Curse of Remorse

by Waggoner, Robert C.

  The Curse of Remorse

  By Robert C. Waggoner

  Published By Robert C. Waggoner at Smashwords

  Copyright 2012 by Robert C. Waggoner

  “The Curse of Remorse”

  Robert C. Waggoner

  Foreword

  Remorse, Massachusetts was a typical New England town. It was located just south of Salem and far enough away to be nestled in a valley; estranged from big city life. A sleepy town, if you will, and most of the locals would use the word quaint if asked to describe it. The few streets were lined with hardwood trees native to the New England area. The only time the town was visited by tourists was in the fall when the leaves turned, making a picture post card for all eyes to feast on.

  From the old church with its tall steeple on one end of town, to the residential section on the other end, and in between, were stores you would expect to find in a small town: a good food café where locals hung out; a hardware store where you could find what you were looking for; a country store with items not found in a big city; a drug store with a R/X depicting a cure from a cold to a rash if wished; a gas station where the windows were traditionally washed with a fill up; and the local clinic/hospital where two doctors were available to take care of accidents or minor ailments that might surface.

  In addition, the people of the town were of the home grown variety and still relatively untouched by big city problems. One such family of four resided in a more affluent area of town. The oldest was a girl in the sixth grade that was about to have her thirteenth birthday, bridging the gap between adolescent and becoming a teenager. Ann Blumps was a popular girl with above average grades. Like most small towns, a click of sorts always exists. Her school was no exception and she had a clutch of friends who were coming to her birthday party. Basically, she was an extrovert, but none could say she was not sensitive and all said she was very friendly. Her parents were both professionals. Her father Roy Blumps was a local insurance salesman and Joan the mother worked at the bank part time.

  It was a Friday night in Remorse and as the clock struck twelve mid-night Ann Blumps went into dream land thinking about her special birthday tomorrow becoming a teenager. When she awoke the next morning, life was never the same for her and the town of Remorse, Massachusetts.

  Chapter 1

  It was Ann’s thirteenth birthday. She had waited for this day for a long time. Now she was a teenager and developing all the hallmarks of a young lady.

  She felt lucky as her birthday fell on a Saturday and the party she would have couldn’t have been on a better day. When she went to bed last night, it took here a long time to go to sleep, thinking about her friends coming and all the fun they would have.

  Now as the early morning sun shone through her curtains, Ann stirred between sleep and being awake. She smiled knowing that this was her day and it felt so nice and warm in bed she didn’t want to wake up. She took the pillow and placed it over her head as she could see light coming through her closed eyelids. Just a few more minutes she thought, and then I will take a hot shower, and get ready for my party. Finally, she tossed the pillow aside and tried to open her eyelids.

  Ann’s mother, Joan Blumps, was in the kitchen preparing a Saturday morning breakfast for her husband and two kids. She felt a little guilty as thinking about how much work it was going to be for her daughter’s birthday bash.

  A blood curdling scream pierced the morning calm and mother knew instantly it came from her daughter’s room.

  Upon reflection on the morning that changed the lives of everyone in this small town, she recalled her husband was drinking coffee and reading the paper, when she heard her daughter screaming from her bedroom. And she recalled that she was washing the dishes and the one in her hand was later found in pieces on the floor; the dish water stone cold.

  Rushing down the hall way and up the stairs, Roy, her husband hot on her backside, opened the door to her daughter’s bedroom, to find Ann sitting up in bed with hands clawing at her eyes, and screaming, “I can’t see.” Joan and her husband Roy both fell onto the bed trying to pry Ann’s hands from her face, as her fingernails had drawn blood that was flowing down her face onto her night shirt. By the time they had secured her hands, and while Joan spoke soothing words to her daughter, Roy had a wet towel for his wife to use. He replaced her as the one who held his daughters shaking hands. Neither one of them knew what the problem was. After she calmed down enough to say, through gasping sobs, that her eyes would not open, and they were stuck shut, that they both realized there was a medical emergency.

  Mother wiped the blood away and saw no real damage was done, only superficial scratches, but indeed, her eyelids were closed and she could see her daughter’s eye balls, moving under the eyelids. Joan’s first thought was her daughter had a cold in her eyes, and sometimes it was difficult to get the mucous wiped away, so the eyelids would open. But this didn’t appear to be the case as she took both hands and with one hand above the eye and the other hand below, she tried with her fingers to raise the eyelid on one eye. If she didn’t know better, she would have said they had grown together, and it was impossible to open the eyelid. Panic was setting in and her heart rate was off the scale, while she yelled at Roy to call Dr. Choi to come over right away.

  While Roy ran to the phone, Ann was still crying, but Joan didn’t see any tears coming out. Where are the tears, she thought. Her daughter kept repeating what a terrible birthday present she was given today. Joan released her hands and lay down holding her daughter, rocking her back and forth, telling her how everything was going to be just fine as soon as the doctor arrived. A part of her mind asked her why mothers always said, everything will be fine when in some cases, all is not fine.

  Joan remembered when she was about eight and was riding her bike when a neighbor boy rolled a basketball down his driveway in front of her making her fall off her bike and break her arm. Very clearly she saw the bone sticking out of her skin as white as snow that covered New England in the winter time. Her screams were heard by her mother, who rushed out and the words she remembered so well were what her daughter had heard from her mother about the medical emergency.

  Roy came back in to say he talked to the doctor and he would be right over as soon as he could. Roy noticed his twelve year old son had been standing next to the wall watching and wondering what was going on with his sister. He walked over and put his arm around his son, and told that his sister was having a nightmare. And soon all would be back normal. But somehow Glen didn’t think all was going to be just fine. He had a bad feeling about this and walked back to his bedroom to think about what he had seen.

  What he and the rest of the town didn’t know was becoming a teenager, was the worst thing imaginable, and a nightmare beyond anyone’s imagination. That the number thirteen was truly, unlucky.

  Chapter 2

  The next door neighbors in Remorse, Massachusetts, a relative small town of around five thousand, all knew each other. Very concerned, they gathered in front of Roy Blumps house after hearing the screams, and now a police car sat in front with its lights flashing. Speculation was flying from someone being murdered, or the wife stabbing the husband, for any and all unknown reasons. The longer they stood there, the closer they edged to each other. One woman could be heard above the rest saying she saw through the kitchen window, Joan going after her husband with a meat cleaver. Never mind that the kitchen was at the back of the house behind a fence. No one thought to question Mrs. Gorn as she packed, literally, a lot of weight in the town as she was the former head nurse at the hospital.

  By the time the doctor had arrived, being delayed at the golf course driving range, the police had taped off the front yard with yellow police crime scene tape. Not so much to designate
a crime scene but to keep the nosy people away from the house. A burly police man with his arms crossed over his chest, stood on the porch looking grim and full of his job.

  ***

  Across town, in a less than affluent neighborhood, Tommy Tucker, a classmate of Ann’s, woke up on his thirteenth birthday with the same problem: stuck eye lids. He too let out a blood curdling scream but didn’t tear at his eyes. Tommy didn’t have a mother, but a father who really didn’t much care about the kids since his wife left him two years ago. His father had a regular job and a regular habit visiting the local tavern on a Friday night and more often than not, you could find him on a Saturday afternoon attempting to play billiards. He was known as the sucker guy who would have to buy the beer if he lost. His wife left him and the last words he heard were “You’re a loser.” All the regulars at the tavern referred to him by his nickname: Loser, but not to his face or if you did do a slip of the tongue, he would rearrange your face.

  Tommy got up and banged into the wall and door trying to make his way to his older brother’s bedroom. After discovering he couldn’t pry open his eye lids, rather calmly he banged on his brothers door which was always locked. His brother usually had a friend in bed with him and long ago had a dead bolt put on his door. Tom banged harder and yelled his brother’s name that rather quickly his brother opened the door muttering choice words back to his younger brother.

  “What the hell is your problem Tom?” His brother asked.

  “I can’t open my eyes!

  “Why can’t you open your eyes you dummy,” big brother asked while looking more closely at Tom face while rubbing the sleep out of his own eyes.

  “I tried to pull them open but they are stuck,” he whined.

  “Let me try.” And not at all gently, Tom’s brother with two hands, thumb up and thumb down tried to pry open one eye. Tom screamed that it hurt and his brother stopped and starred at the eye saying, “What the hell is going on here? It looks like they have grown together and there is not even a line where one meets the other.”

  “What am I going to do,” he asked through sobs that now took over his lack of hope.

  “I don’t know Tom. Go to the hospital emergency room and ask them.”

  “How am I going to get there and will you help me?

  Big brother looked back at his girlfriend, who by now was awake and sitting up with an open mouth starring at the scene in front of her; within a few minutes she was dressed and out of the house before anyone really noticed she was gone. “Yes, let me get some pants on and shirt. Then I will drive you to the hospital. Let’s go to your room and get you dressed.”

  ****

  The doctor passed the policeman making clacking noises with his golf shoes on. He entered Roy’s house without stopping to take off his shoes. Lucky for him the whole house was carpeted and he followed Roy up the stairs to the back bedroom, where, strangely enough, not a sound was heard inside the room. They found the mother and daughter sound asleep on the bed. Roy went around him and woke them up. Instantly Ann raised her hands to her eyes and at first thought it was just a bad dream she not being able to open her eyes. Then a deep moan was followed by a high pitched scream that nearly deafened the doctor. Ann’s mother quickly slapped her hand across her daughter’s mouth and just as fast as it began, it's ending leaving a ringing sound in Doctor Choi’s ears.

  Dr. Choi asked Joan to give him some room and he sat down beside the shaking girl. He told her he was the doctor and that to relax and let him take a look at her problem. The first thing he did was look at the scratches and determined they were not so bad and then he focused on the eyes. He very slowly tried to raise first one eyelid and then the other one. He then reached into his bag and brought out a magnifying glass. He asked Ann to lie down and with his hand held pencil light took a better look at the seam, or lack of a seam between the two eyelids. After a closer look he stood up and addressed the parents and said, “We need to take her to the hospital where I can examine her under better conditions. I’ll take her in my car, but first let us blindfold her as the crowd outside seems a bit riled up for some reason.”

  At the same time they were taking Ann to the hospital, across town, Tom’s brother Hank was driving to the hospital. Both arrived at the same time. Hank was leading Tom into the emergency room and Dr. Choi was leading a blindfolded Ann right behind them. Not far behind was Ann’s parents still talking about the rude neighbors and a newsman who had heard the rumor by cell phone from, yes, the old bat nurse who seemed to delight in stirring up trouble. Everyone in town knew his cell phone number. That was precisely why Ed the Nose kept abreast of any and all things in his town. Ed the Nose was the owner/editor and writer of the local rag that ran three days a week, including Saturday. Not only did he have a nose for the news, but his long pointed nose was the talk of the town as it had long ago turned strawberry, as his love of the martini enhanced his infamous nose.

  Unseen by the principals of the event, Ed the Nose was hot on their tails just a few seconds after Joan and Roy passed through the doors. He hung back, as he saw the doctor take Ann into a side room. With his keen eye and nose gleaned the two boys at the desk trying to explain to a baffled nurse what the problem was with Tom. While Ann’s parents were filling out the paper work from the other nurse on duty, Ed slipped up alongside Tom and from what he gathered; he had an eye problem that was abnormal even for an emergency room nurse. The word that he heard was stuck, and he leaned in to give a look, like he was a doctor on duty rather than a newspaper man looking for a story. An exasperated nurse, said to him, “Ed, this is nothing for you so why don’t you chase an ambulance or something stupid like that.”

  Ed smiled and with his cell in picture taking mode snapped off a direct shot into Tom’s face. Now for a look see at the closed door, he thought, I’ll be set up for a damn good story. He felt it would only be a short time before the doctor with Ann had a colleague come and that was when he would take another picture. He leaned against the wall next to the door and waited for his chance. If I am not mistaken, he thought, this could be New York Times stuff and I’ll pay off my divorced wife once and for all.

  Hank led Tommy to a pair of chairs where they sat down to wait. Hank always thought that emergency rooms were always busy with people running around bleeding and screaming like he saw on TV. But in this case it was fairly quiet and they were the only two waiting, other than the couple standing at the desk filling out forms. He watched as the mother walked quickly over to the door where a strange looking guy with a cell phone stood, like he was casing the joint for a hold up. But then he remembered the nurse saying something to him and he had left at the point. Hank noticed that when the mother went through the door, the long nose dude quickly snapped a picture with his cell, and moved off laughing to himself. What a weird guy that is, he thought, and just then the girl’s father sat down by him looking curiously at Tommy and his affliction.

  “I’m sorry to stare,” said Roy to Hank. “But I can’t help but notice your friend can’t open his eyes.”

  “He’s my brother and yes he woke up and his eyes were and are still shut, stuck, and we've no idea what is causing it.”

  “Our daughter Ann has the same problem and she is now in the office being looked at. This seems rather a coincidence and one that I find very strange indeed.” Roy looked again and he asked Tommy when this happened. Tommy told him when he woke up he found he couldn’t open his eyes. “Do you, perhaps, know my daughter Ann Blumps?”

  “Yes, I go to school with her and she is in my class. I heard she was going to have a birthday party today and it’s my birthday too. Where is the doctor anyway? This darkness is driving me crazy.”

  “I’ll go check on my daughter and tell the doctor he has another patient that can’t see waiting to see him.” Roy walked over and entered the office as a man dressed in a suit walked in ahead of him. Roy noticed he was an elderly gent with silver hair, combed straight back, and for a unseasonably warm January the thirteent
h, a nice tan adorned his face and hands.

  Ann was lying down and Dr. Choi introduced the head of the hospital as a Dr. Choice Sweet, who was a ophthalmologist. Dr. Sweet mumbled a greeting and bent over to examine the patient while Dr. Choi was filling him in on what little he knew about the problem with Ann. When he was finished addressing Dr. Sweet, Roy jumped in to tell him the story of the patient waiting outside the office with the same problem. He never mentioned the fact of both having a birthday today or in the same class at school.

  Dr. Sweet looked up from his examination of Ann and said to both the parents and to Dr. Choi, “We need to take this patient to a better facility whereby we can deduce what the skin is doing and why. Also we need to think about an operation to separate the two eyelids.”

  Joan spoke first saying, “Will that pose any danger to her sight?”

  “Not at all,” said Dr. Sweet. “It would be a simple operation and no danger to the eye itself. With your permission, we can perform this surgery in an hour or so.”

  Roy looked at his wife and back to Ann who seemed in a trance not speaking or moving much. God knows what she is thinking, Roy thought. Roy saw the look in his wife’s face and spoke to both doctors saying, “Yes, we give you permission and let’s get this over with as soon as possible.”

  Dr. Choi, slipped out of the room to find this other patient with the same affliction. He spotted him sitting with another boy that looked like they were brothers. The older boy looked at him and with eyes of pleading hoped he would take a look at his brother. When the doctor walked straight to them, Hank rose to greet the man while Tommy asked, “Is the doctor here now Hank?”