A bad feeling
Trixie bit her lip
as she trudged up the hill, on her way to join Jim for an early morning
horseback ride.
She wasn’t
sure what was wrong with her. Normally, she
couldn’t wait to
get up to the Manor House and see Jim.
But today, for some reason, she dreaded it.
Not seeing Jim, she still couldn’t wait for
that... she just had a feeling that something bad was going to happen
that day. It felt sort of like one of her hunches, she just
knew that today was going to be a bad day.
Looking up the hill, she still had to smile when she
saw Jim already heading down to greet her.
How can it be a
bad day when you’ve
got that to look at? she
asked
herself as she greedily drank in the sight of her tall, supple
boyfriend. The sexy, tousled red hair; the broad shoulders,
the trim waist; the muscular thighs... everything about him was
perfect. And even more perfect, he was hers.
She picked up her pace a little to get to Jim
sooner, perhaps then she could shake this feeling of dread she
had. But as she neared him, she felt, even more, this
oppressive feeling that something bad --- very bad ---- was in
the
future. Even when Jim came up to her and swooped her up to give
her a very thorough, very enjoyable good morning kiss, she just
couldn’t shake the
feeling.
Noticing her lack of enthusiasm, Jim broke off the
kiss and leaned back, worried. “Is
everything okay, Trixie?”
She smiled weakly at him. “It’s
nothing, Jim. I just have this feeling that something bad is
going to happen today. Have you ever felt that way?”
“Sure, every day I spent with Jonesy,” he
replied, frowning as he remembered that bleak time in
his life.
Trixie felt her temper stir, as it always did at the
mention of that awful, awful man. She squeezed his hand in a show
of support and turned to walk towards the stables. “I’m
sure you did, Jim. I wish I could back and take that time
away from you.”
“Don’t feel that way, Trixie. If it
wasn’t for how horribly he treated me, I might not have run away when I
did. And I might not have met you,” Jim said, bringing their
joined hands up to his lips. “I’d endure anything to meet you,
Trixie.”
As usual, Jim’s sweet declarations of his feelings
filled Trixie’s entire heart and soul with love. But still, that
feeling couldn’t rid her of her earlier sense of
foreboding. And it only got stronger as they approached
the stables. It almost overpowered her as they walked in,
blinking to adjust their eyes to the darkness of the stables.
Trixie quickly looked around, on the alert for any
possible danger.
And saw none.
The horses were all in their stalls, whinnying as
they saw humans; humans that might give them some
treats. Regan was sitting calmly in a chair and briefly
looked up at the two of them before going back to reading the
newspaper. Nothing looked wrong or dangerous.
And nothing happened when they saddled up Jupiter
and Susi. Nothing happened when Jim swung his muscular body
into the saddle. Or when Trixie nervously lifted herself up
on
Susi. Or when both horses trotted out the door of the
stable, seemingly happy to be out of their stalls and out in the open.
Then all hell broke loose.
For some reason, Jupiter suddenly broke out into a
hard gallop, swerving sharply in front of Trixie and Susi and heading
up the path that used to lead to the old Frayne Mansion. Trixie
could see Jim desperately pulling on the reins, trying to get some
control of the horse. Branches whipped at his face as the horse
thundered down the path. Trixie urged Susi into a gallop as
she tried to keep Jim in her sights.
Suddenly, Jupe’s crazy run was blocked by a huge,
impenetrable hedge. For one awful second, Trixie thought
Jupiter would jump over the hedge, taking Jim rather unwillingly with
him, but the horse suddenly planted his forefeet and stopped dead in
his tracks.
Unfortunately, this caused Jim to shoot over the
horse’s head and land in the bushes. Trixie prayed desperately as
she leapt off the horse and ran towards Jim’s crumpled
form. She almost wept as she saw Jim start to sit up,
shaking his head to try and clear the shock.
“Don’t
move, don’t
move,” she cried out as she raced
up to
him, crouching down to run her hands up and down his body in an effort
to see where
he was hurt. “Are you okay? Did you break anything?”
Jim managed a weak smile as he grabbed Trixie’s
hands. “I’m okay, Trixie. Really. But if you
keep tourching me like that, I think I’m going to have an
involuntary reaction to that. And that might be a bit
embarrassing
since Regan’s right behind you.”
Trixie looked up to see Regan running at top speed,
a terrified look on his face. She called out to reassure
him. “He’s okay, Regan. But what is up with Jupiter?”
Looking relieved and confused at the same time,
Regan grabbed Jupiter’s reins and then walked over to grab Susi’s as
well. “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen him do that
before. At least not with an experienced rider.”
Jim gingerly stood up and wiped the dirt off his
pants. “My experience didn’t help that time. I
couldn’t
convince him to stop. And you know what, I know you're supposed
to get right back in the saddle after a spill, but I don’t think I’m in
a mood
for a ride after all. Can you take the horses back?” he
asked Regan, as he pulled Trixie into a hug..
“I’m okay, sweetheart.
Really. Maybe this is why you had a bad
feeling. But really, I’m okay.” He ran his arms up
and down her back in a soothing gesture.
Trixie looked up into his still pale
face. Standing on her toes, she kissed him hard and then
tried to relax.
But the feeling was still there. She
told Jim as much.
“Hmm... well, why don’t you tell me more while we
take a walk,” he said, grabbing her hand and taking her into the
preserve. “Like, what does it feel like?”
Trixie shook her head and stared at the ground as
she tried to gather her thoughts. “I don’t know. Just
this bad feeling. Like something bad is going to happen.
Actually, more than that. Like something --- or someone ---
is going to
cause something bad to happen. Yeah. That’s
what it’s like. Like someone is out there, controlling us
so that something bad happens.”
Jim stopped to stare down at his girlfriend.
“What, you think someone is out there purposefully controlling what
happens in our lives?”
“Look, I know it sounds funny. But that’s just
how I feel.”
Jim shook his head and continued walking.
“Well, if there’s someone out there, I wish they’d use their power to
speed time up. I’m swear, time is just dragging by as I wait for
you to turn eighteen. ”
As he’d meant it to, that statement caused
Trixie to
grin. But the grin quickly disappeared as the bad feeling
reappeared. Trixie nervously looked around, twitching at every
noise in the Preserve. And since it was a forest, there were
plenty of them.
“Did you hear that?” Trixie asked as she froze
and scanned the woods.
“Hear what?” Jim asked, starting to get frustrated
at Trixie’s paranoia. He tugged on her hand and started dragging
her around the next bend of the path.
“I don’t know. Sort of a screeching
yowl. Like a ...” Trixie froze again as she saw, in
the path ahead, the very thing that it sounded like. A huge
catamount stood there, growling low as it surveyed its new
prey.
“Don’t move, Trixie,” Jim said, putting himself in
front of her. The huge mountain lion started stalking
forward, slinking low as it prepared to pounce on Jim.
Suddenly, it bolted into the woods.
Trixie stood there in shock, blinking in surprise as
relief flooded through her body.
“That was odd,” Jim said as he walked ahead in the
path, curious as to why the cat had fled like that. “I wonder why
he...”
“Jim! Don’t move!” Trixie cried out as she
spotted the new danger on the path. “That’s a copperhead, isn’t
it?”
The thin, long snake was directly in front of Jim,
its coppery head glistening in the sunlight. Jim did
as Trixie told him, standing as still as a statue as the snake reared
up. And then dropped back down and slithered off into the
woods.
Once again, the two breathed a sigh of relief as
the danger passed.
“Hmmm... I’ll have to tell Regan and Maypenny about
the catamount,” Jim said after recovering from the fright. “And
the copperhead as well. Hey, Trixie? Isn’t this near where
Bobby got stuck when he was looking for his ’kitty’?”
“Um, yes,” Trixie said, rubbing her hands up
and down her arms to warm herself up from her fright.
“It’s very near... Hey! Where are you going?”
“To see if the catamount is using that as its home,”
Jim said, striding into the forest. “If so, it’ll be easy to
track it again. Don’t worry, Trixie, it ran in the other
direction, we’ll be perfectly safe.”
“Safe,” Trixie muttered to herself, reluctantly
following Jim. They continued on until they got to the cave where
Bobby had been trapped. Jim peered inside and nodded
to himself as he saw evidence of the cat’s use of this as its
home. Walking a bit further around the rocks that held the cave,
he called out to Trixie in surprise.
“Wow, I never realized there was a whole system of
caves here,” Jim said, walking into the darkness of one of them.
“Jim! Don’t walk in there, you don’t
know...” Trixie screamed as Jim suddenly dropped out of
sight. She raced over to where he disappeared, skidding to
a halt just before she fell into the sinkhole that Jim was now trying
to pull himself out of.
“I’m okay, Trixie,” he said, looking up into
Trixie’s anxious green eyes. “I’m okay. But maybe we
should get out of here.”
Trixie quickly agreed and helped pull Jim out of the
hole. She hurried him out of the cave, looking around for danger
at every turn.
“Don’t worry so much, Trixie, I’m okay. We’re
okay. Come on, let’s keep walking so I can dry off. ” He grabbed
her hand as they continued on the path.
After a while, Trixie tried to relax and shake the
bad feeling. Yet it wouldn’t stop. She was brooding over
everything that had happened when suddenly she realized where their
walk had taken them.
“That’s odd,” Jim said, looking over at the
bluffs. “The warning signs are down. I wonder who took them
down?” he asked, dropping Trixie’s hand and walking over to the
signs.
“Jim, don’t go over there. It’s
danger....” Once again, Trixie screamed as she saw Jim lose his balance
and go tumbling off the cliffs. She rushed over, certain
she’d see his crippled body at the base of the cliffs.
“I’m okay, Trixie,” Jim said as he struggled to hold
onto a tree root. “But help me up, would you?” Trixie
grabbed his big, freckled hand in her tiny one and helped haul him up
the cliffs.
After both had recovered their breath, Jim looked at
Trixie. “Do you still have that bad feeling?” he asked nervously.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she nodded
yes. Jim sighed and grabbed her hand, heading quickly now
back to the Manor House; hopefully towards safety. They
were only twenty yards away from the edge of the Preserve when Trixie
suddenly felt like they were being watched. She looked around.
And screamed when she saw the creature in the
bushes, yelling out a warning to Jim.
Unfortunately, he didn’t believe her.
Trixie ran all the way back to her house, screaming
the entire way. Seeing Mart, she grabbed him and shook him
hard.
“Jim is dead, he’s dead, Mart. And it’s
your fault, because YOU WERE WRONG!’ she yelled at
him. “WRONG!“
Mart goggled at his sister. “Jim’s
dead? What? How?”
“I warned
him, but he didn’t believe me. YOU WERE WRONG! He was
killed... by a Velociraptor. He didn’t believe me when I said I
saw a dinosaur in the bushes.”
Author’s notes:
Okay, so it’s a bit surreal. It must have been the Yankee
Pot Roast I had for dinner.
I dedicate this story to KayeKL, Robin, Jenn, Mark, ChitownSteph, and
the others who were at the table or at Trixie Camp when the discussion
of the death of
Jim took place.
And of course, I must dedicate it to my lovely roommate Katrina.... and
still swear that I have no idea where the ponchos came from.
As you hopefully caught, the ways that Jim *almost* died are from the
other books. Jupiter’s wild ride was Trixie almost dying in
Mansion, the catamount was Bobby almost dying in Black Jacket, the
copperhead was Bobby again in Mansion, the sinkhole was Trixie almost
dying in Bob-White Cave, and the bluffs was Janie almost dying in
Missing Heiress. So I decided it was Jim’s turn.
As far as I know, there are no Velociraptors in the
Preserve. That odd thought came from some book (I don’t
know which) where Mart said that Jim would beleive Trixie if she
said she saw a dinosaur in the bushes. Unfortunately, that
turned out not to be true.