2 A Little Bit Less Dull Than Ditchwater

The hum of the electric motor and the nostalgia of being in her dad's car was doing nothing to calm Deeb. "Dad? … what color was that dead man's sweater?"

Arnold gave her a confused glance. "Uh, mustard yellow, why? … And you're lucky I remembered that! You really expect me to remember the color of a dead man I never knew's sweater?!"

"And how many prongs did each gash have? Just bear with me. Please."

He was even more confused. "Well… they blurred out a lot to avoid complaints from the squeamish, but they say whatever animal did this strikes with four digits."

Deeb grew so hushed, Arnold almost couldn't hear her. "He's the one I saw. In the vision. Three hours before he was reported on the news."

Arnold reflected on his life. In hindsight, he should have expected freaky shit like this when he and his wife took in a baby abandoned in a ditch with no parents to be found on the face of the earth. Abandoned babies were not unheard of, but you could always find out who they came from with a little digging! Not her. And he was starting to wonder why exactly that was. "I'm not gonna lie, Deeb. That's some freaky shit right there. But I think it's good news. You've got some paranormal activity here, but you're not going insane. Won't it be easier to cope with the visions if you know they're not a dysfunction? That's not to say it'll be easy, but knowing you still have your sanity has to be a relief."

Her heart rate was coming back down. "Yeah. I- I guess it is. It is. I don't know how or why I'm seeing strange things, but at least I know I'm not crazy." Maybe she would sleep tonight. Maybe…

(Deeb may have been a bit reassured, but Arnold repeated a chant of "what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck" all the way home, immediately told Sasha about the conversation, and then proceeded to chug whiskey straight from the bottle. Sasha, upon seeing this, yanked the bottle out of his hands and started her own chugging. Kalika was still asleep, blissfully unaware of the whole thing.)

As it turns out, Deeb did sleep that night. It wasn't a perfectly restful night, of course, but if the drool on her pillow was any indication, she did get several hours of quality shut-eye. In truth, she hadn't been so well rested in weeks. That little extra energy translated into the extra motivation to do eyeliner and a little more care when putting up her hair. She looked less haphazard than she had gotten used to looking, and it felt good to look in the mirror and not see someone terrified of what they're becoming. She still had a lot to be scared of, sure. But not herself. She wasn't out of the woods yet, but she at least finally had some trees marked.

Deeb liked to think herself a responsible driver, but she still occasionally enjoyed a breakfast burrito while driving. There was a fairly straight stretch between the entrance to her neighborhood and the fields of Ozymandias, it would not be hard to eat her breakfast burrito while she wasn't having to turn. Whoever invented the microwave breakfast burrito was her hero that morning. It was a much nicer day than the day before. There were a few fluffy white clouds in the pale blue sky, so it wasn't overly bright, but it wasn't dark and gloomy like the day before. It was just barely warm. It really seemed like the perfect Thursday in early spring. The radio was playing music instead of advertisements. And it wasn't even bad music! ... But just when it seemed perfect, there was a familiar chill down Deeb's spine and her vision started to blink from one place to another. She had the good sense to pull off on the side of the road and turn on her hazard lights before stopping to let the vision run its course. She might be late to work, but she might be wrapped around a tree otherwise.

There was a turkey in the drainage ditch. Unlike the human corpse in the previous vision, it didn't look torn apart. No, this murder was entirely too human. It was partially flattened, probably by a car. There was no noise from cars, but the light still had a yellowish cast, meaning it was about an hour earlier in the vision than reality… current reality anyhow. It was too early for some of the roads to be traveled. People may be heading to or from work, but smaller roads wouldn't have any traffic until much later. A trio of vultures was fast at work plucking away at the roadkill carcass, not minding the long grass brushing against their scaly legs in the wind. It was a strangely calm scene, just three vultures enjoying their breakfast. A noise startled them all away. Whatever it was, it was clearly big. Its solid footfalls told a harrowing story for anyone who hoped it was small. She could feel it stumble as a foot got stuck in the ground, which was still squelchy from the rain. When it yanked its foot out of the mud, she could see the impression it left, almost hidden by the grass. It looked like a hoof if you squinted, but only if you squinted. Added on were extra digits coming off the base two, two twisted and gnarled extensions each. On the end of each quasi-finger was the mark of a claw, easily six inches long. There was a snort and some clicks from the back of its throat shortly before the creature circled back, sniffed the turkey, then snatched and swallowed the whole thing with a crunch. The vultures hopped around and cawed at the annoyance of having their breakfast stolen. To be fair, it was quite annoying. The massive creature, somehow agile, stalked away.

Deeb got her bearings back about her and continued her drive to work. Like yesterday, she'd be on time, but barely. What the hell WAS that thing?! It wasn't exactly hard to steal from vultures, but it was definitely hard to scare them like that. She knew a flock that would try to chase her out of her own yard! She supposed it could be an especially large, especially agile bear, but the footprint made no sense with that guess. And she had never known a bear that STALKED like that. Bears lumbered. Even the most graceful bear she'd ever seen was as subtle as a brick. … No, whatever it was, it was not a bear. At least not a bear like she'd ever seen before. Coyotes never got that big. There were definitely wolves in the area, as evidenced by the sightings at the edge of the forest, but they never dared venture into the township. And even they never got as large as that… thing? And none of those predators had hooves. Claws, yes. Digits, yes. Hooves? Not in the slightest. Pigs had hooves without all that extra stuff, and would almost certainly eat a dead turkey, but, well, she had never met a graceful pig. She'd think it was a cow because of the hooves and the size, but a cow would never eat a turkey, and cows are gentle giants. There would be none of that quick, agile stalking. A cow would slowly lumber away. In conclusion, she had no idea what kind of creature made its way into her visions, but she hoped it was something unnatural, because any creature morphed into something like that by natural means must be in a lot of pain and should be put out of its misery.

It was a slow day. Turbine 4-C was getting its inspection, so she was really just waiting on the report so she could sign off on whatever repair needed to be made. Her phone buzzed. It was her friend Lauren from Flow Management. "You bored?"

Deeb spun around in her office chair. "You know it, Lauren!"

"Come down to the west slope!"

"Uh, WHY?"

"There's a dog here, we keep telling him to go home, but he just keeps barking and bounding around!"

Deeb rushed to the door. "I'LL BE RIGHT THERE WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY THERE'S A DOG?!"

Deeb arrived near the far end of the west slope and saw what all the commotion was. Lauren and Ramon were trying to get the doberman to either come with them or go away, but all he really seemed to want to do was stay where he was, around the ditch. And would not shut up about it. Deeb laughed. "Someone's feeling playful today, huh?" The dog bounded over to her and she looked at his neck. "No collar? Well, I guess we'll have to call you Reginald. He kept bounding back and forth between her and a random spot in the ditch. "You want us to look at something?" She followed the dog. He let out a whine when she saw it. Deeb went white. So that was why the road in her vision had no travelers. It was a utility road, only meant to be traveled by foot and in the small utility carts.

Lauren was concerned. "Dude, are you ok?"

Ramon looked at the footprint. "Good God, what in the world left THAT track?"

Deeb tried to keep her voice steady. "You guys know how I've been getting some weird visions lately?"

They nodded in affirmation.

"Well… yesterday I saw that body hours before they found it. This morning I saw that footprint. I come in from the east."

Lauren put the pieces together. "There's no way you would have seen this before now."

Deeb dropped her head in her hands. "I'm so fucked. I'm so so fucked."

Ramon shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you may be fucked, but at least you got to see a dog!"

Deeb hugged Reginald, who was all too happy to cooperate now that they had found the footprint. He licked her face and she scratched behind his ears while shouting "EW! REGINALD!"

Lauren brought them back to reality. "Great. Deeb's seeing freaky shit. But what are we gonna do with this VERY LARGE DOG?"

Deeb let go of Reginald. "I guess we'll try to get him to go home one more time and if not, he can be the dam dog while we try to find where he belongs? I can ask Brian and Spence if we can keep him in the office!" She never did have to ask because he finally did leave the area, presumably towards wherever he lived.

When Deeb got back to her office, it was only 13 minutes before the turbine inspection was complete and she got the report. Sure enough, one of the rotors was found to have worn faster than expected. She signed off on the shutdown of the 4-block so the rotor could be replaced. That would begin tomorrow. She walked the top, checking for odd sounds or the appearance of anything not working right. Bored, she then walked the perimeter, also seeing nothing out of place. The dam needed watchmen around the clock, but that job sure did get boring on slow days. Make no mistakes, slow days were good days, but they definitely were slow and that didn't make for a very interesting job. It was days like these she'd be doodling a lot and trying not to stare at the wall for too long. She was not a good artist by any means, but she could passively doodle more than stick figures, which was more than could be said for some people she knew. When it was time for shift change, she said hello to Spence, then unhurriedly headed home.

Deeb stopped to get her mail before heading inside and saw that her neighbor, Scott, had just returned from the grocery store with his two kids, Lianne and Tala. Being three and 7, respectively, they ran inside instead of helping carry in the four bags. Scott waved with his temporarily free hand. "Evenin' Deeb!"

"Hey, Scott, beautiful day, isn't it?"

She stepped forward so he wouldn't have to shout while remarking about the weather, but ended up cutting him short as she fell right into the drainage ditch with a curse and a thud. She irritatedly peeled herself off the ground and climbed out of the ditch and onto the sidewalk, where she was trying to go in the first place.

"Are you ok there?"

Deeb waved his concern away with a flick of her wrist. "Yeah, don't worry, I fall into ditches all the time. Like ALL the time. I'm used to it by now!"

Scott laughed. "Yeah, funny how your house is the only one in the neighborhood with drainage ditches! And don't you have some in the back too?"

"Hey yeah, I do!" Deeb looked around the street. "Wow, I never noticed that nobody else has drainage ditches! Super weird. I wonder why?"

Scott shrugged his shoulders as best he could with his arms full of groceries. "Who knows? Maybe the goddess of the ditch blessed you so your house might be spared if the dam bursts!"

Deeb faked offense. "You say that as if I'd ever let the dam burst without first safely diverting flow!"

Scott playfully threw his hands in the air. "I never said you would! … but the weekend trainees, maybe."

Deeb pointed her finger as if to say 'good point.' "Maybe, but they only get to run weekend shifts when they've observed enough normal shifts that we feel confident in their ability to handle the situation or send out an SOS to the watchman on call."

"Well if all that mitigation goes wrong, you'll be glad you have those drainage ditches!"

"I suppose I will."

It was at that moment that Scott remembered he had bought ice cream and it had definitely been out of the freezer for too long between the drive back from the store and then the conversation. His daughters were peering at him impatiently through the window, as he had indeed promised them ice cream before dinner in exchange for behaving in the store. His wife wouldn't be happy about that promise, but her opinion could likely be swayed by a bowl of rocky road. Both neighbors retreated into their respective abodes with a quick and awkward farewell, as most interactions with acquaintances end. Deeb did not particularly feel like making dinner, but takeout would be too much waiting and then she'd have to drive somewhere to pick it up, and it would be about as much work and twice the price as just making dinner. She boiled some pasta and cut a random bit of pork she had in the freezer into half inch cubes. Next came a whole lot of onion and some broccoli. She cooked all of that together in her biggest pan, then added half a stick of butter, salt, Italian seasoning, a moderate amount of pepper, a not-so-moderately-large amount of garlic powder, and that cheese that comes in a shaker. The pasta was tossed in last. It wasn't gourmet, but it was much better than plain buttered noodles. And she thought it tasted pretty good, anyhow. It definitely smelled good. There was nothing on the news really worth watching. There wasn't much news at all. It was mostly just speculation for the next election, which was still two years away. She thought it was a bit strange that there were no more reports on the guy who got mauled the day before, but she supposed there wasn't much more to say about it. Large animal attacks weren't common by any means, but they definitely weren't unheard of. Another simple reminder to stay away from the forest was probably the only thing the public authorities really felt the need to do. That simple instruction had worked for this long, what's to say it wouldn't continue to keep everyone safe indefinitely?

Deeb switched off the TV and put her bowl in the dishwasher. The big pan and the pot joined it on the bottom rack after she put the leftovers away. Satisfied with the evidence of dinner being made disappearing without a trace, and the leftovers having been packed away for lunch, Deeb flopped back on the couch wondering if there was anything funny on the internet. It may be limited to the township, unlike the vast global network they touted 80 years ago, but there were still some quality memes and jokes to be found. Unfortunately, ads had survived the near-apocalypse. Before she could even open her phone though (to see ten ads and one meme), something caught her eye. It was the one family picture she had in the house. On the side table sat a picture she had taken with her parents and sister in the driveway the day she closed on the house. It was a momentous occasion, the day she left home, fully starting her adult life, so momentous that Sasha got the picture printed and framed in a grayish wood frame decorated with turtle stickers, so Deeb could keep it on the side table. But Deeb didn't spend long thinking about how special that day was, or how cute the turtle stickers on the frame were, or how nice everyone looked in their khakis and various business casual shirts. No, she was much more concerned that on the day she bought the house, which she had not gotten any work done on since, the yard was remarkably ditch-free.