by Robert Brumm
Kelly nodded.
“This went on for months until one day he suddenly transformed into the cheerful and kind man I’d known for years. I couldn’t explain it at the time but I was so relieved, figured he’d finally snapped out of his dark times and was back to himself.”
Helen came back from the window and returned to the sofa. She absently rubbed at the damp spots on her dress from where her tea spilled. “It wasn’t until much later I realized it was because of his first girl. He felt better after he murdered her. Lord knows it didn’t last very long. A few days later and the dark Harlan was back.”
“So you knew he was a murderer and you didn’t do anything about it.” Kelly said.
“Aye. I know ye must think I’m a terrible person but now I realize how powerful denial is when you’re not strong enough to face the truth. I blamed it on the war, the hard times, the start of the depression. Anything except Harlan being just plain evil.
“After a while it became too much, of course.” Helen looked about the room. “He built this place and I saw the cells in the basement with me own eyes. I tried to talk some sense into him but he wouldn’t stand for it.” She touched her cheek. “It was the first time he laid a hand on me and the last time I stepped foot outside of this cottage until after he died. He locked me up with the rest of the girls. Had me…help him.”
Helen sat back on the sofa and closed her eyes. “After he died I managed to make things worse by trying to hide the past and cover up what had happened here. I see that now. I imagine that’s why we’ve been trapped behind these walls all these years.”
“Why me?” Kelly asked. Helen looked startled, as if she’d forgotten she wasn’t alone with her own thoughts.
“Why you?” Helen laughed. “Ye weren’t the first, lass. Believe me, we tried with the others. Nobody has lived in this cottage for close to thirty years. But we knew ye were special. You’ve got a gift Kelly, we knew you’d be strong, be able to stand up to him. And because ye did, his dark soul is finally gone from this place, off to be judged for the evil he committed, I can only hope. And the tortured souls of all those poor girls can finally move on, too. To be at peace at last.”
Kelly found herself squinting as Helen talked, as if the light streaming into the window was slowly becoming brighter. She finally had to shield her eyes with her hands. It was becoming unbearable.
“I see it’s finally my time as well,” Helen said. “I only hope God has mercy on me for what I did.” She gently put her hand on Kelly’s leg. Kelly reached for it but felt nothing as the light became all consuming. Even with her eyes closed and her hands covering them, it still blinded her until she couldn’t stand it a second longer and everything went dark.
Chapter 31
The seemingly simple task of opening her eyes was impossible. Kelly’s mind processed the various noises surrounding her as she became more aware. The steady hum of a ventilation system above her, insistent beeping to her right. Voices in the distance—down a hallway? The murmur of a television in a nearby room.
Kelly’s eyelids finally flickered open and her eyes adjusted to the low light. A large bouquet of flowers loomed by her feet. A white teddy bear watched over it. She slowly turned her head to the right, attracted by the soft glow of a vitals monitor. The various numbers and lines danced to the rhythm of her heartbeat and caused her head to spin. She closed her eyes again and then told herself to open them back up.
*****
Daylight streamed through the partially closed blinds on the window. A deep and steady ache filled her chest as if somebody held a branding iron to her skin. She opened her eyes and turned to the sound of somebody hammering away on a keyboard close by.
A heavyset nurse in pink scrubs turned to her and smiled. “Hey there, Kelly. Pain starting to creep on ya?”
Kelly opened her mouth, wanting to answer but it felt like someone replaced her tongue with a damp sock. She lifted her head off the bed—bad idea. She winced in pain, a pathetic squeak escaped from her dry mouth.
“Aw.” Pink Nurse clucked her tongue and waddled over with a syringe. “Hold on, sweetie. This should help.” She attached the syringe to the port connected to Kelly’s IV. A few seconds passed before a delightful warmth enveloped her, washing the pain away and chalking up another victory in the battle to keep her from waking.
*****
Daytime again but impossible to tell if it was the same day or the next day or the next week. Two new bouquets of flowers surrounded the original and a silver balloon on a string floated lazily behind them. Somebody jumped up from the corner of the room and hurried over. Paul.
He stood over her and smiled. “Hey. The nurses said you’ve been waking up more often. I finally caught you.”
Kelly looked up at him and frowned, struggling to form the words in her mouth. Paul leaned closer. “Did you say something?”
“What…happened?” She managed.
“You got shot, Kell.” He gently ran his fingers through her hair. “You’re going to be just fine, though. It was scary for a while but you didn’t give up.”
She slowly looked around the room, the pain in her chest threatening to increase with every movement. “Keegan?”
“He’s fine too.” Paul glanced at his watch. “Ed and Sue should be stopping by with him in about an hour, actually. Hopefully you can stay awake long enough to see him. He’s been here a few times ever since you transferred out of the ICU. He’s one brave little kid.”
Kelly nodded her head as silent tears rolled down her cheeks. The thought of her little boy seeing her like this broke her heart.
“Hey, don’t cry.” Paul grabbed a tissue from the side table and wiped her cheeks. “The worst is behind you. You did great in surgery and they patched you up, good as new.” He gently kissed her on the cheek. “Just gotta rest and take it easy. You’ll be up and out of here in no time.”
“What about Don?”
“You don’t have to worry about that scumbag anymore. Last I heard the DA is going for first-degree attempted murder. Don’s going to be locked up for a long time.”
“The store?”
Paul laughed. “The store is doing just fine. Charlotte really stepped up and took over the books and I hired a couple kids to help after school and weekends. Don’t worry, there’ll always be a spot for you. I hear the boss is a really nice guy.”
Kelly reached for Paul’s hand and he squeezed it. She wanted to know more, get every detail of what happened, but the mere effort of her few words had left her utterly exhausted. She closed her eyes, wanting to just rest for a minute, and fell asleep.
Chapter 32
The days passed slowly as Kelly recovered and grew stronger. Paul visited her every day. Sometimes during lunch, sometimes after work, and often both. She finally got to see Keegan, held him close to her on the bed as Ed and Sue stood by with tears in their eyes. Cheryl from Ed’s shop, Charlotte, even regular customers from the store she barely knew, came to see her. They added flowers, cards, and balloons wherever they could find space. They read greeting cards out loud and prayed over her bed. Filled her in on area news and local gossip. Various police officials asked her the same questions over and over, frowning in concern as they scribbled down her statements in their notebooks.
Days turned into weeks. When she was strong enough to sit upright and lucid enough from lower doses of pain medications, she took the stand in Don’s trial. She sat in a wheelchair in front of the witness stand and answered questions about his abusive past and the events that led up to the night of the shooting. He stared ahead the whole time, his face void of any expression and never so much as glanced at her.
Two days before Kelly was finally discharged, she heard the news herself as she watched television while eating dinner. Don was sentenced to a minimum of fifteen years in the state penitentiary. Kelly cried for ten minutes while her half eaten chicken fajita grew cold.
Chapter 33
Kelly looked at the wall clock for the hundredt
h time that afternoon and absently clicked through the channels on the TV.
“You keep that up and you’re going to give me a seizure,” whispered Paul. He shifted on the hard hospital sofa, careful not to disturb Keegan who napped on his lap.
“Sorry.” She stopped on one of the half dozen food/cooking/eating channels and dropped the remote on the bed. “What’s taking so long? The nurse said over an hour ago they were working on my discharge papers.”
“You know how it is. Everything about this place takes longer than usual except when it comes to mailing out the bills.”
Kelly slowly stood up and paced the room. “Ug, don’t remind me. For the life of me I have no idea how I’m ever going to pay for all this.”
“Just send them a dollar a month. What are they going to do, shoot you?”
Kelly glared at him. “Not funny.”
Paul’s grin widened. “It is a little, you have to admit.”
Before Kelly could respond, a quiet knock on the door interrupted her. One of the nursing assistants stuck her head in. “Hey guys, shouldn’t be much longer. In the meantime you have a last minute visitor.” She pushed the door open wide.
“Tammy!” Kelly rushed over and hugged her friend, instantly noticing how frail and boney she felt. Tammy buried her face in Kelly’s neck and started to sniffle.
All the commotion woke Keegan. Paul picked him up and headed for the door. “Come on, sport. Let’s go get a soda and we’ll let these two talk.” He smiled at Tammy and kissed Kelly on the cheek. “Send me a text if they’re ready to kick you out before we get back.”
Kelly stepped aside and let Tammy come in and sit on the bed. Kelly rubbed her back while her friend struggled to stop sobbing.
“I’m so s-sorry, Kell.”
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s not your fault.”
Tammy turned to her and grabbed her hand. “But it is! All of it. I was the one who told Don where you were. God, I was s-such an idiot.”
“You what?”
Tammy wiped her eyes and let out a big sigh. She finally looked her friend in the eye. “I was so angry when you left. I felt like you abandoned me when I needed you the most.” She rolled her eyes. “I know compared to you, my problems must seem pathetic, but I was so lonely after me and Carl broke up.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about that.”
“You know Don kept harassing me after you took off, trying to find out what I knew. What I didn’t tell you is he came back, sober and calm, apologizing for being such a dick. We had a few beers and smoked a bowl and…” Tammy clenched her fist and held it to her forehead. “God, he played me like a fiddle and I walked right into it.”
“Believe me, if anybody knows how to turn on the charm and get what he wants, it’s Don. You don’t have to tell me.”
“It wasn’t just the sex. We got high all the time, started moving into the harder stuff.” She clutched Kelly’s hands and held them to her chest. “That’s why I’m here. My mom is out in the parking lot waiting for me. I’m on my way to rehab. A place in the Twin Cities that’s supposed to be really good.”
Kelly looked in the dark and sunken eyes of her friend. “I’m so glad to hear that.”
“When I saw Don’s trial on the news I knew I had to see you before I left.” She wrapped her arms around Kelly and started crying again. “Can you ever forgive me?”
“Already done.” They held each other and gently rocked back and forth until Kelly’s nurse appeared in the doorway holding a bunch of papers.
“Ready to go?”
*****
Kelly leaned out the window of Paul’s Jeep, enjoying the sun and cool breeze on her face. “God, it’s heavenly out. I feel like I haven’t been outside in years.”
“Not bad for March, right?” Paul said. “I’m sure a week from now it’ll be snowing again but for now I’ll take it.” He turned into Ed and Sue’s driveway and rolled to a stop. “You sure you want to do this?”
She grabbed his hand and nodded. “I’m sure. It’s just a house and I’m not scared anymore.” She hadn’t told Paul or anybody else about her final dream or vision or whatever it was. Since that night she hadn’t had a single dream that she could remember, and despite being stuck in a hospital bed, never slept better.
Paul shifted into gear. “You’re the boss.”
“How ‘bout you?” Kelly asked. “Still sleeping okay?”
He nodded, a look of guilt flashing over his face for just a second as the topic of his nightmare came up. “Like a baby, no bad dreams. My sessions with Tom are helping, too. I really feel like I’m starting to make progress.”
She kissed the back of his hand. “I’m proud of you for getting help.”
“Bah, I’m just paying to sit on a couch for a hundred bucks an hour. No biggie.”
The cottage came into view as they rounded the bend in the driveway and Kelly admitted to herself she did feel a little nervous. It occurred to her for the first time that perhaps she hadn’t had any more visions about Hoskins because she wasn’t sleeping in the house. What if they came back?
Sue stepped out of the front door as they pulled up and waved. She rushed over to the Jeep with a big smile on her face and embraced Kelly as she got out of the car. “Welcome home! I was just airing the place out and doing a little dusting. I’ve also got a casserole in the oven for dinner.”
“Thanks so much, Sue. This place is a site for sore eyes.”
Kelly rested on the couch as Sue floated around, talking a mile a minute and straightening up as Keegan played on the floor. Ed came down after work and all five of them ate dinner at the kitchen table. Despite the usual soreness in her chest, Kelly felt happy and at peace, enjoying the light conversation around her as they ate. It felt like a normal dinner party in a normal house.
*****
Paul kissed her on the nose and looked into her eyes. “You sure you don’t want me to spend the night?”
“Positive, I’ll be fine. It’s been a long day for you, too. Go home and rest and I promise to do the same.”
Paul leaned his back up against the door. “If you’re sure.”
“I am.” Kelly placed her hand on his chest. “Paul, please don’t take this the wrong way, but…considering everything that’s happened I sort of want to start over. Take things slow between us. Do you know what I mean?”
“Loud and clear. You need anything, and I mean anything, call me.”
She kissed him on cheek and watched as he got into his Jeep and drove away. Kelly crept into Keegan’s room and checked on him again. She pulled his covers up and watched him with a smile on her face as she slept. She tried to imagine everything that had happened from his point of view and it tore at her chest worse than the healing bullet wound. Paul’s attack, seeing his mom half dead in the hospital, and his dad going to jail. She could only pray there would be no long term effects on her baby. For the moment, she was content to watch him sleep peacefully.
Kelly aimlessly paced the living room. She should have been dead tired but felt wired and not even close to being able to sleep. She noted the time on the clock and went to the kitchen counter, washing down a pain pill and staring at the wall as her mind wandered.
All the time she recovered in the hospital and replayed all the events of the past months, there was one thing that nagged at her. She had no reason anymore to doubt the horrible things that happened in her home long ago but couldn’t figure out what happened to the basement door. In her dreams, despite the period appropriate furniture, the cottage was identical to the way it was today. Except for the basement.
Kelly wandered over to the far wall of the living room and stood where she thought the door had been from her dream. It felt right. She pushed the chair away from the wall and leaned in close, studying the plaster for the slightest sign of a crack or seam. Any evidence of a doorway that was boarded up long ago, hidden from the world. But the wall didn’t have the answer. It was smooth and even, and besides, right on the oth
er side was the outside. There was no physical way a hidden hallway could be on the other side. She sighed and looked down, considering the floor.
Kelly crouched down and tugged at the carpeting close to the wall. She pulled it away from the strip of tacks and pulled the corner of the carpet away from the wall. She found foam padding under that and pulled it back as well, exposing the subfloor underneath.
Disappointingly normal looking wooden planks stared back at her. What was she expecting? A handle to a trap door? She sat back on her butt and looked at the clock again. She really need to get to bed. Get some rest and move on, look to the future and forget about the past.
Kelly put the padding and carpeting back the best she could and moved the chair back to where it belonged, her chest screaming at the effort. She went into the bathroom, pulled her hair back into a ponytail and ran the water. As she waited for it to warm enough for her to wash her face, she stared at the linoleum tiles on the floor she helped Ed install before they moved in.
Something about the tiles bugged her but she didn’t know why. She shrugged it off and started soaping up her hands. Kelly froze. She pictured what the bathroom floor looked like when she first toured the house with Ed and before they fixed it up. The floor was only half covered with scuffed up and broken tiles. The rest of the floor was wooden planks. Thin planks only a couple of inches wide.
Kelly hurried into the kitchen and returned to the bathroom with a steak knife, got down on her hands and knees and carefully worked the tip of the blade in between two of the tiles. After a little effort, the knife finally found purchase and she carefully peeled back on of the tiles. The floor below was just like she remembered.
She looked back into the living room. The floor in the living room was different, the wood much wider. At least six or eight inches wider. Was is normal to have two different styles of floors in the same house? It was possible the thin strips of the bathroom floor were original, meant to be shown off instead of hidden by tile. She thought back to her dreams and tried to picture the living room floor. She was pretty sure it was carpeted even back then. No need for fancy hard wood planks.