North Woods

The story shifts to the source of another blight about to attack the north woods. In 1956, infected wood is carried from another location into the vicinity. It contains the larva of the bark beetle, which is decimating the region’s elm trees. One random insect is about to discover the elm tree that Major Osgood planted 200 years earlier: “A great tree, nearly two hundred years old. It is a short flight to the spreading canopy, where she pauses, bids goodbye to daylight, and begins to eat” (239).

Years later, Lillian is in late middle age. Having little else to do, she performs volunteer work as a member of the Women’s Benevolent League. One of the league’s pet projects is to correspond with prison inmates, and Lillian is a champion in this regard:

In addition to classifying the prisoners, the Benevolents also had their own taxonomy, of which Lillian was a “discloser.” While, for some, disclosure was an ideological stance, for Lillian, it was somewhat less deliberate. She had always been a discloser (247).

Lillian has always gravitated toward men to help her feel secure, and she soon forms an attachment to an inmate who will be imprisoned for life. During this time, Robert has again gone missing on one of his extended walks. He may be gone for months since some of his treks take him all the way to Canada. In October, a severe rainstorm topples several elm trees in the north woods. Osgood’s tree falls against the house, and a large limb collapses the chimney and the grand wing of the house: “The storm was over, but outside the world was almost unrecognizable—everywhere, there were downed trees, and rills coursed through the upturned earth” (251).

Lillian continues to live in the damaged structure and pursues her activities with the Benevolents. Much to her surprise, she receives a letter from another inmate who calls himself Harlan Kane. The letter reveals that Harlan is really her son Robert, who fears using his real name. He says that he injured his arm and must write with his left hand, which is why his writing may be unrecognizable. Robert adds that he was incarcerated for a minor offense but plans to come home in a few months. Lillian is overjoyed at her son’s impending return.

As winter arrives, Lillian tensely awaits Robert’s arrival. One night, heavy snow blankets the area, and Lillian’s pet terrier starts barking madly and runs from door to door. Lillian opens the front door to a howling blizzard, but no one is there: “‘It’s just the woods,’ she said, but then she heard it, or smelled it, or felt it, she didn’t know what. The door was wide open and snow was blowing, and she could sense it, circling in the darkness beyond the house” (260).

This interlude is written by Jack Dunne, a columnist for True Crime! magazine who lives in New York. He’s eager to tell his fans about a strange murder case that just occurred in western Massachusetts. He describes the difficulty of reaching the small town and the need to accompany the police on horseback to the scene of the crime because the snow is so deep. They arrive at Lillian’s home to find half a corpse suspended from the branches of a tree. The lower half of the body is missing. Scratch and bite marks indicate a mountain lion attack, but there have been no catamounts in the region for decades.

At first, Lillian fears that the body belongs to Robert, but it isn’t him. The police inform her that this is the man who corresponded with her under the name of Harlan Kane. A career criminal and murderer, he was likely on his way to rob and kill her when something intervened. The police explain that the real Robert is in jail in Minnesota for a minor infraction but will be released soon.

As the police sip tea in the parlor and discuss the case with Lillian, they notice her terrier chewing on an oddly shaped bone. It’s part of a human pelvis. A search of the property reveals three graves that date back centuries. All three men died violently, and the state archaeological department has been alerted to the find. Dunne concludes his tale by saying, “Only the woods know. And the trees aren’t giving up their secrets [...] I think the killer will escape justice, just as the panther did. Some dark centuries in crime, my friends” (276).

It’s now the 1970s, and Robert’s younger sister, Helen, has returned to Massachusetts. She married, has a son, and is a literature professor at a California university. In March, she received the news of Robert’s death. As his sole remaining relative, she inherited the house in the north woods. Lillian passed away years earlier. Helen notes, “From the beginning, she hated the yellow house. Hated its distance from town, the town’s distance from the city. Hated the darkness of the forest that surrounded it” (281-82).

Helen thinks back to her last contact with Robert. He’d wanted her to find a publisher for a book he wrote explaining his experiences with the Harrow and the Soul Heirs. Helen tried to read the manuscript, but it was rambling and incoherent. She broke this news gently to Robert, but he was offended by her lack of faith in him. When Helen returns to the empty house, she finds a locked room containing cases of reels of Super 8 film that Robert shot in the woods. When Helen plays them, they all contain footage of trees, squirrels, and the same nature scenes over and over. However, each reel is labeled with a different title. They contain names she doesn’t know, such as Mary, Alice, Erasmus, William, Nurse Ana, Charles Osgood, and the cryptic First Lover.

Helen concludes, “He had tried to capture his hallucinations. She had disbelieved him, and he had spent his final months trying to record what he had seen and heard, and offer them to her as proof” (298). Without really knowing why, Helen loads the cases of film into her car. She plans to keep them and watch them all again: “Robin, sapling, eternal beetle—the images stripped of all their prior meaning, signifying nothing but the gentle motions of a forest that no longer was” (298).