The Winter People(28)

“No, no, really. Alien abduction. It happens all the time. They suck them up in these tractor beams and do experiments and probe them and shit, then let them go, sometimes miles from where they were taken, memories wiped clean. And you know what me and Tracer saw out in the woods, not even a mile from your place.”

Ruthie remembered the shadowy woods, the rocks jutting up like teeth that made her feel as if she were on the verge of being swallowed up.

“Come on, Buzz. I could use a little sanity here.”

“Okay. But can I just point out something kind of obvious?”

Buzz asked.

She shrugged, but didn’t protest.

“Well, do you ever think about the way you guys live? You know, you’re kind of cut off from the world out here—barely any visitors, unlisted phone number, no-trespassing signs everywhere.”

“You know my mom. She’s a total hippie freak,” Ruthie said. “My dad was the same way, too. That’s why they moved out here from Chicago when I was three. They didn’t want to be a part of the machine. They wanted to go back to the land, live this happy hippie utopian dream with chickens and an herb garden and fresh whole-grain bread.”

“What if it’s more than that?” Buzz asked.

“What are you saying?”

“That sometimes, if people don’t want to be found, there’s a damn good reason for it.”

They were quiet a minute.

“I’m gonna go check on Fawn,” she said. “When I get back, we can try to get the closet open.”

She padded down the hall to Fawn’s room. In the soft glow of Fawn’s night-light, she found her little sister curled up under a quilt, Roscoe purring contentedly on top of her. Mimi had fallen onto the floor.

“Hey, old man. You looking after Fawn?” Ruthie asked, stroking the cat. “Good boy.” She reached down to feel Fawn’s forehead. Still warm, but the fever was down. She picked up Mimi, tucked her in right next to Fawn, and pulled the quilt up to cover them both.

“I think her fever’s down,” she reported to Buzz back in her mom’s room.

“That’s good news.”

“Yeah. Poor kid. It sucks that she’s sick now, when Mom’s not here.”

Buzz smiled. “Fawn has you.”

“Yeah, well, Mom better show up soon. I can’t take care of a kid. You should have seen me trying to figure out how much Tylenol to give her. I didn’t even know what she weighed—I had to ask her.”

Buzz took her hands in his. “You’re doing just fine,” he told her. “Quit being so hard on yourself.”

“If you say so,” Ruthie said. “Now let’s see about that closet.”

Buzz grabbed the crowbar Ruthie had found in the barn and went to work. Ruthie stood back and watched, suddenly nervous about what they might find inside. In less than five minutes, Buzz had both the top and bottom boards off.

“You want to do the honors?” he asked, stepping away from the closet door.

Ruthie shook her head. “You go ahead.”

“All righty, then,” Buzz said. Keeping the heavy metal crowbar in his right hand, just in case, Buzz turned the knob and slowly pulled open the door.

“Nothing.” He stuck his head in for a better look. “Just a bunch of clothes.” He stepped back and went to sit on the bed with his beer, clearly disappointed.

Ruthie came forward to peer in.

Buzz was right—there was nothing unusual inside. Ruthie flipped through the clothing on hangers: her dad’s familiar flannel shirts, her mom’s turtlenecks and fleece. There was a stack of sweaters on the shelf above. Clogs and running shoes in neat rows on the floor below.

Her mother had kept most of her dad’s clothes after he died, almost as if she was expecting him back. Checking that Buzz wasn’t looking, Ruthie buried her face in one of her dad’s old plaid shirts hanging in the closet, trying to catch a scent of him. She smelled only cedar and dust.

She didn’t like being in the closet, even with the door open. Small, tight places had always freaked her out. In her worst nightmares, she was trapped in tiny rooms, or having to wriggle through narrow passageways she could barely fit through. And she always got stuck and woke up screaming, breathless.

Keeping as much of her body as possible outside the closet now, Ruthie searched through the clothes, thinking how odd it was that her mother had sealed away this stuff. Hadn’t she just been wearing this green cardigan last week? Ruthie peered inside all the pockets, even reached into the shoes. All she came up with were a couple of matchbooks and half a roll of Life Savers covered with pocket lint. She pulled out all the shoes, clearing off the floor, and felt around the edges of the floorboards, checking for another secret compartment.

“I still say it’s pretty freaking weird,” Buzz said, squinting at the closet.

“Yeah, why try to keep people out like that? All she’s got in there is a bunch of old shoes and stretched-out turtlenecks.”

Buzz shook his head. “That’s not what bugs me. What it looks like to me is, she was trying to keep something in.”

Ruthie forced out a wheezy-sounding laugh, watched Buzz tearing at the label of his beer bottle.

It felt strange and kind of thrilling to have Buzz here, in the house—in her mom’s room, even. Mom didn’t think much of her relationship with Buzz, and made it clear that she believed Ruthie could do better than the stoner kid who worked at his uncle’s scrap-metal yard.