What Happened to the Bennetts(36)

“How’re you doing?” Wiki pushed up his glasses.

“We’re hanging in.”

“How’s your boy?”

“Okay.” I realized yet another person knew about Ethan’s issues.

“I hear he likes videogames. If he ever wants to play, I’ll play with him.”

“Thanks, Wiki,” I said, touched.

“Which games does he play? I play Apex, Minecraft, Star Wars Battlefront, Call of Duty—”

“He likes Call of Duty.”

“Good. Tell him, anytime. We want this to be as easy as possible on your family. That’s why we picked this location. It’s mostly salt marsh, but there’s mud flats and wildlife. Here, you have everything. Plant life, the birds, geology. I think I told you I grew up in Lewes. I live in Dover. Went to U of D.”

“That must be difficult. So near but yet so far, all that.”

“Nah. It suits me. I’m divorced, no kids. I’m a loner, not like Dom. Everybody loves Dom. He can deal with anybody. He was even best man at the wedding of one of our applicants.” Wiki chuckled. “Your family is in great hands.”

“Thanks.”

“You should take your boy to the ghost forest. He would love it. Text me if you go, I’ll keep an eye on you. The tide will be in, but the walk is easy. On a full moon like tonight, it’ll be amazing.”

“What’s a ghost forest?”



* * *



—

“This way,” I said, taking Ethan’s hand, and I led him into the woods. Moonlight filtered through the trees, lighting a skinny trail that Wiki had described. My flashlight shone a jittery cone of light on the tree trunks and underbrush. Moonie tugged at the end of his leash, but Ethan began to lag.

“I don’t care about a ghost forest.”

“Wiki said it was cool.”

“I don’t want to go. Let’s go back.”

“It won’t take long. He’s keeping an eye on us. Don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not. I think it’s dumb.”

“Give it a chance.” Moonie sniffed a bush, then urinated, which was a victory. I was hoping the dog would poop outside for a change.

“Ugh, my feet are wet. It’s a swamp.”

“It’s not a swamp, it’s a marsh. Do you want to know the difference?”

“No.”

I let it go. We tramped through the woods, following the flashlight. “Wiki says ghost forests are springing up all over the mid-Atlantic, and Delaware has quite a few. Unfortunately, it’s the result of climate change. The glaciers are melting, so the sea level rises and salt water flows into a forest and kills the trees.”

“Fascinating.”

I let that go, too. “Anyway, the salt water kills the trees but doesn’t knock them over, so what’s left is called a ghost forest.”

“Let’s go back.”

“No, keep going. I want to see it. We’re almost there.” I noticed the trees beginning to show less leaf and the foliage growing wetter. The footing, also, got wetter. “Wiki was telling me there’s all kinds of native plants like spartina, or cordgrass, and the birding is supposed to be incredible this time of year.”

“Birding?” Ethan snorted, which I ignored. My son was an indoor cat. Allison had been the one who’d lived outside, 24/7. She’d go running even when I wouldn’t.

Al, it’s raining.

Your hair gonna frizz, dude?

I shooed the memory away. I had to stop comparing Ethan to his sister.

“Ethan, you know, birding is a big deal here. There are Snowy Egrets and Clapper Rails. Also Great Blue Herons and not-so-great Blue Herons.”

“That’s dumb, Dad.”

I was trying to make him laugh. “Lots of birds migrate through here in October. There are bird sanctuaries, but we have our own private view.”

“Wiki told you this?”

“Yes.”

Ethan snorted again. Moonie panted, trying to strangle himself on the leash. We splashed along.

“He said he’d play Call of Duty with you. He’s a gamer.”

“Is he supposed to be my new friend, like Dom is yours?”

I sighed inwardly. “I don’t know what to tell you, Ethan. I like the guy. I like them both. They’re trying to help us.”

“Well, I don’t need their help and I already have friends. Zach, Christopher, and Scott and the other guys. I don’t need an old-guy FBI friend.”

“He’s thirty-five.”

“That’s old.”

“We’re getting closer.” I noticed the surroundings grew brighter as the tree branches grew bare, and we came to a clearing. We could hear the flapping of wings and more calls and squawks, the chirping of crickets and other insects. The moon was as round as a bullet hole.

“This must be it,” I said, turning off the flashlight. I waited while my eyes adjusted, and Ethan let out a whistle.

Everywhere around us were dead trees, their bleached trunks white as skeletons, their branches denuded of life, reaching jagged in all directions, glowing like a field of lightning strikes against the black sky. They rose from a blanket of dark cordgrass rippling in the breeze, undulating as if alive. Snaking everywhere was tidewater, obeying the pull of the moon.