Bone by Bone

11

High up where the roof joined walls of glass and walls of plaster, a circular bookshelf ran around the tower room, and Isabelle Winston climbed a ladder on wheels to reach it. Since returning home, it had become her nightly custom to covertly replace a borrowed bird-watchers log and pull down another one. She shifted the remaining volumes on the shelf to fill in the space so that the absence of a single book would not be noticed.

What was the point of worrying over this?

Her mother had drunk herself into oblivion, and, on the rare occasions when Addison visited here, he probably never looked past his own reflection in the glass. The man would have no interest in records of bird sightings, though these were not the typical birder's journals. And, even if he should peruse a book or two, he would never crack the code.

Crafty Mom.

After kissing her sleeping mother, Isabelle carried the purloined journal downstairs to her bedroom, hiding it in the folds of her robe, knowing all the while that her parents would care nothing about her reading habits.

When had she become so paranoid?

An hour later, propped up by pillows, the ornithologist was still reading by the light of a bedside lamp, utterly engrossed in a book that had little to do with birds, though feathered characters were drawn on every page.

Once upon a time, with a child's egocentric view of the universe, Isabelle had believed that these volumes were created for her. The fanciful illustrations better lent themselves to children's books than a birder's journals. And there were story lines and lines of dialogue in song. Before learning her ABCs, Isabelle had learned the human phrases used to identify a hundred birds, words that mimicked rhythm and the rise and fall of notes. As a little girl, her favorite song belonged to the pewee, and she had sung it all day long, "Ah di dee, pee a wee, ah di dee, pee oh," because it had driven Addison crazy.

Her mother's logbooks made departures from traditional notations, though the songs could still be recognized. Upon returning to Coventry, Isabelle had read many of the old volumes again with a new understanding: Some of the birds drawn here did not appear in northwestern climes- nor anywhere outside of her mother's fragile mind-and these were not fairy tales.

It had taken six weeks to work through the early years of life in Coventry. With the exception of the birthday balls, Addison had discouraged his wife from mixing with the residents. Isabelle, always away at boarding school, had felt abandoned and resentful in those days, but now she realized how lonely her mother had been. Yet Sarah Winston appeared to know a great deal about the town and its people, secret things gleaned by three telescopes and a pair of binoculars.

Hannah Rice had been the Rosetta stone, pictured here as an elf owl in constant company with a tall thin bird that had lost its crown of long feathers over the years-the balding Judge Hobbs. And, thanks to this morning's sighting of Ferris Monty, Isabelle now knew the identity of the black-capped chickadee. The man's bad toupee resembled the bird's cap, and the yellow feathers of the breast matched the color of his Rolls-Royce. The gossip columnist did not sing, "Chicka dee dee dee." He sang, Look at me, me, me," to the lark, who paid him no attention. And everywhere the lark went, the black-capped chickadee was sure to follow. Sometimes the lark would follow another bird, and they made a procession of three through the streets, the chickadee always at the rear, singing his hopeless song.

Her mother seemed to like Evelyn Straub, who was portrayed in colored pencil as an exotic pink heron with a graceful wingspan, long legs-and two nests, one in the town and one in the woods. In this volume, the lovely heron's mate was still alive. Isabelle could not mistake the gray and shriveled starling for anyone but Millard Straub. He rode on the heron's back.

Throughout the state of California, television viewers were annoyed by interruptions in their prime-time viewing hours. The late-breaking news was always the same image of the Coventry Library bathed in bright electric lights. The story was periodically updated by a manic anchorman's message that the sheriff had still not responded to the emergency of a strange smell emanating from the premises.

Patrons of the Coventry Pub considered walking down the street to view the unfolding events of the sheriff not responding to a 9-1-1 call. However, upon being told that they would not be allowed to take their beers with them, they elected to stay and watch a picture of the library on television.

The camera angle swung around to show the approach of a jeep. The lawman emerging from the vehicle was identified as the county sheriff. The reporter approached him, microphone extended, excitement mounting. "Are you here to investigate the smell?"

"No," said the sheriff. "I understand you've been fooling with a nine-one-one operator." He handed a folded sheet of paper to the reporter. "That's a summons to appear in court tomorrow morning. Then you can explain why a smelly library constitutes an emergency."

"There could be a dead body in there! Aren't you going to investigate?"

"Well, no," said the sheriff. "The library's closed."

"What about the smell? The reporter pointed to the brick building, as if it might be hard to find. "You have to get closer to-"

"No, son, I can smell it just fine, thanks. Are we on live television?"

"You bet."

Sheriff Babitt turned his smile on the camera and tipped his hat. "It smells like a pair of really ripe socks." He stepped back to look down at the reporter's feet.

And so ended the statewide coverage of the Coventry Library.

When the lawman and the news crew had departed, lights came on inside the library, and they burned late into the night. A figure could be seen pacing across the window shades, but this was such a common sight, no one passing by took any notice.

The moon was on the rise and guiding Oren's steps down the mountain road that would lead him home. He spared the flashlight battery for pitch-black moments when clouds blocked the moon.

A pair of headlights came up behind him, rounding a hairpin turn in the road. Minding Cable Babitt's request that he not be caught near the cabin, Oren dove into the woods as the hotel van sped by. More cars came around the curve, their headlights aimed straight at him. He was back-stepping deeper into the cover of tall ferns, moving quickly, when his boots clipped a tree root behind him, and he fell to ground, but not to a hard landing. He rolled down a steep incline. Reflex kicked in. He covered his face, only scratching his hands on shoots and deadwood, rolling, rolling, and finally coming to rest flat on his back.

Fool.

He lay at the center of a depression shaped like the hollow of a giant hand. Above the rise of encircling land, he could see a glow from the parade of cars in the distance. Seduced by lack of sleep, he meant to close his eyes for only a moment. When he opened them again, all the light had been sucked out of the world. There was no demarcation line between sky and earth, no sense of up and down. Blackness only. Where was his compass, the moon?

Killed by clouds.

Where was the flashlight? Crawling sightless, he searched the ground by fingertips, touching brush and dirt until his hand finally closed on the metal casing.

Click.

No light. The batteries were dead.

On all fours, he climbed up the slope of the hollow and crawled toward the road. He crawled forever. The road was gone. He had gotten turned around in the fall and traveled the wrong way. For how long? How far? By touch, he found the root and rough-bark column of a tree and sat down to lean his back against it.

So tired.

He clicked the useless flashlight in his hand, desperate for a miracle, just a few seconds of light. Darkness was another dimension, where natural law did not apply. Separated from every visual clue to the solid world, he hugged himself for reassurance that mind and body had not gone their separate ways, but he could not lose that sensation of being suspended in a void.

The road could not be far. He listened for the sound of cars.

Useless.

There was only one cabin on the fire road, and the séance was long over. All the players had gone home by now. He rose to his feet and walked two steps into an alien land, hands outstretched to fend off low-hanging branches that might reach out for his blind eyes.

Which way?

He might be on a parallel route, only twenty feet from the road-or twenty yards. How long had he crawled in the wrong direction? Space and time had no meaning here.

This is not the first time you've been lost in the woods in the dead of night. Sit down and wait. At sunup, you'll see the road, the way out.

Whenever he listened to that inner voice of reason, it always sounded a lot like Hannah. She would be worried, and so would the judge. How long would they wait before the alarm was sounded? He remembered other nights in these woods and the sight of waving yellow stalks of light, hundreds of voices calling his name. Every woodland creature had been awakened to flee on the wing or on the run, frightened by an army of searchers, their shoes and boots shaking earth and bough.

Not again-not one more time.

Even when he was a teenager, he would have known better than to move on tonight. And yet he did. Every soldier's survival skill was forgotten as he felt his way from tree to tree. All that he could count on was the natural circle of one who was lost. His feet might bring him back to the beginning-and just as likely carry him away again.

High in the invisible canopy of tall trees, an owl called out. Hoof Huh-hu-hu. Hoo! Hoo!

Another night bird answered with hollow whistles in the rhythm of a bouncing ball or footfalls losing their momentum, slowing, slowing.

All stop.

Wits lost.

Oren screamed his brother's name.

All around him, he could hear things moving in the dark, small animals alarmed and stirring in the underbrush, creeping, running. He felt their panic, the same old fear, a coldness stealing up his throat. Shivering, he hugged himself for warmth. And what of Josh? His brother had left his jacket behind.

Josh is dead. You've seen his bones.

How many days had he gone without food or water?

No hunger, no thirst. Today you had a chicken sandwich in the kitchen with Cable Babitt.

Oren turned toward the sound of a car engine in the distance, and he heard it die-suddenly-switched off.

He sucked in his breath and held it.

A small ball of light floated on the air, appearing and disappearing behind the trunks of trees. Was he dreaming this? Every time he dreamed, he died.