Moonlight Masquerade Read online

  Sophie got out of the Jeep, but she didn’t know what to do. She watched as Colin cut the arrow that held the man and Reede caught him as he fell. The woman still had her hands on the man’s shoulder.

  As Sophie went to the table she heard Reede quietly giving orders to Colin and the woman. It seemed she was a retired nurse and Reede was using her expertise.

  Sophie was wondering how the man had been shot. Was it an accident? Someone playing with a bow and arrow? Or had it been with malicious intent?

  She looked at the table for a bow. Instead she saw a stack of paper plates and three packages of hot dogs. There were paper cups with cartoon characters on them. Kids! she thought and spun around. Under some trees was a green minibus with the name of a Williamsburg church on the side of it. It looked like they’d taken advantage of the warm day to have one last picnic before cold weather set in.

  She walked around the table to stand behind Reede. “How many children are here and where are they?”

  Reede looked at the nurse.

  “Eight,” she said. “They were really scared when Jim was hit and they were screaming, but I couldn’t leave him. I told them to hide until I came and got them. But I can’t . . . ”

  “Sophie, could you—” Reede said but she cut him off.

  “I’m on it.” She was genuinely pleased to have something to do. Turning, she looked back at the woods. They began just a few feet away and the pine trees were so dense she couldn’t see but a few feet into them. There were no children in sight.

  She wanted to ask their ages but the adults were so busy that she didn’t. How could she round them up when she was a stranger? In the center of the table was a bag of potatoes and beside it was an old paring knife, the blade worn down, the handle rough from many washings. There was also a metal spoon with a narrow tip, and she took that. On the ground was Colin’s open toolbox. “Could I borrow these?” she asked as she held up a rattail file and a couple of small screwdrivers.

  “Sure,” Colin said as he looked at Reede, but he just shrugged. He had no idea what Sophie was up to.

  She took some potatoes and the tools into the woods. It was cool in there, certainly too cold for the children to be in there alone. There wasn’t a sign of any of them. No doubt they’d been traumatized by seeing an arrow that had to have flown across the table, hit the man, and pinned him to the tree. That their other guide, the woman, couldn’t get him down must have further frightened them.

  Part of her thought she should call out to the children, but then what? Chase them down? Just her and eight kids? It would never work. It would either frighten them more or entertain them so much that they’d make her chase them up the trees.

  Instead, she was going to do what she’d done when Lisa was little and would run away and hide.

  Sophie found a clearing in the woods, close to the campsite, sat down on the cold ground, and leaned back against a fallen log. She moved slowly, listening, but she heard nothing. She put the potatoes and tools beside her and picked up one of each.

  “I’m a sculptor,” she said loudly into the silence, and the word gave her a feeling of purpose. It had been a long time since she’d called herself that.

  “Do you know what that means? I was given a gift when I was born. I see shapes and I can form clay or stone or in this case potatoes to look just like them.”

  As she spoke she was cutting the potato by chunks, her hands working quickly.

  “I have a sister who is much younger than I am and when she was little I made her laugh by cutting all her food into funny shapes.” Sophie held the potato up so if the children were near they could see it. “This is going to be a rabbit. My sister Lisa loves rabbits and she had one when she was little. She called it Annie and she wanted me to make all her food into rabbits.”

  Behind her, Sophie heard leaves rustling and to her right she thought she saw movement. But she didn’t look. She just kept carving as fast as she could. And thinking.

  “You should have seen my little sister’s plate for every meal. I had to make everything into a rabbit. The pancakes were easy and mashed potatoes were a breeze, but how do you make applesauce look like a rabbit? Know what I did?”

  She waited in silence, carving quickly, but not answering her own question.

  “What did you do?” a little girl asked.

  Sophie looked at the child, saw the fear in her eyes, and smiled. “I made two round puddles of applesauce, put in raisin eyes, and pieces of carrot for ears. But . . . ” She paused as another girl and a boy quietly came close to her. Sophie lowered her voice. “I was afraid the bunny would wake up and eat his own carrot ears.”

  The children laughed. They were about six years old and seemed to be glad to feel safe again.

  “Is Mr. Jim okay?” a child asked.

  “Yes,” Sophie said as she set the potato rabbit on the log beside her.

  “Bet you can’t make a dragon,” a boy said from her left.

  “Are you kidding?” Sophie said. “If they gave out awards for potato dragons, I’d get one. Get me some little sticks that look like fire coming out of his mouth so I can make a real dragon.”

  One by one, seven children tiptoed toward her and sat down on the ground and watched. She finished the dragon, stuck a branched stick in for fire, and the children moved closer.

  “Who wants a bear?” Sophie asked, and they all said yes. Finally, the last little boy, the eighth child, came out of the woods and sat down to watch.

  When they heard an ambulance with a siren coming down the road, two of the boys started to get up. “Sit!” Sophie said, and her look made them sit back down. Until she was sure there wasn’t some crazy killer out there, she planned to keep the children where she could see them—and keep them calm.

  The siren got very loud and it wasn’t easy to keep the children near her, but Sophie did it. She offered her potato sculptures as prizes to whomever could build the best house for it out of whatever they could find in the woods. Besides, the abnormally warm day was cooling off and the children needed to move around. “But you can’t leave my sight!” she said emphatically.

  They heard the ambulance doors slam and the siren was turned back on. They all glanced in the direction of the sound but they could see nothing. Sophie wondered if Reede and Colin and the gray-haired lady had gone with the ambulance, and if so when would they be back?

  But minutes later Reede stepped around a tree and stood there for a moment, taking it all in. All eight of the children were there and they were busy constructing things out of twigs, leaves, and even rocks. They were all asking Sophie questions by the dozen, such as how to tie things together when they had no string.

  Sophie stepped away to go to Reede. “How is he?”

  “He’ll be fine, thanks to Sue’s quick thinking.”

  “How did it happen?”

  Reede grimaced. “Colin thinks it was too much beer and some hunters. He’s looking for them now. They might not even know what they’ve done.” He nodded to the kids. “I’m going to take them back in the bus to the church in Williamsburg. I can drop you off in Edilean.”

  “No,” she said, “I’ll go with you. We better get them out of here. In spite of the warm day, it is November.”

  “What are those things on the log that the kids are looking at?”

  Sophie smiled. “Nothing important. Just potato animals.”

  She followed Reede as he walked the few feet to the log and picked them up. There was a rabbit, a dragon breathing fire, and a bear with a pebble that vaguely looked like a fish in its mouth.

  “Sophie, these are wonderful,” he said, looking at her.

  “So who wins?” a little boy asked.

  “Everyone,” Sophie said. “By this time tomorrow I’ll give each of you a sculpture of your favorite animal. Only I’m going to do them in clay so you can keep them forever. Right now we’re going to ride back to Williamsburg on the bus and . . . Are you ready for this? Dr. Reede is going to drive! Do you think