Lester of Two Evils

The Woman in the Woods

The cold air stung Lester's cheeks, and his fingers felt frozen. Even so, he gripped the handlebars of his bike firmly, training its small light on the white painted line marking the edge of the pavement. Somewhere in the darkness to his right lay a steep roadside ditch, and he was careful to steer clear.

Amanda and Mae rode beside him, the three of them taking up the entire southbound lane to the double yellow line. There was no need to worry about oncoming traffic. The sun wouldn't be up for another half an hour, allowing the headlights of any cars to be seen long before they arrived. Additionally, as it was the weekend, there would be no buses shuttling kids to school or adults going to work. At most, they might encounter a slow-moving tractor, driven by a local farmer, up early, rushing to get the season's last cutting of hay into the barn before the rain they could smell on the air arrived.

Lester loved this time of day. It was one of the reasons he liked having a paper route. Soon the town would wake, and people would start to go about the mundane tasks of everyday life. But right now, in the moments before dawn, the possibilities were endless. Lester could let go of everything that would seem so important just a few hours from now; school, his family, his future. Some days, he felt he might keep riding and never go back. However, he knew that once the sun came up, the weight of the world would return. Still, it was fun to pretend.

"Seriously, Lester?" Amanda said, her breath showing in the air as it blew out from the scarf wrapped around the lower part of her face. "Can't you just tell us where we're going? It's freezing out here."

"Turn!" Lester yelled in reply and veered off the pavement onto a dirt track.

Mae and Amanda followed, their bikes rattling as they rolled up and over several rollercoaster-like humps.

While most of Giles Hollow sat atop the hill, a few random houses were scattered among the deep woods of the valley below. These were connected to the main village by a series of unpaved lanes that saw little to no attention from the town. During the spring months, the rain and melting snow could render mud so thick that many of these rustic routes became impassable.

"Wee!" Mae squealed as they picked up speed and passed through a dip that made Lester's stomach drop. She wore a wool hat with a rabbit's face knitted onto the front. It had matching grey and pink ears that flapped behind her as she sailed along.

They continued to descend, the trees growing thicker and taller as they went. Gnarled limbs intertwined above them, reaching out from either side to create a dense canopy that transformed the narrow road into a woven tunnel.

From the bottom of the valley they heard a long low whistle, followed by a rhythmic clacking. If they kept going, they would eventually come to the river that marked the county's edge and the freight trains that wound their way along its banks.

Lester brought his bike to a stop, and Mae and Amanda did the same. The sun was rising. Its rays filtered through the mist that hung in the air, casting a gray haze around them.

"You do realize we're going to have to bike back up all of that, right?" Amanda said, pulling the scarf from her face. "This had better be worth it."

"You can judge for yourself," said Lester. He removed an oversized postcard from his delivery bag and passed it to Amanda. "You know the symbol from the paper in the alley? I knew I'd seen it before."

"Come to the annual Giles Hollow Historical Society's fundraiser," Amanda read. "What's this got to do with anything?"

"Turn it over," said Lester.

The front of the postcard showed an old black and white photograph of a small cemetery, surrounded by a shiny wrought iron fence and thin maple saplings.