CHAPTER NINE
“Apparently skinwalkers can’t be killed,” Maximus said from across the room. He, Dex, and I were holed up in our bedroom at the Lancasters. Dex was on his laptop reviewing footage he shot earlier that day in town, mainly establishing shots of scenery, as they didn’t find anyone to interview, while Maximus read through the library book, occasionally pointing out things of interest which I would scribble down in Dex’s planner.
We were all waiting for dinner to be ready. As soon as we got back from lunch, Will informed us that we would all be having a great feast tonight (his words) with everyone, meaning Bird, Shan, even Miguel. Of course, Maximus was invited too. The idea of this gathering put me in a weird “Us versus Them” type mood but at least the more people that there were, the less awkward it would be with Sarah. Maybe I wouldn’t have to talk at all.
I was too introspective today for chit chat, anyway. I was curled up in the rocking chair in the corner while the boys sat on the end of the bed, and when I wasn’t writing things, I was watching Dex. He sat cross-legged, his grey cargo pants contrasting with his bright green socks, never once looking up at me or Maximus while he intently studied the screen. Occasionally he would rub his goatee in some rough, nervous gesture, or he’d pop in a piece of Nicorette for a few seconds before spitting it out.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. Ever since I heard his back-story, or at least parts of it, my thoughts kept turning back to Dex. About what happened. And what else there was to know. How could this guy, my madcap, smartass Dex, have gone through so much? And how could he be OK? I mean, he couldn’t be. No wonder he was on medication. And not even at the moment. My heart pinched in the most unexpected way. I felt so much for him at that moment, it kind of hurt. My emotions and my hormones were having a catfight in my chest. I just wanted to walk over to that bed and…
“Perry,” Maximus’s voice broke through my thoughts like a rake. “Did you write that down?”
At that, Dex looked up at me before I could look away. His eyes were soft, shiny pools from across the room. I held his eyes with mine. My heart clenched again, intensifying my feelings, steadying my gaze.
“Bullets dipped in ash?” Maximus added, a bit louder this time. I closed my eyes. I felt the current I had with Dex power down, like I was turning off like a fuse box. Did he feel it too? I opened my eyes to check but he was focused on the computer again.
I turned my head at Maximus, trying to hide my annoyance.
“What was that?”
Maximus did a quick sideways glance at Dex for observation, then laid a prominent smirk on me. “I said…one of the ways you can kill a skinwalker is bullets dipped in white ash.”
“Oh, white ash. So simple,” I quipped. I wrote it down knowing full well we weren’t going to be using any guns with ash bullets inside them.
Maximus flipped a page, shrugged. “Hey, you never know out here.”
“And that’s the only way to…get rid of them?” I asked.
“As far as I know. Unless the person has a change of heart and decides to stop doing evil or something.”
“So what the hell can we do?” I said, frustrated.
They both looked up at my tone of voice.
“What, we’re going to shoot some animal with white bullets?” I continued, “I don’t think so.”
Maximus gestured at the book. “Hey, no one said we’ll be doing that. I’m just reading it out loud.”
“You don’t get it,” I sighed. “I mean, so say everything goes as planned…I mean, no, wait. What even is the plan?”
I looked at Dex for an explanation. He seemed puzzled, I assume more by my outburst than the lack of a plan.
“Well,” he cleared his throat. “I, we…get to the bottom of it and–”
“In the next day?” I interrupted. “So we find out it’s a curse, or maybe it really is a haunting of some sort, or perhaps just the crazy ass mythic skinwalker…then what?”
“We film it,” he replied.
“And then what?”
“And we show it?” Dex looked adorably confused. “Have you forgotten some things about what we do?”
“And then we go back home. But what happens to the Lancasters?”
“That’s not our problem,” he said bluntly, almost smiling.
And there was Dex, back to being a heartless beast in an instant. I looked at Maximus for help. “Do you know what I mean?”
He nodded. “I do. But, I mean, Dex is right in a way…it’s not our job to deal with people’s problems. I show them to people. You record it to show to other people. We aren’t, well, Ghostbusters.”
“Why do think they wanted us here in the first place?” Dex asked me seriously. “Will just wants to prove he isn’t crazy. If we see it too, if we film it, then it means it’s real. It means he’s not going insane on this ranch with his wife looking the other way. Pardon the pun. He hasn’t thought as far as how to get rid of it, whatever the f*ck this is. That will come later.”
“I just think if I’m making things worse…,” I found myself saying unexpectedly.
“Hold on,” Dex shot in, his hand raised. “What do you mean you’re making things worse?”
I sank back into my chair wanting to disappear. My eyes drifted to the floor. I really shouldn’t have said anything. It was too stupid to explain what Bird had told me.
“Um,” I said slowly. “I just felt like maybe things are worse because I’m here.”
Maximus snorted. “Things were the same a week ago. Don’t be giving yourself too much credit there.”
I nodded. I could feel Dex’s eyes on me and knew he wasn’t going to let that go.
But I was saved by the knock at the door.
“Come in,” I announced, straightening up, alert.
The door opened and Bird poked his head in.
“Supposed to tell you all that dinner is ready,” he smiled. Then lowered his voice, “Can I come in?”
“Sure.” Maximus waved him inside.
Bird stepped in before shooting a glance outside the door and closing it quietly behind him. He obviously had something important to tell us. We all looked up at him, wondering.
He walked over to the bed and perched on the corner. He gave us all hurried glances that made us lean in closer to hear what he had to say.
“I just wanted to tell you that we should go to Rudy’s bar after dinner. I think he can help us with this whole thing. In fact, I know he can.”
“How?” asked Dex, ever demanding.
Bird smiled. “I’ll let him tell you that. But we must not mention it to anyone, you understand?”
“No,” Dex said. “Enlighten us.”
I could see Bird was tired and wished Dex wouldn’t push him so when he was trying to help. He smiled politely. “The people downstairs. They wouldn’t like it. They would try and stop us and I think it’s best if we do things without them knowing. Just trust me with that. If Rudy can help us we need to do it as cleanly as possible.”
“Help us help them,” Max mused.
“Right,” said Bird. He got up and pointed at me. “And help her.”
My eyes widened. So much for that. But before Dex and Maximus could ask what that meant (and from the looks on their faces, I could tell they wanted to), Bird opened the door and led the way with his arm.
“Come on, dinner is getting cold,” he said a bit too loudly, for the benefit of the listeners downstairs. He jerked his head for us to join him.
Maximus got up first and followed him out the door. I scuttled after him while Dex closed the door behind us. I felt him brush up beside me as we walked down the hall.
“What are you keeping from me?” he asked gruffly in my ear. I melted a bit from the feel of his hot breath on my neck and the roughness of his voice.
“Nothing,” I whispered. Then, remembering my lecture about sharing, I relented. “I’ll tell you later.”
We walked down the stairs and into the living room. No surprise, everyone else was seated and waiting for us.
Sarah and Will were on opposite sides at the heads of the table. In a cozy row on one side sat Miguel, Shan and a place for Maximus. The other side was for me, Dex and Bird.
“How are you feeling Perry?” Will asked as I took my spot near him. He had his hands clasped in a prayer-like gesture, his shirt was neatly buttoned all the way to the top. His eyes were kind as always but his smile was a bit forced. He must have been on edge like everyone else. There was an air of tension floating just above our heads.
I attempted my most convincing smile and said, “I’m doing much better, thank you. I’ve always been so clumsy. My mother used to tie couch cushions to me when I was a kid cuz I fell down so much.” >
To my surprise, everyone at the table roared with laughter. Was this what it felt like to be Patton Oswalt? Granted, it was a nervous type of laughter but I’d take anything.
Will cleared his throat after the chuckles died down and proceeded to lead us all in a quick prayer of grace. I bowed my head and kept one eye open on Shan and Bird. They repeated the prayer without hesitation.
We started on our salads which were actually quite tasty. I remarked on how crisp the greens were and Sarah informed me that she had a lovely garden out back, behind the house. She did so without a hint of malice or sarcasm. It seemed everyone was on their best behavior.
Sarah looked as done up as her husband. Her big, dark glasses even had tiny rhinestones in the frames which added some punch to her simple, high-necked burgundy dress. Her hair was in a long dark braid going down her back. Now that it wasn’t in a bun, I could see how marvelously long it was and how it didn’t have a single speck of grey hair. For someone that was at least fifty, I found that to be amazing. Actually the more I stared at her face, especially the way it looked in the low light of the dining room, the younger she looked. How funny to look so fabulously young for your age and not even be able to see it.
Shan and Miguel cleaned up well, too. Miguel still looked like a rat bastard with that contemptuous glint in his beady eyes, but at least he was in a pressed rodeo shirt and his hands looked clean. Shan actually looked quite handsome without some grimy hat on his head. He was hunched over slightly, I suppose from his chest pains of earlier but his face was open, a sun-beaten but fresh complexion. Inside, in this situation, he looked younger too, somehow.
He was explaining something to Will about some tricks a local rancher had taught his horse to do, and as he was moving his hands around, flashes of silver and shine caught my eye. He had silver rings on almost every finger on his hands. Most were solid but a few had some gorgeous turquoise jewels on them. I then noticed a few beaded and metal bracelets on his wrists and a few rope necklaces disappearing into the V of his neckline. One necklace lay on front, a tiny suede pouch at the bottom. I hadn’t recalled seeing so much jewelry on him before. As unusual as it was though, to see a man decked out in that much bling, it kind of suited him.
“So, Perry,” Shan said, catching my eyes on him. I played it cool and smiled, avoiding looking straight into those yellowish brown eyes of his. “Tell me about how you and Dex first met.”
Oh crap.
I looked at Dex and smiled, letting out a laugh I hoped came across as ‘oh this old story’ rather than the nervous one it was. Dex did the exact same thing.
What was our story? Did we have one? Could we just tell the truth? We met at a lighthouse. I know, we met on the beach. No, we met online. Wait, what if they quizzed him?
“Do you want to tell the story, sweetie?” I asked him, patting him on the arm like a good little wife would do when she didn’t want to hog the spotlight.
He cocked his head at me with a smile that usually accompanied a wagging finger. “No, sweetie, you can tell it.”
“I’ll tell it!” Maximus announced from across the table. We both looked at him in unison. This was new. I gave him an uneasy smile as a means to continue. This could totally ruin our cover but at the same time it was easy for just one person to tell it. Whatever it was, we were about to find out.
He looked at Will with his aw shucks grin. “After all, I was only the best man at their wedding!”
I rolled my eyes without thinking, then looked around to see if anyone noticed. They hadn’t. This was going to be something else.
I reached over with my left hand and placed it on top of Dex’s which was resting on the table. We exchanged a loving look for show but we both read the underlying one beneath. We were in this together whether we liked it or not. I tightened my grip as Maximus spun his fiction.
“Well you see, Dex and I were buddies in college. We were in the same band. Dex was the singer, I was the bassist–”
“You were a singer?” Sarah exclaimed, the first time she sounded mildly impressed. “Sing us something!”
Dex chuckled while shaking his head. “I’m afraid ‘were’ is the operative term here. You wouldn’t want to hear me sing now.”
I knew that wasn’t true. Dex’s voice was spine-tingling good but I knew he wasn’t going to do a stirring rendition of “Amazing Grace” at the dinner table for Sarah, either.
“Yup, he was the singer. Our fantastic singer,” Maximus continued. I detected the smallest trace of animosity in his lazy drawl. “And well, Perry was a groupie.”
“I was not!” I exclaimed before I realized what I had said. My heart caught in my throat but everyone was laughing, even Dex.
Maximus tilted his head at Miguel who seemed amused by all of this. “She says she wasn’t a groupie, but we all know it was true. You should have seen the other bands she went for. If you ask the right people around New York, y’all may just hear the legend of Perry and her fateful night with Mick Jagger in the bathroom of a Burger King.”
I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. My fake bio was getting better by the minute. I knew people at the table were watching me for my reaction so I just went with it, shaking my head with good humor at that cheeky red-headed Cajun. I wasn’t sure how he was making all of this up on the fly.
Dex wanted in, so he turned to me with playful eyes. “That was you?!”
I ignored him and Maximus continued.
“So naturally, Perry was going after me. I mean, why not?” he grinned. “I’m taller, stronger and I have a really big…bass.”
At least that comment made Miguel snicker.
“But alas I had to turn her away. You see, I had a girlfriend at the time and I am a romantic, one woman guy. And I guess, in her depressed, rejected state Perry went after the next best thing. Dex. Even though, I personally know she only went after him to get closer to me. In fact, Perry, marrying him may have gone a little too far.”
“Hardy har har,” I said while everyone laughed. Everyone except Dex, that is. He had fallen strangely serious, almost glaring at Maximus. I’m sure it looked to everyone else like he was playing up the jealous card but I think it had to do with how closely his story imitated real life, with Abby. I hoped Maximus had the right sense to quit while he was ahead, though I could now see he was just feeding off of the attention.
“And the rest is history,” I said, putting an end to it.
Sarah laughed from her end. “Is it? I have to say I’ve never met a married couple with so much sexual tension between them. You two must be dynamite in the bedroom.”
My eyes widened. I took my hand off of Dex’s. Maximus and his side of the table burst out laughing.
“Sarah, please,” Will said, embarrassed. “That’s not the way to talk at the dinner table.”
She pointed in Maximus’s direction defensively. “He was talking about the size of his bass.”
“I think everyone’s maturity level in this room took a huge step down,” Bird remarked humorously, man of few words so far.
“Well, you’re right Sarah,” Dex conceded, a wicked little smile widening his mouth. “Not that I’m one to kiss and tell but poor Maximus didn’t know what he was giving up when he passed this one my way. Ka–BOOM!”
He slammed his fist down on the table for emphasis. The silverware rattled.
I put my hand up to my face. This was so embarrassing. On so many levels. I mean, I couldn’t believe that Sarah picked up on the sexual tension. You know, I could always sense that there was this current of something running between us, but I thought it was in my head, like everything else in my life seemed to be. But obviously it wasn’t and I hoped to God it wasn’t only radiating from me. It made me rethink the way I acted around him. Was I always staring at him with a stupid look on my face? I thought it would have been more an angry, confused and annoyed face.
Then the actual thought of being “dynamite in bed” with him made me feel sticky hot and flushed, like I was blushing all over my body. Dirty, inappropriate thoughts were swirling around in my head. Flashing images of our naked, grinding bodies, his sweaty, tattooed chest above me, while those hands of his roamed roughly all over me, that baritone voice snarling animalistic groans in my ear. It would be dynamite. It would be tectonic. I think the world would implode. I think I was about to implode at the dinner table.
I swallowed hard and blinked, shifting my body away from Dex ever so slightly. I gave everyone a sarcastic smile that said ‘boys’ and breathed out air I had been holding onto. I could tell Dex was watching me but I was going to avoid looking in his general direction for the next hour, in case I actually attacked him over our main course.
Fortunately, the conversation after that was turned on to more casual topics and I was able to calm down inside. The food was very pleasant and totally homemade. The mutton we had was unlike any mutton I had before. It wasn’t tough at all and went exceedingly well with the rich gravy which had touches of fennel and mint in it. I told Will he could open his open restaurant here on the ranch if he wanted to.
He laughed appreciatively. “Red Fox needs some better places to dine, that’s for sure.”
“You’ll just have to get rid of the ghosts first,” Sarah crowed. “Or was it a curse? I can’t remember what we had decided on this morning.”
This was the first time tonight anyone brought up what was really going on. It had been the elephant in the room and we had all been avoiding it. Leave it to the matriarch though. We fell silent, heads turning to look at her.
She sensed it and shrugged, not caring one bit. “We can’t ignore the real reason why our guests are here. So let’s talk about.”
Will looked down at his food, chewing slowly for a few moments before saying, “We can leave that for another time. Maybe after dinner, with some coffee and dessert.”
“Oh, how nice,” Sarah said, her voice dripping with venom. “What a lovely after dinner conversation.”
She folded her hands in front of her and ‘looked’ around primly. “Now that Shan and Miguel are here, I think it’s only fair to let them in the conversation we had earlier. Especially since Shan became the subject of that conversation.”
Shan nodded, not looking the least bit surprised or put out.
“Yes,” he said. He played with the rings on his finger, twirling them around in a hypnotic fashion. “I would like to talk about you all think.”
I glanced at Bird, remembering what he had told us upstairs. We were going to have to take the dumb white folk route.
“Well, I’ll tell you I’ve never seen anything like this before,” I confided. I know my voice was taking on a higher tone to match my ‘gee golly’ eyes. “These ghosts sure are a persistent bunch. At home, we call them poltergeists.”
Shan didn’t seem to buy it. “You all came looking for me today because you heard I was a medicine man.”
“True,” I said quickly. “But then we realized how ridiculous that was. I mean, not that you were a medicine man. Not at all. It’s just afterwards we had a talk about it, using all of our ghostly knowledge, ha, we decided it can’t be anything more than your regular old haunting.”
“Or stupid punks from town,” Miguel spoke up.
I looked at him, surprised, and helped. “Yes or it could be stupid punks from town. Throwing rocks, killing your sheep….”
“Getting crows to attack you?” Sarah said.
I wish she could see me glaring at her. “Oh that, well obviously I’m just a bird magnet or something.”
“And a fox magnet,” she added pointedly. At that, Shan gave her a sharp look. The subtle exchange went unnoticed at the table but gave me a weird feeling.
“Yes. And a fox magnet. One thing’s for certain, you have an abundance of curious wildlife here.”
I wasn’t sure how to handle the room. Sarah and Shan seemed almost accusatory as if they wanted us to admit what we really thought was going on. Will wanted to avoid all talk and downplay it, yet he was the only who wanted us there. He was the one with the actual problem but he didn’t want to discuss it in front of anyone else. Then there was Bird who knew a lot more than he was sharing. The only thing he did share was that we had to keep our plans from everyone. Which left me really f*cking confused when it came to what we could talk about.
Dex and Maximus looked equally conflicted which would explain why they weren’t saying anything.
“So, all that talk earlier about curses and skinwalkers,” Sarah started. My head snapped up. We never mentioned skinwalkers. I tried to keep my face emotionless but I was freaking out inside. I felt Dex tense up beside me.
“That didn’t mean anything?” she continued. “Wanting to talk to a medicine man to protect you?”
Will pointed his fork at her, looking as angry as I had seen him, his neck growing a vibrant shade of fuchsia along his bulging jugular.
“No one has even mentioned skinwalkers, Sarah. You know we don’t believe in that superstitious nonsense.”
“Then why do you look so afraid?” she countered. “Surely the kids have heard of the yee naaldlooshii? The skinwalker.”
“No,” Dex said, leaning forward. “We haven’t.”
I’m pretty sure her blind eyes rolled underneath her glasses.
“With all the animals, rocks and happenings in the night, I was sure that would be the first conclusion you’d be drawing.”
“Well maybe we think it’s all a bunch of nonsense as you seem to believe it is and don’t want to bother wasting our time with it,” Dex retorted. He flashed his eyes at Maximus. “Isn’t that right, buddy?” >
Maximus pursed his lips, nodding. “Yeah, I reckon Mrs. Lancaster, I’m not really equipped to deal with that sort of thing. I still believe there is some kind of haunting here.”
“And no curse?” Shan asked. He sounded disbelieving, as if we couldn’t answer that one to his liking.
“Actually, I told them about Navajo curses,” Bird said, tugging at his shirt collar. “I knew they’d take it with a grain of salt, not being Navajo like I am. And like you are, Shan. But they dismissed the idea pretty quickly.”
Wow. Bird wasn’t kidding when he said he didn’t want anyone to know what we were up to. I really wanted to hear his reasoning behind it. I glanced up at the grandfather clock nearby. It was just after 8PM and the bar was waiting for us. Answers were waiting for us.
Sarah crossed her arms and sat further back in her chair. I had no idea why she seemed to be so put out by our reluctance to talk about anything Navajo related. Everything seemed to be a battle between her and her husband. Maybe she was trying to prove something to him, though I couldn’t be sure what.
And Shan. I observed him casually. He didn’t seem bothered, not that he ever really did. His face was still shining and body language was open. But his eyes were on Sarah. They looked stern, disapproving almost. I had seen that look in my father’s eyes many a times.
Maybe they are having an affair, the thought streaked across my head. I don’t know why I thought that but it kind of made sense. All these untold looks at the table. Her disappearing into the cabin with him, albeit briefly. Perhaps all of this had nothing to do with us but just with them. Sarah and Shan were having an affair, Sarah was reverting back to her old ways and taunting Will with Shan’s beliefs, the very beliefs that Will gave up. As if I couldn’t like her any less.
“They were right too,” Will said, getting out of his chair. “If I thought any of these occurrences had something to do with the Navajo way, I wouldn’t have brought these white folks here. Now, I don’t care if we find out it is punks or if it’s some ghost, I just want the problem fixed. And that’s what these people are here to do.”
Oh…crap. What was I just saying earlier? Oh yes, how we couldn’t just leave Will here with the problem unsolved. And what did the boys say? That’s right, that it wasn’t our problem and we weren’t expected to do anything about it.
I found myself glaring at Dex and Maximus. You morons.
Will started collecting plates and took them into the kitchen.
“It was such a lovely dinner Will,” I called after him brightly, pushing my anger away.
I heard a mumble from the kitchen. I looked at everyone else. Shan was twisting the giant turquoise ring around and around, his face blank. Miguel brought out a pack of toothpicks, which Dex asked for one. Miguel obliged, having warmed up a bit to Dex during the course of the night. Maximus was staring at me. I could see he was sorting through the situation like I was. Sarah was still stewing in her chair. Bird didn’t say anything more. Actually his lips looked sewn shut. He picked up the remainder of the plates and joined Will in the kitchen.
There was no dessert or coffee. I heard Bird veto that in the kitchen by telling Will that we probably wanted to get straight to work, especially after all the dinner chit chat. We must be eager to get things going. Then came our alibi: We were going to go into town and on the highway and shoot some night shots for atmosphere.
Meanwhile, as I was eavesdropping on their kitchen talk, the conversation at the table was now very awkward. So much so that Miguel left without much more than a quick wave.
“You know, if you have any questions about the Navajo way, I would be more than willing to teach you some things,” Shan offered. Sarah perked up a little.
“Like what?” Dex asked. He hid it well, but I could hear the disbelieving, almost suspicious affliction in his voice.
“There’s a lot my friend. And I know you don’t believe in some of our…myths. But I think you would find it all quite educational. And we have a range of natural solutions.”
“Natural solutions?” I repeated.
“Yes,” he smiled directly at me.
“Organics are commercial now, but we have always been living and breathing off the great earth. We have teas, herbs, rituals that can solve anything. Anything you wish. Anything you want. We could try some out. Tonight.”
“Ah, we’re going into town to shoot some footage,” Dex put in, obviously having overheard Bird as well.
Shan steadied his gaze at him. “That’s too bad. I think tonight would be a great night to be a little more open-minded. Nighttime is when the spirits roam and when our hearts are speaking the clearest.”
“Maybe tomorrow?” Maximus offered.
“Oh, I have no doubt you’ll be wanting to see me tomorrow,” he said. He sounded innocent enough but I wasn’t sure of anything in this place. Everything felt ominous.
He wiped his mouth with his napkin and placed it neatly on the table. He got out of his chair and turned to Sarah, “Please thank your husband for the lovely meal. It’s time for me to retire. Still in a bit of pain.”
“Yeah, what happened with that?” Dex questioned, also getting up and facing him.
Shan eyed him distrustfully. “Chest pains.”
“Your heart?”
“Yeah,” he said. He sent a furtive glance at Sarah. “My heart.”
And then he was gone, the cold wind from outside gusting in as he closed the door, making the napkins on the table rise and fall. Of course, now it was us and Sarah.
She knew it. She sighed and slowly got up. “All right. I’ll leave you kids to whatever you are doing. Wasting our time by the sounds of it.”
We didn’t say anything. There wasn’t anything to say. We just looked at our hands and waited until she was walking upstairs before we made any movements.
I exhaled. I felt like I was holding my breath for the last few hours.
“Dude,” Maximus agreed.
Time to get cracking. We told Will and Bird we were going upstairs to gather our equipment. We still didn’t speak, feeling that there were too many eager ears in this house, until we got our equipment in the Jeep.
“I’ll take my own car,” Maximus said. “I’ll be staying at the hotel again anyway.”
He got in and drove off. I climbed into the passenger side of the Jeep. Time to get to the bottom of this.