The Dragon Tree (6 page)

             
“Sorry you had to hear that,” said Hiroki.

             
“Whatever, I don’t care. He can talk to other girls.”

             
“He’s a jerk,” said Hiroki as he stooped to recover his damaged photo. It was torn on one corner and creased diagonally. “Please just admit that he’s a jerk.”

             
“Are you gonna show me this amazing tree or not?”

             
Hiroki folded the damaged photo and slipped it into his pocket, but handed Eva the folder. She opened it with a frown, expecting to be unimpressed. But the top photo immediately captivated her. She moved it closer for a better look then held it at arm’s length.

             
“That looks like a face,” said Eva. “Like eyes and a mouth and… teeth.”

             
The trunk of the tree was heavily knotted. It played tricks on the eye. There were strange protrusions that gave the impression of a jutting jaw and gaping throat, pitch black at its deepest point. And thorny protrusions along the edge of the knot that looked like a row of shark teeth.

             
“Like the face of an animal,” added Hiroki. “The face of a
creature
.”

             
Eva flipped through the other photos, shaking her head unwittingly as the images washed over her. The eyes that seemed to look out from the trunk of the tree were the most haunting feature of the image. She closed the folder slowly and handed it back to Hiroki, who couldn’t help but smile at her reaction.

             
“We have to go back to that tree,” said Eva.

             
She didn’t look happy about it.

             
                            CHAPTER SIX

              Billy and William had driven up the mountain for more than an hour before they finally reached the top. Billy couldn’t believe the view. The peaks and valleys unfolding before them were so completely covered with mature timber that they looked like a sea of frozen green waves.

             
Billy was still rattled by the strange transformation his body had undergone  during the pre-dawn hours.

             
“If you’re gonna heave,” said William, “roll down the window.”

              Lumber work was
grueling
work.

             
A team of men had already gone through the slope with heavy buzz saws to fell hundreds of trees. A follow-up team led by William patrolled the ravaged slope in hard hats and waited for the men at the top to send hooks zipping down heavy wire lines. They wrapped the lines around severed logs and fixed the hooks, then signaled for the men up top to trigger their heavy machinery and haul the massive logs up and out.

             
At the top of the hill, another team of men helped guide the cut logs into stacks. They used smaller saws to cut away any protruding branches and to cut clean both ends so the logs weren’t too long for the semis they would ride back down the mountain all the way to the processing plant.

             
There were other minor jobs to be performed at the site. Due his total lack of experience, Billy was given the worst job of all: scrap collector.

             
The steady arrival of new logs at the top of the hill left a mess of loose branches and leaf litter on every inch of ground. It was Billy’s job to wait for the few moments between logs then dart out into the “landing zone” and snatch up all the garbage he could.

             
Billy was still exhausted, but he found his second wind by mid-morning and put in several hours of fleet-footed work. He ate lunch with William and a burly machine operator named Al – all three men downing hoagies made by Al’s wife Helen – and suffered through a half hour of aimless football conversation.

             
Billy was still ravenous after his hoagie. He watched the other two men intently in case either couldn’t finish theirs. Unfortunately for Billy, they both ate every bite.

             
“You got a serious appetite on you, kid,” said Al with proud nod. He turned to William. “Soon as he gets off scrap duty and lands a cushy top-of-the-hill gig like mine, all them calories will go straight to his belly. He’ll be as top heavy as yours truly. Am I right, Bill Sr.? I read about that on television.”

             
William rolled his eyes and placed his hard hat back on his head. “Mountain ain’t gonna clear itself, boys.”

             
After the noon meal, Billy was comfortable enough in the rhythm of the job that he started to daydream. His mind went first to the image of Eva’s hair floating as she stared out at the ocean. Did she know that he was watching her? He thought about Hiroki’s tears when the camera slid over the cliff edge and the icy stare Eva sent his way moments after. His pops could curse at him for a solid hour and Billy wouldn’t feel as wounded by it as he felt after two seconds of that stare.

             
He thought about the climb down the cliff face. And the tree halfway down, growing upside-down from the bottom of the rocky shelf.

             
“Hey kid, quit picking your nose!” yelled Al from behind the controls of his rig.

             
Billy had daydreamed too long and had failed to see the landing zone clear. It was his time to run out and collect branches. He wasn’t sure how many precious seconds he had wasted imagining the gnarled branches of that strange tree, but he knew he better hustle.

             
Down the slope, William wired up a log the length of a school bus. He gave Al the signal, and the tree came flying up the zip line. It swung from the wire around its circumference, headed straight for Billy. He had no chance to get out of the way on his own, but Al saw the danger and was quick on his controls. He slammed the hauler’s brakes and the log stopped its quick ascent just shy of the landing zone. The force of the abrupt stop was so great that the log jerked violently and the wire zip line snapped with the tension.

             
“Dammit!” yelled Al as the loose log barreled down the hill headed straight for a half dozen helpless men. He reached for his air horn and pumped it angrily. The horn screamed loudly enough that William’s slope team heard it and bolted for cover. The log bounced past the men, shattering with every impact and filling the air with massive splinters.

             
William was screaming furiously as he scanned the top of the hill, and his eyes soon landed on a mortified Billy.

             
The site foreman – a hulking man in bright red hardhat and suspenders – came charging at Al’s rig with his hands balled in fists. When the foreman turned to glare at him Billy knew what Al must have said.

             
“Get off my mountain,” the foreman growled at Billy.

             
Billy glanced down the slope one last time to see if his father would intervene on his behalf. He scanned the felled timber and stumps for a few moments, but he could not pick out William’s hardhat from the others.

             
“Right now, kid,” said the furious foreman.

***

              Billy hitched a ride with one of the truck drivers hauling loads of timber down the mountain. At the bottom, they parted ways and Billy walked the last five miles into Hudson and the RV park.

             
He groaned when he saw Eva and Hiroki waiting for him.

             
“Look, it’s been a hell of a day. I almost killed about ten guys. Whatever you want, the answer is no,” said Billy with a yawn. He strode past his two visitors and inside the trailer.

             
“I knew it!” Hiroki threw his hands in the air, already fed up.

             
Eva glared at Hiroki and barreled through the trailer door on Billy’s heels. He spun to yell at her and kick her out, but she was inexplicably grinning.

             
Eva handed him Hiroki’s folder.

             
“You’re a terrible photographer,” she said. “I have to see it for myself.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

             
The trio stood beside Hiroki’s Buick on the plateau overlooking the mighty Pacific. Hiroki was untangling the pile of nylon rope from his mother’s stash, and Billy was watching with his mouth hanging open.

             
“My mother had a mini-midlife crisis when she hit forty,” said Hiroki by way of explanation. “She tried spelunking, hang gliding and rock climbing.”

             
“You’re crazier than I thought,” said Billy. “You think you can just watch a few Youtube clips and learn how to use all that crap?”

             
Hiroki held up a carabineer in the dim late afternoon light. “You’re the one who’s climbing back down.”

             
Billy looked across the car at Eva, who was shaking her head nervously. Her ponytail was looser than usual, a few strands of her hair whipping in the breeze. She was listening to their conversation, but she was doing her best not to look at either of them.

             
“Um, Eva?” asked Billy. “You freaked out last time I did this, but now you’re cool with it? This guy shows up with a couple of neon green ropes and you’re completely at ease?”

             
Eva slowly turned to face him. “You don’t have to do the climb. I’ll go.”

             
The boys flinched and shared a wide-eyed glance. They turned back to Eva in slow motion and with synchronization so perfect it was comical.

             
“Not a chance,” said Hiroki.

             
“Uh-uh,” Billy echoed. His skin was suddenly itchy from wrist to elbow. He covertly rubbed his arms with his palms.

             
Eva noticed him rubbing his skin. She squinted in the dim light and leaned over the car to get a better look, but Billy quickly pulled down his sleeves and jammed his hands in his pockets. If the bizarre scales were coming back to his skin, Billy welcomed the setting of the sun and the darkness that came with it.

             
“I appreciate the chauvinism guys,” said Eva with a frown. “But Hiro is afraid of heights and you, Billy – you’re acting weird.”

             
“I’m just tired. Didn’t get any sleep last night,” said Billy defensively.

             
“Then you’re definitely not doing the climb,” said Eva.

             
Billy was too busy itching his arms through the sleeves of his shirt to argue. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. I don’t feel that great.”

             
Billy turned his back to Hiroki and Eva, concerned that those disgusting black hairs might be pushing their way through his pores again. He needed the sun to hurry up and set! And yet, at the same time, he couldn’t help but notice that the closer the sun got to the horizon the more he felt his entire body protesting. His hunger had returned with a vengeance, a hunger so powerful that it was nearly painful. He doubled over as he stumbled away from the Buick and sat down on the rocky center of the plateau.

             
“Billy doesn’t look that good,” said Hiroki. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this tonight.”

             
Eva shook her head. “I told you I wanted to see the tree for myself. Not more pictures. So
we
don’t have to do it. Just me.”

             
Hiroki locked eyes with Eva and waited for her to give some sign she was joking. There was nothing in her face to comfort him. Her expression could not have been more stony and determined if she tried.

             
“No Eva. I can’t let you…” He gathered up the ropes and turned his back to her, desperate to make sure she didn’t see the fear in his eyes. “Just… no.”

             
“You know what, Hiro? I expect this male superiority crap from him,” she said as she wagged her thumb at Billy.               He was sitting Indian-style on the rocks, still clutching his stomach. He moved one hand to the small of his back and rubbed it. It was obvious he was in some pain.

             
Eva went on, her eyes fiery. “I like you because you’re a little more enlightened than
him
. At least I thought you were. I’m not a helpless little girl who needs you to protect me with your boy brain and your boy muscles. I can probably beat you in an arm-wrestling match, and I can
definitely
beat you in a race. So if you’re done
not
impressing me with your boy courage, let’s just get on with it.”

             
Hiroki’s bottom lip turned down in a comically juvenile frown.

             
Eva snatched the ropes from his limp arms and marched toward the cliff edge. “We’re running out of light.”

              Eva tried to play it cool as she lowered herself over the edge, but her heart was running laps in her chest. The harness she wore was too big for her thin body and its straps were cutting off the circulation in her legs.

             
You just had to make it a feminist thing. Nice, Eva.

             
She had been paying attention while Hiroki watched the Youtube clips, and she’d seen enough movies with rock climbing in them that the basic physics of repelling made sense to her. All she had to do was lean back so she was horizontal, plant her feet on the rocks, and walk backwards down the cliff wall.

             
Those stupid movies never mentioned how dizzy you would get when you made the very understandable mistake of looking down.

             
The cliff was so steep it looked like it was angling
under
itself. The uneven surface of the rocks seemed to be rippling like the ancient stone was alive and upset with her for kicking it. And the gray ocean water crashing against the rocks at the base of the cliff could not look more malicious. It splashed up the cliff face like a pack of wild dogs anxious for her to fall so they could eat her alive.

             
Okay, now you’re just getting dramatic.

             
“Doing great, Eva! You’re halfway down already! Keep your hands on the rope and keep your feet on the wall. And whatever you do, don’t look down!”

             
“A little too late with that advice, Hiro!” she hollered. The crashing waves below her were so loud she could barely hear her own voice, so she wasn’t sure he could hear her either.

             
A moment later, his concerned face disappeared from view.

              Hiroki couldn’t figure out where to look.

             
On the one hand, that was Eva climbing down the cliff. Eva! She was athletic and coordinated and graceful and… he could go on all day. But he’d never seen her do anything like this before. Not only was she blowing his mind with her bravery and determination, she was also scaring the hell out of him. The farther she got from the plateau where he was kneeling, the closer she seemed to get to certain doom. He was concerned for Billy when Billy made the perilous descent, and that was just Billy. If that jerk had taken a fall, at least it wouldn’t have been any great loss for humanity. But if Eva fell? Hiroki wasn’t sure he could survive something that awful.

             
You did survive something that awful. Dad never came home.

             
He pushed both painful thoughts out of his mind and spun around to look at the other impossible-not-to-watch phenomenon currently underway: As the sun continued to slip below the horizon, Billy’s condition was deteriorating.

             
The pain in his back was so great that he could no longer sit up. Lying on his side, he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He clawed at his lower back with one hand while the other clawed at the rocks. Hiroki was stunned to see that Billy’s fingernails were strong enough to carve grooves into the stone. He kicked out his legs again and again like he was riding a bicycle. Each time one of his feet struck the rock it made a thud like a hammer on concrete and raised a cloud of dust.

             
Hiroki took a quick glance over the cliff edge – he still couldn’t see Eva. So he gulped down his fear and crawled closer to Billy. “You’re freaking me out, Billy. I don’t understand what’s happening. What do I do? What do I do to help you?”

             
“Get away from me, Hiro,” Billy groaned.

             
Hiroki looked Billy up and down. Even in the dim light, he could see that Billy’s exposed skin – his face, neck and hands – was displaying a strange pattern. It looked as though he had slept pressed against a chain link fence and his skin had shallow depressions from the grid. The color of his skin was changing, too. Billy usually had pale skin to match his blond hair and blue eyes. But now, even in the twilight, his skin was noticeably darker.

             
“I think you need a doctor, Billy. As soon as Eva gets back up here, I’m taking you to a doctor.”

             
“Shut up!” Billy cried, his contortions growing more exotic.

             
Hiroki’s eyes followed the thuds and landed again on Billy’s shoes. The material was straining as if his feet were trying to escape. The seam between the rubber sole of one shoe and the toe stretched until the tight threads holding it together started snapping and Billy’s toes poked through. They had already torn through his sock, and it was obvious why: his black toenails were pointed at the end.

             
“Billy—”

             
“Get away from me!” screamed Billy. But the voice that erupted from his throat was a bizarre perversion of Billy’s voice. It was several octaves deeper and full of rumbling reverberation, like a bellow from the depths of a cave. The veins in his throat were pulsing rapidly and the pattern on his skin was growing more pronounced. “I don’t want to hurt you, Hiro! Get away!”

             
Hiroki was frozen in place, unable to look away from Billy. Both of his shoes were torn open. The rest of his clothes were straining against internal pressure as well. One pant leg had already torn along its length and exposed Billy’s dark leg. His muscles were throbbing under his scaly skin. No, not throbbing. They were
growing
, right before Hiroki’s eyes. Billy rolled over with his back to Hiroki, and Hiroki watched in awe as the shirt on Billy back stretched and tore along the length of his spine.

             
Is that a spine?

             
Hiroki leaned in without realizing he was leaning, his eyes focused on Billy’s vertebrae as they rose and fell under his skin. Was it Billy’s breath that was lifting the bones that seemed to grow with each passing second? Or was his spine every bit as alive as the throbbing and expanding muscles on Billy’s arms and legs? What was happening to the skin under Billy’s arms? It was stretching out from elbow to shoulder. It was translucent, like the webbing of an amphibian. And what was the pulsing bulk at the base of Billy’s spine that pushed against his belt as if ready to break through his skin, as if ready to hatch?

             
Billy arched his back violently and unleashed a throaty scream. And then he opened his eyes and locked them on Hiroki’s.

             
Black eyes. No white.

              Eva had finally worked up the courage to look down. She hadn’t thought her heart could beat any faster than it already was, but the sight of the churning water sent a new surge of fear through her blood.

             
Then she saw it – the rocky shelf that Billy had described! And just like he promised, it was shielded from the harbor by a curtain of rock. It was only about ten feet below her and a little to the left. She would have to move sideways a few feet, but she would touch down on solid ground in a matter of minutes if she kept moving. She had to keep moving.

             
But then Billy screamed.

             
Eva had a fraction of a second – maybe less – to process the sound. The ghastly rumble and the vibrations of the cliff wall could mean nothing but an earthquake. Her instant terror dissolved her deep focus, and her fraction of a second expired as a single thought filled up all the space in her mind.

             
I’m going to fall.

             
Thinking the nightmarish thought made it a reality. Her fingers slipped off the rope and her feet slipped off the rocks. She dropped only a few inches before the harness caught her weight, but the impact jarred her painfully and she spun away from the cliff. When she swung back toward the rocks, she was facing the harbor and could not see the inevitability of the impact. The back of her head stuck a bulging rock and lightning bolts surged between her ears.

             
She was dizzy with the pain and badly disoriented. She felt the sharp pinching of the harness against her legs, but she couldn’t quite understand the cause. Hanging heavy on the ropes and gently spinning, she raised her fingers to her hair and probed beneath it until she felt water. Thick, warm water.