|
10 X 15: DREAMCATCHER |
"Ranger didn't mean to eat it, Mama!" Jared Twin Rivers assured his mother
with a pleading look and his arms wrapped securely around the neck of the
Labrador-shepherd mixed breed puppy.
"He thought it was a chew toy!"
Ellie Twin Rivers pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to will away her
headache. "It was hanging above your
brother's bed. In your bedroom.
I told you, until that puppy is trained, I don't want him in the
bedrooms, Jared! Unless you intend
to follow every move he makes, picking up all his little 'puppy surprises,
'" she added, pointing to the latest yellow puddle on her freshly mopped
kitchen floor. "Get out the mop and
clean up that mess. Then I want you
to tie that dog out in the backyard, and I don't want to hear another word
about it!"
"But, Mama, he'll get scared out there all night!" Jared protested.
"Yeah, well, he can join the club.
Your little brother is not going to want to go to bed without his
dreamcatcher." She looked forlornly
down at the mangled blue leather-covered wooden hoop once that had sported
feathers and tiny metal chimes that made comforting sounds when the wind
blew through the open windows into her son’s room.
"I can fix it," Jared assured her, hoping that by returning the
dreamcatcher to its former glory he might deflect some of his mother's
anger at his new pet.
Ellie shook her head. "Jared, you
know nothing about dreamcatchers.
How in the world will you fix it?
And where are you going to get the leather?
Here, just throw it away in the burn barrel and we'll see if we
can't buy him another one on Saturday.
You just have to expect Timmy to climb into bed with you tonight, when he
has a bad dream," she scolded.
Jared took the torn hoop from his mother and grudgingly stuffed it in his
back pocket. After cleaning up the
puppy puddle, he sadly took Ranger out in to the backyard and tied him to
the door to the shed.
The lead was a good, strong rope, at least 25 feet, allowing the puppy free
reign of the small yard, if he was careful not to tangle himself up in Ellie's
two rosebushes. But, as puppies always
do, Ranger was tangled within minutes of coming outside.
"Ranger, you gotta be careful!" Jared admonished.
"There are all kinds of stuff out here at night.
Coyotes and coydogs and wolverines
and badgers. And each and every one
of them would love a nice little dogburger for
a
The puppy untangled, Jared turned his attention to the leather-and-wood hoop
in his pocket. Taking it out, he examined
it closely. The leather wound around
the hoop, encasing it. Okay, he could
rewind what was left. It didn't cover
all the wood, but it looked better than it had.
Most of the webbing in the middle, the spider's web, he remembered from the
legend, was gone. That was fine, too,
because Jared had a whole collection of twine and rope that he found along
the county road when he rode his bike in the afternoons.
Going to his secret hiding place, the hole he'd dug behind the
shed, he found a length of twine very much like what remained on the hoop.
It took several minutes for him to fashion the web.
He'd watched spiders spin webs many an early morning.
But it was probably easier when the spinner had eight legs.
He ripped it out and started more than a dozen times before he
was satisfied. It looked pretty good.
All he needed was to find some feathers.
The sun was warm as he got on his bike.
He'd told his mother he was going for a ride.
She was busy helping Timmy with his alphabet.
Timmy was trying hard in kindergarten, but he didn't seem to catch
on as easily as Jared had. Jared was
grateful his mother was occupied.
He had a mission, and she probably wouldn't have approved.
Not far from their home was a butte.
It jutted out of the plains like a pillar.
He'd seen “
He was careful climbing out onto the crags to get the feathers.
Making sure he didn't look down into the forty-foot gorge below,
he snatched a long white feather with a black tip and some smaller white
downy feathers. With his prize tucked
safely in his rucksack, Jared got back on his bike and headed for home.
At dinner, he presented his mother, and Timmy, with the newly restored
dreamcatcher.
"Jared, you did this?" Ellie asked, amazed.
"It's beautiful!" She turned
the hoop over and over in her hands, admiring the workmanship.
"This afternoon," Jared told her proudly.
"Where did you get this feather?" Ellie prodded, a note of suspicion in her
voice.
"I found it, on the road," Jared lied, keeping his eyes on his plate of red
beans and rice.
"You didn't go out to the butte to get it out of one of those eagle's nests
did you?" his mother accused.
Jared remained silent, still staring at his plate.
Timmy, who had been quiet throughout dinner, snatched the
dreamcatcher out of him mother's hands.
"Can we put it up, please
Mommy? I wanna
try it out. Can I go to bed?"
Ellie felt the smile tug at her face.
"Well, where is a tape recorder when you need one?
Timmy Twin Rivers, wanting to go to bed?
And at seven o'clock in the evening!
OK, Sport, we'll go hang it up."
She stood, taking the plates to the sink and wiping her hands.
"Oh, and Jared, we are going to talk about the butte, later," she
threatened.
Timmy did indeed go to bed without complaint, but he managed to keep talking
until long after Jared had joined him across the room.
Jared thought his little brother would never shut up.
But finally, the room and the house were silent.
Jared rolled over and let sleep claim him.
It was somewhere in the darkest part of the night when he felt something
brush past him. He thought at first
it was the breeze from his window at the foot of his bed, but it came from
the other side of the room, the side with no window or door.
It seemed to originate somewhere near Timmy's bed.
Jared sat up and looked around. The
room was dark and silent. The only
light was the faint orange nightlight that shone on the wall near the door.
He listened closely, but heard nothing.
Giving up, he laid back down and attempted to go back to sleep.
Something brushed past him again!
This time it was cold and it smelled bad, like rotten food or garbage.
Or death. This time, Jared
didn't sit up - he lay still, huddled under his covers, listening.
The only sound was Timmy's even breathing from the other side of
the room. But then, the stillness
of the night was broken by a blood-curdling yelping out in the backyard.
"Mama! Ranger!" Jared yelled, and
scampered out of bed to his mother's bedroom door.
Ellie was already out of bed, her pellet gun in her hands.
Both Ellie and Jared ran through the small cottage to the back
door.
Outside, it was dark as pitch. The
yelping had stopped suddenly. Ellie
flipped the switch just inside the back door and illuminated the yard with
the sixty-watt porch light.
The puppy was nowhere to be seen.
"Call him, Jared," Ellie instructed.
"Ranger! Here boy!
Ranger, c'mon boy.
C'mere, Ranger! Ranger!"
With each call, the boy became more frantic.
From inside the house, they could hear Timmy starting to cry from
his bed.
"Jared, go see to Timmy. I'll find
Ranger," Ellie ordered. Jared looked
ready to argue, but he nodded woefully and headed back into the house.
From the porch light, Ellie saw mostly shadows.
Quietly, she stepped off the stairs leading to the yard and whistled
low. "Ranger?
Here boy! Ranger," she called,
walking slowly toward the shed.
When she got to the building, she grimaced.
Picking up the lead rope, she could see where it had been neatly
sheared off. Her foot encountered
something wet and she reached down to wipe it off.
Much to her dismay, she could see it was blood.
"Oh, Ranger," she said, her throat tight with tears, not so much for the
puppy but for the young boy who was about to taste sorrow yet again in his
life. "Damn it, Ranger.
Why'd you have to go and do that?" she asked the wind.
Turning around, she made her way back to the house with shoulders
slumped and heart heavy.
She didn't notice the blackness that hung around the shed and after she left,
she didn't see it move off toward the road.
1452 S. Lakota Avenue
Apartment E
Kyle, South Dakota
Dana Scully lugged the last dinette chair up the second flight of stairs
and dropped it unceremoniously inside the front door to the apartment.
"Tell me again why we took a third floor walk-up," she panted, collapsing
into the very chair she'd just hauled up the steps.
"Because it was the only one available and it's cheap," Mulder reminded.
He was screwing the last screw into a slightly battered Jenny Lind
crib. With the final twist, he stood
up and shook the crib, smiling when it appeared to be solid.
"Where did you put the mattress?"
Scully wiped a lock of hair out of her eyes.
"In the nursery. Where I
thought you'd assemble the crib," she said dryly.
He ignored her obvious dig and pushed the now-assembled crib through the
narrow hallway, getting it caught up on the door casing as he tried to negotiate
the sharp turn to enter the room.
After several minutes of struggle and at least one banged thumb, he was successful
in getting the crib all the way into the room and placing it against the
interior wall, away from the window and any possible drafts.
Spying the mattress, he dropped it into the crib and stood back
to admire his work. "Scully, you
gotta see this!" he called.
Dragging herself to her feet, she joined him in the room.
"It looks great, Mulder.
All it needs is a baby," she added, crossing her arms.
"Baby?" A look of terror passed over
his eyes until a happy shriek issued from the other bedroom, just beyond
a newly purchased baby gate. The room
was empty, save a few scattered toys and one very boisterous 14-month-old.
"Hey, buddy!
Wanna see what your old man just made for you?"
Mulder cooed to the small boy as he lifted him up over the baby
gate and walked with him into the “nursery.”
He lowered him into the crib and William immediately let out a
plaintive cry.
"He thinks you're putting him down for a nap, Mulder," Scully said with a
smirk.
"No, buddy, it's not like that," Mulder tried to assure the child.
"You're just checking it out.
See if it passes the old Mulder muster!"
He patted the mattress and shook the bars.
"See?"
William stopped squalling long enough to give his father a curious look.
Then he promptly began to jiggle the bars in a similar fashion.
"See, that's it," Mulder encouraged.
"Check it out!"
By this time, William was bouncing along with the jiggling.
"I think this is a really bad idea," Scully muttered from the
doorway.
"Ah, Scully, he's a kid! Let him be
a kid. He'll be fit for society soon
enough," Mulder waved off her concern, but lifted the boy out of the crib
and set him down on the carpeted floor.
William teetered for a moment and then waddled happily over to Scully,
lifting his arms to be picked up.
"Hey, sweetie. Do you like our new
home?" she asked as she wandered back through the small apartment.
In square footage, it was probably smaller than even
Mulder's one bedroom apartment back in D.C., but it had two bedrooms
and that was what had sold them on it.
"By the way, if 'Bob Vila' is through admiring his handiwork, he could get
started on Mommy and Daddy's bed in the other room," she called out loudly
enough for Mulder to hear.
She put William in his new/used high chair and handed him a graham cracker,
which he cheerfully munched. Setting
a Tupperware “sip it” cup filled with cranberry-apple juice on his tray,
she went about organizing the kitchen.
In the other room there were a few scuffling sounds, a few loud bangs and
much cursing. Mulder reappeared just
minutes later with his index finger planted firmly in his mouth.
"How about we go 'commune' and leave the mattress on the floor?" he asked
around the obviously injured digit.
"You can't get the frame together?" she asked, pulling his finger out of
his mouth and examining it in the light over the sink.
Frowning, she rummaged one-handed through a box on the counter,
found the first aid kit and deftly applied a Blue's Clues band aid to the
injury.
"The frame won't go together," he informed her as he watched her tend to
his finger. "There's a part missing."
"What part?" she asked, putting the first aid kit in the cupboard above the
sink, for easy access.
"An important one. How the hell should
I know, Scully? My apartment was furnished!
And I've learned a vital piece of information concerning used furniture:
It never comes with instructions."
She leaned against the cupboard and scowled.
"Mulder . . ."
"I know, Scully, I know. We have to
reserve our resources. And I think
we did pretty darned well, furnishing this place for under $1000.
I'm just grousing. Aren't
I allowed to grouse a little?"
"I guess we can manage on the floor for a while.
Until we can go back to the new and used store and locate the missing
part," she said with a wink.
"As long as someone is asleep in the next room, with a door between us, I'd
sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag," Mulder said, digging through another
box until he came up with a plastic cup.
He filled it with water from the tap and drained it in one long gulp,
setting it on the counter top empty.
"Mulder, I'm sure he won't remember anything about that . . . incident,"
Scully said, barely containing her giggles.
"He thought I was killing you, Scully.
Remember how hard he cried?" Mulder replied, shaking his head.
"I really didn't want his introduction to s-e-x to be so . . .
traumatic."
"I'm not entirely certain the correct response was to strip him down naked
and bring him into bed with us, Mulder, but he's under a year.
He hasn't formed any real memories yet."
"Yeah, but I'd rather his first memories aren't 'Mommy does Daddy in a motel
room.'"
"I believe it was 'Daddy doing Mommy,' but I see your point.
And to be honest, I don't think I could have taken another month
on the road. I want to get out of
the car, just for a while."
He walked up behind her and pulled her into a hug, her back against his chest.
"You think we'll be safe here?" he asked, kissing her on the crown
of her head.
"As safe as we are anywhere." She
wrapped her arms around his where they hugged her.
"I don't want William's only memories to be of his car seat and
motel portacribs," she whispered.
"I know. Neither do I.
And we got jobs pretty easily," Mulder said, turning her around
to face him so he could kiss her on the lips.
"I always wanted to see if sleeping with the professor would improve
my grade," he told her, peppering her face with kisses.
"Good thing I'm not grading your skills as a carpenter," she told him, kissing
him back.
"Haven't you heard? Psych professors
are inherently all thumbs."
"And biology professors?" she asked.
"Are very good at anatomy, I've been told," he purred, nipping at her ear.
When the sippy cup landed on the floor
with a crash, Mulder jerked his head toward their son.
"Gee, Mommy, is it naptime, yet?"
She laughed. "Go tire him out while
I finish putting away the dishes.
Then, maybe all of us can go down for naps."
"I'm going to hold you to that, Scully!"
Oglala
Community College,
Kyle, South Dakota
One week later
Oglala Community College was
a small, two-year college that just happened to need a part-time psychology
professor and a full-time biology professor for their campus of a thousand
students. Using credentials supplied
by Jeffrey Spender and his associates, Mulder and Scully were employed as
Drs. Sherman and Joanna Holmes, with diplomas from The College of St John
in Newfoundland.
Mulder, or Professor Holmes, as he preferred to be called by his students,
had just finished grading a pop quiz from his introduction to psychology
class when there was a knock on the door.
Scowling, he opened it to be greeted by his partner and their son.
"Daddy duty," Scully announced as she deposited William in his father's arms.
"Hey, wait, I don't have duty until 1," Mulder protested, shifting the child
from one hip to the other.
"Today is Thursday, Mulder. On Thursdays,
I have lab. And that means you take
William from 11:30 to 3, when you have class.
Now, I have to run or I'll be late.
Be good for Daddy," she said, kissing first her son and then her
partner and rushing for the door.
"But Scully, what about . . . lunch?"
Too late, the words were lost on the wood-and-glass door that she had shut
rather forcefully in her haste to get to class.
Mulder raised an eyebrow in the direction of his son.
"So, Mommy's off to class.
It's just you and me, kid. What say
we hit the student center and check out college life?"
Oglala
Community College Student Center
The cafeteria was in the basement of the two-story student center.
There was a food line, which usually offered pretty bland fare,
and a row of vending machines along the far wall, to entice young people
away from the dietician's idea of a “well balanced meal” with more appealing
choices like Trix yogurt and Snicker's ice cream
bars.
Institutional-style round tables with mismatched chairs were scattered
around the room. The outside wall,
however, was all glass, and afforded a fantastic view of the panorama that
was the badlands.
Mulder got a tray and looked over the choices on the line.
Mac-and-cheese was a staple at the college, and he took a plate
of that for William, while taking a hot dog and fries for himself.
As an afterthought, he grabbed a banana and an apple out of the
bowl near the cash register, two cartons of milk, and a couple of straws.
Shifting the baby to one hip, he managed to get both him and the food to
a table near the window with spilling a drop.
A student from one of his classes giggled at him and waved to William
as they sat down.
William wasn't about to sit in a chair by himself, and there were no baby
seats in the cafeteria, so Mulder ended up with the child on his lap.
It took some shifting and shuffling, but eventually, they found
a comfortable position that allowed William to practice his newly acquired
spoon abilities.
Mulder munched down his hot
dog and snuck a few fries onto his son's plate.
What his partner didn't see wouldn't hurt her when it came to their
son, he'd long ago decided.
Lunch finished, William wanted to explore.
Mulder cleaned up the paper plates and napkins, keeping a close
eye on the small child who was wobbling from one chair to the next in the
cafeteria. When William stopped to
flirt with a pretty coed, Mulder determined it
was time to collect his son. He scooped
the youngster up into his arms and took him upstairs with him into the college
bookstore.
The bookstore held a fairly good selection of items beyond the obligatory
textbooks, mostly office supplies and bumper stickers sporting the college
name and logo. Mulder nodded and said
hello to the clerk, a student in his advanced psych class.
He walked past the standard circular rack of greeting cards for
every occasion, most of them yellowed with age.
Sweatshirts with the college mascot hung on a rack on the back
wall of the store. Tucked into a corner
was an assortment of Native American knickknacks.
Mulder was looking at the desk calendars next to the knickknacks
when he noticed that William had something in his hands, and had started
chewing on it, as well.
"Hey, buddy, we can't have that!" Mulder scolded gently and pulled the object
out of the baby's hands. William,
bereft of his new toy, put up a protest.
"No, William. We didn't buy
that," Mulder tried to reason with his son.
"It's a dreamcatcher, Professor Holmes," the
young man behind the counter informed Mulder.
"And they're only five bucks.
You can hang it over his bed, it'll give him good dreams."
Five dollars seemed a fairly small price to pay to quiet the now-screaming
baby. "OK, you just made a sale,"
Mulder told the young man. He pulled
his wallet out, deposited a five-dollar bill on the counter, and handed the
dreamcatcher back to William.
"But we have to hang it far enough over your crib so you won't
be trying to climb up to get it down," he told the baby.
"You can hang it on the wall, like a picture.
That's what my mom used to do," the young clerk offered.
"It's just a legend, really.
But you know what you were saying in class, Prof.
The placebo effect and how all it takes is to believe to help a
patient cure himself."
Mulder smiled, pleased that at least something he'd said had caught on with
the young man. "Not bad, Steve.
Hope you do as well on the mid-term."
"You and me both, Professor Holmes.
You and me both!"
The Holmes Apartment
2:55 pm
By the time he heard Scully's key in the door at their apartment, he had
his jacket on and was halfway out the door.
"I'm so sorry," she said, sounding like she'd run up all three flights of
stairs. "We'll have to figure something
out for next week. I thought I could
get out of there fast, but I had three students waiting for me . . ."
As she leaned down to pick up the toddling William, Mulder kissed her quickly
on the top of her head and gave her an understanding smile.
"It's all in the timing.
Maybe next time, William and I can meet you on campus.
Then we just do the baby switch thing and all be on our way."
He was down the stairs before she could answer and she heard his
footsteps echo as he ran out the front door.
"Baby switch thing? I don't know about
that, William. I think I like the
one we've got," she said, tickling the little boy who had just been thrust
into her arms. "Come help Mommy change
and we'll see what afternoon snack we can whip up."
Oglala
College
Lakota Hall Room 476
Mulder dusted the chalk from his hands and turned to face the class just
as the bell sounded in the hall. "Chapter
2 for Tuesday. And I want all your
topics in to my office by Friday the 16th.
If you're having trouble, I have office hours on Monday morning.
I'll return the tests next time."
The students filed past his desk.
A couple of the girls whispered to each other, turned to stare at him admiringly,
and then broke into giggles as they exited the room.
He shook his head, baffled by their actions, and gathered his notes
from the podium. The tapping on the
glass of the classroom door caused him to jerk his head up.
"Professor Holmes?" A uniformed sheriff's
officer stood in the door.
Mulder's heart jumped up to his throat.
His mouth wet dry. He knew
he had to say something but he couldn't make his mouth form words.
"I'm Sheriff White Eagle. My son Anthony
is in your Deviant Behavior class."
A parent. Mulder almost wilted with
relief. "Sheriff, yes, Anthony.
If this is about the quiz last week . . ."
The sheriff chuckled softly. "Oh,
no. This isn't about any quiz.
I don't think I saw the boy crack a book since the semester started,
so if he did poorly, it serves him right.
I got after him over the weekend.
He should straighten up now.
No, this is, well, I guess you might call it an official visit."
Mulder's mouth went dry again.
"My wife . . ." he croaked out and the sheriff shook his head emphatically.
"Oh, no, Professor, I’m sorry! Let
me explain. Anthony, well, he might
not study much for class, but you are his favorite teacher.
He talks more about you than he did all of his other teachers in
high school and grade school put together!
Yes sir, he is sure taken with you," White Eagle said with an affectionate
grin. Then he sobered, and his face
fell into a more serious expression.
"No, he mentioned that you have quite a lot of experience in, well, the darker
side of the human psyche, if you know what I mean.
I wondered if I could pick your brain a minute?"
Mulder felt like he'd been on a rollercoaster set on “kill.”
He nodded toward a couple of desks in the front of the class.
"Mind if we sit down, Sheriff?"
White Eagle's smile got much brighter.
"Sure thing. I promise not to take
up too much of your time."
The two men got comfortable and White Eagle took out his notebook.
"I've got myself a real quandary and I just don't know which end
is up."
Mulder didn't say anything - he let the Sheriff tell his story in his own
time.
"There's been a series of, well, I guess you could call them 'events.'
Some of them are obviously crimes, but some are just plain . .
. well, I don't know how to classify them.
But they've been happenin' at night
over the last week, and I think they may be connected to the same '
perp.'"
Mulder had to sit on his hands
to keep from strangling the information out of the man.
"Sheriff, what exactly has been happening?"
The sheriff referred to his notebook.
"Monday, last week. Dog attack."
"Excuse me, a dog attacked someone?" Mulder interrupted.
"No, a dog was attacked, Professor.
A boy's dog, tied outside the house in the backyard.
The rope was cut, blood on the ground . . ."
"A coyote?" Mulder suggested.
The sheriff gave him an impatient look.
"The ground was dusty and the only prints were the dog's.
Unless the coyote happened to float over to the dog . . ."
"I get your point, sorry I interrupted," Mulder said meekly.
"Anyway, a house caught fire - no one was injured, but it sure scared some
folks. Then a car jumped out of gear
and rolled down a hill to crash into a tree.
Night after that, a man swore up and down he saw his wife kissing
another man in their living room, and she says he's crazy, he fell asleep
on the sofa and she went to bed alone that night.
Oh, and a limb fell right off a tree and broke a kid's leg."
He closed his notebook and laid it aside.
Mulder licked his upper lip and folded his hands on the top of the desk.
"Sheriff," he started. "I
may not know much about law enforcement, but I don't think I understand how
these events could be considered connected, much less, umm, perpetrated by
the same unknown person."
"Ah, I didn't say it was a person that did all this, now, did I, Professor
Holmes?" White Eagle asked grinning broadly.
"I don't think it was a person.
I think it was a witch!"
Mulder blinked and hoped he didn't look as befuddled as he felt.
Maybe he'd been right all those years ago in Skinner's office.
Maybe he was “Monster Boy.”
"Sheriff White Eagle, if this is a witch, I don't see where I can be of much
assistance here at all. I'm a psychologist
. . ."
This time, the sheriff laughed and shook his head.
"Professor, a witch is just a woman gone bad!
Sure, they're evil and they have special powers, but if that ain't
deviant behavior, I don't know what is!"
Mulder was chewing on his lip now.
This was an X-file. Right here, in
the middle of this community college classroom.
And there he was, on the lam, trying to hide himself and his family,
trying to fly under everyone's radar . . .
"I'm sorry, Sheriff. I just don't
think . . ."
"Professor Holmes, I gotta admit, you weren't
the first person I thought to ask.
But I called up to the State Police and they laughed themselves silly.
I even thought about calling the FBI, but they're pretty much worthless
when it comes to this kind of stuff . . ."
Mulder raised an eyebrow and tilted his head, as if considering that statement.
"So, when all is said and done, I have to use the resources at my disposal.
And that means you. I want
to put this witch to rest before she goes and does something that really
gets somebody hurt!"
Mulder sucked on his bottom lip and then let out a slow breath.
"Maybe I could be of some assistance, Sheriff.
If I could, um, go out to the sites of these . . . 'events', and
maybe look around." He shrugged.
"As I said, I don't know much about this sort of thing . . ."
The sheriff patted Mulder's shoulder as he stood.
"You'll do just fine, Professor Holmes.
I think Anthony was right about you.
You just seem to have an open mind.
That's what I need right now.
An open mind to look this puzzle over and come up with the solution!
Well, it's gonna be dark soon, so if you have the time, maybe I
can take you out tomorrow, if that's all right?"
Mulder started to nod, then caught himself.
"Uh, Sheriff, we'll have to do this tomorrow afternoon.
I have class first thing in the morning and then I have to watch
our son while my wife is teaching her classes."
Sheriff White Eagle nodded. "Anthony
said your wife was a teacher, too.
Sure, we can go out in the afternoon.
No problem. Should I pick you up around
1:30 at your office?"
Mulder nodded enthusiastically. "That
would be fine. Thanks, Sheriff."
White Eagle stuck out his hand. "Call
me Mike, Professor. I really do appreciate
this."
"Thanks, Mike, call me . . . Holmes."
It sounded so lame to his own ears.
"Or just Professor will do, too," he added meekly.
That got a raised eyebrow from the Sheriff.
"Sure thing. Well, see you
tomorrow, . . . Professor."
Mulder nodded and almost collapsed when the sheriff was out of the room.
There was no way he was going to be able to explain this to Scully.
Holmes apartment
6:25 pm
Scully was scrubbing the white plastic high-chair tray vigorously enough
to leave grooves. Every few seconds,
she would cast a glare at Mulder as he stood finishing the dishes.
He remained silent, avoiding her ire, calmly drying the three plates,
cups, and silver, and then turning to wash the pots from the spaghetti.
"I just can't believe you!" she muttered, next wiping down the table with
the same furious motions. Mulder was
somewhat relieved she still had housework to focus some of that pent up frustration
on. He was certain when the kitchen
was “ship shape,” he was going to be her next victim.
"Scully, like I said, I didn't go looking for this.
The guy walked right into my classroom.
What was I supposed to do, tell him, 'Sorry, Sheriff, but you see
my partner, son, and I are all on the lam from this military kangaroo court
and this death by lethal injection I have hanging over my head.
So I really can't be involved in your investigation into what is
more than likely just the kind of case I used to solve for the FBI'?
How would you want me to handle it, Scully?
Enlighten me, for next time!"
He should have known better than to raise his voice, because now she
was giving him that ice-cold look that told him he better dig out a blanket
for the couch because that was where he'd be spending the night.
"Fox William Mulder," she hissed in a voice just a little under her normal
tone. That was the tone of voice that
always sent chills down his spine.
He knew he was in trouble. "You could
have told him you have no interest in hunting down a couple of kids pulling
Halloween pranks months ahead of schedule.
Or you could have said you were busy.
Or you could have said a million and one things to get out of it.
You wanted this case, and you know it."
He finished the last pot and put it in the cupboard.
Bracing his arms against the counter behind him, he faced her.
"So what if I did want it, Scully?
I admit it, I was intrigued."
His honest reply was her undoing.
She knew this day would come. Months
of running, going from town to town.
Not the life she was imagining when she once told him she thought about 'getting
out of the car'. But then, when they
had a chance to settle down, to have that normal life if just for a little
while . . . She sighed.
This was life with Fox Mulder, FBI agent/runaway convict and condemned
man. If there was trouble somewhere,
it was sure to fall smack dab in his lap.
She tucked some hair that had strayed from her ponytail back behind her ear.
"I want you to be careful," she told him sternly.
He held his hand up with three fingers forming a salute.
"Save it for your new friend, the sheriff, Mulder.
You might fool him, but I'm not buying it.
Now, go get your son ready for his bath."
He started to walk past her, but at the last minute grabbed her by the waist
and leaned her backward over his arm, capturing her mouth in a passionate
kiss. When he brought her back to
a standing position, she was flushed and her eyes dazed.
"Love me?" he asked.
She smirked at him and smacked him lightly on the arm.
"More than I should," she told him.
"Go, the sooner he gets a bath, the sooner he's in bed.
And then we can take a bath."
"Agent Scully, I like the way you think."
Ellie Twin Rivers home
1:30 pm
"Now, Professor, I know you said you've never been to a crime scene, but
this isn't a normal crime scene," Mike White Eagle said as they picked their
way to the back of the property. The
land around was dry as dust, just barely sustaining a few tumbleweed bushes,
still green around the edges. No trees
in the vicinity directly behind the little cottage, but further back, near
what Mulder presumed was a small wash or creek, there were a couple of scattered
cottonwood trees, their leaves turning a soft yellow in the early fall.
"I've seen a lot of cop shows, Mike.
I’m sure I can figure it out," Mulder assured him.
"No, that's not exactly what I meant," Mike said, stepping lightly over the
rocky terrain that had Mulder turning his ankle with every other step.
"I know this looks like it could be a prank, but I'd be tickled
pink if someone would tell me who would pull such a stunt."
He ran his gaze around the surrounding hills and buttes.
"Even for South Dakota, this is the middle of nowhere."
Mulder chuckled with the sheriff, and continued to follow his lead.
Finally, they were at a small outbuilding, a shed made of sheet
metal and some asphalt shingles that were starting to tear off in the wind.
A length of rope, half an inch in diameter and about 10 feet long
lay curled on the dirt ground. There
were dark brown stains in the dirt, Mulder recognized them immediately.
One small print was pressed into the dirt.
He stooped to examine it more closely.
"The puppy's," Mike explained when Mulder looked back for confirmation.
Mulder nodded and looked over the ground more closely.
To get to the puppy from the stand of trees, the 'perpetrator',
which Mulder still figured was another animal, would have to go through a
rather bedraggled row of roses. The
rose garden was the only plot of land that looked regularly watered.
Ignoring the creaking of his kneecaps, Mulder stood and went over
to look in the dirt around the roses.
It was damp and recently hoed, it would have taken a print easily.
He even stepped his foot on a corner and smiled when his shoe left
an almost perfect impression.
"No sign of the dog?" Mulder asked.
"Jared and Ellie searched all along the wash.
Came up with nothing. I
took a look around, too. Didn't even
find the collar. If it had been coyote,
they would have taken the kill, but they usual feast nearby.
We'd have found bones, the collar, something."
Mulder nodded, nonplussed. Both men
turned when they heard someone call out.
"Mike? You back again?"
A Native American woman in her early thirties, with long dark hair
braided over her shoulder, came from the back door of the house.
"Hi, Ellie. We knocked, but . . ."
"No, that's OK. We just got back from
town. Who's your friend?" Ellie looked
over Mulder with an appraising eye, and was obviously pleased with what she
saw.
"Oh, Ellie Twin Rivers, this is Professor Holmes.
He and his wife are teaching up at Oglala
College. He's a psychology teacher,"
Mike explained. "Professor, Ellie
is the puppy's owner. She's also my
cousin."
Ellie held out her hand and gave Mulder a firm shake.
"So, are you here to give me a psych evaluation as to why I bothered
the sheriff's department on a missing dog?" she asked with a barely contained
grin.
Mulder returned the grin with a smile and shook his head.
"No, ma'am. I have a son,
and I figure one of these days we'll end up with a dog.
I'm here to find the dognapper, just
like Sheriff White Eagle."
At that, Ellie laughed and punched her cousin in the shoulder.
"Where do you find these guys, Mike?
It's like you're a magnet or something!"
She started back toward the house.
"When you're finished out here 'at the scene of the crime, ' c'mon
in and have some coffee," she called out over her shoulder.
Mike waited until Ellie was out of earshot before he tugged on
Mulder's sleeve. "Ellie's husband
died a year ago. Cancer.
She's raising their two boys by herself and
doin' a damn fine job of it, so far.
But getting that puppy was supposed to cheer the boys up, not bring
'em more heartache."
Mulder nodded.
How well he understood.
"Do you think we could take the rope back with us?
My wife has a lab at the college, she could take a look at the
cut . . ."
"Good idea!" Mike grinned. "Hell,
anything, if we can put some ending on this . . ."
Untying the rope from the door handle of the shed, Mulder coiled it and stuck
it in his back pocket. "But Mike,
would telling them that a witch did this rather than a coyote or a wolf really
bring them any better closure?"
The two men trudged up the back porch steps.
Mike shrugged. "I just know I'd want
to know," he replied, and held the door open for Mulder.
It was another gut feeling that Mulder was very familiar with.
Ellie had coffee and store-bought chocolate chip cookies on the table waiting
for them. Mulder looked around the
small kitchen and smiled. Colorful
crayon drawings decorated a small cork bulletin board on the wall and spilled
over onto the smooth surfaces of the refrigerator.
Magnetic frames held pictures of two young boys with smiling faces
in the arms of Ellie and a tall, dark-haired man.
Other pictures were school pictures of the boys.
Mulder looked over when he felt a tug at his pants leg.
"You gonna find Ranger?" asked a boy about seven, Mulder recognized
his face from the pictures on the refrigerator door.
"Umm," Mulder started to explain, but Mike beat him to it.
"Timmy, this is Professor Holmes.
He isn't a policeman. He's just here
to look around, give me some help."
"Yes, he is," Timmy replied seriously.
"Yes, I'm just here to help Sheriff Mike," Mulder agreed.
"No. Yes, you're a policeman," Timmy
said firmly.
Mulder flushed and took a gulp of too hot coffee, which did little to cover
his discomfort.
"OK, you used to be a policeman,"
Timmy relented when he noticed Mulder's reaction.
"But you know what happened to Ranger.
You can find him, I bet, if anybody can!"
Then the small boy ran out the back door to play.
Ellie stood at the sink, her eyes closed.
"Professor, I am so sorry . . . "
"Ellie, think nothing of it. You know
kids, they come up with the darnedest things!" Mulder assured her and tried
silently to reassure himself.
The three finished their coffee, chatting about the college and Ellie telling
Mike that she was going to take some classes but not with coyotes coming
into yard and putting the boys at risk.
"I don’t want to move, Mike. Tim loved
this place," she said, wiping at her eyes before lifting up her chin defiantly.
"No damned animal is gonna run me off my own place!"
Mike exchanged a look with Mulder.
"We'll get to the bottom of this, Ellie.
I promise."
Another boy, about 11, came into the kitchen.
Unlike Timmy, this one had sad eyes and his head bowed so that
his chin was almost resting on his chest.
"Hey, Jared!" Mike said brightly.
"How's school these days?"
Jared pulled out a chair and dropped into it.
"OK, I guess," he answered, and eyed the stranger across the table
from him.
"Jared's become a real artist since the last time you were here, Mike," Ellie
said with a forced smile. "Jared,
go get the dreamcatcher you remade for Timmy.
Show Cousin Mike what you did," she encouraged.
When the boy left the room, Ellie shook her head and wiped at her eyes again.
"It's like right after Tim died, all over again, Mike.
I can't take this any more.
I want something good to happen to him, just once!"
She missed one tear and it streaked down her cheek.
Mike reached across the table and squeezed her hand.
"I redid it," Jared said when he returned holding a blue leather
dreamcatcher with a large eagle feather attached.
"Ranger . . ." The boy broke
off when his voice cracked, then took a deep breath and started again.
"Ranger chewed it up and I fixed it."
Mike took the drea catcher and admired it.
"Wow, Jared! You did a good
job, all right. Think you can come
over to our house and fix some of the stuff Anthony tears up?
Connie would sure like that!" Mike joked.
Casually, he handed the dreamcatcher
over to Mulder, who took it politely and examined it with a similar eye.
"I just bought one of these in the college bookstore for our son," Mulder
nodded. "I don't remember the hole
in the middle being that big."
Jared shrugged. "I ran
outta twine," he explained.
Mulder handed the object back to the boy.
"You did a good job," he praised him with a smile.
Jared shook his head. "No, I didn't.
I let it out."
At that moment, Timmy started squealing from the backyard.
"Momma! I fell down!"
Ellie looked out the kitchen window and then grabbed a handful
of paper towels, wetting a few of them.
"Doctor Mom, to the rescue. If you
gentlemen will excuse me," she called over her shoulder as she ran out the
back door.
"Jared, what did you mean, 'you let it out'?" Mulder asked, trying to catch
the boy's eye.
"The bad dream. Timmy's bad dream.
It didn't stay caught. It
got out."
Mulder chuckled nervously. "Jared,
that's just a legend. I mean, sure,
dreamcatchers are pretty powerful magic, but
you can't really catch dreams in them.
They just make you feel better, and then you sleep better with no bad dreams."
Jared shook his head again, this time tipping his chin up to look Mulder
in the eye. "I heard it.
When I was sleeping, it woke me up.
And then it went outside and it got Ranger."
Mike was watching the boy with barely concealed concern.
Mulder decided he might as well go along for the ride.
"Jared, what did you hear?"
"It was a noise. Like the wind, but
it was cold and that night was really hot, we had the windows open.
It felt like a bad scare, you know, down my back.
I was so scared I couldn't move.
I wanted to go over and make sure Timmy was okay, but I just couldn't
move."
Mulder nodded in understanding. He
knew that feeling all too well as a child.