The phone rang. Roni jolted awake, her head foggy as she scanned the room — her apartment. At least she made it home safe — she checked around the room again — and alone.
Picking up the phone, she licked the film from her teeth. “Morning.”
“Elliot found your boyfriend,” Gram said.
Roni held the phone away from her ear and turned the volume down. “Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Are you not listening? We know where Darin is. It’s time to get to work.”
After a pause, Roni realized that Gram waited for her to say something. “Good luck.”
“Don’t you want to know where Darin is? How else do you plan to find the place?”
That woke up Roni’s brain. “Why would I have to be there? I did my part. I got the ticket stub. There’s nothing else for me to do except leave the rest in the hands of those with powers.”
“Having powers doesn’t mean ... oh, never mind. Darin is holed up in an abandoned house bordering Kaneslow Cemetery. You know where Kaneslow is?”
“Near Reading.”
“Right. Should take you about thirty, forty-five minutes to get there. On the left side of First Street as you come in from the south, you’ll see a diner. We’ll meet you there.”
“But what can I do except get in the way?”
She could hear Gram’s disapproving breaths. “You made me a promise that you would see this to the end. Well, it isn’t over until Darin is dealt with. Are you a woman of her word or not?”
“Oh, for crying out loud. Does everything have to be a measure of my worth to you?” She couldn’t believe the words had come out of her mouth. From the long pause, Gram apparently had the same shock.
At length, in a stoic tone, Gram said, “The thing that has taken over Darin may end up being all bark and no bite. I’ve seen it before. They all boast that this world is ripe for the plucking and they’ll be the ones to take it. Sometimes they are a serious threat. Sometimes they’re nothing but talkers. But sometimes, and I fear this is the case with Darin, they are more like an invasive species of plant. They’re like kudzu. They come in and their mere presence starts to effect the surrounding area. They multiply and pretty soon, your world doesn’t look like it once did. They seem harmless but they can be the worst of all.”
“Okay, okay. No need for a full-on lecture. You want me there, I’ll be there. Okay?”
“Elliot’s the one insisting you come along.”
“Jeez, I’m just waking up. I’ll meet you at the diner as soon as I can.”
Without waiting for a response, Roni ended the call. She brushed her teeth, splashed water on her face, and dug a few semi-clean clothes from the pile she had slept on. Then she checked her phone to find the fastest route to the diner, and off she went.
The drive offered no troubles other than her splitting headache. She had downed a couple of ibuprofen but either they had not kicked in fast enough or she needed more.
The town of Kaneslow looked like many Pennsylvania towns — a steady mixture of modern homes and stores with buildings from the original colonial settlements. Sprinkled in between were modern homes done in a colonial style.
She parked outside the diner — affectionately called the First Street Diner. Inside, she found Gram and Elliot at a booth near the back. Elliot had a plate with the remnants of eggs, toast, sausage patties, and hash browns. Gram had a cup of coffee.
“Where’s Sully?” Roni asked as she slid in next to Elliot.
“He’ll be here,” Gram said. “He never lets us down.”
Roni couldn’t tell if Gram meant the comment as a fact or a slight. She opened her mouth to set things straight before they got any further, but Elliot spoke up.
“Let me tell you what I know so far. Sully won’t care about most of this, and since he will probably stay in the back, he has no need for these details.”
Gram nodded. “He’s always been good at improvising, anyway.”
“And he likes it that way. Makes it more exciting.”
A brief grin. “It does fill him with life, doesn’t it? Okay. Tell us what you’ve got.”
Leaning in on his elbows, he lowered his voice. The conspiratorial nature of the move woke Roni more, sending an excited tingle across her skin. “On the other side of town, they have three churches all next to each other. Each one has a cemetery, and as far as I can tell, the land bleeds one into the other, so it’s really like one enormous cemetery. In the woods surrounding the cemetery, there is an abandoned house.
“Now, that place has been here long enough to have built up some bits of legend around it. As far as I could learn chatting with the locals, it once belonged to the Stoltz family — husband, wife, and a little girl. All those acres of cemetery were the Stoltz farm.
“Apparently, Mr. Stoltz was quite a respectable man. Church-goer, stern and fair, and a hard worker. All good attributes in the 1700s. But something went wrong. Nobody saw it coming. There was no build up, no slow change in behavior. Just one night, he snapped. Killed his wife and his child while they slept. Slit their throats, then shot himself.”
Taking a sip of coffee, Gram said, “You thinking Darin chose that place because of its energy?”
“Possibly.”
“Energy?” Roni said. “Like auras and stuff?”
“Nonsense,” Gram said. “Elliot is suggesting that there might have been a universe tear in the house. If Mr. Stoltz stumbled upon it and got infected by it — much like Darin, except this would have been by accident — then that would explain the sudden shift in personality and behavior. Either he was taken over like Darin, or more likely, contact with another universe drove him mad.”
Elliot said, “It might still be going on, too. The legends I heard all suggest the house is haunted. Brave and stupid kids try to spend the night there but never make it. A few were never seen again. Those kinds of stories.”
“Hold on,” Roni said, her brain playing catch-up with the words her ears relayed. “Are you telling me that all those haunted house tales you hear growing up, that those are really people getting caught up with rips between universes?”
“Sometimes. Most times, really. In this case, I see all the hallmarks of a universe tear. Plus, it would explain why Darin zeroed in on the place. Because that’s where he is.”
“I don’t get it. Why would he hide like a criminal on the run? He left us all full of himself and ready to take over the world.”
Gram tapped one finger on the table. “Remember what I said? Some of these beings are all bluster. Maybe that’s the case with him.”
“No,” Elliot said. “This one is dangerous. Maybe not take over the world dangerous, but he’s got some serious strength and anger. I think that move he did at the zoo, transforming himself with those wolves, that must have taken a lot out of him. He’s not hiding in that farmhouse so much as healing. And when he is ready, he will strike again.”
The waitress finally noticed Roni had joined the table. She slapped a menu down, poured coffee, and walked off. Roni pushed the menu aside. The greasy aroma of all the food around her was bad enough, the thought of eating food threatened to send her running to the bathroom.
Frowning, she asked, “Why would he be attracted to this tear? It’s not his universe. Is it? Can there be more than one tear into the same universe?”
“Good questions,” Elliot said. “The answer will not be so good. Basically, we do not know. We think it might be possible for there to be more than one tear, but we have never seen it. We have seen that oftentimes beings are attracted to the tears themselves, but we’ve never put it to a test, so we cannot say definitively.”
Gram added, “The Society doesn’t have the time or resources to conduct deep investigations on these kinds of questions. It’s one of the big drawbacks to keeping the group so small. The answers might be in our library of journals and such, but well, you’ve seen that room. Perhaps such questions will be answered by those who take up the call after us. Not really your concern though, since you’ll be leaving after this is done.”
Sully arrived in time to prevent Roni from snapping a response. He shuffled his feet as he approached, his face unshaven and his remaining hair sticking out at odd angles. He slumped into the booth with a hiss and a wince.
“You okay?” Roni asked.
“Just my back,” he said. “When you get as old as me, see how well you do.” The waitress came by right away this time. “Bagel, toasted, with a shmeer on the side.”
Gram rolled her beaded necklace between two fingers and inspected Sully closely. Her face turned livid. “Are you serious?”
“What?” He looked to Roni. “What’s she on about?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know what you did. Is this really how you want Roni to see this group function? After all our years of hard work, is this really what you think we should be doing now? Screwing things up like this?”
“You know who’s screwing this up? The waitress. She never poured me any coffee.”
“You didn’t ask for any, and don’t change the subject.”
Roni pushed her coffee across the table. “Will someone tell me what’s going on?”
Gram arched an eyebrow at Sully, but when it became clear he wouldn’t open up, she said, “This genius was supposed to be in his workshop —”
“I was in my workshop.”
“— making a new Golem for today. Instead, he fell asleep.”
Stabbing the air with his finger, Sully said, “First, I didn’t have the clay to make it. I used up most of what I had to make the one a few days ago. You all think I’m some magic wizard that can create supplies from thin air. No. I need more clay. Second, I’ve been telling you the wiring in my workshop is bad. Not enough power for what I need. So, I had troubles there. Third, I am an old man and I need rest to do good work. Should a doctor be so tired he falls asleep in surgery? Should a pilot skip a nap and crash a plane? The work we do is more important than those, so yes, I went to sleep. Look at the bags under your eyes and Roni, too. You both could use a few more hours rest.”
“Never you mind Roni and me. We’re here, on time, and ready to do our jobs. But I guess we won’t have a Golem to back us up in case there’s trouble. And when isn’t there trouble?”
Elliot broke in. “Stop it. Both of you. Sully, from now on, please keep us informed when it comes to your clay orders. We could have purchased more last month easily. Lillian, we will be fine without a big Golem. I have the fullest confidence that Sully can still be an asset. Besides, with any luck, it won’t matter because Roni is going to talk Darin in.”
Sputtering, Roni said, “I am? No, no, no. That’s not a good idea.”
Putting up his hand to quell any further protests, Elliot remained calm. The waitress arrived with Sully’s food, and they all sat quiet until she left. Gram shifted forward with a clear intention to speak her mind, but Elliot raised his hand again.
“Let me speak,” he said, and Gram sat back. “There are many reasons this is a good idea. We have several concerns to deal with in this situation. Obviously, we wish to return this creature from whence it came, save Darin’s life, and close any other tears we might find. But more important than all of those things, we must protect the people of this town from exposure to all of this.” To Roni, he added, “Sometimes we are lucky and our cases take us into remote parts of the world where we can act freely, but more often, we are in situations such as this one. Plenty of people attend those churches and visit those cemeteries. If we have Roni talk with Darin, if she is successful, we can achieve all of our goals without causing any contamination of the townsfolk.”
Gram shook her head. “Roni’s never done anything like this.”
“We all began as such.”
“But she doesn’t know the first thing —”
“She is the only one of us with a connection to the victim. That is why the wolf creature Darin offered to have her join him. Somewhere inside, there is a tiny spark of the original Darin left. It is why we acquired the second ticket stub, and it is why I think Roni will succeed.”
Roni said, “I think Gram’s right. I don’t know what I could possibly say to him that would make him give up. What could anybody say?”
“If you’re going to be part of this Society, you will have to take risks. You will have to dig deep into your soul to find those words you need.”
“Well, you said it right there.” Gram lifted her chin. “Roni has no intention of being one of us. We couldn’t have put a more welcoming embrace, considering the situation, yet she hems-and-haws, unsure of herself, unwilling to commit. This is not the kind of person we want in the Society.”
Elliot thumped his cane on the floor garnering a few surreptitious glances from other diners. “If your granddaughter does not even try —”
“She’s made her decision.”
“I have not,” Roni said with enough force to quiet everyone at the table. Even Sully looked up at her in surprise. “You all seem to think I should be acclimating far quicker than I am. I’m sorry about that, but that’s the way it is. I didn’t get eased into this. Perhaps if, while I was growing up, Gram had prepared me for this Society and all that it entails or, at the least, given me a hint that things might not be the way I thought they were, well, then maybe I’d be able to decide faster.”
Elliot took hold of Roni’s hand. “I’m sure it has been quite difficult for you. I wish we had the time to do all of this right. Sully and I have wanted to tell you the truth for years, but your grandmother kept saying you weren’t ready.”
“That’s not true,” Gram said. “I never said that she wasn’t ready. I said that I didn’t want to burden her with our responsibilities.” To Roni, she added, “You’ve had an unfortunate childhood and you’ve been aimless for a long time. I didn’t think you needed to be bothered with all of this. Look at you — caught with this big decision which will impact the rest of your life, yet no time to think about it because we’ve got Darin Lander to deal with. This was what I wanted to avoid.”
“There is no avoiding. Sully and I told you as much more than enough times.”
Roni knew she would be unpacking all that she had heard for days, but at the moment, Darin needed help. “Is there another plan that doesn’t involve me lying to Darin?”
Elliot said, “You do not have to lie to him. I never said such a thing. But you are the one who must talk to him.”
“I just don’t think —”
“You must try. If you do not, we might perish. Not just me or Sully or your grandmother, but all of us. Whether on purpose or by accident, this version of Darin has the potential to destroy the world as we know it. Not overnight, of course — at least, I hope not — but as time goes by. Maybe months, maybe a few years. Who knows? Right now, though, this is the only opportunity we will get to stamp out this trouble before it truly begins.”
Roni knew she had no real choice. Part of her knew it all along. “Fine. I’ll try. When do we begin?”
“Right away.”
“Hold on, hold on.” Sully put a hand on his plate. “I still have my bagel to finish.”