Where the Red Oak stood

Chapter 19

The sun had not even risen. The house was sleeping, the kitchen around him dark. Between his hands was a cup of tea, but he did not drink. Only held it in his hands, surrounding it with his palms despite it being boiling hot. It did not affect him. He was shivering, shivering horribly, and nothing he did seemed able to stop it. The first thing he'd thought of when he woke was the bottle in the drawing room, but he had decided against it. He knew it would do nothing against the shivering. It was not caused by coldness anyways.

Ray stared at the surface of the cup, at the bubbles floating there, the tea leaves he still had not removed. They spinned slowly on the dark surface. He started to feel sick. The leaves should slow down, change course - do anything - but they just kept going round and round.

Twelve hours since he and Chad passed through the gate. Twelve hours, twelve hours, twelve hours. It was not until he heard a sound coming from the stairs that he looked up from the cup. In the dim light coming from the window beside the front door, he glimpsed a small shadow. Her golden curls appeared gray in the darkness and not even when she opened the front door did her hair change color. She disappeared outside and now he was staring at the door instead. The being sick-feeling grew more intense.

Before long she was back inside. This time she was facing the kitchen, and the light must have reached into here, because she stopped. Spooked? Should be, but when she talked her voice was calm. "Dad?"

His palms were screaming in protest but he had long since stopped listening to his mind's instincts telling him to let go. Who knew, perhaps he would get blisters? He held the cup tighter. "Go back to sleep."

The voice did not even sound like his own.

Mary remained in the hall. She took a step towards the kitchen, leaning, half hidden, against the door frame. "What are you doing?"

How small her voice is.

"I could not sleep. Why are you up?"

"I had to pee."

"Now you have. Go back to your room."

He had to admit he was not expecting her to stay. She did not enter the kitchen, but she would not go away either. Was she planning to say something else? Whatever could that be? The questions were so many so how could one choose which to ask?

In the end Mary didn't. She stepped back, back straightened, hands closed at her sides. Somehow she looked older than her age. Must be the shadows. With a small "good night" she disappeared upstairs.

The encounter left Ray restless. It was still dark around him and he was shivering worse than ever, but he realized he could not stay in the house for another minute. When he released his grip on the cup, his hands seemed to burn even worse for a couple of seconds before the pain dwindled. He left the cup on the table, feeling how his heart was beginning to thump. Without wasting a moment too long he rushed for the front door. He managed to get it open, stumbled outside, inhaled deeply. The cool night air helped to widen his lungs again and he was able to keep the worst panic away. He leaned against the porch fence and kept drawing breaths, at first quivering but soon calmer. When he was certain that no bottomless hole would swallow and devour him this time, he quietly closed the door behind him and headed out onto the property.

The sky was slowly changing colors. A line of pink glowed in the horizon, following the line of trees rising kilometers away. Ray's feet carried him to the stable and he decided to go inside. The horses were sleeping but everyone except Onyx woke when he entered, curiously looking out into the corridor in hope of an early breakfast. Ray ignored them and went straight to Lucy's stall.

It was definitely a change to find her standing, hoping for breakfast like the other horses. The question was what kind of change it was. A good one for Lucy, obviously. Ray patted her on the muzzle, went inside and bent to see her leg. A scarring was all that was left and the crack in the hoof was almost invisible. All that was left now was to rebuild her muscles.