I dropped the flashlight and staggered backward.
Standing in the doorway, on its hind legs, was a massive brown Kodiak bear. It stood well over eight feet high. Its body was trembling and it was salivating, making a noise somewhere between a bawl and a growl. It threw back its head, then tilted it from left to right. Bones cracked, then it began to hum, all the while reaching out toward me with black claws that were easily five inches long.
It stopped moving, huffed, then trained its deepred eyes on my face.
A rough growling noise came from behind it, and a moment later the two black mastiffs emerged, one on each side of the bear. Their red eyes burned, if anything, even brighter than before.
“They won’t hurt you, UncGil, I promise. You just gotta come back inside and close the door.”
I wasn’t about to move any closer to that door.
“You had the rumbling room dream again, didn’t you, UncGil?”
I turned toward my nephew. “How could you know that?”
“‘Cause it’s still following you.” He stared at me for a second. “Long-Lost showed me in the comic. But I can still see it around you.”
I started moving backward.
Slowly.
The bear and the dogs continued staring at me.
When I was a few more feet away, the bear looked down at one of the dogs. The mastiff gave a quick nod of its head, and the bear reached out, gripped the door, and pushed it closed.
At the last moment, before the barn door was fully shut, the bear raised its other paw and waved at me.
“Here you go, UncGil,” sad Carson from behind me. He stood there holding a beat-up wooden stool. “You gotta sit down and talk to Long-Lost.”
He set down the stool, then waited for me to move.
“You’re talking a lot better than you have been,” I said to him.
“Uh-huh, I know. Long-Lost, he says it’s because I’m one of the ‘special ones.’ Because I don’t have to be helped by the Keepers, I’m getting there faster.”
“Getting where?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know yet.” Then he smiled the smile of the Carson I’d always known and loved more than anything in the world, came over, and wrapped his arms around me. “I love you so much, UncGil.”
I put my arm around him. “I love you, too, buddy.”
“That’s good. Hey-do you like swans?”
It was one of those non sequitur subject shifts that had always been a staple of conversations with him.
“I, uh… I don’t know, Carson. I never thought about it.”
“Swans are pretty.”
“Yes… yes, they are.”
“Yeah.” He let go of me and started walking back toward his art project. “You should sit down and rest, UncGil. See what Long-Lost has to say.”
I sat down, wincing from the pain in my hip, arm, and shoulder. Reaching into my pocket, I removed and unrolled the new issue of Modoc: Land of the Abandoned Beast.
Before I even pulled the cover back, I felt something brush against my leg and looked down to see Carson’s missing cat, Butterball, rubbing against me and purring.
(Butterball went to live at the Magic Zoo…)
I reached down to pet him and he, as always, rolled over onto his back and offered his tremendous belly. I rubbed it, and Butterball’s purring grew louder, deeper, more contented.
Then, as usual, he fell asleep like that; on his back, legs splayed in every direction, mouth open. He looked like the cat equivalent of the town drunk passed out in the gutter.
I looked toward the barn door, heard the bear huff again, then unrolled the comic and turned to the first page.
There was an illustration of Long-Lost, this one much more detailed than the other. He was staring directly outward, and the dialogue bubble above his head read:
HELLO, GIL. NICE TO FINALLY TALK TO YOU.
“This isn’t possible,” I whispered to myself. I turned the page.
YES, GILBERT JAMES STEWART, IT IS POSSIBLE.
I gritted my teeth. “What do you want?”
THE SAME THING THAT PEST IN THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD WANTS, GIL. I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER.
“Remember what?”
THAT WOULD BE TELLING.
“Then at least explain what the fuck you’re supposed to be.”
TSK-TSK-SUCH LANGUAGE. YOU SHOULD BE SETTING AN EXAMPLE FOR YOUR NEPHEW. BY THE WAY, HE HAS NO IDEA HOW SPECIAL HE REALLY IS. NEITHER DO YOU.
I closed my eyes, squeezing the lids so tight I began to see stars. The stars exploded into faces; Beth, her aunt Mabel, an old man whose face I recognized but whose name wouldn’t come to me… something with a “W,” wasn’t it…?
I felt a small jolt surge through my body. I started, shuddering, nearly dropping the comic.
WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN GOOD, GIL, DROPPING THIS. THE FLOOR’S GOT OLD SHIT AND PISS BURIED UNDER THE HAY. YOU SHOULD REMEMBER TO WIPE OFF YOUR SHOES BEFORE YOU GO INTO YOUR HOUSE.
“Am I going to see my house again?”
OF COURSE YOU ARE. AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO WORRY. THE KEEPERS HAVEN’T GONE THERE. YET.
Something hitched in my throat, and for some reason I began crying. “What’s happening? And why…? ”
SHHH… THERE-THERE, MY FRIEND. NO NEED TO GET UPSET. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF HURTING YOU. BUT YOU’VE GOT TO REMEMBER ON YOUR OWN OR… OR IT IS GOING TO HURT, AND I WON’T BE ABLE TO HELP YOU. I HAVEN’T GOTTEN THROUGH THE GREAT SCRIM YET.
I wiped my eyes and pulled in a hard, snot-filled breath. “I don’t understand…”
The next panel showed Long-Lost rolling his eyes in exasperation.
OKAY… YOU GET SOME OF IT, BUT NOT ALL. NOT EVEN CLOSE TO ALL-SO DON’T GO THINKING THAT YOU’RE GOING TO BE A STEP AHEAD OF THINGS, BECAUSE THERE’S NO WAY, UNDERSTAND?
I said nothing, only nodded my head and moved to the next panel.
WHEN THIS PLANET AWOKE TO SING ITS FIRST SONG, THERE WAS ONLY ONE SPECIES OF ANIMAL LIVING ON ITS SURFACE. THIS CREATURE BREATHED AND DREAMED JUST AS YOU DO TODAY. BUT IT WAS LONELY. HERE WAS THIS MAGNIFICENT EARTH, FILLED WITH BEAUTY, AND IT HAD NO ONE AND NOTHING WITH WHICH TO SHARE IT. THIS FIRST ANIMAL TOOK A DEEP BREATH AND BEGAN TO SWELL IN SIZE, REARRANGING ITSELF FROM WITHIN, THEN SPLITTING INTO TWO IDENTICAL HALVES. THE HALVES MATED, CREATING A THIRD, A HYBRID OF THEMSELVES WHICH IN TURN MATED WITH THEM, PRODUCING OTHER HYBRIDS. THEY CONTINUED TO MATE AND PRODUCE, AS DID THE PROGENIES, GIVING BIRTH TO EVERYTHING FROM THE MANTICORA AND SPHINX DOWN TO THE ANTS AND MAGGOTS-THAT IS HOW THE EARTH BECAME POPULATED. EVEN AFTER THAT, THE BIRTHING CONTINUED. SINGLE CELLS FUSED TOGETHER, CREATING METAZOANS THAT EVENTUALLY CULMINATED IN THE INVENTION OF ROSES AND ELEPHANTS AND DEW-GLISTENED LEAVES AND EVEN HUMAN BEINGS. ALL LIFE ON THIS PLANET-PAST, PRESENT, AND WHAT THERE IS OF THE FUTURE- SPRANG FROM THE SAME SINGLE ORGANISM. IF ONLY THEY COULD JUST SEE THE JOINING OF ORGANISMS INTO COMMUNITIES, THOSE COMMUNITIES INTO ECOSYSTEMS, THOSE ECOSYSTEMS INTO THE BIOSPHERE… I’M GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF. THAT ALWAYS HAPPENS WHEN I WAX NOSTALGIC ABOUT THE GOOD OLD DAYS. I AM THAT FIRST ANIMAL, GIL: ALL THE REST SPRANG FROM ME. AND THAT’S ALL YOU’RE GETTING UNTIL YOU REMEMBER THE REST ON YOUR OWN…
I waited, flipping to the pages further back, which were blank. I turned back to the last illustrated page, only
