Starfish_ A Novel - James Crowley [14]
The three struggled up a high riverbank, with Ulysses fighting his way through the snow behind them. when they got to the top of the rise, Lionel thought he saw something moving toward them from the direction of the river. He strained his eyes and saw it again, this time briefly standing on top of the next bluff. It seemed to Lionel that it was a deer with very large antlers looking at them, almost spying on them. Lionel would catch a glimpse, but then it would disappear only to reappear a few feet from where it last appeared, depending on the direction the children moved. Lionel turned and saw that Beatrice had also seen the strange deer in the distance.
Corn Poe continued, oblivious to the foreign presence, “Y’all remember when I said I needed to stretch my legs? well, I reckon they are permanently stretched after this one….”
Beatrice raised a finger to her lips, and Corn Poe’s eyes went wide.
“What? what is it?” Corn Poe whispered. Lionel couldn’t tell if he was shaking from the cold or trembling with fear.
“Lionel, listen to me. You two stay here. Stand next to Ulysses, all right? Just stand there behind him and don’t move.” And then Beatrice was gone.
Beatrice was fast, and if it weren’t for the tracks that she left in the snow behind her, Corn Poe and Lionel might have thought that she just vanished. with his gaze, Lionel traced his sister’s tracks as they disappeared down the other side of the gully toward the river. He wanted to follow but knew that Beatrice would not stand for that. Something in the way that she had told Corn Poe and Lionel to stay put kept them right where they were.
“What is it?” Corn Poe asked. His lips were now as blue as his legs.
“We saw something. Something over the hill.”
“What in the hell was it? I didn’t see nothin’.”
“It looked like a deer to me, but we best keep from talkin’,” Lionel answered.
“A deer?” Corn Poe exclaimed, louder than Lionel thought he meant to. “You think we might get us some supper after all?”
Corn Poe’s comment about supper hit Lionel like a punch in his empty stomach. He glanced up to the ridge, and there it was again not thirty paces away from them—the antlers, at least. This time the antlers did not disappear but seemed to grow. They were getting closer.
Now Corn Poe saw the antlers. Lionel raised his finger to his lips, but with little result.
“What is that?” Corn Poe said, forgetting to whisper altogether. “That don’t look like no deer to me!”
It no longer looked like a deer to Lionel either. As it got closer, it began to look more and more like the body of a man with a deer’s head. That was about all that Corn Poe needed to see or could stand. He turned in the opposite direction of the ghostly deer-headed creature and moved as fast as he could through the deep snow.
Lionel was tempted to do the same, but given how little distance Corn Poe was gaining and the adamant instructions from Beatrice, he opted to say put. The figure raised its arms into the air, causing Corn Poe to let out a yelp that would raise the dead.
Then the creature began to speak….
“Ássa und! Póóhsapoot!”
But it spoke in a tongue that neither Corn Poe nor Lionel could understand. Lionel spun around, startling Ulysses.
Corn Poe hadn’t made it ten steps when he turned back to Lionel. “Come on, ya idjit! It’s gonna kill us!”
Lionel took a few steps back, frantically looking around for Beatrice. No Beatrice. He continued to backpedal as the creature moved down the slope toward them. It spoke again, and although its words sounded familiar, Lionel could not understand what it was saying. Then suddenly, it spoke English.
“Don’t be afraid, little one. I’m not here to hurt you,” the creature called.
Lionel found this hard to believe. As it came closer, it became apparent that the creature was definitely some sort of man, but with the deer head it was about the size of Corn Poe’s father, Big Bull.
“Cover your ears! Even the sound of its voice could curse ya for life!” Corn Poe screamed as he crawled though the snow behind Lionel. “It’s an apparition,