The Visitors (v1.0)

16. LONE PINE

Stuffy Grant shuffled into the Pine Cafe, hoisted himself onto one of the stools at the counter. At the sound of the slamming front door, Sally came out of the back.

"You working in the morning?" asked Stuffy. "I thought Judy worked in the mornings."

"Judy has a cold," said Sally, "so I'm filling in for her."

The place was empty except for the two of them. "Where's everyone?" asked Stuffy. "With all the people who are in town.

"They sleep late," said Sally. "Those who are here. A lot of them are staying in Bemidji, driving here and back. There's no room for them here."

"Those two folks from the Tribune are here," said Stiffy. "The camera fellow and that girl writer."

"They got here early when there was still room at the motel."

"They're all right," said Stuffy. "Real white folks. That girl gave me five dollars for just answering a phone and then hanging on so no one else could get the line. Yesterday, the camera fellow slipped me a bottle for keeping watch of what was going on across the river so he could grab some sleep. Was supposed to run and wake him if anything happened. But nothing did. Good liquor, too. None of your cheap stuff."

"Most of the folks are nice," said Sally. "They tip good. Most folks around here don't tip at all."

"They ain't learning much, though," said Stuffy. "There don't seem much to learn from that thing out there. The men from Washington are working real hard at it and not coming up with much. I talked with one of them the other day. He'd been pawing through some of the rubbish the thing is throwing out, what's left after it makes those bales of white stuff. He was all excited about what he was finding but it didn't sound like much to me. He said he wasn't finding any pine seeds, or almost none. The cones had been broken up and the seeds were gone. He said that was unnatural. He seemed to think the thing was collecting the seeds and saving them. I told him maybe the thing was eating them; squirrels and such eat them. But he shook his head. He didn't seem to think so."

"What can I get you, Stiffy?"

"I guess some cakes."

"Sausage or bacon?"

"Naw, you charge too much for them. I can't afford it. Just the cakes. And plenty of syrup. I like lots of syrup."

"The syrup is there in the pitcher. You can use as much as you want."

"All right. Plenty of butter, then. A little extra butter. But don't charge me for it."

Sally went back into the kitchen to give the cook the order, then came back.

"How far has the visitor cut into the woods?" she asked. "I haven't seen it for a while."

"More than a mile, I'd say. It moves right along, day and night. Spitting out those bales of white stuff every few minutes. Leaving a long trail of them behind it. I wonder why it's doing that. It don't make no sense to me. Nothing about it makes any sense to me."

"There must be a reason for it."

"Maybe there is, but I don't see it. I wonder, too, why it picked us out."

"It had to be some place. It just happened to be us. If it was trees it was looking for, it picked a good place."

"I imagine," said Stiffy, "them forestry people ain't too entranced with it. They set a lot of store by them trees. I don't see why. They're just trees, like any other trees."

"It's a primitive wilderness area," said Sally.

"Yeah, I know," said Stiffy. "A lot of foolishness."