The Caretaker of Lorne Field

“For Chrissakes, start paying attention to what’s going on around you!” Exasperated, Durkin pointed his fork at Lester for emphasis. “You keep asking around. And get me the name of that boy. This is important.”

“Maybe you should let it drop,” Lydia said.

Durkin stared hard at her. He could’ve been choking with the way his face purpled. A minute passed before he moved. All the while Lydia ignored him and casually ate her dinner.

“I’m not going to let this drop,” he said finally.

“Then don’t. Go ahead, give yourself a stroke worrying about it.”

“They violated the contract!”

“I think I heard something about that already.”

Durkin flashed her an annoyed look before turning to his boys and telling them to keep asking around. “I want to know their names and what town they came from,” he said.

He pushed his plate away and stared petulantly at it. Bert made a face like he had an upset stomach. Lester started pushing his food slowly around his plate. Lydia watched all this for a while, then asked her husband whether he was going to let good food go to waste.

“I lost my appetite.”

“That’s too bad. Especially since it’s your favorite.”

Durkin stared reluctantly back at his plate, then started eating again, slower, grudgingly. Both his sons picked up their forks and started eating again, also somewhat grudgingly.

Lydia asked her husband how he was going to prove he was pulling out something other than weeds from Lorne Field.

He waited until he finished chewing a mouthful of food and said, “I’m gonna videotape the Aukowies.”

“What do you mean?”

“Charlie Harper’s stopping by later tonight to drop off a video camcorder. Tomorrow I’m going to record those mean little suckers in action. There’ll be no doubt then they ain’t weeds.”

Lydia sat still for a moment before his words made sense. Then she felt a dull throbbing start behind her eyeballs. It probably didn’t matter that he was going to make a video proving those things were nothing but weeds. With or without that video, who’d actually believe they were anything but weeds? Still, realizing that didn’t stop the dull throbbing behind her eyeballs. She couldn’t stop thinking that somehow he was going to screw things up. That somehow his video would ruin the mystique of monsters growing in Lorne Field. That it would send that lawyer’s plans flushing down the toilet and their future along with it. She was going to have to call Paul Minter tomorrow and tell him about it. Thinking about that made the dull throbbing worse. She closed her eyes and rubbed small circles along her temples.

“Maybe you can wait until next week,” she whispered.

“What did you say? Speak up, I couldn’t hear a word you said.”

“I said maybe you could wait to do that.”

“What for? The quicker I prove to you and the rest of the town what these Aukowies really are, the better.” He turned to point a forkful of food at Lester. “Which reminds me,” he said. “I need you to go to the Army Surplus store on Maple tomorrow morning. Talk to Jerry Hallwell. He knows what you need and it’s already taken care of. After that I want you heading straight to Lorne Field. Don’t enter it, though. Don’t even step a foot in it. I’ll meet you at the edge.”

“Aw, geez,” Lester complained. “I have plans for tomorrow-”

“Why you asking Lester to go there?” Lydia interrupted, her voice sounding awkward to her, almost as if it were coming out of an echo chamber.

“’Cause it’s about time I teach him how to kill Aukowies. And besides, I need him to help me make my video.” He turned to Lester, “About your plans. Too bad. We all got sacrifices we need to make. You just do as you’re told.”

“Dad, if you want I could do it instead,” Bert volunteered.

“I wish I could let you.” Durkin sighed, then shared a wicked grin with his son. “Bert, you should’ve seen the Aukowies today when I set fire to them. I don’t know why, but the flames shot twenty feet upwards. It was something to see.”

“Aww,” Bert said. “I wish I could’ve seen that.”

“Well, you will. That’s going to be one of the things I plan on taking video of. Although I ain’t never seen flames shoot that high from them before. Don’t know whether the Aukowies will cooperate like that tomorrow, but we’ll see.”

“It would be better if you wait on this,” Lydia said.

Durkin ignored her and took a second helping of pot roast.

Lydia sat thinking. The din of forks scraping plates and water glasses clinking and the grunting and chewing noises from her husband and sons blended with the roaring of blood rushing through her head. That fool husband of hers would probably try to give his video to the local news stations, not only killing that lawyer’s plans but making the family an even bigger joke to the town than they already were. She knew she’d have to make sure no one saw any video he took. She’d still talk with Paul Minter the following day, but no matter what, she was going to have to make sure no one saw any of that fool’s video.