Ruby Part 2

The hills of southeastern Kentucky spread out in a joyless sprawl in the overbearing heat of a late July afternoon. Hwy. 476 cut a dark gray ribbon through the land. It was a swerving, curving bit of a road which would make most people from outside Breathitt County rather ill. For Ruby, however, this road was burned into her mind from countless trips both in a school bus (earlier times) and then a car (later times). She felt as though she could drive this road in the pitch dark with her headlights turned off. It was just a curve to the left here and a sharp turn to the right there….and then repeat.

Ruby sighed and glanced at her reflection in the rearview mirror of her black Ford Focus. She looked as tired as she felt. Hopefully a visit to Gran would make her feel better. The groceries that she was taking to her Gran rustled in the backseat, longing to break free of their plastic prison and scatter into the floor. She had carefully tucked the jar of moonshine under the passenger seat. She didn’t want to take any chances. Just because Breathitt County had made the sale of alcohol legal over two years ago, the sale of homemade shine was still illegal.

She looked around as she drove up the old, familiar road. She hadn’t been to visit Gran in over a month, and she was amazed at how much the landscape had changed. In early June, everything had seemed so warm and inviting as the warm sunshine of an emerging summer had painted the area with a sense of joy. Now, the oppressive heat of late July gave everything a wilted, stunted look. She didn’t see anyone or anything out, which was weird for the area. She didn’t even see any dogs. It seemed as though everyone was inside their homes, enjoying artificially chilled air. Maybe even the dogs. She smiled to herself at that thought.

Making a sharp turn in the road, she saw the young boy standing in the road in front of her. At first, she wasn’t sure of what she was seeing. It just looked like a dark shadow of a figure, standing in the middle of Hwy. 476 and staring at her car as it quickly bore down on him. It took a second for the message to travel from her eyes to her brain to her feet. Pushing sharply on her brake, Ruby forced her car to come to a screeching halt just a few feet in front of the child.

Breathing sharply with the surge of panic energy that was coursing through her blood, Ruby felt her face start to flush with rage. The boy didn’t look to be any older than seven. Where were his parents? Probably inside in front of the air conditioner. She quickly pulled over to the side of the road so that she wouldn’t be smashed by a coal truck and hopped out of the car.

“Sweetie?” she asked in as nice a way as her shaky voice would allow, “Are you okay? You really shouldn’t be playing in the middle of the road.”

The boy looked up at her. She saw right away that something wasn’t right. He was looking toward her, but his eyes weren’t focusing on her. Instead, it seemed as though his eyes were looking through her. She started walking toward him.

“Are you okay?” she asked. The heat was a raging beast around them. She knew that if he had been outside for some time then he could be suffering from heat exhaustion. She knelt down in front of him. She could see now that his breathing was rapid…and shallow. He was wheezing slightly…and still staring off into the distance. He was staring up into the hills behind her.

“You okay sugar?” she asked again, putting one hand on his left shoulder. She noticed that he was trembling. Like a crazed parrot, she was getting ready to ask him once again if he was okay when he suddenly started screaming and clawing at her. She quickly jumped up but kept her hands on his shoulders so that he wouldn’t run away. She noticed that he was still staring off into the distance. But now he was like a wild animal. She needed to get him off the road. What if something came flying around the curve?

“Hey!” came a sharp voice across the road, “What in the heck do you think ya’ doin’ with my lil’ boy?”

Ruby turned her head toward the voice and saw that it belonged to woman standing in front of a large, rusty trailer. The woman had to be at least 450 pounds. Her hair hung like a greasy mop in strings which ran down her sides. She was dressed in a large purple muumuu which was stained with grease, snot, and other dark substances which Ruby could only guess at. The woman was munching on a large slice of pizza which probably explained the explosion of large red pimples which covered her face. She used her pizza free hand to wave toward Ruby again.

“Get yer’ dang hands off my kid!” the woman screamed out, bits of pizza flying out of her mouth, “You from Social Services? Those people just won’t give up…will they?”

Ruby was in shock. She felt as though she were staring at some circus freak…not an actual person. She forced her mouth to move and heard her voice, sounding squeaky and small, come out in spurts and stutters.

“I was driving…and your kid….um…your little boy….in the road,” she was starting to lose it. She could hear the child still screaming…but it sounded like it was coming from a million miles away.

The woman waddled out into the road. Ruby saw that she wasn’t wearing any shoes and that her feet had a squashed and filthy look to them. The woman came closer and Ruby could smell her coming. With a fat, greasy hand, the woman smacked the boy on the back of the head.

“Get in the house!” the woman screamed, her voice sounding like it should come from a bull instead of person, “You want them to take you away again? HUH?”

The boys, still screaming and now crying as well, ran on across the hot blacktop and into the trailer, letting the door slam shut behind him. Ruby could still hear him inside the trailer.

“And you….little missy,” the woman had a short, pudgy finger stuck in Ruby’s face, “Keep your nose out of other people’s business. I don’t need any more trouble with Social Services. What you all tryin’ to do anyway? Cut me off my food stamps…..my check? Who do you think you are? Do you even have any kids? I won’t lose him. I’ll kill you all first.”

The woman waddled back across the road, leaving Ruby standing there in a fog. She called out to the woman, “I’m…I’m not from Social Services. Your little boy was standing in the road. I was concerned.”

“Yeah, I can see that….the whole world is full of people who are concerned,” the woman yelled back, picking up a rock from her front yard, “Go on, get outta’ here. I don’t need trouble! And you look like trouble…all tarted up like some tramp. Get outta’ here ‘fore I chuck this rock through your car window!”

Ruby stared…amazed at the ignorance of this cow. For a moment, she thought about going at her. But she knew that she would lose. The woman was built like a linebacker. Instead, she just took a deep breath and headed back to her car. Driving off, she made a mental note of the trailer. Social Services would definitely be getting a call.

In the barn across the road, the dark shadow paced restlessly….a low growl coming from his throat. The child had been so close….so close that the shadow had caught the sweet scent of child flesh. So sweet. Now…it was gone. The spell had been weak…the day was still strong…and now it was broken and the boy had run away.

And that woman…she had interfered. The shadow tracked the car from the cracks in the barns walls. It watched and waited as the darkness grew in the air around it. Soon it would be able to leave the barn….and the chase would begin.