Chapter 32
Grant: You've Got the Touch
“I need to talk to you, quietly.” Stu has a grip on my shoulder and I slow down, leaving Terri and Mrs. B. Walking ahead of us. It’s good he wants to talk to me, because I need to talk to him. There are things I don’t understand, that I need to understand and I have a feeling Stu can shed some light on these things. Besides, it might be good to talk to someone besides myself or Han Solo. As much as I’m convinced the finale of this bizarre scenario hinges on my redemption for things not related to this clusterfuck, I also think Stu bears a burden here.
“You met Her, didn’t you?”
“How did you know?”
“I can always tell these things, Grant. Especially when it comes to Her.”
I can hear from the inflection in his voice that Her is a proper noun. That lady I met would never put up with being just a pronoun. She had an air of self-imposed royalty about her, as if she demanded a title be bestowed on her.
Stu stares at me for a minute or so, making me nervous. His stare was giving me another thing to worry about on a day where I needed no more worries.
“Did you talk to Her?”
“Yea, we talked.”
Stu sighs, switches the dixie cup of snow from one hand to the other absentmindedly.
“This adds a whole new dimension to everything, Grant. You’re dealing with more than just some sinister shadows here. You’re dealing with their boss.”
I have no idea what he’s talking about and the time for a long explanation has passed. We need to move on to the town square before every last one of our neighbors is dead. Stu doesn’t sense my urgency and continues to pepper me with questions about my encounter with Her. I begin to think that encounter is the most important thing that’s happened today but I don’t know why.
He finally lets up the interrogation but then turns to me again just as we are about to go catch up to Mrs. B and Terri.
“I have just one more question to ask about this, then.” He grabs me by my shoulders, looks me dead in the eye. “Did she touch you?”
I think back. It was such a surreal experience I’m not sure what really happened and what my mind perceived. I remember coming close to her. I could smell her. Oh, yea I remember that. And then I remember her touch and the feeling of fear that penetrated me when her fingers dug into me.
“Yea, she touched me. She touched me. Why?”
“Oh, lord. Oh god. You are fucked, Grant.”
I stare at him, waiting for some kind of explanation. I mean, I’m fucked as it is. The whole town is. Is this a new level of fuckery Stu is talking about?
“You can still make this work, Grant. You can still make it all right. But there’s now a price to pay. And you have to be willing to pay that price.”
“What? What price? Stop talking in riddles, Stu.”
Stu says nothing, only screws up his face as if he’s thinking hard and fast about something.
“Who is she, Stu? What am I up against? And what does she have against Greener Valley?”
“It’s not Greener Valley, per se,” he answers. “Greener Valley just happens to be one place she decided to dig her claws into.”
“What does she have against humanity?” And I soon as I ask this, I realize I don’t want to know. I almost walk away from Stu because what he is going to reveal is going to be too much for my head to handle, and put too much pressure on me. But I stay. I stay and listen. I listen as we walk, as Mrs. B. And Terri walk on in front of us, oblivious to the fact that we are dealing with more than shadows. I say as much to Stu.
“All I can tell you right now is she’s what you need to ally yourself with if you want to save this place.”
I feel like Stu is talking in circles but some of it is still making sense to me, which scares me.
“Why do the worst of gods and goddesses do what they do? Because they can. Fear is their lifeblood. Havoc is their heartbeat. Your ultimate destruction is what keeps their lives interesting.”
“Gods and goddesses aren’t even real.”
“What do you think you are dealing with here, Grant?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know what I’m dealing with.”
“Are you up for this? Are you really, really up for this? There’s sacrifice involved here and honestly I just don’t know if you’re the type to sacrifice.”
“I want to do right, Stu.” I was kind of hurt by his words but only briefly until I remembered who I was. It was just hours ago I was laying in bed in a drunken stupor thinking of giving up every dream I ever had because it was too much work to be sober. To be good. Did enough happen during this day to ultimately change me into a person who would put others first, who would sacrifice so other people could live out their quiet, desperate lives in the suburbs without fear of shadows eating them or their children killing them or some ancient yet young lady playing with their very lives? Who the fuck are you, Grant?
I’m about to find out, I think.
“What do you mean about sacrifice?” I’m suddenly terrified. I’ve managed during the course of this day to stay simply scared, maybe frightened. But now I’ve gone to full on terror because I realize that lady - Her - is the big boss, the end game, the final stage. Terri would appreciate the video game analogy.
“There are some things you’re just going to have to find out as they play out. We’re almost at town square. We need to get our heads together to face whatever is out there.”
It’s hard to get your head together when you’re nearly shaking with terror and wishing you were anywhere but where you are. I wish I knew more. I wish he wouldn’t be so vague when it comes to my life. I’ve got a lot of wishes right now and none of them are going to be fulfilled. I think about running again, just turning around and disappearing into the woods. But then I think about redemption. And I think about all the people that need saving right now. I think about my town. My world.
I need to stop this. I’ll deal with the lady later. I have a job to do now.