by Alexie Aaron
“I thought they were just nightmares. But part of me knew. I was so happy when my husband took us away from here.”
“Did the visits stop then?” Beth asked.
“No, they lessened, but every now and then I would be awaked in the night, no matter where I was, college, home, hotels,” he listed. “Never when I, er, had company.”
Glenda pretended not to hear that.
“When we started investigations at night, there were no visits,” Mike explained. He put his hand on his stomach and got up. “I think that I better visit the facilities, if you ladies will excuse me.”
They watched him leave and wondered if the stomach ache was more memory than too many potatoes.
Beth turned to Glenda, “Tell us about the well.”
“Which one? The one here?”
“The original well,” Mia clarified. “I don’t think it’s all about this house. I get the feeling that this being attached himself to Mike because of his gifts. It wants him to listen, but also warns him away, as if the two of them share some kind of bond.”
“So he’s family and a he?” Beth asked.
“Let’s start with that, maybe. I don’t get a female vibe from the information Mike has shared,” Mia explained.
“My grandfather talked about how hard it was in the old days to find water. They would use dowsing rods. They would cut them from witch hazel. They were in the shape of Ys. Anyway the user would walk around until the rod indicated water. Then they would dig. They didn’t have drills in the old days. It was back breaking work, sometimes it took months. Granddaddy said that before they hit water they found the top of a cavern. There was a space between the water and the top of the hole they dug. The men were lucky they didn’t fall into the cavern and drown in the icy water.”
Glenda grabbed a pencil and drew a picture while she explained further, “They shored up the sides, dropped a bucket in the early days, and then put in a hand pump in later years. When the drought came and the water was being used to water the crops, the pipes had to be extended, but they always had water.”
“The whole town is fed by this underground water source?” Beth asked.
“Think so. Maybe even George Albert’s farm too.”
“Do you know where the original well is?”
“No,” Glenda admitted.
“Maybe there’s a record. Let’s continue to search,” Beth urged.
“How about a walk first,” suggested Mia. “Stretch out our limbs and check out the town at night.”
“There isn’t anything here but us. The town is dead. Closed up and dead.”
Mia smiled. “It’s the dead I’m interested in. Maybe, just maybe we may find out something that will lead us to a solution.”
Glenda moved her hands over her arms to suppress the goose bumps. Beth nodded, got up and excused herself to go and change clothes.
Glenda waited until Beth was climbing the stairs before commenting, “Never seen someone with so many changes of clothing.”
“You haven’t met my godfather Ralph then,” Mia said, before telling Glenda about the massive closet that Ralph had for each season’s clothing. “Me, I’m happy with comfortable clothes that aren’t too smelly.”
Glenda looked over at the waif and shook her head. “If I looked like you, Mia, I would have Ralph-size closets.”
Mia blushed and got up and hugged the old woman. “I better go and round up the boys,” she explained. “Maybe I will put on something fresher too.”
Chapter Six
Mia stood leaning on her truck waiting for the others. She gazed at the five empty houses on this street. They weren’t as massive as Mike’s mother’s house. Mia squinted her eyes and cut through the darkness and viewed the paint-peeling clapboards with interest. Each had a front porch. This seemed to be as necessary as a roof in this tiny farm town. She imagined folks catching a breeze there on hot summer nights. The towering trees with their deep roots were the only occupants left of Lund. The creak of their late autumn limbs seemed to awaken the denizens from their final slumber.
Mia felt a tingle on her arm and turned to find Murphy beside her. “It’s good to see you, have you been exploring?”
The farmer eased his axe off his shoulder and dropped it to the ground beside him. He pointed to the giants swaying in the half-moon light.
“They are impressive,” Mia said, taking in the Elm trees that hadn’t succumbed to the Dutch Elm disease. The mighty oaks fought alongside them for a piece of Illinois sky. She was amazed by the willow trees that were surviving far from streams and lowlands. “The water table must be higher than I thought or these trees have mighty deep roots.”
Murphy put his arms in a wide circle, hands barely meeting.
“I agree, the trunks are so thick that your mighty axe would take a long time to make a dent in. Seems a shame somehow that they have spent so much time alone.”
Murphy shook his head and pointed to the street.
Mia looked and saw couples and small groups of people walking up the street. They were just lights to the undiscerning eye, but she could distinguish shapes of lean men and plump women. She heard a small clicking sound behind her and saw Ted standing a few feet away filming the street.
“It’s as if they’ve come from church or a meeting of some kind,” Mia remarked.
More clicks and whirls filled the silence of the night as Burt and Mike used the various cameras in their arsenal to capture the lights.
Mia heard the front door close, and Beth and Glenda walked down the steps and moved slowly towards their group.
“The lights, are they people?” Beth asked Mia quietly.
“They’re an echo. Perhaps of a Sunday night. I think they’re returning home dressed in their best clothes,” Mia interpreted what she saw and felt to the others. “There is a young couple and an old one coming up the drive.”
“Describe them to me, dear?” Glenda asked.
“I get the feeling the younger woman has red hair, her frame is lean. Her escort has long sideburns and is wearing a dashing bowler hat. The older couple is laughing, enjoying a shared secret perhaps. The man is gray but has a full head of hair. The woman is wearing a floral dress that may just be a little tight around the derriere.”
“My parents and grandparents,” Glenda said in a voice tainted with emotion. “My mother was from Chicago, an Irish immigrant. They met at the stock exchange,” Glenda told them. “My father was considered a good catch, being the eldest son of the eldest son of the Lunds.”
Murphy dragged his axe on the ground to get Mia’s attention. He pointed to a light moving quickly up the street.
“There is someone running. It’s a man I believe. He is generating fear and concern. He is shouting, and the people are coming out on their porches. Your father is moving quickly towards the man. Your mother has taken the hand of your grandmother. They seem in distress. Your grandfather and father are moving away with the man. Murphy, follow them, please.”
Mia took off after the farmer with Ted on her heels. The others took their time, recording the images frozen in time on either side of the street.
Mia and Ted reached where the street teed into a shopping area. An empty gas station with a bullet-hole-ridden sign of a dinosaur was to their right. A few other deserted buildings were to their left.
CRACK!
Murphy’s axe hitting wood sounded from the left. Mia moved quickly in that direction.
“What’s going on?” Ted asked, his voice puffing from the exertion of holding the large camera and running.
“There are a few men now moving along with us. They are headed to a church I believe. It’s hard to tell as the darkness makes all these buildings look alike to me.”
Mia saw a group of concentrated light and moved towards it. “Some kind of meeting,” she explained. “In the yard of a two story home. There is a woman weeping and her dress is torn. I suspect she was attacked. The men are shouting, but I can’t hear a word. There is pushing, and
Glenda’s father is pulling a man out of the fray.”
Ted moved the camera to take in the lights. Images flooded the viewer. Some moved across each other, some blended.
“They are breaking up, and Glenda’s father has been joined by her grandfather. They are leading the other man away. The group of men remaining is shouting at them. The woman is on her feet and throwing rocks at the men as they walk away.”
Ted scanned the area and noticed the lights fading.
“There is anger and hurt here, but the images are fading. Whatever happened here was emotional enough to cause an echo in time,” Mia mentioned. “Now where the hell did Murphy get to?”
Ted watched as Mia roamed the deserted street. She walked up to the shells of old stores and popped her head in doors and windows. The glass was long gone, and the insides held nothing but rotted wood and peeling wallpaper. She waited for Ted and spoke to him as he approached, “It’s sad really, when a small town dies, whether it was from people moving away or large chain stores setting up in neighboring towns. The small business didn’t stand a chance. I expect the community couldn’t attract others or didn’t want them, who knows?”
“There are lots of places like this in the farm belt,” Ted told her. “I don’t know why some places survived and grew, but the majority didn’t.”
A shrill whistle pierced the air. Ted and Mia turned around to see the others congregating at the crossroad. It didn’t look like they were too interested in catching up with them so Ted dropped the camera off his shoulder and started walking their way. Mia followed more slowly taking in the atmosphere of the slumbering buildings.
Mike’s cousin wanted to refurbish this town. It must have meant something to him when he visited as a lad. Eddy’s father was the younger of the boys in the family. He married a local girl and decided to make their fortune west of the Mississippi. They settled near the Duprees. Mia envied large families. She was an only child and not wanted by her parents. Her only aunt was supposed dead until a few months ago. So Mia really didn’t understand the dynamics of sibling rivalry or the closeness of closing ranks when someone in the family unit was in trouble.
“We have a lot of data on this residual haunt. Mia, I’m going to need your impressions on tape,” Burt requested.
“I’ve picked up most of it on the camera,” Ted pointed out.
“What happened in town?” an excited Beth asked. “We were busy getting shots of people congregating on porches and missed the show.”
Ted gave them a play by play.
“Does any of this strike a chord?” Mia asked Glenda. “Did your mother ever mention anything like this?”
“My mother lived for each day. I may have some of her correspondence in the attic though. Maybe something was mentioned there. As far as I know she didn’t keep a diary.”
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Murphy’s SOS broke up their conversation. Mia turned in the direction of the sound and took off running. She heard Mike on her heels. Ted had the heavy camera and trailed the two of them.
She passed the empty commercial buildings and turned the corner and found herself in a churchyard. The church stood empty in the darkness, the white clapboards looked gray. No sense of comfort emanated from the building. Murphy stood pointing his axe at the large tree in the center of the graveyard. Mia moved cautiously among the markers, taking care not to trip on a root or broken bit of granite.
She stumbled. Mike caught her arm and kept her from falling. She looked up and started to thank him when something overhead caught her eye. “Mike,” was all she got out before fear struck her dumb.
The creak of the limbs in the wind accompanied another sound, the steady groan of a branch under stress. The rope rubbed against the limb. It hung taut by the weight of the young man whose broken neck was secured by a noose. Mike gripped Mia hard.
“Is that real?” he asked. “Do you see a man hanging there?”
“I see him, but he’s not really there, Mike. This is part of the echo.”
“Why can I see this?”
“I don’t know. I’d be interested if the others can see it too. Poor man.”
“Is it a suicide?” Mike asked.
“From that height? Unless he shimmied up the tree and… No, Mike, best guess is the man was hung. And since I see no witnesses, I’d say the soul was lynched. I could be wrong though. I am just picking up emotions and not facts,” Mia clarified.
Ted moved over to them and picked up his video camera and started to roll film. “I see three men in the distance, over by the corner of the church. I am picking up their shadows.”
“Do you see anything above us?” Mike asked.
Ted smoothly moved the camera until it was filming the tree and its branches above them before answering. “I’m picking up a mass obstructing a patch of sky but that’s all.”
“Thank you, Ted,” Mia said, still staring at the man.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Murphy hit the tree hard with his axe. He pointed to the church where the three men that Ted caught in the shadows were moving towards them. One of the men picked up a rock and flung it at them. Mia was flabbergasted when it landed hard against a gravestone near them.
“Guys, these guys can hurt us. They are active and dangerous.”
Murphy moved in to put him between the approaching danger and Mia. There was a flash of light and a distant rumble. The men disappeared, and as Mike looked up he no longer saw the hung man. Lightning flashed again, and the rumble that followed warned them that the storm was moving quickly in their direction.
“Come on, Mia, let’s get back to the house. We can figure this out from safety there,” Mike ordered. “Ted, are you ready?”
Ted secured the big camera under his coat as the plow wind hit them, bringing the cold sting of raindrops.
“Murphy!” Mia was surprised to hear Mike yell. “Meet us back home.”
Mia saw Murphy tip his hat and disappear from sight.
“Come on, I know a short cut!” he called and took Mia’s hand and started running.
They followed him through the back of the graveyard, over a few small picket fences, and they hit the backdoor of the big house just as Mike, Beth and Glenda entered the front.
The two groups merged in the hall when a ground-shaking bolt of light and energy hit close by.
“Whoa,” Mia said as she looked at the others. She wasn’t surprised to see that Glenda, Mike and Beth were wet. She was surprised to see that they weren’t just three. They were four. Standing just behind Burt was the man who had danced at the end of the rope. His eyes bore into Mia’s then Mike’s before he vanished into the night.
“What are you staring at child?” Glenda said irritated. “Go get us some towels. Honestly, this one was raised in the barn.”
Beth snickered at Mia’s discomfort.
Mia turned to head upstairs for one of the bathrooms. Mike reached a hand out to stop her. “Shame on you two. She doesn’t live here. I’ll get the towels. Come on, Mia, they’re in here.”
Mia followed behind him but felt odd. She really didn’t mind the comment. After all, it was said in jest. What really screwed her up was Mike being nice to her. Ted mumbled “Bizarro World” under his breath as she and Mike moved past him. Mia had to agree with him.
They found a supply of terrycloth towels in the airing cupboard in the laundry room. Mike picked up a pile of towels. He handed one to Mia and told her to wait there.
When he returned, he found her sitting on the floor. The night’s activities had taken its toll on her. He slid down the dryer and sat next to her. “I saw him too,” he said and took her hand in his. “I’ve seen him before. He’s the entity that has been haunting me for years.”
“He doesn’t seem to want to hurt you, although you have mentioned that you feel like you can’t breathe when he is around.”
“Yes. Why did he pick me?”
“I don’t know, maybe we could ask him. There is a good chance that he doe
sn’t know either. All I know is the two of you are bound in some way. He was the man the others were pushing around when your grandfather broke up the fight. I think he’s your great uncle, but I don’t know which one. Between Beth’s investigative powers and your mother’s memories and the family papers, maybe we will be able to find out for sure. Remember knowledge is power.”
“I know. Part of me doesn’t want to know. I fear it’s bad.”
“Or an injustice. Either way, it’s time to find out for sure,” Mia squeezed his hand. “How are you feeling?”
“My head hurts, but I’m no longer afraid. I’ve spent a lot of hours with the PEEPs and with you in tougher situations. The paranormal world is so complex. There aren’t any rules. I find myself guessing my way through most things and stumbling through others.”
“Same here, except I can see more of the blighters than you can,” Mia commiserated. “We will find some answers and set you free, I promise.”
“That’s a bold promise,” Mike pointed out.
“I’m that kind of person. I wasn’t born in a barn you know. I just eat like I was,” Mia giggled.
“Speaking of eating, I’m starved!” Mike said getting up. He offered Mia his hand and pulled her to her feet. “I bet my ma has some cookies hidden somewhere in that kitchen.”
“Lead the way, Kemosabe.”
“So if I’m the Lone Ranger, you are?”
“Hungry,” Mia answered.
Chapter Seven
Ted wired Mike’s room with video and sound recorders. Mia circled the bed with salt after Mike got in. She cautioned him that this wouldn’t stop the entity from entering the room but would stop it from sitting on his chest. Mia asked Murphy to check on Mike from time to time.
Mike raised an eyebrow, “Murphy checking on me, well, that’s not exactly conducive to a good night’s sleep, but I appreciate it all the same.”
Ted had placed an infrared camera angled to take in the doorway and most of the room. He was in his room checking out the feed, gazing at Mia and Mike. Mia’s heat signature was different than Mike’s. He wondered if it would be different than Beth’s or other females. He would have to experiment at some other time. Mia’s image showed normal heat associated with humans but also a shock of cold blue that moved along her spine. He also would like to get a reading on Mia in and out of bilocation.