The Cornelius Saga Boxed Set

by Tanya R. Taylor

  Rosie shook her head rapidly. "I… can't."

  Cara frowned. "Why not? You are my sister. Don't you want to be with me?"

  "You're not alive anymore. You're dead! I'm not going anywhere with you!"

  Cara's expression revealed that she was seared by those words.

  "Come with me!" A voice that sounded like that of a beast instead of a human roared.

  "Mommy!" Rosie cried, backing as far away from the ghastly little girl as she could.

  Mira and Bobby sprinted towards the bedroom. Mira was in front. The door opened the moment she arrived, then slammed shut in Bobby's face. Bobby tried shifting the knob, but it was locked. The door even seemed cemented to the frame.

  Mira saw Cara near the center of the room. She looked the same as before except for her eyes and her skin once white as snow was now pale and pasty.

  "Mommy!" She was happy to see Mira. "We're all together now," Cara said, still in the strange, guttural voice.

  Mira saw Rosie standing on the other side of the room, clearly afraid.

  "Come with me…" Cara told Mira. "You, me and Rosie can be together forever. Wouldn’t that be great?"

  Mira was unsure of how to respond. She knew the danger before her. "That would be nice, Cara," she answered cautiously. "We love you so much."

  Mira noticed the soft smile that covered the child's face. "Don't you love us too?"

  Cara nodded. "Yes. Very much."

  "Rosie wants to be a Vet when she grows up. She just adores animals. Someday, she'd like to get married and to be a good mother too. Wouldn't you want her to do those things?" Mira asked.

  "Uh huh." Cara's voice lowered. "I wanted to be a doctor like you will be soon. I wanted to help sick people."

  "I'm sorry, honey. I'm really sorry you didn't get that chance, but you love Rosie, don't you?"

  Cara looked at Rosie and then at Mira again. She nodded. "Yes, I love Rosie. She's my best friend and my sister."

  "Well, isn't love unselfish?" Mira proposed.

  Cara raised an eyebrow.

  "I mean… wouldn't you want Rosie to be able to grow up and do those things she would really like to do before she comes to be with you?"

  Cara was thinking intently. "I guess I do."

  "Then, if you love us like you say you do, you will allow me to raise Rosie so that she can become those nice things and then later on, we can come and join you. Do you understand?"

  "But I want you both with me now. I don't have a family anymore. I am alone here."

  Mira slowly approached her and reached for her tiny hand. It was ice cold to the touch. Rosie was horrified as she looked on, wondering if her mother had lost her mind.

  "We are your family now, Cara, and you are not alone. There are other members of your family whom you never met that are eager for you to join them. They understand you, honey. They accept and love you like Rosie and I do. It doesn't matter anymore that your mom and dad didn't. That's over now. You have lots of family right here reaching out to you so that you can join them and be happy in the new place. Forgive your parents, then you will see the others who have been reaching out to you ever since that dreadful day when you crossed over."

  Cara appeared confused. "I can't forgive them. I don't know how," she submitted.

  Mira pointed to the child's heart. "Think of all the nice things they have done for you, even if there aren't that many things you can remember. The entire eleven years of your life could not have been all bad. Whatever little good you could recall, dwell on that and react with love. You can do it, honey."

  Cara's mind was racing. She started to have flashbacks of countless scenes filled with hatred and cruelty, then one appeared where she saw herself sitting on her father's lap at two years old. He was hugging her and kissing her cheeks. She felt his warmth; smelled his cologne and saw his effervescent smile. Her mother walked over and playfully pinched her nose before leaning in and kissing it. It was the last time Cara remembered feeling loved.

  Within the fond memory, she felt the love she had for them and in that instant, her spiritual eyes were opened. All around the room she saw people of all ages — even other children with huge, bright smiles on their faces reaching out to her with both hands. She knew they were all her relatives from generations before.

  An elderly woman with a face as radiant as the sun stepped forward and embraced her. Cara instinctively knew that it was her great-grandmother. The woman's love for her was unmistakable.

  Then another woman, decades younger, came forward and embraced her as well.

  "I am Matilda," she said. "We are so happy that you can see us now. We love you so very much." Her smile was angelic.

  Soon, the child's eyes returned to their normal hue and her skin no longer pale, held a brilliant glow.

  Mira made her way across the room to Rosie and held her. They both knew that Cara had finally found it inside her heart to forgive the people who had tragically failed her — her very own parents. The pain they inflicted upon her was now replaced by the unconditional love of others she never knew.

  "I will see you later," Cara said, looking their way. "I want Rosie to become everything she wants to and I want you there for her," she told Mira.

  With the darkness now replaced by an ethereal, luminous light, the rain soon slowed to a drizzle and dark clouds quickly dispersed. Surrounded by her great-grandmother, Matilda and the others, Cara looked at Mira and Rosie and waved a final goodbye. Shortly thereafter, they all vanished and youthful giggles along with carefree laughter echoed behind them.

  A moment later, Bobby barged into the room.

  "What happened?" he demanded in a frenzy. His incessant pounding on the door had been drowned out by the unfolding scene inside the room.

  Tickled by how worked up he was, Mira and Rosie went over and hugged him.

  "So nobody's gonna tell me what happened?" He was irritated.

  "Cara is now at peace," Mira replied. "She's gone."

  Bobby breathed a huge sigh of relief as his eyes beheld the Straptopuluses' house from the comfort of his home. For a moment, he could have sworn he saw two people looking out of a window from the second floor.

  ~ THE END ~

  We See No Evil

  Cornelius Saga Series - Book 4

  1

  _________________

  “Not again!” Doris Black snarled.

  Her husky, fifty-four-year-old husband, Clyde, was stretched across the couch as she sat close by with a glue gun in hand. Doris had been working on an artificial floral arrangement for Miss Mable up the street. It had been a lucrative side job for her for many years.

  Placing the glue gun on the table and clearly exasperated, she stood up. “It won’t be long before nightfall, so I’ll get the candles!”

  Clyde released a heavy sigh and sat up as well. “I’ve pretty much had enough of this hog crap! Every other week the power goes out in this God-forsaken town. Why can’t those idiots at the plant keep the lights on for a measly population of only fifteen hundred? You’d think we live in a big city. But even folks there don’t have to go without power more than maybe an hour or two in the whole dang year!”

  “Relax, babe. Remember what the doc said about you avoiding needless aggravation?”

  “Good, ole Doctor Whitmore probably has one of those two ton generators sitting at his big, fancy house by now while the rest of us have to sweat it out like a bunch of slimy pigs,” Clyde grumbled.

  Doris was staring at him from behind the kitchen counter. “Two ton generator, huh?” She shook her head. “You really need to calm down, Clyde. Look, I’m just as annoyed as you are, but I got enough sense to follow the doctor’s orders. You should too, since the last time your blood pressure suddenly shot up. You could’ve died that night!”

  She was referring to the night Clyde passed out and had to be rushed to the local hospital. It took several days for them to get his blood pressure down to a relatively safe level.

  “Well, you go right ah
ead, Doris. And furthermore, while you’re cooking and you remember he told you to lie down and get some much-needed rest, go right ahead and don’t bother to get back up to check the stove. See how you’d like it living under the bridge because you let the house burn down. And for what? Following the doctor’s orders! I don’t think Whitmore knows as much as people give him credit for anyway.”

  Doris sucked her teeth as she headed back with the candles and an old lantern she had inherited from her late mother. “You’re not making a bit of sense. You’re just like your pa. Your ma always said so.” She sat on the couch. “I swear I don’t know how I managed to put up with you for the last twenty-three years. I feel much older than I look!”

  “No one locked you in by putting a gun to your head, Doris. You knew where the door was the moment you stepped foot inside the house.”

  Doris snickered and gazed at him with those sultry eyes. He was shaking his head. “You think you’re all tough, don’t ya? You know if you thought for a second I was leaving your old, rusty derriere, you’d be on those weak knees pleading for another chance just like in the old days.”

  “They were the old days,” he said. “Don’t make the mistake of dwelling in the past. You might be shocked by the outcome of a repeat performance.”

  Doris picked up the newspaper and started to fan herself. Clyde had already stripped down to his boxer shorts.

  “I swear it gets hotter and hotter every summer,” she complained. Some strands of her greyish-blonde hair had stuck to her forehead.

  “That’s why this nonsense has to stop!” Clyde barked. “They don’t even care about the bedridden and elderly who suffer like hell through these power outages.

  Doris looked his way. “You wanna go by the diner and suck up their air-conditioning for a while?”

  Clyde thought for a minute, his eyes focused outside through the front window at the darkened sky. Every window in the Black’s home remained open twenty-four seven, particularly during summer months. But sometimes, natural ventilation just wasn’t enough to handle the humidity.

  Clyde reached for his trousers and started to pull them up. “Let’s go. If they operate tonight like they’ve been doing all along, we’re bound to be in the dark at least two to three hours. Dammit! I’m missing the blasted movie I’ve waited all week to watch!”

  Doris got up. “I’ll go wash up and throw on something quick.”

  “Quick is the operative word, Doris.”

  Ten minutes later, Clyde reached for his car keys from the mantel and headed for the front door. Doris blew out the candles and followed with her purse dangling over her left shoulder. She was wearing a blue, sleeveless blouse, the tail of which stopped just below her navel, and a washed-out pair of blue jeans. Her hair had been twirled into a semi-neat bun and her diamond studs were the only earrings that filled the tiny gaps in her ears that night. She had pierced each ear two more times when she was a teenager and often went out with three knobs in each ear on any given day. She locked the door behind them as Clyde made his way over to the carport.

  Ellenview cemetery was situated directly across the street from their house. Even after having lived on Suffolk Lane for nineteen years, each time Doris looked over at the cemetery, she had an uneasy feeling. A wave of anxiety would hit her until she turned away and focused on something else. Doris was convinced it was all those spooky-sounding tracks her dad used to play when she was a little girl. One, in particular, was about an obeah man who went into the graveyard at night and conjured up some dark stuff. At the end of the record, the artist released a loud, evil grin and every time Doris heard it, she could barely get to sleep that night. She never told her dad how much she hated that song although he played it at least once every weekend while he sat in their living room with a shot of gin in hand, winding down after a long week of back-breaking work.

  Clyde was almost to the Range Rover when through his peripheral vision he thought he had seen something dart across. He halted and looked over to the right. The paper birch and oak trees in their front yard harbored shadows all around them – shadows of crooked branches and overhead power lines mostly, which could only be seen under the moonlight. He scanned the yard for a few moments, then glanced back at Doris.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked, a few steps behind him.

  Clyde looked over in the direction of the trees again. “Nothing. I just thought...”

  “You thought what?”

  “Nothing.” He fingered his keys. “Let’s go.”

  As he was about to unlock the door, he heard what sounded like the rustling of leaves. By then, Doris was waiting at the other side of the vehicle. Clyde looked back again and this time, he knew he saw something on that western side. Something short, lean – human looking. “Who’s that over there?” he shouted.

  Neither a stir, nor a reply.

  He inserted the key into the driver’s door which automatically unlocked the jeep.

  “Who is that, Clyde?” Doris peered in the same direction.

  “Get in the car,” he told her, tossing the keys over the roof of it. She quickly caught them. “Get in and lock the doors. I’m gonna see what they want since cat’s got their tongue.”

  Doris wasted no time heeding her husband’s demands as he made his way toward the stranger standing near their bedroom window.

  “I asked who the hell you were!” Clyde said with marked annoyance in his tone. He had closed the gap between them down to about ten feet.

  “Mister Black...” went a soft voice near the oak tree.

  “Trevor, is that you?” Clyde asked. He could barely see him, but definitely recognized the voice. The teenager looked like nothing more than a silhouette beneath the moonlight.

  “Can you help us, please?” the boy asked. “He’s really mad. His eyes don’t look right.”

  Clyde was now standing a little more than a foot away from him and wondered why the boy didn’t look quite like… the boy. “Have your folks got into it again, Trevor? You need me to go over there?”

  The boy nodded.

  “Come with me, then. We’ll drive back to your house.”

  Trevor, looking awfully pale as he abandoned the shelter of the tree, followed Clyde who was already on his way to the jeep.

  “Climb right in,” the gruff contractor told him as he started the engine.

  Doris looked at Trevor who sat quietly in back behind Clyde. “Hi, Trevor,” she started. “Is everything okay? You don’t look so well.”

  He nodded shyly.

  “His folks are at it again,” Clyde filled her in. “I don’t know why those two knuckle-heads can’t seem to get it together.”

  “Clyde!” Doris cried. “For God’s sake, their son is in the car.”

  “He knows I’m right.” He reversed to the end of the carport, then took off down the street.

  The neighborhood was lined with cars parked mainly along the side of the road. Several houses had their own carports or garages, but many others had filled their front yards with large trees and beautifully-manicured lawns they didn’t want to park on. Clyde never understood what possessed them to sacrifice what could have been a sensible parking area for the sake of a pretty front yard.

  After turning a few corners, they pulled onto the fractured driveway of a little, blue house on Shedon Lane. Don and Tara Beesley had a reputation around the neighborhood for neglecting their yard. Neighbors saw it not just as an eyesore, but a health hazard. God only knew what was hiding among those tall clumps of grass and bushes which grew simultaneously and extended all the way out to the road. The house was in poor shape too and desperately cried out for a fresh coat of paint, not to mention some carpentry repair work on the faded brown, chipped front door.

  The Beesley children were not allowed to have other kids over – not that any of their parents would have allowed them to visit anyway. Aside from the wreck they called their property, Don was known to have a drinking problem, which sometimes drove him into fits of rage.
>
  “You stay here,” Clyde told Doris as he reached into the glove compartment for the yellow flashlight. “I’ll see if I can calm the mule-headed son-of-a-gun down.”

  Disgusted by her husband’s complete disregard for Trevor’s feelings, Doris sighed deeply and watched as the two headed for the door; Trevor trailing behind Clyde.

  Clyde knocked once and called out to the couple, but no one came to the door. He waited a minute before deciding to go inside. For a moment, yet without verbalizing it, he wondered why Trevor didn’t just bypass all of that and walk in ahead of him, but chalked it up to the boy just being a shy, awkward fifteen-year-old.

  Inside the house didn’t look much different from the exterior. Using the glare of the flashlight, Clyde could see the grimy, white living room walls, chairs with ruffled, tan coverings, a center table stacked with snack wrappers, and a floor littered with a mixture of work boots, beer cans and a grey bucket that looked like it was probably used as a “slop bucket”. He could also see what appeared to be an inch full of urine settled at the bottom, the stench of which convinced him he may be right. Somewhat shocked by it all, the thought drifted to Clyde’s mind that perhaps the family was really struggling to make ends meet. However, he wasn’t sure if anyone in the neighborhood knew or even cared if that really was the case. Don and Tara were pretty much low lives or white trash as they were called countless times behind their backs.

  “Don! Tara!” Clyde called as he carefully walked through. He noticed Trevor had strolled down the hallway and disappeared into one of the rooms.

  The house was unusually quiet and the apparent calm bothered Clyde, if only a little. He had this uneasy feeling in the pit of his gut as the silence didn’t at all make sense based on what Trevor had conveyed before they arrived there. He had expected to hear Don’s ranting before they even pulled up in the driveway.

  Following Trevor’s lead, he called out to the Beesleys’ again, but there was not a peep. “Where the hell is everyone? Trevor?”