Chapter Three
Eric awoke to the sound of his cell phone ringing in his pocket. Grumbling, he wrestled it free and glanced at the screen. It was his brother, Paul.
“Where are you?”
Eric looked out the window. All he could see was farm fields in every direction. “I think I’m somewhere in the Corn Kingdom.”
“That narrows it down.”
Sitting up, Eric looked over at Jude, who still looked remarkably wide-awake for someone who was making his second trip down these endless highways today. “Where are we?”
“Interstate Fifty-Seven.”
Into the phone, Eric said, “Did you catch that?”
“Yeah. Who was that?”
“New friend of mine. Jude.”
“He that kid Karen’s pissed off about?”
“That would be him.”
“He’d better stay clear of her from now on.”
“I know. Let me guess, she called you to keep an eye on me again.”
“Yep. Kevin and me are southbound heading your way. We’re supposed to make sure you get home in time for your anniversary thing. Or all three of us are going to get it.”
“Awesome.”
Karen had a way of repressing her emotions, but she never hesitated to call in favors when she was worried about him. Just like last month, she’d decided to make Paul accompany him on his bizarre quest. And Paul had apparently decided to bring his grown son along this time. He had to hand it to her, there weren’t many women out there that could get his brother to do her bidding, but he almost never told her no, regardless of what she asked of him.
“I know,” grumbled Paul. “This is just exactly how I wanted to spend my day.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. Any idea where you’re heading?”
“None whatsoever.”
“We’ll give you a call when we’re on Fifty-Seven, then.”
“Okay. Talk to you then.”
Eric hung up.
“Another friend?”
“My brother. My wife’s sending him to help.”
Jude gave a short snort of a laugh.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s just…they’re not going to find this place very easily.”
“They’ll manage.”
But Jude just grinned and kept his eyes on the highway.
The cell phone chimed at him, alerting him to a new text message. It was Isabelle, and like always, her texts went straight to the screen, never giving him the option of ignoring it, which was good since Isabelle’s messages were sometimes very important.
I FEEL SOMETHING STRANGE
“What kind of something?” asked Eric, sitting up straighter.
I’M NOT SURE YET. I STARTED SENSING IT ABOUT AN HOUR AGO, WHILE YOU WERE SNOOZING
In the past, Isabelle’s senses had alerted him to unusual things in his environment. She still wasn’t sure how these strange feelings worked, or why she could feel things about his environment through him, even when he couldn’t, but it usually proved important.
IT’S NOT LIKE THE UNSEEN, she informed him, referring to those strange locations he’d found last month that only he and a few other people had been able to perceive. It was the first thing that popped into his mind.
“Does it have something to do with this magic business, do you think?”
IT MIGHT
Eric nodded. Magic or not, something had caught Isabelle’s sixth sense and Eric was sure he would end up having to deal with it in some way or another.
IT’S NOT LIKE ANYTHING ELSE I’VE EVER FELT
“Let me know if anything changes.”
SURE THING
Eric pocketed the phone and looked out at the endless passing fields. Isabelle’s texts always looked the same. Full words. No shortcuts. Complete sentences. She didn’t actually have a phone. The texts were projections of her own thoughts sent to him through the phone line. They transmitted almost instantaneously. Replacing “U” for “YOU” and “R” for “ARE” would be pointless. She’d thanked him once for her good spelling, informing him that it was her psychic connection to him that had allowed her to absorb that handy talent right from his head. (He wished teaching his high school students was half that easy.) He wasn’t sure why she never ended a text with a period. Multiple sentences were always separated by proper punctuation, but unless the final sentence required a question mark or an exclamation point, she always left it off. It appeared to be nothing more than a strange little quirk. Oddly, although he possessed the standard-issue English teacher disdain for other people’s poor grammar, it had never bothered him. Maybe it was because he never bothered to use punctuation on the rare occasions when he texted something to Karen.
“Never saw anyone use a phone like that before,” remarked Jude. “Is it some kind of fancy smart phone or something?”
Eric grinned. “Something like that.” Isabelle was extraordinarily smart.
They pulled off at the next exit and drove through a McDonald’s for dinner. Eric splurged and ordered an extra sandwich. He’d slept through lunch, after all, and probably wouldn’t be getting anything else to eat for a while.
Once back on the Interstate, they drove on for another twenty minutes before Jude finally exited and turned onto a two-lane country road. Pointing the van east, he drove for another half an hour before turning onto another similar road. Less than ten minutes later, they turned right on yet another.
“How much farther?” asked Eric as they passed through a tiny little town with little more than a gas station and an antique mall.
“We’re almost there,” Jude assured him. But then they drove for another twenty minutes before pulling off the paved road entirely and following a dusty gravel road even deeper into the endless farmlands.
About three miles down this road, Eric finally caught sight of an old farmhouse, complete with a massive barn and even an old silo. The place looked to be in need of paint and a considerable amount of yard work, but otherwise, it didn’t look too bad.
Eric’s phone chimed at him and he again wrestled it from the depths of his front pants pocket.
THAT’S IT, she announced.
“That’s what?” asked Eric.
WHAT I’VE BEEN FEELING. WHATEVER IT IS, IT’S COMING FROM IN THERE
He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he had very little choice in the matter. He’d come all this way to see the boy’s mother. He couldn’t change his mind now.
Jude nosed the minivan between the barn and the house and killed the engine. “Here we are,” he announced.
Eric looked out over the overgrown lawn to the surrounding fields. He could see for miles in any direction. The only obstructions were the buildings themselves. “You guys own this place?”
“No. We’re just borrowing it for a while.”
Eric looked over at him, suspicious. “Legally?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s a lot like that thing I did to get in your house.”
“I’d better not get arrested out here.”
“Relax. Nobody was using it. And Mom’s got everything covered.” With that, he hopped out of the van and closed the door behind him.
Eric looked down at his phone again. “I’m going to get arrested out here, aren’t I?”
PROBABLY
Sighing, he opened the door and stepped out into the cool, late-afternoon sunshine.