[Intertwined Souls 05.0] No Good Deed

by Mary D. Brooks

  This is here! In this house…our Journey room. That’s our nursery!

  Zoe was about to say something to Eva, but Eva was fast asleep and Zoe didn’t want to disturb her. She leaned over and kissed her on the cheek and got out of bed. She found her robe and tied it.

  Very quietly, she turned off the light and left the bedroom. She made her way down to the living room and tapped lightly on the door that led into the adjoining house. Tommy’s ‘come in’ was so faint she barely heard it.

  Tommy was lying on the sofa reading. He put the book down when he saw Zoe.

  “Tommy.”

  “Yah.”

  “I need you to get up.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m going across the road to—”

  “Is Evy alright?”

  “Yes, she’s fine. She’s asleep. I’m going across the road to speak to your mother.”

  “What’s wrong?

  “Nothing’s wrong with Evy.”

  “Why are you going?”

  “Want to speak to your mama,” Zoe whispered in deference to Earl, who was dozing on the recliner.

  “You don’t need to whisper—a herd of elephants can come crashing through and E won’t wake up.”

  “Yes, he will,” Earl muttered without opening his eyes.

  “Sorry, Wiggy.”

  “‘s alright,” Earl said sleepily.

  “I’ll get up and look in on Eva.”

  “She’s sleeping and I’m not sure how long I’ll be across the road. There’s a mystery I want to solve.”

  “Tonight?”

  “No, don’t think so, but I want to find out about it.”

  “Sherlock Holmes has nothing on you, Zo,” Tommy said. Zoe left the room and opened the front door to go across the road.

  CHAPTER 30

  “Zoe! Is everything alright?” Stella asked when she answered the door and found Zoe standing outside in her robe and slippers. “Is Eva alright?”

  “Oh, yes, she’s fine,” Zoe said and tried to hide the smile that creased her face. “Very fine.”

  “How fine is she?” Stella asked with a slight smile. She put her arm around Zoe’s shoulders and brought her in. “Did you wear her out?”

  “Aunty!” Zoe exclaimed and felt her face flush. “Sometimes…”

  “I know, darling, I fluster you, but it’s so much fun.” Stella chuckled. “You are a bit late.”

  “Hm?”

  “Tessa was expecting you a few hours ago.”

  Zoe was puzzled and wasn’t quite sure what to make of her aunt’s comment. “Was I supposed to come earlier?”

  “Tessa thought you would be over here as soon as you saw the artwork, but it seems you had other things to occupy yourself with,” Stella teased, making Zoe blush again. “Well.” She took Zoe’s hand and led her into the living room. Tessa was sitting on the sofa knitting, her glasses perched at the end of her nose. “You are here now.”

  Zoe turned her attention to Tessa when she held up the knitting for Zoe to see. “You’re making booties?”

  “Indeed. What is this about Eva and you tiring her out?”

  Zoe sat down on the sofa and sighed. “Eva is fine; she’s asleep…we...um…she wanted to...um.” She found a nice spot on the floor to focus on so she didn’t have to look up at her aunts.

  “Darling, please, relax. I’m just teasing you.” Tessa patted Zoe on the knee. “Now, I take it Eva is asleep?”

  “Yes. I asked Tommy to keep an eye on her while I’m here.”

  Stella sat down next to Zoe. “Is Earl staying over?”

  Zoe slumped back on the sofa and let out a soft groan. “Yes, he is staying over. I really don’t want to talk about my husband’s love life with his mothers.”

  Tessa chuckled and put aside the knitting. “All kidding aside, did you have that chat with Eva tonight?

  “We did and I think we are finally over her rebellious phase. She told me about the slip. It took her a while, but she told me.”

  “That’s a good start.”

  “Hm. She really is sorry about the way she’s been behaving, but I don’t blame her all that much. She was feeling a little more herself tonight, although she was tired.”

  “Well, naturally she’s tired with all the work you had her do tonight.”

  “Aunty Stella!” Zoe exclaimed with a scowl while Stella chuckled in response. She loved her aunt, who had no qualms about being blunt.

  “Alright, enough teasing Zoe, angel. I take it you saw the artwork?”

  “Yes,” Zoe replied. She took out the drawing and laid it flat on the coffee table. “It’s beautiful work.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Eva’s got very short hair,” Zoe pointed out. “Did you have a vision about the accident?”

  “No, I didn’t see that at all.”

  “Hm. I can’t see our babies’ faces…”

  “You need to keep some of the mystery. Giving birth is a miracle, and I know you want to know everything about everything, but sometimes it is best not to know.”

  “I really want to know what they look like.”

  “I can safely say they will either resemble you or Tommy.” Tessa smiled, which only made Zoe groan in frustration. “That’s all there is to it.”

  “You put Eva’s mother in here… I was going to call her Mrs. Muller, but that name has been banned in the Lambros household.”

  “What happens when Wilbur comes to visit?” Stella asked as she picked up an apple and took a bite.

  “There is a moratorium on the name whilst he is here,” Zoe quipped, making Tessa chuckle. “I refuse to give honor to these animals by using their name, and if Eva’s mama was here, I would call her Mama Daphne.”

  “I’m quite sure my sister would have been thrilled, if she were alive, for you to refer to her that way.”

  “I wish she were alive because she has missed out on so much of Eva’s life. She would be so proud of her daughter. She’s not here, so we can’t have what we can’t have,” Zoe replied. Her gaze fell on Daphne’s face in the drawing.

  “She missed out on a lot of my life too and I miss her every day. I try and not dwell on it too much, and I know one day I will see her again. I’m sure of it,” Tessa added quietly and looked up at Zoe, who was almost ready to cry. “Oh, darling, it’s alright. As I said, one day I will see her again.”

  “Hm.” Zoe sniffed back the tears for a woman she didn’t know but was beloved by her wife and aunt. She cleared her throat and went back to the artwork. “Who is that?” She pointed to the woman standing next to Daphne.

  “I don’t know,” Tessa replied and shook her head. “Eva asked me the same question.”

  “She did? Well, she has probably forgotten she questioned you and the answer by now.”

  “Her memory is not that bad.”

  “Um, yes, it is. I’ve been repeating the kittens’ names now for a couple of weeks. She has memorized them but doesn’t remember them,” Zoe said with a slight shrug. “In Larissa she used to memorize things, but she never remembered them.”

  “That is amazing. How did you figure it out?”

  “It was the little things she did to help her to remember. It drove me crazy because I don’t have a problem in remembering. My problem is forgetting, but anyway, Eva developed a system and she’s using it now.”

  “Ah. So by you repeating the kittens’ names, you are helping her to remember?”

  “Yes, I hope so, but some days are better than others. Now, what did you tell Eva about this woman? Do you know who she is?”

  “No, I don’t know who she is. I drew that in 1945.”

  “Did you add Mama Daphne because you thought she was alive?”

  Tessa and Stella exchanged a look that Zoe couldn’t decipher, and then Tessa turned her attention back to her. “I knew Daphne died in 1938.”

  “How?”

  Tessa sighed. “I saw it. I saw her death and who did it.”

  “The Brownshirts killed Mama
Daphne. That’s what Aunt Marlene said.”

  “Yes, the Brownshirts were there and I saw it happen. Imagine my horror. I couldn’t do anything about it.”

  “This whole gift thing is just so cruel. God has a lot to answer for.”

  “Zoe, I know how you feel about God, but I don’t think it’s a curse. It must have been given for a reason. What the reason is, I don’t know.”

  “How can you sit there and say ‘it’s okay because God will reveal it’. Don’t you want to find out?” Zoe asked, knowing she wouldn’t stop until she found out the reason for the gifts if she had them herself.

  “I can’t stop the gifts. I can accept them and just learn to live with the fact I have them or I can go crazy like many of my ancestors did. I chose to accept them. That’s what Eva has done. She’s accepted them.”

  “But she doesn’t really have the same gifts you do; the same powerful ones, that is.”

  “In time she may.”

  “How old were you when your gifts started?”

  “I was very young. Eva is different and it appears her gifts are now showing up.”

  “When they used those electroshocks on her… Would that have triggered them?”

  “I don’t know, maybe, but it’s very unusual. I had undergone the electroshocks myself and that didn’t stop them or make them stronger.”

  “So Eva should have had them as a child but didn’t?” Zoe asked, trying to follow the breadcrumbs of the mystery that gnawed at her subconscious. “I don’t quite know how all of this works, but to me it makes sense that one is born with these gifts, isn’t that right?”

  “Yes, that would be the course they take.”

  Zoe tapped the edge of the artwork against her chin in thought. “Something just doesn’t add up here. Eva was seventeen when her stepfather beat her. She went home from being with her friends because, as she told me, she could feel something was wrong at home. That’s one of Eva’s gifts—she can sense things. So the gifts were there. What made them stop?”

  “Irene and I have poured over the family history, and we can’t find anyone whose gifts started in their teens, or started, stopped, and started again.”

  “Who created this history?”

  “Aunt Irene started it and it chronicled the line of women in our family who were gifted.”

  “You didn’t know that Daphne was gifted.”

  Tessa looked down at the artwork for a moment. “No.”

  “So if you didn’t know if Mama Daphne had them, there had to be others who knew enough to hide them. This is all very strange. There’s another mystery. Who is that woman?” Zoe pointed to the tall woman beside Daphne.

  “I told Eva that I didn’t know who that woman is, but she has shown up many times in my artwork.”

  “She’s going to be at the house.” Zoe looked down and stared at the art and then looked up at Tessa. “That is our home. That’s the Journey room.” She pointed to the corner of the mural of Athena’s Bluff on the wall.

  “I don’t know, Zoe. This woman has appeared in so many of my drawings.”

  “How many?”

  “I’ve lost count. First time I drew her, I was ten.”

  “You were ten? Does she look the same in all your art?”

  “Yes…and…” Tessa stopped for a moment.

  “And? And what, Aunt Tessa?”

  Tessa sighed. “I promised myself that I wouldn’t show you or Eva any more artwork from Aiden…”

  “You have more art from Aiden? Of Eva?”

  “Yes. This woman is in some of them.”

  “This woman?” Zoe pointed to the mysterious woman. “She was in Aiden and now she is here in our home? How is that possible?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you still have the artwork?”

  “Zoe… You know what happened the last time the Aiden art was shown.”

  Zoe gazed down at the artwork on the coffee table for a long moment. “I want to see it. Eva is not here and I will never show it to her, but if that woman is the same as the one in this drawing, I want to see it. If she is connected with Aiden, having her in my house… Eva might remember who she is, and I don’t know what will happen. Eva is fragile at the moment and I don’t want anything from that godforsaken hellhole to trigger any memories.”

  “I don’t think this woman is connected with anything at Aiden.”

  “Let me see the artwork.”

  Tessa reluctantly got up and left the room.

  “You know Tessa just wants to protect Eva, right?” Stella asked.

  “I know,” Zoe quietly responded. “I love Eva. I want to protect her and I want to be prepared.”

  Tessa came back into the living room with a black folder. Without a word, she took out two artworks and put the folder on the nearby recliner. “This woman is not dangerous, but you want to see them, so I will let you see them.”

  Tessa laid out one of the drawings in front of Zoe. Zoe stared down at it and blinked. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. The mysterious woman was there, but it wasn’t what Zoe was expecting. The woman’s face took up the entire space, but it was her eyes that horrified Zoe—reflected in her eyes was Eva, curled up and in obvious distress. The woman’s eyes showed clear signs of unshed tears.

  “Wow,” Zoe whispered. “She looks devastated. Those eyes…”

  “Yes. Whoever she is, what was being done to Eva is extremely distressing to her.”

  “She has light colored eyes…”

  “Amber,” Tessa responded. “I see in color.”

  “What color is her hair?”

  “Long curly brown hair,” Tessa said and put the second piece of art in front of Zoe.

  Zoe gasped on seeing the very vivid scene—a solitary bed and a young Eva, skinny and looking quite ill, curled up. Zoe’s eyes moistened when she noticed the restraints. She forced herself not to look away and her heart broke at the sight. Sitting on the bed was the woman. She was in profile, but Zoe could clearly see it was the same woman. She finally looked away and back to the other art of herself, Eva, and the babies.

  “How tall was Daphne?” Zoe asked unexpectedly.

  “Daphne was the same height as Eva.”

  “This woman is taller. She must be at least six feet three or four,” Zoe thought out loud as she was trying to work out who the woman was.

  “It’s not a relative. I thought of that. Irene is as short as you, and other gifted ones were shorter or taller. It doesn’t matter.”

  “Hmm. Did you draw any more pieces?”

  “One more, but I’m not showing it to you,” Tessa said firmly. “It gives me nightmares and there is no power on this earth that would get me to show it to you.”

  Zoe was taken aback by Tessa’s vehement response. “Wow. I don’t know what to say…”

  “Being gifted can be a blessing, but it can also be such a curse,” Tessa said calmly. “When I drew that art, I was sickened so much I didn’t sleep for days.”

  “Why do you keep it?”

  Tessa took a sip of the tea in front of her and paused. She looked up at Zoe, and her gray eyes glistened. “I don’t know. I keep all these pieces. I don’t know why.”

  “Is this woman in that art?”

  “Yes.”

  “What is she doing?”

  “She’s kneeling on the floor, crying,” Tessa whispered and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. “She is not a bad person. I don’t get the sense this woman is evil.”

  “I believe you, Aunt Tessa, I do.” Zoe picked up the art and focused on the mysterious woman. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but her eyes remind me of someone.”

  “Who?” Tessa asked and glanced at Stella.

  Zoe cocked her head to the side and studied the art. “Aunty Stella’s friend Aretha Palakalios. Her eyes were brown and not amber, but there’s something so similar when I look at this woman’s eyes.”

  “Aretha? How do you know Aretha Palakalios?”

  “You s
ent her to Larissa, Aunty, don’t you remember?”

  “I didn’t send Aretha to Larissa at all.” Stella shook her head.

  Zoe scowled. “Yes, you did. It was in 1944. She said that you couldn’t get away from Thessalonica and she was going to tell you about Mama…” She stopped when she noticed Stella’s very confused look. “I am right about her. She was a very old woman and I couldn’t figure out how she came all the way from Thessalonica by foot, but she said she did.”

  “The woman you saw was not Aretha. It’s impossible.”

  “Why?”

  “Aretha was killed in 1941. I saw her die.”

  CHAPTER 31

  May 25, 1951

  Zoe stared down at the floor and pursed her lips. She was bored and didn’t have her sketchbook because she had forgotten it as they rushed out the door. Stella had taken Eva for tests as soon as they got to the hospital. Henry was sitting by the door to the examination room and Zoe was trying to distract herself.

  “What are you doing?” Henry asked Zoe, who was staring at the floor.

  “I’m trying to make patterns on the floor.”

  “It’s a checkerboard floor.”

  Zoe looked up and smiled. “It’s scratched and you can make patterns by looking at the scratches.”

  Henry chuckled. He sat back in his chair and took a drag of his cigarette. “Only you would want to make patterns from a linoleum floor.”

  “I’m bored and I forgot my sketchbook. I have a pencil but no paper. I think I’ll go to the nurses and ask them for some paper.”

  “Go for a walk. It’s a beautiful day outside and—”

  “I don’t want to. I want to stay here.”

  “Stella said this is going to take at least an hour. I’m here, and if I need you, I’ll come and get you. Eva is with Stella and she’s surrounded by doctors and nurses. Nothing is going to happen.” Henry put his arm around Zoe’s shoulders. “Go and play outside.”

  Zoe smiled and stood up. “You will find me if—”

  “Go. I will find you if I need to. Go take a walk. They have a beautiful walkway just behind us here. It’s very peaceful. You need some quiet time.”