Unclouded Day

  Chapter Three - Cody

  Ravanna sits right on the edge of the biggest cypress swamp in the world, in case you didn’t know. It fills up all the wide valleys that drain down into Caddo Lake, but there’s still quite a bit of high ground where the towns and things are.

  Brandon Stone didn’t live on high ground.

  He lived in an old school bus at the end of a muddy track that barely deserved to be called a road, amongst a thicket of cypress trees at the edge of a blackwater bayou. A rusty stovepipe stuck out one of the windows near the back, and the yard was littered with trash and three or four rusty vehicles up on blocks. Three mongrel dogs lay curled up under the bus in the shade, watching me. Maybe they were too lazy to bark; it wouldn’t have surprised me, if they took after their master.

  I went up to knock on the door of the bus, only to find a double-barreled shotgun pushed right out into my face.

  I really don’t like having guns aimed at me; there’s just something that really bothers me about that, you know? But I put my hands up where the dude could see them and backed up real slowly, making sure I didn’t make any sudden moves.

  The door opened, and there stood a young boy no more than fourteen at the most, barefoot and bare-chested, with nothing on but a pair of overalls that were way too big for him. He looked just like the boy on the Tennessee Pride sausage wrappers, red hair and all, and I might have laughed if he hadn’t had a gun pointed right between my eyes. Somehow that killed all the humor in the situation.

  “What do you want?” he asked, not even pretending to be friendly.

  “I’m looking for Brandon Stone,” I said.

  “You found him. Now what do you want?” he asked again, and I decided this was no time to beat around the bush.

  “I was told you could tell me what I need to know. I have dreams sometimes. True ones. But I don’t always understand what they mean. I need your help,” I said. I didn’t know if he’d believe me or if he’d think I was crazy, but I couldn’t think of anything else the janitor could have meant by telling me this kid could tell me what I needed to know.

  The boy looked hard at me for a while longer, and then slowly lowered the shotgun to his side. He had intensely blue eyes almost the same color as mine, something I’d rarely seen before.

  “I see. Don’t know that I like that, much. Who told you where to find me?” he asked.

  “A janitor at a church in Longview. I don’t know his name,” I said truthfully.

  “Hmm. Well, you best come inside, then,” he said.

  I followed him inside, and when I got closer I caught a whiff of body odor so strong it could have gagged a maggot at thirty paces. Not just body odor, either, but old body odor. I wondered when the kid had last taken a bath.

  The smell was even stronger inside the bus. Dried sweat, wood smoke, and mildew all combined in a way that made me wish I could stop breathing for at least an hour.

  The bus seats had been ripped out and the place had been refitted into a one-room house, sort of. There was a stack of ancient mattresses in one corner which passed for a bed, a table and chairs, a potbellied wood stove, and some canned goods and such on a shelf. Not much else.

  I sat down in one of the chairs, and Brandon took a seat on the bed.

  “So spit it out. I can’t tell you anything if you don’t cough up the story,” he finally said, with more than a hint of impatience in his voice.

  So I told him the dream about Lisa, making sure not to leave out any details whether they seemed important or not. He listened without saying a thing, and when I was finished he did the last thing I would ever have expected. He got down on his knees beside the bed and prayed for at least five minutes, leaving me to sit there watching him.

  When he was finished, he got up and sat back down on the bed again, watching me curiously.

  “Well?” I finally asked.

  “This is what God is saying to you. The cave means a time of doubt and uncertainty, and the crystal forest is a time of happiness that you and the girl will pass through. The silver bridge over dark waters means that you’ll face a dangerous time which you’ll need money to get through. But when you find it, that will lead you directly into the palace of the worst danger of all. The skeleton means death. Death to the girl, and to you too. But both of you will go willingly to meet it, because it’ll be cloaked in beauty. Don’t be fooled,” the boy said.

  “Is that all?” I asked, chilled.

  “Not quite. In spite of the disguise, you’ll still be able to see the evil underneath the surface, if you pay attention. The bones will still be visible underneath all those fine clothes, so to speak. The evil one will ask you to do something you know is wrong, just like the skeleton asked the girl to dance. Don’t do that thing, no matter how minor and harmless it might seem. If you do, it’ll cause you more grief than you could ever imagine. Once all is said and done, and final happiness seems to be in your hands, you’ll find that it suddenly crumbles to dust before you can stop it. That’s the meaning of the crystal twig falling to ashes in your hand,” he said.

  “It seems awfully gloomy,” I muttered.

  “I’m sorry to have to give you bad news,” the kid said, softening a little bit.

  “Yeah, well, I wish I knew what I’m supposed to do, that’s all,” I said.

  “Follow her, just like you did in the dream. That’s your job right now. Stick to her like glue. That’s all I know,” he said.

  “Thanks, I guess,” I said.

  “You’re welcome, maybe,” Brandon said with a scowl.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” I said.

  “Yeah, whatever,” he said.

  “So how old are you, anyway?” I asked, changing the subject to something less disturbing. It had nothing to do with what we’d been talking about and it was really none of my business, but finding a kid living alone in the middle of a swamp is a little strange, you’ve got to admit.

  “Thirteen and a half, and before you even ask, yeah, I live here alone, I take care of myself, my parents are gone, and that suits me just fine. Anything else you want to know?” he asked, hostile again.

  “No, I guess not,” I said.

  “Good. And if you’re thinkin’ about telling anybody I’m here, you better think again. I will come after you,” he promised. I stared at the dirty boy across from me, with his twelve-gauge shotgun still within easy reach if he needed it, and somehow I wasn’t inclined to doubt he’d try his dead-level best to make good on that threat.

  Well, I wouldn’t rat him out. Not because I was scared he might hunt me down later, but just because he helped me and you don’t betray people who do you a favor. He seemed to be surviving, at least, even though that was no way to live to my way of thinking.

  I still had two hundred dollars left in my pocket from selling cows. We needed it, to be sure, but not as much as this strange kid did. Maybe I couldn’t help him any other way, but money might buy him food and clothes for a while. Better than nothing. I took it out of my pocket and offered it to him.

  “Please take this, so I can thank you,” I told him. He eyed the cash, looking from it to me and then back again, like a coon watches a sweet plum in your hand while it decides whether it’s safe to grab it or not. Slowly he reached out and took it, stuffing the money inside his dirty overalls without even counting it.

  “Much obliged,” he said.

  “Least I could do,” I said.

  I left after that, trying not to let it show how sweet the air smelled after that fetid bus. I didn’t want to offend Brandon; I might need his help again someday. Dream interpreters are hard to come by.

  So I went home, thinking hard about what he’d told me and what all it might mean. I was supposed to stay close to Lisa; well, okay, I could handle that. The rest of it still seemed pretty murky, but if I kept my eyes open and paid attention, then there was a good chance I might spot the signs while there was still t
ime to do something about them.

  I hoped.

  Many Waters

  Is available now from your favorite ebook vendor or from:

  You may also enjoy these other books by William Woodall:

  The Curse-Breaker Books

  by William Woodall

  Long ago, there was a Godly woman named Marybeth Trewick, who for various reasons found herself married to a rich but wicked man named Daniel who practiced all kinds of evil. She could only watch helplessly as her five sons grew up to become just as wicked as their father, and as her only daughter was forced to flee for her life lest she be killed.

  But in the midst of her despair, God sent Marybeth a dream that after seven generations had passed, there would be five boys born to replace and redeem the ones that she had lost. These five would be breakers of curses and fighters against all things wicked and evil, and each of them would have the same vividly blue eyes, the same color as Marybeth’s.

  And even though the Curse-Breakers are each called to very different tasks in the world, the basic goal of fighting evil and loving God is always the same. These are their stories below. Each series tells the tale of a different Curse-Breaker (or sometimes more than one), but all of them put together form a single unified storyline.

  The Last Werewolf Hunter Series

  Zach Trewick always thought he’d become a writer someday, or maybe play baseball for the Texas Rangers. What he never imagined in his craziest dreams was that he’d find himself dodging bullets and crashing cars off mountainsides, let alone that he’d ever be expected to break the ancient werewolf curse which hangs over his family. But Zach is the last of the werewolf hunters, the long-foretold Curse-Breaker who can wipe out the wolves forever, and he’s not the type to give up just because of a few minor setbacks. . .

  Cry for the Moon: What would you do, if your family wanted you to become a monster? What if they wouldn’t take no for an answer? When 12 year old Zach faces questions like these, he seems to have only one choice; run. Thus begins a long search for refuge, and perhaps redemption also.

  Behind Blue Eyes: When a stranger kidnaps him from his own back yard, Zach soon finds that the past isn’t quite as dead as he might wish. For the time has come at last for Zach and his cousin Cameron to break the wolf curse forever; and his family has no intention of letting that happen.

  More Golden Than Day: When his girlfriend Jolie and then Cameron fall into the hands of the wolves, Zach has no choice but to take on his enemies for a second round. Only this time the stakes are horribly high, and if he fails he may end up losing everything he’s ever loved.

  Truesilver: When a family of wicked ex-wolves is accidentally awakened, Zach soon finds himself locked in a desperate fight for survival that he never anticipated. And even though he’s sworn an oath to fight evil to the utmost of his power, there are times when courage is awfully hard to come by.

  Lion’s Heart: Cameron never imagined he’d find himself embroiled in the ex-werewolf Dr. Andrew Garza’s secret plan to destroy the whole world, let alone that he’d be expected to fight the monster without Zach. But sometimes the most unlikely of heroes turn out to be the only ones who can save the day.