The Night Parade(95)

After about ten minutes, the blacktop gave way to packed earth. The trees crowded in closer to the car, and a few bare branches reached out and scraped twiggy fingers along the Caddy’s roof. David got the sense that they were driving gradually uphill the whole way.

The dirt road eventually emptied out onto a small sunlit glen, at the center of which was the farmhouse. It was comprised of natural, untreated wood, with a slouching cantilevered roof, green and furry with moss. A series of antennas jutted straight up from the center of the roof, forming a semicircle around a satellite dish. Running the length of the house was a wraparound porch that sagged beneath a shingled alcove. The windows were all shuttered, and there were NO TRESPASSING signs posted to the trees every few yards. A silver Tahoe was parked around one side of the house, decorated in splatters of mud.

“A deer,” Ellie said. “See it?”

David looked and saw a large doe standing motionless among the foliage to one side of the house.

“It’s a fake,” Gany said. “A phony.”

Ellie said, “Huh?”

“It’s made of rubber. There’s a camera in its head. Wave, gang. We’re on CCTV.” Gany stuck her arm out the window and waved to the deer. The deer’s head swiveled mechanically, following the vehicle’s progress around the side of the house.

“You’re kidding me,” David said. “What’s that all about?”

“Precaution,” Gany said.

“Precaution from what?”

Gany eased down on the brake and shifted the car into Park. “You should really speak to your brother more often, man,” she said.

They got out of the car, feeling the cool, unblemished breeze on their skin, and inhaling the scent of pinesap in the air. There was an ax-head wedged in a tree stump and a few archery targets fixed to bales of hay. A rusted artesian well jutted crookedly from the earth, looking like something that had landed there after dropping off the fuselage of a 747. Also, there were the bugs: Out here, halfway up a mountain and in the middle of the wilderness, the air was teeming with tiny, flying insects. Larger things catapulted out of the grass. Glancing around, David saw a number of gauzy webs strung up in the forks of trees. He thought of the gigantic spider on the lamppost back in Goodwin, Kentucky.

Gany pulled her hair back and tied it behind her head with a rubber band. “It’s beautiful out here, isn’t it?”

“The air feels thinner up here,” David said. They had driven halfway up a mountain, the height nearly dizzying. He could feel the change in elevation in his bones.

“Cleaner, too.” The voice was male, booming. David turned to see his stepbrother standing on the porch, a cigar parked in one corner of his mouth, his big arms, blue-gray with tattoos, folded over the porch railing.

“Holy shit,” David said. He couldn’t help but smile. “It’s like looking at a ghost.”

“Maybe you are,” Tim said, returning David’s smile. He had a gruff but warm face, with sharp blue eyes beneath gingery eyebrows. His hair was long and tied behind his head in a ponytail. When he stood upright off the railing, the top of his head nearly touched the sagging lip of the roof. “Maybe we’re all just ghosts floating about through the ether, occasionally bumping into one another.” He turned and looked at Ellie, who stood near one of the hay bales, one hand around the shaft of an arrow ready to pull it out. “My God, is that you, El? Smokes, you’re a goddamn woman!”

The smile that came to her face was enough to brighten her entire being. Something within her seemed to swell. “Hi, Uncle Tim!”

“Come and give me a hug, El.”

She trotted across the yard and mounted the creaking porch steps. Tim met her halfway, snatching her up off one of the risers in one muscular arm and swinging her against him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he hugged her back. Before letting her go, he kissed the side of her face. It had been years since she had seen him, yet she went to him with familiarity. With trust.

“I thought you said kids were lampreys with legs,” Gany said.

Still smiling, Tim jabbed a finger in Gany’s direction. He made his way down the stairs and ambled over to David. As he approached, the smile on his face transitioned to a sympathetic firmness of the lips. His eyes softened.

“I’m sorry about Kathy,” he said.

David felt something loosen inside him. Before he could embarrass himself, Tim snatched him up in a bear hug that lifted both his feet off the ground. The crook of Tim’s neck smelled like cigar smoke, his flannel shirt like marijuana. David felt tears spring from his eyes; it was almost as if Tim was squeezing them out of him.

“Thank you,” David said once they’d parted. “You have no idea what this means, letting us come here like this. You probably saved our lives, Tim.”

Tim tucked the cigar back between his lips. He asked Gany if they’d had any trouble.

“Smooth sailing,” Gany said, though her gaze darted briefly in David’s direction. “I tossed his cell phone right after I picked him up.”

Tim nodded, pleased. “Why don’t you take Eleanor to see the rabbits?”

Ellie looked at her uncle, wide-eyed. “There’s rabbits?”

“Bunnies,” he said. “Newborns. A whole brood.”

“Come on,” Gany called to her.