I looked back to the houses and the lights that were still on. There was no noticeable movement and for a moment a bolt of fear ran through me that everybody had gone with the Doc, leaving Steph to deal with them on her own, while I sat here twiddling my thumbs watching an empty paddock.
There was something I did want to check out though, and that was the sheet of tin that was lying at the far side of the field. Dreading what I would find under it was an understatement, but to my relief, once I had slinked across the paddock and lifted the sheet up, found it to be nothing more than a discarded sheet of roofing iron, nothing of interest beneath it. That at least meant no animals were harmed in this location at least. Although that didn’t mean Clancy had given up chewing on dogs and cats. That was something we still had to confirm.
I decided to sneak to the houses and see if I could learn anything of interest. There was a very low sound coming from one of the buildings, and as I neared the larger of the two, made out the distinct sound of music. It was some sort of classical orchestra, like Beethoven or Mozart. Classical music was definitely not one of my strong suits, but as I crept closer, I recognized the piece that was playing immediately because it was a piece my mother was quite fond of. I knew it was called Symphony No. 40, but couldn’t remember who had written it.
There was an open window nearest to me and the music was emanating from there. I crept closer and closer, edging my way towards the sound. There were no other sounds coming from the house and at first, I thought that the house was empty. But then as I neared the window close enough to peer into it, saw an old woman sitting back in a sofa chair, her nightgown pulled tightly around her ample bosoms. She was sporting a dozen or so hair curlers on her head, reminding me of pictures I had seen in a book of Greek mythology. It reminded me of the picture I had seen of Medusa, the mythical titan. There was a glass of what looked like whiskey or bourbon on the table in front of her and in her fingers dangled a lit cigarette, its tendrils of smoke slowly snaking towards the open window. Her eyes were closed and I thought she must have fallen asleep while listening to her music, but then she lifted her cigarette to her lips and drew in a puff.
Without any warning, her eyes suddenly shot open and her head turned towards me. I found myself staring at her less than 3 feet from her face. Her eyes grew wide behind her oversized glasses as she sat bolt upright and that’s when she began to scream, a long shrill screech that drilled into my head. I put my hands up trying to quieten her, to show her that I meant no harm, but then I heard footsteps running from another room.
“What’s wrong, Ma?” I heard, and when I saw the rifle in the man’s hand as he came through the doorway, it was all the motivation I needed to get my arse out of there. Instead of running towards the road, which meant running past the front door to this wonderful dwelling, I decided to turn and run the other way, back up the hill and further from town. I figured it would be easier to double back once I gained enough distance between me and whoever the man with the rifle was.
The back door suddenly crashed open and I instantly fell flat on my face, then wiggled forward a few yards to hide in some thick weeds that were growing in a clump. The patch was almost large enough to hide me and was also close enough to the house that I could make out the man now looking for me.
“I’LL FIND YOU, YOU PERVERT!” he yelled, getting closer to my hiding spot. I could just make out the rifle he was now raising in front of him, the butt end nestled into his shoulder. “COME OUT YOU QUEER!” I lay completely still, unable to move a single muscle. Something began to crawl over my fingers and I nearly yelped in surprise. I swallowed the shock and held my breath. The man suddenly fired the rifle, the crack so loud, I heard it echo back from the hill behind me. The bullet whizzed above my head and I was sure that he had spotted me. He fired again but had aimed off to my right this time. “DON’T COME BACK, YOU HEAR ME?” He finally turned and began to walk back to the house. He climbed the step, turned for one final look then went in, slamming the door behind him. I heard the muffled sound of garbled conversation and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a good five minutes before I finally had the nerve to move, and when I did, I ran like the actual Devil was chasing me.
By the time I had reached the main road again, it was close to 8 o’clock and Steph had been gone almost an hour. Clancy’s house was at least a mile behind me, and as there were no other cars that I could see, figured I was pretty safe walking along the road. If I spotted a car coming towards me,
