“If you’re right, Mags, we’re in deep trouble.”
“Ladies! Ladies! Merry morning to you both,” Doctor Barns sang.
“I thought you mentioned you’d be late, Doc,” Maggie said.
“Gina, from the coffee shop, had my order ready. I called it in.” He winked.
“Smart thinkin’.” Maggie winked back.
I’ll put this extra box in the kitchen for whoever wants to indulge.”
Mira was smiling. “That's very kind of you, Doc.”
“Walk with me, Mira,” he said. “So how’d things go yesterday with Mrs. Brussels?” He took a sip of his coffee as they headed down the corridor.
“Quite well,” Mira responded, apprehensively.
“She nearly talked you to death, didn’t she?”
“Something like that.”
“I warned you.”
“You surely did.” They made the turn into Dr. Barn’s office.
“I did a brief examination yesterday. Her vitals were all good; blood pressure normal for her age, and I gave her the knee injections just like you asked.”
“Perfect! Look, I really appreciate you going out of your way to do this for me,” Barns said with sincerity.
“It’s no problem at all.” Mira started to leave.
“Doctor Barns…”
He was now seated at his desk happily opening the donut box consisting of a variety of plain, sugar-coated, strawberry and pineapple-filled delights. “Yes?” He took a bite into one of them.
“I know this might sound a bit strange, but to your knowledge, has Mrs. Brussels been diagnosed with any mental illness?”
“Not that I’m aware.” He chuckled. “She really heaped that crazy story on you, didn’t she?”
Mira smiled; at the same time glancing up at the clock. “Gotta go now. We’re getting ready to open. See you in a while.”
Barns eagerly got back to feeding his face.
* * * *
Stefanie was sitting on the front porch eating papaya and Francesca was curled up on the low, encircled wall when Fritz exited the house. “Finished the bathrooms. Goin’ for a walk now,” he said.
Stefanie nodded. “Take Drufus with ya. He needs a li'l leg stretch.”
Fritz walked over to the side of the house and opened the back gate. He then unhooked the dog’s collar strap that was hanging on the inside of the fence. Drufus came running out and after massaging the dog's neck, Fritz attached the strap to his collar. “Time to go,” he said. Drufus wagged his tail excitedly. He knew this was another day he’d get to leave the yard.
“Take good care a him, ya hear?!” Stefanie hollered as the pair made their way out onto the street.
* * * *
Joan Ridley was out in her garden in a long, flannel dress as was her daily custom. She looked up just as Fritz and Drufus were passing her yard.
“Mornin’, Miss Ridley!” Fritz hailed.
“Good morning, Fritz and you too, Drufus!” She had an incredible smile and the cleanest, whitest teeth Fritz had ever seen, which was an enigma since he knew the woman drank black coffee every living day. On top of that, the sixty-year-old had the longest, ballerina-like legs he’d ever set eyes on and he knew from that constant show of teeth whenever she saw him that she definitely had a thing for him.
“Had your morning coffee yet?” She asked, rising from her crouched position.
“Sure thing, Miss,” Fritz answered, stopping for a moment.
“Well, that’s nice. Will catch you another time then.”
He nodded.
“So, where you boys headed?”
“Probably down by the river to chill a bit.”
Joan was grinning. “Had a dream about you last night.”
“I see. Long walk ahead, so best be on our way,” Fritz quickly replied, wanting to avoid the subject. Joan, just like a lot of women lately, just didn’t rock his boat.
“Okay. I'll see you, then.” Joan stood watching Fritz’s every move until he and Drufus had ventured a good ways up the street. She wiped the pebbles of sweat from her face and got back to her gardening.
After making the right turn into the alley that led out to the river, Fritz detached Drufus’ collar strap and the dog ran ahead of him.
Fritz headed over to the large boulder he often sat on and lit himself a cigarette. He choked a bit on the first puff, but it eventually leveled out.
“Beautiful day,” he said quietly. With each puff of the cigarette, a memory sailed through his brain. Most of them were pleasant ones which had to do with Matilda who lived in Italy with her mother. His one and only child halfway around the world. The best he could do for her was to regularly send a little money. He’d done so religiously for the past fourteen years and always included a hand-written note in the envelope reminding her of how much he loved her. He wished more than anything that her mom would divorce her husband Joey and instead the three of them could be a family, but he knew it would never happen. What’s done is done, just like that situation with his father.
You can’t undo them mistakes, Fritz often said. Just gotta somehow live with ‘em.
At the riverbank, Drufus started barking.
“Hey, what’s your problem over there?” Fritz yelled.
The dog was barking and growling at something in the water.
“Dumb mutt. What them fish gon do to ya?”
The growling got louder and more aggressive, and Fritz was getting pissed off because his serenity was being disturbed. He got up and started over to Drufus. “Stop that, ya hear! You stop that right now!”
As he approached, he spotted something in the water. “What in the world?” A smile wider than the Mississippi River stretched across his face. “Is that a mer…maid?”
She was right there in the water; actually mostly on top of the water, twisting her body rhythmically to a melody he couldn’t hear. Her straight, jet-black hair hung loosely on her shoulders and perfectly tanned skin was covered only by a shimmering, gold brassiere. The long, fitted blue skirt glistened under the sun’s rays. She was the most provocative, alluring female specimen he had ever seen, and what’s better is that she was calling him with the constant curling of her index finger. The very sight of her awakened feelings and urges within his thin body that he thought were pretty much dead. No sexual stimulants had worked the way the magic of this mysterious beauty had. He could feel that tool in front stiffening and rising, and even pulsating as he kept his eyes on the lady in the water. Heeding her silent call, he kicked off his sandals at the riverbank. Drufus kept barking and growling, but remained exactly where he was, refusing to move even an inch closer. As Fritz made his way into the river, the dog directed some of his barking at him, yet keeping his main focus on the exotic stranger ahead.
With the head on his neck, Fritz wondered if he had been encapsulated in an amazing dream which would end up on the list of his many “wet” ones. And if he wasn’t, why this immeasurably attractive creature would be more than fifty feet into the river and not only in, but on. With his lower head, he could only see those perky breasts and luscious lips that he yearned to kiss. Drufus’ relentless commotion had been drowned out from the moment Fritz spotted the lovely lady. The closer he got to her, he realized she was no mermaid at all. Those little feet of hers were clear on top of the water now and from the looks of her, she would have had to be somewhere between nineteen and twenty-one years old. Annabelle, Matilda’s mom was nineteen when he met her at the community college. He knew it was love at first sight and for the life of him couldn’t keep his hands off of her. Getting caught making out in the otherwise empty locker room after-hours is the one indiscretion that caused him that good paying job. Seems like his lust for beautiful women had only brought him trouble in the past.
“Fritz…” the woman spoke in a tantalizing tone of voice as he had closed the gap between them by less than ten feet.
He couldn’t get to his seductive life-line fast enough.
“We’ve b
een waiting for you…”
In the midst of his excitement, Fritz suddenly became confused. “We? Wait. How…how you know my name?”
“Come to us, Fritz baby.” She opened her arms widely.
Just then, he felt tugging at his legs and reflexively, he kicked back. But the tugging continued to the point where he was trying to wiggle free of whatever it was, forgetting for a moment the beauty in front of him. Happening to glance up, he realized she was gone and all that mattered right then and there was freeing himself from his underwater assailant. Suddenly, there was a yank that pulled him underneath. While struggling to get back up to the surface, Fritz opened his eyes and what he saw made his heart pound ever so violently. They were everywhere – all around him – many very young, some older, but none quite old. Panic gripped him and that pounding heart wasn't letting up. Finally, he made it to the surface and gasped for air. Then, as quickly as he turned to get back to shore, a head full of long, black, straggly hair ascended out of the water. Those eyes were the most terrifying sight Fritz had ever seen. He screamed in terror while Drufus’ constant barking had finally made its way to his eardrum again, but was muzzled by the push of an oversized hand that forced him head first under the water a second time.
Drufus looked on curiously, hoping for Fritz to resurface again. But he never did.
* * * *
Stefanie was still on the porch when Drufus sauntered back into the yard. “Where’s Fritz?” She asked the dog as if it would reply.
Drufus sat on the porch and rested his head between his paws, looking straight ahead at the front yard as if expecting something. Perhaps, he was looking out for when Fritz would come back home.
“Drufus!”
The dog was practically ignoring her, or so Stefanie thought. She got up using her cane and headed into the house. “Fritz know he got this damn fridge to clean!” She murmured. “Sometimes I wonder why I bothered bringin' him here in the first place!”
6
_________________
Saturday, July 19th. One week later…
“Beverley’s picking me up in a couple of hours.” Sara rolled out the Oriental rug she had bought earlier than day. Rosie was a little ways off playing backgammon with an imaginary friend.
Mira propped her feet up on the center table. “Finally having that girls’ night out, huh?”
“Mira, you know I don’t play that! Get them down!” Sara barked.
Mira quickly removed her feet. “Sorry.”
Sara sat down beside her.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“It’s not a girls’ night out.” Sara sighed. “We’re going to a taco shop, for crying out loud!”
“For you, that’s a girls’ night out!” Mira rebutted. “Couldn’t avoid her any longer, huh?”
“How’d you know?”
Mira turned and looked her mother in the eyes. “If going to a taco shop is the first step in you going out there and living your life like Dad would’ve wanted you to, it’s a great start.”
Sara sighed. “We had this conversation before, remember? I am living my life.”
“Sure, you are. You’re watching your grandchild grow up; doing everything around here as you’ve always done, and not doing much of anything for yourself. Is that living your life, Mom?”
“That’s where my joy is, Sweet Pea. It is, and has always been my family. Michael’s gone, but you and Rosie are here, and so are Wade and Tommy who I get to see throughout the year. The quicker you understand that my days of dating ended when I met your father, the quicker you can get on with your own life.” She patted Mira’s hand and they both burst out laughing by how smooth Mama was.
“Hush!” Sara said, moments later, turning up the volume on the television. “The news is starting.”
Mira shook her head and picked up the paranormal novel by Jane S. Birkley she'd been reading.
“They took my Fritz!” She heard a familiar voice seep through. “They done somethin’ really bad to him. I know it!”
Mira placed the book face-down on the sofa and leaned forward. “That’s… Mrs. Brussels.”
Sara grimaced. “You mean…”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
Stefanie Brussels was being interviewed live in her front yard that afternoon.
“He been gone now for three days. Not like Fritz to just walk off. He got no place else to go! This the only home he known for the past thirteen years.” She started to weep. “I know I been a li'l tough on him at times, but he always put up with it. He’d never pick up and leave! He got that li'l girl somewhere in Italy to take care of. My God, they took... they took him!”
The female reporter attempted to learn who “they” were.
“I done told many members of this here community ‘bout them ole people, but no one pay me no mind. Now see what happen? Five people gone missin’; my Fritz make six. Only God know how much more to go.”
The reporter appeared unconvinced by Stefanie’s story, though she offered a sympathetic ear.
“Oh, Fritz! I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault!”
The next item on the agenda aired next.
“I wonder what she’s talking about,” Sara remarked. “She doesn’t look sane at all.”
Mira’s hands were interlocked beneath her chin. “Fritz is missing now, too? This is just too strange.”
“I hope our police can get to the bottom of what’s going on and find all those missing people. I’ve never seen anything like this happen in this town in all my life. You think there’s a serial killer out there?” Sara’s eyes were suddenly filled with terror by the mere consideration of that possibility.
“There’s no serial killer, Mom,” Mira tried to re-assure her mother. “Something fishy’s definitely going on though.”
There was a knock at the screen door. “I’ll get it!” Rosie sprung up; Daniel, as always, went behind her.
“It’s Bobby!” She exclaimed, letting him in. They gave each other a high-five at the door and Bobby handed her a chocolate bar.
“Go give these picnic invites to your mom,” he said.
“Yay! We’re going to the beach!” Rosie skipped over and handed the invitations to Mira.
You are all invited to a family-friendly picnic on Saturday July 25th at the Safehaven’s Beach at 12:00 noon. Eats and drinks are all free! Sponsored by the local Cultural Community Chapter.
“Come right in, my future son-in-law!” Sara got up to greet Bobby with her usual hug and kiss.
“What have you got there, Bobby?” Mira noticed he was holding something.
“I found this outside your doorstep just now.” He handed it to her.
Mira’s eyes were filled with dread as Bobby sat next to her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Come with me.” She got up quickly.
“Mom, Rosie, I’ll be right back!”
Sara had a worried look on her face. She recognized the object Bobby had brought in. “Be careful, you two!”
After hopping behind the driver's seat of Bobby's car, Mira hightailed down the street.
“What’s going on?” Bobby asked her.
“I’m not sure, but I have to find out. I've got a bad feeling something’s really terrible is not only going on, but’s about to happen.”
Bobby sat quietly for the remainder of the drive, allowing Mira to concentrate on where she was going. Twenty minutes later, she pulled onto the garage.
“Wait here for me.” She dashed out of the car and started banging on the front door. Drufus was nowhere in sight.
The door swung open. “You found my Fritz?” Stefanie’s eyes were watering.
“No, but I found this!” Mira gave her the object and invited herself in.
“Where? How?”
“Mrs. Brussels, I’m terribly sorry about Fritz, but something is obviously wrong here for this thing to be randomly showing up at my house! Look, I know I’m one of those people you mentioned on T.V. that never paid y
ou any mind when you spoke about the old people or whatever you call them and I apologize for that, but now I’m all ears. Since the day I met you, these inexplicable things have been happening which I can no longer ignore. I have a young daughter at home whom I must protect, so I need to get to the bottom of what’s going on and I believe you have the answers.”
Stefanie used the small bath towel on her shoulder to dry her eyes. She seemed more humble than before. “I know the artifact’s mine. After Fritz didn’t come back home, I went and checked on it. Had a hard time gettin' back up after bendin' these old knees, but I did it – opened the chest – and saw that it was missin' again. I think I understand why now.”
“Why?” Mira's curiosity was beyond piqued.
She placed the artifact on a nearby stand and said, “Follow me.”
With the assistance of her cane, she walked through the kitchen toward the back door. Mira was surprised to see the logs – four of them – laid across the steel door.
“Help me get these down, will ya?”
Mira walked over and took them down, one by one, then Stefanie unlocked the latch and opened the door.
They stepped outside onto the back porch. The entire back yard, apart from a separately parted off area where Drufus sometimes stayed, was encircled by a ten-foot high chain link fence with a locked gate in the center facing west. Beyond the gate was a massive body of water which stretched along the rear of other residential homes and across the opposite side of the subdivision.
“You see that?” Stefanie asked. “All of that lead out to the ocean. That’s where they live – the ole people I been tellin’ you 'bout. I had this fence put up this high for protection for my pets. You’ll understand later.”
Mira was looking out at the water, unable to ignore how beautiful and serene it looked.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they been hidin’ them in there,” Stefanie continued.
“Hiding who?”
“All them that gone missin’, includin' my Fritz. I been callin’ out to him through the window, but he ain’t answerin’. He betrayed me. He said me and my family was safe.”
The Cornelius Saga Boxed Set Page 38