**
Part 1
Daley was past the Safe Line. Way past it. He couldn't even see it anymore. Frankie, who was his best friend and a tomboy, told him not to pass the Safe Line. Patsy, who was his other best friend and whose name did not suit him, told him not to pass the Safe Line. Topper Tom, who was an aspiring bully and not Daley's friend, dared him to pass the Safe Line but called him back when he saw that Daley was going to do it.
Daley had allowed himself one backward glance after he passed the Safe Line. Frankie and Patsy looked nervous, though they did not call him back. Did Topper Tom look guilty? Daley was not old enough to read the various emotions the boy's countenance showed.
This day was like a lot of other days during the summer. Daley swung by Frankie's. They then rode their bikes to Wipple Dr. and waited for Patsy at the bottom of the hill. The three of them peddled past their school, Perkins Elementary, on their way to the woods behind the soccer fields.
Topper Tom sometimes intercepted them. His house was three blocks from the fields. If he was not inside playing Atari, he was in his treehouse looking at dirty magazines he pilfered from his father. Either way, he kept watch for any of the kids from school that might pass by. He would be their unwelcome companion today.
Daley and his compatriots called him Topper Tom because he always had to one-up everyone else. If you got a new bike, his was more expensive. If you got a new video game, he already had that one and a dozen that you didn't. If you had shoes that were newer than his, he would wait until it rained and then step on your feet with his muddy shoes. If he could not think of a way to one-up you, he would simply push you to the ground, boy or girl.
Frankie had come up with the idea of telling Topper Tom that they called him Topper Tom because he always won king of the mountain at recess. Patsy agreed, as it would allow them to use the nickname to his face without incurring his wrath. Daley assented, and the motion was enacted posthaste.
They played a usual round of who can climb the highest in the trees that lined the creek. It was Patsy's turn to ascend the second tree, which had the greatest potential for high climbing. Topper Tom always got to climb the second tree when he was there, but that wasn't a problem because he could not take advantage of it.
Topper's inability to maximize the tree's climbing potential gave Daley and his friends an additional opportunity to mock him. They would cheer him on from higher positions in the other trees, emphasizing the "Topper" in "Topper Tom" and telling him to try the branch on his left. When Topper reached to his right, which he always did, the three friends would hide their faces behind a branch or the truck of their respective trees and laugh until the leaves shook.
After climbing they would sometimes pretend that they were seekers of fortune during the California gold rush. They would use whatever they could find for pans and pretend that the rocks among the sand in the shallow parts of the creek were gold nuggets, and the flecks of shale was gold dust. They would talk about what they were going to do with their riches, blissfully ignorant of the preponderance of alcohol, gambling and prostitution that cropped up wherever gold was found.
Frankie and Patsy were arguing about where the best place was to hide their gold. Topper was splashing them. They were ignoring him in hopes that he would weary of it when he realized that they would not be baited into an all out water war. Daley was about forty feet downcreek and had been quiet for a while. Finally he walked over to the others and said, "I'm going past the Safe Line today."
**
Part 2
Frankie, Patsy and Topper had each gathered a pile of stones. They were taking turns picking out targets and seeing who could hit them first. They called the game "GOOSE." It was based on the basketball game "HORSE." If you miss a shot after someone else makes it, you get a letter. The last one left who doesn't spell the word out wins. They agreed that it was as good a way as any to kill time while they waited for Daley to return.
Patsy was in the lead, followed by Frankie, then Topper. Topper was rather disgruntled that a girl was beating him, although it would be a couple of years before the boys had any distinct, physical advantage over Frankie. Patsy had been friends with Frankie since he moved to town three years ago. That was a long time for him and he still only had a vague sense of the differences between himself and Frankie, as far as sex was concerned.
Frankie was not paying much attention to the game. She kept looking at Patsy. She wanted to hold his hand. She was worried about Daley. She knew Patsy was too.
Patsy was very good at "GOOSE." He picked up his strategy from his father while playing "HORSE" in their driveway. Wherever Patsy's family had moved, his father always put up a basketball hoop for his son so they could play one-on-one and GOOSE together. Patsy's father concentrated on consistency over difficulty. He would make lay-ups and foul shots. This strategy often caught his opponent off guard. Patsy's father also used a variety of left-handed shots and trick shots to throw his opponent off. Patsy learned how to use both hands, as well as how to shoot over the backboard and bounce the ball off the ground and into the hoop. He parlayed these skills into an advantage over his friends when they played GOOSE.
All three children were quite distracted from their game. They were throwing rocks and keeping score, but each of them looked over towards the Safe Line frequently. They had positioned themselves about twenty five feet from the dead tree with the railroad spike in it that marked the place on the path that they were not supposed to cross.
Topper had just made a difficult throw and was in the middle of bragging about it when they heard something crashing through the woods. They looked off to their left. In a moment they heard Daley shouting, "RUN!" The urgency of his tone had the opposite effect. They stood there with their hands at their sides waiting for him to appear. Why wasn't he on the path?
The stories about what lived in the woods beyond the Safe Line were varied. If there was ever a definitive account, it had been lost to the past. Three towns sat on different sides of the Wilkes Woods: Wilkesboro, Belle's Bridge and Deerington.
The children of all three towns had ample room to play in the woods. The children in all three towns had paths that led deeper into the woods than any of the other paths. There was a dead tree along each of these three paths that had a railroad spike in it. The children of all three towns knew not to go past the dead tree.
In Wilkesboro, it was known as Wilkes Folly. Part of the story was that one of the Wilkes children, when there were still Wilkes's living in the county, had gone deep into the woods and never returned. None of the children in the town knew the child's name or whether it was a boy or a girl.
In Deerington, it was known as The Edge. There was not a specific story explaining the name, only that it was the border between where it was OK for Deerington's children to play and where it was not. No one seemed to need a child's name to convince them not to venture past The Edge.
Daley and his friends lived in Belle's Bridge. Daley had known about the Safe Line since before kindergarten. He had seen the Safe Line for the first time when he was in the first grade. He had hounded two older kids from his neighborhood until they agreed to lead him out there.
The older boys wanted to leave as soon as they arrived. Daley told them to go ahead. He spent an hour out there by himself. It was dark by the time he got home. His mom had been out of her mind with worry. It did not help matters when he told her that he had been in the woods alone. He did not see the woods for about six months after that night.
**
Part 3
Daley's mother, Imogene Steppe, heard Daley screaming before he cleared the clothes line in the back yard. She was running down the steps when she heard an awful crash in the kitchen. When she pushed through the swinging door and entered the kitchen she saw Daley sprawled out on the floor, the tablecloth and items from the tabletop scattered around him.
"What on earth, Daley?" She noticed he was covered with scratches and was bleeding from a number of cuts on his knees and arms. There was an ugly gash that stretched from his right temple, across his cheek and almost reached his jaw. She made sure there were no breaks and helped him into a chair. When she saw the look in his eyes she was frightened.
It only took Daley a moment to start talking. "Mom, it got them. Frankie ... Patsy ... Topper. They're dead. The monster killed them."
The measured tone in which he spoke unnerved Genie. "Honey, what are you saying?"
"I went past the Safe Line today."
The years melted away and Imogene Steppe was standing at the edge of a field with her father.
"Genie, I want you to listen to me."
"Yes, Papa."
"When you and your friends play in the woods I want you to stick close to the paths and clearings. I don't want you wandering away from the paths."
"Okay. What about the creek?"
"The creeks is fine."
Her father looked towards the woods for a moment. His hand started to come up towards his face, then it just floated out in front of of his collar bone. He came to himself and looked at his daughter again. The only other time she had ever seen him so earnest was when he had to tell Mrs. Steppe that her little sister Ruth was hit by a car on Wemberly Avenue.
"I mean it, Genie. Promise me."
"I promise, Papa."
"If you ever get deep in the woods and see a tree with a railroad spike in it, you turn around and head back."
"Okay."
"That's the Safe Line."
Though Genie had her times of mischief and disobedience when the circumstances were right, she never broke her promise to her father. It wasn't until her teenage years that she learned the story that lay behind her father's earnestness. It was as if a spell was cast over the three towns that bordered Wilkes Woods by an event that happened so long ago.
Genie's generation, at least those who stuck around the area, did not pass along the warnings to their children. There wasn't any kind of agreement amongst them. No one voiced a reason. Maybe it was a skepticism peculiar to their time. Maybe it was the relocation of horror stories from real life to the movie screen. Maybe they grew up feeling more sophisticated than they parents. No one said why.
Daley's generation learned the stories from their grandparents and from each other. The grandparents did not tell the stories in order to amuse, but the lack of attention paid by their parents led to a mixture of dread, fascination and fantasy amongst the children. They took their grandparents seriously but had a hard time reconciling their grandparents' warning with their parents' dismissal.
Imogene tried for a split second to remember the story she heard as a teenager. She shook her head like she had bumped it against something and was trying to regain her balance. Daley was waiting for her eyes.
"Oh, Daley, is that the ghost tale your grandfather told you about the woods? That's just a story that kids use to try and scare each other."
Daley continued talking as if he had not heard her.
**
Part 4
"I had been walking for about fifteen minutes. It seemed like the sun went away. The trees got thicker. The trail got real narrow. I started feeling like someone was watching me."
Imogene again noted how deliberate her sons words were.
"I stopped at the edge of a place on the trail where the branches of the trees grew together low over the path. It was like some sort of tunnel, or something. I couldn't decide whether or not to keep going," Daley paused and looked his mother directly in the eye. She saw his pupils dialate.
"Mom, I was looking at the other end of the tunnel and something stepped into it."
"Daley, it was just some branches. You said it was dark ... "
"No, Mom," Daley stopped her, "I saw it."
"You said Frankie, Patsy and Topper were with you. We need to go make sure that they are alright. We don't want their parents worrying."
"I told you. They're dead. It got them. I saw it. It was too fast. I told them to run, but they just stood there, and it got them."
Imogene's mind was ordering the things that she needed to do. She was going to have to call the other parents. Then, she would offer to help them locate their children, if they had not already shown up at home. She would want to get everyone else's version of what had happened. She would then decide how to procede with her son. She knew that he believed what he was telling her. He was not playing some kind of game.
She did not realize that Daley was going into shock.
Imogene knew that at some point she was going to have some very pointed words for her father, who had been the one to confirm and elaborate upon the legend, or myth, or whatever it was, about Wilkes Woods. What in the world was he thinking, filling Daley's head with such nonsense? Now look what had come of it: her son thought that his friends had been killed by a monster.
Imogene was in the hall next to the laundy room when the back door exploded, showering glass and wood splinters all over her. She instictively covered her face and moved backwards, making sure that she was between Daley and the door. She was in the kitchen when she looked up and saw it.
Imogene had started dating Brad Durrell when she was a sophomore at Wilkes County High School. Like many teenage boys, he and his friends were mischievous. One Friday night they decided to have some fun with their dates. The drove out by the bridge and parked in a clearing at the edge of the woods. There was a full moon, so they escorted their dates a short ways into the woods and built a fire. They had beer and blankets as the excuse for their jaunt.
The boys had decided amongst themselves to try and scare their dates with the story about the Safe Line. Brad was the chief narrator due to his dramatic presentation of even the most common stories. Due to the surroundings and time of night, the plan did not require excessive embellishment on Brad's part. He succeded in frightening the girls, as well as a couple of his friends.
Brad did a fine job painting a picture. He clambered around the fire, raised and lowered his voice, contorted his face. He was a real showman. The party had a wonderful time drinking, laughing and trembling.
Imogene's relationship with Brad Durrell lasted about eight months. They eventually broke it off, though amicably. Imogene had not thought about that night in fifteen years.
Brad's performance had not done justice to what she was now facing.
**
Part 5
After regaining her balance, Imogene picked up a chair and held it like a lion-tamer. Daley was behind her and she backed them out of the kitchen and into the den. It followed.
"Daley, I want you to run. Run as fast as you can. Run downtown to the police station." She felt her son's hand on her waist.
"I said 'run,' Daley. I'll be right behind you." She reached behind her and gave Daley a shove towards the door. She could not take her eyes off of the thing that had killed Daley's friends.
As she searched its face she looked for some sign of intelligence. The story was standing in her den, advancing on her and her son. What her father had told her, what Brad Durrell had told her, what her father had told Daley, all the versions that seemed like made-up horror stories you'd hear at camp, they were all incarnate before her.
The Railroad Man was all of it and worse.
He wore the dirtiest overalls she had ever seen. She did not have time to ponder what caused the dark stains that covered them. His boots looked a hundred years old. His movements made him appear like a giant claw grabbing forward out of the mouth of some subterranean pit. She finally noticed the one detail that convinced the jury in her mind. The revelation was overwhelmingly debilitating. Imogene saw that the left side of the Railroad Man's head was partially caved in.
She sensed his determination to get to her son. She was merely an obstacle in his way. She was going to be as much of an obstacle as she could, for as long as she could, so that her son could escape with his life.
Imogene was now past the couch and the coffee table. There was no more room to back up. She gathered herself and lunged with all her strength at the man in her den. She though that the chair would help her knock him down.
He grabbed the chair with Imogene still attached and flung it against the fireplace. The clock on the mantle wobbled once and fell on top of her. Though her breath was gone, she grabbed at him with her left arm, her right elbow having been dislocated. She could see that Daley was still in the house.
"RUN, DAMN YOU! RUN NOW!"
The man swung with his right arm and backhanded Imogene. Her head hit the bricks around the fireplace hard enough to fracture her skull. She heard the front door squeek.
As Imogene faded she saw herself standing in a field at the edge of the woods. She is there with Daley. The sun is setting. She says, “Promise me you won’t go past the Safe Line.”
She never hears the answer.
Mildred Bangs was busy fixing a tomato sandwich when she heard a boy's voice screaming. She moved to her kitchen window and opened the shade. From there she has a good look at the street and hopes to discover the source of the noise.
She looked left down the street and saw nothing. She looked right and, after a few seconds, she saw Daley Steppe running like he was being chased by the devil himself. If her sight was a little better she would have seen that he was covered in scratches and as white as one of her porcelain figurines.
As he passed her house his screams made the hair on her neck stand up and chills go over her entire body. She shivered. She happened to look to the right again and saw the reason for his flight.
Mildred Bangs closed the shade and began shuddering uncontrollably. She turned away from the window. She sat down hard on the linoleum and began moaning.
Daley made it all the way to Dwyer St. The Railroad Man caught him as he got even with Mr. Dobberly's driveway. Mitch Dobberly was in his garden poking around his prized sunflowers. He had lost most of the hearing in his right ear in the Great War, so he was just looking up when the chase ended.
Mitch Dobberly was not a fearful man, but he believed the stories about the Safe Line. He had done his part to warn his children not to go too deep in the woods. They had moved away, but he pulled each of his grandchildren aside when they came for Christmas and forbid them from playing in the woods. He knew what he was seeing at the end of his driveway.
Daley Steppe was very still. The man had taken him under his left arm and was turning back towards Deep Run Rd. As he turned he made eye contact with Mitch Dobberly. "Lord have mercy" was the last thing he said before falling over dead in his garden.
The End.
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