Eva heard the kettle of water start to boil and moved it to cool off a bit. The water couldn’t be boiling when she poured it over the dark brown roots of the dried herb. The water would turn yellow as the medicine inside of the plant came out and Eva would then spoon it into Adelaide’s mouth. It had to be cool for that part too.
“Morning love.” Malachi murmured as he shuffled out of their room, putting the coffee pot onto the hot part of the stove. “I can’t sleep. Shall I make some breakfast?”
“I wish you’d rest my dove. If we get ill we’ll be no help to Addy. Let me do that.” Eva took the pan from Malachi and ladled bacon grease from a crock on the top of the stove into the pan intending to fry eggs. “She hasn’t moved a bit so I’ll fix you some breakfast then you get some rest. You can sit up with her later and I’ll rest.”
Malachi plonked himself down in a chair instead and sighed, rubbing at his knee. She’d have to make him some more cream with mint in it to soothe the pain away. It didn’t always work for him but the injury hadn’t healed correctly, there wasn’t much to do for it. Eva’s thoughts drifted to Adelaide once more.
The only one of her girls to survive, out of six, Adelaide was her angel. The girl had stayed home when she could have run off with any man in town and made her own life. Instead she’d stayed home to take care of her and Malachi. Eva loved her daughter dearly but her devotion to her parents made her precious.
“Eva?” Malachi intruded into her thoughts.
“Yes, Malachi?”
“Was Adelaide, uh, was she intact.” Malachi’s voice was tentative, hesitant.
“Pardon?” Eva asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Of course she wasn’t, her head was busted open.”
“I don’t mean that, dear. I mean, erm, well, was she violated? I don’t know what to look for and that’s not something I should do anyway. Was she messed with?” He was still hedging around the question but Eva finally understood.
“Oh! No, she had some bruising to her hips and her bottom but nothing in that area dear, she wasn’t…” Eva sobbed but swallowed it. “She wasn’t violated.”
Malachi gave a visible sigh of relief and shook his head, looking away. That was a blessing at least. Taking the toast and eggs Eva handed him as she set her own plate down Malachi took a swig of the coffee handed to him wondering what more they could do.
“Perhaps I should go down and fetch the doctor?” He offered, cutting up his eggs before dipping a piece of toasted bread into them.
“No, not yet, let’s give her time first. I’m not sure you’d make it down with that knee of yours.”
“Well, pardon me for saying so dear but you aren’t in much better shape with your back like it is. One of us may have to go down though.” Malachi took another bite and looked at his wife. “I don’t want you to have to do it but it may be the more sensible option if we have to do it.”
“I know you’re right, Malachi. And maybe someone would pick up a little rounded old lady and give her a ride.” She offered the words with a smile, wanting to relieve her husband’s mind. “It’s a couple of miles into town, I can do it if it means saving Addy. We’ll give her one more day, shall we?”
“We’ll see dear.” Malachi agreed, going back to his breakfast.
“Malachi. Why is it you think someone hurt her? Perhaps she fell from the slope?” Eva wondered aloud.
“There were footprints around her. I didn’t notice it last night but I went back out when the sun came up to look around.”
Eva looked at her husband. “I didn’t realize you’d gone out.”
“I didn’t want to say anything but you fell asleep while you were praying. I decided to go check where I found her, wanting to be certain. Whoever it was came barefoot. The rain the night before has left the ground still soft. The footprints were there, not boot prints. A very large, male foot.”
“It's summer, I guess someone could be walking around barefoot. Or perhaps? No, no…” Eva’s words trailed off as her husband looked at her sharply.
Eva was a superstitious woman and she didn’t have the education to explain some things away that others had. She believed the stories her mother had told her. Eva’s mother had been the daughter of a German immigrant and a Cherokee mother. She knew tales from both sides of the ocean and some of them rang true to Eva. Malachi didn’t like her talking about her fairy stories though and didn’t seem to want to entertain any of her notions today. He’d even forbidden her from telling the children about the tales. Malachi wasn’t violent or mean but when he’d caught her telling the boys about the Moon-eyed people he’d been very angry with her and refused to speak, telling her only she wasn’t to fill the children’s’ heads with such silly tales.
In her mind, though, she could explore the possibilities. There were tales in these parts about a race of snow-white men that the Cherokee had defeated long ago. Called the Moon-eyed people their ghosts were said to still roam Appalachia, looking to take back the land that was once theirs and occasionally taking a woman along as a wife for one of the men.
Eva’s education ended at nine years old, when her father died of a fever. Young Eva had stayed home to help her mother with her younger siblings and to help earn money. She sewed, washed, whatever her mother needed her to do. There had been nine younger siblings, two of them twin girls, and they required a lot of care. The farm, now two ridges over from where Eva lived her own life, had also taken a lot of upkeep and time. Eva learned about the things that mattered for farm-life and caring for children, theories about science and how things could or could not happen were never taught to her. For Eva the tale of Moon-eyed people wasn’t just folk-lore it was the history of the people her grandmother had come from, it was fact.
Malachi had never believed all of the tales he was told growing up, being far too skeptical, but he believed in Christ and the words of the Bible. Perhaps the wandering preachers that often came to the county during the summer for revivals were charlatans but the Bible and the stories in it were all of the facts he needed to know. He didn’t need tales about ghosts and creatures of the night anyway. He’d seen real evil during his time in the war in Europe. Fairy tales about woodland critters no longer bothered him.
Eva finished her breakfast, wondering if Adelaide’s attacker had been one of the Moon-eyed people, never once doubting it could be a possibility. Malachi had never really told her about what he saw in Poland and places like it during the war. The only real evil she’d ever known had been the story kind. She might have been poor but she’d led a charmed life. She’d known heartbreak, as most humans had, but she’d never seen the evil that Malachi hinted he’d seen.
She decided that whether Malachi liked it or not she’d start doing the things she knew would protect Adelaide from further attack, if that’s what it was. If it was one of those people then they’d come back for more. With moonlight-pale skin and pink eyes the Moon-eyed people had a terrifying countenance she’d been told. Just the thought of it terrified Eva now. Thinking about one of them attacking her daughter and trying to steal her away was horrifying and a real possibility to her.
Eva pushed up from her chair, sitting the now empty dishes in a metal tub they used to wash dishes in and poured the rest of the hot water into the tub using some of the lye soap she and Adelaide had made earlier in the year to wash the metal plates and ceramic cups. She’d inherited the cups from her mother and they were to be washed by her only. That way if they broke, she only had herself to blame.
Eva’s thoughts were gloomy once more, thinking about her long-dead mother. But it was the start of that illness that had brought Malachi to her world. She’d gone out into the woods that day, looking for an herb her mother needed, when she’d found Malachi swimming in the swimming hole not far from her house. He’d been beautiful in the morning sunlight, his naked body gleaming wetly, all of the muscles of farm-life on display. She’d stared until her foot slipped off a rock and sent her flying down the hill, alerting him that he was bein
g watched. She’d tried to run away but he’d caught her. They still laughed about that day.
Their hotly burning passion had cooled now but they still loved each other, more now really. Eva’s mother had passed away when she was a teenager and she’d spent a large part of her youth raising her younger siblings. Malachi had helped with that. Then her own children started coming and there’d been no time for pondering sad things. Now the last of the children she had to raise was in the bedroom, possibly dying, and she had plenty of time to think, to worry, to feel sad and cry.
“Would you even know how to get into town now, Eva?” Malachi asked, looking at his wife as she washed dishes.
“I don’t know, Malachi. How long has it been since I went into town?” Eva loved the solitude of the farm she’d been on since marrying Malachi. He’d told her then that she didn’t have to go into town, he’d go or one of her older brothers. Then it was just him as her siblings had all grown up, married, and moved away. Now it was just Adelaide that went. Eva managed to avoid going into the smelly, noisy, often overwhelmingly confusing town where people were so snobby she often wondered if they’d drown if it rained and umbrellas disappeared.
“I guess at least twenty years. I wish I could go now. Maybe if we splint it up I can make it?” Malachi offered, hope in his voice.
“No, it would just slow you down and give you more weight to pull. I’ll be fine, if it comes to it. Let’s give the Lord time to work his miracles first, though. Don’t give up just yet.”
The first day passed with no change from Adelaide, by the second day a fever started that Eva battled fiercely with aspirin and her herbal teas. Eva got it under control and the florid red tint to Adelaide’s skin disappeared as her body cooled. It could come back though and after the third day, when the fever came back, Eva knew she had to go to town. She wasn’t sure if she’d make it there or how long it would take to get back but she had to go and at least get stronger medicine. She couldn’t sit still any longer, the fever could kill her little girl and she had to do everything she could.
Chapter Three
“Be careful my darling.” Malachi said as he kissed Eva’s warm cheek once more, hugging her close. “We’ll be waiting for you.”
It hurt Malachi’s pride a lot to watch his wife leave but Adelaide needed them to swallow their fears, pride, and pain right now. Eva was more likely to get to town and back than Malachi was so she had to go. He went to the window to watch her carefully walking down the road, her head covered in one of the silk scarves he’d brought her back from his time in Europe. She kept them carefully tucked away in a box, safe from moths and the elements. He hadn’t seen them on her in years now, but she’d put it on to go to town.
A pang of guilt still tugging at his chest Malachi went back into Addy’s room, sitting down in the chair by her bed. He took her left hand in his, the long delicate fingers warm to his touch. He gazed at her, seeing the bandages on her head, the lines from the splints on her wrist and ankle visible under the quilt. Not a man given to tears, the obvious signs of Adelaide’s ordeal brought another sob to his throat.
Adelaide’s fine skin, creamy and smooth as butter, was marred by fine cuts and scrapes, her face a mass of bruises and red swollen cuts. Malachi wouldn’t have even known it was Adelaide under all of that swelling if he hadn’t seen her hair. A fine, light brown mane of hair flowed down to Adelaide’s waist, her pride and joy. Adelaide wasn’t a fussy or conceited girl but she loved her hair.
Malachi picked up a lock, letting the silky strands flow through his fingers. His little girl. He needed to know who had done this to her but now wasn’t the time to go searching for answers. He certainly didn’t think it was some mythical creature out to get his daughter. He’d seen real evil in the death camp his platoon had liberated in Poland. That was real evil. Fairy tales of ghost people were just made to keep children from wandering off into the woods.
Malachi knew Eva had spread salt around the house and put some of the old German hexes her grandmother had taught her around the house but he didn’t believe in any of that nonsense. No, Malachi was certain it was one of the other families in the area, trying to catch themselves a bride. He’d learned quite a bit in his time in the army and one of those things was that life was different in these hills. Isolated, alone a lot of the time, some of the families went a little bit wild. Oh, not bad, but sometimes it was like being stuck in the old days, before the United States was even a country.
And in isolation, things that weren’t acceptable in the modern world would still happen. Wife-stealing wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility. He thought it was the man that had been pestering his daughter but Malachi couldn’t be certain. He also couldn’t be certain that praying was going to work either. He was sure those people in those camps had prayed, all of the innocents murdered must have prayed at some point. Maybe God just didn’t listen to them down here. Or maybe he didn’t exist.
The thought broke through, one he’d tried to suppress so often. He had to believe. That’s how he was raised, how his neighbors were raised. If Jesus wasn’t real and God didn’t exist then they’d all been taught a lie, the biggest lie of all time. No, God was real, he just didn’t always answer.
Malachi spooned some of the broth Eva had left to cool on Adelaide’s nightstand into her mouth, smoothing the muscles of her neck as Eva had taught him. Malachi hated forcing the thin food on Adelaide but he’d seen the effects of starvation on people. She must have food. He couldn’t allow her to go through the torture of starvation on top of everything else. He kept spooning until the bowl was almost empty, finally setting it down.
Facing facts Malachi knew that their efforts could be in vain. Adelaide could still die, even with a doctor. But he had to try. Eva had to try. Doing nothing was a guaranteed way to ensure their beloved daughter would die. No, they had to keep trying.
Malachi took Adelaide’s hand in his and once more bent his knees to the floor to pray. It was all he could do for her now. He’d give her the medicine she needed in a few hours but for now all he could do was pray. Pray with everything in him that Eva would make it back safe and that Adelaide would soon wake up.
Chapter Four
Eva walked down the road with care, her steps slow but steady. After eleven children you tend to have some aches and pains and you learn to walk very carefully to prevent further aches and pain. She listened as her feet scraped against the dirt road, how every now and then her left leg would skate along the road rather than lift up and then step down. This was not going to be an easy trip if her leg didn’t even want to work now.
Eva refocused her thoughts on her task and the reason she was heading into town. The back of her thighs started to burn as she walked, her legs no longer used to this much activity. But not as much as poor Addy’s head must be burning with that long deep cut. Eva had to find the doctor and at least get him to prescribe some medicine for Addy. Maybe a painkiller of some kind besides the aspirin as well.
Eva kept putting one foot in front of the other until she came to a mail dropbox put out for the people in the area. She’d found a stamp hidden away in her box of envelopes, or “envelups” as she called them, and put it on the letter to her sons. She dropped the letter into the box and turned in the direction of the main road.
Eva saw a car coming and paused, thinking the car looked familiar. Her friend Maisy had a similar car and she’d come up to visit Eva in the huge light blue Chevy sometimes. Eva thought cars were scary but knew that if she wanted to get to town and back this might be the best way. Eva lifted her arm as the car slowed; hailing the female driver she still couldn’t completely see.
“Why Eva Harmon is that you?” Eva heard her friend say as the other older woman stepped out of the car. “What are you doing down here, dearie? Why you look like you’re about to break into a million pieces, get in the car honey, tell me what’s wrong.”
“Adelaide’s hurt, she’s hurt real badly, Maisy. I need to get into town and get t
o the doctor. I can’t pay you nothing for the ride but I can give you some of the new chickens that hatched if you’ll run me into town.” Eva had her pride after all; she wasn’t going to offer nothing.
“Oh don’t worry about that Eva, what’s happened to Adelaide? I’ll get you to Doc Avery, he’ll take care of her and he’s real good. Now tell me while I drive.” Maisy looked out of her mirrors and behind her then pulled off onto the road, listening as she put her foot down a little harder on the gas than she normally did.
Eva explained how they’d found Adelaide crumpled in the road and the treatment they’d given her so far. Eva’s voice trembled throughout her speech but she outright sobbed when she described the fever that just wouldn’t go away. The fear in her voice and the worry came through clearly.
“Well who do you think did it?” Maisy asked, trying to get her friend’s mind off how ill her daughter was. Possibly a bad choice of subjects but it was all she could think of. She pressed her foot down a little harder, knowing that fevers could kill quickly.
“I just don’t know, Maisy, I really don’t. Adelaide is so sweet and gentle, someone doing this to her just doesn’t seem to make sense. Why would anyone do such a thing to my little dove?”
“Here’s the doctor I was telling you about, Eva, I’ll come in with you.” Maisy guided the car to a large home and pulled into the driveway. “His office is on the side here, I’ll take you in.”
Maisy guided Eva out of the car and thankfully there wasn’t anyone in the waiting room. The receptionist, who it turned out was Doctor Avery’s wife, immediately called out to her husband.
“Will, we need you up front. Grab your bag!” The woman could see the fear on Eva’s face and decided that her husband, William Avery, needed to make a house call. She’d start calling the patients who had appointments and change them as soon as he left.
Thriller: Horror: Conceived (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 24