Secrets and Lies
K. J. Dahlen
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Jack Bracken sat in the
dark, waiting. He had been expecting trouble all day, and he was scared to
death. The more time passed the more frightened he felt. The shotgun in his
sweaty hand slipped and fell to the floor. The thud it made when it hit the
floor startled Anne Marie Bracken as she waited with her husband. She sat on
the floor in front of the couch and peered toward the stairway as if checking
whether the sound had awakened any of the children.
Anne Marie peeked at Jack.
Crawling to where he sat on the floor opposite the front door of their home,
she whispered, "Maybe they’re not coming. Maybe they didn’t see you and
Adam."
Jack’s stomach had been tied
up in knots since this morning and his mind filled with dread at what was about
to happen. "No…they saw us and I told you earlier, they know it was
us."
"How do you know?"
She whispered.
"I just know." He
closed his eyes for a brief moment and leaned his head on the barrel of the
shotgun. With a soul filled with dread he turned toward Anne Marie, "I’m
sorry I went hunting with Adam today. If we hadn’t trespassed onto the logging road,
we wouldn’t have seen what we did."
Anne Marie stared hard at
Jack. "You still haven’t told me what you saw," she reminded him. She
had seen his pale face when they returned this morning and asked about it, but
Jack stared at his children and covered his eyes with his hands. She’d tried to
get him to talk about what happened all day, but he wouldn’t tell her.
A couple of times during the
day the phone rang and when Jack answered it the first time, his face paled and
he slammed it down. He asked her not to answer the phone the rest of the day. A
few minutes later it rang again and Jack let it ring.
As soon as they had topped
the hill this morning and Jack gazed down the other side he knew a moment of
sheer panic. When he looked down and saw the two men with automatic rifles, he
understood he was in big trouble.
He and Adam hadn’t seen the
‘NO TRESPASSING’ signs but Jack had forgotten the unspoken rule about the hills
behind the Hawken Mill.
They had been searching for
wild turkey signs this morning. He and Adam had been out squirrel hunting when
they ran into Milo Wilks. He had told them about seeing wild turkey tracks on
the hill east of town. It was too early in the season to be hunting turkeys, as
it was late September, but Adam had begged his father to see if they could find
the trails and Jack hadn’t been able to resist the enthusiasm in his young
son’s eyes.
They had been told the
tracks began about half way up the eastern slope of the hill and when they came
across them, Adam had been elated. They continued up the hill and while Adam
was busy searching for the elusive wild birds, Jack had happened to gaze down
the hill to the clearing below.
When he saw one of the men
below lift his scoped rifle to his shoulder, he knew in a moment the man behind
the gun recognized him.
He hustled his son off the
hill, but the damage had already been done. He had been expecting a visit from
them all day. He hadn’t told anyone, not even Anne Marie what he’d seen, hoping
if he were the only witness, they wouldn’t hurt his family. After the children
had gone to bed, Anne Marie had asked him again who or what he was waiting for.
As much as he wanted to keep the information to himself, he told her what might
be coming.
The grandfather clock read
four-fifteen. The sun would be up soon. If they were coming, he wished they’d
get here and get this over with. He crawled to the window and checked outside.
The full moon lit up the front yard, and he could see the driveway from where
he sat. The shadows of the outbuildings didn’t reveal anything, and he hadn’t
heard any vehicles on the road for awhile now. He rejoined Anne Marie when he
saw the silver truck slowing moving along the highway. The truck pulled into the
driveway and cut its lights.
"Here they come,"
he told her.
"Who?" Anne Marie
wanted to know. Jack’s panic seemed to transfer to her with those three little
words. "Who do you think is out there?"
"I don’t know who they
are but someone is coming, and I don’t think it’s a social call." Jack
watched the front door. Adrenalin pumped through his veins, and he tightened
his grip on the shotgun. He pulled back the breach and checked the shells. He
was as ready as he could be.
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