Never Fear (14 page)

“
That’s enough of that
silly talk, mister!” said Grandpa. His voice was hard-sounding, but
there was a thin layer of fear beneath his words.

Alan looked from his grandfather to
the stranger. As his eyes locked in with those behind the ski mask,
Alan felt a burst of acid in his gut, an ice pick threatening his
spine.

There was no staring at the stranger.
There was something about his eyes, something which seemed to lurch
violently behind them.

A dark chuckle came from the back
seat.

“
Silly talk?
Silly?
”
asked the
stranger.
“
Now
what’s silly and what’s serious in the world today? Who can tell
anymore?! Missiles and terrorists! Vampires and garlic! Famine and
epidemics! Full moons and maniacs
.
”

The words rattled out of the dark man
and chilled Alan more deeply than the cold blast of the heater fan.
He looked away and tried to stop the shiver which raced up and down
his backbone.

“
Where’d you say you was
going, Mister?
”
asked Grandpa as he slowly eased off the gas
pedal.

“
I didn’t
say.
”

“
Well, how about saying
right now?
”

“
Do I detect hostility in
your voice, sir? Or is it something else?” Again came the
deep-throated, whispery chuckle.

Alan kept his gaze upon the
white-on-white panorama ahead. But he was listening to every word
being exchanged between the dark stranger and his grandfather, who
was suddenly assuming the proportions of a champion. He listened
but he could not turn around, he could not look back. There was a
fear gripping him now. It was a gnarled spindly claw reaching up
for him, out of the darkness of his mind, closing in on him with a
terrible certainty.

Grandpa hit the brakes a little too
hard, and even the Cherokee’s 4-wheel drive couldn’t keep it from
sliding off to the right to gently slap a bank of plowed snow. Alan
watched his grandfather as he turned and stared at the
stranger.

“
Listen, Mister, I don’t
know what your game is, but I don’t find it very amusing like you
seem to and I don’t appreciate the way you’ve dealt with our
hospitality—especially on Christmas Eve.
”

Grandpa glared at the man in the back
seat and Alan could feel the courage burning behind the old man’s
eyes. Just the sight of it gave Alan the strength to turn and face
the stranger.

“
Oh, yes... is it that
time again? I’d forgotten…”

That made Alan feel even more weird.
How could anyone forget it was Christmas?

“
Just trying to make
conversation.
”
The man continued in a velvety soft voice. It seemed to Alan
that the stranger’s voice could change any time he wanted it to,
could sound any way at all. The man in the mask was like a
ventriloquist or a magician, maybe.

“
Well, to be truthful with
you, Mister, I’m kinda tired of your conversation,’ and I’d like
you to climb out of here so my grandson and I can be on our way in
peace.
”

The eyes behind the mask
flitted between Grandpa and Alan once, twice. “I
see…
”
said the
voice.
“
No more
silly stuff, eh?
”

The stranger leaned forward, putting a
gloved hand on the back of Alan’s seat. The hand almost touched
Alan’s parka and he pulled away. He knew he didn’t want the man
touching him. More acid churned in his stomach.

“
Very well,” said the dark
man.
“
I’ll be
leaving you for now ... but one last thought, all
right?
”

“
I’d rather not,”
said Grandpa as the man squeezed out the open
side door.

“
But you
will.
”
Another
soft laugh as the stranger stood in the drifted snow alongside the
road. The eyes behind the mask darted from Grandpa to Alan and back
again.
“
You see,
it’s just a short ride we’re all taking ... and the night ... well,
the night is freezing fast.
”

Grandpa’s eyes widened a
bit as the words drifted slowly into the cab, cutting through the
swirling, whipping cold wind. Then he gunned the gas pedal and the
engine raced. “That’s enough of that crazy talk, Mister. Have a
nice day!
”

The Cherokee suddenly leaped forward
away from the strange man. Looking back, Alan could see the
stranger quickly dwindle to nothing more than a black speck on the
white wall behind them.

“
Of all the people to be
helpful to, and I have to pick a danged nut!” Grandpa forced a
smile. He looked at Alan and tapped his arm playfully.
“
Nothing to worry about
now, boy. He’s behind us and gone.
”

Alan nodded. “He was creepy, wasn’t
he?”

Grandpa grunted, kept looking at the
snowed-up road.

“
Who you figure he
was?”

“
Oh, just a nut, son. A
kook. When you get older, you’ll realize that there’s lots of funny
people in the world. Some funnier than others.
”

“
You think he’ll still be
out on the road when we go back?”

Grandpa looked at Alan and tried to
smile. It was an effort and it didn’t look anything at all like a
real smile.

“
You were afraid of him,
weren’t you boy?”

Alan nodded. “Weren’t you?”

Grandpa didn’t answer for
an instant. He certainly looked scared. Then:
“
Well, kinda, I guess. But I’ve
known about his type... almost been expecting him, you might
say.
”

“
Really?
”
Alan didn’t understand what the old man meant.

Grandpa looked ahead.
“Well, here’s the store…
”

He eased the Jeep into the half-plowed
parking lot of Brampton, Iowa’s only full-scale shopping center. He
ran into the Food-A-Rama for a pound of butter while Alan remained
in the cab with engine running, the heater fan wailing, and the
doors locked. Looking out into the swirling snow, Alan could barely
pick out single flakes anymore. Everything was blending into a
furiously thick, white mist. The windows of the Cherokee were blank
sheets of paper, and he could see nothing beyond the
glass.

Suddenly there was a dark
shape at the driver’s side, and the latch rattled on the door
handle. The lock flipped up and Grandpa appeared with a small brown
paper bag in his hand. “Boy, it’s blowin’ up terrible out here!
What a time that woman has to send us out!
”

“
It looks
worse,
”
said
Alan.

“
Well, maybe
not.
”
said
Grandpa, slipping the vehicle into gear. “Night’s coming on. When
it gets darker, the white-out won’t be as bad.
”

They drove home along Route 28 which
would eventually curve down and cross 14A. Alan fidgeted with the
heater fan and the cab was finally starting to warm up a little
bit.

“
Grandpa, what did that
man mean about a
‘
short ride
’
we’re all taking? And the
‘
night freezing
fast
’
?
”

“
I don’t rightly know what
he meant, Alan. He was a kook, remember? He probably don’t know
himself what he meant by it.
”

“
But you said you were
kind of expecting him …”

“
Oh, I was just thinking
out loud. Didn’t mean a thing.” Grandpa pretended to be
concentrating on the road.

“
Well, he sure did make it
sound scary, didn’t he?
”

“
Yes, I guess he did,”
said Grandpa as he turned the wheel onto a crossing road. Here we
go, here’s 14A.
“
Almost home, boy! I hope your grandmother’s got that wood
stove hot!
”

The Jeep trundled along the snowed-up
road until they reached a bright orange mailbox that marked the
entrance to Grandpa’s farm. Alan exhaled slowly, and felt the
relief spreading into his bones. He hadn’t wanted to say anything,
but the white-white of the storm and the seeping cold had been
bothering him, making him get a terrible headache, probably from
squinting so much.

“
What
in
—
?
”
Grandpa
eased off the accelerator as he saw the tall, thin figure standing
in the snow-filled rut of the driveway.

“
It’s him,
Grandpa.
”
said
Alan in whisper.

The dark man stepped aside
as the Cherokee eased up to him. Angrily, Grandpa wound down the
window and let the storm rush into the cab. He shouted past the
wind at the stranger. “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming up to my
house!
”

The eyes behind the ski
mask seemed to grow darker, unblinking. “Didn’t have much
choice,”
said the
chameleon-voice.

Grandpa unlocked the door
and stepped out to face the man. “What do you mean by
that?
”

Soft laughter cut through
the howl of the wind. “Come now! You know who I am ... and why I’m
here.
”

Suddenly Grandpa’s face turned pale,
his eyes became vacant and empty. He nodded his head quickly.
“Yeah, I guess I do, but I never knew it to be like
this.”

“
There are countless ways,
said the stranger, who was no longer unknown to the old man. Now
excuse me, and step aside …
”

“
What!
”
Grandpa sounded
shocked.

Alan didn’t know what was going on,
but he could detect the terror in his grandfather’s throat, the
trembling fear in his voice. Without realizing it, he was backing
away from the vehicle. His head was pounding like a
jackhammer.

“
Is it the
woman?
”
Grandpa
was asking in a whisper.

The dark man shook his
head.

Grandpa moaned loudly,
letting it turn into words. “No! Not him! No, you can’t mean
it!
”

“
Aneurysm …” said the
terribly soft voice behind the mask.

Suddenly Grandpa grabbed
the stranger by the shoulder and spun him around, facing him
squarely. “No!
”
he shouted, his face twisted and ugly.
“
Me! Take me!
”

“
Can’t do it,” said the
man.

“
Grandpa, what’s the
matter?” Alan started to feel dizzy. The pounding in his head had
become a raging fire. It hurt so bad he wanted to
scream.

“
Yes you can!” yelled
Grandpa.
“
I know
you can!
”

Alan watched as Grandpa reached out
and grabbed at the tall thin man’s ski mask. It seemed to come
apart as he touched it, and fell away from beneath the droopy
brimmed hat. For an instant, Alan could see or at least he thought
he saw nothing beneath the mask. It was just an eye-blink of time,
and then he saw, for another instant, the white angular lines, the
dark hollows of the empty sockets.

But the snow was swirling and
whipping, and Grandpa was suddenly wrestling with the man. Alan
screamed as the man wrapped his long thin arms around his
grandfather and they seemed to dance briefly around in the
snow.

“
Run,
boy!
”
screamed
Grandpa.

Alan turned toward the house, then
looked back and he saw Grandpa collapsing into the snow. The tall,
dark man was gone.

“
Grandpa!” Alan ran to the
old man’s side as he lay face up, his glazed eyes staring into the
storm. “What happened? Grandpa! Oh Jeez!
”

“
Get your grandmother ...
quick,
”
said the
old man.
”
It’s my
heart.
”

“
Don’t die, Grandpa ...
not now!
”
Alan
was frantic and didn’t know what to do. He wanted to get help, but
he didn’t want to leave his grandfather in the storm like
this.

“
No choice in it,” he
said.
“
A deal’s a
deal.
”

Alan looked at his
grandfather, suddenly puzzled. “What?
”

Grandpa winced as a new pain lanced
his chest. “Don’t matter now …” The old man closed his eyes and
wheezed out a final breath.

Snowflakes danced across his face,
mixing with the first tears, and Alan noticed that his headache,
like the dark man, had vanished.