Excavation by Steve Rasnic Tem

Author:Steve Rasnic Tem [Tem, Steve Rasnic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror
Publisher: Crossroad Press

Chapter 18

He had to go through the operator in Four Corners to make the long distance call to Denver. He’d waited a long time to call; he probably should have called Carol the first night he was in, let her know he had arrived safely. That’s what he would have done a few years ago, and she would have expected it. The first few years they were married they both had had an almost desperate need to touch base after they’d been separated a number of hours, in order to head off fantasies of accidents and murder.

But the last few years they’d gone completely the other way—sometimes they didn’t call each other even when they knew the average person would. It was one way in which they both asserted a new independence, albeit an immature one. Reed had been the worse offender—he’d badly scared Carol a couple of times, and she had been too stubborn, too independent to show it.

Reed waited anxiously as the woman in Four Corners tried to make the connection; the static on the line was so bad tonight he could hardly hear her. He was self-consciously aware of Uncle Ben in the other room, keeping his kids quiet and acting as if this were the most important telephone call that had ever been made, surpassing even that of Bell’s first phone conversation.

“Be just a minute, Reed.” The static popped and crackled under her voice, and she was so incredibly old, so hoarse anyway, Reed thought her undistorted voice must not be much different. Eloise...could that be Eloise? It seemed impossible, but the voice and the manner seemed the same...asking for your first name, then calling you by it, even chatting with you before the other party came on the line. He supposed a lot of rural telephone operators were the same way, but that voice...

“Reed...Reed...” Static filled his name.

“Carol?”

“Just be a minute now, Reed. Say hello to your Uncle Ben for me...”

Eloise had been old when he was a boy. She must be seventy-five, eighty now. There was a loud popping in the receiver and Reed pulled his head away in pain. He wouldn’t be calling Carol very often; the phone system in the county was still impossible.

But that was an excuse. He didn’t want to call Carol. He was afraid if he talked to Carol too often he wouldn’t be able to stick to his decision to stay in the Creeks until he’d solved this thing. Talking to Uncle Ben tonight, seeing the dream house, had started a crack in that resolve. It had made him think of his own house, his particular neighborhood in Denver, where the streets were shaded, all the buildings old, and the people who lived there basically friendly.

Uncle Ben’s dream house...what a travesty. The boards virtually oozed moisture. Death and decay came out of the very ground here—there was just no escaping it. By comparison home life in Denver seemed so normal, so satisfying.

“Reed...Reed...” Eloise? Carol? “Reed, this is Carol. How are you?”

There were tears in his eyes; he couldn’t answer.

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