by Callie Norse
“No, but I certainly don’t want to stay here, either. I’ll come with you. I need to get some clean clothes out of my bag anyway. I left it in your room when we tore out of there last night.”
They quietly walked down the hall, not to disturb whatever was causing the Jacuzzi mystery. Greg slowly opened the bathroom door. Everything looked perfectly normal—as if the red substance never existed.
“Now, why am I surprised? I should know by now that any red substance that appears mysteriously has a way of disappearing just as mysteriously.” They quickly dressed. “Do you want breakfast before I go to the carriage house?”
“No, I doubt that I could eat now anyway. And, it isn’t you—it is we going to the carriage house. I am not staying in this house alone. I may not go into the carriage house, though. I will go as far as the door with you.”
Greg gave Marta a peck on the lips and led her back to the spare bedroom. He took the picture from the nail on the wall and stared at it a few seconds, then turned to Marta, “Ready for our next adventure?”
Marta grabbed his hand, and they went down the back stairway. As they passed the door to the mansard, Marta thought she heard the sound of a baby crying. She wondered if it was her imagination. Greg said nothing about hearing it, so she kept quiet. As they neared the carriage house, they both became extremely nervous. Neither spoke as Greg slowly opened the door wide enough for them to peek in. It looked fine. He stepped inside. Marta followed.
Greg looked back at her, “Think we should put it in the tack room?”
“I’d rather just leave it here. Knowing you though, you will go back into the tack room, then if all is okay in there, you will venture back to the stable to check it out.”
Marta was right. Greg slowly proceeded to the tack room, holding the picture in one hand, with Marta tightly squeezing his other hand. All looked okay in the tack room, so he insisted they go to the stable. It, too, seemed okay. Greg didn’t open the trap door above. “No sense pushing our luck, let’s head back.”
“Remember to leave the portrait,” Marta reminded.
Greg took one last look at the picture. He kissed the girl in the portrait on the lips. “Good-bye missy, have a nice rest out here.” He turned and headed toward the door, locking the padlock on the door as he left.
“Why did you kiss the picture?” Marta inquired.
“Just teasing. I guess it wasn’t a very good thing to do,” Greg answered.
Marta was uneasy and in a hurry to get back to the house. Why she felt the house was any safer, she wasn’t sure. “I wish we could find some clue as to who this girl in the picture is. Maybe we need to go back into the mansard to see if we can come up with something.”
“Not today, sweetie. We have had enough excitement already for one day.”
“Greg, honey, did you happen to hear a baby crying as we passed by the door to the mansard?”
“I was hoping I was imagining it, guess not, huh?” Greg replied.
“I guess not, as I know I heard it. I hated to mention it at the time, as there was enough going on. When you have heard it before, do you think it has come from the mansard?” Marta asked.
“It has never been very loud, and by the time I get near the source, it has stopped.”
They decided to spend the night at Marta’s. Lori and Steve agreed to keep Maggie and Toto for another night. They packed a few things and sat in the parlor talking until they began to get hungry. They decided on lunch, as it was now too late for breakfast.
After lunch they went to the library and looked for books on haunted houses and spirits. Each of them checked out several to study. Afterward, they went to Marta’s and tried to relax and not think about the mysteries of the house. This proved to be impossible. They spent the afternoon scanning the books looking for clues. After several hours, they set the books aside, deciding they needed to take a break. Tomorrow they would venture into the mansard once again.
Nine
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Greg asked Marta, as they stood in front of the mansard door.
“We need to find out who this girl is and why her portrait cries tears. It’s the only place I know where we might find some clues,” Marta answered.
As Greg opened the door, they began to hear the cries of a baby. More than likely this is where the cries had been coming from all along. Greg led the way with Marta following closely. There was no sign of a baby, not that they really expected to see a real baby. The cries stopped.
“Well, I guess that’s that for now,” Greg said. “We need to add a baby to our list of clues to search for. Where should we look today?”
“How about the bedroom across the hall from where we searched last time, where we found the box of pictures?” Marta suggested.
Greg looked as if he was thinking hard, “We didn’t finish in there did we?”
“You are right. Once we found the box, we decided to take it downstairs to look through it. Maybe there are more boxes in there that might lead us to our answers.”
With all the dust and cobwebs, it was difficult to tell at a glance what really was in there. Greg opened a closet, close to where they found the last box. There were three boxes filled with papers, pictures, and possibly old letters. “Look Marta, these boxes might help us find some answers. How about if I put them by the stairs while we look around some more up here? We can take them down when we go.”
“Sounds good to me. It’s freezing cold up here. We shouldn’t waste our time on just a few boxes. We need to see what else we can find before we get too cold to stay up here.” Marta wandered to the other side of the room, where she found some old dishes. “Honey, these must be worth a fortune, they look really old.”
“Like most of the things up here,” Greg chuckled.
“One thing that surprises me is that these things appear to belong to the family that lived downstairs years back. Why are these things still here? I would have thought the previous owners would have gotten rid of all these things, or that they would have been cleared out before the house was sold. If this used to be the living quarters for the female servants, do you suppose there are some remains of their belongings up here, too?” Marta questioned.
“That’s quite possible, Marta. Are you ready to move on to the other bedrooms?”
“Sure, we can come back to this room later. I’m curious as to how the other rooms look.” Marta headed for the bedroom across the hall. Greg followed.
In this room, they found a twin bed covered with a hand made quilt, all white with delicate stitches embroidered in a repetitious pattern. The fabric was rotten, and tore when Marta attempted to pick it up.
In a far corner of this room, there was an oval shaped metal container, which looked like an old watering trough. It contained what appeared to be the remains of an old feather pillow with a pillowcase covering it, rotten and in shreds. A small bed cover, similar to the quilt on the twin bed, was folded at one end. “Greg, honey, do you suppose this was used as a bed for a small child?”
“Or a baby?” Greg quickly added.
“Oh, my gosh! You may be right! This could be a crib for the baby we have heard crying.”
“Let’s not draw any conclusions yet, Mart. Let’s see what the next room brings.” He headed down the hall with Marta trailing. This room had three twin beds, all stripped down to old feather mattresses. There was more dust and cobwebs than anything else in this room, with no apparent clues. They moved on to the next room.
This room was quite full. It looked to be the main storage room. The closet was full of old time dresses, covered with yellowed and rotted sheets. Marta carefully took the sheets off to get a better look at them. She assumed they must have been quite elegant in their time. Some of them had a piece of yellowed, brittle paper pinned to them, seeming to label the owner of each dress. There were names such as Josephine, Isadora, Edith, Lizzie, and Rosillian.
Greg was rummaging through things stacked against one wall. “Look Marta. Here are m
ore portraits, some are on porcelain and some are needlework.” Marta rushed over to look at them. “Mart, look, this one is of a girl much younger than the one who cries. She bears a strong resemblance to the crying girl. What do you think?”
“If it isn’t her, it’s her twin. Those eyes are definitely hers, so is the nose. Oh, yes, it must be her. I don’t suppose we would be so lucky as to find a name on the back,” Marta said, excitedly.
Greg carefully removed the elegant gold frame to expose the back. Isadora was clearly written on the back of the portrait. “We should compare this with the smudged name on the back of the other picture.” He took off to get the picture and was back in a second, removing it from the frame.
Marta held the hand written name, Isadora, up to it. “Look, Greg, the letters o-r-a are quite clear. Only the beginning letters are blurred.”
“Hmmm…so her name is Isadora.”
Marta wasn’t totally convinced yet, “Let’s look at the two pictures side by side.”
They held them up together. Greg studied them carefully, “Look at those cheekbones; they are so much alike. The eyes and hair are both the same color. The nose is identical. Even the smile is similar. Yes, it looks like we have our girl. Where did we put that bible?” Greg again took off down the hall, returning with the bible. He turned to the back where the names were written. Yes, the name Isadora was one of the names.
Marta’s face lit up. “I think that was one of the names on some of the dresses I found in the closet.” She went over to the closet and began looking through the dresses. “Yes, here it is! This one is labeled Isadora! Honey, bring that bible over here. Lets see if the rest of the names on these dresses match.” Sure enough, they matched the girls’ names written in the bible. There were a few more girls’ names than dresses. The names on the dresses were all there in the bible.
“I think we have found all we need for today, Marta. Ready to go downstairs?”
“Sure, I’m getting too cold, anyway. We must not forget to take those boxes we saved for later.”
Greg grabbed the boxes and they headed toward the stairs, making sure he left the two portraits behind. “Two of these could flood the whole house,” he teased, as he laid them against some boxes.
*****
Once downstairs, they decided to shower. They were covered with dust and cobwebs. While in the shower, it hit Greg that Maggie’s birthday was in two days, and they hadn’t made any plans. As he was drying off, Marta came in from the main bath wrapped in a towel. She had no desire to shower in the master bath. Greg still chanced it. He wanted to keep check on it. What a temptation that was for Greg, as the towel dropped to the floor, and she began dressing.
Instead of saying something sexy, he informed Marta, “Mart, I almost forgot Maggie’s birthday is day after tomorrow. I need to get with it, do some shopping, and make some plans.”
“Can I help?” she asked, as she was repositioning her breasts in her lavender bra.
“Oh, can you!” he laughed. “Do you know how difficult you are making this for me? I need to get some shopping done, and yes, you can go with me. I was wondering if we could find a basket for Toto, like Maggie mentioned Christmas. Do you know what kind of basket that might be?”
“Yes, it’s one that has a lid. I think I know what the one in the movie looks like.”
“Do you suppose any store would have anything similar? You know Maggie; she would get a kick out of something like that. Remember, Christmas she asked where his basket was?”
“I know where there is a specialty basket shop downtown Galena. They might have something close to it.”
“Great! We could eat at one of the little restaurants there on Main Street. Lis…” he stopped himself.
“Yes, I know, Lisa loved those little shops. We used to eat at one of the restaurants when we would take a fun day to see what was new at the little shops. Maybe we should eat somewhere else. What do you think?”
“Have you eaten at that new little place in the park area?” Greg asked. “It has only been there a month or so, I believe.”
“That’s right,” Marta said, “there is a new little restaurant there. I only drove by it. I haven’t eaten there. I hear what they mostly sell is specialty sandwiches.”
“So, let’s give it a try then,” Greg was getting hungrier now.
They quickly dressed and were out the door. Greg was surprised he was actually able to resist that gorgeous body of hers. At times, he had wondered if he was a little oversexed. He was proud of himself that he had controlled his urges—this time. He knew, though, that it was only because there wasn’t time. He had Maggie’s birthday on his mind. He must get the shopping done before he picked her up from Lori and Steve’s. The boxes from the mansard could wait.
The new sandwich shop was indeed a specialty shop. It fit right in with the area with all the other specialty shops. This was such a unique little town. Greg and Marta chose sandwiches with a yeast roll bun. The bun really made the sandwich. They were baked fresh each morning, so the waitress said. There were many choices. Marta chose a peppered chicken and Greg had roast beef, Cajun style. They were quite pleased with this new shop, as both sandwiches were delicious.
Marta directed Greg to the basket shop. They had hundreds of baskets, each unique in its own way—all shapes, sizes, and colors. Marta described the Toto basket to the clerk. Sure enough, they had one very similar, the right size for Toto to grow into and not too terribly large for him now. The clerk found a box and gift-wrapped it in, yes, Wizard of Oz paper. Who would have thought!
“There’s a little shop down the street where I need to go next,” Greg hesitated a moment, “There is something I need to do for Lisa.”
“You have me curious.”
“You will see,” Greg appeared quite serious.
Once inside the store, he studied the contents of a display case and pointed out a heart shaped photo locket to the clerk. He indicated to her the one he wanted. She put it in a small box and asked him if he would like it gift-wrapped? He thanked her and told her he would wrap it himself. He was so serious, so unlike how he had been lately. They drove home with hardly a word between them.
Once in the house, Greg finally began to explain, “I need to find a picture to put in this locket for Maggie—one of Lisa or maybe Lisa and Maggie together. There are some snapshots in the sewing room. Could you help me with this? I don’t know that I can do it alone.”
“Sure, Greg, I understand.”
“No, you don’t entirely. Lisa saw this last summer. She thought about getting it then, for Maggie’s birthday. She knew if it were in the house, she would give it to her long before her birthday. We expected Lisa to still be here on Maggie’s birthday.” There were tears in his eyes. Marta had seen him cry only a few times since they had been together. Today was very different. He was allowing himself to think. They found some envelopes of snapshots. Ordinarily, Lisa would have had them in a photo album. Many things had been left undone.
“I want one of Lisa that looks like she did when she was well, not one to remind Maggie of how sick she was,” Greg commented.
They looked at many pictures. Some were too large for the locket; others were too distant and therefore too small. They found two that would work. Greg was torn as to which one to use. He preferred one of the two of them together. The locket was hardly big enough for a picture of two, so he chose the one of Lisa alone. It was a wonderful picture of her and just the right size. He sat staring at it, hating to cut into the picture. Every few minutes he would wipe a tear away with his handkerchief. Eventually, he burst into tears. “I just can’t believe she is gone, Mart!”
Marta had been trying hard to hold the tears back. She now joined him, and they comforted each other. It was good that they had each other, as they both loved Lisa, of course in different ways. Marta found Lisa’s small sewing scissors and handed them to Greg, once he was able to continue. He first cut out a piece of paper about the size of the locket opening. He
put it in the locket and found it was a little too big. He trimmed it until it fit perfectly and then used it for a pattern. Once he had the picture in the locket, he sat staring at it, thinking how Maggie would surely treasure this, especially when she knew it was something Lisa had wanted to give her. He wrapped it, and then called to see if Maggie was ready to come home. He would pick her up soon.
“Marta, would you mind if I take you home on the way to pick up Maggie? I feel I should spend some time alone with her today.”
“I understand Greg. We’ll have plenty of time later to be together.”
Greg kissed her good-bye at her door and gave her a big hug. He had tears in his eyes. Marta knew it had been a difficult day for him. She also sensed he was having mixed emotions about their new relationship.
*****
Maggie was all smiles when he arrived at Lori and Steve’s. “Daddy, Daddy, I missed you.” She threw her arms around him and gave him a much-needed hug.
“Is Toto ready to go?” Greg asked Maggie.
“I think so. He needs a nap and Tinker bell won’t let him take one!”
Greg thanked Lori and Steve for watching her, packed up Toto and Dorothy, and they were on their way.
Maggie ran to the house as fast as she could go. Greg followed carrying Toto, Dorothy, and Maggie’s overnight bag. He set his baggage down and unlocked the door. Maggie went straight to the sewing room. As soon as Greg let Toto out of his carrier, he ran as fast as his little legs would carry him until he caught up with Maggie. Greg found Maggie standing, facing the rocking chair, and rambling on about her visit with Lori, Steve, and Tinker Bell. Greg could hardly make out what she was saying, because Toto was circling the rocking chair, barking.
“What in the heck is going on?” he asked himself. “Perhaps Toto is barking because Maggie is standing here talking to herself.”
Toto soon settled down. Greg showed him his bed and gave him a little treat. He ate it and fell asleep. Greg asked Maggie if she could come into the parlor to talk about her birthday. She told her invisible friend she would be back later.
