“He’s done it again,” she said. “Everything is so literal with that boy, gone to fetch a pencil I suppose. Jack, Jack, are you there?”
They finished their conversation, and when she was reasonably sure he had taken down the message, she hung up.
“He said the most curious thing. He said I was a good mother.”
Miss Tiramaku put her hand on Holly’s shoulder and led her back to the table. “He’s right, you know. You are a good mother.”
“Sometimes I wonder,” said Holly.
With a brief smile, Miss Tiramaku forgave the self-deprecation. “Your husband is on the way?”
“He will be as soon as he comes back inside.” Holly returned her smile. “According to Jack, he’s out chasing monsters again.”
iv.
The wipers beat furiously against the glass, and through the nearly impenetrable wall of white, Tim inched along, feeling his way through the storm. He worried about getting to the church a few miles away, and he worried that he would not be able to make it back home to the boys. As usual, Jip balked about going outside, and Tim was in no mood for protracted negotiations, not after he learned how long Holly had been waiting and how his son had completely forgotten to give him the message. Out on Shore Road, he was glad he had decided to leave the boys behind. Even if it meant they would be alone, at least they would be safe.
“Don’t leave the house,” he had told them. He did not want Nick outdoors tracking the invisible man. “Not for anything, Nick. If there’s some problem, call the Quigleys across the road, and they’ll help you, and I wrote down the numbers for the police and for Star of the Sea right by the telephone. In this storm, it’ll take a while to get there and back, but I don’t want you to worry. I’ve driven through worse.”
“Take me with you,” Nick pleaded. “Don’t leave me alone with him.”
Jip locked his fingers around Nick’s wrist.
“Listen boys, you’ll be all right as long as you stick together.” The boy looked heart stricken, and Tim reassured him with a quick hug. “Don’t worry, you’re safe inside.”
“I want to go,” Nick said.
“All right, son, that’s enough. If for some reason we’re not home before dark, make yourselves supper. I’ll call in any case before we head on home, just to check in.”
The last he saw of them, Jip was lost in yet another drawing. Nick escorted Tim to the front door. “Be a good boy, son. And take care of things. Watch after Jip. I’ll be back in a jiff.”
Some jiffy, he thought to himself. The snow poured from the heavens. He wouldn’t be surprised if a foot had fallen already. There were no other cars on the road, and though the county had plowed once earlier that afternoon, he still found himself searching for tire treads to follow. Round the bend at Mercy Point, he saw it again.
The figure crossed right in front of him. Had he been driving at normal speed, Tim would have run over the man. He could barely make out that there was a man at all, only the outline of his limbs, and the dark mane and beard discernible through the scrim. As Tim drew near, he could see that the man was deliberately standing in the road, a mad look of terror on his face as they locked eyes, provoking a confrontation. Stamping on the brakes, Tim felt the Jeep skid sharply to the right, and forgetting all he had been taught, he tried to steer against the slide but wound up fishtailing and lodging the back wheels between the road and an embankment.
“Shit,” he said when the car lurched to a stop. Clutching the steering wheel, he sat in the car for a moment, hoping his heart would quit that awful pounding. He looked through the windshield, but the creature was gone.