The Creek

Abe was glued to the bank of windows that lined the front of his family’s quiet New Hampshire home. He was staring off toward the road, his eyes desperately searching for a glint of steel in the pale winter sun. His small nose was crushed against the unyielding frozen glass and his irregular, quick breathing was destroying his view with opaque fog. He took his head away from the window, and wiped it down with the sleeve of his green wool sweater. Once it was cleared he peered out into the frost, his eyes fixated on where he was convinced the car would appear, like a rabbit out of a magician’s hat. He began moving his head from side to side slowly, letting his nose wipe against the glass as it slowly began to lose feeling.

His mother called from the kitchen, her voice stern with the promise of a command. “Abraham, come away from the window please. I just washed them today and now you’re getting your little boy gunk all over them.” He sighed and pretended not to hear her. She wasn’t fooled. “Abraham I know you can hear me.” She clicked her tongue and marched across the room, motherly annoyance in her stride. She grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, bending over to look him in the eye. “Abe I know you’re excited to see Todd, but watching the road until your eyes rot away isn’t going to get him here any faster.” Abe lips began to pout and he crossed his arms. He added a manly grunt for dramatic effect. She smiled at his show and kissed him on the forehead. “Oh look at you Mr. Gruff. All tough and mighty.” Abe felt himself smiling, but he tried to remain as serious as possible. He couldn’t hold it back however, and the dam broke. “There’s my son, I would recognize that smile anywhere.” He wrapped his arms around her and breathed in the smell of her hair. He let her go and she stood up. She looked at him very seriously and asked him what he was planning on doing when Todd got here. He pointed outside towards the woods and fields that surround his fortress. “Oh,” she said, her forehead creased with mock concern and business. “Off to fight the dragons of the snowy wood?” He shook his head and bit his bottom lip. “Well what is it then?” He looked up at her, his deep brown eyes betraying his mirth. “I’m gonna be a cowboy and he’s gonna be a badguy trying to get away.” She smiled now. “And is Todd going to want to play that?” Abe nodded his blonde head and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Yep. He makes a real good badguy.” “Really good sweetie, not real.” Abe nodded his head again and turned back to the window. She heard his breath catch in his voice as he saw a car making it’s way up their old dirt road. It rocked merrily over the potholes and turned into their driveway. Todd’s feet were on the ground the minute the car stopped, his slender frame wrapped in a long black scarf and a bright red downy coat. She watched as her son ran out to great his friend. She noticed that in his rush he had neglected to put on his own shoes, opting instead for his father’s large slippers. She went to the door and waved to Todd’s mother, who apparently was refusing to budge from the warm shell of her SUV. She stepped to the side to let the boys in. Abe set in at once at putting on his snow gear, a process that she remembered despising. She looked up to see if Todd’s mother had made it out of the driveway alright and saw that she had already left. She shut the door and turned to smile at Todd.

Todd was, in looks alone, the opposite of her son. While her son was smaller, frail and blonde with brown eyes, Todd was tall for his age, athletic and strong and possessed the haunting characteristics of black hair with ice blue eyes. He had a gap tooth and freckles; making him one of the cutest, if not spookiest kids she had ever seen. He was smiling up at her, his gap tooth proudly displayed and his hair plastered down from the skull cap he had just taken off. “Hello Mrs. Cody!” She smiled down at the little boy. “Hello there Master Callahan, I do hope your passage into this land was safe.” He giggled as only little boys can. “You’re funny Mrs. C.” She ruffled his head and turned to her son, struggling to get on his left boot. “Have fun out there boys. You know the rules. Be safe. When you get too cold, come on in and I’ll have two big steaming mugs of hot cocoa waiting for you, alright?” The boy’s smiled and with a thud Abe’s foot found its way to the bottom of his boot. He stood up and crammed his mittens onto his small hands. They ran out the door, leaving the door open and letting the heat out. She shut it and shook her head. She felt a spark left behind from the boy’s light inside her stomach and spread throughout her body.

She smiled to herself and moved into the living room picking up a paperback novel on her way to the couch. She had been reading it for a year and was only halfway through thanks to the wonderful distraction that was her family. She was happy on her raft in the stream of time, fortunate enough to have a husband who loved her, a healthy child, and another one on the way. With this thought she laid her hand on her stomach. She wasn’t sporting a balloon of a stomach yet, but even in such an early stage she could feel the life inside of her. They hadn’t told Abe yet, not because they were afraid of how he would react, but because the time just hadn’t seemed right. Soon though, she thought, opening the book to a page she had read a thousand times.

The hands of a clock move faster when something interesting is happening, and when she finally happened to glance at her watch she saw that an entire hour and a half had gone by. She knew from experience that the boys would be coming in soon, their small faces red and their noses running. She marked her page, stood up and coasted into the kitchen, still riding the spark the boys had left her with. She put a saucepan on the stove and filled it with milk, just like her mother had done for her when she was a girl. While it warmed gently on the stove, she took out three mugs, hot cocoa mix and a bag of marshmallows. It didn’t take long to reach a suitable heat, and soon three mugs, each with one marshmallow where sitting on the counter. There was still no sign from the boys, so she took hers and walked back to her book and the couch, determined to finish the chapter.

Two pulpy chapters later and still the two mugs sat on the counter, untouched. Her mug was empty and a thread of concern had sewn itself deep within her stomach. She got up and walked to the door. She was greeted by a blast of cold air that took her breath away. She shouted, quietly for a shout, for the boys. She heard only the dusty shuffle of dry snow moved by a touch of wind. She called again, this time louder. This time not even the wind answered as calm arose seemingly from nowhere.

Then it began to snow.

She turned from the door and grabbed her coat from the rack by the door. She found her gloves and hat inside the pockets. Her boots were also conveniently by the door, however they need to be laced up, and so she sat down on the floor, just as Abe had. For a minute she felt nostalgic, and she closed her eyes to remember, just for a second, the smell of her childhood home in Vermont. She shook the memories away and walked out into the freshly falling snow.

She found their footprints easily enough. They veered sharply away from the house and into the woods, their play kingdom of choice. She walked to the edge of the forest and peered in through the trees. Branches curled down like fingers from ancient golems, their bony touch spreading every which way in a pattern across the wood. She called again and waited, her eyes closed and her ears ready. A tree groaned in the distance.

She started into the woods, the cold beginning to soak through her skinny jeans. She hadn’t thought to wear anything warmer on her legs and she was beginning to regret this lapse in judgment the further she trudged into the woods. It was snowing harder now, and the slate gray skies above were created a dim halflite that made you miss the dark. She followed the long trench marks deeper into the hands of her golems, all the while calling out for Abe and Todd. She was beginning to get concerned and she hoped sincerely that this was just a cruel joke that little boys sometimes make to scare their parents. She could hear a creek that ran through their property in the distance, and she realized that this was farther out than Abe had ever been on his own. He had often said how scared he was of the creek and the ravine that led down into it. One night at dinner he had told his father that he had heard dead voices coming up from the. Her husband had laughed, had told his son that it was all in his head, but the question had chilled her. She knew that Abe would never go this far on his own, he wasn’t nearly brave enough. She made it to the edge of the steep ravine and looked down. She saw the creek snaking its way through the soft earth, large rocks lining it like so many stone men guarding a liquid dream. Her eyes rolled over the scene following the current of the water, searching for some sign of the boys. For awhile there was nothing. And then, red.

Her eyes played over the scene far below. She saw her son sitting cross legged by the creek and staring at a small huddled shape in the snow, wrapped in a red coat. Panic seized her and she ran down the slippery steep slope, arms akimbo. She was near him now, close enough to reach out and grab him. Her hand was on his shoulder and she spun him to face her. He looked surprised.

“Abe, what happened?”

“Huh? I g-got him,” he said through clacking teeth. She turned towards the child that lay just beyond her son. He was sitting up now, a smile spread across his pale face.

“He got me real good Mrs. Cody.” Abe ran over to Todd and tackled him awkwardly into the snow. “It’s really Todd, not real. Right Ma?” he smiled towards her and then turned his attention back to the boy pinned beneath him. “I’m cold, wanna go inside?” Todd nodded and Abe released him. They tumbled up the embankment and disappeared over the ridge, their laughter carrying down the ravine and into the creek. She sat there, the snow falling all around her and looked up towards the gray New Hampshire sky.