The Pale Man Rises

CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN

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The vision of the trees was disquieting. The vast majority of them were large conifers that stood tall before any limbs showed themselves. The green of their needles was so deep that the bunching up of the pine and the burden of dense snow caused the shelter of their form to engulf itself turning them into a huge black cloud that hovered above and stood motionless like an omen of impending doom.

The road now turned as bad as those that were in the hunting wood. In places the holes were quite deep and now that they were filling up with snow and ice they became even more problematic. "Wonder what all those lights was about?" Jack Rankin asked as the three of them bounced about on the seat. He knew it must have something to do with the bus. The death of the teens had occurred to recently to be discovered yet and besides that he was trying his best to sound as congenial as he could in order to prevent his own predicted murder from taking place very soon.

Had an objective observer been about and could view the scene without jeopardy they may have been amused by it all. The pale man looked humiliated by the discomfort of the journey as they bounced about on the seat and the matter-of-fact way Rankin posed his questions only lent credence to the ridiculous nature of the situation.

The road was twisting now making the trip longer than it should be for the distance they were to travel. At last the lights of the truck fell on a clearing where a huge, china berry tree stood. Its limbs twisted out like the gruesome arms of a wooden terror that had confronted a trespasser. It had no leaves and its exposed areas were accumulating mounds of snow on them. Clusters of shriveled berries, ugly and brownish yellow hung in various places from the limbs and looked like larva clinging to their despicable progenitors. They were stubborn these berries, they should have long ago fell to the ground to produce more trees. A weathered rope hung from a lower limb and suspended from it was a worn old tire. It had hung there for many, many years. Jack's father, in a rare moment of father and son bonding, had hung it there for his son's pleasure. Since that time the tire remained there never again swaying through the air powered by a gleeful child, but only when the breeze rose up enough to push it about.

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It was a nostalgic particle of this vision. The contrast of the tire beckoning a swinger and the looming quality of the tree in the yard of a faded white clapboard house. It was not under penned and its exposed brick supports looked like the lower feet of an elephant in the hazy lights of the truck as it reflected off of the now near blinding snow.

"I suppose because of all those dead bodies we left back there on the bus." Meeker at last answered Jack's question about all the lights with equal matter-of-factness. "The bus, you killed everybody on the goddamn bus?" Jack asked with an almost hysterical moan. The pale man bent forward in the seat and stroked his tresses with one hand. "It was necessary." he said in a near whisper.

Jack saw an opening. "No sir–no sir I don't agree–just hear me out huh?" But without any prompting he continued his spiel. "Look here you need someone working for you that's in his right mind. No offense to the sergeant here, but he looks mad as hell and that bump on his head is gettin' worse by the minute. And you know what that means don't ya? Hell he'll be delirious in no time at all and the way he is now there's no tellin' what he might do–you cain't go around killin' everyone you meet, and they sure ain't gonna cooperate with you with him actin' like that!" he said boldly.

Meeker leaned back angered and at the same time he touched his injury. It must have worried him the way it felt. His expression quickly changed from ire to caution. Now the pale man leaned forward again. "What is your name?" he asked in an almost baritone voice. "Ah....ah....Jack–Jack Rankin." Jack answered as he pulled the truck into the yard of the dreary decrepit house. "Jack do you wish to live long enough to enter this house?" he asked the young man. "I will say no more!" Jack said as he swallowed hard. He knew he better keep his mouth shut while he still had one.