“Don’t talk crazy.” Lee’s face was twisted with rage. “It means that Marcus is trying to scare us. That’s all.”
Brandon shook his head. “Marcus wouldn’t do this. He might be weird, but he isn’t mean. He’d be afraid to be out by himself for this long, especially after dark. What if something’s there? What if there’s someone in the woods? We need to tell our parents.”
Lee swung his fist hard, and we all heard the sickening thud as his fist impacted Brandon’s face. “We aren’t telling anyone! Do you understand? We don’t talk about the cave, or the woods. Nothing. And if I find out that you did, I’ll kill you!”
“Jesus, Lee! Chill out. He won’t say anything.” Sarah bent down to check on Brandon, who was cradling his cheek. “You don’t have to act like a freaking barbarian.”
“I don’t need this right now.” Lee scooped up his fishing rod and headed down the road toward the cabins.
• • •
Jennifer went outside to call Lee while I paid the check. I exited the diner and spotted her on the corner, lighting up a cigarette. The flames lit up her face, reminding me of that night at the bonfire.
“Well?” I asked.
“He’ll be there. Said it was about time we decided to go back.”
“What about Brandon? If we’re inviting Lee, shouldn’t we call Brandon, too?”
Jennifer shook her head. “No. Lee never forgave him for all that shit with the police. He thought Brandon was trying to blame him for what happened to Marcus.”
“Jennifer, I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job of keeping in touch. I just…”
She shrugged. “It didn’t touch you and Brandon, not like me and Lee. You didn’t understand.”
“I understood well enough. I just didn’t know what to say to you.”
She took a long draw from her cigarette. “You don’t have to live with the guilt. I was given a choice, and I made a bad one. The weight of that decision, the guilt I feel...it’s haunted me since that summer.”
“What do you mean, you were given a choice? Brandon told the police, and they didn’t find anything. What else could you have done?”
She tossed her cigarette on the ground and stamped it out. “I don’t mean the police. I mean him. He gave me a choice, and I told him to take Sarah.”
I stood, staring at her. I wondered if she’d had one too many Xanax, or one too many therapy sessions. I wondered what her parents had told her, what her therapists had told her, and what stories she had told herself to make sense of what happened. After years of torturing myself I’d finally decided that Forest Man was just a story, one we’d invented in our subconscious minds because the truth was too frightening to confront. There was someone in the woods when we were kids. A kidnapper, or a serial killer maybe, and they had taken our friends.
• • •
By the next morning the police were at the lake. Marcus hadn’t come home, not that any of us expected him to. Not even Lee, despite his talk.
My parents sat me down and explained that they expected me to cooperate with the police. I thought about Lee punching Brandon, and I thought about Jennifer. I excused myself as soon as I could, and went to her cabin.
Sarah met me at the door.
“Where is she?” I asked.
Sarah rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. She’s been acting weird since yesterday. This morning she just left. I think she took my book with her.”
“Thanks,” I called over my shoulder, heading toward the forest path. I had a hunch that I knew where she’d be.
I left the path at the usual spot, and saw her sitting just inside the cave, right in front of…him. I don’t know when I had come to think of the tree stump as a him, but it felt right. She sang in a low voice. “Take my hand and come with me, tweedle, deedle, deedle, dee…”
“Jennifer?” I placed a hand on her shoulder. She jumped.
When she turned around I saw that she was still in her pajamas, and was weirdly barefoot. Her feet were covered in dried mud.
“He wants to play.”
“Who?”
“The Forest Man. He’s lonely, and he wants us to come play with him.”
I crouched down beside her. “Who’s the Forest Man, Jennifer?”
“I will follow where you go, tweedle deedle, deedle doe…”
I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Jennifer?”
“Marcus sent Franklin to play. Lee sent Marcus to play. Now, it’s my turn.”
“Come on, we’re getting out of here.” I put her arm around my shoulder and hoisted her up, dragging her from the cave. “We’re going to go back and talk to the police, okay? We’re going to tell them everything. Screw Lee.”
“No.” Her voice was husky and low. “No, you can’t tell the police. Promise you won’t.”
“This is serious. Something is happening, and we need to tell the grownups.”
There were tears in her eyes. “Please, please promise you won’t.”
It was her eyes that convinced me. Her face was dirty, with snot and drool dribbling down her chin. But her eyes shined with…fear? I wasn’t sure. “Okay, I promise.”
I turned for one last glimpse at the cave, and saw Sarah’s Nancy Drew novel propped against the tree stump. I half-led, half-carried Jennifer back to the lake.
By the time we arrived her parents had noticed her missing and panicked, fearing the worst.
“Thank you for bringing her back, Nate. I’m sure she’s just worried about Marcus. I mean, we all are.”
I nodded. There was nothing else to say. I wanted to mention the song, or the book, or those crazy things she’d said to me about the Forest Man, but when I looked at her I couldn’t. I had promised. It would have been a betrayal.
My parents called me back home, and I went inside our cabin and waited. My dad tried to interest me in a game of chess, but I couldn’t
