The Man In Number 7

by Sherry Briscoe

  “Yes,” Apolline sighed. “Maybe we can walk over to the zoo and the big park later?”

  “Yay! I like the zoo, they have pretty birds and funny monkeys,” Elizabeth giggled as she scooted out of the booth and skipped into the living room.

  After washing the dishes, Apolline called out to Elizabeth, but there was no answer. She looked in the living room and the bedroom, but her daughter wasn’t there. She heard the girl giggle out in the hallway and saw the front door open. Panic pushed through her veins as she ran to the door and screeched to a stop holding her hand to her chest.

  “Elizabeth, I want you to stay in the apartment,” Apolline scolded.

  The little girl sat crossed-legged in the middle of the hallway in front of the door to apartment 7, throwing the jacks on the hardwood floor, bouncing her little red rubber ball, and scooping a jack into her curled up hand. “You said I could play jacks.”

  “Cher, I meant in here, not out in the hallway.”

  “But Mama, David wants to play with me. He likes the game,” she threw the rubber ball up again and scooped another jack into her left hand.

  Apolline didn’t know how to deal with imaginary friends. She had never had any as a child. But Elizabeth seemed to play with one nearly every day here. David. Why did she pick the name David?

  “I will leave the door open. If anyone comes upstairs, you come in here right away. You understand?”

  “Yes Mama,” Elizabeth threw the ball up again. “That’s twosies,” she said to her invisible companion.

  Steph stepped out of her apartment with three paperback novels and held them out to Apolline. “I read these last week, they’re great. One romance and two mysteries, if you like those types of books.”

  “Thank you,” Apolline took the books and perused through them. They looked interesting. She loved to read, but rarely had any books. She was going to love having Steph for a next-door neighbor.

  “No trouble. Soon it’ll be back to textbooks and I won’t be reading quite so many novels. Maybe only one a week,” Steph chuckled. “Hey, I remember playing jacks,” she glanced down at Elizabeth. “That’s a fun game,” she waved at Apolline and returned to her apartment closing the door behind her.

  “I think so too,” Elizabeth whispered.

  “You think what?” Apolline asked.

  “David says,” she looked up at her mother. “I mean, I think Steph is cute. I like her red hair,” Elizabeth threw the ball up again.

  “I will be back in a minute, cher. You stay here unless someone comes up the stairs.”

  “I know,” her daughter answered.

  Racing down the stairs, Apolline knocked on the landlord’s apartment door, number 1. Mrs. McLaughlin answered the door with a dishtowel in her hands and an apron covered in flour.

  “Yes, dear?”

  “Mrs. McLaughlin, can I speak to you for a moment?”

  “Of course, come in. I was just cooking some fried chicken and biscuits for a Fourth of July picnic later today. You know, you can see the fireworks from our front yard,” she gestured for Apolline to sit down in one of the living room chairs.

  “If I remember right, you are a nurse?” Apolline asked.

  “Used to be. I’m not a nurse anymore. Is someone hurt?”

  “No, no. Nothing like that. I just…well…Elizabeth seems to have an…imaginary friend. She talks to him all the time. And I don’t know what to do about it,” she wrung her hands together with nervous energy.

  “Oh, that’s very typical for young children, especially if they’ve been through any kind of trauma. It’s a way their little brains help them deal with the emotional and physical pains.”

  “Oh,” Apolline thought about all they’d been through. The abuse, the fights, the painful years with Jules. “I suppose that makes sense. She keeps wanting to play with David, that is what she calls him, David.”

  Mrs. McLaughlin’s face lost all color and her smile disappeared. “David?”

  “Yes, she is playing with him in the upstairs hallway right now. Is there a problem?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Who is David?” Apolline asked sensing this was a name that meant something to her landlady.

  “I’m sure I don’t know,” Mrs. McLaughlin shook her head.

  “David?” Warren McLaughlin strolled into the room nibbling on a homemade cookie. “David’s the fellow who died in apartment 7.”

  “Warren!” his wife scolded. “We don’t talk of that.”

  “Died?” Apolline questioned, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling her skin.

  “It was before we owned the place. I believe around the mid-forties. Not sure how or the skinny of it.” Warren popped the last of the chocolate chip cookie in his mouth. “They say he was gay, and there were some who didn’t like that so much.”

  “That’s enough!” Mrs. McLaughlin huffed as she stomped her foot on the floor. “I hope you and your daughter will see the fireworks tonight. I have work to do,” she draped the towel around her hands and clomped into the kitchen. Apolline took in a big whiff of fried chicken. It smelled so wonderful.

  “Don’t pay her no mind,” Warren said as he escorted Apolline to the door. “This is an old house, it’s bound to have a ghost story or two,” he chuckled and waved goodbye to her.

  “David,” Apolline murmured to herself as she hurried up the stairs. She had hoped to get far away from murder and death, and here she was, living in an apartment right next to the scene of a crime. She paused behind her daughter in the hallway. The air was unexplainably cold in just that one spot. She wrapped her arms around herself and smiled down at the little girl, still playing jacks.

  “Would you like to go to the zoo now, cher?” there was a nervousness in her voice.

  “She does?” Elizabeth whispered to the vacant space in front of her.

  “Maybe we can even have ice cream?” Apolline bit her bottom lip.

  Tossing the small red ball up, Elizabeth watched as it stopped and hovered, suspended in thin air a foot above the floor. She held the jacks in her hand and waited. Several jacks drifted on their own, and the ball fell, rolling down the hallway. Apolline drew in a gasp of air, afraid to move or even breathe.

  “Okay, Mama. Can we take some food to feed the ducks at the zoo?”

  “Yes…cher, we will…find something to take.” Apolline kept her gaze on the small red ball as she backed into her apartment door.

  Once her daughter was in the apartment, Apolline looked down the empty hallway as she shut the door. “David,” she whispered. “I’m sorry for what happened to you. But please do not harm my daughter; she is all I have in the world.” She closed the door and leaned against it to catch her breath, her heart pounding hard against the wall of her chest. She collected herself, her thoughts, as she packed a small sack of bread crumbs for the ducks. The raw edges of her nerves quieted.

  Skipping down the stairs and out the front door into the radiant sunshine, Apolline and her daughter held hands and giggled on their way across the street. The Boise zoo wasn’t extensive by any means, but it had sufficient charm to excite little minds and hearts like Elizabeth.

  They strolled cautiously past the gigantic buffalo, the bear, and the mountain lion. Elizabeth mimicked the chimpanzees in laughter and tried to persuade the colorful peacocks to fan out their beautiful tail feathers. They skipped to the large pond where people skimmed across the surface in paddle boats. Apolline handed her daughter the paper bag as they perched on the edge of the grass and threw the bread crumbs in the water for the ducks to dive after.

  “I’m hungry, Mama,” Elizabeth said as she tossed in the last of the bread crumbs.

  “How about splitting a juicy hamburger and a tall, frosty milk shake with me?”

  “Chocolate?” Elizabeth’s eyes grew big in excitement.

  “Of course. Chocolate, it is.” They sauntered down the sidewalk and paused to pet a fat Siamese cat on a fence post on their way to Murray’s Restauran
t. Inside Apolline’s place of work, she guided her daughter onto a round vinyl bar stool at the counter and sat on the stool beside her. Betty set two glasses of water in front of them and drew out her pad and pen.

  “Hey, this must be the pretty and talented Elizabeth I hear so much about?” Betty smiled at the little girl.

  “I’m five and a half,” Elizabeth said proudly.

  “Hi Betty, we want to share a hamburger and fries, and a –“

  “Chocolate,” Elizabeth interjected.

  “Chocolate milk shake.”

  Betty scribbled on her pad and grinned, “One hamburger, fries and a chocolate shake coming right up.” She turned and pinned the order on the wheel, spinning it around to the cook in the kitchen.

  Bellies full and sweet tooth satisfied, they headed back home. That evening, as the sun set, Apolline and her daughter sat out on the front porch. A very pregnant Bernadette and her daughter, Vicki, joined them.

  “Can we light the sparklers now?” Vicki jumped up and down in front of her mother.

  “Yes, get them, and the matches too,” Bernadette took a drag off of a cigarette and rubbed her extended belly. “Fireworks should go off soon, it’s almost dark enough,” she looked at Apolline.

  “Elizabeth’s been looking forward to it all day,” Apolline smiled.

  The two girls hopped out of the front door with two packs of sparklers and a book of matches. Vicki handed them to her mother. “Now?”

  “Yes, give me the sparklers,” Bernadette let her cigarette rest on her lower lip as she lit two sparklers and handed one to each of the girls. Vicki and Elizabeth ran down the stairs out into the grass twirling and producing large movements in the air with their sparklers. As soon as the first set ran out, they rushed up to get another until both boxes were empty.

  “There he is again,” Bernadette snapped as her eyes narrowed on the man standing across the street.

  “Who?” Apolline turned to look, then froze in her chair. “Jules,” she whispered. Her heart pounded so intensely she could barely hear anything else.

  “I think he’s someone my husband knows,” Bernadette scoffed. “The son-of-a-bitch.”

  The unshaven man leaned against the fence of the house across the street, dragged his hand through his hair, as he eyed the women on the porch. He struck a light and touched it to a cigarette that hung on the edge of his lip. The fire from the match flickered and mirrored in his eyes. The corner of his lip twitched in a slight sneer.

  “Surely, that could not be…Jules,” Apolline murmured, a feeling of panic stealing over her. “Elizabeth,” she said as softly as she could. “Come, cher, it is time to go in.”

  The two girls groaned as they reluctantly came up the stairs to the porch. Apolline stood, yanked her daughter’s hand and drew her inside and up the stairs.

  “Why can’t we watch the fireworks?” Elizabeth pouted.

  “I cannot explain it, cher. Only that the devil walks the streets tonight,” Apolline closed the apartment door behind them and slipped the security chain into place. She gulped and headed to the kitchen for a knife.

  Chapter 18

  Boise, Idaho

  There were two worlds Elizabeth lived in. The world she saw, and the one everybody else saw. Being only five and a half, it was complicated for her to describe the visions in her second sight. Soon she would be six, she’d be older, and perhaps then she could reveal to her mother the other world. Elizabeth often craved to tell her mama of the demons and the angels she saw. Their burning eyes, their claws, their wings. The snarls, whispers, and songs. Elizabeth was an old soul, and in her limited understanding of that, she found courage to stand up when she needed to, and to play when she could. After all, she was merely five and a half years old.

  For now, it was summertime, Elizabeth’s favorite season of the year. She could wear her flowered sundresses and run barefoot in the grass that tickled her feet. She could dash through the sprinkler and splash in the water. She and Vicki spent hours and hours on the swing set in the backyard of the apartment building. She could swing really high too, almost up to the tops of the trees.

  Some things made Elizabeth sad when she thought about them. Like the absence of Papa. He was sick, that’s why he didn’t move to Idaho with them. That’s probably why he beat her and Mama and yelled so often. Sickness can do that to people. But she still missed him.

  Her favorite time of day was curling up in bed next to Mama. Mama always smelled so wonderful, like soft lilacs from the garden. And when Mama wrapped her arms around her, it was as perfect as Heaven. Even better. She wanted to remain that way forever. She also loved the Basque ladies who looked after her. They talked funny, but they were wonderfully kind. And they had great stuffed animals for her to snuggle. She loved to snuggle. It made her feel happy inside.

  What Elizabeth didn’t like was the dark dreams, the frightening voices and the lurking chill that touched her world. She saw people that others couldn’t see. She saw things take place in her mind that she didn’t always understand. Like the night she saw Mama and Papa covered in blood. She never asked Mama about it. She didn’t want to worry her. But that’s how she knew Mama was right, Papa was sick. She often saw the demons that hovered around Papa and jabbed him unmercifully until he had no choice but to lash out. It was the demons he yelled at and swung at. She understood Papa wasn’t mad at her and Mama. Only the demons. And Papa had so many.

  The July morning air seemed stifling in the apartment with dust motes dancing on the streams of light that spilled in slanted beams across their bed to the floor. The dreams that plagued Elizabeth’s nights and made her wake up covered in sweat were terrifying. In her latest recurring dream, she saw a man resembling Papa; he looked like Papa, but something told her he wasn’t. Elizabeth bolted up out of her dream. She peeked at Mama who was still fast sleep.

  “Don’t worry, Mama,” Elizabeth whispered. “I won’t let him hurt you.” She lay back down and draped her little arm around Mama’s neck. She despised the nightmare she’d just woke up from. The nightmare that had begun the day they’d left Nevada and Papa. In the dream, a sinister shadow loomed, each night getting closer and closer to her and Mama. She could scarcely see his features through the blackness that shrouded him. He looked like Papa. But he wasn’t Papa. He was evil.

  Mama slept in because she was working the later shift which meant Miren or Begone might come and babysit her. She liked the two sisters who lived down the alley. They were so silly, and they played wonderful games with her. They showed her how to play hopscotch and a card game called Go Fish. She loved listening to them chat about boys, and how they swooned over them. It made her giggle.

  “Good morning, cher,” her mother said as she stretched and sat up on the side of the bed.

  “Good morning, Mama.”

  Mama got up, went into the kitchen, then called Elizabeth to the table to eat her cereal. Cheerios. She loved Cheerios. Especially when Mama put brown sugar on them.

  “After you eat your breakfast, I have to run to the store. I will see if Vicki’s mom can take care of you while I am gone.” Apolline put the glass bottle of milk back into the fridge.

  “Can I have a troll doll? Vicki has loads of troll dolls and they all have different colors of hair. I like the one with blue hair,” she took a huge bite of Cheerios. “Can I have a troll doll with blue hair?”

  Apolline sat in the built-in booth across from her daughter. “I will see if I can locate a troll doll with blue hair while I am out. No promises though,” she beamed.

  After a quick bath in the shared bathroom, Elizabeth was dressed and ready for her day. She gripped her mama’s hand as they scampered down the stairs and knocked on Vicki’s door. Vicki had the neatest apartment in the building. It had a bay window in the living room and a real fireplace. Elizabeth had never lived anywhere with a real fireplace. It was magical. Not only that, the apartment was big. It had two bedrooms, its own bathroom, and a huge kitchen and dining room. Well, it may n
ot have been that huge, but it was certainly bigger than Elizabeth’s apartment upstairs.

  “Hi Bernadette, I was wondering if Elizabeth could play with Vicki while I run a few errands. I have some shopping to do, but I should not be gone long. Between an hour or two at the most,” Apolline fidgeted, shuffling her weight back and forth.

  An hour was forever in Elizabeth’s mind.

  “Not a problem,” Bernadette stretched her back and held a hand on the underside of her tummy as if keeping the unborn baby in place. “We’re having corn dogs for lunch, is that okay with you?”

  “Corn dogs?” Elizabeth’s eyes widened with excitement as she hopped up and down. “I love corn dogs!”

  “Fine, you can have corn dogs for lunch,” Apolline laughed at her daughter. She glanced back at Bernadette. “Thank you, I promise not to be too long.” She gave her daughter a hug and waved goodbye as she left out the front door of the building.

  “Vicki,” Bernadette called out to her daughter. “Elizabeth is here to play,” she peered down and grinned. “She’s in the bath but should be done now. You can have a seat on the couch, and she’ll be out in a minute,” Bernadette headed off into the direction of the bathroom.

  The couch was enormous and fluffy, a rich blue that made Elizabeth think of the ocean. She closed her eyes and could hear the waves slap against the seashore. Elizabeth Daisy Cavaille had a gift that way. She could hear many things. She remained with her eyes closed, smiling, listening to the ocean on the big blue couch.

  “Lizzy!” Vicki shrieked as she rushed into the room with nothing on but a towel wrapped around her, and wet hair dripping water all over the hardwood floor. “Wanna’ play with my troll dolls?”

  “Yes,” Elizabeth scooted to the edge of the couch. “My mama will buy me my own troll doll. One with blue hair,” she clapped her hands in excitement.

  “Okay Vicki, first we have to dry you off and get you dressed,” Bernadette looked over at Elizabeth. “She’ll be out in just a minute,” she scooted her daughter to her bedroom.