Page 107 of Mazywood

“I see it!” Sharise said. “What about ibuprofen, Dad?”

“Aspirin,” Daddy said. “See if there’s aspirin.”

“But isn’t it all for pain?” Sharise said. “Why does it have to be aspirin?”

“Not… pain,” Daddy said. “It’s a… blood thinner.”

Sharise’s eyes hung on Imani’s. It sounded like more gibberish to Imani, but now Sharise looked scared. His heart, she mouthed to Imani. Why were they telling so much truth? Imani usually hated being treated like a baby, but she needed some sugarcoating now. It was bad enough that they didn’t know where Mom was—but now Daddy might die in front of them?

“Yes—found aspirin!” Sharise said, overly cheerful. Before she gave it to her father, she ripped open the white packet as if she thought he might not have the strength to tear the paper.

“Just a… precaution,” Dad said, and shook the pills from the packet into his mouth.

Imani wished she had water to give him so badly that her eyes stung.

“Yeah, this is good,” Daddy said, already sounding stronger, unless it was just an act. “Fire’s good. I’m gonna warm up a little… and we’ll figure out what to do. ’Kay?”

“Don’t go to sleep,” Imani said.

Daddy huffed out a chuckle. “Yeah… so I’ve learned,” he said. But Imani didn’t see why it was funny. Nothing might seem funny again.

Sharise noticed the rousing fire burning through their meager twigs too. “I’ll grab the rest of the wood in back,” she said. “Maybe I can find something else.”

There wasn’t much left to find. The larger branches were already burning. Before, the fire was mostly intended to be a deterrent against the Beast, but now it might be keeping their father alive. Either way, they would be in trouble without it.

“I can go outside and look for more wood,” Imani said, although it would be hard to find dry wood in the snow. She had seen that on TV too.

“No,” Daddy said with so much firmness that he sounded like himself again. “No one leaves. Stay in there until we have a plan.”

“Maybe that ski pole will burn,” Sharise said.

“No way—we’ll need that,” Daddy said. “It’s a weapon too.”

So someone had said it. Daddy knew their fighting was not over. They had not talked about the Beast except when it was smaller, like a faraway problem. They had not talked about Mom. They had all been sugarcoating their situation in silence.

“Daddy… what is that thing?” Imani asked.

Daddy shook his head. “No fucking idea,” he said. “Pardon my French. It’s like one of those videos… where people adopt pets from the wild… and then they get big?”

“It was your grandmother’s pet?”

“I think so,” Dad said. “She fed it. My uncle Ricky knew—he just wouldn’t admit it. I’ve never seen anything… like it. I came to this tree to shoot it… when I was your age, Imani. But I chickened out. Told myself it wasn’t real anyway. And that was it. Straight to… denial. It was a family secret.”

“Are you sure it’s the same one?” Sharise said. “Maybe there’s more.”

Imani already had shared her own opinion on this, but she waited to see if Daddy agreed. “I can’t explain it, but I don’t think there’s more,” he said. “I’ve never seen more than one set of tracks. And if there were more… it just seems like someone would have seen them by now. Somehow, no one has seen this one… except my grandmother. And my uncle.”

“No one who survived,” Imani said. That brought such a long silence that she was almost sorry she’d said it. But it was the truth, wasn’t it?

“My uncle didn’t survive,” Daddy said. “I think he went out looking for it after my grandmother died… and it killed him. No one found his body.”

Like Mom, Imani thought despite herself.

She reached into her jacket pocket and brought out the sock, which was still damp. “We found this on a branch, Daddy.” She reached past the fire to give him Mom’s sock.

Daddy sat up straight as he stared at the sock. It wasn’t her imagination; he was getting stronger. Maybe the fire was healing him already. “Where’d you find this?”

“On a bush,” Imani said.