The Otherkind Book One:Heart

~*~ 38 ~*~

~*~ 38 ~*~

Heading through the foyer, grabbing my coat from off the hook, I practically bounced out of the front door. Grams came to the door and watched me, smiling. Waving, I drove off, heading down the drive. Right before the first gate was a track road that went either way, left or right, along the inside perimeter of the fence line. I turned left. Time to go explore the 'yard'. That word made me smile.

It was pretty in a stark sort of way and snow lay in drifts but in other places it was bare brown with tufts of last summer's wild grasses sticking out. I came to a butte and saw a walking path that went to the top of it and made a note to go check that out when I had more time and more daylight.

Continuing for a long time up the dirt track I noticed the trees had begun to thicken. I found a turn off leading toward the interior of the yard and a forest. Turning down it, the track wasn't as cleared as the perimeter track had been, but the bee handled it fine. The trees became denser the further from the perimeter we got. I was debating turning back when my decision was made for me. I came to the end of the road. Up ahead were two buttes across from each other and nestled in between was a small, dense forest. The road ended in a circle around a huge gnarled and twisted looking tree that had a bench built around its massive trunk.

Slowly I drove around it and then once more so I could look deeper into the forest. Something about it was beckoning me but it was getting dark. Switching on my headlights I stopped and tried to see further in. I wished it was lighter so I could walk into it a bit. I sat there with my baby bee idly in a soft purr. It looked incredibly beautiful, all the tree limbs etched in snow and glittering from my headlights. It had a magical quality to it.

The time on the digital clock that glowed a soft green flicked to five thirty seven. I drove off leaving the forest behind, turning onto the main track I headed back for home. When I got to the drive that lead to Grams' house I decided that it was still light enough to see so I drove past the turn off to her house, heading down the dirt track the other way.

The track was severely rutted, my headlights were bumping crazily, but up ahead I could dimly pick out a deserted house that was slowly sinking back into the ground. Past that a ways, was a series of outbuildings in various stages of returning to the Earth. Turning off the track I headed for what looked like it had been a barn. Parking in the center of a cleared area I got out and walked toward the barn rubbing my arms briskly. When I was about six feet away I could feel it, as if something was wrong with it. Taking a backward step, I looked at its door hanging from only one hinge. The roof sagged perilously. All the windows were either broken out or dimmed with dust and cobwebs. I didn't like the feel of it.

Looking across the other side of my jeep I saw the shed buildings and they didn't look much better. But it was the barn that held my attention and gave me the creeps. Walking back to the jeep I turned and looked at it once more. It was hard to pick out any detail because it was nearly dark now. I made a note to ask Grams about it. Getting back in the Bee I headed home.

Home. It had a nice ring to it. Parking behind her truck I went in. Grams was in the parlor reading and looked up "Have a nice time out?"

"Yeah, got kind of too dark to do much though."

She nodded in understanding. "Gets dark pretty quick this time of year."

"Yeah, same as living in a valley between mountains. Dawn's late and dusk's early. But I did get to see a couple things here."

"What did you see?" She set her book down.

"I went to that forest between the buttes a bit up the yard."