“Your man is as good as dead now,” Lu Lu said, “Now maybe Lowell will agree that you’re not worth it.”
“And you are? Is that what this was all about? You just wanted his attention?” Brooksie asked, “You can have him! He’s all yours! He’s been yours all along. I’ve heard you two in the trailer.”
Louisa stared in shock. Then she flailed again, trying to break free from her captors.
“Let me go!” she gasped, finally settling down for a moment, “If you’ve known about us, then why do you still wear his ring? If you don’t care, then-”
“You want the ring, too?” Brooksie laughed as she twisted it from her finger, “You can have it all, Lu Lu. Take it all and get out of here! Give me her hand, guys.”
The man held out Louisa’s hand to Brooksie. She grabbed Lu Lu’s finger and started to slide it on her finger. It stopped at her knuckle.
A pang of hurt stabbed Brooksie in the heart just then. Although the ring initially was given to her by Lowell, it truly represented her engagement to Edward. The ring did carry a bit of emotional significance, but Lu Lu wouldn’t understand that. Lu Lu only saw it as a symbol of Patience Webb’s slavery to Lowell.
With that final thought, a wave of disgust spread through her as she twisted and crammed the ring past Louisa’s large knuckle and permanently onto her finger. Good luck getting that off, Brooksie thought.
She looked up at Lu Lu who was smiling now. Brooksie could have just run free, but then she remembered Edward’s proposal to her outside of O’Neil’s. That ring did have a personal meaning and now she was angry again. She drew back her fist and planted it hard on Louisa’s nose, knocking her from the grasp of the two men.
Louisa sailed backward and splashed into the pool. Brooksie stepped between the two men and kissed each of them on their cheek. Then she sprinted toward the main portion of the park.
* * * *
Eddie heard the scuffle before he saw it. An audience was crowding around a couple of people who were apparently fighting near the rear exit of the park.
Brooksie? Was she fighting to escape while these spectators watched? He attempted to squeeze in to verify who the fighters were.
“Watch it, buddy,” a man grumbled as Eddie inserted himself into the group.
He recognized a battered version of Lowell immediately. He was taking a full swing at someone, but the punch was blocked. That someone was Ben. Eddie glanced into the nearby crowd, searching for Brooksie. She was nowhere to be found.
When he returned his attention to the fight, he saw something horrifying. Lowell had just dazed Ben with a good punch in the eye. Then, as if his moves were planned or choreographed, he reached out and grabbed the metal spittoon near the park bench. Before Ben could recover from the punch, the spittoon came crashing down on the top of his head, spilling a slimy brown substance in its wake.
Ben was down and out. Eddie glanced up at Lowell who was now searching the nearby crowd for his prize. He must have lost Brooksie in the process. Eddie turned and sprinted back into the park. He had to find Brooksie before Lowell did.
* * * *
Where would Edward have gone? A hero would surely be looking to rescue the one he loves, so he would have probably headed toward the back of the park. He had to have seen Lowell leading her in that direction. It would be stupid to head back there again. It would be stupid to return to the mouse trap. In stupid spontaneity, she started limp-running down the midway toward the back of the park - toward Lowell and Ben.
* * * *
Tears were starting to fill his eyes as he prayed that tomorrow would just hurry up and come. Nothing could be better now than tomorrow, and he needed a tomorrow that included Brooksie. He searched the crowds of people as he ran up the midway. If he could just locate… that limping silhouette right in front of him.
“Brooksie!” he shouted.
“Edward?” her response came.
He dashed for that silhouette. When he caught her, he hugged her tightly, feeling like he would crush her in his arms. She cried in his grasp, shuddering as she whispered her pleas to leave.
“Yes, Brooksie. Let’s get out of here,” he said, releasing her.
She refused his offer as a crutch as they turned back toward the main entrance of the park. Together, they ran as fast as their legs would carry them.
“Let’s get off the midway,” he said, taking her hand and leading her down the walkway beside the Wisteria ballroom, “He won’t see us back here.”
A gunshot rang out from the midway behind them.
* * * *
The bullet…
There was just something about Lowell’s wild shots. They always seemed to cause more trouble than he actually intended. That single warning shot toward his fiancée would change the whole course of Bethel Lake Park history. Because of that single bullet, there would no longer be a dance hall at Bethel Lake Park.
The bullet sailed toward the building right in front of the running couple. It smashed through the decorative window and into one of the many crates stacked inside of the dance hall. It shattered a hole near the corner of the crate, but not without scraping along a nail in the process.
A spark…
A miniscule shard of red hot metal – defined as a spark by most – would sail less than a centimeter to a wick. The wick was one of thousands in all the crates nearby. This wick however was attached to a rocket that was supposed to create a dazzling blue flower of sparks. This ten-inch rocket covered in Chinese hieroglyphics was supposed to create a beautiful display for Independence Day.
Yet it started with a careless warning shot.
Just a single bullet.
* * * *
“He’s shooting at us!” Brooksie shouted.
They ran past the window that had just shattered and behind the building. Edward opened the back door to the Wisteria and followed her into the dance hall. With the exception of the band unpacking their instruments, the place was empty. The band members must not have heard the gunshot or the shattering window.
“There’s nowhere for us to hide in here,” she whined.
Edward stared up at the bandstand. There was nothing but the bandstand itself to hide them. Then he looked back at the large flag draped over the crates.
“Behind the crates,” he said, guiding her to the small gap near the wall.
That was when he heard the sound of something spraying. It sounded like someone with a can of spray paint nearby. He turned back toward the door that they had just come in. No, the sound was coming from-
With a deafening boom, the corner of the flag blew off of the crates, sending a shower of blue sparks across the vacant dance floor. The corner crate had burst open, sending sawdust and packages of rockets onto the floor.
Edward tugged Brooksie out from behind the crates. He moved his mouth, but she heard nothing. Then looking over his shoulder, she saw the magical door open. Instead of his mother coming in, it was Lowell. He looked up at the bandstand and then jumped at the sight of three rockets shooting through the air.
One rocket jabbed itself into the roof while another almost hit a member of the band. The third hit the far wall, turning sharply to the left and then it skimmed the dance floor, spinning the whole way. While Brooksie thought she was still deaf, she heard all three reports as they exploded in showers of blue, red, and gold sparks.
Lowell turned to Edward and Brooksie and raised his gun in warning.
“Looks like they’re celebrating my win,” he shouted.
Several more rockets fired as Lowell reached out his hand. Blood was dripping from the corner of his swollen eye.
“Come on!” he shouted, flapping his fingers for her to take his hand.
Rockets skittered across the floor and into the walls and ceilings. Brooksie jumped backward as a rocket hit Lowell’s shoe. It exploded in a massive display of white sparks. A scream most likely followed as Lowell jumped in the air with his mouth open. No one could hear anything anymore. Now, not only w
as the ceiling, the flag, and two walls ablaze, but so was Lowell’s shoe.
12
July, 2009
Jean stared at the door, wondering if there was even a dance hall to return to anymore. The clock said 8:02 and there was no music. She backed away from the door and covered her face with her hands. She started to cry, hoping that the music would somehow be starting late today.
Did Eddie return in the hopes that she could bring him back? What did he think when he saw the ashy remains of the dance hall? Did he save Patience Webb?
She ran up the stairs as the tears streamed down her face. She rushed into the dining room and tapped the computer mouse. The screen was still on the biography of Patience Webb. She moved the cursor to the top of the screen and clicked the “refresh” button.
The screen went blank for a moment and then displayed her biography again. She read it anxiously, searching for her death. She slumped in the chair when it still recorded her death on July 2, 1928. She would still die in a fire with Lowell Barnes.
She cupped her face in her hands and cried, still very much aware of the silence in the basement.
13
July 2, 1928
Eddie took the opportunity he had been given and plowed into the man with the burning shoe. He knocked Lowell over, causing the gun to slip from his grasp. He then reached into the back of his pants and pulled out Lu Lu’s revolver.
Lowell was too busy trying to remove his shoe to care about anything else. After smacking at the flames a few times, he finally got the fire out. Then he removed the shoe and threw it toward Eddie. He ducked, keeping the gun aimed at Lowell. That was when a whole crate exploded from behind him.
Eddie’s first thought was that a huge hammer had somehow slammed into him from behind. He was lifted off the ground and flung a few feet out onto the dance floor. The gun was gone before he ever hit the ground.
* * * *
Surely they wouldn’t have gone in there, Lu Lu thought. The roof was almost completely ablaze and the far wall looked like it was about to collapse. She slipped past one of the park employees and ran up to the main doors.
“You can’t go in there!” someone shouted.
She opened the door and tried to see something through the smoke. A rocket sailed toward her face, but she ducked just in time. It exploded somewhere in the trees behind her.
“Lowell?” she shouted into the smoky building, “Lowell, are you in here?”
“Lu Lu?” his voice came, “Help me get Patti out of here.”
She ducked under the dense cloud of smoke and finally located three people in the corner. Rockets continued to spin and shoot along the dance floor. The reports were deafening inside the large dance hall.
“Let’s just get out of here, Lowell,” she shouted, “We don’t need her.”
“Yeah we do!” he shouted, “I’ve always needed her.”
* * * *
Brooksie crawled toward Edward and pulled him to her. She thought he was dead for a moment with the way he was just laying there. He turned to her.
“I need my ‘happily ever after’,” she shouted, “But let’s not resign ourselves to the heaven-thing just yet.”
“I promise,” he mouthed and finally got up onto his hands and knees.
Her hearing was slowly returning to her now. She could hear Lowell asking someone for help.
“What does she got that I can’t provide?” a woman called.
It was Lu Lu.
“Everything!” he shouted at her, “Now get over here and help me.”
Brooksie and Edward crawled toward the door when something latched onto her foot. She turned and found Lowell grinning at her. His hand was clamped tightly around her ankle. Then with his other hand, he brought forth a gun. When he pointed it at her, she knew that it was finally over. She closed her eyes at the sound of the bang.
* * * *
Why was she stopping? This is just like one of those dreams where the escape hatch is just ten feet away. If just we could make it!
Eddie looked over at Brooksie and realized that Lowell had caught her foot. Eddie was done with all of this. He was done with the running, the crying, and all the fear. He was done being a good guy.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out the derringer and pointed it at Lowell. No more threats – just shoot. He wanted to be that spontaneous, but he just couldn’t. He wasn’t the type of person who could shoot another man. Then he saw Lowell’s gun. Eddie fired.
14
July, 2009
Was that just two gunshots in the basement? Jean lifted her head from the table as she tried to make sense of what she heard. There was no other explanation. She definitely heard a bang and then another one. She stood up and ran down the stairs. She could hear people screaming at each other on the other side of the door. There was still no music, but something was definitely going on.
She ran across the basement and opened the door to…
Smoke and fire.
15
July 2, 1928
Lowell managed to squeeze off a wild round, but not before his collarbone shattered.
“Arrgh!” Lowell screamed as the bullet tore through his chest.
The pain was so much more than he expected. Why didn’t the actors in Hollywood portray it more realistically? He would need to talk to some people when he returned to California.
“Lu Lu,” he cried out, “Help me.”
The pain was pulsating throughout his upper body, made worse by every word he cried. She crawled up next to him. Then she brutally grasped his chin and turned his face to hers.
“You were using me, weren’t you?” she screamed at him.
Didn’t she realize that he had been shot? The pain was horrendous and he needed help. Why was she talking about this?
“I was just some cheap toy of yours,” she spat.
It hurt too much to give her a response. She wasn’t worth the pain. He lowered his gaze to the floor where he saw Lu Lu’s hand. The ring on her finger startled him for a moment.
“You… you thought…” he sputtered, before bursting out in painful laughter.
It hurt tremendously to laugh, but he couldn’t stop. He didn’t see as she reached out and grabbed the gun he had been holding. When he finally did open his eyes, he would see something that would haunt him forever – if only he would live long enough to be haunted.
* * * *
Eddie turned to Brooksie as Lowell screamed out in pain. She opened her eyes and looked at him in awe. She appeared to be shocked that she was still alive.
“You shot him,” she simply stated.
“We needed that ‘happily ever after’.”
He wasn’t proud of what he had done, though it brought a smile to her face. He took her hand and then nodded toward the door. A wooden beam fell from the ceiling behind them as they continued on. He could hear Lowell laughing maniacally behind him. As much as he wondered, he refused to look.
Just then, the door opened in front of them. A person stepped in and started coughing loudly. It sounded like his mother.
“Mom?”
“Eddie!”
She ducked down and didn’t even give them time to respond. She grabbed Eddie’s wrist and Brooksie’s wrist and pulled them like two sacks of potatoes. He even tried to assist, but she was pulling with too much determination.
A gun shot suddenly rang out behind them. They turned in time to see half of Lu Lu’s head drop to the floor. The other half was sprayed across Lowell’s face. Lowell started screaming all over again as more beams crashed down from the ceiling above.
16
July, 2009
She closed the door and leaned against it, catching her breath. Sounds of splintering wood continued to come from behind the door. Then, with the roar of a loud explosion, the noise stopped.
Eddie turned to Brooksie as they lay on the floor holding hands. She glanced quickly around the room and then looked him in the eyes. He saw a small bit of that sadness start t
o wither away as she kissed his fingertips.
“I think I finally believe in Houdinis, but I’m not so sure about their prophecy devices,” she whispered.
His mother opened the door and looked into the dusty, dark workroom in the corner of his basement.
“How could that door even exist if the Wisteria burned down?” Eddie asked.
“There are a lot of things that don’t make sense right now,” she replied.
Brooksie sat up and looked around the dirty basement.
“This doesn’t look like a spectacular castle for a magical Houdini to live in,” she said.
“Wait until you see everything else. I don’t know how to say this without upsetting you, but-”
“I’ve got some bad news for you also,” she interrupted, “But you first.”
“Welcome to the year 2009,” he said, cowering under her stare.
“2009?”
He nodded.
“And that’s how you knew about today… or my death? Did you seek me out?”
“That’s how I knew you died in 1928, but no – I never heard of you before I went back. And you chased me down if you remember correctly.”
Saving Brooksie Page 18
