The Raven Mocker (10 page)

The ghost had left their midst, hopefully never to come back. Regardless, damage had been done. For the rest of her stay, Ruth Gaurni’er would sleep little. In the more comforting light of day, he’d catch her frequently looking over her shoulder as if waiting for some menace to come for her. The same unfriendly spirit, come back for yet another round with the Hobbs’ clan? Or, maybe some other thing…perhaps a thing
worse
… now quickened from her distant, secret past.

Chapter Ten

“
See, Grandpa? I told you everything would be okay.”

Evelyn held the front door open to John’s cabin, wide enough to allow Hanna to move past them both. Careful to not bump into either one, Hanna’s arms were laden with fancy wrapped packages concealing gifts she and Evelyn purchased that morning from the largest shopping mall in Pigeon Forge.

John stood in the doorway, wearing a slight smile as Evelyn brushed past him to catch up to Hanna in the living room. He paused to watch his granddaughters, giggling near the Christmas tree he’d cut from the edge of his property yesterday morning with Evelyn’s help. The girls did a great job decorating the six-foot spruce late last night, long after the latest assault from the anisgina had passed. His only worry had been Evelyn’s insistence this morning to finish her Christmas shopping.

He couldn’t shake the fear of something worse befalling them after last night, when complete darkness engulfed the cabin for nearly an hour while the menacing spirit repeatedly sought entrance into his home. A longer assault than any before, it didn’t return…. Evelyn was right about that. This didn’t stop him from pacing between the living room and the kitchen until the girls’ safe return a few minutes ago, just after 2 p.m.

A more promising start to Christmas Eve than what he envisioned yesterday, John stepped outside and stood at the edge of the front porch, sniffing around him. For some reason the air seemed different today than it had lately. Hell, the entire area felt
a lot more like it used to feel before all the excitement of the last few months. Even when the entity was absent, he’d learned to sense its trail. He could literally smell it—the anger, as well as its deep thirst for vengeance. But now he couldn’t sense it at all. Maybe it had finally finished its business and left for good. His smile widened at the mere thought of peace after a month of daily assaults.

“
It’s gone, Grandpa,” said Evelyn from behind him. She had removed her goose-down vest that obscured most of the embroidered ‘University of Tennessee’ across the chest of her oversized sweatshirt before quietly joining him on the porch, smiling coy. “Whether this is truly permanent, we’ll have to wait and see.”

“
Yes… we shall see,” he concurred. “I’ll be with you in a moment… we’ll need a few more logs for the fire tonight.” He moved over to the corner of the porch, where two stacks of split logs sat.

“
Are you sure we’ll need more wood?” She motioned around her. The snow steadily melted in the unseasonable warmth embracing the Smoky Mountains since just before dawn.

“
The forecast calls for new snow late tonight,” he replied, grabbing several logs and joining her at the doorway where she waited for him. “And the air should cool down again once nightfall arrives.”

She snickered while stepping back inside the cabin. “We’ll see about that!”

“
Yes, we will,” he chuckled, closing the door and locking it right after he followed her inside.

Hanna was busy in the kitchen finishing a cheese ball, and Evelyn returned to her earlier task of setting up the dining table with other goodies. John quietly moved over to the table, hoping to begin sampling cookies, veggies, chips n’ dip, and Hanna’s soon-to-arrive cheese ball. The plan today was to snack on the table’s spread while a large pot of Evelyn’s venison chili simmered on the stove. His favorite dessert, the German chocolate cake discussed last night, would be the last treat bought to the table.

After a playful reproach from Evelyn, reinforced with a stern look from Hanna, John headed for his recliner with his first loaded plate, pausing to admire the glistening tree standing to the right of the fireplace. Hanna and Evelyn used a mixture of new ornaments they brought with them yesterday, along with the standard collection belonging to their grandmother, which John faithfully displayed each Christmas after her passing six years ago. A few bubbling-oil lantern lights drew his immediate attention, and he was hit by nostalgia, realizing how much he missed Susanne. Before the feeling of her loss could overwhelm him, he turned on the television and sat down.

The girls soon joined him in the living room, and after allowing him one college football game, they spent the rest of the afternoon watching holiday classics amid several trips by everyone to the dining table. When dusk arrived, John stepped over to the back door, lifting one corner of the door window’s sheer curtain to peer outside. He turned on the back porch light. The temperature outside already dropping, the frost that normally covered the porch at night would come soon.

Shawn crawled out of his domed dog house and approached the back door once he saw John looking through the window, wagging his tail at the prospect of some attention from his master. The husky’s demeanor was peaceful, without any hint of the skittishness from last night and of late. Instead of pawing at the back door like he usually did during most nights since Thanksgiving, he sat down in front of it, waiting for John to venture outside.

“
Well, are you ready to come join us, my good boy?” John asked him, right after opening the door and stepping through it.

Shawn jumped up and placed his soiled paws on John’s flannel shirt. Unperturbed, John patted the dog on his head and gave him a good scratching under his neck while gently removing his paws from his chest.

“
I’ll take that as a yes!” he laughed, unclipping Shawn’s steel chain from his neck.

Before returning inside, John scanned the perimeter of his property from the back porch while stroking the underside of Shawn’s neck again. Impossible to discern as much detail in the deepening shadows as earlier in the afternoon, especially for his older eyes. But the familiar oppressive feeling remained absent. Satisfied that nothing evil hovered near his home, he began to relax.

“
Grandpa, it’s time to open some presents!” Hanna announced from the kitchen, where she refreshed her tea. “Be sure to wipe Shawn’s feet. I’d hate to spend the next hour getting his dirty paw marks out of the new sweater Peter bought me last week!”

She pulled on the bottom of the expensive olive-green sweater to show it off to John, who had failed to comment on it. He honestly couldn’t tell the difference between it and anything else she’d recently worn in his presence.

“
Peter?” he asked while closing the back door, indulging one last look through the door’s window before securing the lock. He turned to face his youngest granddaughter who grinned mischievous. “I thought Evelyn said you’re dating a young man named ‘Tommy’.”

“
I am…well sort of,” she said, pausing to cast a wry glance toward Evelyn, seated on the couch in the living room. “You always told us to ‘play the field’, right? To not get serious until we’re out of college, if I remember correctly.”

She chuckled when John’s initial response was to simply shake his head, wearing his own Cheshire grin.

“
Enjoy your youth, that’s all,” he offered.

He turned his attention to the German chocolate cake that hadn’t been carved yet. Shawn trotted into the living room and curled himself around Evelyn’s feet. John removed a healthy slice, ignoring the girls’ amused reactions to the oversized helping.

“
Because you might not have as much fun again until you’re old and gray like your grandpa.”

The playful glint in his eyes belied the fact he worried about either one settling down before they had a chance to explore their career options. That’s the mistake their mother, Joanna, made. Now she was the one acting like a teenager, chasing after her navy boyfriend while her daughters spent the Christmas holiday with John.

“
We can only hope we end up with half of your energy by then, Grandpa,” said Evelyn, reaching down to pet Shawn’s head before rising from the couch and stepping over the dog on her way to the dining table. “Looks like Hanna and I had better get a piece of cake before you eat it all up!” she teased.

She took a much smaller helping from the cake plate, and Hanna followed soon after, taking a piece just slightly larger than her sister’s. Almost half of the cake had disappeared. Still teasing their grandfather, they followed him into the living room. As soon as they finished their dessert, Hanna took their plates and forks over to the kitchen sink while Evelyn retrieved her camera from the guestroom down the hall to the right of the fireplace.

Once the girls rejoined John, who in the meantime had been busy sorting the presents beneath the tree, he allowed them both to take a quick snapshot of one another posing with him and Shawn in front of the tree. Afterward, he had them both sit together on the couch while he handed them their presents, saving a couple each for tomorrow morning. His eyes grew misty watching them tear into the packages, so much like they’d done as little girls, seated on the very same couch that had since been reupholstered twice over the years.

Nearing nine o’clock, Hanna and Evelyn tried on the outfits they bought for each other and the jewelry John gave to them that once belonged to their grandmother. Especially touched by the charm bracelet she received, Hanna had been fascinated with several of the silver charms as a young child. John surprised Evelyn with a diamond pendant that originally graced the neck of his late wife’s great-grandmother, the daughter of a prominent nineteenth-century German aristocrat.

Though delighted by their gifts, Evelyn and Hanna worried their mother, Joanna, might not be pleased that John passed the treasured items on to them instead of her, since she was his and Susanne’s only child. He assured them the gifts were decided on long ago, when it became a grim certainty his dear wife would lose her long-fought battle against breast cancer. Joanna would also receive a cherished jewelry piece upon her return from the Bahamas after New Years.

Changing back into their original outfits and leaving their gifts in the guestroom, the sisters returned to the living room. John finished cleaning up the strewn gift wrap paper and hung up the fleece-lined jacket they gave him. He began building a warm fire since the temperature had finally cooled to where the brisk air from outside found its way inside the cabin through the chimney’s flue.

“
If you don’t mind tending to this, I’d like to try to call David, to wish him and Miriam a ‘Merry Christmas’ before it gets much later,” said John, motioning for Evelyn to come over and take the poker from him. Once she did, he moved into the kitchen and over to the small stone cove that housed the telephone.

“
It should be just after seven o’clock in Littleton, so I’m hoping they’re done with dinner, and that I’m not interrupting anything,” he said, turning toward the living room. Evelyn had already brought the fire up to where hungry flames engulfed the hickory logs on the hearth. “I’ll bet the kids are
so
excited—just like you two used to be.” His smile loving, he prepared to dial the Hobbs’ home number.

John’s smile remained bright as he brought the receiver up to his ear, but then he frowned. He hung up and tried the number again.

“
What’s wrong, Grandpa?” asked Evelyn, setting the poker back in its tray and moving past Hanna, whose concerned look wasn’t near as worried as her own. “Let me hear it.”

She moved over to where he stood, dialing the number for the fourth time.

“
All I get is static—just like what happened when David tried to call his home from here, back in October,” said John. He handed the phone to her.

Evelyn placed the receiver next to her ear. She told John she heard the same eerie static he described, and recalled the same October night in question. She had insisted on David staying with John until the following morning. At that time, Allie Mae’s spirit lurked outside, stealthily approaching the cabin from the western woods in her determined efforts to kill David if given the chance. Tonight the static was the same…and yet somehow different.

“
Did you hear anything else besides the static?” she asked him.

“
No, I did not,” he advised, perplexed by her question. “Let me listen again.” He took the phone back from her. By then, the static had been joined by a dial tone. “Do you mean the busy signal?”

He handed the phone to her again. Meanwhile, Hanna joined them in the kitchen.

“
No, it wasn’t the busy signal…it was something else,” said Evelyn, who exchanged glances with her sister and grandfather. “Maybe I’m mistaken, Grandpa. I could’ve overreacted to the static….”

She hung up and dialed the local time instead. The call went through fine, and she handed the phone back to John so he could confirm it.

“
Don’t worry, Grandpa, I’m sure they’re all right,” she sought to assure him. “We’ll try again tomorrow, and if we still can’t get through, I’ll see if I can get in touch with the phone company in Colorado after Christmas.”

She smiled warmly to sell him confidence in her words. She seemed to forget that he could read her thoughts, even as old as he was. The faint, wind-like whistling noise she heard sounded nothing like a busy signal.