First thing I did when I walked into the bathroom was look in the mirror. Now I could see what he’d been talking about. My hair was a disaster. It still retained a few stray bits of leaves and twigs and my face was stained with dirt in several places. It looked like there had probably been a lot more, but it had been washed away.
By Daniel? I wondered.
I had scratches all over my arms and chest from the thrashing of the branches as I’d tumbled down the hill. I really did look like something the cat dragged in. Something dead he dragged in.
Sitting down on the edge of the exquisitely tiled tub, I unwrapped the bandage around my ankle and hopped in the shower. The warm water felt good as it made its way down my body. I was grateful when it slowly began to ease my aches and pains. I took my time lathering up my hair, and as I leaned back into the stream of water to rinse, it felt like I was washing away a hundred different layers of grime. It felt wonderful.
When I finished, I dried off with a fluffy white towel and hopped out of the shower. Since I couldn’t find a blow drier, I wrapped my hair up in a towel and put on the huge men’s dress shirt. Still exhausted, I sat down on the edge of the tub, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
What am I doing here? I’m practically naked in a professor’s house! I’m really not that kind of girl.
I sat there for a few minutes too tired to move. The water had relaxed every single muscle in my body and all I really wanted to do was go back to bed and curl up in a ball for the rest of the day. Once under the covers, I could allow myself to slip effortlessly into unconsciousness. I could feel it calling me even now.
I wondered if any of my friends had noticed my absence. It seemed unlikely. We’d all gone our separate ways for the weekend and the earliest I’d have expected to see any of them was at dinner tonight.
What would I tell them?
That I’d gone hiking with Daniel?
That I’d spent the night at his house?
That he had a refrigerator full of blood in the back of a dark closet?
I’d have to come up with some explanation for my ankle. I was going to be limping around for a few days at the very least. Daniel said it was sprained, but I was pretty sure it was broken. I couldn’t think about it now, not here, not dressed like this.
I must have been sitting there for a long time because there was a soft knock on the door.
“Are you alright in there? You’ve been in there for a while.”
I looked up. “Yes, sorry. I guess I lost track of time.”
“Are you decent?”
I guessed I was and said as much. He slowly opened the door and peered in. As he entered, he smiled a smile I didn’t understand.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. It’s just … you look kinda cute sitting there in my shirt with that towel on your head.”
Oh goodness gracious – I’d forgotten about the towel. I must have looked like a cheap fortune teller. I jumped up, careful to put my weight on my good leg, and yanked the towel off my head. He frowned as if he was disappointed.
“I couldn’t find a hair dryer.”
“Yeah, probably not. We don’t get many ladies up here. Your clothes are in the dryer. Should be a few more minutes on them. So I’ll just leave you then … ” his voice trailing off as he backed out the door.
Didn’t get many ladies up here? Is that what he said? I was having a hard time believing that. Both he and the Professor were, well – about the best looking men I’d ever seen in person. I guess I kind of assumed they didn’t have trouble finding dates on a Friday night.
I hobbled over to the mirror and looked at my reflection. I wished I’d had my make-up bag with me. I could use a little concealer under my eyes and some mascara.
Somehow I was comforted by the knowledge that Daniel was way out of my league. Yes, he’d seen me sitting here with a towel on my head, but what did it matter? I was no super model and guys that look like that always end up with the models. I sighed wishing the universe was a different place than it really was.
What was I going to tell my friends?
I dried my hair as best I could with the towel and pulled it back with a band I had in my backpack. Walking into the bedroom, I put on my now clean jeans, tied up the front of Daniel’s shirt so it didn’t hang down and walked out into the living room. Daniel was nowhere to be found so I strolled over to the wall of windows that looked out over the lake. The view was magnificent.
Curious, I walked out the glass door to my right and onto a wooden deck that hung over the edge of the steep rocky cliff high above the lake. Walking up to the railing, I looked straight down at the black waters of the lake below. The house was built directly into the side of the cliff. It was a sheer vertical drop off the balcony down to the water.
The lake was a sizeable one. Not half as large as the one at the top of Mount Mohonk that I’d seen pictures of, but still sizeable enough that I felt a warm breeze blow up off the water and caress my face as I leaned over. The sun was past its zenith now. I could feel it caressing the back of my head with its warm rays. I still ached all over, but for some reason had never felt so relaxed in my whole life.
It must be nice I thought to myself, to live in a house like this. To enjoy such solitude, such a communion with nature.
“I think you like it here,” Daniel said, in his soft, sexy voice as he came along side me at the railing.
“Who wouldn’t?”
He didn’t answer right away but stared out like I did at the lake.
“Tell me what you’re thinking.” he said in almost a whisper, still looking straight ahead.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t really thinking anything. I was more feeling.”
“Feeling what?”
“The wind. The warmth of the sun. The scent of the pine needles. The sound of the breeze through the trees.”
I’d had my eyes closed while I’d been talking, still drinking it all in deeply. When I opened my eyes again, I realized he’d been watching me. I blushed, suddenly feeling self-conscious.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare.”
“I’ll forgive you if you tell me why,” I asked, too relaxed to really be upset.
“You’re really very beautiful. I’m not sure if I noticed before.”
“Give me a break,” I said as I rolled my eyes.
“Now why would you say that?”
“Oh, come on. First of all, no, I’m not. And second that sounded like the cheesiest pick up line ever.”
“You really have a low opinion of yourself, don’t you?”
“No, just a practical one.”
“No, I don’t think that’s it. You’re a very defensive person.”
A little pissed, I turned to face him, my brow furrowed.
“I don’t mean that in a bad way” he added.
“Is there a good way to mean that?”
“Humm … It’s like you don’t take compliments well, because if you did, you would make yourself vulnerable. You protect yourself by thinking the worst of yourself.”
I didn’t respond. I didn’t think it was true, but wasn’t sure how to say it wasn’t when it might contain some nugget of truth I wasn’t aware of.
“I don’t know.” I added after a pause. “My parents raised me differently than my friends were raised by their parents. I had different … expectations on me. I think maybe it changed me into someone I wasn’t supposed to be.” I wasn’t sure why I was telling him this.
“Now who’s being the cryptic one? I guess we all have secrets we’d rather not bring out into the light.”
We stood there for a few more minutes in comfortable silence staring out at the lake
“So does this lake have a name?” I asked.
“Mirror Lake. Look down.”
I leaned over and peered down at the waters only to see the reflection of the house and sky above me.
“It’s the angle” he said looking down with me. “You can only look straigh
t down at the water since it’s surrounded on all sides by the cliffs, and since so little wind makes its way all the way down to the bottom it usually looks like that. You should see it at night when it reflects the stars.”
“There’s no way down?”
“Well, there is a rather treacherous route down on the far side over there.” He pointed off to the right. “It’s really more for an experienced climber, but it could probably be done without any equipment. I’ve been down there a few times. The water is nice and there’s even a few fish as well. There’s also a cave. You can’t see it now because it’s directly under the house. We lowered a canoe down there some time back. But I haven’t gotten around to taking it out since we stowed it in the cave when we first moved in.”
I leaned over a little farther to see if I could spot the cave entrance, but only succeeded in spotting the reflection of my red hair in the lake.
“Your clothes are dry,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“I heard the buzzer on the dryer.”
I must have been out of it. I hadn’t heard a thing.
I followed him back inside then headed to his room to change and gather up my things. A few minutes later I strolled into the living room with my bag, all ready to head back to campus. Before we left, he sat me down and re-wrapped my ankle. This time it was as if he was purposefully trying not to touch me, like I was some poisonous thing to stay away from. I really didn’t understand him. But I guessed that was alright since I probably wouldn’t have to spend time alone with him like this ever again.
We drove down the mountain in silence. It wasn’t until we were approaching town that he finally opened his mouth.
“So have you decided what you’re going to tell your friends? I kind of get the impression you don’t want to tell them you were with me.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer him.
“Well, you are my teacher. I’m not sure how it would look.”
“Substitute teacher.” He corrected me as if somehow that sounded any better.
I didn’t say anything. What did it matter?
After he pulled up behind Capen Hall, he walked around and opened my door for me.
“I’d like to say let’s do it again sometime, but considering …” He looked down at my ankle. “Perhaps we’d better not.” Then he smiled that smile that made me go weak at the knees. Why did he have to do that?
“Yes, well I think I’ve hiked enough for a while,” I answered as I got out of the car. My words lacked emotion. I honestly had no idea how I was supposed to feel.
I’d turned to start up the walkway when heard him say, “Perhaps –”
Turning back to face him, I stared into that amazing pair of sky blue eyes. I could see they wanted to say something but weren’t.
“Yes?”
He paused for a moment, hesitating as his eyes darted around nervously.
“Well, I was just wondering … that is if you’re not busy … if you’d maybe like to do something else together?”
He was staring at the tops of his shoes now.
“Like what? A date?” I asked hesitantly.
“No, not really. Just maybe go do something together.”
His shoes must be more interesting than they looked to me.
I thought for a moment then answered.
“There’s that Harvest Festival in town next weekend. I was thinking about going.”
Instantly he looked up, dazzling me with his expression. I couldn’t help but smile back at him, although I couldn’t understand why.
“I’ve never been to a Harvest Festival before,” he said with a forced calmness and a smile.
“Well, then it will be a first for both of us.”
I turned, hobbled up the sidewalk and into the dorm. I didn’t look back. I was too afraid of what I might see. I was almost more afraid of Daniel liking me than of him not liking me. The one thing I knew with absolute certainty was that, under no circumstances should I be interested in him. I could offer no rational reason why, but some unconscious part of me knew he would bring me nothing but unhappiness.
I lied to my friends. I wasn’t happy about it. I hated lying. Fortunately, I’d been right and no one had noticed my absence. It was just easier for me to say I’d gone hiking and fallen down the stairs later on that evening when I went to the basement to do laundry. It was uninteresting and other than garnering me some sympathy for my pain, no one seemed to comment or question my story.
That night I had dinner with Ryan and Mike. Tabitha didn’t join us as she wasn’t going to be back until later in the evening. They were sweet, carrying my tray for me. I had to admit this was the one activity I didn’t turn away help with. Carrying a drink on a tray over to our table required more coordination than I was capable of at the moment.
When they asked about my hike, I gave a vague description that sounded like a variation of our trip into the woods the previous week. In the end, I tried to say as little as possible on the subject and kept changing the topic back to their weekend activities.
Occasionally I found myself scanning the room for Daniel, but I knew I wouldn’t see him. It was Sunday, and as far as I’d observed, he had taken to eating here only on weeknights. But still I looked, not really knowing why, or at least not wanting to give my motivations any closer scrutiny.
I tried to escape by ducking out of the dining hall early, but the boys insisted on walking me back to my room. They wanted to be sure I got up the stairs alright, and it wasn’t until I was inside the door that I was finally able to get rid of them. I was thankful for their kindness, but I really just wanted to be alone at that point.
Settling down at my desk, I pulled out my backpack and found my pad with the notes I’d made on the headstones Daniel had shown me. After popping open a can of soda and turning on my laptop, I returned a few emails. Once I’d reassured my mother that I was still alive, I logged on to a genealogy site I used regularly and started punching in what info I had on Sophronia Hood. There wasn’t much to be found, but I did find a few old census records and an incomplete family tree that someone had started to build.
Daniel had been right; most of the other names from the cemetery were in the family tree. Aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings. Sophronia seemed to have been the matriarch of the family. Pulling out a legal pad, I started to write out all the information I was collecting into my own hand written tree. She had six children, two boys, two girls including a baby boy and girl who sadly seemed to have died very young. For the other four, I wrote out the names of their spouses next to each one in turn. Two of the four never had children. That left a son Harvey who married an Isabella May Avery, and a daughter Anna who married Isaac Bennett.
Harvey and Isabella May had five children, but moved out of Ulster County to settle in Ohio where I soon lost their trail.
Anna and Isaac Bennett stayed here in Ulster County. Seems they’d lived just this side of Kingston, a nearby town to New Paltz I’d visited once or twice with Tabitha to do some shopping. Anna and Isaac had four children, three boys and one girl who were Phineas, John, Daniel and Sophia. According to the 1880 Census Sophronia was living with the Bennett’s and the two children who had been born at the time in Kingston. There being no 1890 census for me to consult, I next found the family in 1900. Isaac Bennett was now listed as a widower living in Kingston with all four children but, no Sophronia. According to her headstone, she’d already died by then.
I was able to trace Phineas and John but could find nothing on Daniel or Sophia past the 1900 census. Sophia probably wasn’t old enough to have been married by then, but since her father was a widower, it was possible she might have been shipped off to live with relatives elsewhere. She would take more work, but this Daniel should have been easier. Leaning back in my chair, I stared at my computer and frowned. All I could think at the moment was perhaps he’d died. Even if he had, he probably died between 1900 and 1910. The latest burial in the cemetery was 1912, so you’d have thoug
ht I’d have seen him up there on the mountain with the rest of his family.
I switched gears to another website that was better for searching birth and death records. After a little coaxing of the database I found a death record for a Daniel Bennett in 1905. This got me to wondering. I switched again to another website with archives of old newspapers. It was a shot in the dark, but I’d been able to find some incredible newspaper articles on my family in Rhode Island from way earlier than 1905. I’d been fortunate that several local Rhode Island papers had allowed their archives to be scanned and put on the site. I didn’t know how many, or if any Ulster county papers had been scanned and archived, but it was worth a look. If nothing else, this site had a good obituary listing that if searched properly might give me some more modern day descendants of Sophronia’s that could help me fill in the gaps going backwards.
I entered ‘Daniel Bennett 1905 Kingston New York’ in my search box and sifted through the results. About 100 articles came back. At least there seemed to be a couple of Ulster county newspapers from the time period here. I patiently looked through about thirty or forty articles with no success. It didn’t look like I was going to find anything, but once I get started on a puzzle; it’s hard for me to stop. I’d already poured through almost half of them, might as well be thorough and go through them all.
About an hour and a couple of cans of Diet Coke later, I finally found it.
May 16, 1905: The Kingston Telegram. Unexplained series of deaths continue. The latest victim of Ulster’s unknown killer was Daniel Bennett, a young man of good prospects and family of seventeen years of age, who was found dead in the woods near his family’s home last Tuesday night. His family grievously feel the loss of such a fine young man and pray fervently that the cause of his death may be determined in as speedy a manner as possible. As with the five previous unexplained deaths, the bodies were all mutilated in a fashion that would suggest an animal as the culprit. However, because each of the bodies appeared to have been hidden from view, the town constable suspects that a killer may be trying to throw suspicion off of himself and onto an unsuspecting wild beast.
The Purity of Blood: Volume I Page 12