a new start for us in a lot of ways, and I don’t want a shadow on it.
We’re a little shaky. We need this to work, need to stay positive.”
That’s why I chose this moment to tell you.”
“Thanks, Paul.”
“And don’t you worry about it.”
“I won’t.”
“”Cause I’m sure there’s nothing to it. Just one of life’s many little
mysteries. People new to this country sometimes get the heebie jeebies
cause of all the ope space, the wilderness. I don’t mean to get you on
edge
“Don’t worry,” Jack assured him. “After you’ve played bullet
billiards with some of the crazies loose in L A there’s nothing any
raccoon can do to spoil your CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
During their first four days at Quartermass Ranch– Tuesday through
Friday-Heather, Jack, and Toby cleaned the house from top to bottom.
They wiped down walls and woodwork, polished furniture, vacuumed
upholstery and carpets, washed all the dishes and utensils, put new
shelf paper in the kitchen cabinets, disposed of Eduardo’s clothes
through a church in town that distributed to the needy, and in general
made the place their own. They didn’t intend to register Toby for
school until the following week, giving him time to adjust to their new
life. He was thrilled to be free while other boys his age were trapped
in third-grade classrooms.
On Wednesday the moving company arrived with the small shipment from
Los Angeles: the rest of their clothes, their books, Heather’s
computers and related equipment, Toby’s toys and games, and the other
items they hadn’t been willing to give away or sell. The presence of a
greater number of their familiar possessions made the new house seem
more like home.
Although the days became chillier and more overcast as the week waned,
Heather’s mood remained bright and cheerful. She was not troubled by
anxiety attacks like the one she’d experienced when Paul Youngblood had
first shown them around the property Monday evening, day by day that
paranoid episode faded from her thoughts.
She swept away spiderwebs and desiccated insect prey in the back
stairs, washed the spiraling treads with pungent ammonia water, and rid
that space of mustiness and the faint odor of decay. No uncanny
feelings overcame her, and it was hard to believe that she’d felt a
superstitious dread of the stairs when she’d first descended them
behind Paul and Toby.
From a few second-floor windows, she could see the graveyard on the
knoll. It didn’t strike her as macabre any longer, because of what
Paul had said about ranchers’ attachment to the land that had sustained
their families for generations. In the dysfunctional family in which
she’d been raised, and in Los Angeles, there had been so little
tradition and such a weak sense of belonging anywhere or to anything
that these ranchers’ love of home seemed touching–even spiritually
uplifting– rather than morbid or strange.
Heather cleaned out the refrigerator too, and they filled it with
healthy foods for quick breakfasts and lunches. The freezer
compartment was already half filled with packaged dinners, but she
delayed doing an inventory because more important tasks awaited her.
Four evenings in a row, too weary from their chores to cook, they drove
into Eagle’s Roost to eat at the Main Street Diner, owned and operated
by the steer that could drive a car and do math and dance. The food
was first-rate country cooking.
The sixteen-mile journey was insignificant. In southern California, a
trip had been measured not by distance but by the length of time needed
to complete it, and even a quick jaunt to the market, in city traffic,
had required half an hour. A sixteen-mile drive from one point in L.A.
to another could take an hour, two hours, or eternity, depending on
traffic and the violent tendencies of other motorists. Who knew?
However, they could routinely drive to Eagle’s Roost in twenty or
twenty-five minutes, which seemed like nothing. The perpetually
uncrowded highways were exhilarating.
Friday night, as on every night since they’d arrived in Montana,
Heather fell asleep without difficulty. For the first time, however,
her sleep was troubled…. in her dream, she was in a cold place
blacker than a moonless and overcast night, blacker than a windowless