by Chris Vaughn
After Frank had gone back into the kitchen, she changed her mind and looked around the room, and decided to hide in her daddy's closet. When she walked in and closed the door, the air and smell of her daddy made her feel safe even though she knew he wasn't here to help. The aroma of her dad caused her mind to drift and she tried to think as clearly as she could, but the fear of an angry man who wanted to hurt her clouded her thoughts more than the sweet smell of her daddy's clothes.
Old farm houses didn't have spacious closets, but Joy did find some long coats and dresses to try to hide behind. Shoes and boots were on the floor of the closet, as well as her daddy's personal belongings inside the closet and on the top shelf. Inside the closet under all the clothes she could hear the faint sounds of some commotion in the kitchen and then a long silence, followed by someone's voice as they talked, although the voice was muffled.
The steps down the hall got closer and closer to the bedroom, then a voice spoke into the room. "Joy, ain't no one around now." Uncle Frank walked into the room, and scanned around the room quick to see if he could see a trace of her. When he didn't see her around in the open, he stumbled down on the floor with both hands and looked under the bed bumping his head on the bed rail as he did.
"Dang it. I know you're in here somewhere, girl."
Frank walked over to the windows and checked, and while they were open to let a breeze in, the window screens were still down. He walked around the room and looked again under the bed, under the dresser, and even pulled the chair by the bed away and slid it into the hall.
"There's only one place you can be, girl... I know you're in that closet, Joy...," He spoke to the door with his face pressed against it. He slid his face down the door to the old door knob and played with it in an evil fashion as he turned it to open it.
The door was locked.
"Got it locked now do you?" Frank spoke and shook the door back and forth as he tried to open it up. In the rage of the moment he didn't realize that a door that opened out isn't as easy to break into as one that opens in, and his repeated attempts to thrown himself through the door were met with the hard wood of the door.
Jackie looked inside the broken out window of the door and saw her Mama laying on her side, breathing hard. She looked at the sheriff with his arms limp and lifeless, he had started to move slightly, but he was far away from being a threat to the grown man who had hurt her mama and daddy.
Little minds don't know all that they can do, but they do have the imagination to try. She climbed as quietly as she could onto the washbasin and threw a leg inside the window, and as she started to throw the other leg in, she heard her daddy.
"Girl, what you doin’?” Rudy said in a voice full of pain and sorrow as he looked at the swollen cheek and eye of his daughter.
"Daddy, I'm going to help Joy...." She turned and eased herself into the house. "...it seems I'm the only one left, and I know I'm small, but... Joy needs some help...." Her voice cracked as she said it, and she wiped a tear out of her eye.
Jackie turned and saw her mama lying there and the sheriff. She walked through the glass and broken wood as if it were a mine field not wanting to make a sound and cause Frank Little to come back. As she got midways through the kitchen, she spied something and headed straight for it.
"I know what I'll do." Jackie took the gun from Sheriff Waters’ hands and walked down the hall to the bedroom.
Chapter 19
The old truck's brakes squealed as Buddy slid into the yard; the sound of rocks, dirt, and tires that slid caught Rudy off guard. He tried to stand but stumbled and fell back down where he was leaning against the car.
Buddy and Mary ran out of the truck as fast as they could. They both jumped out so quick that Buddy forgot to put the truck in park or even turn it off. The slight grade in the yard caused it slowly roll forward until it rolled backwards against the mailbox and fence.
"Buddy..." Mary said when she heard it.
Buddy never gave it any attention, but ran to Rudy and helped him sit up better and began to look at his wounds.
"It's Mr. Frank, Buddy. He's crazy, or drunk, or demon possessed, something. He attacked me, attacked Jackie, then Joy hit em."
"Where's Joy?" Mary cried out.
"She ran inside the house, and it's locked something strange, Mary. Mr. Frank went in the house and the door's locked both front and back. Sheriff shot at the door lock, but it won't open."
"Come on, Rudy," Buddy said not believing the story that Rudy was telling.
"God as my witness."
"Where's Frank now?" Buddy asked.
"He's inside."
"Where's the Sheriff?" Buddy asked.
"He went inside to get Frank but got hit or something. I ain't sure, I ain't been able to get up, but then Clementine went in and she ain't come out. I'm so sorry, Buddy, I couldn't get up and go. I'm so sorry, Buddy, you know I would if I could, I just ain't got the strength," Rudy said with a pitiful cry in his voice and then began to cry.
"I'll kill the...." Buddy said as he railed off a few cuss words and headed towards the back door. "Mary, you take care of Rudy, get him in the truck, he needs a doctor. Frank will need an undertaker...." Buddy said as he headed towards the back door.
More cuss words came out of Buddy's mouth, as he looked perplexed at the shot up door that still wouldn't open. He stepped on the washbasin and headed inside.
Frank had beat and beat into the door until he had knocked one of the panels out and created a hole in the locked closet door. The thin wood was easy for a man of his size to bust through but the wooden supports of the door were stronger; he couldn't bust through them and they prevented him from getting to Joy. He reached his arm all the way inside the closet to his armpit reaching and thrashing around as she tried to grab something that would be a leg or arm.
"I know you are in there." He screamed into the door, the closes still black even though there was a little light that crept in from the broken wooden pane in the door.
The chair that had been thrown in the hall way slid down the hall without anyone around. With his back to the room and his face pinned against the door as he tried to look in the closet, the chair pinned Frank against the door. The sound of the chair as it pinned against his legs caused a sound of a thud and plop. Frank let out a yelp of pain as the back of a chair held him against the door.
As Jackie headed down the hall she watched as the chair moved by itself down the hall and disappeared into the bedroom. She never imagined what it could be, but she moved slow and forward towards the bedroom door anyway. As she stepped as lightly as she could, she walked down the side of the hall and strained to look inside the room to see where Frank Little was, only to see the chair that had pressed the tall man against the closet door.
As Jackie stood transfixed on the sight of Frank pinned against the closet door, big hands reached down behind her and placed one hand around the gun and the other wrapped around her waist. The familiar sound of Buddy Hand's voice gave her calm.
"Baby, let me have the gun, and I'll take care of Frank, you go take care of your mama." Buddy whispered in Jackie's ear as he took the gun and slid her behind him. Jackie never moved once she stood behind Joy's daddy and was determined to stay with Mr. Buddy and save her friend.
Buddy turned back to make sure she had left and realized the little girl was holding onto his pants leg and hadn't moved. He turned and said with the sternness she was used to at night, "Jackie, I said go. Get now, take care of your mama." He took her hand off his pants leg and gave her a gentle push backwards. "Now go, now!"
Jackie took small steps backwards towards the kitchen never taking her eyes off of Joy's daddy. She pulled her hands over her ears as she slid her feet backwards. She never expected to see Mr. Buddy shoot someone, but she prepared for the sound of it as Buddy raised the gun as he walked into the room.
"Good God..." the words slipped out of Buddy's mouth as he entered the room and saw Frank Little.
Jackie stopp
ed and jumped. Buddy had dropped the gun on the floor, and was whiter than any white man Jackie Fryar had ever seen.
Chapter 20
Buddy stood and looked into the room. His face washed out as he watched in disbelief. The closet was to the left of the doorway into his bedroom and he looked and stared at Frank Little pressed up against the closet door, held in place by a single chair that was a foot off the ground.
"Buddy! Buddy! You okay? I can't get inside...." Mary Hand screamed from the back door.
Buddy never answered. He slowly started to walk further into the bedroom keeping his distance from the closet and Frank Little. Frank's face wasn't facing him but he could hear the gurgles and gasps coming from Frank's mouth. Buddy stumbled against the bedpost and in the stumble, he caught himself and watched.
"Buddy.... Buddy.... Help me....." Frank squeaked out from his gasping mouth.
"Buddy!" Mary screamed from the kitchen's back door. "Answer me.... Are you all right?"
Buddy continued to look at Frank with wonder and amazement and never heard Mary's yells at him. The look of astonishment was plain for anyone to see, except no one could see Buddy's face, and Frank wasn't in a position to see Buddy either.
"Buddy... I'm sorry... I shouldn't have...." Frank continued to beg and gasp. His body pressed against the door, his left arm inside the closet to his armpit, and a chair a foot off the ground that held him firmly to the door.
Buddy stepped closer and looked at Frank Little. Frank was in his usual coverall and T-shirt but there was a familiar color of cloth wrapped around his neck. It was the gaudy look of Buddy's one and only red and blue tie that he rarely wore, and when he did it was only to church. The thin end of the tie was wrapped around Frank’s neck and in a slip knot, with the rest of the knot going to the inside of the closet.
"Buddy... I wasn't going to hurt Joy...." Frank said, and with the sound of Joy's name the tie was pulled tighter and Franks squealed in agony.
"Joy!" Buddy came alive with the sound of his daughter's name. "Joy! Where are you!? What did he do!?"
"Buddy nothing.... I...." the tie again tightened and Frank's words gurgled as he fought for breath. His free arm was at his neck as he continued to try to work free from the tie noose.
"What did you do Frank?" Buddy yelled back, "Where is she?"
"She's in the closet here... I was gonna... Buddy you know me when I drink, I don't act right...."
Buddy pulled back his hand to hit Frank and pull him off the door, but the chair trembled and vibrated as he moved towards Frank, and with a move as fast as a blink the chair dropped and rose again as it held Frank in place. The sound and movement caused Buddy to step back and not interfere.
"I... Buddy... I... I shouldn't have tried to I'm sorry... I've done it... I've gotten caught up... Oh God...." Frank continued to confess to sins that Buddy Hand knew nothing of, but someone, somewhere knew something of them and they were extracting their pound of flesh out of Frank's body and his soul. Buddy realized Frank had more evil and sins in him than he knew. As a man he thought was a friend only prone to drink now and again, he was revealed to be a man of evil spirit and intentions.
The tie noose tightened and loosened again and again in a torturous round that allowed Frank to gain his breath only to choke it off again. The yank of the tie noose pulled Frank's head tight against the closet door, and he would again tell some wrong of theft or ill he had committed. The atmosphere had become tight and dry, Buddy Hand was mouthing words under his own breath making sure he was forgiven of any sins he had committed.
"Buddy!!!" Mary screamed again and again.
"I'm fine, Mary, just stay out of here!"
Mary had already begun to climb over the empty door window and stepped on to the floor of the kitchen to make her way to the back of the house. She knelt quickly to see about Sheriff Waters, but when she noticed he was conscious enough to be rubbing the back of his head she turned aside and headed down the hall and into the bedroom.
"Oh my God! Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...." Mary said as she saw Frank pinned against the door unable to move, seemingly held in place while time stopped. The sounds of his gurgled words and sayings by this time weren't even understandable to her, or Buddy, or even Joy.
Suddenly Frank's body bolted and jerked, the chair fell behind him and his body slid up the door. His left arm now limp, his body was pulled by the something upwards with the necktie noose tied around his neck. Where it was pulled and how it was pulled was a mystery to those, but it effects were not. Neither Buddy nor Mary said a word, but listened as they could hear Frank Little still trying to gurgle out words when they heard only one word.
"Clevon...."
Frank hadn't gotten the name out of his lips when the sound of Frank's neck being snapped was heard, followed by the jerks of his feet against the door. Frank Little was held in the air for a moment before his body crashed down on the floor. The chair that had held Frank came down with him and bounced well out of the way as his body hit the ground, but it did something they had only heard at night, but now they saw. Mary and Buddy stood there with their eyes on Frank Little in the floor. The chair teetered back and forth and got their attention. They both turned and looked at it as it fell over in the daytime.
Chapter 21
Clementine looked and waited for a sound from inside the house. By now, she had helped Jackie out of the house, gotten out herself, and had helped Mary so she could go inside. Rudy sat in the truck, in need a doctor, but not in a bad way. She and Jackie held their heads inside the window of the kitchen door as they wanted to hear or see something from the back of the house. Not a sound came out except the sound of something as it fell over.
"Buddy...." Mary said as she looked at the chair and the body of Frank Little.
Buddy never moved but was quickly startled by the voice of his daughter that came from inside the closet.
"Mama? Daddy?" Joy said.
The voice of his daughter roused Buddy and put him into action, but the body of Frank Little was slumped in front of the door and he couldn't open it quick enough. "Give me a moment, Joy. I'll have you out." Buddy grabbed Frank’s body and dragged it out of the way and no sooner had he done so than Mary was at the still locked closet door and she tried to pull it open.
"Joy, are you okay?" Buddy said. "Frank can't hurt you anymore...." and then continued to himself, "or anyone."
Inside the closet, Joy was pressed back against the wall behind her daddy's coats and clothes. At the sound of her parents’ voices, she pushed through the clothes and began to turn the knob, her mother let it go. The distinct sound of a lock's tumblers made a sound and then a click. The door opened up and Joy's blond hair and blue eyes were looking up into the worried faces of her mama and daddy.
"Mama! Daddy!" Joy screamed out.
Both parents knelt down and grabbed their daughter simultaneously and both cried out, "Joy, Joy...."
"You sure you're okay?" Mary held her face and asked. Both parents were kissin' and huggin' Joy as fast as they could.
"Girl, I'm so glad you had a skeleton key for that closet door," her daddy said.
"I didn't have a key, Daddy." Joy answered.
Both parents looked at each other for a flash. The moment was interrupted by Mary asking again, "You sure you're okay?"
"Yes mam. Uncle Frank tried to hurt Rudy, and Jackie, and I hit him with a bat...." Joy told the whole story of how she had come to hide in the closet.
"I'm so sorry, baby." Mary kept saying during parts of the quick story Joy gave them. "I'm so sorry, we are here now."
"Mama, I'm okay. Once I was inside the closet it was okay," Joy said.
Buddy looked at Joy and pulled himself together, "What do you mean, Joy?"
"The chair, Daddy." Joy said and pointed at the chair.
As the words 'the chair' came off of Joy's lips, the chair trembled in front of them as if it were bouncing back and forth on a rubber band. Each bounce gave it more momentum that the previous boun
ce until the chair made one last and final bounce and rose and sat back up right before their eyes. It shifted back and forth for moments until it settled back still. The wind blew the curtains in the windows and the smell of the outside grass and fields filled the room as the sound of birds could be heard.
Buddy and Mary stood up and pulled their backs to the wall and tried to make themselves disappear into the wall. Buddy held onto Joy's arm and pulled her to his side as they all backed away from the closet door.
The sound of a step was made followed by another slow deliberate step towards the door of the bedroom. Each step going towards the kitchen. Buddy, Mary, and Joy followed the sound of the steps to the kitchen door and looked down as they saw Sheriff Waters as he tried to sit up. The steps could be heard against the floor and the broken glass.
Clementine and Jackie had heard the steps and especially the glass as each step brought the sound closer to the door. Jackie was about to say something when her Mother put her hand over Jackie's mouth, followed by a soft 'Sshhh'. The steps shuffled to a stop at the back door and then the sound of lock tumbler's again were heard. Mary and Clementine both gasped as the steps in kitchen began to back track towards the hallway.
The steps paused for a long moment at the doorway where the Hand family stood. They all stood in disbelief to the actions of the day, the senselessness of Frank Little, and the mysterious chair and the steps. The wind blew again in the kitchen, bedroom, and rooms of the house. The steps began again with a slow pace down the hall to the front of the house. No one in the house had ever seen anything like this, and everyone was motionless except Buddy who left Mary and Joy holding each other as he followed the steps down the hall.