chapter3

FEAR FOREST

This is an excerpt from my novella, Fear Forest. A thirteen year old boy named Bernard and his mother and father, Cynthia and Thomas, have recently moved to a small, isolated town called Moon Rust Junction. Bernard is soon going to meet an unusual neighbor.

Chapter Three

Their house sat in the middle of an open field, acres that seemed to stretch for miles.

It was stark white like bones. The sky--blue. On a white sky day the house would blend with it. The ground was green and full of grass and open, terribly, awfully open.

A just before fall chill cut through the air and Bernard shivered.

His parents and he walked toward their new home.

The house stood there for them, white among the greenery. Empty. Bernard gawked at it. To him empty houses looked haunted.
"It's in such a field of nothing," he told his mom. "There's nothing around, no buildings, no houses, no people. It's calm, but it also makes it all seem frightening."

"How do you mean frightening?" Cynthia asked.

"It looks so beautiful and lonely and empty. I don't know how to describe it."

"This is the country, Bernard," Thomas said. "it's a whole different mind set. You'll get used to the extra space."

But that hadn't been exactly what Bernard meant.

"It is beautiful he said softly, almost to himself. No one heard.

The rest of the day was spent unpacking. The movers were late and the furniture didn't get in until evening.

That evening the sky was light, but Bernard could hear the crickets and cicadas. It was that time in September just before summer's end where the sounds of summer conflicted with the cold lonely wind.

Bernard looked outside the window. They must have been hand made glass, because there were ripples in them, and saw a figure coming slowly across the field, under the sky, in the ripples of the handmade glass window; towards him, through the vast space of the meadow that surrounded the house, through the green, green grass.

At first all he could tell was the figure was moving. It might be an animal. He couldn't exactly see what it was, but there was something about it's movement that seemed to have that kind of fluidity and grace that only animals have. As the figure became closer he saw it was a boy around his age with hair sun streaked in blondness--running wild in the wind.

Closer yet to the house, he saw the boy had large green eyes that seemed just as wild as his hair for a second. Then they calmed. They looked intelligent, charismatic, focused and Bernard wondered if he'd some imagined their wild expression.

The boy rang the door bell.

There were no melodic ring here as there had been in Bernard's old apartment, just a loud sharp buzz that sort of shocked him.
Bernard went upstairs to his room and stopped in the upstairs hallway. From the hallway he had a view of the front door, which he saw his mother opening.

Now he could make out more details about the boy. He was slender, but not fragile. The way his loose clothes hung hinted at some musculature beneath them.

He wore a checked blue India cotton shirt, black jeans and the same color sneakers. The clothes were slightly rumpled. He didn't have the air of a kid who cared too much about clothes. They looked like they were something he just put on without thinking about it.

He did not slump, but stood straight, relaxed, but somehow princely. He seemed calm, but his eyes were wide and alert.

If Bernard could have described it in words, he would have felt the boy held an energy. It didn't seem logical, he was just a kid on the doorstep dressed casually, but his focus reminded Bernard of a boxer before a fight.

The boy stood there and smiled. It was a slight smile, maybe not real, maybe slightly amused, more polite then anything. His eyes glowed with something disconcerting. He was saying a few words to Bernard's mother that Bernard couldn't hear.

He was handsome or charismatic or whatever makes you watch someone more intently then the usual person when they're on a doorstep, Bernard thought. He felt slightly embarrassed watching him. He felt he shouldn't be so riveted to another boy. It was weird.

Bernard couldn't hear what he was saying, but he watched the smile widen. The boy's face glowed like a sun, Bernard thought, but not necessarily a warm one. His mother had her back to him, but something about her posture made him think she was smiling too. It would be a gentle smile--warm, friendly, inviting to a neighbor.

The other boy looked up the stairs and caught Bernard's eye. He waved at him. His smile widened looking even more charismatic, but not particularly friendly. Bernard was irritated and wanted to look away, but the big green eyes didn't let him.
"Bernard," his mother called from the bottom stairs, "you have a new friend who would like to play with you."

Bernard opened his mouth to say no. He felt like screaming.

"Come on, Bernard," the blond haired child said softly, but perfectly pronounced. He looked amused at Bernard's fear. The boy's eyes commanded and Bernard found himself--he didn't want to, at least he had thought he didn't want to--moving down the stairs.

The boy who stood before him was magnetic, strange, dangerous, but his mother didn't even notice.

"Why don't you try hanging out outside with Jared, a while," his mom said.

Jared was the boy's name. It sounded like breaking glass.

Jared nodded. "We don't have to go far from your house if your scared. I guess your really shy, huh?" His eyes glittered with amusement.

He's getting off on the fact I'm afraid, Bernard thought angrily.

The boy's eyes examined Bernard, up and down. The boy's eyes were large and green. When Bernard looked into them close up, he had the sensation of being off balance. He fell into them like you'd fall into the eyes of a girl you were in love with in a movie, but with more uncomfortable results.

He closed his eyes for a second just to catch his equilibrium.

"I don't want to go outside," Bernard said, looking down on the ground. He felt desperately afraid, but he couldn't tell his mom. It sounded like a whine rather then the plea of fear it was--Don't let him take me outside. Please.

At the same time he wanted to go outside with the boy. He was fascinated. He didn't understand what he was going through. It felt like wanting to jump off a cliff so you could fly.

"Try to make friends," Cynthia told him rubbing his neck slightly--Bernard realized he was hunched over in fear.
"You don't know when one will come calling again."

Jared waited and now a serious look entered his face--a challenge. Only Bernard saw it. "Are you too afraid, Bernard?"

That made Bernard angry "All right," he said, "let's play."

They stood in the meadow. Jared touched Bernard's shoulder. A shiver went through Bernard, fear or something. Jared got in close to Bernard's face. Bernard could feel his breath. It smelled like the woods. "You've been hurt. Tell me about the fading bruises on your face."

That's none of your business, Bernard meant to say, but stuttered the b of business over and over again.

Jared interrupted by brushing his blond hair against Bernard's forehead. Somehow with this green eyed boy it was a natural gesture.

"You don't trust me Bernard, do you?"

"Not as far as I could throw you."

"And you couldn't throw me."

The boy's hand went into a fist, his arm tensed.

Bernard stepped back, shaking.

For a second the boy looked like he was going to punch Bernard.

Then Jared calmed down. "Why don't we go for a walk."

"My mom said she didn't want me to get to far away from the house."

Fear had earned Jared a substitute for respect and Bernard had no more challenges for him, at least for now.

"Your mother didn't say that."

"I wish she had," Bernard said so softly he almost thought the sentence to himself.

"Why do you limit yourself, Bernard? You're always afraid like a little worm."

"There's a lot to be afraid of. How do you know about my life?"

Jared stood slender, upright, relaxed. His blond hair waved in the breeze. The sun had bleached it near white.

He looked at Bernard like he might look at a small malnourished puppy, with amusement and pity.

His blond hair waved in the wind making patterns like waves in the air.

He looks perfect, Bernard thought.

Jared licked his lips and growled. The growl was deep and surprising. "Walk," he said and Bernard did.

They didn't talk much as they ambled through the woods. Jared seemed so strong, so sure of himself. Bernard walked beside him, feeling small, like he was nothing.

He wondered if Jared would hit him. He was almost sure Jared was stronger then him. He had to be with that confidence.
Every once in a while Jared would turn to him and just look at him, taking him in. His smile seemed more real, although if friendliness lurked behind it, there were a lot of other emotions mixed in.     .
The sun went down slowly. The sky got red and darker. They walked through the woods, and Bernard could hear the cicadas.
Jared ran a hand through Bernard's hair. "You're a little calmer now aren't you, Bernard?"

Bernard nodded. He was still worried, though.

"We'd better get you back to your parents." Jared sighed as if the act of getting him back to his parents was an unnecessary pain, an annoyance, an action he was taking despite himself. Bernard had the feeling that Jared would have walked with him, walked through the woods, deeper and deeper, forever if he had a choice. That they would have gotten lost going deeper and deeper and Jared wouldn't have cared. He'd just continue to look at him with his large green eyes in the green, green forest.

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