by Deb Stratton
She stood up and tucked the blankets in. I could see one shoelace on the edge of the bed. He was restrained as well.
He made no noise and I couldn’t see his eyes open. There were two beds in the room, and he was on the right side. I could not see the left bed very well, but it looked empty.
Both beds were made perfectly, and a glass of water was set on the bedside table.
It felt like being at home with Grandma for just for a moment. There was an overwhelming smell of moth balls in the air. Maybe that was making me feel sick. She walked back to the light switch and flipped it down. Click. She walked quietly up the stairs and shut the door.
I didn’t understand why she untied my hands just to hurt me and tie me up again. It made no sense. I could not figure her out.
I listened closely for any noises or talking. I could only hear the whistling of the wind through the old boarded up window near the foot of the stairs.
I convinced myself that as soon as I was able to get the shoelaces loose that the window would be my best option for getting out.
I looked down at my wrist and saw the bracelet my Mother had given me.
~Be Stronger than the Storm~ was etched in the copper plate.
I found it sad that Sandy felt the need to hurt anyone. I was not angry with her, but it was hard for me to think about how worried my mom was. I really was not sure how long I had been here. I was guessing a few days, but the wind outside told me that it was nearing the end of September. It was howling and cold.
I stared at the board on that window for
a few minutes and heard her come down the stairs again. She opened another door. While I was waiting to see what was behind it, I dozed off and struggled to keep the air in my lungs. I was trying to remember how to breathe but my mind was in a state of panic. Maybe I was dreaming. I just needed air.
I could hear Sandy mumbling unhappily as she went into that room. And then I heard the light switch click. I could not open my eyes long enough to see what she
was doing.
Some time passed and I heard the switch again and the steps leading upstairs. She was leaving.
I had a thought for a moment about the cookie. I had another thought about Piper. I wondered where she was.
I also continued to wonder that if she came back for me, who was in that room?
More confusion filled my head.
The hours went by and I reopened my eyes in the darkness. It was light outside. I could see it through a few cracks in the window edges.
I had lost the feeling of my hands and my legs were numb. My bed felt wet and I had a feeling that was similar to food poisoning. My stomach hurt and I felt ill. I
was cold but sweating.
The next few hours I spent the energy I had left trying to get my hands free from the shoelaces. I couldn’t hear any noises upstairs or from the other rooms. I was just left this way. Alone and scared. I couldn’t get the energy to stay awake for
more than a few minutes. I tried to keep from moaning or making any sounds that would bring Sandy back.
The door unlatched a few hours later. The sound of the steps came closer and closer. It was the same routine as before. Sandy approached and helped me sit up. She unwrapped my shoelaces and untied them.
I could barely keep my eyes open let alone hold my head up straight. She held me by my neck tightly and tossed me back down with no effort. I was un-tied but
scared to move.
She went to the first room and laughed.
“I have had enough of all of you!” She shouted.
And just like that she smacked him down with her old shoe. I still had no idea who it really was. His voice while screaming sounded like a girl. She was hitting him with the shoe, starting at the feet going straight up to his face. Then it became silent. She won. I could hear all of it. He just gave up.
All while I tried so hard to stay awake long enough to protect myself. I couldn’t do anything to stop Sandy, but I had to try. If this was the end of my life, then I had to savor the last moments of being able to think and remember. I thought about school, Piper, and my mom. All of
it was there and at the same time my mind was flailing around, like her hands were, with the shoe.
My dreams were becoming hard to distinguish from reality. I opened my eyes and saw the shadow of a black-eyed child. The old stories were coming true. The visions of the children were an omen. They were trying to tell us something. Maybe they were her victims? I had a hard time understanding the myth behind them.
It was a little boy and he sat in the corner in a wooden chair. He had a small ball cap on and suspenders. His jeans were rolled up at the bottom and he had high top tennis shoes on. He just stared. He didn’t say anything at all.
I was betting it was a bad ending for her husband. He must have been poisoned as well or beaten down with something. From what I had previously heard around town, he probably deserved it. I wondered if he was down here with us.
So, it was me, the black-eyed child, the mystery man and Sandy. That I could see and hear. I was becoming more anxious every moment.
Sandy headed my way and cupped her hand over my mouth.
“Do NOT say a word. I will bring your friend to join you tomorrow. If you cry...you will suffer.” She said.
What friend? Piper? Liam? I nodded my head to agree with her and tried to ask her about my bed.
“Can you please check my bed? It is cold and wet.” I said.
She wrapped my wrists up again and stared at me.
Sandy turned and walked towards the
steps. The door closed and she gave no thought to what I had said. Five minutes later her footsteps crossed the floor upstairs and I kept still. Crying in my wet bed. Hungry. Confused. Scared. What? No kiss goodnight?
She forgot to turn the light off this time. I used the time I had quickly to look back towards that room with the bed. I wanted to see if Junior was OK. I suddenly knew that it was him. I could feel it. His voice was comforting to me when he cried. It meant that he was with me and still alive.
His arms were dangling off the bed and his eyes were still closed.
I was shocked that she paid no attention to my questions or feelings. I tried to get my hand loose one more time before feeling sick again. Maybe there was something in my food that was making me feel bad. I needed to close my eyes.
I would rest.
Just for a few moments.
I had to.
Chapter Four
The woman was a beast. The days went by with the choking and shoe beatings. I was fed whatever Grandmotherly foods she felt were fit for me. I was convinced that I was being fed some type of medication. I stopped that thought quickly, refusing to let it come into my headspace too long. I needed to find my focus. I had to eat to survive. Why would she feed me? It would only delay her final plans. Whatever they were.
Of course, I’d never be able to get my hands free. I had tried several ways. My wrists were rubbed raw and my energy was
too low.
I could’ve probably gotten ahold of her if I had another chance without the shoelaces. I had been watching her enough to study her body and moves. She may be in a maniacal frenzy but my love for life was stronger than her craziness.
The door opened again, and she came down the stairs. Now what? I could probably predict what she was going to do but would’ve been wrong.
I tried to think about her. What motivated her. What made her slip off the edge? It was just like trying to figure out why anyone would become a kidnapper or a killer.
Maybe she never had real love from her mother. Maybe she created her version of the word. I related enough on a human
level to try and understand. I honestly believed that if love hurts in any way then it is not love.
She untied the shoelaces and rubbed my forehead. What a sick demented woman. She was treating me like a child. There were cookies in her hand on a plate that she had set down on the little table. There was also a peanut-bu
tter sandwich. I could smell it. I wanted to eat it so badly.
She helped me up and sat me in the chair. All I wanted was my blanket from home and my pillow. I wanted to wrap myself up and be warm and in my own bed. I wanted to go home.
“Now dear, please sit tight. I am going to get this bed all freshened up.”
She said in her lying, creepy voice.
I was witnessing complete insanity at
that point. Maybe it was dementia? Why was she being so nice? She left the room one person and returned as another.
I wanted a cookie, but I didn’t take one. I needed food to get energy but was still afraid that there was something in them making me sick. I touched the sandwich and pulled the crust off. My entire life was filled with moments of eating food as quickly as possible. This wasn’t one of those moments. I studied the bread and looked at it. Nothing looked unusual. It looked alright. I ate the crust slowly and waited to see how I felt.
I didn’t move. I would buy my time to do it right. Trying to get up those stairs feeling ill would be a big mistake. I could’ve tried to run quickly but who knew what was going on up there. I could shorten my stay on her terms by betraying her.
She changed the bed and placed a toilet next to the bedside. It was the kind that my Grandma used to have in the nursing home. It was much better than a bedpan or laying in a wet bed.
My skin was soaked, and I could smell the urine. My ability to control my emotions kept her anger at bay. My actions had a reaction. If I complained about the bed, she left. If I didn’t, she fixed it. I was starting to figure her out.
I could feel her own pain when her hands touched me. Her life must have been very sad and painful at one time to bring her to this mental place she was in.
After the bed was ready, she walked over to a large wooden cabinet. The kind that you would see in an old antique store. There was a TV inside and she put on an
old tape. It was a recording of the old show, The Waltons.
I had never watched that show but my Mom loved it. She placed me back in bed and tucked me in. My wrist shoelaces were placed back on and she kissed my forehead.
I never got the cookie. She left again and the cookies were only a few feet away. I had no drink or food within reach. I had to wait until I deserved it, I guess.
I caught a glimpse of Junior’s face with the light on. It was him. His skin was bruised and swollen. I called his name. He didn’t answer. I tried to scoot up to the headboard more to get closer to full view of him.
“Junior.” I whispered and hesitated for a minute. “Hang in there one more day.
Please. Don’t give up. We will be ok.”
He didn’t answer. Sandy seemed to favor me over him. I knew that he would need food soon. He had to be sick from not eating.
Several hours passed by with the tape still playing. I liked the noise and I still couldn’t watch an episode completely throughout without nodding off a hundred times. I just was not well. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.
Goodnight John-boy.
Goodnight.
Chapter Five
I had to remind myself that whoever was in the first room was quiet. Sandy never removed anyone, and I put the clues together to conclude that it was Junior. He still looked taped up and tied. Why he was not able to make any noise or bang around a little was making me worried.
Time was passing by and I had no way to determine how long we had been here. It was days and then a week or more. It was too long.
She eventually fed him and gave him the water but never changed his bed as much as mine. I hated thinking about what
it had to be like over there. I only knew what it was like in my little center of the room. It was foul and just breathing it all in made me feel sick.
I was convinced that her husband was in the other room. I was so disgusted. It made me sick. I felt ill breathing the damp death infested air.
The way that she went in there and the things that she said to herself gave it away.
Sandy’s new pattern of coming down to bring me food and change the tape on the TV was better than the previous days. It was Love Boat today. I had never heard of this before. I doubted if my mom had even heard of it. Maybe she did. It was kind of from the same era as the other old shows.
The episode was about people that worked on a cruise ship and witnessed love.
I tried to imagine what the Hollywood set looked like. I also imagined what it would be like to be on a cruise ship. I would’ve done anything to be anywhere else but in this basement.
In between the Love Boat episodes there was a different show. It was Fantasy Island. I remembered someone mentioning that show before. It was about people that went to an island to have their dreams come true. The show was being remade into a movie for the big screen this year. I thought that was strange. Why remake a show forty years later? I liked it more than Love Boat, but she only had the one recorded on there. I felt special. I was able to have the TV to watch and she put me as a priority over the rest of her duties to Junior. I didn’t like feeling lucky. I wanted him to be treated the same or better than me. It made me sick to think of what he was going through.
The shows continued to play while I made my plan. It was a relief to do something after waiting for a visit from her. I was still not able to get up on my own but was starting to feel better. I wasn’t recovering or healing. I think I was just learning to adapt to it all. I was starving and that never went away. The coldness also continued to linger.
I tried not to cry. I never screamed. I did what she wanted and somehow it started to please her.
Junior’s voice was stuck in my head. I heard him laughing at school and joking around on our walks home. I heard his silent crying over and over. I wished he would move or wake up and talk to me.
Spending so much time thinking about it was reminding me of all of the things I
had never done. I had never been in love. I had never been kissed. I never felt special. Never.
I found myself creating this amazing love story in my head. I would escape and bring all of my dreams to life. I would give us a reason to escape if not only for our own reasons but for the new love that we would find.
I was pretty sure that I started to sound just as crazy to myself as Sandy did to me. But it was nice to have something to dream about.
Maybe this would be my last chance to experience that kind of feeling. Was it possible that he could hear me? I decided to spend all of my time awake talking to him. Hopefully, he could tolerate it.
I listened for police sirens or emergency vehicles to come to my rescue. I hadn’t
heard, even one knock on the door.
Who would question an old woman anyway? I wouldn’t have. But there has to be some type of investigation up there with two of us gone. I know I am not using my time wisely by thinking about all of this, but I needed to. I had lots of time. I would need to find a way to get out of the shoelaces before worrying about the investigation up above.
If I was going to face my last day, then I needed to face my fears and thoughts. And she has to sleep sometime, right?
Maybe that would be the best time to make a run for it. If I could time it right between visits and get the shoelaces off quickly. I could find that shoe and bust out the wood. I don’t know. I am angry with myself that I became such an easy prey to her.
The day became very long and miserable.
“Love, exciting and new
Come aboard, we’re expecting you
Love, life's sweetest reward
Let it flow, it floats back to you
Love Boat... soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Love won't hurt anymore
It’s an open smile on a friendly shore
Yes, love...
It's love…”
I had to admit the show was growing on me. Maybe they could do a remake of the show. One with a more modern crew. Perez Hilton would be a good c
hoice. Maybe even Woody Harrelson. Now, that would be a show.