The scream sounded again, and this time it was directly above them.
The top of a spindly sugar maple had broken from its trunk and swayed by a few taut sinews. As it rocked in the wind, it filled the air with a piercing cry.
Ben felt stupid, but he also felt relieved.
Ted looked him over carefully. “You’re not losing it, too, are you, Benj?”
“What are you even doing here?” Ben asked. He brushed leaves from his jeans.
“I saw you pull off the road in that tractor thingy and thought I’d follow.” Ted frowned at him. “I feel like you’re not happy to see me.” He contrived an expression somewhere between a pout and a frown.
“You just surprised me,” Ben said.
“Are you sure? I can find a hotel to stay at if you want. Or a motel. Whatever they have in a place like this.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous.”
Ted looked at him for a moment, then grinned. “Come on, big brother.” He stretched his arms toward Ben and beckoned with his fingers. “Bring it in, bring it in.”
Ben let himself be hugged.
“It’s good to see you, Benj,” Ted muttered into his neck.
“You, too,” Ben said, disengaging himself. “But you should have called. Or e-mailed, or texted—there are so many ways to not completely blindside people.”
As they made their way out of the woods, Ben realized that he hadn’t trekked as deep into forest as he’d thought. He wished his brother hadn’t seen him so panicked. The trees and sounds must have disoriented him, and his imagination had done the rest.
Ted had pulled his silver bullet of a sports car off the road just behind where Ben had parked the tractor. The car’s driver-side door was left open, its single gull wing gesturing to the sky.
“What is this thing?” Ben tapped the hood of the roadster.
“It’s a McLaren—you’ve never seen one? What do they have up here? Pontiacs? Toyotas? That kind of thing?”
“It’s yours?”
“God, no. A friend loaned it to me. But, hey, your ride’s nice, too.” He jutted his head in the direction of the tractor. “Gotta say that that’s one long and tedious drive. But this is where our people are from, huh?” Ted turned to take in the view of the valley.
“Some of them.”
They looked at the scattered buildings of Swannhaven, dilapidated even at this distance. “It’s weird, isn’t it?” Ted asked.
“You have no idea. Can your spaceship take us up to the house?”
Ben opened the passenger-side door and chuckled as it separated from the car’s body and pivoted into the air.
“This is an absurd vehicle.”
“You think this is absurd?” Ted asked. He swung himself into the car, shut the door, and peered up at the sprawling house between the mountains. “Oh, Benj.” He shook his head. “What have you gotten yourself into?”
—
Ted watched Bub roll peas across the rim of his high chair and then drop them onto the floor.
“Young Robert likes his greens.”
“Likes playing with them,” Ben said.
“You think Caroline will be in bed long?” Ted asked. “Should we wait for her before we go to Grams’s?” Ostensibly, Ted had come up here to visit their grandmother’s run-down farmhouse.
“If she needs to rest, we should let her,” Ben replied. Caroline had said hello to Ted but left soon after with a headache. Charlie had also made a brief appearance, but he’d already fled for the forest. Ben had seen the red soil of the lakeshore on his bare feet, but he knew the boy could be anywhere.
“Is she still spending a lot of time in bed?”
“How about a tour before we head to the farmhouse,” Ben said. “What do you want to see?”
“It is sort of amazing how much there is to choose from, isn’t it? Oh, and before I forget, I have a box of books in the car for you to sign. Monica’s book club is reading—did you ever meet Monica? I think you’d like her. Anyway, her book club is reading one of yours next month, so I thought she’d get a kick out of giving the girls signed copies. Never hurts to have an in with the friends, you know?”
“Which one are they reading?”
“They’re all in the car.” He hopped off the counter. “You think Charlie wants to go on the tour with us?”
“I’ve only published two.”
“Come on, man, you know I can barely keep up with my blogs.”
Ben doubted this was true. In their youth, Ted had been just as avid a reader as Ben—any chance to visit a world beyond their own. He tossed a hand towel at Ted, aiming for his head. “All right, I’m going to give you the abbreviated version, because we can only see Grams’s place in the light.” He pulled Bub out of his high chair and stepped into the hallway.
“This place looks like a museum,” Ted said as he walked into the first room, one of the largest on this floor. Six windows probed its fourteen-foot ceiling, which was studded with medallion moldings, remnants of a past illuminated by a series of decadent chandeliers.
“None of the rooms on this floor are finished, except for the kitchen and a bathroom. We’re thinking of making this a lounge. Maybe set up a bar over here with a few couches so people can enjoy cocktails before dinner.”
“You have enough space for it.”
The next room was smaller but had an opulent marble fireplace that came up to Ben’s shoulders.
“We think this would make a great library,” he said. “We’ve commissioned someone to build shelves into the wall. Maybe have them add a few of those sliding ladders so people can reach the books on the top shelves.”
“You always wanted one of those,” Ted said.