A Faraway Song (Part 20)

I processed that for a few more seconds and then ducked back around the corner of the building.  I tried to remember exactly when Eyebrows had spoken the words to me, what the context was at the time.  I was fairly sure it had been the last thing she had said to me, right after I asked her if taking kids pictures was taboo because it might steal their souls.  She had fallen asleep after that, peacefully if I remembered right, maybe the sleep of someone who had relieved a burden from themselves.  In that light, this particular clue seemed incredibly important and I decided to investigate further.  Walking slowly back to the eastern wall of the building I scouted the area with my eyes.

There seemed to be quite a collection of things, big and small, that cluttered up much of the land back here in the unkept part of Brown Suit’s property.  Farm equipment displaying varying degrees of rust, old cars, water & oil tanks, barrels, pieces of sheet metal, one odd looking tower with a hose hanging from the top of it, flapping in the breeze.  There were a couple other building also and I knew that somewhere back here was where he parked his car.  There were also several paths cut through the brush and tall grass, ones which were well beaten down and clearly still in regular use.  I checked the sight lines back to Brown Suit’s house and saw that I would be fairly safe back here, at least from any observation from the house.  If he chose to walk out my way though, well I might end up playing a rather tense game of hide-and-seek.  It seemed a good risk to take so I stepped off down the closest path.

It tracked fairly straight for about one hundred feet and then curved off to the south, ending is a small clearing with pieces of garbage strewn about and a rusty barrel that looked like was used to burn trash.  That was a dead-end so I went back and started again at the Red Crow building, talking another path that went in a northeastern direction, cutting under a very tall White Pine and then around a copse of cedar trees.  I could see scattered light and vague shapes of metal poles through the trees as I walked along but was shocked when I finally was able to get a clear view of the mowed-down clearing beyond.  The poles were the tall parts of a swing set, blue and green in color and showing no rust.  There also was an old tractor tire, lying on its side and filled with sand.  I walked over and picked up two of the small trucks that lay on the side of the makeshift sandbox.  They also showed no rust and their paint was bright red.  I knelt down, surveying the area more closely.

The grass here was well-maintained, cut down to about one half inch high and mowed in what looked like a fairy regular circle about forty feet in diameter.  A couple of other toys were scattered around; a blue bouncing ball, a small metal car and a white ladder that looked like it had broken off a toy fire truck.  There also was a dirty sock, small enough for a young child, wadded up under the slide part of the swing set.  A few footprints were visible in the sand within the tire and the area looked like it was used recently.  The path resumed on the north side of the clearing, so I picked up the small car as proof of what I had observed, and continued walking.  Three minutes later I was outside another old building, this one in much better repair than the one with the Red Crow sign.  It had two windows, and looking though one I saw the Colony Park Wagon.  And a small blue bike.

old blue bike

old blue bike

I stood there, peering through the glass but not seeing much else as my mind was scrambling through the clues I had found.  Certainly this was confirmation of what I had suspected, proof that there really was a child being hidden somewhere around Clyde Forks, quite possibly right on this property.  Suddenly I heard some noises, ones that were getting closer, and realized someone was coming back toward the garage.  I crept off into the woods, into the darkness of the trees, and several minutes later Brown Suit drove the car out as I watched, leaving the door open.  Once he was gone I took a look inside.  The bike looked old but taken care of, and certainly had been used recently as the chain was in good shape and the tires were full.  There was nothing else of interest though, just oil cans, a lawn mower and tools, so I resisted the impulse to look around more and walked back through the woods to my truck.

Tired when I finally made it back, I leaned up against the back bumper and took the toy car out of my pocket.  Who played with this?  Where were they being kept?  And again, why? What did these new clues mean about what was really going on with Brown Suit?

…to be continued

A Faraway Song (Part 19)

I did not want to leave yet as so much still remained unexplained.  I felt like this was my last chance to get any information from Brown Suit; that as soon as I walked out of his house he would never speak with me again.  Up to this point he had, for the most part, told me little although he had certainly been willing to talk about his rabbits and the mysterious evil in which he believed.  I felt that was the real driving force behind the man, his lifelong battle against whatever myth he had created in his head.  I still was not sure if he was trying to protect me from it, feed me to it, or just get me out of the way, but it seemed like the topic most likely to get him talking to me again.

“Do you know what I think about your rabbits?”

He stood silently by the door so I continued.  “I think they are just a symbol of something you yourself are afraid of, some inner fear that you have.  I do not know if it is real or imagined, but I think it exists only inside of you.  You have spent all of these years running from that fear, refusing to face up to it, playing your little rabbit game instead.  What do you say to that?”

His reply was slow and very clearly enunciated, the sound of his voice making the inside of my ears itch.  “We are done.  Get out.”

I stayed in my seat and tried a few more times to get him to talk but to no avail.  Finally I stood up, placed my glass in the sink and walked toward the door.  Just as I stepped outside I turned back.

“Just one more question.  A quick one.  Do you know where the red crow grows?”

He slammed the door in my face which was pretty much what I had expected would happen.  I stood there outside the door, turning around so I could see back up the road.  I was not sure if I considered my questioning of Brown Suit to be a success but I definitely had managed to get him angry again.  Somewhere though, among that anger, a few things had become obvious to me.

First, there was certainly something which had happened, probably personally, to him which had caused this delusion of the evil presence to form in his mind.  It made no rational sense to me that a dark force actually existed and was prowling the area.  What kind of trauma would cause such a myth to take hold of someone?  Was it these missing people that he mentioned? If so, what was his connection to them?

Secondly, the questions he refused to answer, about his name and whether someone lived with him, seemed odd but also possibly attributable to a desire for privacy.  Given that no one else in the area, other that the reverend, had offered or given their name to me, perhaps that kind of privacy was just part of the culture in the area.  But what then to make of his evasion around the presence of a child?  Why would anyone ever want to hide one away?

It seemed my questions to Brown Suit had only led to more puzzles.  I walked toward my truck but looked back as I did so and caught a flash of red back in the woods.  It was the same thing I had seen before, something painted on the side of an old building.  As my question about the red crow was fresh in my mind, it peaked my curiosity and I decided to investigate a little further.  Believing that he might be watching me, I got into my truck and drove back up Cemetery Road, turning left and parking in the church lot.  I sat there and tried to create a map of the area in my head.

I needed to return to Brown Suit’s property, but without going back down the road.  There also were the other properties on the road to consider.  Any hike through the woods was going to take me past those properties also and I had no idea how far back into the forest residents of the area might consider my presence a trespassing violation.  I  definitely felt that this area was a “shoot first” kind of place.  I had fortunately acquired a few hiking and navigating skills in my life and felt I could travel deep in the woods without getting lost.  That should keep me as safe as possible from any possible confrontation with the locals. It would be a little bit harder to navigate directly to that old building I wanted to investigate but I still felt I could pull it off.  Leaving a “Ran Out of Gas” note on my windshield for the reverend in the event that he wondered why I was parked in his lot, I pulled on a jacket and entered the woods.

It quickly became very dark around me but the sun was bright above the forest canopy and I used its presence as a guide.  I also had picked out a very tall, distinct tree, which was located in the approximate direction I needed to travel, as another marker to follow.  I lost sight of it almost immediately but knew that if necessary I could climb up to check my bearings.  It took almost an hour, and three trips up sticky conifers, but finally I was sitting on a small rise in the land looking at the faded old building on Brown Suit’s property.

I surveyed the area, just to make sure that he was not out and about, and then slowly walked over to the building.  I approached from the eastern side, away from the wall where I had seen the flash of red.  Creeping along its faded brown walls and stepping over old farm tools and various piles of miscellaneous junk, I reached the southwest corner and did another quick check.  Seeing no one, I stepped out several feet and turned to look at the wall.

I bit my lip as the image which was there became clear to me.  Although it was faded, it was still discernible.  A bird in flight, with an exaggerated beak, an animal which did not exist in reality.  It was a red crow.

I stood there in shock for several seconds, Eyebrows’ cryptic sentence coning true much too literally for me to believe.  Finally, I shook off my surprise and looked again.  Below the bird, in grey, peeling letters on a dirty white background it said “Red Crow Automotive – Best Service in Clyde Forks”.

…to be continued