The Influence(51)

The moment passed.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just jittery after what happened.”

“Understandable.”

Jill smiled. “So how are things in your neck of the woods?”

He would have told her the truth, would have described those monsters being hatched from chickens’ eggs, but she was in a fragile state and he didn’t want to alarm her any more than she already was. So he lied and told her everything was fine, then switched the subject to the meal they were eating, which was outrageously delicious. She told him how it was a recipe adapted from something she’d seen on Iron Chef, talked about her love of food, described her latest pastry concoction: a jigsaw-puzzle cookie that could be used up to four times without breaking.

They shared one of the jigsaw cookies for dessert—a four-piece puzzle that looked like the statue of liberty, and that they took apart and put together again before eating—and though he thought she’d mellowed out a bit, he could tell from Jill’s body language as they walked out to the living room afterward that she was still nervous. She tried to smile. “I was going to give you a break, and just stay in tonight and watch a movie. I even picked it out—” She held up a DVD of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

“Good choice,” he said admiringly.

“—but I want to get out of the house. Do you mind if we take a walk?”

“I’ve been looking forward to it,” he told her.

“Really?”

“Well…I’ve been expecting it. That’s almost the same, right?”

She laughed, a real laugh, and slapped him lightly on the shoulder. “Get walking, buddy.”

They didn’t head back toward town this time. Instead, Jill led him down a road that led in the opposite direction, further into the desert. They both had flashlights but didn’t really need them; the moon was out, the sky was clear and the rocky land before them was bathed in a bluish glow.

“My mom called this afternoon,” Jill said as they strolled. “I almost told her what happened, but at the last minute, I didn’t. I didn’t want to worry her. Isn’t that weird, though? I was going to tell my mom because I wanted her help. Here I am, an adult, and for some reason, I still think that my mom, who isn’t even here, who lives two hundred miles away, can somehow save me, can tell me what to do to solve my problems.” She shook her head. “Maybe I’m not an adult.”

“I know you’ve mentioned your mom before,” he said, “but what about your dad? Is he…?”

“He’s alive.”

“But you’re not close.”

They walked for a moment without speaking. Finally, Jill took a deep breath. “When I was in high school, I worked at this clothing store in the mall. The other girls warned me the very first day about things I might encounter. They’d recently found a small webcam in one of the dressing rooms and the guy had been arrested. They also told me about this one pervert who would call up and make obscene phone calls. I’d been there around a month, I guess, when it happened to me. This man called up, and I answered the phone. ‘Do you like big cocks?’ he asked. ‘Do you like to suck big dirty cocks?’

“It was my dad. I recognized his voice. I hung up right away, but I never answered the phone again. I always made sure someone else did it. I didn’t turn him in, either. I didn’t tell anyone, not even my mom, even though I wanted to.

“About a month later, he called the store again when I wasn’t there, and I guess someone told the police, and they were able to trace back the call.” She exhaled deeply. “They arrested my dad, and my mom divorced him, and I don’t know what happened to him after that, and I don’t care.”

Ross didn’t know what to say.

“The thing is, he knew I worked at that store. He knew I’d just gotten a job there. And I always wondered if he knew it was me when I answered the phone, if he wanted to say those things to me.”

“Jesus.”

“So, no, my dad and I aren’t close.”

There was nothing to be said after that, and they continued on in silence. The night was chilly, but he knew that was not what was making her shiver, and he put his arm around Jill’s shoulder, drawing her to him. Her hand snaked around his waist, and they walked that way for awhile.

Ahead, on the road before them, was a big black lump. Training their lights on the object, they saw that it was a cow.

Only it had…changed.

Jill’s hand clutched his arm tightly as they beheld the sight. While the animal appeared at first glance to be dead, it was not. It was moving. Possessing no legs, it was pulling its bulk across the dirt by inching forward like a grossly overweight and wrongly shaped worm. The two of them stayed where they were, coming no closer, watching in horror as it struggled to cross the road. The cow was making noise, but the sound that issued from its wide open mouth was closer to a squeal than a moo. Its head, misshapen and elongated, flopped wildly from side to side as it lurched forward.