The Influence(77)

“I think that’s yours,” Lita told him.

Ross was confused. “What?”

She pointed to the shack. “The phone. I think it’s yours.”

He heard the ringing now and hurried over. He wasn’t sure how long it had been going on, but whoever was calling did not hang up, and he grabbed the handset. “Hello?” he said breathlessly.

It was Jill, calling to tell him that she hadn’t found out anything. She had talked to Michael Song and to Father Ramos, but neither of them had any insights—or at least none they were willing to share. Father Ramos, in particular, seemed guarded, almost as though he was hiding something, she said, and while that was definitely out of character for him, a lot of people were behaving in ways that they ordinarily wouldn’t.

Was he behaving oddly? Ross wondered. He didn’t think so, but then everyone probably thought they were acting normally.

He thought of the inappropriate dreams he’d had about Lita.

“So no one seems to know what that thing is,” Jill said. “You didn’t happen to get a picture of it, did you?”

He hadn’t even thought of that. Stupid. He’d had his phone with him and could have easily snapped a photo. “No,” he said. “I wish I had.”

“But you’d recognize it if you saw it again, right?”

It had been curled up in a fetal position, so he wasn’t exactly sure what its body looked like, but there was no way on earth he could ever forget that face. “I’d recognize it.”

“Could you draw it?”

“I don’t think so. I’m not really…I don’t know how…” He took a deep breath. “I can’t draw.”

“Could you describe it so I could draw it? Like a police sketch? You describe the nose, the eyes, whatever, then you look at my drawing and tell me if I have to make something a little bigger or move something to the right…”

“Sure, I can do that.”

“All right, then. If I can come up with what you think is a pretty fair approximation, we can scan it into your computer—you have a scanner, don’t you?”

“What kind of an engineer would I be if I didn’t?”

“We can scan it into your computer and then show it around to, I don’t know, anthropologists or parapsychologists or comparative religion experts or something, and see if anyone recognizes it and knows what’s going on.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” he said admiringly.

“I’m surprised you didn’t think of it.”

“Well, I…”

“It’s probably part of the same behavioral pattern that keeps men from asking directions. You guys just want to stumble along by yourselves and try to figure things out on your own, even when there’s a whole world out there waiting to help you.”

“I was going to say it was a lack of imagination on my part, but I like your explanation better.”

“So when do you want to do it?”

“How about tomorrow?” Ross said. “This is actually supposed to be my first day of work and it’s half-gone already.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

“I have a bunch of emails to read and specs to sort through, and I want to make a good impression. My friend Alex kind of went out on a limb for me.”

“I understand. Do what you have to do. Call you tonight?”

“I’ll be waiting,” he said.

“With bated breath?”

“With my pants around my ankles.”

She laughed. “That’s what I like to hear.”

They hung up, and he actually did turn on his computer, but there was the sound of a loud engine in the yard, and he looked out the window to see what looked like a miniature tanker truck pull up in front of the Big House. It had to be Jackass McDaniels’ friend Fred, the septic tank servicer, and, unable to stifle his curiosity, Ross went outside to see what was going on.

McDaniels must have already filled in his friend about what had happened this morning, because the big bearded man in the flannel shirt who was standing with one foot on the ground and one foot on the bottom porch step was already regaling Dave and Lita with stories of unusual things he’d come across in the past few weeks.

“…and I heard a thumping from the tank in back of my truck. I pulled over, thinking I’d accidentally left the pump on, and this thing looked like a big ol’ snake with a pink triangle head came flying out of that opening in the top there. Scared the shit out of me! For a second, it looked like it was going to fly away, but then it kind of dissolved into little strings that looked like spaghetti, and they fell back on the tank, slid down the sides and wiggled off into the dirt. Like I said, I didn’t suck up anything like that from their septic tank, and I know I tightened the lid on that opening.” The man saw Ross and nodded in his direction. “Hey.”