Squid Corners

by Ed Helenski

  “Not so fast, mister. Let me tell this my way. Last Saturday Yolanda took a drive to Clearfield to do some shopping. Or at least that was her story. My guess is shopping was only one of her errands, but I never did like that woman, so maybe I am being a bit suspicious. But she couldn’t go more than a few days without chasing after someone in pants, so my guess is Squid Corners is not the only town where she had a little fling or two going on. Anyway, she was gone all day. When she got home that night there weren’t any lights on in the place, which is unusual. Or so she says.”

  I picked up the cartons of food and began closing them up. “Where did you hear this from anyway? Sounds like you are telling Yolanda’s version of it. I didn’t think you two were the chummy sort.”

  Mags helped clean up as she talked. “We aren’t. But apparently she and Betts are. You know Bettina. The second grade teacher.” I made a wolf whistle and Maggie paused to swat at my butt. “Ok, so you know Betts. She is cute, but a little young for you, tiger. Anyway, she and Yolanda are pretty close. I think maybe they share a little of the Reverend’s weed now and then.” She saw my somewhat feigned shock. “Don’t look at me like that. I know darn well you know about it. I heard all about your little “date” with Yolanda. So don’t be all high and mighty.”

  I started to laugh at her unintended pun, and after a few seconds she realized what she had said and joined in. “Not that kind of high.” Like most of our laughing fits, this one ended with us exchanging some kisses which rapidly became pretty involved. Mags broke off and said “Now hold on, let’s not lose our place here. I’ll come back to the kisses in a minute, but first let me finish”. I acted disappointed, but she continued anyway. “So Yolanda came home and saw the house was dark. But not completely. Looked like candlelight in the living room. She decides to be all sneaky, and goes in quietly. You will never guess what she found.”

  I waited, and finally asked her. “What? Don’t drag this out any more or I will be forced to attack you and then you will never finish.”

  “Ok, Ok. She walks in, and the place reeks of weed. And there in the living room with candles all lit, and music playing, is the Rev. Sitting on the couch. Naked. And guess who has their head buried in his lap?”

  I thought about it, trying to figure out who might conceivably go for the Reverend. I couldn’t really think of anyone, but tossed out a couple names. “Barb Barker?” Mags shook her head, smiling. “Cindy Borougham?” Mags laughed at that one.

  “Cindy is more likely to have her head buried in Esther Scully’s lap. Did you really think those two were just roommates?” I had no idea that our town clerk played for the all girl’s team.

  “I give up. Who?”

  “I’ll give you a hint. Always active at church, the Reverend’s little toady”

  “I have no idea. The only one that does that is Ralph Watts. And I thought he was just trying to get a good jump on divinity school”

  “Ding, ding, ding.”, Maggie said, giggling. “Ralph Watts. Buck naked. They both jump up, trying to act like there is some explanation. The way Betts tells it, Yolanda is there screaming at them and they are jumping around with their willies in the air. Too funny a picture. And Yolanda’s yelling she is afraid he has given her some disease, as if she hadn’t had ample opportunity to catch something all on her own. So that’s why the Dolands are leaving. Pretty funny, huh?”

  It was and it wasn’t. Seemed like everything I had thought about this town was nothing but a pipe dream. Maggie leaned in and kissed my ear. “You aren’t laughing” she said and began tickling me. Pretty soon she won and we got into a tickling match. It ended as such things always do. I got her out of her clothes and then I got out of mine. Soon we were kissing and rolling around on the bed.

  The simple truth is I can’t get enough of this woman. Her simple passion makes me forget all my worries and nonsense. I get lost in her. I have had hot sex, and I have had good times, but never have the two blended so effortlessly into one event. I was inside her, and it seemed to me that there was no place on earth I belonged besides right there. As we reached our peaks we both ended up crying out our love. And it was real and felt right and good.

  After, we lay talking in the dark. We made plans to begin getting the new library set up, but Maggie’s vigor for that project seemed to be waning. At one point she got up on one elbow and looked me in the eyes. “Have you ever thought about leaving here? Leaving The Corners behind? It’s not at all the place I thought it was, and I have a feeling it isn’t yours either. I mean, I hated a lot of what urban life was like, but, do you ever miss it?”

  I had to admit she was closer to my feelings about my life than I would have imagined. It was as if her words opened a floodgate inside me, and I began to realize that what I had left the city for, what I had been chasing, might not be what I thought. In fact, it might be what I had right here, within my grasp, within my touch. Outside the wind shook the shutters on the house, but inside it was warm and safe. This place could be anywhere, but it was Maggie that made it warm.

  Mags had waited quietly as I thought, not pressing, just being there alongside me. Finally I responded. “I don’t exactly miss it. But I don’t NOT miss it, if that makes any sense. And I guess the real question is, if I left here, would I miss it?. I’m not sure what the answer is. I know I am not done here yet. There is something I have to do. I’m not sure what, but something. Something I have to finish.”

  She considered that for a moment. “Like Vera said?”

  I nodded. “Maybe. It’s not her telling me that, though. It’s something I feel. You know what I asked you about last week?” I was referring to my rather sudden proposal.

  “Yup” she said simply.

  “You are right for me, Mags. Don’t ask me how I know or why, I don’t have a lot of answers yet. Heck, I don’t even know your middle name. But I know that it’s right. You wait your whole life for one special moment. And then one day, it’s there. Not when you expect it, but when it’s time. Does that make any sense?”

  She snuggled up to me even closer. “It does. I feel the same way. I have filled my time with things, good things mind you, things worth doing, like teaching and the library. But I’ve been waiting, too. I guess I feel the same as you. That I found what I was waiting for. And it wasn’t the town. It was you.” This simple declaration sent shivers down my body. I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I hadn’t even remembered existed. One I hadn’t felt since my youth. “Reed.” She said.

  “Reed?” For a moment I thought she was calling me by some past lover’s name.

  “My middle name. It’s Reed. And yours is Gerald. I looked it up” She smiled and kissed my nose. “Now make love to me again, Gerry” And so I did.

  It was bitterly cold on Friday when I finally got over to Reggie’s office and found him in. He looked a little sheepish at seeing me, and I realized it hadn’t just been my imagination, he HAD been avoiding me. “Hi there Tom,” he said, “I was gonna drop off my, uh copy you call it, this afternoon. Sorry I missed a couple weeks, it’s been really busy, and that’s a fact.” He held out a sheaf of papers.

  I sat down without being invited to. “That’s ok, Reggie, it has been a hell of a couple weeks. A hell of a Fall if you ask me.”

  He nodded. “That it has.” He paused, then sat down and looked at me closely. “Listen Tom, I’m sorry about what happened with Bobby. Some folks, well, Bobby for one,“ he said eyeing my nose, “maybe blame you for thinking what you did. I don’t. I thought the same. But it ain’t surprising that some folks feel that way. Everyone thought the world of Bobby here. It’s a damn shame he had to go, but I don’t blame him. Gotta do what’s best for the boy, and that’s a fact.”

  I nodded, letting him continue.

  “If you are thinking I told him it was you that accused him, well, I didn’t. I would never let someone take the blame for what were ultimately my actions and that’s a fact. Took me a while to figure out how he found out.”

&nbs
p; “I did wonder the same thing.” In fact, I HAD blamed Reggie for telling him.

  “Well, I never told Bobby. Never talked to him till after the fact, actually.” He stopped to get out his smokes and lit one, taking an ashtray out of his desk. “Not really supposed to smoke in here, but fuck it, and that’s a fact. Getting a little sick of the whole place right now.” He took a long drag and exhaled slowly, the smoke curling around his face and drifting slowly towards the ceiling, which was yellow from a great many such clouds. “But I did tell Josh Tastler. He was real reluctant to get involved, and insisted I tell him the whole story. Wasn’t a very prudent thing to do I guess. Anyway, he admits he was the one that passed along to Bobby that you had thought it was him. I set him straight on abusing confidences, but it won’t do any good with that one, and that’s a fact.”

  Tastler. Of course. For some reason he had not much liked me. I could say the feeling was mutual. “Thanks for letting me know, Reggie. I wish it hadn’t happened like that, but I guess the important thing is the boys are safe.”

  Reggie nodded and smoked. “Yeah, that it is. Was that why you came then? To ask about that?”

  “Not actually. This is kind of an unusual thing Reggie, and if you want to say no I understand.” Actually I thought his revelations might help me pump him for info. “I wanted to know something about Sioban.” I saw him control his reaction. “Something still doesn’t sit quite right with me on that one.”

  He made a production of grinding out his cigarette, then lit another without seeming to even realize it. Then he sighed, and leaned forward. “Truth is, Tom, it doesn’t sit right with me either, but I’ll be damned if I know why, and that’s a fact. I been over all the evidence, I got copies of everything from the state, but it looks just like they said, just like the coroner said, just a freak drug thing. One thing that nags at me, though. Where the hell WAS she? Not like there are a million places a girl can hide around here. And then she turns up just out of town in the same clothes she left in. Don’t seem right. I even went back through Elmer’s notes, just in case it really was connected. It seems like he was onto something when he died, but he never wrote down what he suspected. Or if he did I never found it.”

  A thought occurred to me. It was too far fetched. It wasn’t likely. It was silly. But I had a hunch, I had to ask. “Tell me something Reggie. You ever look into what happened to Elmer?”

  Reggie shrugged and got up to pour a cup of coffee. He nodded towards the pot but I shook my head. His coffee looked nasty. “Nothing to look into. Had a heart attack.”

  “Ever see the coroner’s report?”

  “Nope. Never had any cause. What is it you are thinking?” His mind chugged along, processing the info. “Something happened to Elmer because he figured something out?”

  It was my turn to shrug. “I don’t know. Just looking for threads. That’s all. But what I wanted to ask was about Sioban. Do you think, uh, could I have a look at the reports? The pathology, the evidence files, the whole lot?”

  Reggie surprised me by nodding. “Sure. Why not? No case to speak of, and in any event it’s closed as far as they are concerned in Harrisburg. Of course it ain’t exactly by the book, but I figure I owe you. Besides, if both of us are thinking something isn’t right, maybe it isn’t, and that’s a fact. I’ll box it up and you can take it with you. I’d appreciate you don’t say nothing about it, though.”

  “That would be fine Reggie. And it’s just between you and me.” I thought a moment and was about to add to that when Reggie interrupted.

  “Maggie is ok, Tom. You go ahead and show her if you want.”

  I laughed. “Mind reader, are you?”

  “Hell,” he said, “Don’t take a genius to see the two of you are a pair. A good one too. You are a lucky man, Tom. Let’s hope you stay that way.” That was an odd thing to say, I thought, but let it go. I gathered up the materials and left. I would look over them as soon as I had a few hours. Maggie and I had gotten a lot moved into the library space; soon that would be finished enough to spare a little time. I would check out the files next week.

  The weekend was another dream spent with Mags. We stayed in mostly, it was cold and windy all weekend, but that didn’t matter. We generated our own heat.

  Around the Corner Wednesday December 6

  Just as the seasons change, so do people. And institutions. And even towns. And it would seem an era of change is upon The Corners. There have been a number of tragic events this fall. And they have had their impact upon us, as individuals, and as the town.

  Some traditions go, and they are not always replaced with new ones. Maybe it was only a matter of time. Maybe The Corners had been leading a charmed life, and it was overdue for the world to leave its mark. And it has. Things that were once regarded as being problems of “outsiders”, problems of the cities, have come to us here, and left their mark.

  The good and the bad leave their marks. And the town had marks upon it, marks that were there before this fall. Some were marks that I, coming back from the outside, simply didn’t know about, marks only a local could see. And some, some were invisible. Invisible by design, by common consent, by time and by choice. And those marks should not have been made so. There are some marks, bad though they are, that should not be erased. As the events of the past week should not be erased. We all wish it did not, had never, happened. But it did. And we should not forget it. For what happens once could happen again.

  I don’t want to open wounds. I don’t want to pick at scabs. But the marks on this town, visible and invisible, must serve as reminders and warnings. They should not be erased, however imperfectly.

  I came back here seeing the marks of family, of community, of shelter. And I found all those things. But I found other marks as well. The marks of disease. The marks of cruelty and shame. The marks of incest and rape and degradation. The marks of injustice. The marks of lynchings and murders. The marks of theft and chicanery and deceit. All the marks are here. They are all ours. We should not shun them just because they make us nervous. We should embrace who we are and what we are. For if we cannot face that, we cannot face ourselves. The floodgates are opened. Let us not try and wedge them shut again.

  Tom Tharon

  Chapter 15

  This is the first week in my recent memory where things didn’t feel completely out of control. It has been a nice break. Maybe it has just been the bizarre series of events that conspired to make both Maggie and I so down on this town. I had actually reached the point where I was starting to believe in Vera’s prophesy, where I was starting to think that the town was collapsing, and that I was somehow involved. And while those things might still be true, they seem a little more farfetched now.

  It was on Tuesday, while Mags and I were trying to make some order out of what was going to be the new library, that Amy Vickers came in. I had been helping Maggie a lot, since thinking about the paper just depressed me. The fact was; I didn’t think I could keep it going much longer. It was a big financial drain, and most of my advertising had pulled. It seems sales were down all over the area, just like the population.

  Amy came in the front door and stood for a moment surveying the litter of boxes, the random collection of wooden and metal shelves we had collected, and shook her head. “Doesn’t look much like a library. More like a junk shop.” Maggie almost hissed at her. I think a woman like Amy would pick a moment like this to come see Maggie on purpose. Here was Amy, dressed to the nines in a business suit with a very short skirt, what to my eye appeared to be Ferragamo pumps, loaded down with jewelry. And here was Mags, in jeans and a tee shirt, dusty, disheveled, sweaty. At a decided disadvantage, at least from Amy’s point of view. From my point of view Mags won, hands down.

  “Well, we are just getting started. Give us a chance.” Maggie spat at her, not disguising the loathing in her voice. I have a feeling Amy was not very happy that Maggie had met her goal and gotten the shop. And Maggie was not very happy to have to kowtow to this woman.
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  “It will be fine once we get it all cleaned up” I chimed in. Both women shot me a look that said sit down boy; you are not part of this.

  Amy walked in a little further, shrinking from everything near her, pristine in her cream colored outfit. She picked up a nearby paperback using just her nails, glanced at the cover, and tossed it back on the pile with disdain. “If you say so, Thomas. Personally I could care less. But I just wanted to let you know, Ms. Cowell, that this property may not be available for as long as we originally thought.” I saw Maggie’s jaw drop. Before she could even speak Amy went on. “The owners are thinking of dropping all their holdings in town, and if so, I have no way of guaranteeing that the purchasers will honor any leases. They might, but we have no way of knowing.” Amy looked glum as she spoke; her mouth turned down at the corners. “Real estate is not exactly booming here lately, if you haven’t noticed.” Maggie was going to say something, but I just put my hand on her shoulder and she held her tongue. Amy picked her way carefully out of the place, leaving her cream suit intact.

  “Son of a bitch” Maggie said, and then kicked one of the boxes of books. “This was a lot of work wasted.”

  “Kind of sucks, huh?” I asked, putting my arm around her. She looked at me and then started to laugh.

  “Depends on your viewpoint, I guess. The collection is still intact, so the library can still exist, and I guess a little part of me is relieved.”

  “Relieved?”

  “If for some reason I do leave The Corners” she looked sidelong at me as she said this, pushing a lock of hair out of her eyes, “Then I won’t feel quite so bad about abandoning the project.”

  “I see” I said, and in truth I did. We continued setting up, but with a bit less vigor than before.

  It wasn’t till Wednesday that I finally found the time to look through the reports Reggie had given me. The crime scene evidence was pretty much non-existent. The photos showed what I had already seen, a dead girl lying in the woods. It made me a little sick to look at them. When I came upon the results of the autopsy and toxicology I sat down to read in detail. For some reason I was sure the answers would lie in these pages.