by ML Gardner
Elizabeth met Daniel in the field with a small lunch basket just after noon. The sun was trying desperately to break through the rain clouds.
“What did the sheriff want?” he asked as he bit into a thick shredded beef sandwich. I wondered why he didn’t even look concerned. He sat on a bench of two hay bales, that close to being arrested for burglary, and he munched as if it were just another day. Elizabeth snuggled next to him, a chill in the air.
“He wanted to talk to Daniel. I told him Daniel wasn’t here anymore. There was only Stewart.”
“I think you giving me that middle name was about the best thing anyone’s ever done for me.” He smiled.
“Stewart, why would the sheriff want to talk to Daniel?” she asked casually.
He shrugged just as casually and then pretended to be suddenly concerned. “I hope my sisters are okay,” he said, worriedly. “I hope he wasn’t here to bring bad news to me.”
“Maybe you should telegraph them?”
“I think I’ll go into town tonight after supper and do that.”
“I could go with you,” she offered, but he shook his head hard.
“It’s supposed to get cold tonight. I wouldn’t want you catching a chill. It’ll be a long walk, besides.”
“I don’t mind long walks. In fact, I wanted to ask if you wanted to take a walk with me tomorrow afternoon after you get done with your work.”
“Sure. Where to?”
“My family’s cabin down by the lake.”
“There’s a lake around here?” he asked with a mouthful of food.
“It’s a good twenty-minute walk, and it’s not much of a lake, but it’s quiet.” She gazed at him. “Private and very romantic.”
That was my cue to leave and I turned on my heel. I wanted to hear no more of what she had in mind for the cabin. I considered that our place. It was our refuge and the last place I saw the true Elizabeth. I bristled at the thought of her taking him there.
Her next statement, thrown out nonchalantly amidst a long-winded description of the cabin, caused me to stop.
“We should get married, Stewart.”
He choked, but much to my disappointment, managed to swallow and breathe.
“Hey, hey now, I’m real fond of you, Elizabeth, but we’ve only known each other a few weeks. That’s moving a little fast, don’t you think?”
“Maybe. But I love you, Stewart. I want us to be together for always. You said you would stay, if you had a good reason.”
“Well, yes, but–”
“And I’m planning on giving you plenty of reason, if you’ll meet me down at the cabin tomorrow evening.”
I turned away again. Even if he agreed to marry her, I would find a way to stop it. I’d get Anna to help me, if needed, and we’d scare him right out of there. Or find a way to get him caught. The thing was, I knew he wouldn’t marry her. He was a drifter and a thief. He had no intention of settling down. I purposefully stayed away for three days.
I wandered for a while and then decided to check in on Anna at the end of the third day. I closed my eyes and was surprised when I opened them in front of the asylum. Anna stared at the building with an evil smile.
“Am I late for a reunion?” I asked, walking toward her. She glanced my way, but she didn’t drop her strange smile.
“Welcoming party is more like it,” she said and began up the steps to the front door. She paused at the door and turned to me. “Your eyes,” she said, her face now somewhat concerned. “They’re so dark, Simon.”
David must have noticed, too, because he did a double take when we walked onto the ward floor. Still not sure why Anna was here, I simply shrugged as we passed him.
“I hope they give her my old cell,” she said, stopping by it.
“Who?”
Just then, there was a loud shriek and the muffled rustling of struggling. I whirled around as the door crashed open, and two orderlies were half-carrying, half-dragging Nicole in; she was wearing a straitjacket. Her parents, Matthew and his parents stood outside the door, and all of the women were crying.
“What the hell did you do, Anna!” I turned to see her grinning as they walked past her, and it took a great effort to get Nicole onto the bed in Anna’s old room. “She’s not crazy, Anna, how could you do this!”
“I wasn’t crazy either!” she hissed. She glanced back at Matthew through the small window of the ward door. “He’ll get over her, just like he got over me,” she said.
“This is mean, Anna. To torment her until they thought she was crazy! This was an evil thing to do.”
She glanced around at the souls who walked through the halls; the old ones and a few new ones, all crying desperate wails, bleeding from wounds that would never close and speaking in strange languages. “Evil is all around us.”
I raced back to the nurse’s station. David was standing by, checking to see if the orderlies could handle the situation.
“David. This is a mistake. Nicole isn’t crazy. Anna tormented her–haunted her. She may be a basket case because of it, but she’s not crazy.”
David nodded discreetly.
“How can we get her out of here?” I asked. He shrugged slightly. “Damn it, David, this isn’t right!”
“I’ll do what I can,” he whispered.
“Keep the others away from her. She can hear them and once they figure that out, they’ll finish the job.”
A familiar nurse with a needle rushed past, and Nicole’s screams subsided gradually. I grabbed Anna by her scrawny arm and the contact surprised her. “You’ll leave her alone so help me God, I’ll push you through myself the next time that hole opens up.”
“Why are you even here, anyway?” Her eyes narrowed at me.
“I came for your help.” I glanced guiltily into Nicole’s room as the focus shifted to my problem at hand. There is nothing more I can do for her right now, I told my conscience.
“Help with what?” she asked warily.
“I need some help getting rid of someone.”
“So it’s okay for you, but not for me?” She laughed loud, ugly.
“It’s not the same. This guy is bad news for Elizabeth.”
“So was she. Matthew was thinking about not joining the military and just settling down instead. Being a salesman or something. His father will be happy that she’s gone, and so will he, eventually.”
“No, Anna, this guy is a thief and a liar. He’s dangerous.”
“And he’s sleeping with her, right?”
I rubbed the back of my neck and frowned. “I don’t think they’re doing much sleeping, but it’s not just that. He’s going to lead her on that he’ll stick around and marry her, and he isn’t going to do that.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know. So will you help me?” I waited rather impatiently for her answer, anxious to get rid of Daniel and to get her away from Nicole before she could do any more harm to the poor girl.
“Sure.”
“He’s got a strong mind, it won’t be easy.”
She beamed at the challenge.
We approached the cabin at dusk and I could see flickering candlelight through the small window. They were still there. Or back again.
I stopped about thirty feet from the porch. “You go in. I’ll stay here.” She glanced at me and nodded. I waited by the lake, picking at the brown grass that was slowly turning green in the early spring. I looked around and saw a few trees struggling to bloom, tiny buds of flowers and leaves dotting the ends of branches.
A flock of birds returning from their wintering called from overhead and then swooped low, the leader guiding the group to a smooth, graceful landing on the mirror-like surface of the lake.
The water broke into dozens of small ripples that met and then merged, stretching into two or three wide ripples. I watched the wrinkles lap against the muddy edge. The whole lake top seemed to shift side-to-side in one slow fluid motion. Something caught my eye in the water, working its way to the edg
e. It looked like cloth and I pulled it out.
It was a scarf, brown with black edges. I tossed it away to the muddy edge.
“They’re just talking.” Anna sat down beside me and stared at the ducks. “He looks like the shifty kind,” she said.
“Is that supposed to help?” I gave a dry laugh.
“Well, no. I just see what you mean, wanting to protect her. I’ve told you this before, but I think she’s lucky. To have you, I mean. Then and now.”
“Thanks.” I attempted a smile.
The next evening Anna stood in the dining room with me.
“We have to be careful. Elizabeth will be able to hear you, too. You have to do most of your talking when he’s alone. In the barn and when he’s working.”
She nodded, understanding. Cecile glanced around the table with a look of suspicion that bordered on anger, and approached the subject on her mind.
“Daniel, the work is almost done, so I suppose you’ll be moving on soon. Do you plan on heading down to Georgia to your family?”
Elizabeth whipped her head toward her mother, glowering.
“Actually, Mother, Daniel and I have some wonderful news. We’re getting married.”
Her father looked at each of them several times as thick tension hung in the air. Daniel pulled at his collar as if it were a constricting noose.
“Is that so, Daniel?” he asked, staring at Elizabeth.
“Well, sir, we were thinking on it,” he said, his voice wavering.
“Did you think to talk to me about it first? I am her father, after all.”
“Well, er, it came up sort of sudden-like. We haven’t made any plans or anything. We just thought about thinking about it.” Daniel hadn’t raised his eyes from his plate the entire time, and Elizabeth had shifted her glare to his head.
“Well, I suggest we do some talking over the next few days, son.” Her father seemed suddenly jovial and went back to his dinner with enthusiasm.
We talked late into the night, coming up with a solid plan, and Anna began work the next day. Accustomed over the last several weeks to pestering the living on a daily basis, she had become very good at it and began using her verbal power to break through Daniel’s strong mind.
I walked with her out to the field where he worked the next day. The Williams grew all their own feed corn and planting was supposed to be the last task for him to complete before he was free to go. He was alone; Elizabeth was working in the kitchen garden next to the house.
It was sunny and warm for March. I carried a silver spoon and a ruby necklace that he had stolen at some point during the last few weeks. My ability to grasp and move things combined with Anna’s vocal influence was the perfect combination.
He stumbled around in the lumpy field, struggling to control a horse drawn plow. I stayed behind him, out of sight, so to speak. He couldn’t see me, but he would be able to see the items I was carrying. I laid them on a patch of unbroken ground in his direct path when he got the stubborn old animal turned around and started working his way back. Anna walked behind him, loudly talking to Daniel incessantly.
“The sheriff knows it’s you, you know. He has proof. It’s only a matter of time before he comes back here to take you away.”
Daniel didn’t look phased at all, just stopped to mop his brow and then slap the reins on the horse’s rump to get him moving again. He plowed over the spoon and necklace and I grumbled.
“What now, Anna?” She stood and I waited, sitting down in the freshly plowed earth. It smelled wonderful; wet and heavy with the sharp scent of trace minerals and it reminded me of home. I pushed the thoughts from my mind and looked up at Anna, staring directly into the horse’s eyes.
“Daniel’s mind is too strong. We have to break it down a little.” She reached up to pet the horse and looked sad when it didn’t quite work. The horse whinnied and tossed its head away nervously. I thought I saw its large eye following the cascade of golden sparks that fell from where her hand met his forehead.
“Bring the necklace here.” I rose and brought it over. “Tuck it under the strap of the bridle.” I smiled and did when Daniel’s back was turned. I added the spoon to the other side, sliding it between the leather strap and the coarse brown hair. “Now, put your hand on his forehead,” she said.
I did, waiting for her to begin talking to the horse.
“You better be nice,” I warned. “This horse didn’t do a damn thing to you.”
She smiled. “Of course. What do you think I am? A monster?”
I glanced sideways at her and thought of Nicole wrapped up in a straitjacket and high on medicine that would make her forget her own name.
“Don’t move,” she told the horse. “There’s danger up ahead. You can’t go any further or you could get hurt.” The horse whinnied loudly, showing all of its teeth and shook its head wildly. Daniel cracked the reins down on its rump and yelled for it to move. It threw its head and dug its feet in where it stood. A few more cracks of the reins and he reared up on his hind legs with a whinny so loud and insistent that I took a step back, startled. When his head reared back, the necklace swung into view, glinting in sunlight.
“What the–” Daniel set down the reins and circled the horse.
Anna took a step back, speaking to the horse with a soothing and sweet voice.
“Calm down, boy. Yeah, you’re a good boy. Everything’s all right. There’s no danger. You’re okay.”
Immediately he settled and stood still, the necklace swaying by his jowl. Daniel lifted it off the bridle with wide eyes, breathing shallow and quick. He looked all around nervously before stuffing the necklace into his pocket. Then his eyes caught the spoon and he snatched it with a gasp. He looked around again and seeing no one, mopped his brow with his handkerchief.
Anna smiled and spoke in a sighing tone, her voice like a cold night wind forcing its way through rough tree branches.
“They’re onto you, Daniel. They’re going to come for you any day now. You’re no good, a thief and a liar, and you’re going to get caught.”
I watched a shiver run through his whole body, and then he scratched the horse on the forehead. “I think it’s about time to move on,” he said aloud.
Anna and I went up to Elizabeth’s room after dinner and waited for her there. She liked my idea of talking to Elizabeth, too, trying to convince her that Daniel was bad news and to let him go without a fuss. Maybe she’d break it off with him before he left, so she wouldn’t feel sad and abandoned.
“Tell me something.” Anna sat on Elizabeth’s bed and I watched the hypnotic trail of glitter roll gracefully off the bed. “If this guy was a good guy, would you be doing this right now? Running him off, I mean?”
I hesitated. I wanted to say no. But I knew I was jealous as hell and absolutely couldn’t stand the thought of watching Elizabeth with anyone else.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “It’s so hard.”
“You don’t have to tell me. I know it’s torture.”
“The thing is, Anna, we don’t have to stay. We don’t have to watch, but yet we do. We damn ourselves to suffering. Are we just too stupid to cross over and wait there?”
“I just can’t let go,” she said with a shrug. “Every day I think, this is it. I’m going to go. And every night at midnight, I change my mind. I still can’t decide if it’s harder to watch or to be away from him? What if time is slower there? What if it just drags on forever?”
“What if time moves faster? What if we were to cross and then it just seems like moments and they’re with us again?”
“What if someone he falls in love with crosses first and we’re both waiting for him. Or what if he crosses first and he wants to wait for someone else. How awkward would that be?”
“We could speculate all day, I suppose. There’s only one way to find out.”
“Are you thinking about doing it? Once Daniel is gone?”
I shrugged sloppily and sat down on the floor. “I think about it e
very day. But I can’t go just yet. Even if I wanted to.”
“Why not?”
“I’m waiting for something.”
“You’re not waiting for her to go with you, are you? That could be awhile.”
“Not as long as you think. But no. I’m–” I hesitated, cleared my throat, and avoided her gaze.
“C’mon, Simon. You can tell me. After all, I’m about the only one you have to talk to. Besides David.”
“True. I almost forgot how nice it was to have a two-way conversation.” I smiled. She rose off the bed and sort of half-walked, half-floated over, sitting much too close for comfort. “So tell me. I won’t judge you.” She tried to take my hand, but it sank through and just produced sparks.
I froze, debated and then took hers. She sighed heavily and she closed her eyes. “This is what I miss.” We sat quietly for a moment, and then with a look of deep concentration in her eyes, she slowly leaned her head over onto my shoulder. It made contact and she laughed lightly.
We were quiet for several moments listening to the sounds of early evening outside. “Talk to me, please? I miss talking.” I suddenly became concerned over Anna’s perception of our situation.
“You know we can’t. I mean, I love Elizabeth, you love Matthew. I wouldn’t want to make you think…”
“We’re just friends,” she said plainly, but not without a hint of disappointment. “I know that. I won’t lie, it did cross my mind. That we could ease each other’s loneliness for the time being, but–”
“But we love other people.”
“That’s just it. They’re people. What are we? Ghosts…spirits…blobs of energy…angels?”
“I think it’s safe to count out angels,” I laughed. “Honestly, I don’t know what we are.”
“Neither do I. So what was it you were going to tell me?”
“I was hoping you’d forget,” I said with a smile and a squeeze of her gaunt hand.
“Nope. Tell me. You’ve got me curious now.”