The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman (28 page)

"Hold on!" her mother yelled. "Ya sit your butt
right down there and tie up them laces b'fore you trip and kill
yourself!"

Katie sighed, then sat down on the bottom step
and did as she was told. She looked up and stared at her mother,
and continued to stare.

"What?" she said.

"Ya didn't tell me ta tie my hair back b'fore I
get it caught on somethin' and kill myself," Katie said.

"I'm gonna get me a switch!"

"What is that number fer Wayne?" She smiled at
her mother and her mother chuckled and smiled back.

"Just get your scrawny ass out back and do as
ya's told. And don't leave the back yard, okay? It's important with
that old man out and about."

"You reckon since the soldiers are leavin'
Vietnam, they ain't never gonna find daddy?" She stood up and
grabbed a rubber band off the hall table and tied her hair back in
a pony tail.

"I guess they had a year ta find his body," her
mother said. "Guess that's more than a person can expect fer 'em ta
be lookin'."

"Reckon so," Katie said. She walked into the
kitchen and grabbed the small garbage can and then grabbed the
bigger can just outside the back door and let the screen slam shut.
The smaller can was not a problem but she had to drag the bigger
one. She looked up in the air and sniffed. "Prob'ly gonna rain
tonight," she said. "I can smell it."

"Hey Katiedid!" A girl about her age was running
out of the woods across the gravel backroad and continued into her
backyard. She was wearing old coveralls and had her short brown
hair tucked under a straw hat.

"Hey Tammy!" She stopped her chore and waited
for her friend to get to her. "Whatcha doin' out there in the
woods?"

"I done found me a secret!" Tammy was out of
breath, but grabbed the other handle on the bigger garbage can and
helped Katie carry it toward the back of the yard.

"A secret out there in the woods?" Katie said.
"Ain't nothin' out there 'ceptin' sassafras trees and blood roots
that's worth being secretive about."

"Naw, this is a big 'un!" she said. "This old
man showed me."

"Ya followed an old man inta the woods?" Katie
said.

"It weren't like that," she said. "I coulda took
him in a fair fight anyways if'n he tried to touch me improper."
They both dropped the big can and Katie dumped the smaller one on
the ground as Tammy started gathering up a bit of brush to help get
the fire going. "Anyway, he showed me this here secret and now I
gotta show it ta you."

"Ya
gotta
show it to me?" Katie said. She
waited for Tammy to drop the kindling onto the garbage, then struck
a match and lit a few pieces of paper and tossed them onto the
pile. "Like a curse or somethin'?"

"Naw! Well, sorta, I reckon," Tammy said. "If I
can show ya, the old man said I'd be gittin' some big reward."

They both started tossing handfuls of garbage
from the bigger can into the fire. "This old guy have a black suit
and shiny black shoes?"

"Yep!" Tammy said. "Hey, how'd ya know?"

"He was at the house a bit ago," she said. "Gave
me this ring."

Tammy grabbed her hand and took a good look at
the design. "I seen this design out in the woods!"

"What?" Katie jerked her hand back and held the
back of her hand close to Tammy's face. "This design?"

Tammy nodded. "Yep," she said. "That's part a
the secret. They's some sorta big metal box thing out there and
this design is on it."

"That's just plume weird," Katie said. "Ya's
lying your ass off, ain't cha?"

"No way!" she said. "The old guy just wanted me
ta get you to come and see."

"So he could kill us both, prob'ly, or sell us
to a whore house er somethin'."

"Hey, they make good money, ya know!" Tammy
said, and then burst out laughing. "Anyway, ya gotta go with me,
okay? I want my reward from 'im."

"Ya really thinkin' this old man is safe ta be
around?" Katie said. She was beginning to wonder about the metal
box with the same design as the ring. "Help me dump the rest of the
can on the fire and we'll go out there," she said. "But if anything
at all strikes me as weird, I'm runnin' outa there screamin' 'rape'
at the top of my lungs. Momma told me not to leave the yard."

"Deal!" Tammy said. She grabbed Katie's hand and
tugged her toward the woods until they both began running.

"Hey!" Katie's mother yelled. She was standing
in the back doorway. "Where y'all goin! Don't go out there!"

"Gotta see somethin' in the woods, momma!" Katie
yelled. The two girls disappeared into the undergrowth.

"God damn it, I'm gonna wear her out!"

"They's snakes out this time a year," Katie
said. They both stopped for a moment, and then started again at a
slower, more careful pace.

"I been through here a couple times already and
ain't been bit," Tammy said. "It ain't much further, anyhow."

"Girls!" a voice called out to them from a
little further ahead. Katie recognized it as the voice of the old
man who had given her the ring.

"This just don't feel right ta me," she said.
But they both kept walking and stepped over and through a few grape
vines and came out of the undergrowth and into a small clearing
where a large tree had once stood. And in the indentation in the
ground, there was a large metal box, half-buried with loose dirt
around it, big enough to have been a coffin. It was rusty, painted
green at one time, but seemed to have had a few repairs and
touch-ups, and the door, though locked, had one hinge replaced with
bailing wire. But on the door, there was a painted design that
exactly matched the design of the ring. The old man was standing
beside it, apparently proud of the object.

"You!" He pointed at Katie.

"What you want, old man?" she said. "You want
your cheap old ring back, you got it. But you didn't ought to bring
Tammy into it. She ain't too smart and you're takin' advantage of
her stupidity."

"Hey!" Tammy said. "She turned to the old man.
"Where's my reward?"

"It's in this box," he said. He bent down
gingerly, his old bones snapping and popping, and undid the lock.
"It's right in here, look!"

Tammy walked closer. "Let me see! Let me
see!"

He opened the door and stood up as she got
closer, and as she peered in he pushed her and she tripped and fell
into the box and he quickly closed the lid.

"Hey!" Katie said. "What have you done to
her?!"

He smiled and pointed a bony finger at her. "She
was told to bring you
and
the box," he said. He pointed at
the big box. "Worthless children rot in hell." He looked back at
her and smiled and it was only then that she noticed the old man's
teeth were coal black. Not rotten, but they were as black as night.
"You should have placed the ring in the box!"

"It's not the right one!" Katie yelled. "Your
ring is just cheap junk!" And with that, she took off running
through the woods. She could hear him following, slowly, but
following and keeping up since she was too small to step over most
of the obstacles. But she made it to the edge of the woods and
stomped across the backroad and into her yard just as the old man
burst through the edge of the woods. But he suddenly stopped. "The
box, lass! I need the box!"

"My daddy gave me that before he went away," she
said. "You'll never get if from me!"

"Stupid little bitch!" he yelled. And as his
words reverberated, he disappeared.

"Katie!" her mother yelled. "Get your ass in
here, now!" She stood on the back porch and motioned frantically.
"Come on, quick, in the house!" Katie followed her and as the
screen door slammed behind them, she quickly plopped down in a
kitchen chair and leaned over onto the table for support.

"Ya okay, momma," Katie said. She was starting
to cry, but was trying to hide it with a smile. But she didn't have
a clue about what was going on or who the old man was or what had
happened to Tammy. The entire evening was starting to feel like a
weird dream.

"I knowed this was a gonna happen some day," she
said. "I just knowed it."

"What mamma, what is all a this about?"

"Your daddy," she said. She looked up and then
motioned Katie to come closer and she hugged her. "Ya seen the old
box?"

"In the woods?" Katie said. "I seen it, but the
old man pushed Tammy in it and locked it up."

"Your daddy buried that out there," her mother
said. "The day you was born, he was out there burying the damned
thang."

"But..."

"That box has powers," she continued. "Same as
the small box he gave you."

"Why does the old man want my little box, then,
if he has the big one?" She ran a cold glass of water and sat it
down in front of her mother. "You better tell me momma, 'cause I
think if I don't know everything, I'm gonna be in bad trouble."

Her mother took a drink and nodded. "If he has
both, and the ring, they will all fit together and allow him to
travel back to where he came from. He's trapped here right now and
weak. Your daddy did it. By mistake, but he trapped that devil here
just the same. I didn't recognize 'im earlier, guess I just tried
my best not ta remember."

There was a knock on the front door and Katie
jumped. She looked around the edge of the door facing and down the
hall and saw the shadow outside. It was him, the old man, just as
he had first approached earlier. "It's him," she whispered. "Why
don't he just break in and take my box and the ring back?"

"He cain't get in," her mother said. "Your daddy
sealed this house. Only way he can get it is if you give it to
'im."

"We're safe, then?" Katie said.

Her mother nodded. "For now."

Katie jumped out into the hallway and pointed
toward the door and yelled. "Fuck you old man!"

"Katie!" her mother said.

"We's fightin' a demon and you're callin' me on
my language?"

The old man pounded on the door. "Open the door!
I have a proposition for you!"

"I'm too young to propose to!" Her mother was
standing behind her now and Katie looked back with a worried smile.
"I don't know what to do, momma. I'm just a little girl."

Her mother patted her on the head. "I know,
sweetie, I know. Give me the ring." She stepped around her daughter
and walked closer to the door. "She didn't fall for your trick.
That why you're so pissed off? Cause you failed again? She's got
her father's good blood." She threw the ring at the door and it
disappeared before it got there. "Cheap shit!"

"I reckon he gave me that thinkin' I'd put it in
my box," Katie said. "I just could tell it weren't right. But I'm
wonderin' about Tammy." She cocked her head. "Gotta go to my room,"
she said and grabbed her mother's hand and ran up the stairs.

"What are ya doin'?"

Katie opened the drawer and reached under the
panties and socks and pulled out the box. "It's connected, right?
To the big box?" She opened the lid and looked inside. She had
expected to see a small version of Tammy inside, but it was empty.
"Well shit!"

"Can ya hear me?!" a voice said from the box. It
was Tammy.

"That you?" Katie said.

"It's me!" Tammy said. "I'm in a weird place,
kinda scary." Katie could here her sniff away her tears. "I don't
know if'n I should walk down this tunnel or just sit still."

"Sit still, Tammy!" Katie's mom yelled. "Don't
walk down the tunnel!"

There was a pause. "Okay, Mrs. Crabtree, I'll
just sit down here."

"Good girl," her mother said. "Just sit and
close your eyes. There ain't nothin' real where you's at, but it's
gonna scare ya bad if you don't close your eyes. But it's all fake,
jus' ta scare ya."

"Yes ma'am."

"Tammy, I'll get ya outa there, just give me
some time," Katie said. "I'll talk back at you in a little
bit."

"Hurry!"

Katie closed the lid on the box. "Momma, how do
you know all this?"

Her mother sat down on the edge of the bed and
patted beside her for Katie to sit as well. "Right before you was
borned there was a bad string a little kids disappearin'. No one
was figurin' out who was doin' it, but it was effectin' all of us,
'specially me with you on the way. But your daddy was out with a
bunch a boys searchin' the woods one night when they found what
they all knowed was somethin' evil. There was an old rusty box and
when they managed ta open it up, inside was that there smaller
wooden box. Them boys dragged it outa the woods and the devil
caught up with them. A couple of the boys was killed outright but
somehow your daddy knew to take the small box outa the big box.
When he did the devil turned inta that old man and though he was
still strong, the rest of 'em managed ta fight 'im off and they
brought the big box out yonder in the woods and buried it. And
after goin' to the Huntington library fer a month straight, he
found some old book that looked like what told about what was goin'
on. He learned from that book about old gods and protection spells
and stuff, how to protect this house and he managed ta get two a
them kids outa the big box. I reckon he thought it were all over
then and gave you the little box thankin' your pure mind would
confuse the old man even more 'bout it."

"I don't think I'm gonna understand most a that
till I'm older," Katie said. "But, the house protects the box and
us from the old man?"

"Yep," her mother said. "I reckon the old man
finally found the big box and digged it up. He musta tricked Tammy
inta lurin' you out there after he gave ya the ring. He musta
thought ya'd put it in the box and have it with ya."

"But the old man ain't all-powerful, then, like
a god?" Katie said. "He can be beat."

"I think he can maybe even be killed," her
mother said. "Accordin' to the book, your daddy said, but it needed
some big sacrifice that he couldn't figure out. But he shouldn't a
been able ta even get to the front door, so maybe the protection is
wearin' off."