“Better than her?” I scoff. “My dear man, your niece is perfect in my eyes.”
He points at me. “See? That’s not right, son. It’s very weird. And if you feel that way, fine with me. None of my business. But don’t go saying that around town if you want people to like you.”
“What?” I’m just about to ask him to explain when the bell over the door jingles again, making me turn.
And there she is.
My Madeline.
Smiling, and happy, and covered in a layer of feed store dust that I find both alluring and sweet.
“You’re here,” she says, walking up to me. “I hope you weren’t waiting long.”
I smile back at her, enamored. “I literally just walked through the door, luv.”
“Hope my uncle wasn’t bending your ear off. He has a tendency to do that with my friends.” She eyes him. But it’s not with suspicion, even though it should be. It’s affection, I realize. She loves her uncle. Then she drops a paper bag on the counter and says, “It’s all there. See ya tomorrow, Uncle Jim.”
She waves at him, grabs my hand, and tugs me towards the door.
Big Jim calls out, “Better heed my words, son.”
I look over my shoulder just as Madeline pulls me through the door and find Big Jim walking off with the paper bag she delivered.
“What was that about?” Madeline asks, once we’re standing by my truck.
“What?”
“Heed his words? Was he fillin’ your head up with a bunch of crazy conspiracy theories about monsters?”
“Um…”
“Don’t listen to him.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I won’t. He has no idea what he’s talking about.”
“Where should we go? Are you hungry?”
“No. I’m really not. But if you are—”
“Nah. I ate a late lunch. I know we planned on going out of town tonight, but… would you rather go into the woods?”
“The woods?” I glance at the forest around us.
“Not these woods.” She playfully slaps me on the chest. “It’s a nice night. And we won’t get many more of these since it’s gonna be full-blown winter soon. We should make the most of it while we can. There’s a state park not too far from here. It’s got a good trail and at the end, there’s a waterfall and a little pavilion where you can sit. That waterfall freezes in January, but it won’t be frozen yet. We used to go up there in high school all the time.”
I think about this. It sounds nice, actually. There’s a chill in the air tonight and that’s not something I’m used to, since the weather inside the sanctuary is almost always mild and sunny. But I’ve got a coat on. Still, I worry about being around too many people. “Won’t there be kids up there now?”
“Nah. They stopped going up there a few years back.” Madeline rolls her eyes. “Monsters. They’re all afraid of the monsters.”
“Hmm.”
“Don’t worry, Tomas. They’re not real.”
“I know. As my good friend, Pie, would say, your uncle is full of shit.”
Madeline giggles. “Well. No. I mean, he is weird and everything. But he actually knows a lot about the monsters. He wrote a few books about monsters. And whenever they have those conspiracy conventions, he’s always invited to be a speaker. So he’s legit. But”—she presses an open hand at me—“not about these woods. I’ve been all over these woods. Trust me, Tomas. There are no monsters here.”
I smile and realize she’s even more of a delight today than she was yesterday. I have no idea what Big Jim was going on about, but whatever it was, he’s wrong about Madeline. “To the woods we go, my dear lady.” Then I take her hand, lead her over to the other side of the truck, open her door, and put her inside.