The Influence(83)

She glanced at the picture, shuddered visibly, then handed it over to him. “Let’s get this out there,” she said. “See if someone knows what it is.”

Ross scanned both sketches into his computer, and they spent the rest of the afternoon looking up pictures of mythological creatures, as well as animals, extinct and not, and emailing Jill’s drawings to zoologists, anthropologists, folklore experts, ecological organizations, and anyone else they could think of who might be able to identify the creature. They received no immediate responses, but Ross hoped that within a day or so someone might come up with an identification. Even if it was for a fictional being.

Although his fear was that no one would, that they would end up being completely on their own.

There was a knock on the screen. “Rossie? Are you two decent in there?”

He laughed, despite himself. “Come in.”

Lita grinned. “Would you like to stay for dinner?” she asked Jill.

Ross glanced at his watch, surprised. “It’s that late already?”

“Yep.”

“Sure,” Jill said. “If it’s not too much trouble.”

“I made jambalaya, so there’s plenty of food. All we have to do is pull another chair up to the table.”

“Thank you. Yes,” Jill said.

While eating, the two of them explained to Lita and Dave what they’d been doing all afternoon. In the middle of the meal, Ross rushed back to the shack to get Jill’s drawings, and their hosts marveled at the accuracy of the depiction. Lita examined the “before” picture. “I’ll bet that’s what we did see flying over us on the way home.”

Dave didn’t seem to want to look at the sketch too long. “Do you think this’ll work?” he asked skeptically.

“We hope so,” Jill said.

“No,” Ross confessed, and surprised himself by the admission. They all looked at him. “Whatever’s happening here, I think it’s unique,” he said. “I’m not sure anyone’s going to be able to help us.”

“But some people might have ideas,” Jill said hopefully. “I mean, the more minds we get thinking on this the better, right?”

“Right,” Ross said, but he wasn’t sure he believed it.

Lita stood up from the table, although she’d barely touched her food. “My friend Lurlene took a picture of it,” she said, walking across the kitchen. “That night. New Year’s Eve. Other people probably did, too, but Lurlene did for sure. She tried to show me the other day, but her phone wasn’t working. If we could get one of her pictures, or if she could tell us who else might have some, you could upload it and show people those.”

Lita picked up the wall phone next to the refrigerator, started dialing, and Ross allowed himself a small ray of hope.

“Hello?” Lita said. “Lurlene, it’s me—” She stopped talking, and a strange expression passed over her face. Slowly, she pulled the receiver away from her ear. “She hung up on me.”

No one suggested that it hadn’t been intentional, and Lita placed the handset back in its cradle, making no effort to redial. She headed back to the table, where they resumed eating in silence.

After dinner, they thanked Lita and Dave, then walked across the yard. The sun was starting to go down, and Ross knew that even if she left right at this second, it would be dark before she got home. The thought of her walking through the desert alone at night made him uneasy.

“I should probably drive you back,” Ross said.

“Or…I could stay the night.”

He smiled. “Or that.”

“You know, Giant’s on TCM.”

He nodded, smiled, hoping he didn’t look too blank.

Apparently, he did. “You’ve never seen it, have you?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“And you’re not exactly sure what it is, are you?”

He shook his head again.

Jill smiled, patting his hand as they strolled back to the shack. “You’re in for a treat.”

She was right. The movie was long and epic, but it moved, and he sat through the entire thing, spellbound. He was fascinated especially by Elizabeth Taylor. He knew her only through red carpet appearances and television interviews he’d seen before her death, and it was impossible to reconcile the cloying phoniness of that latter-day media monster with the beautiful, totally believable actress in the film.

Halfway through, there was an intermission, just as there’d been when the movie was shown theatrically, and Jill took a bathroom break while Ross went over to the kitchen area to get a drink of water. On the way, he saw her drawings where he’d put them on the table next to his computer, and he turned them over, not wanting to think about the monster any more tonight.