Honeymoon, Part One

The singing from the forest woke me.

            No words. Just a soft melody floating in the air like the clouds over the beach. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, sat up on my blanket, and looked over at Rachel. Sound asleep. Snoring quietly.

            I let her dream. It was our honeymoon, after all.

            The ceremony had come off without any disasters. Even the vampires got along. My brother shook my hand after I kissed the bride, Rachel’s friend Carrie hugged her, everyone applauded politely, and my mom waved from the front row, right next to her date, who behaved himself with her. Then we got to eat.

            Now we were in upper Michigan, in a cabin in Lake Huron. The water was warm enough for swimming and the cabin was far away from anyone likely to see us swimming nude. The nearest town was 20 miles away. The weather was perfect. Even the wi-fi was good. Even on our honeymoon, we still had to watch our shows.

            I stretched, pulled on some shorts and a T-shirt, and stood up. The singing seemed to flow from the forest right behind us, just 20 yards or so from the edge of the water. I followed the music up the sand, barefoot, cocking my head to make sure I was headed in the right direction. The main highway was half a mile away, and the nearest cabin was at least four miles off, so it wasn’t someone’s stereo blasting in the distance. Maybe a traveling band had set up in the woods to rehearse?

            Dirt mixed with the sand and in a few more steps the trees were shading out the sun. The singing felt like it was all around me now, 

Rising above my head and thrumming under my feet. 

            A few more steps, and the forest around me grew darker. Trees blocked the sun, and shadows fell all around me. I stopped, listening, as my eyes adjusted, and then, after a moment, I saw lights.

            They looked like fireflies at first, dancing in the air, but as my eyes got clearer I saw something more. I blinked, rubbing my eyes, and looked again, wondering if I was still asleep and dreaming. Lights darted in front of me, around. Lights with faces.

            Small and angular, in every color of the rainbows. And not just faces. Arms, legs, fluttering dragonfly wings. Smiles, shouts, laughter as they flew around the forest in every direct, soaring up toward the highest tree branches and diving down toward the damp dark ground. 

            They swirled around me, as if inviting me to fly with them, zooming in and then darting away. Some looked female, other male, some nonbinary. All seemed happy and joyful, just enjoying their carefree flight as they sang.

            I was sitting on a moss-covered log, and I realized had no idea how long I’d been there, watching and listening to them. Hours? Days, maybe? I remembered Rachel, out on the beach, and forced myself to stand up. My legs and feet felt stiff, as if reluctant to leave, and I waved a hand to the swarm around me.

            Some of them seemed to dip in their flights, as if returning my gesture. Most just went on with their singing and sailing through the air.

            Back on the beach Rachel was waking up. She smiled. “Hi, lover. Where have you been?”

            I sat down on my blanket without answering.

            After a moment she reached over for my hand. “You okay?”

            “Do you hear it?” I looked around. But the singing was gone.

            Rachel frowned. “Hear what?”

            Huh. I stood up. “Come on. There’s something you’ve got to see.”

            She pulled on her shorts and a top and followed me up the beach. 

            When I got to the edge of the trees I stopped and listened. No singing. I took a few steps forward, but the forest was different now. Sunlight flowed down through the trees. Bugs zipped in front of my face. The ground was rocky, and I wished I’d slipped on my sandals. I cocked my head, trying to convince my ears to listen harder for the song I’d heard just a few moments ago.

            Rachel grabbed my wrist. “You’re making me nervous.”

            “Sorry.” I shook my head to clear it. The forest I’d been in was gone, leaving a perfectly beautiful landscape that stretched for miles into the distance.

            I turned to her. “A few minutes ago, this was all different. I heard singing, and I came up here, and this was all dark and shadowy, and there were—” What were they? “Fairies,” I finally said.

            “Fairies.” Rachel’s hazelnut eyes searched my face, looking to see if I was serious.

            “I think so.” I gestured around us. “Small beings, with wings, glowing, flying around, and singing. Peaceful and happy. I sat here listening to them for—I don’t know how long.”

            “Okay.” She wasn’t skeptical. After all we’ve been through together—vampires, demons, shapeshifters, and dragons are only the tip of the list—fairies would be a relief. She closed her eyes. “Give me a minute . . .”

            In addition to being hot, and redhaired, and now my wife, Rachel’s psychic. Her ESP isn’t perfect, but she can almost always pick up at least a trace of the supernatural if it’s in the air. 

            Rachel held my hand for a moment, then dropped it. She stood perfectly still, breathing in the air, her head cocked. A smile curled her lips, but only for a moment. Then her face turned into a frown, and her eyes fell open.

            “I could feel them,” she whispered. “For a moment. But then—there was something there. Something they were afraid of.”

            I looked around. “Is it still here?”

            Rachel shook her head. “It’s hiding. They’re hiding too. It’s dangerous to them.”

            “What is it?”

            “I don’t know.” She shivered. “Let’s get out of here.”

 

Back at the cabin we had a snack, and then Rachel watched one of her reality TV shows on her laptop while I tried getting through Infinite Jest again. 

            The cabin was a pleasant change of pace from city life in Chicago. No police sirens, dirty sidewalks, potholes in the streets, buses and taxicabs and Ubers trying to run you down. After the past few years of Rachel going to college, me struggling to make a living as a P.I., and dealing with monsters as well as all the monthly bills, the quiet moments here were—quiet. Okay, it was a little boring but a positive kind of boredom. I could live with it for a few days. 

            After Rachel’s show was over we did some more, uh, honeymoon stuff, then took showers, got dressed, and went into town for dinner. The town had a McDonald’s, a diner, a coffee shop that served sandwiches, and a pancake house. We went to the diner.

            Rachel’s a vegetarian, but for a small town, the diner had a lot of options for her. I had a cheeseburger, and she had meatless chili with corn bread. We were reminiscing about the wedding—how I’d explained to my brother why certain guests couldn’t attend during daylight hours and his worried reaction about vampires sitting behind his wife and kids, and Rachel working with the shaman performing the ceremony on how to pronounce some words correctly so she wouldn’t accidently summon a naked androgynous fertility deity—when an argument erupted between two men at the counter.

            “—for 70 years, and these guys are already sending up architects and designers before anything’s been signed—”

            “—this economy we’ve got to grab whatever’s out there, because this town is dying—”

            “Because of all people like that who want to come in here and—”

            Rachel and I looked at each other nervously. One of the men was built like a bear; the other one was short and wiry. Before they could slide off their stools and start pounding on each other, the diner’s manager, a gray-haired woman in jeans and an apron, loomed over the counter at them, whispering fiercely and jabbing her finger at the door. After a moment the bigger of the two men shoved himself off his stool and stalked out. The smaller one slumped, shaking his head, and slurped some Coke through a straw.

            “What was that about?” I asked our waitress as she came to refill our coffee. 

            She was a cheery teenager with blonde hair in a ponytail. “Oh, there’s some development company who wants to buy up a stretch of the lakefront and build a big resort. Big money for the town, lots of jobs, but they’ll have to cut down lots of trees, new roads, more pollution—I don’t know. I’m getting out of here as soon as I graduate.” She smiled and walked off.

            I looked at Rachel. “Maybe that’s what they’re scared of?”

            She sipped her coffee. “It was a definite thing. A being, not just a threat or an idea of a threat. But it could be related.”

            Hmm. I ate a French fry. 

            “I know that face.” Rachel stole a French fry. “That’s your ‘I want to investigate something’ face. We’re on our honeymoon.”

            “You know what would distract me?”

            She rolled her eyes. “You’re a sex-crazed animal.”

            “Hey, we’re on our honeymoon, like you said. And who wanted to do it on the beach this afternoon? Twice?”

            “Shut up.” She glanced around, but no one was close enough to hear. Then she smiled. “I have needs too. You want to go back and investigate them?”

            “Now who’s a sex-crazed animal?” But I waved for the waitress for our bill.

            On a bulletin board near the door a big sign took over most of the space. 

 

TOWN MEETING

Discussion of Varner Sutton Ltd. offer

7:30

 

It was for tomorrow.

            Rachel scowled. “You really want to cut into our honeymoon to go to a meeting of—” She stopped, glancing around as a family trooped in past us. “Fine, civic-minded citizens of this fair town calmly discussing real estate?”

            I sighed. “When you put it like that, no. Forget it.” I held the door for her. “Let’s check out those needs you wanted to investigate.”