Giving the hand-me-down jeans her brothers had gone through before they came to her a tug, Adelaide walked away from the still. She jerked around as a flash of white and something pink caught her eye but she saw nothing. It certainly wasn’t a revenuer all dressed in white with a flash of pink near the top. She wasn’t sure if it was a man or an animal, or if she’d even really seen it at all or if her mind was playing tricks on her. Whatever it was had disappeared now so Adelaide shrugged and continued on her walk home.
She walked for an hour, the hills and rocks making her simple walk a difficult climb until she came to the slope a quarter of a mile from her home. This was a steep slope and Adelaide was worried about slipping and crushing the berries. She decided to go down it backwards and on her hands and knees, giving herself some leverage and ensuring the berries wouldn’t be crushed if she slipped on a patch of damp leaves or a rock slid free under her feet.
Slowly working her way down the incline Adelaide was almost halfway down when she put her hand down on something squishy and wiggly. Looking at her hand she saw a copperhead snake, her small delicate hand miraculously holding the head down as the tail whipped back and forth. Adelaide screamed in horror, pulling her hand and body away in terror, without even stopping to consider that the snake might bite her, she just jerked away. Adelaide also didn’t think about being on a slope but realized her mistake as she fell down the steep incline, her head banging against several rocks as her right wrist shattered and her left ankle broke. When Adelaide finally stopped rolling she was unconscious, her skull was fractured and exposed, and she was no longer screaming. She was very still and barely breathing. This was not part of her plan for the day. Not at all.
Adelaide regained consciousness long enough to pull herself with one arm a little further up the dirt road she’d landed on. Little more than a worn path, the road led to her home and home was where Adelaide wanted to be the most at the moment. With one shattered wrist and ankle, movement proved difficult for Adelaide and the pain and exhaustion combined with her head injury and nausea to leave the girl unable to go much farther than 150 feet. She cried out for her parents, meaning to give a scream for help but little more than a mewling “poppa” came from between her lips. Her dry throat, bruised face, and injured head just didn’t allow for more noise than that. It wasn’t long before she passed out once more. She fought against the darkness that slowly made the world turn black but it won and Adelaide’s last thought before she passed out was that her poor daddy was never going to find her in the dark much less get her home.
“Perhaps you’d best go out and look for her, Malachi. It’s not like Addy to be gone so long and it’s going dark.” Eva Harmon stared out of the small window of her hand-built home, rocking in her chair and twisting at a handkerchief nervously. She took her eyes off of the window just long enough to look over at Malachi, resting on a couch over by the large fireplace, with pleading eyes. It was growing dark and Addy wasn’t back yet, Eva’s rheumy eyes drilled the words into his mind.
“I’ll get my lamp, Eva, and go look for her. She shouldn’t be too far away, I expect. Maybe she’s over in the barn with one of the cows. I’ll go out there and check first." Malachi was worried as well but he wasn’t going to let on to Eva that he was. Addy simply didn’t fool around like other girls did. She was too serious, far too serious for her own good sometimes, Malachi thought.
Retrieving the lantern with a hook Malachi walked out the door of the one floor sparsely furnished home and out into the backyard. He couldn’t see his daughter anywhere and headed for the barn where the cows went for the night. His daughter was a good girl, staying at home with him and his wife when she should have been out finding a man and getting married. Malachi didn’t like having to depend on his sweet daughter but his old war injury, a bullet to the knee long ago, was causing him too much pain to walk most days and it was only getting worse. The pain in the joint was excruciating even now with a sensation that Malachi could only compare to shards of glass being crushed in his knee only to spread out and cause a million tiny cuts within the joint. He should be at home resting it but his daughter wasn’t home. She devoted herself to them; this wasn’t like her so something had to be wrong. His knee would just have to hurt until he found her. His love for her wouldn’t allow him to sit still and wait.
Life was hard on mountain folk and they often aged before their time but the war had added to Malachi’s burden. When his knee wasn’t aching his head was filled with nightmares but he coped because that’s all he knew how to do. And right now his daughter needed him, he just knew it.
Heading into the glorified lean-to the family called the barn, Malachi wished once more that his sons hadn’t gone so far away. The boys, twins, had turned eighteen and headed off to California to fulfil their dreams. They’d won some kind of scholarship and Eva and Malachi had not seen them since. Neither Malachi nor Eva had had much education and didn’t understand everything the boys had told them but they knew their boys were going off for a better life far away.
The parents would get letters occasionally but that was all. The distance was too far to travel often so the boys just stayed put, planning to come home once their studies were over. The fact that it had been over seven years since they’d seen the boys didn’t mean they didn’t care, it was a long way to go and the boys were studying. Their lapse was forgivable.
Malachi and Eva were old now, both in their late fifties. Malachi was tall but his back was bent and his once black hair was now white. Eva’s had turned silver and her eyes had started to fade from their sparkling brown but he still saw the beautiful girl he’d fallen in love with so long ago. Many years had passed between them, the deaths of eight children taking its toll on their bodies and minds but their love for each other had never grown worn. They’d shared that love with each child and their Addy was their last, their baby. He couldn’t leave her out here in the night air if she was hurt, he just couldn’t.
Malachi hobbled through the barn and by the pen that made up the pigs enclosure. The chickens had their own little house but Addy couldn’t fit into that. Malachi’s knee was throbbing intensely by the time he made it back to the house but he humped up the two steps to tell Eva he was heading up the road to look for her.
“What will we do if she’s not there Malachi? We don’t even have a phone to call for help. I never did understand why people wanted those noisy things but I see now. I see and our poor Addy is paying the price.” Eva’s tears finally fell from their perch on her bottom eyelids and Malachi did what he could to soothe her but he was impatient. She was out there, he needed to go and look for her.
“Eva, my darling dear, I need to go look for her, why don’t you put on some water. She may need something warm in her tummy when we get back. Never fear my girl, I’ll find her.” Malachi had a habit of using endearments with his wife but she always knew he was at his most worried when he used more than one at a time.
Eva sniffled up her tears, wiping away the moisture, and then stood up to go to the stove. Her back hitched as she stood. The sharp pain was evidence of a life of hard work and birthing eleven children. She wasn’t going to hold Malachi here for comfort, not if he was that worried.
“You go on dear. I’ll put on some chamomile tea. That will soothe her. You’ll find her, I know you will.” Eva started muttering under her breath as Malachi turned to leave. He knew it was a quiet prayer. He and his wife were both religious people and prayed whenever they thought they should bother the Lord with their troubles.
Malachi clomped down the steps and headed down the well-worn path, holding the lantern high to spread its meagre light. Eva wanted a phone but he wanted one of those new battery powered flashlights. He’d been considering buying one for a while but kept talking himself out of them. Eva needed a new mixing bowl when hers finally shattered after years of work. Addy’s boots had been mended so many times they barely had a speck of the original material left and Malachi had put off the lamp for new boots for
her. There was always something and he’d just kept talking himself out of it.
Malachi continued to walk, keeping his mind off of his fears by reminding himself of the things they still needed. They’d not bought a car because neither of them knew how to drive and they were far too expensive. Malachi added that to his list of regrets as he spotted a bloody pile of rags just up ahead.
“The Lord will provide.” He murmured to himself, hoping that this mangled pile of limbs wasn’t his daughter.
Malachi walked cautiously forward, unsure of what he was seeing exactly. He fell to his knees when he spotted a bit of Addy’s hair not covered in blood. A plea to God escaped his lips as he saw her bruised and bleeding body. Every inch of flesh he could see was torn or bruised, blood covering her from head to toe. A dark purple stain covered her back and Malachi hoped that was blackberries and not more blood.
Malachi felt his knee exploding but ignored it. He’d crawl back towing Addy behind him if he had to. Addy was on her stomach, her arms stretched out before her. From the swelling in the right one he knew it was damaged, as was her left ankle. It was her head that worried him the most though. The wound was still oozing blood and Malachi’s eyes filled with tears and his stomach clenched as he recognized the white stuff in the wound as being parts of her skull.
“Eva!” Malachi shouted hoarsely. He didn’t know what else to do so he started to drag his daughter back to their house, leaving the lamp behind. He couldn’t pick her up, not with his knee but she needed help. “Eva!”
Malachi kept calling out to his wife until she heard him, running out to help him about halfway back to the house. Eva ran as if her hair was on fire, running towards Malachi.
“Did you find her?” She shouted, confused as to why Malachi was scooting around on the ground.
“She’s here my dear. She’s hurt, hurt bad. I don’t know who’s done this but they’ll pay. They’ve hurt our little girl. Let’s get her inside, Eva. Quickly. We have to work harder than we ever have before or we’ll lose our girl. Help me, darling, help me.” He urged.
Eva used the strength her maternal instincts gave her and hauled her daughter to the house by the back of her dress, her legs kicking against the ground. Eva had to pull Adelaide up by shoving her hands under the girl's shoulders and hauling her up the steps to get her into the house. She pulled her to Adelaide’s bed but she was soon done pulling and sat for a moment to catch her breath and inspect the wounds. Addy was not in good shape and Eva had to swallow a wail of despair and force back her tears as she looked over the wounds.
“Water, we need water. And some of that moonshine. And my sewing kit, one of those old sheets, or two, bring two…” Eva rattled off a list of items and Malachi rushed off as fast as his knee would let him to find the items.
Eva tore off Addy’s clothes, using strips from the old sheet to bathe her daughter’s broken body with the hot water Malachi soon brought her. He placed her list of items at the table on Addy’s bedside and helped her clean the girl, covered with another old sheet. At least her being unconscious meant she didn’t have to feel all the pain she must be in.
“Her wrist and ankle are broken Malachi, and I’m not sure what’s going on with her head but this isn’t good. You might want to step out of the room while I clean the rest of her up.” Eva didn’t look away from Adelaide, she just kept cleaning.
Malachi left his wife in peace, knowing she had skills with herbs and medicine that her own mother had taught her. Eva would do the best she could. Malachi went over to the chest where they kept two bottles of moonshine. Malachi never touched the stuff, not after coming home from the war and making a fool of himself long ago, but right now he needed to steady his nerves. He poured a small glass and took a sip, gasping as his throat caught fire.
Malachi considered a list of people that might have attacked Adelaide, narrowing the list down to just a few possible culprits. There was one in particular, a man that had often bothered Adelaide, threatening her with violence if she kept refusing him. Malachi would see to it that he got what he deserved. He was too old and crippled for violence but whoever had left his daughter in the road like that was in for a world of hurt, whether it was the one he suspected or someone else. He had friends; they knew how to take care of men that thought they could beat a woman into becoming their wives. With no other clue as to what had happened to Adelaide it was the only assumption Malachi could make, that she’d been attacked. Someone had hurt his little girl and now she could very well lose her life if her injuries were anything to judge by. This would not do and it would not stand. Somebody had to pay.
Malachi heard the door to Adelaide’s room opening and looked up, questions in his eyes. Eva came to stand beside him, taking his glass to sip from it. She knew what was in it, though it looked like water, and sighed as she felt the soothing burn. This was not going to be an easy conversation.
“She’s in bad shape, Malachi. It’s that head injury that worries me the most. I think her skull is broken but I’m not sure. I cleaned the wound out, and stitched it back up but I’m worried about infection and the damage we can’t see. Head injuries bleed a lot but her skull was showing through. If it’s broken as well then she might be in for a lot worse.”
Eva paused to take a deep breath. She didn’t want to speak the words. As long as they were locked in her head, unspoken, then they didn’t have to be real. But her dear husband deserved to know, to be prepared for what may come.
“I don’t know if she can make it through all this or not, Malachi. She could have other injuries that I can’t see, in her chest and stomach. It’s time to pray and pray hard. I’ve done what I could, used the herbal remedies that could help her to heal, but I just don’t know. We have to trust in the Lord now and leave the rest up to him.”
Malachi felt his knees lose some of their strength so he let himself sink down to the couch. He’d known it himself, he could see the injury, but he’d managed to not think about it. The six inch laceration and clear evidence of her skull showing through had been all he really needed to know. They might lose their baby girl. The only one that had survived childhood. Malachi couldn’t hold back the sob of heartbreak as he hid his face in his hands. Then he sank to his knees once more that day with Eva by his side and began to pray.
Chapter Two
Eva got up from where she knelt on the floor, beside Addy’s bed now, as she finished praying for the moment. Straightening her bent and painful back, Eva’s watery eyes stared down at her little girl, checking her breathing and whether her chest even still moved with her glance. Eva could see Addy’s chest moving with every breath and bent her head down to listen to the sound of it.
Eva’s hearing was starting to fail but she pressed her ear closer to Addy’s chest and she could finally hear. Yes, there was a bit of a rattle there. Eva moved the prone young woman onto her side and gently patted her back, hoping to move the congestion from her daughter’s lungs. If she allowed the congestion to build up Eva knew her daughter could end up with pneumonia. "New-mony" as she called it. She had to prevent that.
Eva had learned what she knew about healing from her own mother, who had learned from her mother. Up here in the hills doctors weren’t plentiful and you had to rely on your own wits. There was a doctor in town but neither Malachi nor Eva was likely to make it to town. Eva knew she needed to get the doctor for Adelaide but had no way of getting him up here to her. They were going to have to keep praying.
Eva decided to try to get Adelaide to swallow some of the Yellow-root tea she knew could prevent infection. The injured girl needed water, at least. She could live without food for a while but not water. Eva moved into the kitchen, setting water to boil on her wood-cook stove and was thankful Malachi had brought in more wood earlier. The wood in the firebox was now just burning embers so Eva blew on the glowing coals, encouraging it to burst into flames as she added new slivers of chopped wood.
Eva sat down at the kitchen table, another of Malachi’s creations
, and smoothed the patchwork tablecloth she’d sewn from flour sacks. The colorful patches always made her smile but not today. Reaching over to a nearby shelf Eva took down her precious stash of paper and a pencil, intending to write a letter to her boys.
As Eva wrote in her careful childlike script she thought about what she wanted to tell her boys the most. That Addy was hurt bad, that they needed help but didn’t know how to get it, and that she didn’t even know how she was going to get the letter to them. The mail didn’t run up here and she’d have to get it to town to buy a stamp and send it off. Still, she kept writing, telling them about Adelaide’s injuries and her fears for the girl.
Eva slowly wrote the letter, sighing often as she tried to bring the words to mind. Her hair went well past her waist but she had it in a thick-bun at the back of her neck, but strands would come loose often and brush against her much-lined face. Her dark eyes were tired and full of worry now, her round face revealing deeply etched lines that seemed to become more pronounced as the hours wore on and Addy didn’t wake up.
Addy had to wake up soon or she might lie there, like a princess in a story Eva’s own mother used to tell her when she was a child. But unlike that princess Addy had no hope of a prince’s kiss to wake her up. She only had her mother and father’s prayers and the little bit of healing her mother knew about. Eva sighed once more, her sweet, grandmotherly face a mask of misery.
Thriller: Horror: Conceived (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 23