LJ Idol Topic #15: "Nimbus"
“Oh come on, Papa,” I giggled. “You don’t really believe in all of that stuff, do you?”
My grandfather smiled. “When you’ve been around as long as I have, you see a lot of things you just can’t explain.”
We sat at my grandfather’s kitchen table sipping coffee. My mother wouldn’t allow me to have coffee at home, saying that I was sixteen and too young so it was a rare treat when Papa would brew up a pot and pour me a mug. It somehow made me feel older and more sophisticated in a way.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not that old, Papa.”
“Old enough to have seen some thing, kiddo,” he said and winked.
It was a cool Spring morning in southwestern Washington. My parents had decided to celebrate their wedding anniversary in Europe which meant that I’d be spending the next couple of weeks staying with my Papa. They thought that he’d enjoy the company since he’d been alone for a year now after my grandmother had passed away and that since I’d never been to Papa’s place in Washington, that I might enjoy the break in our routine life in Ohio. I loved my grandfather, loved spending time with him but truth be told, I would much rather have gone to Europe.
I sipped my coffee. It was a strong brew that he’d thoughtfully added some flavored creamer and sugar to for me.
“So what you’re telling me is that there are monsters living in those woods out there?” I pointed to the forest beyond his kitchen windows.
He looked at the large trees outside and gave a slight nod. “I dunno about monsters,” he said. “But whatever they are, they ain’t exactly human even though they supposedly run around on two legs. The local Indians been talking about ‘em forever. Call ‘em Thunder Devils or something on account of they say they got eyes that glow red and a growl that sounds like thunder rolling in. Say these things steal horses, cattle, sometimes even people and tear ‘em to pieces.”
I giggled again and wrapped my hands around the warm mug. “So have you seen one?” I asked. “One of these Thunder Devils?
Papa took a long swallow of his coffee and nodded. “I seen something,” he said. “I can’t ever say for sure what it was, but I seen something.”
Silence spun out between us for a few moments as we sipped our coffee. The ticking of the clock on the kitchen wall suddenly seemed thunderously loud.
“I tell you what’s worse though,” Papa started. “It’s the voices of the children in that forest. It’s downright eerie.”
“Children?” I asked.
“Locals say it’s the spirits of all the kids that got themselves lost out there in the woods and died,” he looked at me and smiled. “It’s the damndest thing. Send a chill right up your spine.”
I smiled and sipped my coffee. Even at sixteen, I wasn’t one who got worked up about ghost stories and local legends. I preferred evidence and rational explanations to imaginative yarns. In the stories Papa told me, he said the locals believed the nimbus or fairy-ring around the moon signaled the high point of activity for the Thunder Devils and the spirits in the forest. I tried to tell Papa that the halos around the moon were not some evil omen but merely an optical illusion caused by a refraction of light off of an accumulation of ice crystals in the upper-troposphere. Nothing magical or mystical about it. The supposed voices of the children in the forest were likely nothing more than a trick of sound created by the wind. I tried to explain that there are rational explanations for everything if we bothered to look for them.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Papa said with an amused note in his voice. “You got that big brain of yours working and that’s good. You’ve always been a curious and precocious little thing and that will serve you well in life. But like I said before, I’ve been around a long time and believe me, there are some things that just can’t be explained. You’ll know what I mean someday.”
I woke from a dream panting and sweating like I’d just run ten miles. My dream had been filled with images of large, hairy beasts with razor sharp claws and fangs chasing me through a wooded path. Small children beckoned me from the shadows, offering me a place to hide and only when I stepped into the darkness with them did I realize that they too were the same monsters that had been chasing me.
Obviously, the yarns that Papa had spun out earlier in the day had gotten into my subconscious. I laughed at myself and looked at the clock. It was midnight, the witching hour. How fitting. I looked out of the window and upon a full moon, high and bright in the sky encircled by an unusually bright nimbus.
Papa was right, I’d always been unusually curious and I could feel that curiosity beginning to take hold of me. I got out of bed quietly and pulled on a pair of jeans, thick socks, t-shirt, sweatshirt, a thick jacket over that and a wool cap over my head. I was ready. I silently made my way downstairs, through the darkened house and out the back door where a cold wind stabbed at my cheeks and my breath came in thick clouds of steam. I felt the worm of excitement begin twisting and turning within my belly as I set out across the field and toward the forest where I would prove that Papa’s tall tales were nothing more than that, tall tales.
The trees that crowded the narrow path made it feel oppressive and claustrophobic. The canopy overhead was thick, allowing only thin slivers of the silvery moonlight through and deep pools of darkness to remain. My feet made barely a whisper as I trod over the damp carpet of leaves and undergrowth beneath my feet. It was so perfectly dark, silent and still, I almost felt like I’d been transported to the far reaches of space.
I don’t know how long I’d been walking and the trail had taken so many twists and turns that I was beginning to fear that I’d never be able to find my way back again, lost like some of those children that had supposedly died out here. I decided to go forward for just a little while longer before heading back to Papa’s house and my nice, warm bed.
“Where are you going?”
The voice was little more than a whisper but it had been clear to me.
I dug my flashlight out of my pocket and scanned the light around. “Hello?” I called.
I heard the giggles of children all around me.
“Hello? Who’s there?” I called again.
“You should run home,” a whispery voice called. “Before it finds you.”
A cold finger of dread slid up my spine and settled into my scalp, a tingling sensation spreading throughout my body. The whispery giggles started again, more of them this time. It sounded like there were dozens of them out in the darkness.
“Run,” it was said directly into my ear, making me jump. “It’s coming.”
It was then that I realized the giggling had stopped and heard a low rumble that sounded like thunder somewhere out in the darkness ahead of me. That was followed by the sound of heavy footsteps moving quickly and toward me through the undergrowth. I played the light around at the dense forest, my heart racing and feeling suddenly disoriented. I didn’t know which way to go. I was so scared that I didn’t even flinch when I felt a tug on my sleeve.
“Follow me,” the voice was insistent, scared.
I played the beam of light around me once again and felt my blood turn cold when it glinted off a pair of red eyes in the darkness ahead of me. The low rumbling sounded again and broke me out of my paralysis, I turned and ran.
“Run,” the urgent voice in my ear came again. “Hurry, it’s coming.”
Over my footfalls and labored breathing, I could hear whatever it was crashing through the brush behind me, closing the gap between us. I could almost feel it on top of me, its hot breath on my neck. I imagined it reaching its huge, hair paw out and snaring me, feeling its claws tearing through my flesh and spilling my entrails onto the ground beneath me. I gritted my teeth, ducked my head and ran for all that I was worth.
I almost cried out with relief when I burst out of the forest and into the field behind Papa’s house. But I kept running, still feeling the Thunder Devil behind me.
“You’re safe now,” the ghostly voice said. “It won’t come out of the forest.”
I ran another hundred yards before daring to slow and look behind me.
“Come back and play with us,” the voice said again. “We’ll keep you safe.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks and my heart continued to pound as if it wanted to break free from my chest as I made my way to Papa’s back porch. I was surprised to see all of the lights on in the house at this late hour and even more surprised to see Papa standing on the porch, a steaming mug of coffee in his hand.
“Guess you had something of an exciting night, did you?” He said with a smile.
Winded, too scared still to formulate words, I just nodded and climbed the steps. He put his arm around my shoulders and guided me to the kitchen table where a mug of coffee already waited for me.
“So,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I can’t wait to hear the rational and logical explanation for this.