Wait Till Helen Comes

by Mary Downing Hahn

  Michael grabbed my arm and stopped me from following Mom into the kitchen. “Drop it,” he whispered. “She’s really upset, and you’ll just make things worse.” His face wore its worried expression, making him look more like a little old man than usual.

  Pulling away from him, I crossed the kitchen to the stove. Mom was stirring the stew she’d cooked. “I’m sorry,” I said softly.

  “It’s all right.” She watched the stew bubble and poked it with the spoon.

  “Are we going to eat?” Michael asked.

  “Go ahead, help yourselves.” Mom handed me the spoon.

  “How about you?” I asked as she walked to the door.

  “I’m not hungry.” Pushing the door open, she stepped outside.

  “Where are you going?” Michael ran out on the porch behind her.

  “For a walk.” Her voice was sharp. “You eat your dinner. I’ll be back soon.”

  Silently I filled two plates with stew, while Michael poured our milk. After we’d eaten a few mouthfuls, Michael said, “She was crying.”

  “I know.” We looked at each other. “It’s all Heather’s fault. Did you see the way she was grinning when Dave was yelling at us?”

  Michael nodded. “It’s just what she wants—to cause enough trouble to ruin things for Mom and Dave.”

  “Why can’t Dave see what she’s doing? He’s blind to everything she does.” I pushed my plate away, half my stew uneaten. The kitchen was getting dark, and I felt sad looking at the three empty plates stacked on the counter. “Do you think we should go find Mom?”

  Michael polished off the last of his stew by wiping his plate with a piece of bread. Then he gulped down his milk and brushed away the white mustache it left on his upper lip. “I guess so.”

  Turning on the kitchen light to make the room look cheerier, I hesitated in the doorway. The sky was gray and the trees were dark shapes, glittering with lightning bugs. A breeze shushed through the grass, rustling the leaves and bringing with it the scent of honeysuckle. The night seemed very still and private, and I wasn’t sure I really wanted to leave the safety of the kitchen.

  “Molly, are you going to stand there all night?” Michael stared at me from the driveway; the kitchen light shone on his glasses, giving him an owlish look.

  “I’m coming.” Folding my arms across my chest, I followed him across the yard. The grass was cold and wet, and I could feel it soaking through my running shoes. Glancing back at the lit windows, I felt homesick for Baltimore.

  “Michael,” I said, getting him to stop for a minute. “It was never this bad before we came here. Heather was pretty awful, but not like she is now. And we got along with Dave all right. He and Mom never had fights then.”

  “I know. I was thinking that too.”

  “It’s living out here.” I looked past him, at the oak tree’s dark, shaggy shape dominating the sky, towering over everything else. It was Helen’s influence, I thought. Whether Heather had dreamed her up or not, she had made things worse. Day by day, our lives seemed to grow unhappier, as if she had the ability somehow to reach out from the grave and touch us all with her misery.

  “Maybe we should do what Mom said.” I turned to Michael, studying his face in the moonlight. “Maybe we should really try to be nice to Heather.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “I’m worried about her, Michael. You heard what Dave said. She went back to the pond, back to Harper House. I know you don’t believe she really sees a ghost, but that’s not the point. Whatever makes her go there is dangerous.” I paused, knowing Michael thought I was foolish. “Even Mr. Simmons thinks it’s a bad place to play. He doesn’t believe in ghosts—he just knows kids have drowned there.”

  Michael sighed. “Okay, Molly. You play with her; you try to be nice to her. See how far it gets you.” Shrugging my hand from his arm, he started walking toward the graveyard. “I’m not having anything to do with that kid,” he called back to me.

  “Michael, is that you?” Mom came toward us. “We were worried about you,” Michael said. “It’s dark.”

  She put her arms out and drew the two of us close to her. Then we walked back to the church, Mom in the middle, Michael and I holding her hands.

  “I’m sorry I got so upset,” she said, pausing at the bottom of the porch steps. The kitchen light slanted out the door, and shone on her face and hair, hiding her eyes in shadow. “I’m so worried about us, Heather, everything.”

  “I’m sorry too, Mom. Michael and I just can’t get along with her. Or Dave. We do try, honest we do.”

  “I know, Molly.” Mom gave me a hug. “She’s such an unhappy little girl. I feel so sorry for her, but I don’t know how to reach her, how to make her happy. Sometimes I think it might have been better for all of us if she had continued living with her grandmother.”

  She sat down on the steps, hugging her knees against her chest as if she were cold. “I tried to talk to Dave about her before you all came home, but he said I wasn’t trying. He said I didn’t love her enough.” Mom looked at us, her eyes filling with tears again. “She isn’t easy to love,” she said sadly.

  “Here they come,” Michael said as the van’s headlights swept across us.

  We watched Heather and Dave get out of the van. Heather was eating an ice cream cone as she walked toward us, licking it very slowly to make it last as long as possible. Without saying a word, she climbed the steps, giving us a wide berth. I tried to force myself to reach out, to speak to her, but I couldn’t. Silently I watched her vanish into the kitchen as Dave lumbered up the steps behind her.

  “I’ll put her to bed,” he said, without stopping to look at us.

  Mom stood up and followed him into the house, leaving Michael and me on the steps. For a while, neither of us said a word. We just sat there, listening to the crickets chirping under the porch.

  “Well,” Michael said finally, “we might as well go to bed. The little monster is probably asleep now.”

  “Until she wakes us all up with another nightmare.” Shivering in the cool night air, I stood up and started to follow Michael into the house. A rustling in the leaves made me glance over my shoulder. “Michael!” I grasped his arm and pulled him back. “Look!” I pointed toward the graveyard.

  “What?” He stared past my pointing finger.

  “Didn’t you see it?” I clung to him, trembling. “There was a light. It’s gone now, but I saw it. Down at the end, under the oak tree. A sort of glimmer.”

  Michael shook his head. “It must have been a lightning bug. Honestly, Molly, there isn’t a ghost lurking among the tombstones.”

  “I saw it. A bluish glow. It wasn’t a lightning bug!”

  “Let’s go in.” Prying my fingers from his arm, Michael opened the screen door, and I hurried after him into the brightly lit kitchen, shutting not only the screen door but the wooden door as well.

  “You still haven’t come up with an explanation for Heather’s knowing so much about Harper House,” I reminded him.

  He frowned and looked around the kitchen as if he expected to see an explanation written on the walls. “It could be ESP,” he said thoughtfully. “I didn’t use to believe in all that paranormal stuff, but there is scientific evidence that a few people have some sort of extrasensory perception. I suppose it could explain Heather’s knowing so much about Helen.”

  “You mean she has some sixth sense?”

  He nodded. “It’s better than believing she communicates with a ghost.”

  I shook my head. “You haven’t seen as much as I have.”

  “Oh, Molly.” Michael started walking down the hall toward his room. “Give it up, will you?”

  He went into his room and closed the door, and I tiptoed into my room. Heather seemed to be asleep, so I got into bed as quietly as I could and pulled my Walkman out from under my pillow. Before I had a chance to turn it on, I heard Mom’s voice through the bedroom wall.

  “I don’t see how you can continue to take her wo
rd against theirs,” she was saying. “You know perfectly well she makes up all sorts of things just to cause trouble!”

  “That’s not true, Jean.” Dave’s voice rose. “Can’t you see what they’re trying to do?”

  “No, I can’t. I know my own children, and they have no reason to make you and me unhappy. They were delighted when we got married. It’s Heather who wants to come between us, not Molly and Michael!” Mom’s voice rose too.

  As the argument grew louder, I wanted to bury my head under my pillow, but a movement from Heather’s bed drew my attention to her. She was sitting up, listening to every word and smiling.

  “You!” I yelled at her. “This is all your doing, isn’t it? You love every quarrel they have!”

  “Your mother is a witch,” Heather said, “and she makes my daddy unhappy. I wish she were dead, and you and Michael, too!”

  “My mother has done everything she can to make you happy,” I shouted, “and all you do is throw it back in her face. You’re a little monster!”

  “My daddy doesn’t think so. He loves me. He loves me more than he loves her, and if I want him to, he’ll take me away from here and all of you.” She glared across the room at me, her face fierce in the moonlight.

  “You’re a liar!”

  “You better watch what you say to me!” Heather was sitting straight up, her hair falling in tangled curls across her forehead. “I can make you sorry, Molly. You and Michael and your mother!”

  The door opened and Michael entered the room. “What’s going on in here?”

  Heather leapt to her feet, standing in the middle of the bed, her fists clenched. “Wait till Helen comes!” she screamed.

  Dave rushed into the room just then, and Heather collapsed in a heap on her bed, weeping hysterically. Dave rushed to her side and lifted her into his arms. “What is it, Heather? What’s wrong?”

  “Daddy, Daddy,” she wept, clinging to him.

  “What have you done to her now?” Dave turned on Michael and me as Mom appeared behind him, her face pale, her hair flying.

  “Nothing!” Michael shouted.

  “She was listening to you all fighting,” I told Mom, “and gloating! You should have heard her.”

  “Daddy, Daddy,” Heather sobbed. “Make them leave me alone.”

  “There, there, Heather. Daddy’s here. It’s all right.” He rocked her back and forth in his arms, soothing her as if she were a baby.

  “Michael,” Mom said softly, “go back to your room. We’ll talk about this in the morning.”

  Michael started to object, saw the expression on Mom’s face, and sidled past Dave and Heather. “We didn’t do anything,” he whispered to Mom.

  She nodded and gave him a hug. “Just try to get some sleep, honey.”

  As soon as he was gone, Mom turned to me. “I’m sorry you heard us quarreling,” she said. “I’ll tuck you in.”

  When Mom bent over me, I reached up to hug her. “She hates us,” I whispered. “All of us. She scares me, Mom.” Tears welled up in my eyes, and Mom sat down beside me.

  “Don’t let her upset you, Molly,” she whispered back. “She’s a very disturbed little girl. I know it’s hard for you. It’s hard for me too, but try to understand that she’s just as unhappy as you are, probably more so.”

  “Come on, Jean,” Dave said softly. “Heather’s asleep now.”

  Before he left the room, though, Dave turned back and looked at me. “I don’t want any more of this, Molly. I mean it.” Then he was gone.

  Before closing my eyes, I looked at Heather. Her back was turned toward me, and I could hear the sound of deep, regular breathing. It was hard for me to believe that she could drop off to sleep so quickly after causing so much trouble, but for the five minutes that I watched her, I saw no sign that she was faking. Satisfied that she was truly asleep, I rolled away from her, closed my eyes, and tried to let my Walkman relax me.

  Just as I was hovering on the edge of a nice dream about our old neighborhood, I heard Heather’s bed creak and the unmistakable sound of a bare foot on the floor. Without opening my eyes, I sensed her standing by me, watching me. Then she went to the window and shoved the screen up.

  I lay still, afraid that she would hear the sound of my heart beating in the silence. But after a few seconds, she climbed quietly out the window and dropped to the ground below.

  I waited a couple of minutes, then got up and peered out the window. In the moonlight, I saw her making her way across the lawn toward the graveyard. At the far end, through the hedge, a bluish glow illuminated the leaves of the oak tree. As I watched, Heather disappeared through the gate.

  Shivering with fear, I climbed out the window and ran through the grass, already cold and wet with dew. Keeping in the shadow of the hedge, I crept past the gate, staying outside the graveyard, until I reached the black shade of the oak tree. Dropping to my knees, I peered through the hedge at Helen’s grave.

  Dimly lit by the blue glow I’d seen from the house, Heather held out a jar of wild flowers as if she were making an offering. The silver locket gleamed on her chest, and her eyes glittered.

  “Helen,” she whispered, “Helen. Are you here?”

  Too frightened to breathe, I saw the glimmer of blue light shape itself into the figure of a girl no bigger than Heather. She wore a white dress, and her hair, as dark as Heather’s, tumbled in waves down her back. Her features were indistinct, her eyes in shadow, but I knew who she was.

  “I’m here,” the girl said. Her voice was low and cold.

  Heather smiled. “How beautiful you are,” she whispered as Helen took the flowers and bent her face to smell their fragrance.

  They regarded each other silently for a few moments. Then Heather spoke once more. “They have been cruel to me again,” she said. “I’ve told them you’re coming, but I don’t think they believe me. Do something soon, Helen. Make them sorry.” Heather leaned toward the dim figure, imploring her.

  “Soon.” Helen’s voice was like the winter wind blowing through a field of weeds, dry and cruel. “Very soon.”

  “And then we’ll be together all the time? You’ll never leave me? You’ll always love me?” Heather gazed at Helen, desperation in her voice and gestures.

  “For all eternity,” Helen sighed. “You and I, Heather. We’ll never be alone again. I promise you.” One pale hand, almost transparent, glimmered near the locket, making it shine with borrowed radiance.

  “How about Daddy? He’ll be with us, won’t he?” Heather took a tiny step backward, away from the hand touching the locket.

  Helen didn’t answer. Her image wavered like a reflection on the water when a breeze ruffles the surface. Then she was gone, and the graveyard seemed to plunge into darkness. Heather cried out, reaching toward the air where Helen’s shape had vanished.

  “Helen, Helen, don’t leave me!” she cried and fell to her knees, knocking over the jar of wild flowers in front of the tombstone. As she began to gather them up, sobbing for Helen to return, I backed away from the hedge toward the safety of the house.

  Running across the grass in the moonlight, I was afraid to look back for fear of seeing Helen in pursuit. As soon as I reached the window, I scrambled through, heedless of the noise I was making, and flung myself into bed.

  I don’t know how long I lay there, shivering with fright, waiting for Heather to come back. When I heard her at the window, I shut my eyes tight, praying that she was alone.

  “Just wait, Molly,” Heather whispered in my ear in a voice almost as chilling as Helen’s. “Just wait till Helen comes. You’ll be sorry then for all the things you’ve done to me.”

  10

  IF I SLEPT any more that night, I don’t remember it. As soon as the gray light of dawn glimmered at the window, I slipped out of bed and tiptoed down the hall to Michael’s room.

  “Go away,” he mumbled when I shook his shoulder. “It’s too early to get up.”

  “It’s important, Michael!”

  “
Nothing’s that important.” He tried to pull the blankets over his head. “It’s not even five-thirty, Molly. Are you crazy?”

  “Michael, please get up. Please. I saw Helen, I saw her!” My voice quivered and my heart beat faster as I remembered what I’d seen in the graveyard. “She was horrible, more horrible even than I imagined.”

  Michael squinted at me. “Are you having a nightmare or something?”

  “Will you listen to me, Michael?” I grabbed his shoulders and shook him again. “Heather climbed out the window last night, and I followed her to the graveyard. Helen was there—I saw her. And I heard her. She didn’t have eyes, Michael, just dark holes, and her skin was bluish white like a dead person’s. She said she was coming, she’d do what Heather wants; then she vanished.” I clung to him, afraid that at any moment Helen would appear, seeking some sort of horrible vengeance. “What are we going to do?”

  Michael stared at me. He was wide awake, but I could tell that he didn’t believe me. “Come on, Molly,” he said, pulling away from me to sit up. “You must have had a nightmare. Maybe because of that picture Mrs. Williams showed us. And then the fight with Dave, and Heather making that big scene. Nobody went to the graveyard last night. Not Heather, not you. You dreamed it.” He spoke slowly and calmly as if he were trying to convince himself as well as me.

  I looked away, fiddling with my hair, wishing it had been a dream. I shook my head. “No, Michael, I didn’t dream it.”

  “You say Heather climbed out the window. How did she get back in?” He groped for his glasses and settled them on his nose.

  “The same way.” I stood up as he got out of bed and pulled a sweatshirt on over his pajamas.

  “I’ll prove you dreamed it,” he said confidently. “Come on.”

  Grabbing his bathrobe, I followed him down the hall and out the kitchen door. The morning mist swirled across the lawn like dry-ice fog in a Dracula movie, hiding the hedge as well as the graveyard. Somewhere a crow cawed, and I shivered as I felt the wet grass under my bare feet. “Where are we going?” I whispered, fearing he meant to lead me to Helen’s grave.