Half Moon Falls

Chapter 1

“Are we there yet?” Sally Ann moaned. “By all that is holy, are… we… there… yet?”

The thirteen year old splayed her arms against the car’s passenger seat, rolled her eyes back in her head and dropped her tongue out the side of her mouth. “Losing all feeling… in arms and legs… see tunnel of light ahead. Is… that you great-grandma?” she said raising a shaky hand toward the windshield. “Are we…”

“Oh, Sally Ann, will you knock it off!” Lela said. “Half Moon Falls is only three more exits. We’re almost there, okay?”

“You said that three exits ago, Mom!” Sally Ann snapped and plopped her feet on the dashboard.

As she folded her arms and leaned back, the October afternoon sun, streaming through the car window glistened off the girl’s spiky strawberry and magenta colored hair and accented her heavily mascara-ed eyes and silver fingernails. A motorcycle jacket once belonging to her father was draped over her tall yet slender frame and her baggy black pants, adorned with zippers, rings and assorted metal fasteners, slid up and bunched around her kneecaps.

Growing bored, the girl took out her pencil and notebook, placed the notebook on her lap and after flipping through several pages found something she didn’t like. As she began erasing her mother looked over.

 “So… what you got there?”  Lela asked

Sally Ann stopped erasing. “Just my book of thoughts and stories and stuff. Oh, and some poetry. You know, to stretch my artistic horizons.”

“Really? Well, I’m all for artistic horizons. How about reading one?”

“Yeah, okay I guess,” Sally Ann replied, sifting through the pages. “Ah, how about this? I call it ‘Ode to Jimmy Kindleman.’

Lela gave her a quizzical look. “I thought you didn’t like Jimmy. Isn’t he the boy who nicknamed you ‘Toothpick?’”

“Yeah, but the books say a beginner should write about things they know, so, I picked Jimmy. Makes sense, right?”

Lela nodded.

“Okay,” Sally Ann said. “Here we go. ‘Ode to Jimmy Kindleman.’

The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things

So let us speak lest we fall mute afore the fat babe sings   

As I prepare to leave this town and ne’er see you again

There is one thing I have to say and I’ll say it as a friend

For I am sure no matter where I go, over years and sea to sea

I will remember, you can be sure, the things you said to me

Experience will be our teacher and in life’s pinnacles and ruts

I may not turn out a raving beauty but you will always be … a putz

“Sally Ann!” Lela sputtered.

“I know, I know,” Sally Ann replied, shaking her head. “Putz just doesn’t sound right. So I made up a different ending. What do you think of this?”

Experience will teach us both to see through any trick

True, no beauty I may be, but Jimmy, you’re a…

“Sally Ann!”

“Okay, okay!” Sally Ann said, holding up her hands. “So you don’t like that one either. I got one more. Here goes:

It never matters what you’re called, be it Eddie, Mike or Chuck

Cause in the end just know this, Jim, you are one dumb…

“Sally Ann!!!!!!!”

“What?!!” the girl snapped. “Will you just let me finish one?” Scowling, she returned to her notebook. “Cause in the end just know this Jim, you are one dumb cluck!” she turned to her mother, folded her arms and glared. “What did you think I was going to say?”
            Lela reddened.

The teen eyed her mother suspiciously. “Did you think I …? She shook her head. “Boy! And you call me a potty-mouth!”

Sally Ann turned and stared out the window, her lips tightly wedged in between her teeth to keep from laughing out loud.

It was twilight when they reached the exit. At the end of the ramp a green and white paint-chipped sign read Half Moon Falls—15 miles. After the turn and five miles into their journey the smooth asphalt of Route 17 deteriorated into a two-lane dirt road surrounded by thick woods.

“This is getting creepy,” Sally Ann said as their car began its trek up the steep tree-lined hill. Coming from Queens, New York, she had no experience with wooded areas and had never seen mountains as tall as the Upper Adirondacks. And to make matters worse, the light hanging mist, which appeared shortly after they left the highway, was slowly graduating into a steady rain. 

“I know we’ve gone over this before, Mom,” she said as she threw her arm over the headrest and flicked at one of the paper bags filled with groceries in the back seat, “but will you please explain just one more time why you’d take a job in a town we’ve never visited, sell our house and move to one we’ve only seen in pictures and take me out of the Queens Middle School Gifted Student program to stick me in a school so far north in the boonies that not only doesn’t it have a web site, it’s not even listed on the web.”

“Okay, fine!” Lela said as she turned on the headlights. “Let Momma explain one more time and I’ll talk real slow so that you can follow, all right?”

“Real cute, Mom.”

Lela took a deep breath. “I took this position because it is a government job. Now, with government jobs you have to take a test. If you pass the test, your name goes on a list where it can remain for… well, for a very long time. But! Every so often the government calls and says you can have the job, but you have to move fast because there are about a jazillion people who will take it if you turn it down.

“Now, with governmentjobs you get paid real money. And with our finances being what they are, well, real money is just what the doctor ordered. Plus, full benefits all down the line. I mean, it’s a dream come true! And on top of that, I am the boss. The town’s Fiscal Controller, second only to the mayor himself. This, honey, can be a real career boost for me. In a couple of years I could be working out of Albany, or maybe Wall Street, making enough money to send you to any college you want.

“Besides, you’ve seen the brochures. Half Moon Falls is not only the top vacation spot in New York, it’s one of the top spots in the entire Northeast. You’re going to love our new home, honey. Trust me.”

Sally Ann eyed her mother without expression. “I hope you’re right.”

Twenty minutes later, tired and frustrated and with the added miles bringing about no real change in the scenery, Lela banged her hand against the steering wheel. “I’m sure I followed the directions correctly,” she said. “Besides, it’s a damn road. It’s got to lead somewhere, right?”

“Yeah, right!”  Sally Ann said, trying to bolster her mother’s confidence but she immediately stiffened when the headlights fell upon a maggot-and-fly covered carcass of a dead fox.

Lela carefully maneuvered around it. Moments later, tensions eased when they came upon a sign:

Half Moon Falls Municipal Center—2 miles.

Lela exhaled. “Well, that’s a relief!” she said directing their Plymouth Neon around a sharp corner that brought them to the top of a steep hill. She slowed to a stop.

Sally Ann looked over. “What’s up?”

“Just going to drop her into LOW. Don’t want to scorch the pads by riding the brakes all the way down.”

As Lela adjusted the gearshift, and clicked the windshield wipers to the next speed to keep up with the increasing rain, a figure leapt out from the bushes and darted across the road in front of the Neon’s headlights.

It was a man. An Asian man and he was naked.

“Holy crap!” Sally Ann yelled. “Look at the old naked Asian guy!”

“Lock your door!” Lela shouted as she checked to see if her own was secure.

The man stopped, turned and faced the Neon, then charged, flailing his arms. He came around and began pounding on the driver’s side window, bellowing in some foreign language at the top of his lungs.

There was a flash of lightning, followed by a blast of thunder. The man’s face lit up. His eyes bulged, his teeth were iridescent.  

Lela jerked back. “Give me the pepper spray!” she shouted, forgetting she need only press on the gas pedal to rocket them to safety.

“Pepper spray’s in the trunk!” Sally Ann replied, her tone far more controlled. “Maybe he’s just lost and scared.”

“And maybe he’s psycho!” Lela turned back to the window. “Go away! Go away!!” she shouted waving her hands toward the road ahead. She took her foot off the brake and the car lurched forward several feet and nosed into a ditch.

 “We got to get out of here!” Lela said in short gasping breaths. “We’ve got to get out of here!!” She pounded the accelerator spraying dirt and mud spraying into the air.

The car remained motionless.

“Please go away!!” she pleaded as the man reappeared and resumed banging on the window. The heavy rain flooded the windshield.

Suddenly the area was engulfed in bright light.

As Lela and Sally Ann shielded their eyes, the startled man turned and vaulted into the bushes. As he fled, Sally Ann noticed that under the scrutiny of the cold lights this menacing, psychopath, this roadside killer, was nothing more than a fifty-ish, balding, scrawny naked Asian no taller than Lela, with arms no bigger than Sally Ann’s.

As the rain slowed to a light shower, the floodlights dimmed, but before going out completely, Sally Ann saw they were attached to the front of a large black flatbed truck with huge tires situated on the cliff’s edge of the adjoining hillside. An array of blue lights was affixed to the cab’s roof.

The yellow fog lights snapped on as the truck slowly rolled backward into the mist.

Lela pressed her hand to her chest. “Oh, thank God!” she said, still short of breath. “I thought he was going to break the window!”

“With those arms?” Sally Ann replied. “You’ve got to be kidding! 

Lela sniffed and with a scowl folded her arms and leaned back. “Well, what do we do now? The car’s stuck in a ditch.”

 “Put it in reverse, Mom.”

“How is that going to help? The wheels have no traction.”

Sally Ann sighed. “Just do it, okay?” 

 Lela did and the car slowly backed out.

“How did you know!?”

 “From digging the car out of the snow. When the car is in DRIVE the front right wheel turns and when it is in REVERSE the left wheel turns.”

Lela nodded as she put the gear in LOW and slowly drove down the hill. They hadn’t gone twenty feet when the car pierced the fog and the sprawling town of Half Moon Falls appeared.

Lela let out a sigh. “Finally!”

They had no trouble finding their house. As Lela pulled into the driveway, the headlights fell upon the building which, surprisingly, looked as good as the photographs. After she shut off the engine, the two grabbed the bags of groceries from the back seat and headed for the front door in silence.

Sally Ann finally spoke up. “All I’m saying is the guy didn’t have a gun or a knife. How could he have hurt us? And he was naked for Pete’s sake.”

“And how do you know the guy wasn’t strung out on angel dust, or crack or whatever?” Lela replied. “And he was running buck naked through the woods! He had to be on something.”

Sally Ann huffed. “Fine, Mom. Whatever. I don’t want to argue about it.”             

 The key unlocked the front door easily and the two entered. After snapping on the lights, Lela turned to close the door but stopped when she noticed it was steel jacketed and there were four large holes drilled into the steel doorframe. Upon closer inspection she saw that four thick metal bars emerged from the door itself when she turned the lock. The bars were aligned to slide directly into the four holes.

“Wow,” Lela said closing and locking it. “It would be easier to break into a bank vault.” Sally Ann turned, gave a quick look, dropped her bag on the kitchen table and started exploring the house.

“Not bad, not bad,” she said walking from kitchen to dining room to living room. Seeing the TV remote on the end table, she picked it up, aimed and pressed POWER. A picture appeared almost immediately. It was a rerun of LOST.

Sally Ann plopped down in one of the two paisley chairs in front of the 27” television.

“Whew! Thank goodness!”

Lela opened the closet door and took off her coat. “For what?” she asked hanging it up.

Sally Ann gestured to the TV. “For cable television, of course. I was afraid that here in Hillbilly Central, they didn’t have that wonderful magic box what has little people living in its innards.”

Lela walked over. “Sally Ann, I’m sure Half Moon Falls has everything you’re used to. Video stores, arcades, a mall, a pizza joint, a 7-11, etc.” She stopped, placed her hands on her hips and looked around. “Besides, this seems pretty nice. The walls have been painted, and the rugs are relatively new.” She opened the refrigerator, then checked inside the stove. “And the appliances are in good shape. Look around, honey. This ain’t bad. The microwave is the same kind we had back home and, oh look!” she said excitedly, we’ve got a dish washer! I’ll bet that makes you happy, huh? No more doing the dishes before bed.”

Sally Ann shut off the TV, smirked, stuck her index finger inside her cheek, made a popping sound, raised it into the air and spun vigorously. “Woo, freakin’ woo!”

Lela sighed. “Hungry?”

The girl lit up. “Oh yeah!”

“All right,” Lela said as she began empting the grocery bags. “I’ll whip us up a quick snack.”

Sally Ann rose from her chair. “Sounds good. In the meantime, I’m going to check out the upstairs.”

Sally Ann grasped the white banister and began climbing. Seeing that the upper level was dark she searched the wall for the light switch. She found it but it was broken.

She considered abandoning her mission but curiosity got the better of her.

This is where I’m going to be living, at least for a while, she told herself.  No sense being afraid.

Just as she started up the stairs she visualized the old naked Asian guy jumping out at her. She stopped.

“Old naked Asian guy,” she said in a low voice, “are you up there?”

Receiving no reply, she forced herself up each stair until she reached the top and the light switch. She flipped it on and light filled the hallway. She began investigating.

There were two bedrooms. The larger one had a queen-size bed, a chest of drawers and a bookcase. The walls were light blue, as were the blinds. Dark blue curtains framed the windows. Sally Ann nodded. “Nice touch.”

The smaller bedroom had a twin size bed, a chest of drawers, but no bookcase. The walls were white, as were the blinds, the curtains light yellow. She kicked off her shoes and walked across the burnt umber rug. It was soft, pliant and comfortable under her feet. She then made her way to the window, peeked out into the street, watched as two cars passed by on the rain covered street then dropped the blind and gave the room another once over. Checking inside the chest of drawers (empty) she discovered a TV cable outlet.

I can live with this.

“Sally Ann, grub’s up!” her mother called from the kitchen.

Sally Ann loved that phrase. It was what her father used to say when he called them to the table.

Sally Ann’s eyes teared up.

Daddy, I really miss you.

 Sally Ann forced herself not to think of him. It still hurt too much.

“Coming, Mom,” she said and headed to the kitchen.

After they finished eating, both women decided to call it an early night. It had been a long day and Lela had only tomorrow and Sunday to get situated before starting her new job Monday morning. 

Sally Ann, after bringing in some necessities from the car—her clock radio, her CD’s, her notebooks, her huge black sweat shirt and the heavy cotton shorts that she slept in—she climbed into bed, set her clock and before she could decide which CD to play, fell fast asleep.

She slept easily but at 4:10 am, the sound of a truck engine revving outside woke her. She sat up, looked around and listened—nothing. She was about to go back to sleep when she heard it again. It reminded her of something.

Something frightening. Her heartbeat quickened.

It was getting closer. Sally Ann slid off the bed and as she padded to the window remembered where she first heard that particular sound.

At an Army base, with her father. She was seven years old.

“C’mon, c’mon,” Walter Majeski said as he took Sally Ann’s and Lela’s hands and led them through the crowd to a good spot. A former military man, Walt loved attending demonstrations of the military’s newest declassified equipment and watching the latest high-tech stuff going through its paces.

Once they reached the railing, Walt picked up Sally Ann and placed her on his shoulders. They had arrived just in time to see a demo of the next generation Humvee. It was huge and jet black with massive wheels. Strangely, its engine, instead of growling like a muscle-bound diesel, emitted a low register hum that gave Sally Ann a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was going to mention it but the sound didn’t seem to bother her parents or anyone else, so she kept quiet.

Looking out over the crowd, Sally Ann saw a group of Army trucks lined up side by side in the center of the field. The Humvee, which for some reason had a decal of an angry kangaroo on the door, was positioning itself directly opposite.

Suddenly the Humvee took off and rocketed toward the block of trucks. The crowd jumped up and followed the action. As the Humvee picked up speed, Sally Ann realized it wasn’t going to be able to stop or turn in time to avoid hitting the wall of vehicles.

Sally Ann bent down to her father’s ear. “Daddy, let me down, I don’t want to see the trucks crash!”  

Walt looked up at her and laughed. “Don’t be silly. Just watch and enjoy the show.”

Reluctantly, she peered out and saw the Humvee was moving faster than ever and heading directly at the trucks! The engine revved as driver shifted gears…

It was the exact same sound she was hearing now. She was sure of it.

She raised the slat and looked out.

Moving slowly down the street was the black flatbed truck with the floodlights and the blue roof array they encountered earlier. Its driver was shining a hand-controlled spotlight along the property of each house. After scouring the garages, bushes and trees, the truck reached the corner and stopped, but before turning, the driver poked his head out, to look up at Sally Ann’s window.

She lurched back but noticed the figure was smiling, his eyes and teeth shining with a pale green light.

The driver leaned back inside the truck, made a right turn and disappeared down the street.