CHAPTER 3
Frank guided the van onto the soft dirt, out the door before the rumble of the engine faded. He skidded down the small drop at the base of the steel bridge abutment to the stone span below; pebbles avalanching beneath the tread of his shoes. The curve of the pavement circumvented the older, partially crumbling structure. He'd driven the length of the river road twice now, and the tip of the lion's head sculpture had caught his eye both times. How in the world had he missed Joe?
No tire tracks marred the ground, nor did a mangled guardrail suggest the sedan had dropped from one bridge to the other. Frank pulled his eyes up from his sneakers to the gurgle of the flowing water, half afraid to look.
"Joe?" The cell phone dangled in the arm scraping the soil for balance as he called into the frosty night. "JOE?"
The car wasn't here. His brother wasn't here. But-
"JOE?" The louder bellow produced the same results.
"Frank?"
Disappointment trending into despair sliced through the older of the brothers when he realized the query still travelled through the phone. Frank slid his spine down the mortared blocks of the pillar, the lion now unfurling his mane above the boy's bowed head.
"I'm here, Joe. Still here." Question is, where are you, little brother?
"You find the bridge, Frank?... Thought I heard... the van..."
"I thought I found it." Weariness bled through in his words. "This is the only spot that matches your description, Joe. I was so sure... I'm sorry."
"It's s'ok... uhh.. Try again? I see... um... There's an oak... hanging over the bridge... Big fat limbs... Third one up has-"
Frank picked up the description, "a perfect tree house fork like the one in the backyard, except-"
"about twice as big..." and Joe finished it. "Frank, we're... looking..."
"at the same tree. How, Joe? I see the tree, I see the lion, how can I not see you?"
"Don't know... uhhh... Why are you... doing that?"
"What?"
"Laughing and... uh... whispering."
"I'm not, I promise I'm not. When have I ever thought it was funny that you're hurt?"
"N-never." Joe shifted, damping a sharp intake of breath. "Cold... Frank?... Where are you?"
"Joe, I'm trying, I am. I'm sorry."
"Know that... Where... precisely?"
"Leaning on the pillar."
Joe shifted a bit further, groaning. "Which side?"
"Downhill, facing the water." Frank riffled through his hair, startled by the snowflakes that scattered to the billowed white blanket at his feet. It wasn't snowing when I parked the van. I know it wasn't. It has to be a good forty degrees.
"I think... I can... get there."
"Joe, no. You're going to hurt yourself worse if you move. I will find you."
"Yeah... but it'll be easier... if I come where you are."
"Don't move, please? I've called the police a dozen times, I've called Sam again; once I get to you, they'll have to come, Joe. We'll get you to the hospital. You'll be ok."
"Frank?... Don't think... I can wait... Not hurt so bad maybe, but...I 'm really cold..."
"Don't say that, ok? You're going to be alright. You will." Please believe that; if you will, then I will.
"Ow... ugh... geeze hurts... ow ow ow... "
"Your moving, aren't you? Joe, stay put-"
"Will... uurrgh... soon as I... ow... get to the pillar. Ah, boy, that hurts... almost there... ow... Yes!"
"Yes, what?" Frank took some comfort in the halt of the wheezed gasps. Joe must have come to a stop.
"I made it... to the pillar... Where'd you go?"
No, not possible. Not at all. No way. Nope. "I'm still sitting here staring at the water, Joe, and I hate to bring it up, but you're not here."
"Must be at opposite... ends...of bridge."
Frank seized on the rational explanation, glaring through the swirling snow at the other end of the structure, a scant thirty feet away. A matching pillar flanked the stone sidewall, complete with feline adornment.
Joe struggled to his feet, mirroring the thousand yard stare. Neither brother sighted the other.
"Snow's... pretty heavy..."
"Yeah, the visibility's awful. I can barely see across." Twin slashes of illumination from the van's headlights feebly challenged the night.
"Must be it..." Joe fought to bar fear from his reply. Only the certainty that Frank was coming had made the situation bearable.
"But Joe? How come I see the lion fine?"
The few brown leaves clinging to branches rattled and the wind howled about, and yet a pervasive silence filled the woods.
Joe finally ventured into the chasm. "You hear that?"
Frank reluctantly blinked the tableau away, conceding he couldn't somehow conjure Joe out of sheer willpower. "Yeah, wind's picking up."
"Not that... the giggle."
"I told you-"
"I know that's... not you, bro. You don't... giggle."
Frank closed his eyes, mentally sifting every sound in the wintry forest. "You hit your head; but I must plain be crazy. I hear it."
"Hang up the phone." Joe clicked his off before Frank could protest.
"Frank?... Still hear me?"
The whispered question drifted in with the snowflakes, winding through his bones to spike a shiver down his spine. He sounds so far away..so... hollow. "Yes. You?"
"Muffled, but... I can hear you." Joe managed a faint snort. "Guess... you are...here... huh?... Here being the... twilight zone..."
"This isn't possible, Joe. It's absolutely not, and I don't believe in the twilight zone. I'm coming across the creek to get you."
"Not sure... that's a good... idea. Getting the feeling... this bridge... isn't quite right... There's a light up the... bank a bit... House, probably...I'll go there."
"You can't go anywhere; you can't even get through a sentence at one go."
"Can, too."
"That one doesn't count. Don't move." The older boy knew the chances of that were pretty much zero. His brother's stubborn streak would revolt either against being bossed around or passive acceptance of his fate; or more probably both. Please just sit still and let me help you.
Ten minutes and six falls later, Frank was soaked to the skin, the tumbled rocks of the stream bed supplying nothing in the way of traction. How'd he drive over this; the whole deck's in pieces.
No Joe anywhere. He doubled over at the edge of the flowing water, palms braced against his knees, blowing hard enough to have run a marathon. Shouldn't have been that difficult, Hardy. Stream's like slogging through frozen molasses.
He scowled dumbfounded at the ossified cat. The stylized curls molded into the sculpted mane were predictable, the deep metallic green auto paint flecks smeared amongst them were not.
"Joe? JOE?" Frank was rapidly shouting away the last of his voice.
"Not so... loud...dude."
Frank whirled around, the familiar weight of his brother's touch skimming across his back. His fingers opened to grasp Joe's shoulder, determined to pull him close, inexplicably capturing only empty winter sky.
Tee hee hee... tee hee...
"Joe?"
"Have to... go inside... too cold..."
"You didn't want me to hang up last time, and now you want split up? I don't understand."
"Me neither... scared to... gotta go... "
"NO! Don't go anywhere. You don't know how far that house is, you don't know how badly you're hurt, the snow could pick up again and cause a whiteout, that maniacal giggle may come from a bona fide maniac-"
"Regular ray... o' sunshine... aren't ya?... I can... get there... unghhh, hurts... can't stay here... so cold... Go back... Frank... Please, go back."
He's scared... Why can't I see him? What if?... No, don't be insane, Hardy, that's crazy. You are not talking to your little brother's ghost... I can almost touch him. He crashed, but he's here. Now he sees lights I don't...Oh, no... I'd know if he... No, NO! Frank's imagination revved into overdrive, throttling out hope until logic ultimately reasserted its supremacy in all things Frank.
So, if Joe died in this spot, then where's the car? Answer me that, Einstein? There's a perfectly normal explanation for this - somewhere - I just don't happen to know what it is.
Frank stood his ground another ten minutes, calling out alternating with dialing the phone, the chattering of his teeth travelling down to his sodden toes. Joe never answered his shrieked pleas.
He went to a house. A house I can't begin to find. Fine, straightforward enough. I'm hauling myself out of this water and into that police station, and then Barney Fife can get out of his bloody desk chair and into his squad car if I have to stuff him in there through the tailpipe.
You're it.
No, you're it.
Am not, Abigail. You're it.
Joe swiped the pink tinged snow away from his nose, the crusted ice abrading his face the first clue that he'd stumbled. Again. The farther he meandered into the trees, the less certain he was this had been his idea. He'd heard himself tell Frank to go, but he honestly couldn't remember coming to that decision. Worse was the recollection of Frank screaming himself hoarse while Joe resolutely limped away. "I shouldn't ...have done that... Wouldn't have..."
"Gotta get up." The younger Hardy voiced his thoughts aloud, preferring that to the increasingly intrusive whispers. He was more or less trudging upstream, perversely grateful for the fierce cold clawing up his legs. "Can't feel them... as much... Small favors."
He struggled to his knees, drafting a nearby sapling to push the rest of the way upright. "Aaahhh... ow. Ok, so maybe ...I still feel them... some."
Ollie Ollie oxen free.
"Someone there?" Joe froze, holding his breath. "Hello?"
Hee hee hee.
This old man, he played one, he played knick knack on my thumb...
"Are you lost?... Awfully late... to be out... Hello?... Do you need... help?" Joe wasn't at all certain how he could rescue children wandering the forest at night when he was hopelessly lost himself, but he couldn't abandon them out here. "Should backtrack... to Frank... wherever that is..."
Heheheee tee hee hee.
I'm a little teapot, short and stout...
He waited, wondering whether he should seek out the treble voices or keep going. He needed help, and needed it soon, but they were children, perhaps as frozen and tired as he was.
Come out and play with us.
One , two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive...
A flash of powder blue skirt whipped behind a tree. Joe bit his lip, reluctant to admit his unease. "Unease... yeah right... Think I've... made it well ...into completely freaked out."
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout...
Come play.
"I'll help you... if I can... Hello?..."
Tee hee hee.
Five, six, Pick up sticks. Seven, eight, close the gait...
"Hello? Anyone there?... Just kids... probably just kids... harmless..." Yet every instinct screamed at him they were anything but. "Hit my head harder ...than I thought ...that's all. ...Almost to the house ...can rest and let...Frank say told ...you so."
London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...
"Who's there?" Joe's better foot shot out from under him, landing him flat on his back. "Umphff... " For long moments he thought the air driven from his chest was gone for good, fish-mouthed gasps providing nothing. A sickly whoosh accompanied the long awaited next breath.
Finally able to move, he grabbed at a bulge prodding his hip. "Just like... prince and... the pea..." He wrapped his hand around the object and wiggled it from beneath him, cold stiffened fingers unable to discern what it was until he held it before his eyes. "A jack in the box... more toys... out to get me..."
He tossed the rusted tin box aside, once again forced to spend what little strength he had to regain his feet. "Gotta get there soon... or not gonna get there... at all..."
Ring around the rosy, pocket full of poesy...
Come out and play...
"Just kids, Hardy.. nothing to be... scared of... Not that I'm... scared... I like little kids... Frank... says I'm... still a... kid.." Joe staggered from one tree trunk to the next, balance ebbing even as the tide of murmurs grew. The fleeting glimpses of billowed dresses and flying pigtails sped up, joined by fleeing boys in old fashioned caps. He wheeled at each mirage, only have it vanish with a direct look. "Don't like... these kids... so much..."
Frank and Callie, sittin' in a tree...
Come pla-aay...
Down in the valley where the green grass grows, there sat Iola, sweet as a rose...
"Our names... you know... our names... No more chocolate... before bed... for me..." Joe wrapped his arm around a slender trunk, fighting to get his bearings. "Light was... that way?... Trees are.. closing in... Frank?"
All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel...
Red Rover, Red Rover, send Joey right over...
"Stop! Stop it!... Go away!" Little fingers suddenly snatched at his coat tail, snuck into his pockets; feathered touches never quite seen. "Not real... not."
Jo-eeeey... Come out come out wherever you are...
Joe-eeeeey
The small bodies increasingly fluttered against him, patting his cheeks, swinging on his belt, plucking at his pant legs. The whispers crescendoed against his battered ears, unfazed by the arms he clamped about his head.
"No... don't... no..."
Come out come out wherever you are...
Joe-eeey...
Ephraim, Amelia, time to come inside...
Ashes, ashes...
"No... please..." The swirling shadows around him shaded into cherubic faces the color of ice. "No...please... Don't... don't touch... me..." The ethereal hands solidified to drive Joe to his knees. "No... no... Frank!"
Horace, Abigail, come ho-ome...
Come pla-aay...
Joe-eeey...
Joseph, come insi-i-ide..
Joe-eeey...
"No... please... please... Frank?... help me..."
We all fall down!
To be continued...