Four
A hand shook John Hartman painfully awake. He jerked
away from the touch and floundered until he oriented himself and
remembered that along with Marlene's life he had forever lost his son's
trust. He was drunk again. He had sipped the bottle until he had dropped
off to sleep at the computer.
“Whatsamatter," he murmured through lips still
thickened by sleep and alcohol.
"Dad, there's a green light outside."
John sat up and paused to wait out a
knife stabbing at
his skull. He cradled his head in his hands, his right hand a mass of
pain of at least equal intensity. David waited patiently in a dim shaft
of light cast down the stairs from the kitchen.
A green light. Traffic signals? He chuckled at his
sluggish thought processes. "Green lights are no big deal," he murmured.
"Keep an eye out for the red ones."
David remained stubbornly silent. John looked up and
the boy and saw fear in his eyes. "Dreaming?" John said.
David shook his head emphatically.
"A light, you say?"
"Something woke me up and I saw it outside the
window. It was a big glass egg with a green light in the middle. You
could see the shadows of the trees moving and everything. It was really
spooky.”
John thought a dream far more likely. "What's it
doing now?"
"I watched it until it went away."
John carefully selected a strategy for dealing with
David's upset. "I can't imagine what it may have been. What do you
suggest we do?"
"I don't know.”
"Okay, so if it comes back, wake me up. We'll fetch
the camera and take some pictures. Just don't go out alone. How does
that sound?"
David gave the suggestion a moment’s thought. “I
guess.” He then turned away and labored his way back up the stairs
looking far older than his ten innocent years.
John waited until he heard the boy's bedroom door
close, then groaned his way to his feet. He sidestepped a few yards and
dropped to the cot he kept in the basement den for just this sort of
emergency. He drifted to sleep feeling guilty for having failed the boy
twice in one day, sensing in some strange manner that he was going to pay
a high price for his betrayal.
