Page 109 of Call Off the Dark

Agnes tried one more time, spoke loudly enough to be sure she’d be heard. “Helen?”

“Just leave me alone!” Helen shouted.

Agnes stumbled back and exited the house, leaving the door ajar.

“Go!!!!!!!”

As Helen shouted the word, a powerful gust of wind kicked up, the kind of wind that shouldn’t be inside a house, mighty and mystical and magical. The wind slammed the door shut, and it carried the manila envelope off the kitchen table and under the side table. Helen’s eyes were still shut, so she didn’t see the envelope disappear from sight, but she heard the door slam, and it made her flinch.

At last, she uncovered her ears and opened her eyes to find herself alone in the kitchen.

Alone, as she suspected she’d been this entire time.

She collapsed into the kitchen chair, exhausted.

Chapter Forty-Five

Helen took a bath, bandaged the cut on her leg, and put on a clean dress. She went down to the cellar to get her favorite photo of Tyler, and she put it in her dress pocket. She needed to leave the farmhouse and get help. She didn’t know if she could drive out of here in the truck when the men returned, because if they weren’t real, was the truck real? But she’d figure it out one way or another.

She slid a record onto the spindle of the vintage Zenith player and gently set the arm on the outer edge of the record. The violins began to cry. She turned up the volume, so she’d be able to hear the music throughout the house, and then she drifted into the next room to wait.

The men came home late, so much later than usual. Helen was standing in front of the burning fireplace, staring at her book titles in a daze.

As she heard the truck doors shutting outside, she dragged herself into the kitchen and was greeted with a quiet little hiss, like a serpent’s. Was her house turning into the Garden of Eden? She paused and then realized she’d forgotten to take the record from the turntable. The needle must have been spinning in the run-out groove for hours, filling the kitchen with an endless hiss.

She lifted the needle, killing the snake.

Wade and Isaac entered, each carrying a grocery bag of food. Make-believe men bringing her make-believe food.

“Oh, how nice of you two to show up again, and with more food,” Helen snapped. “What a vision you both are.”

Wade gave her a perplexed look as he set his bag on the table. “We had to go into town again.”

Helen turned toward Isaac’s impenetrable gaze. He was like a Renaissance painting, saying everything and nothing all at once. His eyes, inscrutable. She wasn’t going to be able to break him. She turned back to Wade.

“Why’d you go into town?”

“The truck was acting up. We went to get a part, but the carburetor’s shot, so we had to leave it at the shop.”

Helen’s body went rigid. “So the truck isn’t here?”

“I just said I had to leave it.”

“How did you get here then?”

“Tommy Tompkins dropped us off.”

“Bullshit,” Helen said.

“What?”

“Nobody’s named Tommy Tompkins.”

Wade looked at her strangely. “This guy is.”

“I doubt it.”

“Well, I don’t know, Helen. I didn’t see his birth certificate. But why the hell does it matter? We got a few things from the store that I forgot yesterday.”