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rainbowfic2013-02-19 11:34 am
kay_brooke) wrote in rainbowfic2013-02-19 11:34 am
Iceberg #10, Peacock #19
Name: kay_brooke
Story: Unusual Florida
Colors: Iceberg #10 (winter wonderland), Peacock #19 (marching to the beat of your own accordian)
Styles/Supplies: Canvas, Seed Beads
Word Count: 2,419
Rating/Warnings: PG-13
Summary: Robert might have lost it.
Note: Please bear with me while I work out what I even want this story to be about. May be rendered non-canon at any time without warning. Constructive criticism is welcome, either through comments or PM.
It was during the cold snap of 1977, when even southern Florida was bracing itself for snow, that Karen received a call from Robert.
The call itself wasn't unusual; Robert was a good friend and he often came to visit or just called to talk. During these times Karen and Kevin both used the phone receiver and they all had a nice three-way chat. But this day, when the wind whistled outside in a fashion entirely foreign to the state, Robert asked to speak to Karen alone.
"I have something to show you," he said as soon as Karen picked up. "Don't get Kevin. I want to show you first."
"Okay," said Karen, thinking nothing particularly of the request. It was a little strange, but technically she and Robert had been friends for longer, so maybe he did want to talk to her alone once in awhile. That was fine. Karen had no secrets from her husband.
"Could you meet me at the resort in fifteen minutes?"
Karen looked doubtfully out the window at the heavy gray sky, hearing the wind like a warning. "It's supposed to start snowing soon. There's a freak cold snap coming our way. Don't you watch the news?" The snow itself wasn't a problem for Karen. She had grown up in the Midwest and gone to Northwestern in Chicago, so she was no stranger to snow. But Chicago, typically, was much better prepared for it than the Panhandle. She wasn't sure if the little town they were staying in even had a snow plow. If the weather got bad while she was out, the roads could become very dangerous very quickly, and there was no telling how long she would have to wait if she got stuck.
"Exactly," said Robert. "It's easier to see in the cold."
"What's easier to see?"
"Please," he said. "I think I might know how to fix your problem."
"What problem?"
"Please just come," he begged. "You'll be back before the snow starts, I promise you."
Karen bit her lip, glancing toward Kevin. There was no denying she was curious, but what would she tell him? "I'll come, but Kevin is coming with me. I don't want to end up stranded on the road by myself."
"No," said Robert, a little too loudly. Karen frowned. "We will show him eventually, of course, but I wanted to run it by you first."
"I don't understand," said Karen. "What is it? Is it something for Kevin?" Her husband's birthday wasn't until August.
"I'm hoping it's something for both of you," said Robert. "Call it a late Christmas present. Will you come?"
"You'd better have a damn good explanation for being so cryptic," Karen said with a sigh. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Excellent. Meet me at the main entrance."
"Honey," said Karen after hanging up the phone. "I'm going out for a few minutes, okay?"
Kevin was hunched, as he had been since early that morning, over a pile of blueprints and papers full of scribbled notes. He had been working for awhile with an architect, designing their new house, and after the weather warning had practically shut down the town he had decided to take the time to go over every detail with a fine-toothed comb. He was, actually, being rather obsessive about it. Karen didn't care about the minutiae of the new house's floor plan, just that it looked nice. She couldn't blame him, though. The success of their last movie had made them flush, which was why they were even able to afford an architect and a nice new home built to their specifications. If Kevin wanted to spend his time making sure it was absolutely perfect, who was she to argue?
Now, he looked up and through the window, much the same way Karen had a few minutes earlier. "In this weather? Where are you going?"
"Robert wanted something," said Karen, because she had no secrets from her husband. "I'm just going to stop by over there for a little while. I'll be back before too long." She knew Kevin would assume she was talking about Robert's house in town, not the resort, which was farther away and deep in the woods. So maybe she had some secrets from her husband, but that hardly seemed enough of one to even warrant being called a secret. She just didn't want him to worry about her going out on those lonely roads outside of town.
"What did he want?"
"It's some big surprise, apparently." Karen shrugged. "I promise I'll tell you everything as soon as I get back."
"Okay," said Kevin. "You want me to come with?"
"Nah, you're busy," said Karen.
"Be careful." Karen had been banking on Kevin being too preoccupied with his blueprints to want to accompany her out into the cold, and she was right. He gave her a little wave as she took a jacket out of the closet, his head already bowed over the papers again.
The jacket was too thin for the cold; the wind assaulted her as soon as she opened the door. Huddling as deeply into the jacket as she could get, she ran for the car. She had spent too many years in warmer climates. In Chicago this would have been considered akin to an early spring day. It wasn't even below freezing.
But in Chicago she'd had hats and gloves and scarves, and something thicker than her husband's old windbreaker.
She yanked the car door open and slid inside, taking a moment to appreciate the calm once she was out of the wind. Then she started the ignition, turned the heat on full, and set off for the resort.
She turned on to the short, paved drive fifteen minutes later, past the cheery sign proclaiming Holden Place Resort - Fun for the Whole Family!
It wasn't a very fun vacation spot now. There was something eerie about the deserted parking lot as Karen pulled through the open gate, something desolate about the emptied swimming pool, and though the main building was as well-kept as ever, there was a sense of hollowness about it that made Karen's stomach twist. It occurred to her to wonder what Robert was doing out there in the first place. He had caretakers keeping the place clean in the off-season, and she knew he sometimes liked to drive out there and wander the halls when he needed some time alone to think, but why had he asked her to come?
Ignoring the growth of her doubt, Karen parked the car right outside the main entrance--no point walking any farther through the wind than she had to, not with every parking space open for picking--and made her way to the door. She didn't see Robert's car anywhere. Perhaps it was in the employee parking around the back of the main building.
Robert was there, though, waiting just inside the main entrance. He grinned broadly as she stepped through the door, but Karen barely noticed, already unzipping the windbreaker.
He put a hand on her arm. "No, leave that on."
"Why?" The heat was on full blast in the resort, which Karen found a little odd, but she was too grateful for the warmth to think too much about it.
"We're going for a walk." Robert gestured outside, and Karen groaned.
"You do realize how cold it is out there?"
"It was almost this cold before, the last time it happened," said Robert.
"The last time what happened?"
"Come with me."
Reluctantly she followed him, his purposeful strides telling her he wasn't going to stay around to hear her argument. And the faster she saw what mysterious thing he wanted to show her, the faster she'd be able to get home, out of the wind and back to Kevin.
Robert led her outside and down a gravel path that disappeared into the woods. Then they were among the trees, where it was still cold but thankfully the wind was less fierce. As they walked the exercise started to warm Karen up a little, though she was far from comfortable, and after several minutes of silence she said, "Where are we going?"
"Not far now."
Deeper into the trees they went. At one point Robert stepped off the gravel path on to a dirt one, and the farther they followed it the narrower it got. Karen's steps slowed as she found herself having to push past barren branches and the dessicated remains of bushes that had withered under the cold snap. "You said it wasn't far."
Robert held up one hand for silence, and Karen stopped behind him. She could just barely see, over his shoulder, that they were standing at the edge of a small clearing. A very small clearing. More like a gap in the thick underbrush, as if there had once been a large tree in the space that had fallen and been cleared away.
"There," Robert said, his voice soft as if he thought too much noise would disturb the trees around them. "Do you see it?" He moved as far to the side as he could get, giving Karen an uninterrupted view of the clearing.
"I see a clearing," she said.
Robert frowned at her. "You don't see it?"
"See what?"
"The light." And he pointed, straight ahead, at the place where there should be a tree but wasn't. Karen looked, but all she saw was dead grass and bare spots where the dirt was pounded flat and nothing grew, as if the clearing was often visited and walked across by people. She tried to see what Robert was talking about, but there was no light. Not even sunlight--the day was cloudy and gray.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."
Robert waved his hand in frustration. "It's right there. Don't tell me you can't see it."
"Maybe you could stand near it?" she suggested. "Maybe I'm just not looking in the right place." She kept her voice steady, even though her brain was screaming at her, telling her something was wrong, that Robert was not acting like himself and that he had lured her out into the middle of the woods. She wondered if she could outrun him if it came to that. Then she wondered what had happened to him that she would ever have to think that. Robert was her friend. He had never given her reason to be frightened of him.
He shook his head. "I don't dare stand near it," he said. "I don't know what might happen." He looked at her. "But you, Karen. You need to go stand in it."
She took a step back, her fear overriding her skepticism. "No. Why do you want me to do that?"
"Because it will cure you," said Robert, reaching for her hand, which she snatched away.
"Cure me of what?"
Robert sighed. "I know this must confuse you, especially if you cannot see it for yourself. But there is something there, I promise you. I can see it, but only sometimes. When it's cold like this, when the air is this clear. Doesn't happen often in our part of the world, does it?"
He was trying to be reassuring, but Karen stayed back, half of her already braced to run.
"It heals you," Robert pressed on, his words tumbling over themselves in the rush to get out. He must have known how wary she was. "It sounds insane, but I've seen it myself."
"I want to go back now," said Karen softly.
But Robert had taken a step into the clearing, his gaze fixed on something. "My youngest boy," he said. He pointed at a spot on the ground. "It was fifteen years ago. He was only ten. It was cold, like this, and he rode his bike all the way out here without permission. When I discovered he was gone, I went looking for him, but I got here too late."
He sounded so sad that Karen, despite herself, asked, "What happened?"
"He was dead," said Robert. He shook his head. "Or not breathing. To this day I don't know what happened, how he got in that state, but I am telling you right now he was not breathing. He was just a little farther along the path from here. I panicked, picked him up, and ran for the resort. But when I came upon this spot, I saw it." He crouched down, his hand hovering over the bare ground. "The light. I was entranced. I was holding my dead child and I could not move. Without knowing why I was doing it, I laid the boy on the ground, where the light touched it. It touched him. And...he came back." He looked at Karen, his eyes shining. Someone else may have thought it was tears, but Karen could only see the glint of madness.
She took a step backward.
Robert came up to her then, grabbing her hands. "Don't you see? The light heals. My boy was dead and it brought him back. There is your answer, Karen, right there! Stand in the light and it will heal whatever is wrong with you. You'll be able to have children."
Karen breathed in sharply, tears springing to her eyes. Her heart pounded wildly, torn between fear and anger. "How dare you," she whispered. "How dare you play this kind of trick on me."
"It's not a trick!"
"No." Karen yanked her hands out of his. "No. You're sick, whether you're joking or truly believe what you're saying. And I'm going home now."
"Karen, wait." He tried to grab her arm as she turned.
But he wasn't quick enough. Karen fled, pounding her way back up the path and praying Robert wasn't chasing her. She didn't stop until she had reached her car, her lungs burning and her heart trying to force its way up her throat. She fumbled for her keys, nearly dropping them, and for one horrifying moment she thought she heard Robert running up behind her. But then the key went in, the lock turned, and she was in her car.
Once she was in the relative safety of her locked car she took a moment to look around her. There was no sign of Robert.
But she did not hesitate to start the ignition and drive away.
kay_brookeStory: Unusual Florida
Colors: Iceberg #10 (winter wonderland), Peacock #19 (marching to the beat of your own accordian)
Styles/Supplies: Canvas, Seed Beads
Word Count: 2,419
Rating/Warnings: PG-13
Summary: Robert might have lost it.
Note: Please bear with me while I work out what I even want this story to be about. May be rendered non-canon at any time without warning. Constructive criticism is welcome, either through comments or PM.
It was during the cold snap of 1977, when even southern Florida was bracing itself for snow, that Karen received a call from Robert.
The call itself wasn't unusual; Robert was a good friend and he often came to visit or just called to talk. During these times Karen and Kevin both used the phone receiver and they all had a nice three-way chat. But this day, when the wind whistled outside in a fashion entirely foreign to the state, Robert asked to speak to Karen alone.
"I have something to show you," he said as soon as Karen picked up. "Don't get Kevin. I want to show you first."
"Okay," said Karen, thinking nothing particularly of the request. It was a little strange, but technically she and Robert had been friends for longer, so maybe he did want to talk to her alone once in awhile. That was fine. Karen had no secrets from her husband.
"Could you meet me at the resort in fifteen minutes?"
Karen looked doubtfully out the window at the heavy gray sky, hearing the wind like a warning. "It's supposed to start snowing soon. There's a freak cold snap coming our way. Don't you watch the news?" The snow itself wasn't a problem for Karen. She had grown up in the Midwest and gone to Northwestern in Chicago, so she was no stranger to snow. But Chicago, typically, was much better prepared for it than the Panhandle. She wasn't sure if the little town they were staying in even had a snow plow. If the weather got bad while she was out, the roads could become very dangerous very quickly, and there was no telling how long she would have to wait if she got stuck.
"Exactly," said Robert. "It's easier to see in the cold."
"What's easier to see?"
"Please," he said. "I think I might know how to fix your problem."
"What problem?"
"Please just come," he begged. "You'll be back before the snow starts, I promise you."
Karen bit her lip, glancing toward Kevin. There was no denying she was curious, but what would she tell him? "I'll come, but Kevin is coming with me. I don't want to end up stranded on the road by myself."
"No," said Robert, a little too loudly. Karen frowned. "We will show him eventually, of course, but I wanted to run it by you first."
"I don't understand," said Karen. "What is it? Is it something for Kevin?" Her husband's birthday wasn't until August.
"I'm hoping it's something for both of you," said Robert. "Call it a late Christmas present. Will you come?"
"You'd better have a damn good explanation for being so cryptic," Karen said with a sigh. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Excellent. Meet me at the main entrance."
"Honey," said Karen after hanging up the phone. "I'm going out for a few minutes, okay?"
Kevin was hunched, as he had been since early that morning, over a pile of blueprints and papers full of scribbled notes. He had been working for awhile with an architect, designing their new house, and after the weather warning had practically shut down the town he had decided to take the time to go over every detail with a fine-toothed comb. He was, actually, being rather obsessive about it. Karen didn't care about the minutiae of the new house's floor plan, just that it looked nice. She couldn't blame him, though. The success of their last movie had made them flush, which was why they were even able to afford an architect and a nice new home built to their specifications. If Kevin wanted to spend his time making sure it was absolutely perfect, who was she to argue?
Now, he looked up and through the window, much the same way Karen had a few minutes earlier. "In this weather? Where are you going?"
"Robert wanted something," said Karen, because she had no secrets from her husband. "I'm just going to stop by over there for a little while. I'll be back before too long." She knew Kevin would assume she was talking about Robert's house in town, not the resort, which was farther away and deep in the woods. So maybe she had some secrets from her husband, but that hardly seemed enough of one to even warrant being called a secret. She just didn't want him to worry about her going out on those lonely roads outside of town.
"What did he want?"
"It's some big surprise, apparently." Karen shrugged. "I promise I'll tell you everything as soon as I get back."
"Okay," said Kevin. "You want me to come with?"
"Nah, you're busy," said Karen.
"Be careful." Karen had been banking on Kevin being too preoccupied with his blueprints to want to accompany her out into the cold, and she was right. He gave her a little wave as she took a jacket out of the closet, his head already bowed over the papers again.
The jacket was too thin for the cold; the wind assaulted her as soon as she opened the door. Huddling as deeply into the jacket as she could get, she ran for the car. She had spent too many years in warmer climates. In Chicago this would have been considered akin to an early spring day. It wasn't even below freezing.
But in Chicago she'd had hats and gloves and scarves, and something thicker than her husband's old windbreaker.
She yanked the car door open and slid inside, taking a moment to appreciate the calm once she was out of the wind. Then she started the ignition, turned the heat on full, and set off for the resort.
She turned on to the short, paved drive fifteen minutes later, past the cheery sign proclaiming Holden Place Resort - Fun for the Whole Family!
It wasn't a very fun vacation spot now. There was something eerie about the deserted parking lot as Karen pulled through the open gate, something desolate about the emptied swimming pool, and though the main building was as well-kept as ever, there was a sense of hollowness about it that made Karen's stomach twist. It occurred to her to wonder what Robert was doing out there in the first place. He had caretakers keeping the place clean in the off-season, and she knew he sometimes liked to drive out there and wander the halls when he needed some time alone to think, but why had he asked her to come?
Ignoring the growth of her doubt, Karen parked the car right outside the main entrance--no point walking any farther through the wind than she had to, not with every parking space open for picking--and made her way to the door. She didn't see Robert's car anywhere. Perhaps it was in the employee parking around the back of the main building.
Robert was there, though, waiting just inside the main entrance. He grinned broadly as she stepped through the door, but Karen barely noticed, already unzipping the windbreaker.
He put a hand on her arm. "No, leave that on."
"Why?" The heat was on full blast in the resort, which Karen found a little odd, but she was too grateful for the warmth to think too much about it.
"We're going for a walk." Robert gestured outside, and Karen groaned.
"You do realize how cold it is out there?"
"It was almost this cold before, the last time it happened," said Robert.
"The last time what happened?"
"Come with me."
Reluctantly she followed him, his purposeful strides telling her he wasn't going to stay around to hear her argument. And the faster she saw what mysterious thing he wanted to show her, the faster she'd be able to get home, out of the wind and back to Kevin.
Robert led her outside and down a gravel path that disappeared into the woods. Then they were among the trees, where it was still cold but thankfully the wind was less fierce. As they walked the exercise started to warm Karen up a little, though she was far from comfortable, and after several minutes of silence she said, "Where are we going?"
"Not far now."
Deeper into the trees they went. At one point Robert stepped off the gravel path on to a dirt one, and the farther they followed it the narrower it got. Karen's steps slowed as she found herself having to push past barren branches and the dessicated remains of bushes that had withered under the cold snap. "You said it wasn't far."
Robert held up one hand for silence, and Karen stopped behind him. She could just barely see, over his shoulder, that they were standing at the edge of a small clearing. A very small clearing. More like a gap in the thick underbrush, as if there had once been a large tree in the space that had fallen and been cleared away.
"There," Robert said, his voice soft as if he thought too much noise would disturb the trees around them. "Do you see it?" He moved as far to the side as he could get, giving Karen an uninterrupted view of the clearing.
"I see a clearing," she said.
Robert frowned at her. "You don't see it?"
"See what?"
"The light." And he pointed, straight ahead, at the place where there should be a tree but wasn't. Karen looked, but all she saw was dead grass and bare spots where the dirt was pounded flat and nothing grew, as if the clearing was often visited and walked across by people. She tried to see what Robert was talking about, but there was no light. Not even sunlight--the day was cloudy and gray.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."
Robert waved his hand in frustration. "It's right there. Don't tell me you can't see it."
"Maybe you could stand near it?" she suggested. "Maybe I'm just not looking in the right place." She kept her voice steady, even though her brain was screaming at her, telling her something was wrong, that Robert was not acting like himself and that he had lured her out into the middle of the woods. She wondered if she could outrun him if it came to that. Then she wondered what had happened to him that she would ever have to think that. Robert was her friend. He had never given her reason to be frightened of him.
He shook his head. "I don't dare stand near it," he said. "I don't know what might happen." He looked at her. "But you, Karen. You need to go stand in it."
She took a step back, her fear overriding her skepticism. "No. Why do you want me to do that?"
"Because it will cure you," said Robert, reaching for her hand, which she snatched away.
"Cure me of what?"
Robert sighed. "I know this must confuse you, especially if you cannot see it for yourself. But there is something there, I promise you. I can see it, but only sometimes. When it's cold like this, when the air is this clear. Doesn't happen often in our part of the world, does it?"
He was trying to be reassuring, but Karen stayed back, half of her already braced to run.
"It heals you," Robert pressed on, his words tumbling over themselves in the rush to get out. He must have known how wary she was. "It sounds insane, but I've seen it myself."
"I want to go back now," said Karen softly.
But Robert had taken a step into the clearing, his gaze fixed on something. "My youngest boy," he said. He pointed at a spot on the ground. "It was fifteen years ago. He was only ten. It was cold, like this, and he rode his bike all the way out here without permission. When I discovered he was gone, I went looking for him, but I got here too late."
He sounded so sad that Karen, despite herself, asked, "What happened?"
"He was dead," said Robert. He shook his head. "Or not breathing. To this day I don't know what happened, how he got in that state, but I am telling you right now he was not breathing. He was just a little farther along the path from here. I panicked, picked him up, and ran for the resort. But when I came upon this spot, I saw it." He crouched down, his hand hovering over the bare ground. "The light. I was entranced. I was holding my dead child and I could not move. Without knowing why I was doing it, I laid the boy on the ground, where the light touched it. It touched him. And...he came back." He looked at Karen, his eyes shining. Someone else may have thought it was tears, but Karen could only see the glint of madness.
She took a step backward.
Robert came up to her then, grabbing her hands. "Don't you see? The light heals. My boy was dead and it brought him back. There is your answer, Karen, right there! Stand in the light and it will heal whatever is wrong with you. You'll be able to have children."
Karen breathed in sharply, tears springing to her eyes. Her heart pounded wildly, torn between fear and anger. "How dare you," she whispered. "How dare you play this kind of trick on me."
"It's not a trick!"
"No." Karen yanked her hands out of his. "No. You're sick, whether you're joking or truly believe what you're saying. And I'm going home now."
"Karen, wait." He tried to grab her arm as she turned.
But he wasn't quick enough. Karen fled, pounding her way back up the path and praying Robert wasn't chasing her. She didn't stop until she had reached her car, her lungs burning and her heart trying to force its way up her throat. She fumbled for her keys, nearly dropping them, and for one horrifying moment she thought she heard Robert running up behind her. But then the key went in, the lock turned, and she was in her car.
Once she was in the relative safety of her locked car she took a moment to look around her. There was no sign of Robert.
But she did not hesitate to start the ignition and drive away.
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