Kate had waited patiently in the kitchen for Corvan to pull himself up in the dumbwaiter, but when he climbed out, he only mumbled, "my ride's here, got to go," before rushing out the front door.
As the sound of the truck taking Corvan to the coal mine faded away, the silence of the empty home amplified the ache in Kate's heart.
Despite it being Halloween night, Corvan’s mother, Neera, had left for the city before the trick-or-treaters had even finished. The radio was saying that first storm of the winter was on its way, and it would be a nasty one. Neera said she didn’t expect there would be many more children coming down their long lane, given the upcoming blizzard conditions.
Kate looked out at the snow, then turned off the porch light. No use making kids walk all the way for nothing. Retreating upstairs, she leaned against the headboard of Corvan's bed and gazed at the flakes of snow drifting past the window. Her reflection stared back from the icy glass, cold tears on each cheek. She wiped them away with the edge of the winter quilt and felt the pinch of tender skin around the scar on her cheek.
She had never cried this much in her life, not even when her father left. She had imagined moving into Corvan’s home would bring her a sense of belonging, but instead a raw loneliness was continually just below the surface. The fresh anger from Corvan that afternoon had pierced her heart again and now more of the tears she bottled up over the years were escaping.
Kate scrubbed the tears away. It was time for her to move on. Her duffle bag was packed and down on the kitchen table. Staying any longer at Corvan's house was only making the pain in her hand and the ache in her heart more acute. Tomorrow she would take the bus to the city, find a job and her own place to live.
A puff of ice crystals blew in through the vent holes above the windowsill, and she tucked the quilt in tightly around her shoulders. The wind was getting stronger, the snow slanting steeply across the windowpanes. Snow hadn't fallen on Halloween night for many years. It was a good thing the younger kids had finished with trick-or-treating early.
A muted flash of light, followed by a loud bang, lit up the falling snow. It had to be the older kids shooting off fireworks. Another flash but this time it definitely came from right on top of the Castle Rock. That could only be Billy Fry. In the last weeks, whenever Corvan and his mother were away, Billy would appear on the rock with his gun in hand. Kate stayed in the house, away from the windows and she never told Corvan. She was sure there would be a fight. Corvan was definitely no longer afraid of Billy, in fact, it appeared to be the opposite now.
The skeletal branches of the maple tree outside Corvan's bedroom window scratched at the side of the house. With a blizzard on its way, getting to the city on the morning bus might not be possible if the roads were closed.
The scratching turned to rapping but this time it was someone knocking at the front door. Likely it was the older kids from school pulling some stupid prank. If she ignored them, they would eventually get cold and leave.
The knocking came again, louder, and more persistent. Pulling on her housecoat, Kate crept down the stairs to the living room. Easing a corner of the front window drapes aside, she peeked out. A small child in a mask and cape stood alone in the shadows of front porch.
Kate quickly opened the door. The trick-or-treater swayed on unsteady legs, shivering beneath an old blanket tied over its head. An ugly mask with an alligator-like snout twisted upward and peered at her through dark eyeholes. "Help me, Kate," a muffled voice croaked.
"Come inside and warm up. I'll call your mom to pick you up." Kate said. “What’s your last name?”
The shivering form stumbled over the threshold and collapsed on the floor in front of her.
"Are you hurt?" Kate asked, kneeling, and attempting to pull the mask off. It wouldn’t budge; the rubbery folds were slick with perspiration. The kid must be smothering in there. "Let's get you out of that costume,” Kate said, jumping up and flicking on the living room light.
Her hand was smeared with blood.
Kate whirled about to stare wide-eyed at a large reptile stretched out across the living room floor, half covered with a blanket. She shrank back against the door, her heart pounding. Was this another one of her nightmares? She'd seen this lizard in her dreams more than once since coming back from the hospital.
Pinching her arm hard, she winced.
The lizard groaned.
Her heart beat faster.
Someone thumped on the door behind her, and the brash voice of Billy Fry boomed through the wood. "What's goin' on in there?"
The lizard lifted its head and blood dripped off the end of its nose. "Don't let him in. The large boy wants to kill me!"
Billy pounded harder on the door. "You'd better open this door, Kate, or I'm gonna knock it down."
The lizard tried to crawl away but got caught up on the blanket tied over its shoulders.
Billy kicked the door and the wood cracked at the bottom.
Grabbing the edge of the blanket, Kate skidded the lizard's leathery body around the corner and into the kitchen. "Wait here until I get rid of Billy," she said.
The bloody head nodded slightly as the front door creaked under heavy blows.
Wiping her hand clean on the blanket, she ran back to the front door and turned on the porch light. The banging stopped. Opening the door a crack, she found Billy silhouetted in a wedge of brightly lit snow that swirled about his bulky frame. "
What took ya so long?" the boy demanded.
"I was upstairs in bed,” Kate said with a yawn. “What do you want? You're a little old for trick-or-treat."
"This ain't no trick. There's a wild animal on the loose tonight. I winged it and followed its tracks through the snow to your door."
"Well, there's no wild animal here now--other than you."
He scowled and thrust a tattered woolen mitten into her face. "Then whaddya scream for?"
"I had a bad dream and woke myself up. I don't need your help with that." Kate tried to shut the door, but Billy wedged his snow-covered boot in the opening.
"I need to make sure it's not hiding inside." He pushed past into the house, gun held high. "My Pa told me I needed to keep an eye on your place this weekend."
Kate cut around in front of him. "There's no lizard in here."
Billy's beady eyes narrowed. "Never said nothin' 'bout a lizard."
Kate's face flushed. "Well, whatever you're looking for, it's not here."
Billy pushed his broad face toward her. "Don't you fool with me. You know all about that lizard. Corvan weren't making it up. It's real and my Pa said he'd give me ten bucks if I can catch it. Pa says that critter knows a way inside the rock where the treasure is hidden."
Billy stepped back and rubbed a mitten over his worried face. "Don't you go tell’n anyone 'bout the treasure. My Pa would be real mad."
"Tell them what? I don't even know what you're talking about." Kate pointed toward the front door. "Why don't you go back to your hunting? You can take some fresh bread and jam along."
Billy licked his lips.
Kate gestured to the chair by the front door. "Stay here a minute and I'll cut you some. Neera won't be very happy if she comes in here and sees you tracking dirt and snow on her clean floors." She tried to sound nonchalant, as if Corvan's mother were still at home, but Billy abruptly pushed past her and stalked into the kitchen with his gun ready.
"No!" Kate shouted, leaping after him.
Billy stood in the empty kitchen. "Whaddya mean, no?"
Kate scanned the room and spied the tattered corner of the bloody blanket caught in the dumbwaiter door. "No, the bread isn't sliced yet. I'll get some for you." She put a hand on his arm and tried to move him back into the front room.
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Billy's brow furrowed and a sneer twisted his flabby lips. "Don't you try them tricks on me. My dad warned me about them fem-a-nine charms. Says you'll be using them on all the men now that you're looking more like a real woman."
Kate gave her head a small shake and turned away to retie her housecoat.
"My dad says that's how you managed to weasel yourself into Corvan’s house and his bedroom. You got Corvan under your spell." Billy leaned in over her shoulder and spoke quietly in her ear. "My dad says since your momma took off, you're gonna take her place as the town floozy."
Kate whipped around and punched Billy hard in the stomach. The boy doubled over, the rifle slipped from his grasp, clattered to the floor, and went off with a deafening roar.
In the silence that followed, Billy's splintered gasps to refill his lungs were augmented by slivers of glass falling from the shattered kitchen window into the sink.
A sudden whir of the pulley inside the dumbwaiter and the edge of the blanket disappeared. Kate looked back at Billy, but he was still getting his wind back. He drew a ragged breath and looked at the broken window. "Now look . . . what you made me do."
"Get out," Kate said.
Billy straightened slowly. "Who's gonna . . . make me?"
Kate grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his back, shoving his arm up as high as she could reach between his shoulder blades.
"You're hurting me. Let me go," Billy whimpered.
"I'll let go when you're out of our house."
Billy stumbled toward the front door and wrenched it open. Kate shoved him out into the night.
Stumbling off the porch into a snowbank he turned to face her just as a loud thump echoed up from under the house. Billy pointed through the door. "Something's in there and I'm gonna tell my Pa. He'll show you what for."
Kate slammed the door and fumbled with the lock. She waited a moment, then peeked through the front window. Billy tracks headed off to the east, but he would not be gone for long if his dad were at home.
Kate sprinted back to the kitchen. Her hands shook as she pulled up the sliding door of the dumbwaiter shaft. The lift box had fallen down into the cellar below and as Kate stared into the black hole, she sucked in her breath at a vivid memory. She had met this same lizard at an opening into a hole and there was a sliding door hidden on the top of Corvan's rock. Cold sweat beaded on her forehead. Something terrible happened to her down inside the hole in the rocks.
As she peered into the darkness an even stronger memory came flooding back. On top of the rock, this same lizard had promised to serve her as long as it lived, and now felt responsible for protecting it in return.
"Lizard," she called softly, "are you down there?"
She hauled on the rope from the overhead pulley system until the empty dumbwaiter box came into view. Only the lizard’s blanket was inside.
Another shard of glass from the broken kitchen window crashed into the sink. Snow was drifting through the jagged opening and settling on the hot stove in sizzling wisps of steam.
Billy's gun lay on the floor and the acrid odor of gunpowder swirled around the room. Kate looked from the gun to her duffle bag on the kitchen table. If Billy came back for his rifle, she didn't want him going through her things. Grabbing the bag, she pushed it to the back of the dumbwaiter.
She stood looking into the lifted She hated small spaces more than anything, but with the cellar door locked from the inside it was the only way down into the cellar to find the lizard. Swallowing her fear, she turned around and crouched backward into the box, sitting on her bag, bending her neck, and cramming her head into the corner. Gripping the rope, she released the catch but the weight of her bag and body whipped the rough hemp rope through her grasp and burned into her palms. Instinctively Kate let go and the box dropped down the shaft, then jerked to a stop.
The dark air closed in around her. Desperately, she tugged at the rope, but the dumbwaiter wouldn't budge. Her breathing came sharp and shallow. Dizziness overwhelmed her and her stomach heaved. Anxiously she tried pushing up against the walls and then down, but the box wouldn’t move. Everything in her wanted to scream for help, but at the thought of Billy and his father, she clamped her mouth shut and forced herself to calm down.
The dumbwaiter always worked in the past so why was it stuck now? Feeling above her head she found the lizard's blanket jammed beside the top edge of the box and wedged in tight against the wall of the shaft. She gave it a quick yank and the box broke loose, plummeting down, smashing to a stop, and tossing her out on the cellar floor.
The pulley in the kitchen overhead whined as the rope whirled and dropped all its coils with a resounding thump on the top of the dumbwaiter box. There would be no going back that way.
Pushing to her feet, Kate turned toward a slice of moonlight spilling on the floor from the tall crack between the cellar doors. Moving towards it, she banged her thigh into something hard. It was Corvan's cot, but what was it doing out into the middle of the room? The cellar doors rattled, and she glanced to her right to locate the sound. If that was where the cellar doors were located, what was this blue light coming from the wall beyond Corvan’s cot? Tiptoeing forward she discovered one of the shelves had been pulled away from the wall and the strange light was coming from a room beyond. Kate poked her head around the edge and peeked inside.
The lizard waved at her from beneath a blue light bulb that illuminated its grinning face.
"Hello, Kate, is the horrible boy gone?"
Kate opened the shelving door wider and stared at the creature as it dabbed at its head with a piece of thick cloth.
"The skin of a lumien can be used to stop the flow of blood,” it said. “I ate the fruit first and now I feel much better. I would have saved some for you, but unfortunately only one was ready to eat and it is forbidden to consume the fruit of the mother plant." He pointed to the blue light bulb. "It's hard to believe she is growing so close to the surface."
As the lizard's narrow head twisted up, blue lines on its cheeks glowed bright in the strange light. In that pose, Kate had a strong sense of déjà vu and she squinted to force the memory of what happened when she and the lizard first met.
"Are you feeling ill, Kate?" the creature asked.
Kate shook her head, sank down against the rock wall and closed her eyes. "How do you know my name?" she asked.
"Do you not recall setting me free from the black band? It was not that long ago. Surely you have not forgotten already. You foolishly decided to wear the back band, so Corvan and I had to come and rescue you. Does that help your bell to ring?"
Kate touched the circle of darker skin around her wrist. She had a vague memory of wearing a shimmering black bracelet, but she couldn't remember where or why she put it on in the first place.
The reptile sauntered over to stand before her, and Kate pressed herself back against the rock. The creature had sharp teeth, long claws, and a smudged line of what appeared to be bruises around its neck, almost as if someone had tried to strangle it. Kate glanced at her wrist and more of the memory came back. The black band she recalled had originally been around this creature's neck and it had begged her to set it free. When that happened, she could understand the creature only when she held the hammer. The scar in her palm prickled. Understanding the lizard without holding the hammer must have something to do with the scar or perhaps having shared the black band.
The lizard pulled its paw away from its head and tossed a the thick scrap to one side. "This is now the second time you have saved my life." He bowed low. "My promise from before remains and I will protect you on your journey back to the Cor."
"My journey back? But I . . .
The lizard put a damp paw over her mouth and hissed, "Someone is out there."
Kate pushed its paw away, got to her feet and listened. Someone was walking in the snow outside the cellar doors. She slipped inside and pushed the section of shelves partly closed. "You wait here while I take a look."
A shadow fell on the crack between the cellar doors, and a man's voice spoke. "You sure that creature's tracks led to the house?"
"Yes, Pa. All we gotta do is catch it and we can find out where the rest of the treasure is hidden."
"How many times do I need to tell you never to mention the treasure outside our house? Mr. Fry growled.
The doors pushed towards Kate and as the crack between them widened she caught a glimpse of the ruddy face of Mr. Fry over Billy's hatless head.
"Maybe she took off, Pa. It scared her pretty good when I shot out the kitchen window."
"You did what?" The door eased back into position, and the faces vanished. "Where's your gun?"
"In her kitchen."
A sharp smack was followed by a cry of pain. "How can you be so stupid? Git up there and get it back."
"But she locked the door," Billy whined.
"Then crawl in through the broken window. Use your head for once."
"What about the lizard?" Billy asked.
"You afraid of a little ol’ lizard, boy?"
Billy muttered a halfhearted “no”, then Kate heard him shuffle away. The cellar doors bulged, and Kate ducked below the long wooden bolt as Mr. Fry peered in through the crack. "Now we'll find where the old man hid them pointy silver coins."
Kate heard Billy scramble in through the kitchen window overhead. There was a pause and then the back door banged. Soon he was back at the cellar door. "She's run off, Pa. Left a note on the kitchen table to tell Corvan's mother she's gone to live in the city."
"Good! Maybe she'll freeze to death in this blizzard. You stay here while I fetch my saw from the truck to cut this bolt. This is our best chance to search his workshop. She'll take the blame and won't never come back."
Kate tiptoed back to the lizard, but the blue light was gone and the entire north wall of the cellar was obscured by the wooden shelves. The opening must be behind one of the sections, but which one? I might be something like the movies where you had to pull on something to make the secret door open. She put a hand on a twisted piece of metal, but it fell off the shelf. She barely caught it before it hit the floor.
Putting it back on the shelf, Kate rapped lightly on the back of the section. The one next to her swung open and the lizard beckoned her inside.
"Billy's father will be back any minute to cut the cellar door open," Kate whispered. "We've got to get away from here."
The lizard touched the shelving, then pointed a claw at the deep recesses of the tunnel behind it. "Unless they know the secret of this door, they will not find this tunnel from inside the cellar, and besides, I know another way out. A different cat to skin as Corvan liked to say." The lean face grinned at her.
Kate shivered and pulled her housecoat closer. Whatever the creature was trying ot tell her, she couldn't go anywhere like this. "My things are in the cellar,” she said and moved to the door.
"Things?" the lizard said.
"My bag, I packed my bag because I was leaving tonight."
"A big bag? Corvan had many troubles with a big bag."
"No, I don't have that much stuff."
The lizard rolled its eyes. "That's what Corvan said, then he almost died when I had to break his bones." Shaking its head, it released the catch and eased the hidden door open.
Slipping into the cellar, Kate’s thoughts were fully occupied the lizard’s offhand remark about breaking Corvan’s bones. Was it a good idea to go anywhere with this strange creature?
She was almost to her bag when a long saw thrust in between the doors, dropped onto the wooden bolt, and began cutting it apart.