Pumpkin Read Free Page A

rest for him afterward.
    Vera was probably right about the nightmare—what else could it have been? She said the description of the face wasn’t even a coincidence, really; most kids tend to be afraid of old men and it’s only natural when they show up in their dreams.
    Natural or not, David didn’t want to think about explanations now because other things were more important. Bad enough that this place bugged him, but if it spooked Billy that was the last straw. He’d made up his mind this morning; they had to get out of here. Monday he’d drive back to the city and make the rounds and this time he wouldn’t be so choosy, just take anything he could get, as long as they could move away before winter.
    Right now the thing to do was revise his résumé, play down all that executive-experience stuff that might turn off employers who were only looking for somebody to fill an ordinary accounting job. A pay cut didn’t matter; what mattered was getting out.
    But it was hard to concentrate, hard to figure how to rewrite the damned thing. Maybe Vera could help; she was good with words.
    David looked up and called. “Honey—can you come here for a minute?”
    No answer.
    “Vera—”
    Still no reply, only the tick-tock of the grandfather’s clock.
    He pushed back his chair and rose, striding down the hall to the kitchen. He could have sworn he saw her go there only minutes ago, but the room was empty now. Where had she disappeared to?
    Peering across the room he saw that the kitchen door was ajar.
    It was fear that forced him forward. Flinging the door wide, he moved out into the yard, calling her name. Before he realized it, he was at the edge of the road.
    For a moment David hesitated, glancing off into the purple haze haloing the ruined house, the weed-infested garden patch and the treetops rising darkly from the slope below. He wanted to stop but he couldn’t, because he knew. It hit him the moment he saw the open kitchen door.
    Crossing the road, he raised his voice in a shout. No response came, and desperation drove him past the huddled house and the windswept weeds, his feet churning dead leaves as he stared at the dead limbs of the towering trees beyond.
    Then he did halt, heart hammering. Something was moving down there below between the twisted tree trunks—moving and emerging.
    “Vera!”
    She came toward him, hair disheveled, her housedress splotched and stained. But she was smiling.
    “I thought I heard you,” she said.
    David stared at her, numb with relief. “Are you all right?”
    “Of course. Why shouldn’t I be?”
    “But what were you doing over here?”
    She reached out and took his hand. “I’ll show you.”
    Before he could resist she was leading him forward, down into the woods, into the forbidden forest, while the voices rose. “No—don’t go—keep away from there, you hear?” His aunt’s voice, and his uncle’s, dead voices echoing over the years.
    Now Vera’s voice, here and very much alive. “After last night I couldn’t help it. Oh, I knew there was nothing to worry about, but I had to make sure. And I did find something—here.”
    She halted in a little clearing deep down under the trees, pointing to a cluster of matted grass and wilted wildflowers which sprouted from an oblong mound. “You know what this is?”
    David blinked, silent and uncomprehending.
    “Can’t you guess?” Vera smiled again. “It’s a grave.”
    She stooped, parting the tangled growth at the far end of the mound and disclosing a weathered wooden slab. It bore neither dates nor inscription, only the crudely carved lettering of a name:
    JED HOLLOWAY
    “You see?” Vera nodded toward the mound. “Now we know there’s nothing to be afraid of. He’s been dead and buried here for years.”
    Nothing to be afraid of. David nodded automatically and again she took his hand, leading him away from the dead man’s grave, past the twisted trunks of the dead trees, up the path between the skeleton of the