The Tree Beasts Read online

  “His mother’s around quite a bit.”

  “She is? Without her husband?” Katie said.

  “Yep, Mrs. Bloomfield was staying here with the young boy a while back.”

  The hairs on Katie’s arms stood up. “With Julian?” Julian hadn’t been a young boy for a while.

  “No, it wasn’t your guy. I don’t think it was a boy of hers.” Neil withdrew his gaze from Katie back to the cupboard, as if he wasn’t willing to say more and wasn’t prepared to go into detail. “He wasn’t really a little boy – a teenager, probably.” From the side Katie noticed he had a small, black hollow mark on his temple. As though Neil felt her watching him, he pointed to his temple and held her gaze. “Julian’s mother’s got one, too, and I know you get what I mean because you’ve got one too.”

  “I’m not sure I do. I do know that Julian’s mom has a scar like mine.”

  “It isn’t a scar. It’s a Mark.”

  Katie found that the most unexpected words came out of his mouth. “What did you mean by a Mark?”

  “I never finished telling you about my daughter.” Neil showed her the photo again.

  “You never answered my question.” Katie made herself look at the photo and smile. “Is she in school?”

  “She’s in the third grade.”

  “And your wife …your girlfriend?” she said, unsure which the woman was.

  “She passed a while back. Pattie lives with my ma quite a ways from town.” Neil met her eyes and smiled.

  “Why doesn’t your little girl live here with you? It’s a big house, and it’s got a lot of acres. There’s so much space.”

  “It’s best that Pattie lives with her grandmother.”

  “That must be hard on you. I hope you still get to see her. Why does she live so far away?”

  Neil looked past her shoulder and ran his hand over his face. “The lady of the house could be interested in her.”

  Katie paused. “Interested in your daughter how?”

  He stared at her. “To read?”

  “I guess I’m a little confused. You’re not the first person who’s mentioned reading to me. What does ‘to read’ mean exactly?”

  “Who was the first person?”

  “Mrs. Eastman,” Katie said.

  “And she’s …?”

  “A woman who lives in my hometown. I thought she was crazy.”

  “I don’t recall hearing about her.”

  “Why would you have?”

  “Because we’re a small group. Miss Katie, my little girl doesn’t have a Mark. That’s why I sent her away. You need the Mark like we both have to read. I’ve been told it’s genetic. Does anyone in your family have a Mark like yours on their face?”

  “My Aunt Diane had the same thing on her temple. She died, though.”

  “Was she on your mother’s side?”

  “Yeah, she was,” Katie said.

  “It’s usually on the mother’s side. My ma’s mother had one, but ma doesn’t. When did your aunt pass on?”

  “A few years ago. She was a good person.”

  “Like you,” Neil said.

  Neil continued to talk, the stream of words kept tumbling from his mouth and Katie listened. Neil’s daughter had lived in foster care for a time while his wife was in jail on drug charges, and social workers had gotten involved.

  “I’m sorry,” Katie said.

  “It’s not your fault. It’s not anyone’s fault except mine,” Neil said. She put her arm lightly around his back. “You seem like a nice person,” he said, stepping out of her reach. “A word of advice for you – don’t read. Once you start, you don’t want to stop. For that reason I don’t read anymore. My wife had the Mark and she couldn’t read at the pace she needed to keep herself happy, so when she wasn’t able to read, she turned to drugs to take the place of it. It ruined her life, and it ruined my life. I won’t let it ruin my little girl’s life any more than it already has. And there’s Mr. Julian’s family.”

  “What about them?” Katie asked.

  Julian came back inside and Neil quickly returned to measuring the cupboards.

  ***

  Later, Julian was sitting with his boots off and his feet up on the couch in the living room. Katie waited until Neil stepped out through the side door for his break and asked Julian about the boy his mother had spent time with in the farmhouse.

  “Where did you hear that?” Julian frowned, sat up and looked right at her.

  “From Neil.”

  “I don’t have any other siblings. I’m an only child,” he reminded her.

  “So was this boy a cousin or something?”

  “No, my cousins are all female. About Neil, he’s a nice guy, but he’s loopy, you know?”

  “I get it,” Katie said, but she doubted Neil was a liar. He seemed mostly honest.

  “What are you saying?”

  “You don’t want to talk about it. I get it.”

  Julian got up. “I never said that. All I said was Neil’s probably just confused, that’s all. Did you think my mom’s been hiding out here with your missing brother or something?”

  “I never said anything about my brother.” Katie surprised herself by shouting. She couldn’t help it. Nothing made sense. Reading. The Mark. Paul appearing again. The anger left Katie and the tears broke free. “I don’t know what got into me.”

  “I’m the one who should be sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.” Julian lifted her chin up and she gazed at him. “You miss your brother. I understand.”

  He hugged her, and his kisses made up for everything.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Early the next morning while Julian was still sleeping, Katie dressed and went into the kitchen. Neil was drinking coffee at the small table.

  She sat down across from him. “If I have the Mark you’re talking about, can you show me how to … what do you call it … read?”

  He looked up, put down his cup and observed her curiously. “Whatever happened to saying good morning first?”

  “Good morning.”

  Neil smiled. “Do you mean to tell me you’ve never read?”

  Katie glanced up at the cuckoo clock on the wall. Julian wouldn’t be up for a while. “Not that I know of.”

  “I don’t know. I’m not reading anymore myself these days. Maybe I can show you, but you’ve got to do it on your own. I don’t know, though. Maybe it’s not such a good idea.”

  “Please show me.”

  “We’ll see. You have to read an actual person, you know.”

  “Who will I be reading? They won’t get hurt, will they?” Katie asked.

  “You don’t have to do it, you know. Some Readers choose not to read.”

  “This reading thing, could it bring me closer to someone I lost?”

  “Who are we talking about?”

  “I lost my brother,” Katie said quietly.

  Neil averted his eyes and took a long swallow of coffee. “Sorry to hear that. Yeah, reading could help you remember him.”

  “When can I try it?” Katie asked.

  “Bear with me.” Neil got up to pour a cup for her.

  ***

  That evening Julian left to drive to a town a bit of a distance away for supplies. He warned Katie he might not be back for a few hours because of the snow, and she was left with Neil.

  Katie sat in a comfy armchair in the living room and flipped through a magazine while Neil filled in a book of sudoku puzzles. She was about to suggest they get a fire going. A crashing noise came from somewhere outside.

  Neil put down his book and got up. He pulled the living room curtain back and peered out the window. “The barn door’s open. I’m going to see what’s going on. No one’s supposed to be around this time of night.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  They walked outside to the tin-roofed tool shed close to the house, where Neil picked up a battery-powered hurricane lantern from the worktable. They left and walked to the red barn a little fart
her out on the property.

  Neil turned to look at Katie, his face aglow from lantern light. “You sure you want to come with me? It could be dangerous. Mr. Julian tell you about the break-ins in the area?”

  “I’ll be okay,” she said.

  Neil rubbed his chin. “I’m not sure. I wouldn’t want Mr. Julian getting upset if something happened to you.”

  “Really, Neil, I’ll be fine. Let’s go.” Katie slipped ahead of him and entered the barn first, even though he tried pulling her back. In the dark and cool room that smelled of sweet hay, she whispered to Neil, “I don’t see anyone,” and the words punctured the empty space.

  Someone or something had knocked over the old wagon wheel that had been leaning against the wall. Doves were flying around the rafters, and as Katie approached they flew out of the barn’s opened doors. What sounded like a person moving was coming from the hayloft tucked under the roof at the back of the barn.

  “Who’s up there?” Neil shouted.

  “Damn,” a guy’s voice muttered from the hayloft.

  “Jacob, is that you?” Neil said. “What are you doing up there? Stealing something from me? You ungrateful little …”

  Jacob emerged from the darkness of the hayloft. His hair hung partly over his eyes. Katie caught the scent of his sweat in the room. He had a key in his hand. Jacob began to climb down the loft ladder while still holding the key, as though he could somehow get away, even if Neil and she were standing in front of and blocking the only exit.

  “Is that my tractor key?” Neil demanded. He glanced at Katie. “I keep a spare key up there. I didn’t know anybody knew I kept it there.”

  He looked back up at Jacob. “You’ve been watching me? What’re you planning to do? Drive off with the tractor? We would’ve heard you if you had. Not a very smart plan, if you ask me.”

  Jacob climbed down faster and the ladder shook. One of the rungs began to splinter.

  Neil reached out to steady the ladder. “Be careful. I can’t stand you but I wouldn’t want you to—”

  Jacob cried out as his foot slipped on the broken rung and he fell backward off the ladder, having almost made it halfway down.

  Jacob stayed on his side on the sawdust-covered floor, and his head moved a little as he moaned. His body twitched, and his forehead was streaked with dirt. Neil held the hurricane lantern near Jacob’s face, and Katie peered closer. His face was cut, and it was not dirt but blood.

  “I think he’s unconscious.” Katie stepped back.

  A wedge of lantern light rested on Jacob’s face and moved to the floor when Neil brought his arm down. Isabel made a long, deep sound in her stall. Neil faced her. “It’s all right, girl.” He said to Katie, “Now is your chance.”

  “My chance to—”

  “Read. Go on.”

  “I don’t want to hurt him.”

  “You won’t. Just be careful.”

  “What should I do first?”

  “Stand near him. It’ll come naturally to you.”

  “I need a minute before I start,” Katie said.

  “If you think it’ll help you, but don’t wait too long.”

  Neil lingered in the threshold while she sat down on a workbench in the barn’s centre. She peered left to Isabel’s stall among many empty ones then behind her at Jacob.

  Neil walked over and placed the hurricane lamp by her. Even with the light from the lantern, the barn was still dim. “We don’t have a lot of time,” he said, as he closed the barn doors. “Mr. Julian will be back anytime.”

  “I know that, but please don’t rush me.” Katie breathed out and got up from the bench. “Don’t I need instructions from you?”

  “Focus and it’ll happen on its own. Your body’s naturally wired to do this. You don’t need me to show you how.”

  Katie walked to where Jacob was stretched out on the floor and she concentrated. Her nose itched and her chest instantly stuck out, pulling toward him. Katie’s toes curled under painfully as she leaned on them, like a ballerina. It felt familiar. She had done something similar at the hospital years ago. Katie tilted so far forward that if she moved, she would have landed on her face.

  “What’s happening?” she said to Neil.

  An intense pain held Katie’s chest, like an iron hand was gripping her upper body. As the pain worsened, Jacob’s mouth dropped open and a thin lavender vapor trail came out. The barn doors swelled and the hinges creaked, as though something – much larger than a person – pushed in on them from the outside. The doors released a moan when the grip on Katie’s chest loosened. Then the barn doors opened so rapidly the structure quaked as her pain went away all at once.

  “You’re one of the strongest Readers I’ve ever seen,” Neil said.

  Suddenly, Katie was fifteen years old again and sitting in Alex’s backyard. She was on a beach chair and Alex was on one next to her. Katie touched her legs, which were bare and warm from the sun. She felt for the grass under her, smelled the warm summer breeze and opened her mouth and tasted the salt that was always in the air on Blackthorn Island. A younger-appearing Julian walked up to them. He smiled down at Katie, and her body tingled while her face grew warm with longing.

  Katie wasn’t just daydreaming. She was reliving the moment again. It was so pleasurable that she didn’t want to let it go. But what would happen to Jacob if she delved further into the memory? A second memory came to her before she could stop it.

  She was on the white rug in her family’s first house. Her body was small. Paul and Nat were on all fours, staring down at her and laughing. Katie was twisting on the living room floor, laughing along with them while they tickled her stomach. She was giggling so hard that she almost couldn’t breathe. Then something dark and cold passed through Katie. A slideshow of short videos played before her in rapid succession. It was a sunny day when she was seven and she was sitting on a bench in a snow-brushed playground. Her mother was far ahead of her, by the swing set, searching frantically around the park. Her mother’s mouth opened and closed like she was shouting, but Katie couldn’t hear her voice.

  A smell that was as offensive as a wedge of soft cheese forgotten in a lunch pail overcame Katie, and she clamped her nostrils with two fingers. The soft-seeming hand of a woman with a silver ring with a shimmering black jewel in its center around her finger dropped a smooth – a smoothness Katie felt in her hand – amethyst stone into a tall vase of pink wine. Whose memory was this? Katie smelled sweetness and the name Paul was written across the white frosting on a small yellow birthday cake.

  The purple smoke zoomed back down Jacob’s throat and his mouth shut. Nothing more came to Katie. The moments were over. Jacob was twitching.

  “Is he okay?” Katie said to Neil.

  “Oh, he’s okay. It worked a little, but you can’t really take all his energy if he’s still alive. His energy – that vapor – went back in him.”

  “Are you sure I didn’t hurt him?” Katie asked, her voice shaking. “I’m not doing this again. I don’t care how much of a little creep Jacob is, I just can’t do it.” She stepped back. Her neck tingled and her heart throbbed.

  Jacob watched her groggily. “What happened?”

  “You don’t remember?” Neil asked.

  “No.”

  “You fell. Let’s leave it at that,” Neil said, grabbing the tractor key.

  Katie peered at Neil beside her. “Should we call an ambulance?”

  “He’s not that bad. He’s talking. He’ll be okay.”

  Neil helped Jacob get up on his feet.

  Chapter Nineteen

  In the kitchen Neil gave Jacob a drink of water and sent him on his way when his condition improved.

  Neil stared through the window as Jacob left. “Look at him. He’s so remorseful that I bet he would crawl on all fours all the way home. I’ve had enough of him for a lifetime. He’s not welcome back here, and I hope he knows that.”

  Katie sat down at the table while Neil leaned against the counter. He too
k a pitcher of iced tea out of the fridge and poured a glass for each of them. “Julian’s mother is a Reader, too, isn’t she? She has the Mark like we do. The boy who was staying up here … do you help Elvina get people to read, like you helped me?”

  Neil put down his glass on the counter behind him and was quick to say, “I don’t ask what she does with the kids. I just—”

  “Kids?”

  “Miss Katie, I know it’s not right. But they’re abandoned kids.”

  “I can’t believe … How could you?”

  “ For my daughter.”

  “Do you ever get to see your daughter?” Katie asked.

  “Not really.” Neil’s head dropped to his chest. “I’ve got to stay here until I’m called upon by Elvina.”

  “But, why?”

  He looked at her again. “Because I need to send the money she pays me to my ma to help Pattie. She has a heart condition.”

  “I’m so sorry. But if Pattie doesn’t have the Mark, then why are you so worried about her being here with you? You act like you wish she had one.”

  “If she had one, I wouldn’t be worried about keeping her away from Elvina.”

  “Why?”

  “Don’t you know that a Reader can’t read another Reader?”

  “I don’t know much about any of it, except for what you’ve told me. What happens if they do?”

  “The person who reads another Reader returns to Blackthorn Island’s forest and becomes one of the hideous tree beasts there forever. Even if they’re at the other side of the world when it happens, they still return to the island. Ever seen one? They seem more like beasts than trees.”

  “Our teachers always told us those trees were diseased.”

  Neil mumbled something that sounded like, “Really?”

  “What was that?” Katie said.

  Neil cleared his throat. “Sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but your teachers were wrong.”

  “All right, so they’re not nice to look at. Still, they’re trees. They can’t do much harm.”

  “Doesn’t mean they can’t harm somebody. Tree beasts have been known to make their limbs fall on a passer-by. What’s worse than that, they can topple over and crush someone to death.”