Page 48 of The Woods

“No,” he says firmly. “Let’s not involve the police yet. They don’t know those woods any better than your mother does, and it will only blow things out of proportion.”

Alice is not sure how an old woman lost in the woods is not an emergency, but she puts her phone away. She decides to wait until she’s home and able to assess the situation before she calls them.

All the way home from the restaurant, Alice thinks of the thing she mumbled after leaving the cabin, about her mother getting lost in the woods. She knows she was just being stupid, but it feels like she manifested it and now she’s wracked with guilt. Mother-daughter guilt is almost as potent as mother-child guilt. Pulling into the driveway, Alice prays that her mother comes out to greet them, safe and sound.

Instead, Polly and Quinn come around the side of the house looking tense.

Quinn is holding the drone control panel against his body as though it’s a wounded animal. In a flurry, he and Polly take turns recounting what happened. Soot getting out of the cabin, Nana going after him into the woods, the kids going in after her but not seeing any trace. Then the whole episode with the drone, the static on the screen once it flew into the woods, and the device shorting out completely.

“I’ll get a good flashlight and go in and have a look,” Geoff says before heading toward the house.

“No,” Alice calls out. “I’m not losing you in there again.”

Geoff turns back. “I’ll stick to the path and won’t go too far.” Alice starts to protest again but he holds up a hand. “It’s just a forest, Alice. I’ll be fine. Besides, I’m sober this time.”

“Okay. We’ll come stand at the start of the path and if you get turned around you can call out and we’ll call back to guide you.”

Geoff chuckles, like Alice is being dramatic, but then gives a thumbs-up. “Good plan. Can you please get me a blanket to take for when I find her?”

“Yes, of course,” Alice says, following him. Her earlier irritation at her husband disappears now that he’s taking charge. She’s even impressed that he thought of bringing a blanket. It’s the kind of detail that Alice might come up with.

Now Alice stands at the opening in the woods with a lantern, the same one she used when Geoff went missing, her body tensed, waiting for any sound or sign of Beverley and Geoff. All the outside lights are on, so the lawn is bright and surreal-looking.

It’s gotten cold. It’s the chill that comes every October that she’s never ready for, and it makes her bones ache. Alice shivers in her plaid wool coat and her guilt deepens. She sent Quinn and Polly inside to warm up and put on a few more layers, mostly because she needed a break from putting on a brave face for them both. She’s scared, but she doesn’t want them to see that.

Her mind has run through every worst-case scenario—animal attack, heart attack, violent fall. Alice fights to keep the tears away, which surprises her. She’d thought she was numb when it came to her mother. That the years of harsh words, judgment, conditional love, selfishness, and a complete lack of apologies had sandpapered Alice’s heart down to an unfeeling stump.

Turns out she was wrong. There’s love inside her for her mother, wrapped up with the naïve hope that one day she’ll finally get what she needs from her. It’s the love and hope, when faced with the possibility of her mother’s death, that is causing Alice to feel a pulling-apart of the carefully constructed seams of her adult persona.

“It’s weird, don’t you think?” Polly says, coming up from behind with Quinn, causing Alice to quickly wipe at the tears in her eyes.

“What’s weird?” Alice asks, pressing pause on her unraveling to sound calm and in control in front of her kids.

“Dad getting lost in there and then Nana so soon after. And the drone thing. It’s like the woods are a black hole or something.”

Alice reaches out and puts an arm around her daughter and feels Polly relax into her. “I think it’s just because we’re not familiar with it. I mean, there’s almost fifty acres of forest back there. We’re bound to get lost until we learn it.”

Quinn huffs beside her. “The woods as a black hole? Impossible. Black holes have infinite gravity, and mass is both compressed and stretched. No human would survive going into a black hole. They also happen in space and—”

“Okay, nerd,” Polly interrupts. “I didn’t mean an actual black hole. It’s a metaphor. I just meant there’s something strange about the woods. When your stupid drone malfunctioned, you said the same thing.”

Alice waits for Quinn’s backlash, but when he doesn’t say anything she jumps in. “There’s nothing strange about the woods. Maybe there’s just no cell reception in them. And drones malfunction all the time, don’t they? I mean, technology can be glitchy.”

“Do you think the woods might have something to do with why Justine Gordon killed her family?” Polly asks.

A shiver crawls down Alice’s spine at the thought. She’s just about to respond that the two aren’t connected when a light appears through the trees, bobbing toward them.

“Dad?” Quinn calls out.

“It’s me and Beverley,” Geoff calls back.

The only thing keeping Alice from crumpling to the ground and sobbing like a child is her arm around Polly, who unknowingly holds her up.

Geoff steps free of the trees and Beverley is right there beside him. “Look who I found,” he says. Alice’s mother has the blanket draped over her shoulders and she’s holding on to Geoff’s arm for support, but otherwise she looks fine.

“Mom.” Alice rushes forward to give her a hug. I didn’t manifest my mother’s disappearance, she thinks, flooded with a relief that makes her buoyant. I am not an evil daughter—today.

Her mother lets Alice hug her, hold her even, for a few seconds. “Are you okay?” Alice asks.