Read Indwell (Chasing Natalie's Ghosts) for Free Online Page B

anyone touching him. This is the reason why I am so sure that I belong here with you. You can see me, hear me and feel me,” he said this with such an intensity in his voice. He jumped out of the canoe and pulled it up onto the bank very swiftly, just in case anyone glanced our way. He carefully helped me out of the canoe. Once on land I grabbed his hand and he led me up toward my house. We sat down in the shelter of the trees and bushes in my backyard. I inched closer until I was snuggled into his chest. I listened for his heart to beat, but it never came. Surprisingly I could feel his breath against my cheek. He was so warm, which surprised me now since he didn’t have blood pumping through his veins. I would have thought he would be cold. I remembered touching Anton, he was warm too. I sighed, remembering how it was so easy to just accept him. I didn’t ask questions then. I just enjoyed his company.
    It was the same way with my childhood friend, Cheveyo. I tried to remember if he was warm too. I recalled the time he soothed my frostbitten fingers. It was after a very cold and snowy night. Our father had shouted at me and John to go outside and shovel the long driveway. My mother had tried to stop this to no avail.
    “No Travis, there’s way too much snow for two little kids to shovel. The driveway is as long as the tobacco field. What are you thinking?” my mother yelled at him.
    “Shut up woman, those kids are going to do what I tell them and that’s final. If they want breakfast and a warm house to live in, they’re going to shovel the damn driveway!” he demanded as he sat down in front of the television with his morning beer.
    We slowly put on our snowsuits, mitts, scarves and hats and ventured out, without saying a word to either of them. This really didn’t feel right, but we could tell from his mood, that arguing would be futile. We trudged down to the end of the driveway, through more than a foot of snow. We each took a side, and silently started shoveling. It seemed like forever when I finally looked up and realized we were still so far from the house. I started crying out of exhaustion and frustration.
    “That lazy ass should be out here helping us!” John shouted toward the house. He rarely voiced his opinion about are child rearing, but he was pissed about this. When we were given the strap for stupid things like tracking dirt in the house, or having a C on our report cards, our father would bend us over, and on bare skin would whip us with his black leather belt. He would say we should be grateful there weren’t any steel spikes on it, like the one his daddy used. I would scream and cry, and try and run, but John wouldn’t fight it, he would barely whimper. I don’t know how he did it. I think it freaked father out, because he would stop midway through and just look at him, throw his belt down on the floor and walk out of the room.
    I was starting to feel strange. My head was spinning. My fingers and toes began to feel numb. I couldn’t grab the shovel anymore. It just slid out of my hand.
    “John, I can’t walk,” I moaned as I fell over. That’s when the farmer picked me up and put me in his truck. I was awake long enough to notice John had climbed in beside me.
    “Are you okay?” he asked.
    “I don’t think so,” I whispered as the world went black. The farmer had a plow on the front of his truck and he drove it up to the front of the house.  I heard Emily’s voice running toward the truck from down the driveway as light hit my eyes again.
    “What happened? Are they okay, Jim?” she asked with tears in her eyes. My mother was at the front door, with tears streaking her face too. Her purple eye looked fresh. At least she tried, I thought to myself, trying to smile.  Jim set me down in the dining room, on one of the old wooden chairs. Emily told my mother to grab a large bowl of cold water and put the kettle on. Luke gave me his blanket. It hurt so much when she carefully