Copyright (c) 2016 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner.
SLEIGH
RIDE
By
R. Peterson
Ellen squeezed the plastic
bottle to drain its last drops of soap into a sink filled with hot water and
dirty dishes … just one more thing the Davis family was out of. The liquid
detergent swirled around in the water and formed an image of The Scream by Edvard Munch before
vanishing. John would be home in twenty minutes and Ellen wanted the kitchen,
the whole house for that matter, to look spotless. Hopefully John’s boss would
give his workers a bigger bonus than the measly twenty bucks he’d given last
year. Little Johnny had his heart set on that new bicycle he’d been ogling at
Jefferson’s Hardware and Nancy was mooning over an expensive Barbie dollhouse. Both kids were in the
living room watching Huckleberry Hound
sing an off key version of “Oh my darling Clementine …”on a black and white TV while
sitting on their fold-down bed.
The Davis family’s
closest neighbor, Agnes Brown, had agreed to watch the children while their
parents went shopping. She was rocking in John’s mother’s old chair eating the
plate of fudge the church ladies had brought over the night before and laughing
loudly at the cartoon. It was Christmas Eve 1959 and it was blowing hard when John’s
car clattered into the driveway. Finally – he’s home! Ellen thought and hoped
the roads into Cloverdale wouldn’t be icy or drifted.
John stomped the snow
off his boots on the concrete blocks that served as their doorstep and a blast
of cold air blew through the four-room house when he opened the door. “Hicks is
giving out turkeys this year instead of money,” John said as he plopped the
seven pound frozen bird onto the cabinet. Ellen shivered as he quickly shut out
the wind.
“John! What are we
going to do? I helped the children write their letters to Santa myself!”
“I called Mr. Gold at
the bank,” John said taking off his gloves and rubbing his hands together. “Edward
agreed to give us $50 on Monday. He said to go ahead and write out the checks
and the bank will cover them.”
“Edward is it now? Aren’t we becoming important?” Ellen
then wrung her hands in frustration. “Fifty dollars is a lot of money. How will
we ever repay the loan?”
“I
got a sweet night-job loading 100
pound bags of sugar into train cars,” John said smiling. “I start Monday right
after work. It’s only for two weeks but I should come home with an extra eighty
bucks!”
“You
already work so hard,” Ellen said. “Are you sure?”
John pulled her close and kissed her then swatted
her butt as he pushed her toward the broom- closet in the hallway leading to
their bedroom. “Grab your coat woman … and your snow boots … we’re going to
town!”
-------2-------
“Stanford University, heart
surgeon Dr. Richard Lower, with the assistance of Dr. Norman Shumway has
performed a successful heart transplant of one dog's heart into the heart of
another dog. What an amazing world we live in folks!”
The disc jockey said. It was minus seven
degrees outside but the high wind-chill had pushed the temperature to twenty-below.
The battered Ford plowed through the deep snow. The Browns started singing The
Three Bells and Ellen changed the words Jimmy
to Johnny as she sang along. “The
children grow up so fast,” she told her husband. “I want to give them
everything while they’re still young enough to enjoy it.”
“Let’s hope the sixties will be a decade of prosperity,”
John said straining to see out the windshield. The falling snow was fast becoming
a blizzard. “I’ve had my fill of Joe McCarthy and fallout shelters.” Bright car
headlights suddenly appeared - coming head-on! The oncoming car was driving
much too fast. With the white-out John couldn’t tell if he was in their lane … or
they were in his. A booming radio was playing Heartaches by the Number in a speeding Chevy filled with teens. At the last moment, John yanked the
steering wheel to the right. He caught sight of a sneering Eddie Hicks tipping
a can of Coors Beer to his lips and the Fowler brothers laughing out the
side-windows of the Bel Air as the
cars’ wing mirrors kissed. John fought to control the old Ford as it skidded
sideways then plowed over a steep embankment in a mushroom-cloud explosion of
white powder. Ellen screamed … and the engine died with a crunch.
It was dark for a
moment before the windshield wipers moved away part of the snow. The song was
just ending … May his soul find the salvation
… of thy great eternal love … John turned the ignition off to save the
battery. “Are you okay?” John was
horrified to see Ellen holding her head. She had banged it on the metal
dashboard. A small trickle of blood rolled down her cheek.
“I’m all right,’ she
said. “What happened?”
“That fool kid of my
boss ran us off the road,’ John said. “I’m sure we’re stuck. It’s going to take
a tractor and a chain to pull us out!” He turned on the key and pressed his
foot on the starter button mounted on the floorboards. There was a grinding
sound that became slower. “The radiator must have got pushed into the fan,” he
said.
“What does that mean?”
Ellen sounded scared. Without the car’s heater running, she was already
beginning to feel cold.
“It means we’re in
trouble,” John said. He shivered as he remembered the heavy winter coat he had
left at home.
-------3-------
“We can’t stay in the
car … it’s like being locked in a refrigerator,” John told her as he led the
way through the deep snow fighting against a fierce wind.
“I can’t see a thing,’
Ellen yelled in the near horizontal blowing snow. ‘How do you know where we’re
going?”
“The wind always blows
out of the south west,” John yelled back. “We were ran off the road about nine
miles north east of town. As long as our faces are freezing … we’re probably
going in the right direction!”
“I hope you’re right!”
Ellen told him. “If I freeze to death … I’ll be so mad at you!”
“I’ll be mad at myself
… so let’s not let that happen!” John replied.
Cold rode the wind in an assault on humanity and
there was no mercy for those who stood in the way.
Twenty minutes later, Ellen fell unconscious … John
began to carry her … and tears of dismay and frustration froze below his eyes.
-------4-------
John saw the light … he
thought it might be a farm-house but it was moving and then he heard the bells
… strange tones like a recording being played backward. As the sound approached
and grew louder … the wind became strangely calmer. A dark figure was driving a
single horse-drawn sleigh. What had been a blinding blizzard had transformed
into starlight reflected on snow with an intensity so bright the gleaming driver,
horse and sleigh were like dark shadow images in a world of white. The air
above the frozen wasteland became deathly still … and everything visual along
with sound was magnified.
With
the wind suddenly gone … the temperature seemed even colder. The sound of sleigh
runners carving chunks of ice was like fire crackling in a ghostly cold hearth.
Where on Earth did that thought come
from? “You žmonės look like one
of you could use a ride.” A hooded driver reined-in a black horse breathing
plumes of swirling frost next to them. Only black appeared where a face should
have been.
John thought the voice sounded remarkably familiar …
but he couldn’t place it. “Do I know you?” he asked as he hugged Ellen close.
“Everyone
knows of me,” the voice bragged. “But many deny that I exist.”
The black horse turned its head and snorted. Tiny
bits of ice scattered on the frozen ground like hail … and then inexplicably burst
into flame.
“Who
are you?” John was terrified … but he had his freezing wife to think about.
“Velnias,” the voice
said. “I am between light and darkness … but you can call me father.”
“Are you some kind of priest?” John asked as he loaded Ellen
into the sleigh.
Velnias turned
and grinned. Rotted teeth like a crudely carved jack-o-lantern smiled at John.
“Something like that …” The voice echoed like it came from the depths of a very
deep well.
“Can
you take us to safety?” John asked.
“I
will take the woman,” Velnias whispered. “She is all but mine.”
“I
don’t have any money,” John confessed, thinking he was in the grip of a malicious
con … then added quickly, “but I could write you a check?”
“Money
has no value to one such as myself,” the strange voice hissed.
“What
do you want to deliver us both to
safety?” John asked.
“All
bright things cast a shadow and darkness follows the light. I want the lights
out forever! Velnias smiled again. “But
I am willing to make pasiūlymai.”
“Pasiūlymai?”
John wasn’t sure he’d pronounced the garbled word right.
“Trades,
bargains, deals, covenants,” the hooded creature said. “I am nothing if not Lankstus.” His face showed clearly for the
first time … and it was the face of death. John would have run for his life but
there was no other place to go … and there was Ellen. The horrible creature
would have to be confronted.
“I
will give you anything you want,” John trembled, “but I want my wife to live.”
“Anything?
Two lives for one … not a bad trade,” the voice considered. Velnias
reached into the back of the sleigh where two large packages were wrapped with
colorful paper. One was red and green while the other was a yellow box tied
with a pink ribbon. He opened a new pack of Bicycle Dragon Back playing cards. “Shall we let fortune decide?” Velnias
shuffled the deck and then fanned the cards for John to select one. John drew
the two of spades.
“Two it shall be,” the hooded creature laughed. “Climb
aboard and we will begin.”
-------5-------
Velnias
lashed the black horse and the sleigh tore across the snow covered desert at
high speed. “Where are we going?” John clung to Ellen and to the careening
sleigh, trying to keep from falling off.
The hooded thing pointed to smoke and fire coming
from a large crack in the ground in the distance. It looked to be next to where
the Cottonmouth River disappeared into what the locals called Magician’s
Canyon. “Water pours into the ground to quench the thirst of a thousand demons,”
the creature hissed, “but tonight the river is ice and the fires below rage!”
Velnias turned toward John and smiled. “You must answer three questions before
we enter my domain. Succeed and you will both be free … fail any question … and
two will belong to me!”
The smoking crack in the ground was looming larger
by the second. “Ask me the questions!” John shouted. “Stop wasting time!”
The hooded creature smiled. “As you wish.” Velnias lashed the horse six times before
continuing. Streams of blood sprayed from the thundering horse’s back. “What
beast has man tamed to do his toil … but has never seen?”
John
wasn’t expecting a riddle. He twisted his hands trying to think of the correct answer
horses, cows, dogs … Ellen opened one eye sitting next to him as the sleigh
bounced over ice covered rocks. “The breeze … it is so cold …” she moaned.” John
covered her face with his coat as Velnias laughed.
“The
wind!” John suddenly shouted. “The wind powers a mill and moves ships … but no
one has ever seen it!”
“Your
wife pulls you from the flames even when your clothes are smoldering,” Velnias
growled.
The crack in the ground was looming even closer.
John could see puddles of melted snow-water around the gaping crack shooting
fire from the ground. “Ask me the next question!” he shouted.
“You
were lucky once, but you will not be again,” Velnias sneered. The thing once
again brutally lashed the horse. Streams of blood poured from both of the
animal’s eyes like red ribbons.
“What
is more precious than gold … but slips through a greedy man’s fingers?”
John was stumped … coins? Jewels? He could see grass
beginning to grow next to the gaping chasm. Flames shot a hundred feet in the
air as the ground rumbled. A blast of heat scorched the sleigh. “I’m so thirsty!”
John heard his wife whisper.
“Water!”
he screamed. “No creature on earth can live without it … but fingers cannot
grasp it!”
“You are far too lucky!”
Velnias spoke softly but with controlled fury.
A bony finger reached across John’s chest and touched Ellen’s nose. “No
more hints from another … you must answer the last question without her help,”
the thing said. Ellen instantly fell asleep. John could hear her soft snoring
even over the rumble of the sleigh as it hurtled over a ledge and down a
smoking trail into the crack in the ground. The walls of the inferno were
covered with squirming worms and fleeing serpents trying to escape the nightmarish
raging inferno. A storm cloud of bats almost blinded John when they flew over the
plumeting sleigh beating leathery wings and screaming warnings. “The last
question!” John screamed. “I still have one more question.”
“Why bother?” Velnias
sneered. “The doorway to eternal damnation lies yonder and even now it is being
opened to accept my plunder.” Twenty dark winged imps, ten on each side, were
opening huge double oven-doors made of cast iron and stone.
“The deal! The Pasiūlymai,”
John insisted. “We made a covenant … and you must keep your end!”
Velnias beat the terrified horse furiously, punctuating
each part of the question with a lash. “What gives hope … to all things … but
has no beginning … and no end?”
John had no idea … he shook Ellen gently but she
continued to sleep. The massive iron doors were almost fully open. John could
see the red glowing eyes of the twenty winged imps. “Any last words?” Velnias
beat the horse twice as the sleigh started through the doorway.
John leaned over to kiss his sleeping wife. “I will
love you forever,” he said.
-------6-------
John
and Ellen woke to the excited squeals coming from the living room and were
forced to pad sleepy eyed to where the children were. It was 6AM Christmas
morning. The kids had already put away their fold-down bed and were tearing the
wrapping from two packages left under the tree. Johnny ripped a bright red and
green package open to reveal a new bicycle while Nancy carefully untied a pink
ribbon from a yellow box to reveal her dollhouse. Ellen looked at John and
punched his shoulder lovingly. “And you told me Hicks didn’t give you a bonus,”
she whispered. Love showed in her eyes. John was stunned … he had bought no
presents.
Johnny insisted on riding the bicycle outside in the
snow while Helen helped Nancy assemble her dollhouse. A county plow had went
down the road earlier and the gravel road in front of the house was fairly
clear of snow. Johnny rode up the road a hundred yards but it wasn’t until his
return that John noticed the clicking sound. It was like fire crackling in a
ghostly cold hearth. Where on Earth did
that thought come from? Johnny stopped in front of him and John noticed the
Bicycle Dragon Back playing card
fastened to the rear spokes. He looked closer; it was the two of spades. “Where
did you get that?” John was horrified.
“It
was on the bike,” Johnny said starting off again. “Santa must have known what I
wanted.”
John tried to remember buying the gifts but he
couldn’t … Christmas Eve was a complete blur.
Ellen had hot cocoa on the stove when John and his
happy son came inside. “This has to be the best Christmas ever!” she gushed.
John allowed himself to relax. I must
have had a horrible bad dream, that’s
all he thought. Everyone is having a
fabulous Christmas except me.
It was after ten O’clock
when the children finally fell asleep. John woke two hours later and remembered
that he’d forgot to turn down the furnace … oil was expensive this time of
year. He walked past Johnny’s present with the Bicycle Dragon Back playing card stuck in the spokes and for some reason shuddered.
An antique clock from the Black forest of Germany, a family heirloom from his
mother, chimed the witching hour and John thought the sound was like fire
crackling in a ghostly cold hearth. Where
on Earth did that thought come from? John shook his head trying to shake
off a feeling of gloom. Both children were asleep … and that forced him to smile.
Nancy’s
Dollhouse stood over three feet tall and John was amazed at the detail in the miniature
dwelling. He stopped for a moment to examine it closely. An area on an upstairs
floor looked remarkably like their own kitchen. The same oblong table and four
chairs and a tiny broom-closet in a hall entrance leading to a bedroom. As he
peered inside the room the tiny closet door began to open. A voice that sounded
faintly familiar hissed. “Two lives for one … not a bad trade!”
THE END?
