Stolen Tongues

A couple days later, Felix gets a voicemail from Jennifer Ball’s second husband, Henry. When he calls back, Henry says that Jennifer passed away more than a decade ago, and Felix pleads for his help, briefly mentioning the cabin. Henry tells him that Jennifer was ill and that he should take Faye to the hospital. He tells Felix never to call again.

Later that day, Felix gets a text from Becca, telling him to ask Lynn about “5.” He calls Lynn until she finally picks up, and he asks her what makes five. Lynn whispers to Greg, who says she should just tell Felix the truth. They bicker, and Greg says Lynn was pregnant. Lynn yells at Greg, then says that she’s overnighting a box to Felix that Faye shouldn’t see.

A day and a half later, a box arrives. Felix hides it when he gets a phone call. He misses the call, but Henry leaves a voicemail. Henry says that a couple years into their marriage, Jennifer started dreaming of her daughter, then Tom. She said she could hear their voices, and they wouldn’t let her sleep. One night, he got home late, and she was gone. The door was open, but all her stuff was still at home. Searchers combed the woods, and the police investigated Henry for murder. Her body was found some time later, 40 miles away. She’d been buried upside down with her legs protruding above ground, and animals had chewed them up.

That night, Faye talks in her sleep. Around 2:00 am, she says someone is hanging things in the trees around the house. She doesn’t want to answer Felix’s questions because, she says, someone is listening to them. She tells Felix that “he” is going to kill Felix soon. Suddenly, Felix’s phone rings, and Lynn says she’s at their front door.

Lynn took an early flight without telling Greg because she wants to talk to Felix alone. She shows him a photo album and turns the pages while she talks. It contains pictures of Faye that Felix has never seen, and pictures of a heavily pregnant Lynn.

Lynn says that she and Faye made the book together to celebrate Lynn’s pregnancy. She was to have a boy, Christopher, but he was stillborn at eight months. Faye doesn’t remember the pregnancy, Christopher, or his death. Becca was heartbroken, but Faye was unable to process the information that Christopher wasn’t coming home.

Greg and Lynn decided to take Faye to the cabin for a break. That’s when the entity at the cabin noticed Faye. Faye never spoke of Christopher again and seemed to forget that he existed, so the rest of the family went along with it.

Suddenly, Faye comes out of the bedroom. Lynn tries to block her view, but Faye eludes her. She opens the book to a page covered in a giant, colorful, “5.” Faye snatches up the book and runs to the bedroom, locking the door. Later, she tells Lynn to go home, and Felix stays awake, waiting for any sign from Faye. Near dawn, he hears her unlock the door.

Faye remembers. She never got to see Christopher, so she always thought of him as the number “5” because he would’ve been the fifth member of the family. After she tells him everything she remembers, she asks Felix to give her time.

He opens the package and finds that it’s from Nathan; the box contains “Calea, the dream herb,” which his community uses to ward off nightmares and promote sleep (271). That night, both Felix and Faye drink the tea, and Felix has pleasant dreams until he is awoken by the cold. He realizes that he’s outside, on the sidewalk in front of the condo; the Impostor is under a lamp across the street.

Felix chases the Impostor for two blocks. He threatens the entity, but it turns on him—using Nathan’s voice and wearing Nathan’s face—demanding to know about the child. The creature speaks a phrase in Tíwé’s language, and Felix vomits profusely, as Faye had. The monster advances, and Felix closes his eyes, waiting for death, but the monster runs toward the house instead.

Being forced to vomit reminds Felix of his vulnerability, that the Impostor will make his suffering personal and horrible. When Felix can get up, he runs back to the house. Faye is awake, and she says she saw the monster’s face. For the next few hours, they communicate in writing so that the creature will not overhear. Faye has a plan.

For two days, Faye cries a lot, mourning Christopher. Nathan doesn’t answer Felix’s calls. Pike calls to say that the Spencer cabin was all torn up, as though two people were fighting in it. The K9 team found Nathan’s body, buried upside down with his legs protruding from the earth. His face and scalp were missing. After they hang up, Felix goes online and makes a donation to Tíwé and Nathan’s community to help cover the funeral costs.

Angela arrives at Felix and Faye’s, and they scatter Faye’s drawings around the yard, as Faye instructs. Faye goes to sleep, telling them to wake her when the Impostor arrives, but they wait for hours.

Angela and Felix decide to try and summon the entity. Felix hums the “dreary elegy” they first heard outside the cabin, and Faye begins to sing. After more singing, Faye says that the monster is in the bedroom, and Felix goes up, but it leaps from the window. Voices outside howl, and the monster pounds on the front door, speaking first as Lynn, then Greg, Becca, and even Felix.

Waking, Faye goes to the closed door and tells the creature that she has something to say to it. In tears, she says she had a baby brother, Christopher, and he was number five. She says that she remembers now, but she couldn’t for a long time because she wanted to forget. Now, she tells the creature, it knows everything and can leave; she’ll not go with it. The creature screams, threatens, and pounds on the door. Calmly, Faye says she’s had enough. The Impostor strings together one final sentence, composed of many voices: “I…walked…a thousand…years…across…the dark…to find you” (294). It conveys unutterable longing, but Faye tells the creature, simply, to go. It does.

Aside from one night, in which it only sings its elegiac lullaby, the monster stays away. Felix surmises that, by moving Christopher into her conscious thoughts, Faye cut the strings that tied her to the creature. Angela suggests getting rid of the engagement ring, but it’s too meaningful to Faye.

The Impostor now reminds Felix of Carrot the parrot, who always imitated but could only ever approximate a human. Beyond this, Felix has ceased his attempts at understanding. He plans to return to the mountain one last time, to pay his respects to Tíwé and Nathan, and to watch a bulldozer destroy the cabin.