Goat Mother and Others: The Collected Mythos Fiction of Pierre Comtois Read Online Free PDF Page B

the pickup, and the crazy speed with which she fishtailed down the long driveway became only a blur to her. She barely even noticed the screech of her tires and the violence she might have done to the truck’s transmission as she tore down Old Swamp Road and headed for the Pike. In fact, the details of that senseless flight only began to come back to her after she was forced to slow down when the road became too curvy for speeding.
    It was only after she’d reached the center of town that she was able to calm down and check on Daniel where he sat beside her.
    “Are you all right, darling?” she asked, placing a reassuring hand on his arm while trying to keep her eyes on the darkened road ahead. There was no response and when Ruth hazarded a look in his direction, all she could see was the deep contours of her husband’s face lit in the eerie glow of the dashboard lights. Feeling the tenseness of his muscles beneath her hand, she removed it and resumed her two fisted grip on the truck’s steering wheel. Ahead of her, the cracked and pot-holed roadway leading to the Aylesbury Pike snaked into the gloom beyond the reach of the truck’s headlights. On either side was the impenetrable darkness of the forest that opened only occasionally when a pasture or cornfield was passed.
    “Don’t worry, darling, we’ll be home soon,” she said, feeling the need to reassure Daniel as much as herself.
    As she drove, Ruth found herself frustrated at Daniel’s lack of response but, convinced that something might be happening deep in his subconscious, she decided that conversation, even one sided conversation, could help.
    “Do you know what Adele was trying to do out there, Daniel?” she asked, pausing to see if there was any response, but there was none. “We’ve always heard those stories about Dunwich but we never really believed them…at least I didn’t…well not much anyway, but…”
    Had he said something? She listened a moment but didn’t hear anything more.
    “What about those stones in the clearing, Daniel?” she tried again. “The stones that were set in a circle? The ones you said that you and Josh found after clearing the forest away?”
    Looking closely, she thought Daniel was struggling to speak…or was it only her imagination? Her mind drifting, she thought of the stone circle again and remembered the diagrams she had seen in the farmhouse that matched the layout of the stones…crisscrossed with geometric lines and mathematical symbols…and the note written by Adele to her father! With all those calculations, was it possible she could have known ahead of time where the stone circle lay? And if so, could she even have been the one to suggest to Josh that the field ought to be cleared? Her mind racing, Ruth even wondered if the reason Adele had married Josh in the first place was simply to gain access to the stone circle. But that would have meant years of planning…and now she recalled what Myrtle had said about the Coburns, that the family had first come to Dunwich because of an interest in the history of local Indian tribes, the ones who’d always been suspected of having something to do with the area’s megalithic sites.
    Ruth shivered as the realization slowly dawned on her how long the Coburns must have been planning before Adele snared Josh Turner in their schemes. It all made sense now why a beauty like Adele would settle for a lump like Josh. Ruth shivered again at the cold blooded nature of the whole thing.
    “But what was it all for?” she asked aloud. “Why are there always questions and never any answers…wait a minute…wait a minute…” Ruth thought hard for a moment, there was something else she’d seen somewhere…yes! The note on the Turner’s refrigerator! It had said something about asking questions but not being able to understand the answers and that “Josh wasn’t right,” the same thing that Lizzy Doderholz had told to Myrtle Potter!
    But wasn’t right for what? Ask