Bloodstream

Lincoln saw that the boot tracks did indeed head toward the forest, but Vern had retraced his steps several times, obscuring any animal footprints.

He followed the trail over to the woods. There he stood for a moment, peering into the blackness. The trees were so thick they seemed to form an impenetrable wall that even his flashlight beam could not pierce.

By now Pete had recovered, and was standing by his side. ‘We should wait till daylight,’ Pete whispered. ‘Don’t know what we’re dealing with.’

‘I know it’s not a bear.’

‘Yeah, well, I’m not scared of bears. But if it’s something else…’ Pete drew his weapon. ‘Rumor has it a cougar was spotted up at Jordan Falls last week.’

Now Lincoln drew his weapon as well as he moved slowly into the woods. He took half a dozen steps, the crack of breaking twigs under his boot as loud as gunfire. All at once he froze, staring at that wall of trees. The forest seemed to close in. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up.

There’s something out there. It’s watching us.

Every instinct screamed at him to retreat. He backed away, his heart racing, his boots setting off explosions of noise. Only when he and Pete had emerged completely from the woods did that feeling of imminent danger fade away.

They stood once again in front of Vern Fuller’s barn, and the sheep were still bleating. He looked down at the boot prints. Suddenly his head came up.

‘What lies beyond those woods?’ he asked.

‘Goes back a ways,’ said Vern. ‘Other side’s Barnstown Road. Bunch of houses.’

Houses, thought Lincoln.

Families.

Noah was watching TV when Claire got home. As she hung up her coat in the hallway, she recognized the theme music from The Simpsons cartoon playing in the other room, and she heard Homer Simpson’s loud burp and Lisa Simpson’s mutter of disgust. Then she heard her son laugh, and she thought: I’m so glad my son still laughs at cartoons.

She went into the front parlor and saw Noah flopped back against the couch cushions, his face briefly lit up with laughter. He looked at her, but didn’t say anything.

She sat down beside him and propped her feet up on the coffee table, next to his. Big feet, little feet, she thought with quiet amusement. Noah’s feet had grown so huge, they almost looked like a clown’s beside hers.

On the TV, an enormously fat Homer was bouncing around in a flowery muumuu, and shoveling food into his mouth.

Noah laughed again, and so did Claire. This was exactly the way she wanted to spend the rest of the evening. They would watch TV together, and eat popcorn for dinner. She leaned toward him, and they affectionately bumped heads together.

‘I’m sorry, Mom,’ he said.

‘It’s okay, Honey. I’m sorry I was late picking you up.’

‘Grandma Elliot called. A little while ago.’

‘Oh? Does she want me to call her back?’

‘I guess.’ He watched the TV for a while, his silence stretching through the string of commercials. Then he said, ‘Grandma wanted to make sure we were okay tonight.’

Claire gave him a puzzled look. ‘Why?’

‘It’s Dad’s birthday.’

On the TV, Homer Simpson in his flowered muumuu had hijacked an ice cream truck and was driving it at breakneck speed, gobbling ice cream the whole way. Claire watched in stunned silence. Today was your birthday, she thought. You’ve been dead only two years, and already we’re losing bits and pieces of your memory.

‘Oh god, Noah,’ she whispered. ‘I can’t believe it. I completely forgot.’

She felt his head droop heavily against her shoulder. And he said, with quiet shame, ‘So did I.’

Sitting in her bedroom, Claire returned Margaret Elliot’s call. Claire had always liked her mother-in-law, and through the years, their affection had grown to the point that she felt far closer to Margaret than she ever had to her own coldly aloof parents. Sometimes it seemed to Claire that everything she knew about love, about passion, had been taught to her by the Elliot family.

‘Hi, Mom. It’s me,’ said Claire.

‘Sixty-two degrees and sunny in Baltimore today,’ Margaret replied, and Claire had to laugh. Ever since she’d moved to Tranquility, this had been the running joke between them, their comparison of weather reports. Margaret had not wanted her to leave Baltimore. ‘You have no idea what real cold is,’ she’d told Claire, ‘and I’m going to keep reminding you of what you’ve left behind.’

‘Thirty-five degrees here,’ Claire dutifully reported. She looked out her window. ‘It’s getting colder. Darker.’

‘Did Noah tell you I called earlier?’

‘Yes. And we’re doing fine. We really are.’

‘Are you?’

Claire said nothing. Margaret had the uncanny talent for reading emotions from just the simple inflection of one’s voice, and already she had sensed something amiss.

‘Noah told me he wants to come back here,’ said Margaret.

‘We just moved.’

‘You can always change your mind.’

‘Not now. I’ve made too many commitments here. To this new practice, the house.’

‘Those are commitments to things, Claire.’

‘No, they’re really commitments to Noah. I need to stay here, for him.’ She paused, suddenly aware that, as much as she loved Margaret, she was feeling a little irritated. She was also weary of the gentle but repeated hints that she should return to Baltimore. ‘It’s always hard for a kid to make a fresh start, but he’ll adjust. He’s too young to know what he wants.’

‘That’s true, I suppose. What about you? Do you still want to be there?’

‘Why are you asking, Mom?’

‘Because I know it would be hard for me, moving to a new place. Leaving behind my friends.’

Claire stared at the dresser mirror, at her own tired face. At the reflection of her bedroom, which still had few pictures on the wall. It was merely a collection of furniture, a place to sleep, not yet part of a real home.

‘A widow needs her friends, Claire,’ said Margaret.

‘Maybe that was one of the reasons I had to leave.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘That’s what I was to everyone – the widow. I’d walk into my clinic, and people would give me those sad and sympathetic looks. They were all afraid to laugh or tell jokes when I was around. And no one, no one ever dared to talk about Peter. It’s as if they thought I’d break down in sobs if they just mentioned his name.’