by Dale Young
As they kissed the passion grew between them. Logan fumbled with Colby’s shirt until he finally pulled it over her head. Before long both of them were naked with Colby on top of Logan as they sat in the swing. Making love to her was more wonderful than he could have ever imagined and he knew her naked body under the light of the moon was the most heavenly thing he had ever seen.
Logan and Colby were lost in each other’s arms as they made love in the porch swing. They were in their own world and unaware of anything else. From a distance out in the field of tobacco, a pair of eyes watched Logan and Colby as their bodies moved together locked in the passion of lovemaking.
At that moment, Chip McPhale knew that he would not rest until he killed Logan Shaw. It was all he could do not to walk up onto the porch and do it at that very moment. But that would be too easy. Chip wanted to plan his attack, and make sure that when the end came for Logan Shaw that it would be the most gruesome killing that Starlight had ever seen.
19
Logan could feel Colby’s heart beating as she lay against him in the swing. It was almost as if they were one person. The moon was high over the tobacco field and a warm breeze was circulating around them as the porch swing moved slowly back and forth.
Colby knew at that moment that Logan was the man for her. It had been sudden, but her mother had always told her that when the man for her came along that it would happen quickly, and that she would know without a doubt that he was the one for her.
When she lifted her head from Logan’s shoulder, Colby looked into his eyes. The moon above them cast sharp shadows on the porch and for a moment it seemed like they were the only two people in the world.
“Well hello there, city boy,” Colby said as she grinned at Logan.
“Hello to you too,” Logan replied. Then he kissed Colby and held her close. After several more minutes they gathered themselves together, collected their clothes and went into the house.
“Do you mind if I go upstairs and freshen up?” Colby said as she stood naked holding her clothes in her arms. Logan looked at her from head to toe and grinned.
“I like you just the way you are, but help yourself. I’m using the big bedroom at the end of the hall. It has a pretty nice bathroom.”
“I’ll be right back. And I’m starving too. Do you still have those leftovers?”
“Yep. I’ll see if I can warm them up,” Logan said as he fumbled with his clothes.
She grabbed her purse off the table, disappeared from the kitchen and then made her way upstairs. She found the bedroom Logan was using and then the bathroom. She put on her clothes and pulled a makeup brush out of her purse. She was trying to touch up her makeup in the mirror when she noticed the porcelain doll on the dresser in the bedroom. She could see it over her shoulder in the mirror. She lowered her makeup brush and slowly turned around to look at the doll through the doorway of the bathroom.
The doll was staring straight ahead and appeared to be looking at her. Colby walked out of the bathroom and across the bedroom until she was standing in front of the dresser. The doll continued its blank stare straight ahead as Colby moved close to it.
“Oh how beautiful you are.” Colby touched the dark blue material of the doll’s dress. Just then Colby was startled by Logan’s voice. He was standing in the doorway of the bedroom.
“She likes to watch me sleep.” Colby flinched when Logan spoke.
“Oh my god you scared me!” She placed a hand across her chest.
“Sorry. But it’s true. She likes to watch me sleep. It wouldn’t surprise me if she jumped down off of that dresser tonight and walked across the room.”
Colby rolled her eyes at Logan. Then she turned to walk back to the bathroom. “I’ll be done in just a second.”
“Take your time.” Logan looked at the doll on the dresser. He expected it to turn its head and look at him. But the doll sat motionless on the dresser instead.
She turned off the light in the bathroom and Logan watched as she walked across the bedroom. “Dinner’s ready,” he said as she approached him standing in the doorway.
“Let’s eat,” she said as she turned out the bedroom light.
Over reheated chicken and dumplings, Logan and Colby talked about how they had each grown up, him in the city and her in the country. After they finished eating they took their glasses of tea and went back out on the porch. The night had cooled off slightly, and Colby moved close to Logan on the swing.
“Logan, I really don’t want to be alone tonight. I’m really scared of Chip. If you didn’t kill him with that piece of wood then if I know Chip he’s going to want revenge. He might start with me.”
“You’re not going anywhere tonight. You’re staying right here with me, if that’s okay with you.”
“I’d love that,” Colby said as she leaned over to kiss Logan.
***
The storm outside was intense. The windows flashed in a strobe-like pattern as the lighting struck in the distance. It was just before midnight and Logan was making slow, passionate love to Colby. She was unlike any woman he had ever been with and he wanted the night to go on forever. When they were finished they fell asleep in each other’s arms. Logan could not recall ever feeling so satisfied and happy.
***
Logan rolled over and glanced at the clock on the nightstand. The glowing red letters indicated that it was just past 3 am. He raised himself up on an elbow and looked around the room. Colby was sleeping soundly beside him. Something didn’t seem right but he couldn’t put a finger on it. Slowly he lowered himself back down until his head was on the pillow. But the uneasy feeling would not subside.
Just as Logan felt his eyelids getting heavy, he heard a loud thump that seemed to come from the other side of the house. He sat bolt upright in bed just as he heard the sound again. This time it was louder and sounded like something falling over.
He knew he was not imagining things. He climbed out of bed as gently as he could to avoid waking Colby. He figured he would have a look around to make sure everything was okay. Then he would come back to bed.
Logan looked down the long hallway outside the bedroom door. He knew that the sound he had heard seemed to have come from down the hall. For some reason this brought him relief. If the sound had come from downstairs then it might have meant someone was trying to break into the house. Logan knew only one person who would try to do that and that person was Chip McPhale. Logan thought about what Colby had said about how Chip would want revenge for being hit with a two by four. And the last thing Logan wanted to deal with at three in the morning was Chip McPhale breaking into the house to settle a score.
The door to the attic stairs at the end of the hall was cracked open slightly. Logan walked gingerly down the hallway while the old wooden floor creaked under his feet. The sound of the floor was much louder in the still of the night than it was during the day. When Logan reached the door, he paused and looked down at the doorknob while his stomach tied itself into knots. Just as he lifted his hand to reach for the doorknob, the door suddenly slammed shut as if someone had jerked it from the other side. Logan recoiled in horror and stepped back away from the door while fighting to maintain control his bowels. Then he closed his eyes and swallowed the rock in his throat. He knew he had to go in the attic, no matter what was on the other side of the door. There was no turning back now.
Slowly, Logan stepped up to the door and placed his hand on the doorknob. He wondered if he would be able to open the door, or if someone, or something, would hold it shut from the other side. Would he have to fight to get the door open? Or would whatever it was that had slammed it shut let him enter through the door and make his way up to the attic.
There was only one way to find out.
Logan put his hand on the cool metal doorknob and closed his eyes. Then he twisted his wrist and was relieved when the doorknob turned freely in his hand. Then he slowly opened the door.
He cursed again that there was no light switch on the wall. He
climbed the stairs slowly and stopped just before his head reached the level of the attic floor. He took a deep breath and then took one more step up so that his eyes were just a few inches above the attic floor.
The attic was still and the storm from earlier in the night had passed. The glow of the moon outside cut rectangular paths from the dormer windows to the attic floor and at first Logan could not see anything in the attic that could have been the source of the noise he had heard. But then he saw something in the shadows between two of the dormers that made his heard stop cold in his chest.
It was the silhouette of a person.
He fought the urge to lower his head and run back down the narrow stairway to the second floor of the house. He knew he had to confront what it was that he was seeing. He tried to focus on the shape of the person on the far side of the attic but his mind told him that something wasn’t right. Something seemed off.
Logan summoned every ounce of courage in his body and climbed the rest of the way into the attic. Then he stood beside the top of the stairs and tried to focus on the silhouette of whoever it was standing on the other side of the attic. Then his eyes focused and Logan was hit with the realization of what he was looking at. He could see the face in the glow of the moonlight coming in from the dormers.
Hanging from the rafters by a rope around her neck was the body of Rosemary Abigail Shaw.
Underneath Rosemary’s feet was a chair that had toppled over on its side. Logan recoiled in horror at the sight of his great-grandmother and he felt a wave of panic rush through his body. Using every ounce of courage that he could muster, he slowly began to walk across the attic floor towards Rosemary’s body.
Rosemary’s face was frozen in death. Her mouth was open as if she had tried to take one final breath. Logan felt his dinner boil in his stomach and for a second thought that he was going to vomit. He wanted to reach over and touch Rosemary’s hand but could not muster the courage. His hand rose up but then quickly fell back to his side. After a few more seconds, he tried again. Just as he was about to touch Rosemary’s hand, her eyes opened and she gasped as if she was trying to pull a breath through the constriction caused by the rope around her neck. Suddenly her body began to shake and her arms began to flail about. Logan gasped and took a step backwards.
As Logan recoiled in horror he took another step away from Rosemary. He continued backwards until he tripped over a box causing him to fall to the attic floor. He scrambled to get to his feet and then turned and ran for the attic stairs. He stumbled and almost fell down the stairs as he tried to make his way out of the attic.
He moved quickly down the hallway to the master bedroom. He slipped on the hardwood floor and caught himself with a hand on the wall, knocking a picture off of its nail in the process. The sound of the breaking glass as the picture hit the floor sounded like an explosion in the quiet house. He knew he needed to wake Colby and that they needed to get out of the house. Once he reached the bedroom, he crawled onto the bed and tried to shake Colby awake. She was sleeping soundly with her head underneath the blankets.
“Colby, wake up. Come on, wake up!”
Colby didn’t move. Logan pushed against her several more times and then pulled the blanket off of her head.
It was all Logan could do to not cry out in agony.
Colby’s body was covered in hornworms. Her eye sockets were empty and Logan watched as worms crawled out of the sunken holes and then down into her open mouth. He turned his head and tried to look away, but when he did he noticed that the doll on the dresser had turned its head and was looking at him. The sight of this was more than he could take and as he tried to get off of the bed he fell backwards onto the floor.
Logan bolted awake and quickly sat up in the bed. He was covered in sweat and his heart was hammering the walls of his chest. He turned to look at Colby and she was lying fast asleep beside him, her face relaxed and peaceful. He turned and looked at the doll on the dresser but its lifeless porcelain eyes were staring straight ahead towards the bathroom.
Logan got out of the bed and went to the bathroom and closed the door. Once he finished vomiting his chicken and dumplings into the toilet he washed his face and tried to get himself together. It had only been a nightmare, a violent, gruesome nightmare, but still just a nightmare.
Or was it?
As Logan stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, he wondered about Rosemary’s body hanging in the attic. Of course he had just had a nightmare, but was it more than that? Was his nightmare a fair depiction of how his great-grandmother had killed herself? Logan put this out of his mind. It had only been a nightmare. The fact that he had found Colby in the bed covered in the same worms that eat the tobacco plants was proof that it had been a nightmare. She was sleeping soundly in the bed at this very moment, just as beautiful as she was when he had made love to her at midnight.
Using this logic Logan got himself calmed down and then he went back to bed. It took him more than an hour to get back to sleep but when he finally dozed off his sleep was heavy and dreamless. He awoke several hours later to the smell of coffee floating through the house. Colby was already awake and was apparently making breakfast for them.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she said as Logan walked into the kitchen. “I was going to make us some breakfast but I forgot there’s not really anything in the refrigerator. But we do have coffee, and with coffee all things are possible.” Colby smiled and brought her cup to her lips and took a long sip of her coffee.
“I hear ya.” Logan walked over to the coffee pot. “I’ll have to get some stuff today. Does this town have a grocery store?” Logan yawned as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
“No, silly. We don’t have a grocery store.” Colby gave Logan a frustrated look. “Everyone in Starlight just grows their own food, raises chickens for the eggs and we drink our milk straight out of the pale after we milk the cow. And we bathe once a month using homemade soap. Of course we have a grocery store. I’ll show you where it’s at and we can get stuff to make dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow morning.” Colby paused and looked down into her coffee cup. “I mean, if you want…”
“Stop it. Of course you’re staying here tonight. Just like last night.” Logan walked over and put his cup on the counter and then he took Colby’s cup out of her hands and sat it beside his. Then he gave her a hug and a kiss on the neck.
“I have morning breath tinged with coffee breath, so a kiss on the neck is all you’ll get.”
“Me too,” Colby replied. Logan let go of Colby and they both reached for their coffee cups and then walked over and sat down at the kitchen table.
“I’m off work today.” She took a sip of her coffee.
“So am I,” Logan said as he grinned and lifted his cup. “Well, I’m off work from the car business. I do have my tobacco empire to take care of. How I’m supposed to do that is still a mystery to me.” Logan then looked at Colby. “You know a lot more about this golden leaf stuff than I do. What am I supposed to do?”
“Nothing, except cash the check when they give it to you,” Colby replied.
“Cash what check?” Logan put down his cup and gave Colby his undivided attention.
“Rosemary was too old to work the fields, Logan. She rented out her land and let someone else plant the tobacco seedlings, tend to them, and then harvest them when the time was right. Whoever planted that crop out there will come harvest it when it’s ready. Then they’ll cure the tobacco leaves and sell them. And that’s when you’ll get a big cut of the profits. Lots of people around Starlight that have grown too old to work their land do it this way. They make less money, but they don’t have to lift a finger. Harmon didn’t explain this?”
“I’m sure he probably did but I wasn’t listening. He tends to babble sometimes.”
“Yes he does,” replied Colby. “And he loves to puff on that pipe.”
“So I just wait for someone to come and pick the tobacco?”
“Yep. I don’t know who it i
s but I would imagine Harmon can tell you. He’s been Rosemary’s lawyer since Moby Dick was a minnow so I’m sure he knows all about her business.”
“Moby what?”
“Never mind, city boy. I’m hungry. Are you hungry?”
“Very,” replied Logan.
“There’s a little store just down the road. It’s sort of a gas station combined with a snack bar. It looks like something out of the 1950’s. We can ride down there and get a sausage biscuit. I really don’t want to go into town to the diner.”
“Sounds good to me. Let’s go.” Logan pushed himself away from the breakfast table.
It took about fifteen minutes to drive down to the gas station, order a couple of biscuits and then get back to the house. Logan and Colby poured themselves fresh cups of coffee and then sat down to eat their biscuits, which were wrapped in paper.
“Wow,” Logan said as he took a bite. “That’s good.”
Old man Crawford owns the place. He’s had that little gas-n-go store since I was a kid. His wife cooks the sausage. They raise their own pigs and make the sausage themselves.” Colby then took a bite out of her biscuit.
“I could get used to this simple country living,” Logan said as he took another bite of his biscuit.
“Is that so? Lots of city people say that until they find out that living in the country means having a septic tank and a well for water.”
“Wouldn’t bother me,” Logan said.
***
It was only eleven o’clock in the morning but Chip McPhale was already on his third beer. But it wasn’t affecting his pool game, and he was three shots ahead of his brother Ethan as they shot a game at Ben’s, a pool hall on the edge of town. Just as Chip sank the eight ball, several of his friends walked up to the table.
“Fuck!” Ethan took twenty dollars out of his wallet and tossed it on the table near where his brother was standing.
“You play pretty good pool for a man who just got his ass whipped by a city boy from Wilmington.” Joel, who had been Chip’s friend since grade school then patted Chip on the back. “It’s all over town.”
