The Piper

by Lynn Hightower

  ‘I’m not pulling anything and I didn’t make it up. Somebody has to take responsibility here. Somebody has to fight back.’

  ‘Janet.’

  ‘He was here. He texted us. Look at Teddy’s phone.’

  Olivia folded her arms. ‘I don’t know about you, Charlotte, but I’m feeling old. Remember the good old days when people used a Ouija board for this stuff?’

  ‘This isn’t funny, Livie.’ Charlotte had the phone and she was pushing buttons, studying the screen. Olivia put a hand on Teddy’s shoulder and looked over Charlotte’s shoulder.

  I AM HERE

  daddy? ??? who r u?

  DL I AM HERE

  what u want

  THERE IS ALWAYS REPRISAL THERE IS ALWAYS REPRISAL TORMENTS ILLNESS POSSESSION OF YOUR HOUSE

  Vile words, Olivia thought. Vicious, childish and malign. She snatched the phone from Charlotte and looked down at Janet. Her hands were trembling. ‘Did you do this, Janet? Did you set this up to scare Teddy?’

  Janet folded her arms. And turned her back.

  ‘Charlotte?’ Olivia said. ‘Will you talk to your daughter?’

  Charlotte rubbed her forehead. ‘Janet, you and Annette go in with Cassidy and watch TV for awhile. Go, now, we’ll talk later on. Olivia. Look, I’m sorry, but I think the best thing right now is for you and Teddy to leave. Teddy, hon, get your book bag, okay, your mom needs to take you home.’

  ‘But we’re not safe at home,’ Teddy whispered.

  Olivia picked up Teddy’s book bag and took her daughter’s hand. ‘Of course we’re safe. Your cousins were playing a dirty trick, to scare you.’

  Charlotte looked over her shoulder at her daughters, trudging down the hall. ‘Olivia, I just – I need to think.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, Charlotte. If you want us to go home, we’ll go home.’

  ‘Livie, you don’t understand—’

  ‘I understand you’ve been through a really rough year.’ Olivia led her daughter through the house, snatched up her shoes, and paused at the front door, Charlotte trailing behind. ‘Teddy, thank your Aunt Charlotte for picking you up from school today.’

  ‘Thank you, Aunt Charlotte.’

  ‘You’re welcome, hon.’ Charlotte bent down and gave Teddy a long hug. She looked up at Olivia. She was crying and mascara was beginning to run around the edges of her eyes. ‘Would you go on and get in the car, Teddy, I want to have a quick talk with your mom. Okay, baby? Good girl.’

  Olivia watched her daughter head for the car, clutching her book bag to her stomach, shoulders slumping, chin tucked into her chest.

  Charlotte stood up, pushed her hair out of her face. The pencil slid from behind her ear and hit the sidewalk. She did not bend to pick it up.

  ‘Livie, I’m sorry. Really, really sorry.’

  ‘It’s okay, Charlotte, just talk to Janet and tell her—’

  ‘No, that’s not what I mean. I can’t . . . I can’t have this . . . this business starting up all over again. Livie, I’m sorry, but this arrangement we made isn’t going to work. I won’t be able to pick Teddy up from school anymore.’

  ‘Charlotte.’

  ‘I’m sorry, please believe me.’

  ‘Fine.’ Olivia dug her car keys out of her purse. Her hands were shaking, but she managed to get her sunglasses and the keys, slide those high heels back on her feet. ‘Whatever you say, Charlotte. You’re right, I won’t need you to get Teddy after school. Teddy and I can take care of ourselves.’

  ‘Livie, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Stop apologizing, Charlotte.’

  ‘I feel like I’m abandoning you. Please understand I . . . I can’t let this start up again. I have to keep my children safe.’

  ‘Your daughter needs help, Charlotte. So do you.’

  ‘You’re the one that needs help, Livie.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I know you don’t believe me. And I’m sorry for you. I am. I hope things don’t happen to you the way they did to us. Because once you’ve seen it with your own eyes, Livie, your life will never be the same.’

  Charlotte stepped back in the house and shut the door in Olivia’s face.

  ELEVEN

  It was Olivia, not Teddy, who cried on the way home. Olivia’s fingertips trembled on the steering wheel.

  ‘Are you scared to go home, Mommy?’ Teddy asked.

  ‘No, I am not.’

  ‘But you’re crying.’

  ‘Aunt Charlotte hurt my feelings, that’s all.’

  ‘Maybe we’re not safe without a daddy in the house.’

  ‘We’re safe.’

  ‘But I’m scared. Do you believe in ghosts, Mommy?’

  ‘Sometimes. But the kind of ghosts I believe in are family. I think my mama and daddy are watching over us. And so is Uncle Chris. But that doesn’t scare me, that makes me feel safe.’

  ‘Do you think they’re in the house?’

  ‘I don’t think it has anything to do with the house, Teddy. I just think that when people who love you die and pass over they keep an eye out. To watch over you, like guardian angels. You’re not afraid of guardian angels are you?’

  ‘No. Is that what we have in our house?’

  ‘That’s what I think.’

  ‘Then we don’t need to be scared?’

  ‘No, Teddy, we don’t need to be scared.’

  Olivia signaled left and turned onto Westwood, then took a right on Sutherland to her childhood home. She put the turn signal on, waiting for traffic to clear before she turned left into the driveway. There was a lot of traffic here now, they’d have to keep a close eye out on Winston and keep him out of the street.

  It was full dark now, and the porch light was on and comforting.

  Olivia had a sudden memory of herself at Teddy’s age, hiding behind the azalea bushes, playing kick the can. There were plenty of good memories here in this house. Lots of happy times. She still had the old Mystery Date game she and Emily used to play. Stuffed in a box somewhere. She and Teddy had been looking for it since the last two moves.

  ‘Teddy, you left your bedroom light on again. I know I told you to turn it off.’

  ‘But I did, Mommy, I checked special before we left.’

  Olivia pulled the Jeep up into the driveway that circled the side of the house and parked outside the sunroom window, near the backyard gate. The garage was rotting and unsafe. For now she kept it locked.

  Teddy jumped out of the car and ran to the darkened window, rapping on the glass and calling Winston’s name.

  ‘Winston, are you in there? Winston, are you okay? I think I see him, Mommy. He has his paws on the glass.’

  The light in the sunroom flicked on. Olivia dropped her car keys. Winston had his nose to the glass, making snout marks, wagging his tail.

  Everything was in place. The round black iron table with Italian tile that Hugh and Olivia had bought in Santa Barbara, covered in the yellow cotton table cloth, an open bottle of wine by the fruit bowl, that never held any fruit, just as they’d left it that morning. A charming room. The happiest room in the house.

  Teddy was quiet, save for the noise of her deep, panicked breaths. Her hands were fists tucked under her chin.

  ‘Mommy. Do you think a guardian angel turned on that light?’

  ‘You know what I think, Teddy? Here’s what I think. I bet your Uncle Chris and Aunt Charlotte had one of those timers set up. You know, the ones that turn lights on and off automatically.’

  ‘Like we had in California? So bad guys won’t know when you’re not home?’

  ‘Yeah, Teddy. Like that. And when Aunt Charlotte got everything out of the house, she probably just forgot it. Like those plates we found in the cabinet over the refrigerator. Every time you move, you usually leave something behind.’

  ‘Mommy, do you think we should go back to California? Do you think you and Daddy could just make up and get married again?’

  ‘No, honey, we can’t. This is our hom
e now, Teddy. Come on, let’s hold hands.’

  TWELVE

  There was a bad moment with the back door when it almost seemed as if the house would not let them in.

  Teddy touched Olivia’s arm. ‘How come the key won’t work?’

  ‘It works, hon. Old houses have personalities and so do the doors, so you just have to baby it.’ Olivia gave the door a push before she twisted the key, and the lock released. The door was tacky, though, the wood had swelled into the frame, and Olivia had to shove.

  The entry way was old warped linoleum, water damaged, avocado green. Olivia went in slowly, inhaling the moldy scent of old house. She flipped the light switch, the illumination so dim it was hard to know if the light was on. Chris and Charlotte had installed energy saving mercury bulbs all over the house, and the lights came on gradually, as if they needed to warm up.

  Olivia and Teddy crept hand in hand into the kitchen, like Hansel and Gretel crossing the threshold of the witch’s cottage. The kitchen floor was red brick tile, dark with age and old stains in the grout. The appliances were stainless steel, the countertops old yellowed Formica, but the ceilings were white plaster with old beams of wood, Chris had just installed mahogany wood cabinets, and a lovely arched doorway led into the little sunroom that faced the driveway and the side of the house.

  Winston rushed them the minute they were through the door, and both Olivia and Teddy were relieved to find that he was quite okay, happy to be hugged and kissed on the head, and ready for dinner after a quick whiz in the yard.

  The first thing Olivia did was check the outlets in the sunroom.

  ‘Teddy? Come here and look.’

  Teddy peered in from the kitchen, as if she were afraid to come into the room.

  ‘Come on, honey, see that? It’s a timer, just like I said. That’s why the light came on like that. Okay? Now go take your book bag upstairs, then come back down and feed Winston.’

  Olivia turned on the television in the living room, to give the house a sense of mundane normality. She and Teddy liked to watch boxed sets of old television shows, so they could see as many episodes in a row as they liked, with no commercial breaks. Teddy liked westerns and was mad at Olivia for not letting her watch Deadwood, because of the cursing. But Olivia stood firm. It wasn’t just cursing, it was violence and sex. Teddy was way too young for the good stuff.

  Olivia was relieved when Teddy headed upstairs, no protests or hesitation, with Winston right behind, carrying his squeaky yellow chicken. It was not long before the aroma of leftover meat loaf warming in the oven and the scramble of Winston’s toenails on the wood floors gave Olivia the sense that they had regained their dull, suburban edge. She and Teddy ate side by side on the couch in the living room watching TV, instead of at the tile table in the sunroom, which is where Olivia had imagined them taking their meals. Comfort was all she wanted. Comfort was easy to achieve.

  Teddy took her dirty dishes into the kitchen, scraping her leftover meat loaf into Winston’s bowl. The dog hesitated over the catsup, then gobbled the meat and the rest of the kibble in the dish. Teddy was being quiet and obedient enough to make Olivia nervous.

  ‘Bath time,’ Olivia said.

  ‘Can I take a bubble bath and read Nancy Drew in the tub?’

  Olivia checked the clock on the stove. ‘I don’t know, Teddy, it’s getting late. And I’m not sure the bubble bath is unpacked.’

  ‘I found it in a box in my bedroom. And I got all my homework done. Mommy, please, I’ve been waiting and waiting to take a bubble bath upstairs, like you and Aunt Emily used to do.’

  Olivia nodded. ‘I’ll get the water running, you get me the bubble bath out of the box. And your homework is done? All of it? Even the math?’

  ‘Even the math. Can we fill the bathtub all the way up?’

  Olivia tried not to think about her utility bills. ‘All the way up.’

  It was the perfect bathroom for bubble baths, and Olivia turned the taps on the claw foot tub and poured in a full cup’s worth of Ragin’ Cajun Strawberry Foam. Chris and Charlotte had refinished the tub, and put dark tile down on the floor and in the glassed in shower stall, but been wise enough to leave everything else alone. The mahogany bead board around the pedestal sink was clouded with moisture, as it had been when Olivia was a little girl, brushing her teeth at that very same sink. She sat on the edge of the tub, swirling her hand in the water, encouraging the bubbles, just like her sister Emily had done for Olivia when she had been a very little girl. The candy sweet scent of strawberries filled the room.

  Olivia kept an eye out for Winston, who appreciated a nice hot bubble bath as much as she and Teddy did. He had been known to jump into a tub full of water when he got the chance.

  ‘Winston?’

  The dog whimpered, and sat at attention in the hallway outside the bathroom door. He turned his head to Teddy, who was wandering naked down the hallway with her nightgown in her hand.

  ‘Is it ready, Mommy?’

  ‘Just be careful, the water’s hot.’

  Olivia left Teddy soaking with a giant sponge, finishing up The Whispering Statue, her latest Nancy Drew. She pushed the overflowing clothes back down in the hamper, and headed for the laundry room.

  ‘Mommy? How come Winston won’t come into the bathroom?’

  ‘Hang on, Teddy, I think I hear my phone.’

  Olivia let the wicker hamper bump down the steps behind her, holding onto the rail because the wooden stairs were slippery. She headed for the sunroom, where she’d left her phone. She wondered how long it would be before her hands stopped shaking every time it rang.

  The caller ID showed Amelia’s number. Olivia snatched a wine glass out of the kitchen, and sat at the sunroom table, filling the glass half full.

  ‘Amelia?’

  ‘Hey, Olivia. I just wanted to call and see if we were still mad.’

  ‘No, I don’t have the mind space to argue with anybody right now.’

  ‘You sound funny. You are still mad at me, right?’

  ‘No, honest, I’m just a little shook up. I had a weird run-in with my sister-in-law today. It seems she doesn’t want Teddy at her house in the afternoons after all.’

  ‘What, just out of the blue? Didn’t she offer to take Teddy after school?’

  Olivia took a sip of wine. Told Amelia everything, beginning with Charlotte distraught over the dead fish, and telling her not to stay in the house.

  Amelia listened, then laughed.

  ‘You think it’s funny? This from the woman who was freaking about warnings from the dead?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Olivia, I know it’s not funny, but this is like every stereotype I’ve ever heard about the south. Holy water in the basement? Really? Is there a picture of Jesus taped to the fridge?’

  ‘If there was, Charlotte took it with her. But don’t let that disappoint you. I still drink Jack Daniel’s whiskey straight from the bottle, went barefoot as a kid because my parents couldn’t afford shoes, and they use rattlesnakes at the Sunday afternoon services at the Baptist church down the road. Oh, and don’t forget that I was an unwed mother in a high school teeming with racial unrest, while I lived in a trailer home and fucked my cousins.’

  ‘Just so long as your cousins were cute. Listen, maybe your brother was warning you about his crazy wife.’

  ‘That’s not helping, Amelia.’

  ‘Okay, the doctor is in. Tell me about this niece of yours. Janet. How old is she?’

  ‘Going on thirteen.’

  ‘Well, there you go. She’s going to be in a bad mood for the next eight years. Bottom line, Livie – your sister-in-law lost her husband, these little girls just lost their dad. They’re angry and they’re grieving and looking for something, anything, to blame.’

  ‘How about scared, Amelia? They were really afraid, Charlotte and Janet both. And it wasn’t just this afternoon. They were both pretty strange at Chris’s funeral.’

  ‘Think about it, Livie. If somebody you love dies mysterio
usly in his sleep, you might be afraid it could happen to you. Or your sister or your mom.’

  ‘That’s a good point. Though I have to say I agree with you about that SUNDS diagnosis. I don’t believe people just die in their sleep. Charlotte says Chris got his heart checked out a few weeks before he died. Maybe it had something to do with that.’

  ‘Look, if it would make you feel better, I can take a look at your brother’s medical records and autopsy report. They may be a little tricky to get hold of, you’ll have to get Charlotte’s permission.’

  ‘I have a friend who might get the autopsy report for me, without going through Charlotte.’

  ‘A friend in that tone of voice sounds like a man.’

  ‘Old boyfriend who’s a local cop – one of those good old boys who has connections every place you look.’

  ‘The McTavish? That one you’re always talking about?’

  ‘I’m not always talking—’

  ‘You should definitely give him a call.’

  ‘Why are you whispering all of a sudden, Amel?’

  ‘Little Bit was stirring in her sleep. She’s pretty drugged up, but she responds to my voice.’

  ‘Little Bit? Are you in the hospital with Marianne?’

  ‘Just checking in and giving Alexis and Jack a chance to grab a late dinner. It’s hard to get them to leave her, even for a second, but they do have to eat.’

  ‘Bad?’

  ‘She was scheduled for surgery this morning, but they’re going to have to hold off until her white count goes back up. All I can do right now is sit here and watch her struggle for every single breath.’

  ‘Have you had anything to eat today, Amelia?’

  ‘Two hash brown patties from McDonald’s for a dollar, it’s a hell of a deal. Look, I was thinking about coming out for a visit, Olivia, when things here . . . sort out. I could use a break, but I know you’re just getting settled in.’

  ‘You’re welcome anytime. Always.’

  ‘Thanks, kiddo. In the meantime, get me that autopsy report. Maybe I can figure out something that will make everybody feel better, so the kiddies won’t be afraid to go to sleep.’