“Ty’s tall frame moved from the office into the doorway and I started making those meeping noises in between gasps. ‘No need to be startled, Jason. I know you were expecting your mother, but she’s tied up over on the island so she called me.’
“We walked out to the parkin’ lot and he pointed at my car. ‘Follow me to the parking lot, Jason. I think you know the one I’m talking about.’ I was shivering by the time I got in the car and the heater didn’t really warm up until I was pulling into the lot between the causeway and the swamp. I got out and he motioned me to hop into his passenger seat.
“It seemed like hours before he started talking. We just sat and stared at the marshy grass and cypress on the edge of the creek. The sky was covered by long stretches of deep gray clouds, and I could barely see the tops of the buildings over on Parker’s Bluff. I was looking for the big antenna on top of the town hall when he spoke up. ‘I know I said I wanted you to steer clear of all...this, but you need to know what’s about to happen. You can’t come to the house.’ He stared at the sky and rubbed his hands together for warmth. ‘It’s not really a house anymore, not exactly on the inside anyway. The downstairs hall is okay, I guess. My study still seems to be the only safe place for me to be—it’s like a little refuge of...sanity for me. I haven’t eaten in days, not since the kitchen...well, since the kitchen started getting covered in moss and sprouting the craziest mushrooms I’ve ever seen.’ ”
“Sounds to me,” Foster said, “like he was confused, wasted. I wonder which came first, the shrooms in his belly or the shrooms in his kitchen?”
I nodded. “The thought’d crossed my mind. Ty kept talking, ‘I had grabbed a bunch of food—cereal, crackers, canned fruit, a case of soda, and some stuff out of the refrigerator. The cold stuff—milk, cheese, deli meats, all that, went bad as soon as I opened it, like something in the air poisoned it. I ran out of the other stuff yesterday. Well, at least I still have plenty of swamp weed and liquor. While I was out I went to the store.’
“He pointed at the back seat and I saw a grocery bag packed full of protein bars. ‘I’m not sure she’ll let me bring these in. But I don’t think I’ll starve to death, when she leaves I think it’ll all change back—there’ll be steaks in the freezer, salad in the crisper, sweet cold milk. I’m not even sure that all of that isn’t still sitting there, that it’s just...disguised by her to welcome him into the house. Make it homey for him, it, whatever.’
“I turned away from the cold landscape in front up us and met his stare. ‘You’ve got to stay away, Ty. Just take your protein bars and your wallet and get the fuck out of Dodge, get out of that place.’
“He patted my thigh and gave me a weak smile, like Lincoln comforting a dyin’ young guy on some battlefield. ‘She let me leave today. She called down from the top of the stairs—they’re really just some moss-covered stones climbing up to her room, her chambers. Then she told me when I got back to the house I should keep to the study, to not pay attention to anything I might hear upstairs. She said when I got back she needed to run errands herself, like it just an average day and she was headed out to the grocery store and the dry cleaners. And there wasn’t any doubt or warning in her words, she knew I’d come back. So, what I need from you Jason, is to wait here and do me a favor.’
“I looked at him and I realized what he was asking. ‘You want me to follow her, to shadow her, and see what she does. I can do that for you, Ty. I want to do anything to help the...situation.’ I took a deep breath and said, ‘But first, I need for you to think about something.’ He nodded and I kept going. ‘You said you’ve stopped eating, you’re basically sitting in your office getting wasted all day. Is there a chance, Ty, a possibility that you’re not...seeing things clearly? I know you’re a good psychiatrist, you’ve helped me a lot—’
“He grinned at me and I saw a little of his old self. ‘Staying sober in that house is the perfect recipe for an epic mental catastrophe, that’s just my professional opinion. But I’m not sure I’ve helped you. I got a call from your father, he told me about your night’s activity, the open window and the brick’s being sprayed with...well, your father sounded concerned, but he also sounded impressed. I was hoping to help you get you over your inhibitions, but I may have gone too far.’ I turned red thinking about my window adventure and he must have seen something else in my face. “Oh, Jason, I should have known! They were there last night, weren’t they?’ I nodded. ‘Were there two of them, three, four?’
“He had me stumped. ‘One. At least I thought one, maybe I did see more but I couldn’t, you know, separate all the players. But this morning there were feathers and roses—did Dad tell you that?’ Ty nodded but didn’t say anything, it felt like one of our sessions. ‘Wait a minute, who—what, do you think I saw?’
He looked over his shoulder and I realized he was staring at the swamp. A gust of wind rolled over the top of the car and made the antenna whistle and he said, ‘You saw the brave. You didn’t see the other three clearly, just the brave. They didn’t realize that’s who you would see. Only Elizabeth or the owl could have drawn you to the window, and then down to the bricks. They didn’t expect the brave to show himself, he ruined their plan. Rose must have told him, given him something to use to stop them. So, she must be alive—not alive, but somewhere whole, uncorrupted.’
“I shivered and a stronger, colder gust hit the car. Ty cranked up the heat but it really didn’t help. ‘The brave and Rose, they were there to stop the other two. Seeing the brave saved you Jason, being gay saved you.’
“I thought about that. ‘So, the most intense sexual experience of my life was with the ghost of a three hundred year old Indian brave?’ Ty nodded and I couldn’t decide whether I should laugh or shed some friggin’ tears. I remembered he’d said he needed a favor. ‘So, when she heads out, where do you think she’ll go? Here, to the swamp? Will it be Rose driving, or will it be an ancient witch who’s never been behind the wheel before?’ ”
“Would it surprise you to know, Chief,” Sam asked, “that a whole lot of people on the island would believe that a three hundred year old witch would most likely have better driving skills than you do?”
Billy jumped in. “She’d probably have lower insurance rates than the chief here, that’s for damn sure.”
“No doubt. Ty told me he didn’t think Rose would be driving. ‘She’ll look like Rose in a rain storm—clear enough to recognize her, but not really clear enough to be one hundred percent sure. Elizabeth’s personality, her spirit, has just about pushed Rose somewhere...else, I think. She’ll get some driving tips from Rose, use her New Orleans accent, offer up Rose’s smile to anyone who crosses her path. But I need to know where she goes and what she does. I’m not sure why Elizabeth needs to make this trip, but it may be some kind of clue as to what will happen next. Can you do that for me?’ I nodded and he looked relieved and crushed at the same time. ‘When she’s done shopping, or whatever this trip is for, and she gets on Causeway Road call me and let me know she’s on her way, so I can be...ready, I guess. And don’t, do not, come over to the island or try to stop her. I’m going to drive back home, now. So you should see her passing by here in about thirty minutes or so.’ A stronger wind hit us and the car rocked a little. ‘Maybe,’ Ty said as he studied the pines swaying, ‘it wouldn’t be a bad idea to wait for her a little way down the road. A little further from the swamp.’
“As soon as I hopped back into my own car, he left the lot and got back on the causeway. When I got up to the road I turned left, away from the island. I went about a quarter mile, to the first intersection on the mainland, and pulled into a gas station. I looked at the fast food places and the road signs and the people coming and going and doubted anyone else was on a secret witch-stalking assignment. I parked at the closest part of the lot to the exit back onto the road, with the engine running and my hand on the shift knob. I was so busy watching the road I never saw Bucky until he was about ten feet from my car. At first I was relie
ved to see him striding with a little swagger to my car, but then I realized I needed to get rid of him fast.
“He held his hat on with one hand and tapped on the door with his other. I rolled my window down and the cold air hit me in the face and made me squint. He chuckled and said, ‘I won’t stay long chattin’, Jason. I think my balls are already frozen. I saw you over here staring into space and I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.’ I forced myself to grin and told him I was waiting for Pete and Cindy to meet me here for some trip to a mall or somethin’. He nodded and jogged back to his car with his hands shoved in his pockets, and I watched him head across the lot and hop into his car. I started to feel like a five year old kid who’s convinced a monster is under his bed—I wanted to call out to him and make him come back here and chase the boogey man away. I saw him turn left out of the parkin’ lot and almost missed Rose’s car heading my way.
“I followed her to Windsor and parked on the street a block or so away from her. There were still a few stores left near the courthouse, it hadn’t turned into a complete retail ghost town just yet. I watched her out of my rear view mirror as she got out of her car and stepped through the door of a pawn shop. I wasn’t sure how much detail Ty wanted so I hopped out of my car and wandered down the street in her direction. It wasn’t very original but I stopped in front of the store and put my left foot up on a bench. I stretched out tying my shoe as long as possible, and then pretended to be checkin’ out a stack of DVD’s on display in the window. Rose pushed something across the counter to the clerk, he studied it for a minute and then disappeared into a back room.
“My parents had given me a cell phone for my birthday, a flip phone. I had it clipped on my belt and sometimes I pretended I was on the PBPD like Bucky—that it was a gun instead of a phone. It started to vibrate and ring and I ducked away from the front of the store as I hit the talk button. ‘It’s Ty, Jason. I couldn’t just wait here wondering about things, then I remembered you had a phone with you. Where are you, what’s she doing?’
“I told him she was in the pawn shop, that we were in Windsor. ‘She’s selling something small, I think. It looked like a little box but I couldn’t tell what was in it.’
“Cell phone signals were a lot less clear then, and I could only catch part of the next thing he said through a burst of static. It sounded like he said something about jewelry, but I had to move down the block for a clear connection and when I asked him he said, ‘Not jewelry, jewels. Did you see any gems—rubies, diamonds, anything like that? Sometimes in the morning I find gems at the door to the study, or on the kitchen counter before it turned into a fuzzy green carpet. I stand at the bottom of the steps and toss them upstairs. I yell up to her that she can’t buy me, that if they’re from him than he can’t either, that it didn’t work for Jonas and it wouldn’t work in reverse for her. So, she still has them, but why would she sell them?’
“I saw Rose walk out of the pawn shop, she was counting a huge stack of bills and whistlin’ to herself. She stopped at the curb and looked around. She stared at the few other people on the sidewalk and made direct eye contact with me. But she didn’t blink, didn’t show any sign of recognizin’ me. She finally turned and started walking down the sidewalk and I tried to understand who or what I had just seen. It was like looking at her through one of those diamonds or rubies she was sellin’. As you turned the gem around in the light the image, the perspective or whatever, it changed. I could see Rose, with all of her soft southern charm and beauty, and then I could see Elizabeth—not like a three hundred year old oil painting but like a beautiful English duchess or princess—royal or regal or whatever. There was somethin’ else, if you turned the gem in your mind so that her image fell behind a cut or the tiniest fault you could see another image. She—it, was a hag, an ancient old witch with sharp features and burnin’ edges. I knew I really wasn’t looking at her through a jewel, it was just the light of the winter sky and the awnings of businesses cuttin’ shadows into the sidewalk.”
Foster leaned against me and said, “So, you saw Rose, Elizabeth, and a witch all in the second or so that she was looking at you. She probably saw a horny teenager, an elf, and a stoner when she saw you. How much swamp weed were you smoking back then?” He tried hard to make it sound like a joke, but I could hear the edge in his voice, feel how stiff his body was when he spoke. It felt a little more like an accusation.
“I watched her disappear into a dress shop, one that had been there for at least a hundred years before it moved out to the mall on the bypass. It specialized in fancy shit—special-occasion dresses that girls dreamed about. Rose talked to a prim and proper sales lady and they went through books and fabrics and dresses on racks. I looked through the window at a poster board full of pictures of girls from my school in the prom dresses they wore last spring. I tried to look like an average guy drooling over all the hot girls, just in case they saw me standing there.
“Rose said something to the lady and she nodded, like they had come to some kind of understanding. The lady handed the Elizabeth thing a white gown off a rack and they moved toward the back of the shop. I stood in front and realized my poster alibi’s time had just about expired. I spun around when Logan Parker walked up to me to say hello. He shook my hand and told me he’d just been in the courthouse, where he’d been given an extra hundred hours of community service. Seems he’d violated his probation for misdemeanor possession by paintin’ a pot leaf on the town’s water tower. I bummed a cigarette from him and we talked about Saturday night’s party, I picked his brain about a few lacrosse players that were on the team he captained, and he complained about the poor quality of swamp weed this time of year. Once he wandered off I pretended to be concentratin’ on an important phone call and I jumped a mile when it actually rang in my ear. I walked a few feet away from the store and Ty sounded really impatient. ‘She left the pawn shop, right? Is she on her way back? You’re not on the island are you, Jason? I told you not to follow her back here!’
“I turned back to the shop window and Ty was still rambling on when she walked out of the back room. ‘We’re at Bonnie’s Dress Shop—I mean she’s in there.’ He started interrogating me—who was she with, what was going on in there, had she bought anything? ‘Ty, it looks like,’ I couldn’t think of any good way to put it so I told him what I was seeing, ‘it looks to me like she’s tryin’ on wedding gowns. I’m sorry.’ There was silence on his end for about ten seconds and then the phone went dead. Rose came out carryin’ a long dress on a hanger, covered in one of those disposable garment-bag things. When she was on her way back to the island I tried to call Ty, but his phone would ring once and then the call would drop.”
Last Trip to the House
“I did end up meeting Jonas that Friday night in the parking lot of the school, and we sat down in the bleachers right when the game started. I was hoping that Pete and Cindy would be with him, but they were nowhere to be seen. He made some vague comments about a few of the players that made me wonder how well, exactly, he knew them. We’d been there about fifteen minutes when my phone started ringin’. With all the noise of the game I could just barely hear Ty’s voice and people around us were glaring at me. I shrugged at Jonas and climbed down to the space beside the concession stand where I could hear him better. Ty was hammered, after some mumbling and weird sounds that almost sounded like English, I managed to get two things out of him. The first was that Elizabeth was there, she wanted to see him in her room. The second thing was that if I hadn’t heard from him by 9 o’clock tomorrow morning I should call Bucky and ask him to check in with them. ‘I don’t know...what Bucky might find, Jason. But it’ll be safe for him to be in here, one way or the other, by then. But you stay away, stay out of it ‘til you hear back from me. Regardless of what Bucky finds, don’t go back in this fuckin’ freak show of a house until you talk to me—not Rose, not Elizabeth, not Bucky, not Betty, not...anything else.’ He hung up and I hiked back up the bleachers to Jonas. I leaned over and
yelled to him that something had come up and I needed to get home. He looked seriously pissed and disappointed, but I made a big point of tellin’ him I’d see him at the party and he seemed to cheer up.”
I stared up at the night and wished we were back at the house, sitting in front of the fireplace or soaking in the hot tub looking out over the sound and marsh. I saw an occasional star pop out from behind the clouds and I realized how quiet things were in the swamp tonight. With all of my friends circled around a missing fire the swamp wasn’t quite the monster it had been back then, but I could still feel everything that happened ten years ago soaked into the ground around us, and moving through the swamp water in a lazy drifting current.
I felt exhausted and just wanted to climb all the way into the sleepin’ bag with Foster, ignore the past and leave at sunrise without completing this real-life ghost story. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and saw zero signal strength, the clock showed that it was only a little after nine. “We’re coming close to the end of everything, this is where anything resemblin’ sanity hops away like a scared rabbit. Let’s have a timeout, I need to figure how to tell—I damn sure can’t explain, what happened that Saturday.”
The Tale of the Swamp and the Rose (Parker's Bluff) Page 7