Weaver’s Needle

Doc raised his head and blinked his eyes. He had fallen asleep in his recliner again. It was just midnight. Something was going on outside; he could see lights through the curtain which he always closed when he was watching TV.

It turned out he wasn't the only person who had stepped outside to look, the whole town seemed to be up and in their front yards. Something had driven them all out of their homes in the middle of the night.

“Did you see it?” Don, his neighbor asked him. It landed up there by the cable tower.”

Walking across the yard so he was away from the house lights he looked up into the sky. Suddenly

not ten feet away was the biggest wolf Doc had ever seen, and its eyes were locked on him. His lips were raised exposing his blood engorged gums as a string of saliva dripped onto the ground in a long stringy glob. This fucker was as rabid as they came. He was one fucking, sick, looking bastard and Doc knew he had been the town doctor and veterinarian for thirty-some-odd years.

He moved slowly. He didn’t want to alarm the beast. That was the one thing you never wanted to do with a rabid animal. The beast growled deep down and took a few steps closer. “You want my balls, don't ya?” Doc whispered.

The huge monster seemed to smile, and he licked his chops as he took a few more steps towards

him. The breeze died as the sweat ran off Doc forehead and caused him to squint as it dripped in his

eyes. Silence seemed to pool in the space between them. Allison, Doc’s wife came out on the porch with the shotgun he kept above the mantal. “What's going on?” She asked.

“Insanity!” Doc told her as he dove out of the way and yelled, “fire!”

The blast was loud as she squeezed both triggers at once and the wolf went down and then got up, ran a few steps and went down again.

By the time Doc got to his feet all his neighbors were standing around him. “What happened Doc?” Don said.

*****

She walked over and looked out the window. “Wolves are possibly the oldest and wisest creature on the planet. Their ancestors were the Anasazi, and they believed they came from the

stars somewhere in the Andromeda Galaxy. Their villages line up directly with the stars they call home. They refer to their ancestors as the ant people. “Shish! Listen to them, can you hear? It's beautiful a Symphony of Spheres. They’re here Victor.”

“Mom, let’s get you back in bed.”

“Okay, whatever you say dear.”

Once they were back in their room, Martin said. “Sweetie at least she knows who you are.”

“No Martin, she thinks I’m my father; that new medication isn’t working at all. The next morning when she went to her mother’s room to wake her, written on the wall in feces was.

“NO TWO TREE LIMBS ARE THE SAME TO THE RAVEN.

When doc looked into her eyes, she stared back at him and slowly smiled. It was Joan but something about her was different. “Where have I been? She cried.

Suddenly her expression clouded. “I don't know, I was there on the ship and then I was here with you. This isn't my house so how did I get here?”.

“Yes, it is possible to have something external trigger the illness. Jody, consider yourself in the middle of the desert you don’t know if its day or night. You’re not sure where you are and how much time has passed. In other words, you’re lost in your own mind. This is how your mother feels.

In the waiting room Martin was reading in the Journal about the sighting the night before. “Major Armstrong of the Air Force National guard says. “It was alarming, and we checked it out, but it was just a hunk of orbital garbage.”

“See cooler minds prevail,” said Martin.

“Can I see that?” Doc asked him as he walked them out.

“Sure, everybody thought we were being invaded; I don’t know when these knuckleheads are going to get it, we’re all alone.” Said Martin.

“Since when did the Manager of a Walgreens have such knowledge of the universe?” Asked Joan. “They’re here among us Martin. They can change their shapes and morph into anything they choose.”

“And how do you know?”

“Martin please just stop.” Jody hissed through clenched teeth.

Doc knew one thing at that moment that Joan was saying that stuff she was lucid he could see it in her eyes. It wasn’t a hallucination, she truly believed it. “So, call me and let me know if you see any improvement.”

“I will thank you doctor.”

******

Her kisses were soft as rose petals, and he could have easily taken her but still there was something different. For the first time the way she looked at him was more like a trusted Father figure

looking to him to protect her and he knew that he couldn't step over that line or betray that trust ever again. “Kelly, we really need to get you home.”

Suddenly she was different. She tightened her arms around his neck and pressed hard, forcing his lips to part. This wasn't his Kelly. His Kelly was only fifteen not quite a woman and full of wonder. This needed to stop right now.

*****

As Doc watched the ceremony, they gathered in a circle in an open invitation to the stars. The Hopi people motioned in dance and prayer welcoming any and all visitors. Because it was an open celebration Doc went out to the desert to watch. In some ways he wanted to be a part of it. He was fascinated how they managed to mix the joys of life with the realty of death. He hadn’t told anyone the results of his test yet. That was why he had gone all the way to Phoenix. They had informed him that with how aggressive his prostate cancer was he had about a year left. He was a doctor he had known and a long time ago he had decided not to deal with it. He had always avoided such things but now that he could clearly see the end of his days more than anything he wanted to be a part of life.

The beautiful young Hopi woman approached him as if in a trance and whispered in his ear. “Come and walk the path of light with me. It is for us to join the circle. For like the beating drums and the chants of

the Anasazi the crystals glow and vibrations go out across the universe. We are like different strings on the same instrument of life shaking the very earth beneath our feet and holding the darkness at bay.”

He woke up and knew in his heart that the beautiful young woman had been Joan. By the time he got to the kitchen his office had called to let him know that she had passed during the night.

Doc remembered reading that some scientist believed that as you neared the end of life your mind reached out. He had always thought of it like Einstein’s spooky theory which simply stated. That two entangled particles could influence each other instantly across any distance. What could be more entangled than life and love. The event horizon of a black hole, a shimmering effect allowing information to pass through unharmed. In scientific terms we were information. Suddenly he felt the house shake and thought it was those damn jets from Luke Air Force Base.

*****

Dean Miller pulled up in his brand-new SUV. It was to help with his midlife crisis and a reward for ending his affair with Kelly. He didn’t like to even think about it but at least he had ended it. He had warned her, if you tell anybody I’ll put you in detention for the rest of your life. His wife could never get wind of it, or she would cut his balls off. He did miss her though she could suck a tennis ball through a garden hose. As he crawled out of his vehicle letting the new car smell soak into every pore, he saw her coming across the quad. Perhaps he shouldn’t have emailed their breakup.

“You useless old fuck!” She screamed at the top of her lungs.

He felt his anus pucker and his hemorrhoids scream. Oh, if he could only die in the next few seconds. He knew exactly now what a bug felt like being squashed.

******

A ghost moon was all that was visible now at the moments just before dawn. Fishing was what Doc lived for. It was early Sunday morning, and it was just him and the Verde River.

She had taken his hand with a daintiness and grace at first before things got bad and her strength and resolve had shocked him. “I’m going to beat this,” she had told him. “I won’t let it steal my memories of us, I won’t.”

For a while he drove in silence. His head turned this way and that and his mind questioned everything. He felt a tear slide down his cheek. They had dated in high school, and she had come out to the point many times. Sometimes to fish, other times…. If he hadn’t gone off to college, they would have probably gotten married.

Out towards the interstate at the Union 76 gas station and mini mart he got gas and coffee. He noticed that they had put in one of those electric charging stations. When he pulled out instead of going right towards the point he went straight and pulled up to the old, abandoned trailer he had been raised in. “What the fuck happen here?” He breathed. Somebody had burned it down. The white picket fence that his mother had loved was all but gone. Doc had spent the whole previous summer putting it back up.

He sat down on the metal front steps that now led to nowhere and dipped in his pocket with two fingers of his right hand and pulled out his pipe. “Where have you been?” He said to himself. It looked like a tornado had gone through there, his whole childhood dwindled down to scrub brush and ash. “They're gone!” He declared. “All my memories.”

Suddenly a shout! He got up, his eyes brimming with tears and said “Why god did you bring me here?”

It was Kelly, her father and mother owned the Union76 or leased it or something. “You know they're all gone; they came and took them all,” She said.

“Who?” Doc growled.

“The Ant People” She replied. “They took all the elder members of the tribe.”

Doc looked at her his eyes were bloodshot and wild like a crazy man. “Which way?” He asked.

She pointed off towards the Superstition Mountains. “At high noon the sun shines through the hole in the rock they call Weaver’s Needle, and it makes a golden trail across the desert they followed it. Come noon tomorrow I’m going to follow it too. My father and mother threw me out and I got Principal Miller arrested and then quit school so he couldn’t put me in detention.”

Doc hesitated, he was so choked up he couldn’t speak and then in a hoarse whisper he asked. “May I go with you?”

Kelly just smiled and nodded her head. “Of course, you can; all are welcome.”

THE END

Bio: Timothy Wilkie is a local hero in the Hudson Valley. From his music to his art and storytelling. He's an old hippy and a storyteller in the truest sense of the word. He has two grown sons and loves to spend time with them. His writing credits include Aphelion, Horror-zine, Dark Dossier and many more.

E-mail: Timothy Wilkie

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