Black silhouettes on a milk sky. The earth was still, a sense of anticipation coming in with the cold. One lone squirrel fussed at Sheba, the green-eyed cat, who watched patiently. Air was fresh through thickening fog, and shadows in the pines made no sound.
Bethany knelt in soft, wet earth, carefully pulling weeds from her garden. Every now and then, Sheba would come up and meow pitifully, then go back to stalking the squirrel. Fog grew thicker, swirling in crisp wintry breezes. Bethany looked over at Sheba, who was now ignoring the squirrel. Instead, she was crouched down as if to spring onto prey. There was a low growl in her throat and the hair on her back was raised in warning.
Now the fog was so thick, Bethany could hardly peer through it. Alarmed, she got up and went to see what had gotten Sheba so riled up. But there was only fog. She picked up the cat, who remained stiff in her arms until they were safely back on the porch. “I know how to settle you down,” Bethany cooed. Sheba fixed her in that willful stare felines use to get their way.
She chopped up a fresh piece of grouper and served it in a ridiculous crystal bowl. Zelda began to purr. Then, Bethany went back inside to get a warm jacket and a flashlight. If there were a predator nearby, she would run it off! Brandishing her flashlight and some pepper spray, she set off to remedy the situation. But, once outside, she realized the thick blanket of fog had grown denser. There was no way she could find anything out there.
And when she decided to return to the house, she found she had gotten disoriented. She was lost in the fog!
Thinking perhaps she would see something familiar, she kept on, flashlight blazing into haze. At some point, she sensed something nearby and raised her pepper spray.
There, just barely visible through the mist, stood a man, bent over and frail. She lowered the pepper spray. “Hello!” she hailed. But the man did not respond. He just looked about him as if searching for something.
Then, just as suddenly as he appeared, he vanished into the blur of the forest. Although she called again, he was gone. Somehow, she found her way back inside and locked the door. Dreams came and went, remarkably lucid in their content. When she awoke the next morning, though, she could not remember them at all. Soon, the events of the night before were forgotten, too.
Several weeks went by before Bethany decided to finish her gardening chores. She found her thick gloves and dressed in her old jeans and sweatshirt. This time, she also carried her flashlight and pepper spray. And just as before, when evening fell and the forest behind her house became filled with thick smoke-like mist, a hush fell over the piney woods. Sheba appeared and settled down next to her. Bethany became intent on the task of pulling weeds and clipping back ever present vines that had invaded her small garden. Then, she heard that low growl again. As before, Sheba was crouched and ready to spring, her jade eyes focused on something behind Bethany.
There he was, dressed in shabby clothes, thin and pale. “Hello!” Bethany called, but to no avail. She noticed he had long white hair and was missing a shoe. She stood up, intending to confront him, but once again, he was gone. This time, she went straight into the house and called her friend, the elderly Viola, who lived nearby. Viola watched everything that went on in the neighborhood, and nothing escaped her interest. “Have you seen a man hanging around in the woods behind my house?” Bethany inquired.
“What did he look like?” Viola responded.
Bethany began to describe the mysterious stranger, when Viola gasped loudly over the phone.
“That sounds just like Uncle Henry!” she exclaimed. “He went missing in those woods and was never seen again!” she went on.
“Well, maybe he got lost. Let’s call the police to come help him.” Bethany suggested in alarm.
“No. Don’t do that,” Viola warned.
“Why not?" asked Bethany.
“Honey,” Viola explained, “Uncle Henry went missing in 1952!”
Sometime the next spring, when air was crisp and fragrant, Bethany walked back into the forest to search for wild blueberries. She found a bush full of ripe fruit and began to fill her little pail as Zelda nosed around in the bushes. Suddenly, the cat began to growl in warning again and Bethany went to see what the trouble was. She bent down, when something caught her eye among the tangle of grape vines. There, partially buried in the soil, was an old, half rotten leather shoe.
