by Ike Hamill
“The door,” she whispered to herself. It was closer than the safe, but still impossibly far away. Maybe if she opened it, the wind wouldn’t be contained by the room anymore and it would lose some of its power.
She pulled at the bed frame, trying to climb against the blasting force. A drawer flew out from the dresser and slammed into her fingers, breaking her grip.
June fell to the floor and was covered by the mattress as it flopped over.
In the brief shelter provided by the mattress, her eyes landed on another possibility. There was a ring and a trapdoor in the floor. Covered by the mattress, she moved towards it, hooking a finger through the loop and holding on as the wind tried to drag her away again.
“You’re no part of this family,” she screamed.
The ploy worked. She felt the power of the wind diminish as it laughed at her again and took some of its energy to taunt her.
“You have no idea the bargains I have struck.”
June managed to raise the trapdoor enough to get her fingertips underneath. The dresser began to tip. If it fell on her, it would likely have enough force to chop off her fingers.
“You have no idea the power that was breathed into me. I made you cower back then down in Florida and now I will make you kneel.”
The dresser finally tipped beyond its balance point and began to fall towards her. With one giant grunt of effort, June lifted and pushed, getting the trapdoor vertical in time to take the weight of the falling dresser. It smashed into the door and tipped to the side. June rolled over to push the weight of the mattress away from the hatch that she had opened.
Its weight was supplemented by the force of the wind. The mattress was being pushed towards the trapdoor as the wind escaped Tommy’s room in a gust. June saw Tommy’s possessions fly through the trapdoor, dragged by the escaping wind. She flipped the mattress over and it was like uncorking a bottle.
Everything flew towards the exit in the floor.
The laughing voice of the wind turned into a scream.
While it was distracted, June scrambled for the safe. She grabbed the packet of papers and got her hand on the doorknob as the tornado finally began to subside. With one last breath, the wind blew the dresser on top of the hatch. She felt the pressure change again as it gathered its energy to ramp up once more.
It was too late.
She flung open the door and escaped.
The door was sucked shut behind her.
# # # #
June switched the packet of papers to her other hand as her fingers throbbed. She was moving with slow determination, limping down the stairs and dragging herself back through her quarters to the long hall. From upstairs she heard shrieking and bashing. The spirit was still loose in Tommy’s room. It would only be a matter of time before it found its way out.
She tried to pick up her pace and stumbled on the threshold of the kitchen.
June slammed down to her knees and found herself staring into the vent in the kitchen wall. For a moment, she saw eyes back there in the darkness. The thing giggled and crawled away.
June shook her head and got back to her feet. Something was trying to mess with her. The baby wasn’t real. If it was, she would have been able to sense it.
Lurching forward, she staggered down the hall, hoping that someone would open the door to the dining room to save her from having to use her mangled hand.
“Open the door!” she called ahead. “Please!”
Chapter 49 : Gus
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN by that? Why will it be over soon?” Allison asked.
They heard a faint voice calling from the hall. “Open the door! Please!”
Gus jumped up. He wasn’t the only one.
At the far end of the table, Uncle Tommy jumped up from his seat. In an instant, he was on top of Great Uncle Travis, wrapping his sinewy hands around the old man’s throat. Travis sounded like he was trying to laugh, but all that came out was a gagging cough.
Gus ran around Allison’s chair. He sensed his mother out in the hall, coming towards the door. He grabbed the knob with both hands, jerking at it before he realized that he had to turn it to open the door. When he did turn it, he flew backwards, spilling to the floor.
His mother was there, propped up on the door frame. She practically fell into the room. A folder of papers was tucked under her arm.
Her eyes immediately went to the end of the room where Travis was gagging and Tommy was grunting with the effort of squeezing the life out of him.
“Stop him!” June shouted. “What are you doing? You have to stop him.”
Auggie stood up slowly, like he wasn’t sure what he was seeing. Jules sprang up and the motion spurred both of them into action. They ran down for the shadowy end of the table where Travis’s gags had been silenced and his body was beginning to convulse under Tommy’s grip.
June collapsed into a chair. Gus tried to take the folder from her and she shook her head.
The brothers arrived too late to stop Tommy. He released Travis’s limp body and sat back as Auggie and Jules laid restraining hands on him. He shook them off and they stepped away from Tommy. Jules went to Travis, examined him briefly, and then shook his head.
“This is what it has come to,” Allison said from the safety of the other end of the long table. “Murder? You’ll spend the rest of your life in prison for this.”
“Maybe not,” Auggie said.
He and Jules backed separate directions from the shadows. Gus moved closer to his mother. Across the room, he heard Sam’s muffled cry as he pressed his face into his mother’s chest.
Tommy was the last person to realize that there was something approaching him from behind. He only seemed to realize it when they all heard the familiar cackle from the darkness. Tommy turned and jumped like a man half his age. The tall, dark shape began to emerge.
Gus never even got a good look at Earl this time. Uncle Tommy was still trying to scramble away when the shadow closed on his wrist. A moment later, Tommy was jerked into the darkness. His scream sounded like it echoed down into a deep well as he disappeared.
“He’s gone,” Auggie said as he peered towards the darkness. “There’s no trace of him.”
Jules and Auggie retreated slowly on opposite sides of the table. Everyone living was huddled near the end with Aunt Allison.
“June?” Deidra asked.
June let her eyes drift shut for a second of concentration. When she opened them again, there was a trace of surprise on her face. “He’s right. Tommy and Travis are both gone. I can’t sense them at all. The spirits are gone too. Tommy took Travis, and Mumma’s house took them all away. Even the Juracán is gone.”
“Who?” Jules asked.
June didn’t answer.
“You did it,” Auggie said. His hushed voice was filled with reverence. “You beat them all, even when Tommy turned to murder.”
“Why would he do it?” Allison whispered to nobody.
“This,” June said. She put her folder on the table and flipped open the cover.
# # # #
Gus pressed to his mother’s side as she ran her finger over the document and told the group the important parts of what it said.
“In the absence of a Mumma for thirty consecutive years, the oldest living person at the table will assume control,” June said, looking around the group and then letting her eyes land on Allison. “Tommy wanted us to unearth this document this year because it would have given him everything.”
“But then Travis crashed the party,” Auggie said.
“Exactly,” June said. “As soon as Tommy knew I had the codicil, he had to get rid of Travis. The codicil doesn’t mention proper heirs, it only talks about the oldest living person at the table. Travis would have had the legitimate claim.”
“Tommy would have been in control from jail,” Allison said.
“Maybe,” Jules said. “But maybe the sneaky bastard had a plan for that too. This house keeps a lot of secrets for whomever is in control
.”
“Speaking of which,” Kate said. “I’ve had enough. Can we get out of here now?”
“Yes,” June said with a sigh. She leaned on Gus as she started to push up from the table.
“No,” Allison said. All eyes turned to her. “I’m the oldest, and I refuse control.”
“So it would go to…” Auggie started.
It took a second, but eventually the attention landed on Henry.
“No,” he said, putting his hands up in surrender. “No. Don’t even look at me.”
“Then it’s Deidra,” Auggie said, pointing to his cousin.
It was her turn to look shocked.
“May I propose something?” Allison asked, quieting the murmurs. “If we all agree to the same course of action, we can overrule this document. June finished the test. I would like to propose that we grant her the title of Mumma Jay. She has earned it.”
Before June could open her mouth, Deidra said, “Seconded.”
June squeezed Gus tight to her side as she glanced down at the dark end of the room. They seemed to expect her to say something—to accept or reject the motion.
June gave Gus another squeeze before she responded.
“I’ve learned a lot tonight. If I take the position, I might decide that it’s best to shut this whole thing down.”
The members of the family glanced around at each other, trying to gauge the group’s opinions.
“That would be your decision,” Allison said. “All in favor?”
Their hands went up one by one. Even Sam, Penny, Isla, and Millie raised their hands.
June turned to Gus.
“It has to be unanimous,” June said to him. “You have a vote too. What do you think?”
Gus looked down at the floor to really think. Everyone else having their hands up was a lot of pressure. It would be easy to go along with them. He wished that the options were more clear. All he wanted was for everything to stay the same. That’s why he had sent his mom to get the document from Uncle Tommy’s room. He had been pretty sure that she would fail, and then they would go back to having the ceremony every year.
That hadn’t happened.
His mom had gotten the folder and, if he put his hand up, she would become Mumma Jay. That meant that things were going to change, and probably not for the better. She would make them move away—it’s what she had been talking about.
Then again, if his mother wasn’t put in charge, someone else would have the decision.
Did he trust his mother?
A few years ago, the answer would have been an easy yes. But he had learned a few things since then. He remembered that time when his mother had tried to pay for his dentist appointment in cash. She was trying to save a few dollars and the office offered a small discount. When they got a bill in the mail for the full amount, his mother had fought it. Eventually, after the bill was sent to collections, she had been forced to pay the thing again, this time with a check.
They switched dentists and his mom said, “You’re learning that, sometimes, life isn’t fair.”
She was wrong. If she had just paid with a check in the first place, instead of trying to haggle, they wouldn’t have been forced to double pay. If she had saved the receipt, or even been nice when she called to dispute the bill, they could have gotten out of the charge. Maybe life wasn’t fair, but it’s really unfair when you don’t go about things in the right way.
He trusted his mother, but he realized that she didn’t always go about things in the right way. What if he said that she could be Mumma Jay and then it turned out that she didn’t do it right?
“It’s okay, Gus,” his mother said. “If you want to say no, you can say no.”
Gus looked around the room at his uncles and cousins and then at Aunt Allison.
He raised his hand slowly.
“It should be you,” he said.
She didn’t smile. She only nodded and said, “Okay.”
Chapter 50 : June and Gus
JUNE PULLED TO THE side and then backed around so the trunk of the car was facing the porch stairs. While they had moved between small, temporary apartments, they hadn’t been able to use much of their furniture. Now that they were settling into a long-term lease on a house downtown, they were finally going to start bringing it over.
“Can I go around to the side yard to play?” Gus asked.
It was a beautiful day. The early spring had brought out budding leaves and the flower beds were already sprouting up their shoots. It seemed criminal to deny Gus one more chance to play in the yard.
“Just for a few minutes,” June said. “I’m going to need your help with the big dresser.”
He had his seatbelt off and had burst out of the car so quickly that the door bounced on its hinges and swung back closed before she even had the engine off.
June smiled.
After all his fear about moving, he had adjusted with incredible speed. He loved exploring their neighborhood, now that they actually had neighbors. His favorite thing in the world was walking down to the little store on the corner where the woman who owned the place baked fresh muffins every morning and sold them right out of the pan.
June took the stairs slowly, trying to feel the house before she stepped inside. It was empty. It was like the horseshoe crab shell that Gus had found at the beach. From above, it looked complete. Inside, there was nothing alive anymore. The house had stood empty before, but it had never been this dead inside. Something that she had done—the decision that she made, probably—had finally driven out all of that accumulated life.
Still, it smelled nice inside. It smelled like home.
She glanced around the room where she had raised her son. Her memories of all his milestones would always be tied to this space. She would carry those images around in her head until the day that she died.
Most of their possessions had already been packed up. It was just the bigger furniture that they would have to take over, one piece at a time. Today, she hoped that she could hang the dresser out of the back of the trunk and put the coffee table in the back seat.
She also wanted to have one more look around while she was here in the daylight. Auggie had already had the power shut off. Regardless of how empty the house felt, she wasn’t going to walk around the place in the dark.
# # # #
Gus slowed as he rounded the corner and saw his old friend. This was the time of year when he was usually on the lookout for any branches that might be growing too close to the house. If the tree grew too close to the house, someone might decide that the tree had to be cut down.
Now, it wouldn’t matter.
They were going to tear down the house. In the process, his friend was going to be torn down too. Gus was here to say goodbye.
He started to think that he was too late.
He walked slowly up to the trunk and put his hand on the bark. It was cold even though the sun was shining on it. Gus leaned forward and put his ear against the tree, hoping to hear some sign of life inside. Emotion welled up inside him.
All the other trees already had budding leaves. In the shelter of this little side yard, protected by the building and getting all the reflected light off the siding, his tree always budded before all the others. This year, it didn’t have any signs of green.
His friend was already dead.
Gus felt his tears start to fall as he jumped for the lowest limb and then scrabbled his feet up the bark. By the time he was sitting up in his favorite crook of the tree, his tears were already slowing.
Part of him had already known that his friend was dead. He had felt it in his chest, months before, when his mother had made her decision in the first week of January.
The whole family had stuck around the house for a couple of days. Nobody talked specifically about it, at least around Gus, but they all seemed to have the same idea. They all knew that Mumma Jay would make her decision quickly and they wanted to be there to hear it firsthand.
They also stayed to
make sure that June and Gus were safe. Gus could tell by the way that people stuck together in clumps for those few days. Nobody went off alone for long. After everything they had witnessed, the family was unwilling to trust the house alone.
Gus could have told them that nothing was going to happen. The spark that the house had always carried was gone. After New Year’s, there was nothing menacing about the place at all. He didn’t even have any fear when he looked at the grate in the kitchen. The baby had disappeared with all the rest of the ghosts.
Gus patted the dead bark of the tree.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t get to say goodbye,” he said, sniffing back snot and wiping his nose on his sleeve.
He had slogged out through the snow with his cousins on January 2nd, but they hadn’t made it all the way around to the secret yard where his friend crouched in the winter sun.
After a couple of days, June, now known as Mumma Jay, had gathered everyone in the kitchen. The room was warm with the smell of fresh bread that Jules had made. After his girlfriend called to say that she couldn’t make the trip, he had started baking night and day. The kitchen was filled with loaves.
“I think it’s time to say goodbye to Mumma’s house,” Mumma Jay had said. “This place has served its purpose and we all need to move on to make new memories elsewhere.”
Most of them nodded immediately.
Surprisingly, Uncle Auggie was the one who questioned the decision.
“Are you sure, Mumma Jay? You have access to the trust. You could use that money to fix the place up again.”
His mother had shaken her head slowly.
“This house has always had its own soul. In recent decades that soul has turned black. We should mourn its passing, but we shouldn’t try to keep the place on life support any longer just because we fear the grief. We can walk away with our memories. More importantly, we can focus on keeping the family strong instead of pouring our effort into this place.”