“That’s what I thought too—or that’s what I heard, anyway.”
Jamie scrunched his forehead. “What were you doing out at the Bend?”
“It’s a long story. But I know it was Green Eyes. I got a real good look at him, and I don’t think I could have mistaken him for anyone else.” I flipped through the photocopies and called their attention to the parts I’d underlined.
“All of this—what these books are describing—this is him. This is the…thing that I saw. He wasn’t exactly a person, but he sure as hell wasn’t a ghost. And he had all this hair. And of course there were his eyes.”
The guys looked at me across the table, not exactly disbelieving, but not exactly believing me either. Maybe I really did need other spook-seeing crazies to talk with. I didn’t like to think so, but the blank faces at the table had me frustrated.
“Oh come on. How many giant, hair-covered creatures with glowing green eyes can there possibly be in this part of the country? The Bend is only about fifteen miles away from the battlefield, so unless we’ve got some kind of wacky colony going on, I’m going to go ahead and make the crazy leap that it must be the same guy.”
“But why?” Jamie swigged at the latte and looked over at Benny for support. “Why would he leave the battlefield, for one thing; and for another, why would he go to the Bend? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know it doesn’t make any sense.” Hearing it out loud only reaffirmed that point for me. “That’s why it’s not a full-fledged theory yet, boys. I can’t imagine why he would have left the battlefield. According to everything I’ve read on the subject, he’s been out there since well before there were any European settlers in the area. I couldn’t tell you what it would take to chase him off. But if he did leave, where else would he go? Did you guys know that the Bend used to be a sacred Indian site?”
“Um, yeah. I thought everyone knew that.” Jamie ran his tongue over the side of his cup and stole another glance at the counter.
“I didn’t know it, but that’s not the point. The point is, the Bend is probably the closest religious site to the battlefield—and if Green Eyes was some sort of Cherokee, um…” How to finish up that thought? He wasn’t a spirit, and I didn’t imagine he was a god. “Associate. If he was originally an Indian associate of some kind, then he might have gone looking for them when he left the battlefield.”
“Associate?” Benny zipped up his backpack and pulled it into his lap. “As if they conjured him up to do their taxes?”
“Shut up,” I told him. “You know what I mean. I don’t know what he is, and I don’t know what he wants, but the Native Americans seem to have known a whole lot more about him than we do. I think he’s confused. I think he might even be afraid. The point is, he took off. He left his post, and that is why the ghosts are coming out.”
“Because he’s gone? Like, you think that he was somehow suppressing them?”
“Suppressing them? What? No, I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s like that. Everyone talks about him like he’s a guardian. A protector. I think they’re upset that he’s gone. Something has bothered them enough to wake them up and send them on the move, and I don’t think it would have happened if Green Eyes had been there.”
“Maybe he helps them rest,” Benny suggested.
Jamie furrowed his eyebrows. “Paranormal Valium?”
“Seriously, think about it—everyone talks about the battlefield being haunted, but until these last few weeks no one ever talked about ghosts. Not as much as you’d expect, anyway. It’s a pretty quiet spot, all things considered.”
“Except for Green Eyes.” Jamie pointed at Benny with his coffee stirrer.
“Except for Green Eyes,” I agreed. “But now he’s gone. And I want to know why.”
The guys stared thoughtfully at me, Benny probably thinking about a midnight run to the battlefield and Jamie likely wondering if it would be too obvious for him to check out the girl at the counter again.
“So…are we on? Are Chris and Mike still game to go out there?”
“Oh, yeah,” Benny nodded. “They’ll get out to Chickamauga, anyway. But there’s no telling if they’ll ever make it onto the field. The Great Battlefield Excursion is set to begin—and probably end—at a bonfire party over at Ted’s. But I’m sure you could nab a few of the more sober bodies and walk across the train tracks to spook central.”
Ted was an older, peripheral member of the downtown group. Most of his popularity revolved around his gift for hosting big parties that involved lots of alcohol. He lived out in the sticks of north Georgia, far enough from civilization that a bonfire wasn’t out of the question; and he was close enough to the battlefield that the more adventurous partiers could wander off to scare themselves in the fog and overgrown greenery of the fields.
“Ted’s place, huh? That’s cool,” I said, but I was privately wondering if I might be better off beginning from a less raucous starting point. But I didn’t want to drive out there alone since my knowledge of the area could best be described as “slim to none,” and I wasn’t certain I wanted to wander the place by myself.
“Tomorrow night,” Jamie added. “Starts around dark-thirty. I don’t have a ride yet or anything, so if you’re driving out there, could I hitch along with you?”
“Me too? I know how to get to Ted’s if you don’t.”
Benny guessed right; I didn’t have the faintest idea how to get there. I’d heard about the bonfire parties, but I’d never attended one.
I shrugged. “Sure, that’s fine—but only if you can promise me you’ll stay sober.”
“What?” They said it in chorus, almost in harmony.“If I’m going to drive all the way down there and let you two tag along, you’ve got to at least keep me company on the battlefield.”
“What, are you scared to go out there by yourself?”
I recoiled. “Scared? I’m practical. I’ve never been out there at night before, and I understand it’s a tad illegal to march around there after closing.”
Benny sniffed. “If they were that serious about keeping people out, they’d fence the place off or something.”
“Are you kidding? It’s huge. Entirely too big to fence off.” Jamie argued. He sat back in his chair and made a show of flexing his arms as he folded them across his chest. “Besides, there are miles of space where it runs into private property.”
The girl from the counter walked past us then, carrying a to-go cup. The glass door swung shut behind her, and Jamie partially relaxed. “I’ve been there, you know. I used to date a girl who lived out that way. We used to go out to the Wilder Tower and get stoned after slams.”
I almost asked him if he’d ever seen Green Eyes, but if he had, I would have heard about it already.
“So you know your way around?”
“Yes. Like the back of my hand—if it were green, grassy, and covered with fog.”
“And you want me to give you a ride.”
“My car sucks, and I don’t have any money for gas. That’s a yes.”
“Benny, do you know your way around?”
“Not at all.” He beamed. “If that means I get to drink.”
“Fine.” If I could choose between them, I would’ve picked Benny as a guide, but if he wasn’t showing off for anyone, Jamie was all right. “You’re both in. But when I’m ready to leave, we leave—or else you find another way back to town. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“Okay, it’s a deal.”
“Then meet me here tomorrow night, around dark-thirty. We’ll be fashionably late, like everyone else.”
The guys were as good as their word, and the next night we all met up at our usual spot. They both beat me there by half an hour or more, but that wasn’t surprising. They practically lived there. Benny had left the sketchpad at home but still toted his backpack. This time it was loaded up with flashlights, plus cigarettes, a tape recorder, a camera, and a host of other things I hadn’t thought about.
“Holy crap, doll-baby. You’re turning this into a proper research expedition, aren’t you?”
He grinned and pulled out a plastic bag filled with batteries. “Those Marshalls have got nothing on me.”
Ah, yes. The Marshalls.
I sincerely hoped we wouldn’t run into them out in the field. Maybe they confined their work to the daylight. I thought I’d read someplace that they insisted that phenomena could take place at any hour, so they often worked between nine and five. It was the only sensible idea I’d ever heard connected with the duo.
But Jamie brought up the possibility before I had a chance to change the subject. “Maybe we’ll run into them out there. That might be fun. We could scare the shit out of them.”
“Really? You think?” I rolled my eyes and used my own backpack to nudge him towards the door. “Yeah, I’m sure we could freak out a couple of people who investigate ghosts for a living.”
He lifted one nostril and dipped his chin to the left. “I thought you said they were phonies.”
“They are. Probably. I guess. I don’t really know,” I finally admitted. “Whether they are or not, they make a living checking out places that scare the bejesus out of other people.”
“I bet people have tried to con them before, anyway.” Benny skipped over to my car and claimed the passenger’s seat. “Odds are, they’ve seen it all.”
Jamie was gracious enough not to sulk as he opened the back door. “They haven’t seen Green Eyes.”
“Neither have you,” I said.
I climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “If we see them, we’re going to very quietly run off in the other direction. The last thing we need is to get caught by people who actually have permission to be out there.”