The Widow's Walk

by Carole Ann Moleti

  “Brace the ladder, Mae. I can’t hold on anymore.” Liz released her grip. Her stomach lurched like she was going down the big drop on a roller coaster backwards.

  “No, Liz!” Mae screamed.

  Eddie bellowed even louder.

  Liz’s feet hit the ladder and slipped on the silk. Her left leg slid over a rung. The right one scissored in front. She jerked backwards like a trapeze artist and hung upside down not daring to relax the knee draped over the metal bar. The other smashed, twitched and stretched. Something popped. Liz reached for the rungs to pull herself up, but didn’t have the strength to grab and hold on. Her head banged as the ladder swayed.

  Mae’s upside down face projected extreme effort as she tried to hold it steady. “Hold on, Lizzy.”

  Her right knee contorted like a pretzel, the meter registered somewhere between appendicitis and labor. Liz’s vision blurred, her pulse pounded at her temples. If she passed out now, she’d hit head first. Even with the bushes to break her fall, she’d be dead immediately. Eddie screamed. The siren screeched. “Hang on, Liz.” Mae grunted.

  The ladder pitched to the right and toppled. Time seemed to stand still. Edward, please, help me. Liz fell away from the ladder. The skirts wrapped around her legs as if someone was holding her. Edward.

  She pointed her feet toward a large shrub and crackled through the rhododendron. Branches tore at her face, poked at her eyes, stabbed her neck, her ears until she finally thumped to the ground. The fronds rustled and Mae’s face, smeared with mud and tears poked through. “Liz, talk to me.” “I’m okay, Mae.” She wiggled her fingers and toes. The right leg hurt even when she lay still. “Relax, Lizzy. Don’t move in case anything is broken. What’s takin’ the fire department so long?”

  No one could see her like this. “Get the baby and some clothes for me to change into.”

  “Stay right there.” Mae footsteps thudded on the porch.

  Sirens drew closer.

  Liz crawled out from under the bush, but the knee hurt too much for her to even try and get up. The dress, torn and filthy, tangled around her. She was trapped. Mae came out empty-handed. “Eddie’s fine. What are ya doin’ out here?”

  Liz grabbed her arms. “Please, get me something to change into.”

  Mae swallowed. “What?”

  “I can’t be seen like this.” Liz inched toward the porch like a desperate worm. Except worms didn’t have legs, one of which might be broken. But she’d crawl under the lattice and strip naked if she had to.

  Mae looked toward the road, toward the wailing. “I . . . we have to talk about this.”

  Liz tried to ascend the steps but her knee wouldn’t bend. Her ankle throbbed. “Yes, later. Please, you have to help me. Oh . . .” The leg froze up even more in the cold. Tears dribbled down her face.

  Mae knelt next to her, glaring with frustration, anger, exasperation. “Stop moving before you do more damage. I’ll get some things from the laundry basket.” She ran in and came out with a bundle of clothes.

  As she undid the back of the dress, Mae’s voice softened. A British accent snuffed out the brogue, but she didn’t react. “It’s buttoned wrong. Quite difficult to do this yourself, isn’t it? Elisabeth took note. Dear Katherine, she always took good care of me.

  Funny how many ghosts lived in this house, but there was nothing funny at all about this situation. Liz raised herself on her left leg so Mae could slip the dress down and off. She shivered in her bra and panties while Mae unbuttoned the shoes and slipped them off.

  Freed from the high button constraint, her ankle blew up to the size of two of her legs, purple, throbbing. The scratches oozed. Liz brushed wood chips and splinters out of her arms.

  “Oh. God, that hurts.” She pushed her bruised ankle through the elastic.

  Liz struggled to pull the pants over her bum leg and her bottom. “Go stash the dress. Don’t forget to find the hat. And get Eddie.” She couldn’t stand hearing him howling.

  Gravel scrunched as an ambulance pulled into the drive. Red strobes flashed.

  “Put the danged shirt on.” Mae, back in control of her tongue, fished the hat out a neighboring bush, bundled it with the dress, and stashed it behind the snow covered porch swing.

  Liz slipped the sweatshirt over her head, but the rescue workers ran toward her before she got her boobs fully under cover.

  “Holy cow. Did you fall off the roof?”

  “Well, not exactly. My housekeeper put up the ladder, and I tried to climb down. It toppled and I went into the bushes.” Not a lie, just a lot of omissions.

  “Stay still, ma’am.” He didn’t ask what she had been doing on the ladder and knelt next to her. He and his partner took turns feeling her arms and legs.

  Mae appeared with Eddie bundled into a snowsuit. Her clothes were so muddy it appeared as if someone had hauled a chocolate milkshake all over her. Now that the panic was over anger, disappointment, anguish oozed from her expression. Liz had to look away.

  Eddie reached for Liz, and she extended her arms.

  One EMT shook his head and helped her down. “Not now, ma’am. Please lay back while we check you out.”

  The other took her pulse and blood pressure, then shone a penlight in her eyes. “Does anything hurt?”

  Liz didn’t need to answer. When he moved her right leg she pushed him away.

  “Sorry.” He eased on a splint to hold it straight and put one on her ankle, too.

  “Can you tell us what happened, ma’am?” The other guy, with a clipboard, scratched away furiously.

  “I went up on the widow’s walk to check for a bird’s nest. There have been a lot of them flying into the windows upstairs.” Preposterous, but the best she could come up with.

  Mae rolled her eyes.

  “The wood gave way and I slid across the roof. Mae tried to help me down the ladder, but it fell.”

  The guy looked at her sideways, then smirked at his partner before he went back to writing. “Did you hit your head. Lose consciousness?” Sarcasm dripped from his mouth.

  “The bush broke my fall.” And Edward.

  Mae interrupted. “I’d like to hit her in the head. Hush, Eddie, mommy is fine. Look at the red lights. Woo-wooo.”

  The whimpering, snotty nosed baby imitated Mae and laughed.

  The rescue workers weren’t amused. “I have a few questions for you, ma’am. Name?”

  “Elizabeth Keeny.”

  “Date of birth.”

  “July 21, 1964.”

  “Allergies or medical problems?”

  “None.”

  “Okay, we better get you to the hospital. Will you ride with us, Miss . . .”

  He turned to Mae.

  “Mrs. Fitzgerald. No, I’ve got to call her husband. The baby needs to go in his car seat.” Mae exhaled through closed lips.

  They covered her with a blanket and went back to the ambulance.

  Mae shivered, looking down on her.

  “Go get a coat.”

  “Don’t ask me to lie for ya, Lizzy.” She’d have her hands on her hips or be waving a finger if she wasn’t holding a squirming baby.

  “I’m not asking you to. But please, if this gets out . . .”

  “Which is why I went along with changing the dress. What were you doin’ up there?”

  “It was an accident.” Liz didn’t believe that and doubted anyone would.

  Her heart throbbed as much as her knee and ankle. Elisabeth had a history of poor judgment, and she hadn’t even had a chance to resist. How had the ghost taken over like that?

  “We’ll have a long talk later. I promise, Mae.”

  The men rolled a stretcher over. One grabbed her under the arms, the other slid his hands under her knees. Even thoug
h they were trying to be gentle, she landed like a sack of potatoes. Tears rolled down her face, from both mental and physical pain.

  “Sorry, Mrs. Keeny.” One tucked another blanket under the bad leg to brace it.

  They raised the stretcher and wheeled her down the drive. The bottom slammed into the bumper, retracted, and launched her inside. Mae trembled in the cold, holding Eddie, standing amidst the pile of rubble, staring at Liz like she’d murdered someone.

  One EMT jumped in next to her. The door slammed. The siren blared. Eddie waved to his mommy. Mae stood motionless, expressionless, as the ambulance turned out of the driveway.

  Chapter 10

  Mike shoved his hand into his pocket and fingered the stones. They seemed to warm up when he touched them, which was probably just his imagination, but he couldn’t keep his hand out of his pants.

  Both syrups, Sandra’s and the one that tasted like turpentine and pine needles Mae had bought, suppressed the cough the entire time Mike and Kevin hauled up, emptied, and dropped the lobster pots back in. Ten big ones, and no traffic to the market in Wood’s Hole. It might all be coincidence, but maybe the crystals and potions were working.

  “Yer awful quiet, Mike.”

  “Cold is knocking me out. I’m exhausted, but can’t sleep.” He left out the separate bedroom part.

  “Everythin’ else okay?” Kevin made eye contact with him for the first time all day.

  They’d talked around the big issues, but now there was nothing to distract them.

  “Yeah.” Enough. He didn’t want to jinx the good vibes.

  As he turned into the driveway, Mae bolted across a pile of debris strewn in the front yard. Mike’s stomach flopped like a fish out of water when he saw her hair a tangled mess, her jeans and thermal shirt spattered with mud–and blood.

  He and Kevin jumped out.

  His eyes went to the widow’s walk, now only a few pieces of wood sticking up like the pilings of an abandoned dock. “Oh my God. Is Liz all right?”

  “Hurt her leg real bad, but by some miracle only has some scratches on her face and arms. I’ve been tryin’ to get in touch with Kevin, but he’s got the danged phone off.” Mae dissolved into tears.

  Mike fought back his own, and Jared flipped inside like a hooked fish. That wave of nausea swept over him again. His wife was out of her mind, and he had no idea what to do next.

  “She tried to hurt herself?” Kevin’s voice quavered, his eyes watered.

  Anger ignited in Mae’s eyes. “Went up on the widow’s walk to get rid of a bird’s nest. Or so she said. Landed in the bushes when the rail gave way.”

  Had she taken his son up there as a sacrificial offering? “Where is Eddie?”

  Mae crossed her arms over her heaving chest. “Inside, where it’s warm.”

  “Did she..?”

  “No, he was with me.” Her brogue faded into a British accent.

  A dizzying fog swirled around Mike, his vision blurred, Jared took over and his memory played in Mike’s head. Paul helped Katherine along, distraught and sobbing. They followed as Jared carried her body back to the house. He laid her on the bed and stood staring, unbelieving.

  Bethea Vauxhall burst into the room. “What happened?” She glared at Jared.

  He extended his arms toward Elisabeth’s body, then clasped his hands around his head, shielding his eyes. “We don’t know. She was upset last night and . . .”

  “She drowned herself looking for Edward, no doubt.” Bethea’s words, bitter with grief and anguish, cut Jared like a knife.

  He struggled to breathe, and couldn’t summon any words. He walked out and wandered, dazed, to the barn.

  Paul tried to settle Ruddy, who stomped at the far end of the paddock, tossed her head, and backed into a corner. The horse rose onto her haunches; her forelegs flailed in rage. A shrill whinny rang through air already heavy with despair.

  Ruddy charged. Paul ran and secured the gate so she wouldn’t bolt out. Breathless, he put his hand on Jared’s trembling shoulder. “Animals sense what’s going on. They have strong instincts. Jared, I know how much you loved her. I can’t understand why she did it.”

  Mike pulled himself out of the ghost’s control. There was a whole barnyard full of spirits in this house. And he’ left her to sleep in the guest room last night. Left her to stew, left her alone with the whole crew.

  Mae’s voice was distant, like he was hearing her through a wall. “She got very bad news from the lawyer today. That rat Jeffers stole her money, along with a lot of other people’s. She’ll be lucky if she gets any of it.”

  “Damn, will this never end?” It was only money. She was still alive.

  This was your fault. Jared screamed in his brain, I told you not to leave her alone.

  “Let’s go inside.” Kevin guided both Mike and Mae toward the house.

  Mae was blubbering, a most uncharacteristic state. “I told her we would work it all out, and she promised not to do anything rash. I heard a crash and figured it was an accident on the road. When I went outside, I saw her feet dangling off the roof. It took some time to get the ladder up there.”

  He and Liz weren’t the only ones haunted by memories. His boots thudded on the porch, and he knocked the confusion off along with the mud.

  “How did ya do that, Mae?” Kevin asked.

  “I’ve done it before to clean windows, but never with all that mud. I tried to hold it steady.” She put her hands over her eyes and started crying again.

  “Was she wearing the dress?” Mike already knew the answer.

  Mae shook off the tears, the cultured voice. “I think ya should talk to her about all the details, Michael.”

  “Oh, I’ll do that, but . . .”

  “What’re we goin’ to do? This place is cursed.” Kevin pounded the wall.

  “I think we need to put it on the market. But she refuses to move.” This hardly seemed the time to bring up the subject.

  Pained expressions flashed across both their faces.

  He ignored it. “I have to get her out of here. I have to get out of here.”

  Eddie sat in his play yard, silent, staring at the three of them like he knew what they were saying. Mike picked him up and blew a raspberry on his belly. He grinned at his father, then reached for Mae. The baby snuggled into her arms.

  Poor kid, what must he be thinking about the adults around him in such a state? “You both stay with the baby and let me go to the hospital.”

  Kevin frowned like he had a lot on his mind. “I just had this terrible memory, of standin’ near the barn regrettin’ that we hadn’t done more. This time, we have to be strong and do something.”

  This incident had loosed an entire mausoleum.

  Eddie whimpered.

  Mae snuggled and soothed him. “Poor tyke. Wore himself out cryin’ while this was all going on. After a nap at this time, he’ll be up most of the night. Let me give him somethin’ to eat and a bath to try and settle him down.”

  “I’m going to the hospital.” Mike headed out. And he’d been looking forward to an evening of reconciliation.

  He smelled the dress before he saw it, rolled into a ball behind the porch swing. Even outside, it reeked of death. Jared froze Mike in another place, another time: A warm summer evening, sipping lemonade.

  “I’ve dispatched Paul to purchase Smooch and the geldings back from the livery pool. Ruddy is lonely, like her mistress.”

  “You’ve put everything right, have you not, Jared?”

  His hands slid down her arms and joined near the small of her back. “I fell in love watching you with those horses. I know how hard it is to lose your true love. It takes time, and I’ll wait patiently to see you smile again.”

  Sobs came from the depths of her soul. “I want
to know what happened. I want to talk to Edward one last time.”

  “I can’t bring Edward back.” Jared held her until she quieted, turning his face away from hers, respecting the boundaries that had never been crossed. He dropped his arms and brushed the tears from her cheeks. “You’re safe, Elisabeth. And Edward can rest in peace.”

  I was too much a man of honor to take advantage of her emotional fragility. I walked away and went to bed alone. Elisabeth walked into the bay looking for her dead husband.