoms. In the distance dogs are barking.
"Owen what's happening?" Ianto demands of his child as he puts Toshiko on the ground and moves right in front of Owen. The ten-year old boy looks deep in thought.
Ianto takes hold of Owen's chin and turns his face so he's looking straight at him.
"Are... you... hurt?"
Beat.
Owen's eyes reveal he's come to some answer. "I think God did it."
The bloody dogs are still barking.
"Did what Owen?" Ianto asked with confusion.
Owen takes hold of his Uncle's unshaven chin and turns his face. Ianto is forced to look to his right.
Ianto sees something.
Ianto Jones slowly rises to his feet. He starts moving forward towards something. He walks through a thin layer of crops and emerges in a clearing.
Two German Shepherds are running back and forth.
They are clearly agitated.
Ianto looks around at the thousands of corn stalks lying flat on the ground. They lay in a gigantic circle, a hundred feet wide. Ianto looks around in a daze as he walks out into the centre. Jack, Toshiko and Owen follow him.
The dogs keep running and barking as the Harkness-Jones family look around, standing in a gigantic crop circle.
The eerie design, five hundred feet wide, sitting in the middle of an untouched corn field.
.
.
.
Ianto holds his hand over the BBQ to see if it's at the right temperature. The other hand holds a cordless phone to his ear.
"Lee actually the reason I'm calling is about Eugene." Ianto says as he stokes the coals with a long BBQ fork. "Was he at home last night with you or was he out and about with the Huntington brothers?"
Ianto moves around from behind the barbecue and heads towards the house.
"Well, there was a little mischief done to our crops last night." Ianto says then pauses, "I know he's a fine boy... No one's saying otherwise."
Ianto steps through the back screen door into his kitchen. Ianto holds the phone a little closer and talks in a soft voice, "Listen Lee, I don't even mind if it was him. You could just talk to him and that would be enough for me... See it was kind of strange finding the crops like that. The kids were... confused by it. It would take the strangeness away if we knew it was Eugene and the Huntington brothers just messing around..".
"The movies..." Ianto grimaces at the news he didn't really want to hear, " Are you sure? Okay, then... Thank you for your patience Lee."
Ianto turns off the phone. He turns to put it on the counter and realizes his children are seated on the kitchen floor with one of their two German Shepherds. There is a large puddle on the kitchen tiles.
"Myfanwy peed." Owen says calmly "I think she's sick."
Ianto looks at the majestic dog. It's shivering.
"Take her outside. I'll call the Doctor." Ianto suggests and Owen and Toshiko lead their dog out with worried expressions on their faces.
Ianto grabs a handful of paper towels and places it on the puddle of urine. The doorbell rings with Ianto still on his knees on the kitchen floor. He leans back so he can see down the hall.
A slight police officer stands on the other side of the screen door.
"That was quick Andy." Ianto huffs as he lets his friend in "I only called you boys about two hours ago."
Officer Andy Davidson nods that he knows.
Mrs. Noble twisted her ankle as she put it, "diving for her life" when a bunch of school kids rode down the sidewalk on skateboards. She went down to the Williams store this morning and started spitting on the new skateboards. Spitting! By the time I got there, Mrs. Noble had sprayed the whole damn place... She must have had a cold or something. It was enough to turn a grown man's stomach."
Ianto stares at Officer Davidson.
"So what happened to your crops?" Andy asks calmly.
.
.
.
Toshiko walks from the house with a large glass of water. She moves to Myfanwy, who sits in the shade by the picnic table.
Owen pokes the BBQ fork into two meat patties on the grill. He places two pieces of cheese on the hamburgers, before walking over to Myfanwy.
The two children sit down in the grass with the dog.
Toshiko is about to pour the glass of water into the dog bowl.
She stops.
Takes a tiny sip of the water first.
She holds the glass out to Owen. "I think it's contaminated."
"You don't even know what that word means." Owen rolls his eyes as he samples the water. "It's not contaminated. It's just tap water. Pour it in her bowl."
"It tastes funny." She argues.
"She licks her butt every day. She's not going to mind."
Toshiko shrugs and pours it into the bowl.
Myfanwy just sits staring at them.
She is not shivering. She doesn't drink. She is unnaturally still.
Toshiko pushes the bowl closer.
Myfanwy moves quickly, Toshiko pulling her hand back and the jaws snap shut in the space where her hand used to be.
The children turn white.
"Myfanwy?" Owen asks with annoyance.
MYFANWY BEGINS TO GROWL.
Toshiko stands up.
"Toshiko don't run." Owen says softly as Myfanwy crouches down. "What's wrong girl?"
The dog growls, a deep menacing warning and Owen frowns, "Stop it Myfanwy!"
The German shepherd trembles. Her body tightens. She's about to lunge.
"Tosh" Owen says softly, "run."
