Excerpt: In the Most Unlikely of Places

It was while we were sitting down, eating, that I realized what had been bothering me all day.

“Case?” I whispered. “Do you see that hay stack over there?”

He turned his head and nodded. “Yeah. What about it?”

“Well, do you find it odd that there would be a hay stack out here in the middle of an uninhabited area? You need people to make hay stacks; they don’t just occur naturally in fields where there isn’t even anything to make a hay stack out of.”

Quirking his head, as was his habit, Case said, “Did you ever consider that maybe you’re just making a big deal out of nothing, Alice?”

I shook my head. “Come on, just admit it. I have a good point. Hay stacks in the middle of nowhere mean that there are people out here somewhere and probably close by. I think we should try to find them. Maybe they can help us find the guy we’re looking for.”

“Do you even know who it is we’re looking for?”

“Yeah. One of Penelope’s old friends,” I replied distractedly, already on the lookout for any signs of a village or evidence that any people had been here recently.

“I meant if you had a name or something. A description, at least?”

Guiltily, I shook my head. Case sighed. “How are we supposed to find a guy if we don’t have any idea who he is or where to find him?”

“Well, he’s somewhere in the valley,” I said unhelpfully.

Case let his head fall back until it hit the ground with a dull thud. “I give up with you,” he said.

Smirking, I replied, “You know you love me.”

He didn’t say anything and I thought for a moment I had gone too far. “Case, I didn’t mean anything by that. Forget I said it, ok?” But he still didn’t say anything.

I was about to shake him and make him tell what the matter was when he tilted his head up and said, “I think I found your mysterious hay stack people.”

“What do you - oh.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a hay stack moving stealthily closer to us. When it noticed that I was watching it, it stopped. As soon as I looked away, it started moving again.

“So,” I said after a very pregnant pause. “Do you want to talk to them or shall I?”

-

Case looked at me like I was crazy, which, I suppose, I might have been by that point. But let’s face it, I had been through a lot for the relatively short time I had been away from Pemblebrook. I think I had a right to be a little out of my mind. As long as I wasn’t hurting people, I didn’t see how it matter how much of my sanity remained.

So I got to go over and talk to the hay stack.

“Hey,” I said when I was within hearing distance of it. “Guy in the hay stack? Can you come out? I just want to talk.”

For a moment, the hay stack was completely still and I thought that I might really have gone crazy and was just standing there, talking to a pile of dried grass. Then there was flurry of movement and I found myself pinned to the ground by a man with a knife. I could see Case running towards me, but I was going to be dead before he arrived if I didn’t do something then and there.

“Hi,” I said hoarsely. “Careful with that knife, ok, buddy? Don’t want anyone getting hurt by accident, do we?”

He just scowled at me and kept the knife exactly where it was. I sighed as lightly as I could so I wouldn’t inadvertently cut myself with the sharp blade.

“Can we just talk? Without, you know, the whole knife to the throat thing getting between us? I just wanted to ask you if you knew where I could find a guy. Like, directions. I didn’t want to get involved in anything this serious...”

The man seemed to be surprised by my statement. “You mean... you aren’t Konji?”

“What? No. I’m just here with my friend, trying to find another friend,” I said, hoping that meant I would be freed from my current position under the man’s knife.

Much to my relief, he pulled the knife away from my throat and sat back on his heels. Of course, it was at that moment that Case arrived and leapt at the man, taking him out with a flying tackle.