The Child: Episode 6

Communicating with the Boy

I switched off the ignition and cursed. “This was a mistake,” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt. The smell of burnt rubber hit my nostrils. “Almost made me wreck the damn car.”

The boy’s amber eyes looked down, and he whined.

“Galindan?” I asked.

His ears perked up, and he lifted his head.

What did that word mean to him? I couldn’t make sense of it. The only thing I knew about Galindians were that they were an ancient people group. I couldn’t even recall if they were Germanic or old Prussian. Maybe Latvian? Most people wouldn’t even know of their existence, but I’d heard my department chair at Middlebury talk about those ancient cultures. Maybe this kid had been reading a fantasy comic before he hit his head? I had to get him to the hospital. I glanced at my phone. No service. If I walked to the clearing, maybe I could get a signal.

“Stay here,” I said, reaching for the door. I pulled the handle, but it was locked. I flicked up the lock, but before I could open the door, the pin snapped back down.

A pit formed in my stomach. I frowned at the boy. His jaw was clenched. I popped the lock back up. He glowered at me and it snapped back down.

“Are you…?” My guts turned to ice. “Let me out of here!” I barked with restrained mania. He didn’t respond. “Look, kid — Galinder — whoever you are, I just need to see if I can get a signal. I’m just trying to help you.”

“Engel vai tufel?” the boy said.

I stared blankly. He repeated the phrase. “Engel vai tufel?”

“I don’t kn — ”

“Engel vai tufel!” he shouted, beating his fists on his knees.

“I… I don’t understand,” I stammered. “I don’t speak… Galindan.”

He repeated the phrase twice more, growing angrier with my lack or responses. ‘Vai’ I thought meant ‘or,’ but ‘engel’ and ‘tufel’ were lost on me. After he screamed it again, I shouted in return: “Tufel!”

He paused, his eyes widening in surprise before relaxing with what I felt to be disappointment. “Tufel?” I said again with a lower voice.

Without warning, the grey wolf bolted from the treeline and pounced on the hood of the car.

“Sic sic,” the boy said, nodding at the wolf. It growled, bared its teeth, and lunged at the windshield. I screamed and shut my eyes. When I opened them again, the wolf had disappeared.

“Jee-sus,” I huffed. I wiped sweat from my brow. “We’re done here.” I reached to crank the ignition and a growl came from the back seat. The wolf leaped at me from behind, opening its jaw. I threw my hands up to shield my face and shouted, “Engel… engel!”

I shuddered, wondering why I hadn’t felt the beast’s teeth in my flesh. I slowly opened my eyes. The boy was smiling at me.

“Engel,” he repeated, nodding his head. I peeked at the back seat. No wolf. He picked up my phone from where it had fallen onto the floorboard and waved it at me. What kind of sick test was this?

I looked out the window. Everything had fallen silent. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the door lock popped up.

I walked to the clearing. No signal. I glanced back at the car. The boy offered a smug smile from the passenger seat. “Perfectly content to torture me,” I whispered to no one in particular. I trudged back to the vehicle, got in, and cranked on the ignition.

“Let’s go find something to eat,” I said, driving off into the evening.

As the trees whipped by, it became clear what I would do. There was one person who could make sense of what this kid was saying. One person I trusted: Harlan Forester, the Russian Department Chair at Middlebury.

CONTINUE THE STORY

The Child is an interactive puzzle fiction story. If you’ve stumbled onto this episode without reading the beginning, you can start at Episode One here.