Haunted Happenings

by Lucrezia Black

  “I wonder where she’s going,” Babs pondered aloud as they followed her.

  “It’s hard to say,” Ken mused. “Steve has never been able to follow her past the store, so I guess we’ll find out.”

  They continued on in silence walking for some distance following the woman in grey. She didn’t look around her. She didn’t waver from the path. She simply continued forward, the bottle of milk in her hand.

  They walked for twenty minutes before the path opened up to a piece of land near the cottage. Babs and Ken were both shocked that they’d already made it back home. Neither had had any idea that the path even existed.

  “Well we now know that there is a shortcut to the store for the next time we go,” Babs said with a smile.

  Ken chuckled. Leave it to Babs to find the bright side of every situation. She was notorious for doing that. Still, walking to the store was something new for them, at least walking the distance they did. The store had been close to their house in the city. It hadn’t been a half hour walk away. They’d been pampered for many years.

  “Look! She’s stopping by that tree!” Babs announced and pointed to the woman in grey.

  She had indeed stopped at the base of a large maple tree. In front of her was a simple headstone, a wooden cross. On it the name Mary was carved. And under that was the name Timothy. The dirt beneath her feet looked freshly turned. It had not been more than a few days since the grave had been dug out.

  The woman in grey knelt down on the grave. She stayed there for several minutes, simply staring at the cross in front of her. And then she faded into the ground.

  Babs gasped and took a step forward. Her arm reached out as though she wanted to stop the woman, but she knew that it was impossible. She knew that she couldn’t stop a ghost. And yet she wanted to do anything she could to help the woman. She didn’t know what that was, but whatever it was, she aimed on doing it.

  “I wonder if this is her grave,” she mused and took a few more steps forward. “If it is, I don’t know what she is trying to tell us. I don’t see anything here that we could help her with.”

  Ken took a few hesitant steps until he was standing at her side. “Perhaps she just wanted us to see the grave?” His face was filled with confusion. “Maybe this will all go away now?”

  Babs shook her head. “I don’t think it is as simple as that. It never is in any of the stories.”

  “Darling, this isn’t one of your horror stories. This is real life.” He couldn’t believe he was saying that. This definitely didn’t feel like real life to him. He’d never lived in a reality where ghosts were commonplace. He’d always believed they were simply something that existed in storybooks.

  “I know,” she responded but she still couldn’t help but feel that there was more to all this than they were seeing. Why would the woman in grey lead them to her grave? What was keeping her tied to this place? Why was her husband insisting that they help him find her? What had happened?

  All these questions swirled around in her head. She couldn’t fixate on just one. It seemed all she had was questions. She had no answers at the moment and she desperately wanted answers.

  “You have to help me.”

  They both whirled around the voice and saw Bradley standing behind them. He had a pained expression on his face. He was staring at the grave, his eyes fixated on it.

  “You have to help me,” he said again. “I made a terrible mistake.”

  “What mistake did you make?” Babs asked, but he simply continued to stare at the grave.

  “You have to help him,” he pleaded. “You have to save him.”

  “Save who?” Ken questioned. He wasn’t looking at the grave. He was looking at Bradley. But Babs’ attention went to the headstone and to the name Timothy.

  “Help Timothy?” She asked and watched Bradley nod.

  She took a step closer to the grave and that’s when she heard it. It was faint but it was a sound that she was very familiar with. It was the sound of a baby crying.

  Buried

  “Ken, go home and get the shovel!” Babs shouted as she dropped to her knees on top of the grave. She began digging with her hands, not wanting to waste any time.

  Ken froze in place for a moment, and it took him several moments to process Babs’ instructions. He didn’t understand what was happening. He simply remained in place and stared at her as she excavated the grave with her bare hands.

  “The shovel?” he said, his voice filled with question.

  “There is something buried here, someone,” she shouted without even looking back at him. “We need to get him out. We need to save him.”

  Ken didn’t bother questioning. He had a feeling he wouldn’t understand anyway and so he simply turned on his heel and ran for the cottage. He knew that there was a shovel in the shed and that was where he headed.

  He would do as he was told. He knew that if he asked questions, Babs would only keep yelling at him to get the shovel, so he was going to get the shovel and then he was likely going to have to dig.

  His brain tried to wrap around that fact as he pulled the shovel from the shed. He’d have to dig up a grave. He’d never done anything like that before in his life. He’d never had any reason to go digging up graves.

  Well, there was a first time for everything, he supposed, and it seemed as though this was going to be his first time digging up a grave. He couldn’t say that he was overly enthused at the idea.

  He hurried back to the tree and the grave. He was shocked at how much progress Babs had made in the short period of time that he’d been gone. Then again, when she set her mind to something, her dogged determination almost always got it done. She did seem pretty determined to get to whatever was buried there.

  “Here’s the shovel,” he said, his voice cautious.

  Babs didn’t reach for it. She just kept digging like a woman possessed. He took this as an indication that he should simply dig. He had a feeling that she was too focused on the task at hand to let him know what he should be doing.

  “You have to save him!”

  Ken jumped as Bradley’s voice filled his ears. He was about done with this whole ghost nonsense. He had wanted a nice, quiet retirement and here he was digging up graves and being yelled at by ghosts. It wasn’t his idea of relaxing.

  “Come on, Ken. You need to dig!” Babs shouted, her voice frantic.

  Ken did as he was told being that it was all he could think to do. He didn’t want Bradley yelling at him anymore. He didn’t want Babs yelling at him anymore. And he didn’t want to hear that crying anymore.

  He paused in his train of thought. Crying? When had the crying started? He didn’t remember hearing that before. Where was it coming from?

  He paused as he shovelled out another shovel full of dirt. Was it coming from the grave? Was that even possible? Was it another ghost?

  His mind raced as he continued to dig. He was possessed with the same determination that plagued his wife. He dug out shovel full after shovel full of earth until his shovel blade hit wood. And then he worked with her beside him to clear the dirt away from the simple wooden coffin that was buried there.

  It took them close to fifteen minutes to fully expose the coffin. All the while the crying got more and more intense as they continued to scrape it clear of dirt.

  Ken couldn’t wrap his head around it. He wasn’t certain if it was ghost related or if there was actually an infant buried below the dirt. He hoped that it wasn’t the latter. He had no clue how an infant would have even survived if it were.

  They used the shovel to pry open the coffin. Babs waited in horror-filled anticipation. Every time the shovel made contact with the wood, she flinched. She wasn’t sure if it was the sound or the thought of the infant inside of the coffin that caused her involuntary reaction.

  She couldn’t fathom that there was actually a child in there. Her brain was in mother mode. It didn’t matter if the infant was a ghost. She was driven to find it, driven to save it.
/>
  Bradley still stood beside the grave. He still wore an expression that was a mix of pain and hope. It was almost as though he dreaded what they would find inside the coffin, but he was glad that they were making the effort to look.

  Babs had to wonder about the story behind Bradley and his missing wife. What had happened between him and his wife? She had to assume that Mary was his wife, and that she was also the woman in grey. Why was he searching for her? What had he done wrong?

  She hoped that once they opened the coffin, their answers would be found. She hoped that it would not lead to more questions, but she had a feeling that they weren’t going to be that lucky. Nothing was ever that simple in life and she doubted that this situation was going to have a simple answer.

  “Can you do that any faster?” She asked Ken and tried to keep the harshness out of her voice. But she was feeling a little panicked. The crying sounded so loud to her. It was the only thing she could focus on and it was incessantly interrupted by the sharp sound of the shovel cracking into the wood.

  Ken grunted as he thrust the shovel against the wood. “I’m going as fast as I can. I’m not exactly as young as I once was.”

  Babs couldn’t argue with that. Neither of them were as young as they once were and the digging had taken a lot out of her as well. But she hoped that it would be worthwhile.

  “Fine, fine. But are you almost done?”

  Ken nodded. “Just…one…more…hit!” He emphasized the last word as his shovel struck the wood. “There, that should do it.”

  They both reached down into the hole they had dug and pulled at the lid of the coffin. It was buried in a shallow grave by today’s standards, but they’d still had to dig a few feet down in order to get to it.

  They lay flat on the ground and reached down into the hole, each grabbing a side of the lid and lifting. The crying was almost deafening now. Neither of them even noticed that the woman in grey now stood beside Bradley at the edge of the grave. They both watched avidly as the Dires lifted the lid of the coffin and tossed it aside.

  The early afternoon light shone down into the coffin. Ken and Babs looked down into it and neither could believe their own eyes. It wasn’t possible. There was no way they could be seeing this clearly.

  Lying in the coffin, smiling like he wanted the world to know he existed, was a baby boy.

  A Miracle

  Certain things in life need to be seen to be believed and this was definitely one of them. Ken stared in awe at the infant while Babs reached down and scooped him up. Her first instinct was to soothe the child. She held him close to her chest and whispered sweet nothings into his ear.

  He’d been lying on the chest of his mother. The woman was clearly the woman in grey, Mary and she was definitely dead. One could tell simply by looking at her, but the boy was alive and crying. Somehow, he’d been buried with his mother while he was yet alive.

  “How is that even possible?” Ken stared in awe at the child. It didn’t make any sense. How could a child have survived in that coffin? How could it still be alive? It made no sense at all.

  “I have no idea,” Babs replied as she shushed in the baby’s ear. It had been quite some time since she’d held a child in her arms and she had to admit that she missed the feeling. “We should just ask Bradley.”

  Babs and Ken turned around but there was no sign of Bradley or Mary, the woman in grey. They seemed to have faded into nothing the moment that the child had been discovered.

  Babs wasn’t certain what to make of that. Hell, she wasn’t certain what to make of any of this. All she knew was that she had a baby in her arms and that she needed to do something about that.

  “We need to get the doctor. He needs to be examined. We need to make sure that he is okay.”

  There was a level of assertiveness in Babs voice that told Ken not to bother questioning her. They made their way back to the cottage where Babs got the operator on the line and was put through to the local physician. They explained that they’d come across a child and needed him to be looked at. The physician promised to be over as soon as possible.

  It took an hour for the physician to get there. In that time, Babs cuddled the baby and fed him cow’s milk. They would have to pick up some evaporated milk as soon as possible. Perhaps the orphanage would have some stocked. It seemed like something they would keep on hand.

  Babs held the baby close as she waited for the physician to arrive. She had no intention of letting him go. She had no intention of putting him down. After being buried alive, she wanted him to feel safe. She wanted him to feel loved.

  “Timothy,” she whispered in his ear. “You’re safe now, Timothy. Nothing is going to happen to you.”

  Ken watched as his wife cuddled the infant. There was no doubt that something strange had happened. He didn’t really have the words to wrap his head around it. He didn’t know how to process it, so he just stood and waited. That’s all he could do.

  When the physician knocked on the door, they both breathed a sigh of relief. It had been the longest hour of their life it seemed, but finally he was there.

  “Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Babs said, her voice filled with gratitude.

  The physician nodded and offered a kind smile. “This is the child, I presume?” He nodded towards the baby she was holding.

  “Yes,” Babs answered. She hesitated for a moment and then handed the child over to him to examine.

  She stood close by him as he looked over the baby. He checked his breathing and his heartbeat. He checked his eyes, nose, and ears, and when he was done he handed the infant back to Babs.

  Babs held the baby close. She snuggled him and put her attention on the physician. He was packing up his bag already and she wasn’t certain whether that was a good sign or not.

  “We found him. We don’t know anything about him. Is he going to be okay?” Babs voice held a hint of panic but she kept her expression masked. She didn’t want the man to think she might be hysterical, and she needed answers.

  The physician offered a kind smile again. “He’s a good, strong, healthy boy. I would get some sustenance into him. Give him a bath and let him sleep, otherwise there is nothing wrong with him. If he was abandoned, it must have been recent. I don’t imagine he would be in such good shape otherwise.”

  The physician looked thoughtful for a moment. Children were abandoned all the time. It was the sad reality of things in the times in which they lived. That’s why there were orphanages, but it was nevertheless odd to see a child this young left on their own. It was definitely a first for him.

  “Does he have a name?” the physician asked and realised it was a silly question. The couple had found him. How would they know his name?

  “It’s Timothy,” Babs replied, much to the physician’s surprise. There was no mistaking the confidence in her voice. “It’s Timothy.”

  “Alright,” the physician nodded. “Well, I think my work is done here. Are you planning on keeping the child or do we need to take him next door?”

  Babs answered before Ken could even think about it. “We’re going to keep him.” She nodded her head for emphasis. “We’re definitely going to keep him.”

  She was a little surprised to hear the words come out of her mouth. She hadn’t even thought about it until the doctor had asked and then the answer had been clear to her. She wasn’t going to turn this child away. She wasn’t going to abandon it. She was only forty-six, after all. She could still raise a baby. After raising four of her own, there was no way she was going to say no to this one.

  The physician nodded. “Very well then. Get him fed and get him clean, but other than that you should be fine.”

  “I’ve done this before,” Babs said with a smile as she shushed in the baby’s ear when he began to fuss.

  “Well then there is nothing for me to tell you.” The physician shook their hands, gave them a bill for the visit and went on his way.

  Ken gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. He couldn
’t bring himself to argue with her decision. Realistically he likely would have said the same had she not spoken first. He couldn’t see them turning this child away, after all, his parents were clearly deceased. He had no one and they weren’t about to abandon him.

  Ken looked at the little guy. He didn’t understand how he could be alive but there he was. He couldn’t believe that they were going to have a baby in their lives again, but there he was.

  This was definitely going to throw a wrench in their plans of a quiet life in the country, but he couldn’t bring himself to be mad about that. It was hard to be made about having a child brought into their lives and it was impossible to be made at someone so very young, so very fragile, and so very much in need of love.

  Once they’d wrapped their heads around the fact that they had a child in their lives again, they began to think practically. Ken was despatched to the orphanage to acquire basic necessities. Babs had refused to leave Timothy’s side, so Ken went off to get evaporated milk and cloth nappies and bottles and all manner of baby paraphernalia.

  Babs had given him a list. She also told him to make sure the orphanage staff knew what was going on. After all, they may not be able to make it into work for the next few days, until things levelled out on their home front. Adjusting to a child in the house was not an easy feat especially when the child was as young as Timothy.

  By the time they got everything done and in order, they were both exhausted, but they had what they needed, and Timothy was happy. He ate and ate and ate. They bathed him and then he slept. And they both loved how peaceful he looked. It brought back so many memories of their own children when they were young.

  Babs had always loved when they were babies. She loved them now that they were grown up as well, but there was something special about that first year of life. There was something wonderful about watching them discover the world around them. It was a magical process and she was excited to have a chance to witness it again. After all, if she had to guess, she would assume Timothy was only a month or so old. He still had a lot of growing left to do and she intended to be there to witness all of it.