“… for what?” Regina asked with a genuine cluelessness.
“Wait for the body to wake…to get up and walk again.”
“What?” She scowled.
“They had to be sure that the person was not just unconscious with fever, in a coma or anything like that. If after a few days the person was still unconscious they figured it was OK to bury them. People came to a wake in hopes that person would wake up and walk again. Now it’s just an obsolete, but endearing tradition.” Her father looked at her to make sure that she had been satisfied with the answer. Regina was sure that his answer was a clever medium between truth and fiction as most of the historical and scientific explanations that he had given her since she was a child tended to be. No one knew everything, but her father was good at pretending that he did. Regina’s curiosity had been more than quenched by his answer. Of all of the reasons that she had suspected a wake was a relevant part of the ceremony of death the explanation that her father had just given her, despite the obviousness of the name, had never occurred to her or played any part in the possible explanations that she had recounted to herself. Her father’s definition of a wake did not make the ceremony any less miserable, but did give her new hope for the outcome. Regina glued her eyes to the gleaming black casket and waited.
Clouds passed over the sun that gave light, but offered no warmth and a grim shadow filtered through the windows of the house of the dead. Her dream from last night had been too active, too vivid and she felt as if she had not slept at all. Regina leaned her head on her father’s shoulder; he wrapped his arm around her.
Violent shaking in the room startled the dozing young woman. A deep lumbering wail plowed through the funeral home and everyone looked to the pastor for guidance, he looked to the sky for his direction, but no knowledge rained down. Regina’s heart swelled as the locks on the black casket snapped open with a raucous clank. The lid of the casket opened slowly and a pale hand, half eaten away by time and other life forms, with a spiny almost skeletal finger crept over the side of the casket as a brace to lift the lifeless body out of the death bed. The air around them was whipping like an angry tornado. Regina’s body was compelled to stand, and she was drawn toward the aisle. Carefully, she stepped over people who looked on seeming to no longer notice their surroundings and were just lifeless place markers in timeless space. There was no other movement in the room until Regina saw that two figures suddenly walked at her side. Nikki and Natalie were summoned as well. Three helpless girls marched toward the casket. None of them wanting to go, but called and resolved to obey their obligation. The trembling girls were pulled to their knees in front of the casket by the spirit that controlled them. Lola moved with rigid jerks, but still methodical and with precise intent. The stiff corpse placed one foot on the carpeted floor and then the other and pushed itself until it was fully free from the casket that contained it. Lola laboriously moved one foot in front of the other until she was standing before the girls who were kneeling before her in some perverse allegiance to the soul that they had sacrificed. Lola gasped hoarse breaths through the mouth that was chewed away at some parts of the lips. The girls recoiled at the full sight of the thing and person that they most loved and feared. The dead thing made an attempt at a scream with a strained wheezing through the rotted mouth and the whirlwind became stronger and faster and she lunged forward on top of Natalie, toppling her effortlessly.
Regina was bucked into consciousness by Natalie’s screech, which tore through the room like a butcher knife ripping violently through silk. Everyone’s head snapped back to see her tumbling out of the doorway onto the floor. Natalie was scrambling backward on her legs and the palms of her hands. Regina stood to see the bath of terror that stormed Natalie’s delicate features. The terrified girl got her feet beneath her in a series of clumsy moves and sprinted down the hall. The room collapsed into frantic whispers of horror. Mr. Rusher stood up; his concerned eyes meeting Regina’s at once.
“I’ll go after her,” she said.
“Is she OK?” Mr. Rusher asked
“She’ll be fine,” Regina replied.
“Do you need me?” Regina’s mother asked as Regina stumbled over the people in her row and into the aisle.
“No, stay!” She instructed, barely looking back. Regina caught a glimpse of Nikki on the edge of her seat as she sprinted after Natalie.
The strong chill of cold air hit Regina hard as she burst out the front doors of the funeral home.
“Natalie!” Regina yelled to the woman who was already slamming her car door and starting the engine.
“Natalie, please.” She hollered into the early afternoon of the gray fall. Regina dashed into the parking lot, but it was no use; Natalie burned out on screeching tires. The entire incident knocked the wind from Regina and she took a minute to regain her proper breathing before turning to go back into the funeral home. Nikki had followed her and was standing outside of the glass entry doors. At the sight of Nikki a bubble of frustration inside of Regina burst and anger began pulsing through her veins as efficiently as if an IV of the emotion had been inserted directly into her arm. Gears switched from one unexplainable incident to the next and Regina charged toward the timid looking woman pulling the ripped photograph out of the pocket of her dress and holding it up directly in front of Nikki’s face.
“What the hell is this?” She asked unexpectedly breathless again. It took Nikki only a second to recognize the photo and she recalled the full spread of it even though the only part that remained held up between Regina’s fingers was an image of herself. Nikki swallowed hard trying to get the golf ball out of her throat. Before Nikki could offer a word, Regina spoke again while backing Nikki into the glass.
“You told me that you had not seen him since we were kids, but here you are taking pictures with him. Why did you lie?”
“I can explain,” Nikki said in a weak voice as if she was about to faint.
“I’m…listening,” Regina growled.
“I saw him only that one time,” Nikki said. Skepticism dimmed Regina’s face.
“I swear,” Nikki added.
“Why, Nikki? Why did you need to see him at all?” Regina asked, feeling her patience slipping from under her in a way that she had never experienced before.
“I don’t know,” Nikki exploded. “I just needed to talk to him. I needed to know why, Regina. All of the disgusting things that happened to us, all of the times I had to come home and push my underwear down to the bottom of the trash so that my father would not see them, I needed answers!” Nikki pleaded.
Regina’s anger dissolved like air from a popped balloon, she stood next to Nikki with her back against the glass while Nikki continued.
“Sometimes even now, when I feel the anxiety creeping up inside of me, when it begins permeating every orifice of my body and I can no longer stand to be inside of the skin that contains me and the alcohol isn’t enough; I get a pair of my underwear and shove them deep down to the bottom of the garbage, where no one can see them; only I know that they’re there. It’s the only thing besides the liquor that gives me even the tiniest relief. It makes me feel like it is over for the day or maybe even for the week and I can sleep.”
“Oh, Nikki.” Regina sighed.
“Not including him, I’m still a virgin,” Nikki revealed. “I know I talk a lot, but it’s all just talk, you know?”
Silence ruled while the knots of the shared misery made themselves known in the stomachs of both women.
“I just can’t do it. Then after what happened to Lola…I lost everything, EVERYTHING because of him and I just wanted to know why, Regina?” She was beginning to disintegrate into an emotional mess like an ice cream cone in summer, under the harsh rays of sunlight, slipping through the fingers that held it, drip by drip.
“Was he sick? Was it done to him? Was he bullied? Did he enjoy it? Could he control it? All of these questions with no answers until one day I just had to know so I called him. We met at the fair because I
couldn’t stand the thought of being alone with him. I asked him and do you know what he said?” Nikki looked to Regina.
“No,” Regina said in a low voice filled with the guilt of having ever suspected Nikki of anything so horrible as all of the things that she had suspected when she saw the photo.
“No, I don’t know,” she repeated. Nikki’s smile warned Regina that the words that were about to pour forth from her mouth would be as vexing as her Mona Lisa grin. Nikki reached into her purse and pulled out a mini bottle of vodka, opened it and took a gulp before holding it out in front of Regina. Regina grabbed the bottle and finished its contents. “He denied it,” she stated solemnly. Regina recoiled with involuntary exaggeration.
“Yup!” Nikki laughed in an attempt to hold back the tears.
“Never happened. We were young and he was our teacher. Naturally we had a crush on him, imagined such scenarios so much until we convinced ourselves they were true.” Nikki imitated.
“What?” Regina said unable to hide her sheer disgust.
“One of the people from the fair just happened to come by and snap that picture, they sell them.” She finished the explanation. “I guess he bought it later. Where’d you find it?”
“Yesterday, I went to the DeFrank estate.” Regina told her friend.
“Alone?” Nikki asked.
“Yes. I know that I shouldn’t have, but it’s just like you said, the questions that I had just could not wait any longer. I found this picture of you and him on a bookcase in the old study. It got ripped”
“There’s still stuff there?”
“Not much, but some. Someone attacked me while I was there.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, Nikki. I didn’t see them. They hit me from behind. Yesterday night when I went to the parade someone lured me into Clark’s sculpture store and I was attacked again.”
“By the same person?”
“I would assume so, but I don’t know. They were wearing some type of cape.”
“A brown one?” Nikki asked.
“Yes, you saw them?” Regina was relieved at the thought that she was not alone, that she was not crazy; someone else was seeing the same thing.
“I noticed someone at the parade last night with a long blowy cape-like thing, I saw them several times, but I didn’t think much about it.”
“You were at the parade?”
“Yeah, I looked for you, but I couldn’t find you. Someone was following me?” Nikki asked.
“I don’t know, but I doubt it was just a coincidence.”
“Do you think that it has to do with Lola?” Nikki asked.
“It must. Why else would someone want to hurt me and watch you?” Regina asked her friend whom she could see was becoming more nervous by the moment.
“But no one else knows what happened,” Nikki argued. “I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Whoever buried her on Glen DeFrank’s property knows what happened.”
“What are we gonna do?” Nikki asked.
“I’m not sure yet, but whatever it is we have to do it quick.”
“Quick?” Nikki questioned.
“Sheriff Handow came by my house this morning. He said that Mrs. Landcaster saw you bringing me home on the night of Lola’s death at 2:00 a.m.”
Nikki’s face mutated into a mask of horrific surprise. “… But that’s hours after we told everyone we were home.”
“I’m aware of that, Nikki. I told him that Mrs. Landcaster is crazy and that she was mistaken.”
“Crap!” Nikki spit.
“Just stick to the story for now, Nikki, and we’ll be fine. We just have to figure this out before Sheriff Handow and before any of us get hurt.” Regina said as they felt the glass doors began to push against them.
Everyone filed out of the funeral home and began communing in small groups before finding their cars and beginning the procession to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rusher. The weather had become icy and uncaring and it terrorized the guests. Regina was holding Nikki’s hand when their parents walked out of the funeral home.
“Nikki, would you like to ride with us?” Mrs. Dean asked. Both girls looked at one another, and then Nikki looked to her father.
“Why don’t you ride with them? I will meet you there.” Nikki’s father said rubbing her arm. As they walked toward the car, the girls embraced one another around the waist and snuggled their heads together as they made a way through the crowd. Approaching her mother’s car, Regina saw a piece of canary yellow paper stuck to her mother’s windshield. Regina looked at the other cars in the lot to see if they had received a similar flyer or ticket, but they had not and she felt the nausea instantly. She loosened herself from Nikki and trotted up to the front of the car. Regina got close before she realized that what she saw was not a ticket at all, but a note. She ripped the piece of paper from under the windshield wiper and unfolded it, struggling to keep it still enough despite the forceful winds long enough to read the short scribbled message.
STOP DIGGING!
She pulled the brilliantly colored paper to her chest as she looked around searching for the offender that was long gone.
“What?” Nikki called out nervously as she rushed forward and grabbed the note from her friend. Nikki searched the parking lot full of people, trying desperately to see beyond the guise that the guilty perpetrated in front of others and searched deep within their souls, but in this place, everyone was very good at keeping their secrets hidden.
Mrs. Dean tried hard to get her daughter to eat something once everyone had made it to the Rusher family home, but Regina was unable to stomach anything. Her mother removed the plate of lasagna when she saw that Regina could barely stand looking at it.
“Is Natalie OK?” Regina looked up to see that Mrs. Rusher had entered the room.
“Yes, of course, Mrs. Rusher. She’s OK. She was just a little freaked out by everything, but she did tell me to apologize to you for her.” Regina lied; she had already lost count of how many lies she had told since she had been home.
“It’s OK,” Mrs. Rusher said, collapsing into an armchair. “We’re all a little freaked out, I suppose. I was happy to see her though. I haven’t seen her in so long, it was nice to see her there, real nice.” She stared at Regina. Mrs. Rusher began to speak, stopped short, sighed, and began again, “I just hate that Lola’s disappearance seemed to come between you girls.” Regina’s breath held in her throat. Mrs. Dean was nodding her head in solemn agreement. Mrs. Rusher started again, “Lola would have hated to see what this whole thing did to you girls. If anything, I think that it should have brought you closer together. You have to stick together, you know? I don’t know, I suppose I just wish things could be the same is all,” she finished. Regina allowed her eyes to wander up and meet Nikki’s.
“So do we, Mrs. Rusher, so do we.” Nikki’s voice trailed off as she put her hand on Regina’s shoulder.
The harsh air dried Regina’s lips and they burned as the girls stood on the porch finally alone after thirty minutes of waiting for all of the migrating parties to move into the house.
“I need to talk to Natalie.” Regina said to Nikki as they stood alone together.
“Why? Do you think that she is doing this?”
“I don’t know, but I have to talk to her.”
“Ladies.”
Both women were startled by the interruption of their conversation.
“Sheriff Handow,” Nikki spoke first in a voice that was obviously too tense for her normal character, but could easily be passed off as a result of being in their current location.
“Hi, Sheriff” Regina greeted him with two personalities, the one that prayed that he was not here to grill her with more secret facts and haul her numb body off to the penitentiary, but the other Regina just wished he would pull out the handcuffs already. Sometimes it was hard for her to determine which one she was from one moment to the next.
“I would ask how you all are doing, but that would be a stupi
d question, huh?” He said, the rhythm of his voice oozing out in a compassionate flow.
Both girls forced an enigmatic grin.
“Yeah,” Nikki said.
“I’ve been working day and night trying to find new information on this case, you know? And it’s just a mystery. So many questions,” he stated.
“Let us know if we can do anything to help in any way.” Nikki glowed.
“Well there is something.” Sheriff said.
Regina’s stomach fell out, she was sure of it, so much so that she was afraid to look down because surely all of her innards would be laying there on the cold porch. Finally she looked down, but there was nothing, her stomach was still inside of her but she felt her hand move up to massage the wound at the back of her neck that suddenly gave her pain.
“What is it?” Nikki asked cautiously.
“I’m sure it’s not important, but I just have to ask every question even if it doesn’t seem relevant,” he explained.
“Sure,” Nikki agreed.
“For some reason I just remembered Grayson’s father mentioning to me that you had a fire going the morning after Lola disappeared and of course, I didn’t think much of it then, but something has just been gnawing at me about it and I have to ask. You were burning a fire? In that warm weather? Is that right?” His head was now cocked and his eyes were strained in disbelief.
Regina saw Nikki’s chest swell and her mouth gape open as if she prepared to send words through it, but it continued to serve only as an empty gathering space for air. Nikki was a bad liar and Regina hated to do it, but was much better at the task.
“Yes, she did.” Regina stepped in swiftly. Sheriff Handow’s eyes settled on her.
“You remember.” Regina stated to Nikki. “You weren’t feeling well that morning. You said that you were coming down with a cold or something and had an unreasonable case of the chills.”
Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers Page 24