“Jack?” her voice seemed to echo as she walked down the stairs “Jack?” She went into the kitchen and saw the basement door open. She again heard the giggling.
She slowly started walking down into the basement, and as she did so she heard a voice. It was a soft whisper saying, “He cried out for you.” Sam looked around, but there was nothing but darkness.
A beam of light shot forward. She saw Jack standing on the well wall, facing her. He fell back and she ran towards him. Looking over the wall, she could see him falling and falling into nothingness. She jumped forward but was held back by arms tightly wrapped around her. She could see in his right hand a gold ring with the face of a lion. The mane was gold and the lion’s face looked silver and it was growling. She screamed for him “Jack!” and then she heard a voice whisper in her ear, “It’s not real. You can wake up now.”
Sam jolted up out of bed, sweating and breathing heavily.
Paul woke up next to her. “What’s wrong?” he said as he rubbed her shoulders.
“Nothing, it was just a dream.”
“A dream or another nightmare?” asked Paul. He got up and turned the light on. “Looks like everybody is having nightmares tonight.”
Sam was at the end of her rope. She hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in a week. “But not the same nightmare every night,” she said. “I’m getting so tired of it. Every time I get to the same spot, he holds me back. I need to sleep. My mind is playing tricks on me.”
Paul turned off the lights and climbed back into bed. He pulled Sam close to him and she placed her head on his chest.
“Try not to worry so much,” he said, trying to get back Sam’s positive side. “Listen to the crickets. There is peace in this place. You’ll find it.”
Down the hall, Lily woke up and turned over. Emily was tucked into bed with her, fast asleep. Hearing the floorboards creak, Lily sat up.
Kingston got up and walked out of the room through the open door. He sniffed the ground as he made his way to the stairs. He stood still for a moment, and then heard a noise from the kitchen. He trotted down to investigate. In the kitchen the pantry door was wide open. He looked inside, sniffing around. The pantry door slammed shut behind him. The fur on his back stood on end as he angrily snarled and growled at the closed door.
Upstairs, Lily had almost fallen back to sleep when she heard a noise like a whisper saying, “Lily.” She woke up, still quite sleepy, to see a black shadow in her doorway. It turned and walked down the hall. “Daddy?” said Lily, getting out of bed and rubbing her eyes. Picking up her stuffed monkey Moogli, she walked out of the room into the hallway. Seeing the bathroom light was on, she made her way down the hall. “Daddy?” She slowly opened the door. There was nobody inside but the sink faucet was turned on and the water was running. She went to the sink and turned it off.
A noise came from behind her. She looked up into the mirror to see the closet door behind her swing open. Spinning around quickly, she backed up to the sink as far as she could go. She held Moogli tightly as the attic board in the top of the closet slowly pulled back. The eyes of the scarecrow peered down at her. Dropping Moogli, she ran back into her room and jumped on Emily. “Emily!” she cried. “Emily! I saw him! I saw him!”
“Saw who?” said Emily, wiping her eyes.
“The scarecrow! He wanted me to go in the attic, so I ran!”
“Lily, are you sure?”
“Yes! He was in there!”
“I knew it,” said Emily, shutting the bedroom door. “Mom and dad think we’re making it up. If we keep telling them, they’ll just get angry.”
“What do we do?”
Emily paused for a moment to think. “We need to catch him and put him in a garbage bag. Then we can walk down the road to the bridge and throw him into the pond.”
“What if we can’t catch him?” said Lily.
“I have a plan. He never moves around in front of mom and dad.”
“All right, but let’s do it tomorrow. I’m not looking for him in the dark.”
“Agreed,” said Emily, extending her little finger to lock the deal with a pinky promise.
The next morning Sam went downstairs to make breakfast. She turned on the stove and opened the pantry. She jumped back and then started laughing. “Kingston, how did you get in there?”
Kingston came running out and went to the back door in the kitchen. Sam opened the door and let him out. The girls came running downstairs and Paul walked down holding Jack. After the eggs and toast were made, everybody sat down. “Girls, I know that lately things have been difficult,” said Sam, “and for that we’re sorry; but we all need to work together as a family.”
“If you girls need to talk about something, we’re here for you,” said Paul. “Is there anything bothering you?”
The girls glanced at each other and shook their heads. As they started eating again, Paul and Sam looked at each other, knowing very well something had been planned. “All right, girls,” said Paul, “if you have something to talk to us about, we’re here anytime, no matter what. I just want you to know that.”
“Yeah Daddy, we know,” said Emily.
“Let’s try and have a good day today,” said Sam. “Then tomorrow we can go visit Uncle Ray.”
After breakfast, the girls went and got dressed and headed outside. They pretended to play in the front yard while loading up their pockets with heavy rocks.
Emily went into the house. Paul was drying the dishes. “Daddy, do you think you could show me the scarecrow?” asked Emily.
“Why do you want to see him? I thought he frightened you.”
“I don’t want to be frightened of him anymore. I thought maybe if I got to see him, then I wouldn’t be scared of him.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” said Paul. “He’s in the garage.”
Emily followed her father. Before entering the garage, she looked back through the window of the kitchen door. Lily was outside and Emily gave her a thumbs-up. Lily ran inside the house, went upstairs, and opened the baby gate to Sam’s room. Jack was contently playing on the floor while Sam was in the shower. Lily opened the bottom drawers to Sam’s dresser and started pulling out all the clothes and tossing them around the room.
In the garage, Paul took Edgar down and placed him sitting up on the workbench. “See Em? He’s just an old scarecrow somebody made to scare away the birds. He’s really nothing more than a pile of straw and cloth.”
“He’s not so bad,” lied Emily staring into the scarecrow’s glass eyes. Trying not to appear frightened, she swallowed hard. Looking up at her father, she smiled. “Thank you for showing him to me. Now I don’t need to be afraid anymore.”
Lily burst into the garage. “Daddy, Jack’s made a mess of mommy’s clothes!” she exclaimed breathlessly.
“Great,” said Paul sarcastically rubbing his neck. “I’ll go clean them up before your mother gets out of the shower.” He left the garage to see what kind of mess Jack had created.
Lily went over and took a large black trash bag from the shelf. She handed it to Emily, who was staring at the scarecrow sitting up on the workbench. Emily slowly walked over to the workbench and sprang forward at the scarecrow, throwing the bag over its body. She quickly pulled it off the bench and flipped the bag over. “Now!” said Emily as she opened the bag a tiny bit while Lily pulled rocks from her pockets and dumped them in the bag. Then Emily tied it shut.
“We got him! Now let’s get to the pond,” said Emily.
Suddenly the bag began to jerk around. Lily let out a scream as Emily dropped the bag as it angrily thrashed around. Then Emily took a deep breath and picked it up again.
“Let’s go, Lily,” said Emily. She followed Lily through the kitchen and out the back door. Dragging the writhing bag, the girls hurried to the front of the house. They looked into the windows and saw nobody downstairs.
“Emily, are we going to get in trouble for this?” said Lily.
“Not if we don’t g
et caught,” said Emily.” Now come on.”
The girls ran down the steep driveway to the road. Emily put the garbage bag in front of her then swung it up over her shoulder. It had stopped moving. They looked both ways before heading out onto the road. A few minutes later they came to the bridge over the pond.
After finding a sharp stick, Emily put the bag down on the railing of the bridge. “This is for scaring my sister,” she said as she repeatedly stabbed the bag with the stick, making small holes in it. The thing inside thrashed violently. Emily angrily shoved the writhing bag off the bridge. “Now it will drown,” said Emily as they both peered over the railing, watching the bag sink down deeper and deeper into the pond until it disappeared.
“It’s done,” said Emily.
“It’s done,” repeated Lily, trying so hard to be like her big sister. They held hands as they walked back to the house.
Sam had the front door open and was calling them. “Lily, Emily….girls!” She shut the door and they watched her walk through into the kitchen and heard the back door open. “Lily! Emily!” their mother called from the back door.
“Come on, let’s go,” said Emily as she ran with Lily up the driveway to the side of the garage and around to the back door, where they saw their mother.
“Sorry mom, we were playing in the woods,” Emily said, knowing her sister would tell the most ridiculous cover story, so she had to spring into action and quickly get Lily in the house.
“Ok, but next time play closer to the house,” said Sam. “I called you over and over again. We’re leaving in a couple of minutes. I need to go to the grocery store and your dad wants to get some stuff from the hardware store.”
“Ok, mom, we’ll be right back,” said Emily. The girls hurried up the stairs to Emily’s room. Emily pulled Lily around the corner and shut the door behind them. “Ok Lil, it’s done. We got him and he can’t hurt us anymore, but I need you to do me a favor.”
“What?” said Lily, slightly annoyed with being dragged all over the house.
“I need you to not tell mom and dad ever!” said Emily, giving Lily her most serious face.
“Ok, I won’t,” said Lily.
“I mean it, Lil. If they ever find out, we’re going to be in big trouble.”
“All right,” said Lily.
“Let’s go before they think something is up,” said Emily, taking her sister’s hand and opening the door. The girls went downstairs and into the garage. Emily opened the back door to let Kingston into the car. The girls climbed in and Paul placed Jack into his car seat in the back.
In town, the girls and Jack went into the grocery store with Sam. Paul dropped them off and drove over to the hardware store. He picked out some caulk, PVC pipe joints, and nails, and brought them to the register.
“You’ve been in here quite often,” said the man behind the counter.
“Yeah, I have a big renovation project going on,” replied Paul.
“Really? Where you from, if I may be so bold?” asked the man.
“Not far from here. We live in the house next to Hayden Pond.”
“Sheriff Bolton’s place?”
“Yes, I’m Paul Bolton, Jon Bolton’s nephew. Pleased to meet you.”
The man paused, taking a moment to look Paul over. “They said the old sheriff went crazy and started spending an awful lot of time up there alone.”
“Well, don’t always believe what you hear,” said Paul, picking up his bags and heading towards the door. “Have a nice day.”
“Yeah, you too,” the man said, carefully watching as Paul left the store and got into his car.
Paul put his bags in the back seat with Kingston and sat in the driver’s seat. Looking into the store window, he could see the man talking to another customer while looking at Paul. It was obvious they were talking about him. Paul smiled back and waved while saying, “What a bunch of small town nuts.” The man nodded and Paul drove away towards the grocery store. “Must have nothing better to do then spread rumors,” he said to himself as he pulled into the grocery store. He got out of the car to help Sam load the groceries.
“Don’t look now, but I think we’re the most fascinating thing to happen here since flannel,” said Paul as people in the hair salon across the street gathered at the window to stare at them.
“Remember how I said I wanted to be a movie star?” said Sam.
“Yeah,” replied Paul, looking at the salon.
“Well, I’ve changed my mind,” replied Sam. “It’s not so much fun getting all this attention.” She quickly put the last bag into the car before ushering the girls into the back seat.
Arriving back at the house, Sam got out of the car and hurried through the front door. “I need to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back,” she said.
Paul clicked the garage door button above his head a few times. “Damn thing isn’t working. Go ahead inside, girls. I’ll put the car in the garage after I get Jack a snack.” Paul and the girls got out of the car. Emily picked up a couple of bags of groceries and went inside while Paul took a rather grumpy Jack out of his car seat. “Come on, little man, it’s time for your snack,” he said. Lily grabbed a bag and struggled to bring it into the house. “Emily, can you feed Kingston while I get Jack a snack?” asked Paul.
“Sure,” said Emily, going into the pantry.
Lily, who wanted a job as well, spoke up. “I’ll go get the rest of the groceries.”
“Ok, thank you sweetie,” Paul said, kissing his daughter on the forehead. “After you’re done, come in and play with Jack so I can put the car in the garage.” Lily was always eager to help. Emily went to the back door to bring Kingston inside for dinner.
Lily walked outside and around the car to the open driver’s side door. She hopped into the driver’s seat and grabbed the steering wheel. She started turning it left and right. “Here comes Lily in race car number one making her way around the track to the next turn errrrrrrr.” Lily was having so much fun pretending she forgot about the groceries.
Thinking she heard a noise from the back of the car, she turned around to investigate. The driver’s side door suddenly closed. Lily jumped and pulled the handle but the door was locked. Standing on the seat, she looked around inside the car.
In the house Sam came downstairs. She looked a little pale.
“Sam, can you sit here with Jack?” said Paul. “I want to bring in the car.” He picked up his bag from the hardware store and brought it into the garage. Pressing the garage door button on the wall, he opened the bag to make sure he had purchased the correct size nails.
In the car, Lily looked up and saw the garage door opening and her father in the kitchen doorway. He was studying a box of nails as it slipped out of his hands. The nails sounded like chimes as they fell out of the box hitting the cement floor of the garage. Paul bent down to pick them up.
Something caught Lily’s eye she looked to the far end of the garage. Sitting on the top shelf facing her was the scarecrow, glistening with wetness. It seemed to be leering at her with a sick, twisted smile. Frightened, Lily started to cry. Suddenly the keys in the ignition turned, starting the car. The gearshift lever next to the steering wheel jerked down, into reverse.
Hearing the car turn on, Paul looked up.
“Daddy!” she screamed. “Daddy!”
“Lily, no! Hit the brake!” Paul shouted as he tried to run, but stepping on the nails caused him to slip. He placed his hands down, stopping himself from hitting the floor. The car rolled backwards down the driveway, picking up speed as it went. Paul jumped back onto his feet to pursue the car.
Sam appeared at the door to the kitchen. “Lilly!” she screamed as she ran as fast as she could after the car.
“Lily, hit the brake!” Sam yelled again.
“Turn the wheel!” shouted Paul, running furiously down the hill after her. The car was nearing the bottom of the driveway and headed straight toward the pond.
Lily froze in fear, crying out for her parents. S
he couldn’t move. Everything was happening so fast. She looked at the wheel in front of her as it turned sharply to the right sending the car into a reverse U-turn. The car’s momentum drove it backwards onto the lawn, heading uphill towards the house. As the car slowed Paul was able to open the passenger door and jump in. Bending down into the driver’s side, he used his hand on the brake pedal to stop the car. Then he threw the gear shift into park and turned off the ignition.
Lily, trembling in fear, leaped out of the car into Sam’s arms. She fell to the ground with Lily in her arms and hugged her tightly. “Lily…Lily,” Sam cried, holding her tightly. “What happened? You know you can’t play in the car!”
Paul walked over to the driver’s side door and leaned against the car trying to catch his breath from running down the driveway. Feeling overwhelmed, he slid down the car and sat on the ground looking at Sam rocking back and forth with Lily in her arms. Emily had come out of the house and stood above them, holding Jack. She was crying and didn’t know what to say.
Paul motioned with his fingers for Emily to come to him. She dropped to her knees holding Jack and Paul pulled them both in and hugged them tightly. Looking up he locked eyes with Sam who was still hugging Lily. She mouthed the words, “Thank you,” as Paul nodded his head. The close call had pulled them together.
The girls took Jack back into the house so that Paul and Sam could get the car off the lawn. They sat in the car for a few moments to talk.
“Does anyone else on this planet have worse luck then us?” said Sam, smiling at Paul.
“I’m highly beginning to doubt that, but I still wouldn’t change it for the world,” replied Paul as he guided the car across the lawn into the garage.
“I don’t know what she was thinking. I’m just glad she’s all right.”
“Me too,” said Paul. “Me too.”
Inside, the girls were headed upstairs with Jack. “Emily, I saw him,” said Lily. “I saw Edgar. He’s back. He’s the one who broke the car.”
The House on Hayden Pond Page 6