[Beginning of Recorded Material]
Madison: -did you end up getting?
Michael: Corn muffin. You?
Madison: A cinnamon bun.
Michael: Cinnamon buns? Where’d you see cinnamon buns?
Madison: They were hiding behind the scones.
Michael: Well, shit.
.. . .
Madison: Do you want to sit over there?
Michael: Yeah, sure.
. . .
Madison: When are you shipping out?
Michael: Two weeks. Just taking care of some things before I go. Try and get a little bit of sunshine before I’m stuck in that tin can.
Madison: Do you know where you’re going?
Michael: Gonna be heading on down to Georgia for a bit and then… who knows. How’re things at work?
Madison: Fine. You know. Kind of boring.
Michael: What are ya working on now?
Madison: Fungal colonies.
Michael: Like mushrooms.
Madison: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah, that does sound boring.
Madison: The idea is really interesting. We’re exploring how fungi are interconnect with all the other plant life in the forest, passing on nutrients and information.
Michael: Sounds like something out of an alien movie.
Madison: Well, yeah, I suppose it does. it’s a little complicated to explain. I mean, it’s really cutting-edge research but I’m not really involved with the important parts. They keep me around as a glorified number cruncher.
Michael: Just got to work your way up, ya know? Do the grunt work. You’ll get there.
Madison: I suppose.
. . .
Madison: Hey, did you see the news? About Jai Shankar.
Michael: Who?
Madison: Jai Shankar. The little kid in the old neighborhood. His dad was the Indian guy. He did something with computers?
Michael: Yeah, I know who you’re talking about. No, I didn’t hear anything about him.
Madison: He went missing from his aunt’s place in Vermont…
Michael: Yeah.
Madison: They found him in Datchet.
. . .
Madison: Didn’t you see anything on the news?
Michael: No, Maddy, I didn’t see anything on the news! I haven’t thought about Jai or his dad in years. And you know I don’t want to talk about it.
Madison: I’m not talking about what happened then, Michael. I just wanted to know if you heard about Jai.
. . .
Madison: They found him on Fox Run Road right near Oak Circle.
Michael: For fucks sake, Maddy…
Madison: He was wandering around in the dark in his pajamas with no shoes on.
Michael: Why’re you bringing this up?
Madison: He spent a few days in the hospital. He said he didn’t know how he got there.
Michael: The news said this?
. . .
Michael: Maddy?
Madison: I visited him.
Michael: Jesus Christ! What’re you thinking? You can’t just wander into hospital, poking your nose in things, asking around about a random kid! What is wrong with you?!
Madison: He’s not a stranger. We know him. We’ve been through the same things he has…
Michael: Damn it, Maddy.
Madison: Besides, his family let me come and say “Hi”.
Michael: Oh, and I’m sure they thought it was just a friendly visit, huh? Nothing fishy there! Just a girl he hasn’t seen for 10 years popping in? Christ, he was, what, 2 when we last saw him? What makes you think he’d even remember you?
Madison: They know, Michael. They lost people, too. That’s something we share.
Michael: I told you, Maddy, I’m not talking about this.
Madison: Why not?! Why is it that you’re the only one of us that just wants to pretend it never happened?
. . .
Madison: Well?
. . .
Madison: So you’re not talking now?
. . .
Madison: Really?!
. . .
Madison: You want to be stubborn about the whole thing? Fine.
. . .
Madison: I went to the hospital and reintroduce myself to his aunt.
Michael: Maddy…
Madison: No! You don’t want to say anything?! Well, then be quiet and listen!
I saw his aunt in the waiting area and reintroduced myself. We talked for a little while and she let me come in to say hi to Jai. He was hooked up to all these monitors and tubes. It had been a few days but he still seemed pretty really out of it. I tried talking with him, asking how he was and what he’s been up to. He just stared out the window, giving one-word answers. His aunt was mostly answering for him.
There was a bit of a lull in the conversation and he asked her if she would get him a snack from the vending machine. She seemed a bit apprehensive about leaving us alone but she said that she would give us some time to catch up.
As soon as walked out that door he looked at me with this vacant expression and said, “I know you.”
He was very solemn, almost like he was half-asleep. I don’t know how to explain it, but he was really freaked me out, Michael.
Michael: Then what?
Madison: He told me he was having these strange dreams. Every night ever since he could remember. He’s in a forest and it’s so dense that the sun is blocked out. Everything is in cast in a dark green shadow. There are no clearings or paths. The trees are so tightly packed that he hardly has room to move.
Then, from out in the distance, he hears something crashing though the undergrowth. He wants to run but there’s nowhere for him to escape. He’s frantically trying to scramble away when out from behind the largest tree, a man appears.
Sometimes this man is draped in animal skins. Other times he appears as a deer. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference…
Sound familiar?
. . .
Madison: Jai says the dreams have been getting more and more vivid over the last few months. Each time he goes to sleep, he’s stuck in those woods. The man comes and, after a while, beckons to him. He said that he always woke up around this point.
But for some reason, this last time he stayed in the dream. This had never happened before. He was in the woods, unable to move and the man appeared. He beckoned to him and Jai finally followed.
The next thing he knows, he was waking up under the tree in Oak Circle. He didn’t know where he was or how he got there.
Michael: Maddy, it’s got to be some kind of trick. People read that article and are trying to take advantage of the situation. Hell, Jai’s aunt is probably dragging the poor kid into some crazy scheme, trying to get famous off the whole thing.
Madison: I don’t think that’s it, Michael.
Michael: Come on, Maddy. What else could it be?
Madison: He had came from baseball practice around 7:00 that evening. His aunt said he wasn’t feeling well and went to bed around 8:00pm.
Michael: So?
Madison: The Datchet police found him on the road at 9pm that same night.
Michael: Ok?
Madison: They live near Burlington. That’s over a 3-hour drive. How does a twelve-year-old kid travel over 200 miles in less than an hour?
. . .
Michael: The aunt’s got to be lying about the practice and when he went to bed…
Madison: I’m having dreams about the man in the forest again, Michael.
Even before this whole thing with Jai happened.
Are you having the dreams again, too? Are you seeing the deer man?
. . .
Madison: Michael?
. . .