A Haunting In Wisconsin

by Michael Richan

  “Come along, Abbey,” Teresa called back. “It’s none of their business.”

  Abbey smiled and hurried to follow along after Teresa. The other people in the entryway began to disperse, and soon Eliza found herself alone with Robert. He showed her the garden shears.

  “Look familiar?” he asked.

  She took them. They appeared exactly like the pair she’d seen earlier that day in Room 5, beneath the animal bones. “One way to know for sure.” She walked down the hallway, and Robert followed. When she reached Room 5, she knocked.

  There was no answer.

  “We’re going in,” Eliza said, handing the shears to Robert and jiggling the door handle until she had it open. They slipped inside, and Eliza walked to the dresser.

  She opened the cardboard box; inside were the bones. No garden shears.

  “It was her,” Eliza said.

  “Come on,” Robert said. “I don’t like being in this room. The smell is killing me.”

  Eliza replaced the box and they left the room. “I think it’s odd that we haven’t run into Martha or Wanda,” she said as they walked down the hall, Robert carrying the shears. “All these other people talk about them, but we never see them.”

  “If Wanda stabbed Mack, I’m sure she’s hiding somewhere,” Robert replied, opening the door to their room. Once inside, he put the shears on a dresser and fell next to Eliza on the bed. “Now, where were we?”

  “You were about to take a shower,” Eliza replied.

  “Oh, right!” he said, rising from the bed and beginning to strip off his clothes.

  Eliza waited on the bed while Robert showered, thinking over the events of the morning. Not at all what I expected from a quick trip to a quiet B&B, she thought. Not at all.

  When Robert returned from the shower, they made love for what seemed like hours, finally relaxing and falling into the spell that only a quiet, remote B&B can provide.

  And after that, they both fell asleep.

  Chapter Four

  Eliza opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. For a moment she was afraid they had slept the afternoon away, but there was still light coming in through the windows. Better get up, she thought, or we’ll never fall asleep tonight.

  She looked over at Robert. Although they drifted off on top of the bedspread, somehow they had both worked themselves under the covers. She gave him a gentle shake.

  “Get up, sleepyhead. We’re going to nap the whole day away.”

  “Fine with me,” he moaned. “How about we just stay in bed and do it again?”

  “I’d like to check on Mack, if he’s still here,” she replied, getting out of bed. “But, a shower first.” She wandered into the bathroom and started the water.

  Half an hour later, the two of them left the room. “I still want to find Milton,” Robert said. “I owe him a thanks for the invite. He has to be here somewhere.”

  As they walked down the hallway, Eliza asked, “Anything look different to you?”

  “Huh?” Robert replied. “No. Why?”

  Eliza followed him as he walked toward the breakfast room. “Can’t put my finger on it.”

  They arrived at the doors to the room, only to find them closed. A sign was hung from the door handles that read, “Please Don’t Enter.”

  “OK,” Robert muttered. “I guess it’s only used for breakfast.”

  They turned and walked back down the hallway, finally reaching the entryway. “Let’s try the kitchen again,” Robert suggested.

  They entered the room. It was completely different. Modern appliances were arranged in one corner, and there were four round tables in the middle of the room, all empty.

  “That was a quick remodel,” Robert muttered.

  A man, blocked from view by an open refrigerator door, closed it and turned to face them. “There you are!” he said. “Welcome!” He gestured to one of the tables.

  “Milton?” Robert asked.

  “That’s me,” he said. “Have a seat. I’ll get you some coffee. Do you both drink coffee? Or would you like something else?”

  “I usually avoid coffee later in the day,” Eliza replied.

  “Of course!” Milton replied. “But how about with scrambled eggs and potatoes? That’s the menu.”

  “Sure,” Eliza replied, sitting.

  Robert joined her. “I’ll have some too,” he said.

  “Did you both sleep OK?” Milton asked. “Everything alright with the room?”

  “Uh, sure,” Eliza replied. “The room is nice.”

  “Thanks for the invitation,” Robert added. “My uncle said you gave us a huge discount on the rate.”

  “My pleasure,” Milton replied, setting coffee down in front of them. “I’ll start on the food in a little bit. It’s early still.”

  Eliza was confused, so she searched the walls for a clock. The one on a microwave read 6:20.

  “Robert,” she said, grabbing his arm. “It can’t be 6:20, can it?” She pointed to the microwave.

  “No way,” he replied.

  “You’re right about that,” Milton replied, smiling. “It’s really 7:20. I haven’t changed it since Daylight Savings Time. It’s complicated to adjust.”

  “7:20?” Robert repeated. “We slept the entire afternoon away?”

  “Afternoon?” Milton asked. “I’m glad to hear the bed in that room is so comfortable! It’s 7:20 in the morning.”

  Eliza looked at Robert, still confused. “There’s no way.”

  “We were pretty tired,” Robert muttered.

  “Not that tired!” she replied.

  “There’s only one other couple here at the moment,” Milton replied, “and since breakfast isn’t until 8:30, I won’t start on the food until around 8:15. That is, unless you two are starving. I have muffins if you’d like.”

  “No, I’m fine,” Eliza said, her confusion growing. “One other couple? Ivan and Mack have left?”

  Milton froze. “Ah, so it’s true.”

  “What’s true?” Robert asked.

  “What your uncle told me about your family,” Milton replied, not looking up from his coffee.

  “What did he tell you?” Robert asked.

  “He said you had…abilities. That your whole family did.” He looked at Eliza. “And I guess you must have the same abilities, too.”

  “Why don’t you tell us what’s going on, Milton,” Robert said. “If we’ve been brought here under false pretenses…”

  Milton waved his hand to stop him. “No, no false pretenses. I intended to talk to you about it this morning. You got in so late last night, I didn’t want to keep you up, talking about it after midnight. I figured it could wait until you’d had a good night’s sleep.”

  “What could wait?” Eliza asked.

  Milton paused. “Well, I went to Nathan hoping he’d come stay here, and see if there was anything he could do to help. He said he couldn’t, but he’d send you. I guess he didn’t bring up the part about helping.”

  “No, he didn’t,” Robert said. “He only said there was a cheap room here if we wanted a weekend getaway.”

  “Nothing about helping,” Eliza added.

  “Well, my apologies for that,” Milton replied. “I assumed he would have at least mentioned my plight, and that it would be no big deal for us to discuss it after you settled in. You’ve…” He paused again. “…you’ve seen things already, haven’t you?”

  “What’s the date?” Eliza asked.

  “It’s the 23rd,” Milton replied.

  She turned to Robert. “It’s the next day. Everything we thought was yesterday played out while we slept.”

  Milton’s eyes went wide, and he smiled. “So you did see something?”

  Eliza turned to him. “We thought we’d lived through an entire day here, already. We looked for you. We met other guests.”

  “Ghosts?” Milton asked, lowering his voice a little. “Did you run into ghosts here?”

  “Let’s stop for a moment,” Robert
said. “I won’t speak for Eliza, but I’m feeling a little taken advantage of.”

  “That’s how I feel,” Eliza added.

  “Usually things are a little more up-front when people want our help,” Robert said.

  “Oh,” Milton replied, pulling back, dampening his enthusiasm a little. “My apologies once again. This isn’t quite how I intended things to go, believe me. I had the best of intentions. As I said, I thought we’d discuss it over breakfast this morning. I had no idea you’d experience things before we could talk. Really, I honestly mean that. Please believe me.”

  He seemed sincere. “Why did you approach Robert’s uncle?” she asked.

  Milton rose and walked to a counter, where he removed a coffee pot. “I bought this place a couple of years ago. Supposedly it was doing great business, but I think the man who sold it to me cooked the books. Ever since I’ve owned it, I barely get by. At first I thought it was all the usual stuff, you know…so I upgraded all the beds, made sure the place was patched up and looked great, dumped a bunch of money into marketing. I even hired a chef to design the breakfasts we serve. None of it seemed to make any difference.”

  He topped off Eliza and Robert’s coffee while he continued. “This is my retirement. I sunk everything I had into it. I could try to sell it, but I’d have to swindle some poor sod in order to make a fraction of what I paid for it. The guy who sold it to me claimed it was full eighty percent of the time. I don’t think it’s been a quarter full since I bought it, even with all the improvements. There’s eleven rooms here, and right now there’s only one other room rented, besides the one you’re staying in.”

  As if on cue, a man came into the kitchen. He had bags under his eyes and looked as though he hadn’t slept a wink.

  Milton rose when he saw the man. “Good morning! Breakfast isn’t until 8:30, but I can get you some coffee if you’d…”

  The man cut him off. “Don’t bother. We won’t be having breakfast. We’re leaving.”

  “Leaving?” Milton asked. “But you’re booked for five nights!”

  “There’s no way we’re enduring five nights like last night,” the man replied. “And our room reeks!”

  “Reeks?” Milton replied anxiously. “I’m so sorry to hear that. I’d be happy to move you to another room…”

  Again the man cut him off. “There’s no point in being in another room when it’s so noisy all night long! I swear, every ten minutes it was another screech outside, or that damned scraping sound in the hallway! No, we’re packing up now. I’ll leave the key in the room.” He turned and was gone.

  Eliza saw that Milton wanted to go after him, but instead slumped into his chair.

  “I promise you the noise wasn’t us,” Robert said. “We got in just after midnight, and we were quiet as church mice.”

  “No, it wasn’t you,” Milton replied. “I have sanitized every room in this house so many times I’m surprised the wallpaper still sticks. I promise you there’s no smell. But people who stay here always seem to complain about it over breakfast.”

  “He mentioned a scraping sound?” Eliza asked.

  “That too,” Milton replied. “That…is a little more disturbing. I’ll show you once they’re gone.” He rose from his chair. “Might as well make breakfast now. You two hungry?”

  “We are,” Robert replied.

  Milton began to cook. While he prepared the food, Eliza and Robert told him what they’d seen while they slept. Milton was fascinated with the story, stopping them to ask questions. Eliza noticed moments of recognition on Milton’s face as they spoke, as if he was connecting something they were relating to something he’d experienced in the house.

  Milton served three plates of food. “I’m just going to put the coffee here in the middle of the table. Help yourself to refills.” They began to eat.

  “So the child’s name is Wanda,” Milton continued. “Interesting. And these other people…were they all ghosts?”

  “I suppose so,” Eliza replied. “What’s weird is that we didn’t use our abilities in this case, Milton. We just…saw them. No effort.”

  “But only while we slept,” Robert added. “We don’t see them now.”

  “I don’t see them when I sleep,” Milton replied. “So your abilities must come into play somehow. Did you try to use your gift at all last night?”

  “No,” Robert replied. “We agreed when we came here that we’d not use it. We wanted the weekend to be free of it.”

  “Just some downtime,” Eliza smiled.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Milton replied. “I can see how you must feel a little bamboozled, expecting a relaxing getaway and instead walking into this. I do apologize. But…” He stopped.

  “Yes?” Eliza asked.

  “You can turn it on and off?” Milton asked. “This ability?”

  “Normally,” Eliza replied. “It’s a place we enter. We call it the River.”

  “Interesting name,” Milton replied.

  “If you could see it, you’d understand why,” Robert said. “It’s like a flow. Lots of information, existing simultaneously with all of the normal things around us.”

  “Like here?” Milton asked. “This kitchen?”

  “Anywhere,” Eliza replied. “Normally it’s something we control. We decide when to jump in or out of it. Last night just…happened. I didn’t initiate anything; did you, Robert?”

  “No, not that I know of,” he answered.

  “Which makes me think there’s something very different about your house, Milton,” Eliza said.

  “Different?” Milton asked. “I’ve come to believe it’s haunted, for sure. More different than that?”

  “Yes,” Eliza replied. “I’ve been in haunted houses, but never had an episode like last night, something that I didn’t control. There’s something very strange here.”

  Eliza watched as Milton scanned their faces. She could tell he was looking for an answer.

  “You’ll help, then?” he asked. “You’ll figure out what it is?”

  Eliza turned to Robert. “I know this was supposed to be River downtime…”

  “It already isn’t,” Robert answered. He turned to Milton. “Sure, we’ll do what we can.”

  “Oh, thank god!” Milton exclaimed, raising his arms.

  “No promises,” Eliza said. “There’s no guarantee of anything.”

  “No, I understand,” Milton said, calming down. “I’ll take whatever you can do!”

  They finished, and Milton cleared away the plates. “Let me start by showing you something.”

  Chapter Five

  After checking to see that their car was gone, Milton led Eliza and Robert down the hallway to the room of the couple who’d just left. He knelt in front of it and pointed.

  “You see that?” he asked.

  Eliza bent down to get a better look. A long scrape had been gouged into it, running more than twelve inches. She reached for it, feeling the small splinters.

  “Looks like something sharp,” she said.

  “There will be one other door with a similar mark,” Milton replied. “Come with me.” He led them to Room 7 and pointed at the door.

  “My god!” Robert said, examining the door. “The exact same scrape!”

  “Made on the doors of the only two occupied rooms last night,” Milton replied. “The gouge comes out if I rub mineral spirits on it, and buff it a little. I have to do this every morning, believe it or not. At first I thought it was an animal, but the coincidence of it only occurring to occupied rooms is enough to rule that out, in my opinion. Something else is doing it, something that knows there are people inside.”

  “You say it just buffs out?” Robert asked. “The scratches look too deep for that.”

  “I’ll spend five minutes on each door,” Milton replied, “and they’ll look as good as new. I usually try to do it early in the morning, before guests wake up and see them.”

  “Incredible,” Eliza said, running her finger along the gouge.


  “There was a woman who stayed here once,” Milton said, “just after I bought the place. I think she had the gift, like you two. She saw the scrape before I figured out how to remove it, and she was the one who suggested mineral spirits. I tried it; it worked. She also told me she thought they were made by a little girl. I completely discounted what she said at the time, but once I discovered that mineral spirits worked, I began to take her comments more seriously.”

  “Garden shears,” Eliza muttered. “You perked up when I mentioned the garden shears over breakfast.”

  “Well,” Milton said, “I’ve spent months wondering what might be making these gouges. When you said the little girl had stabbed someone with gardening shears, it made me wonder.”

  “What about the smells?” Robert asked. “Last night the guests all complained about the smell coming from Wanda.”

  “Wanda and her mother’s room was room number 5,” Eliza said.

  “Well, let’s check it out,” Milton said, leading them down the hallway. He unlocked Room 5 and they went inside.

  The decorations were different than when Eliza and Robert had snuck into the room the night before. She walked up to the dresser and examined it.

  “You see, no smell!” Milton said. “Is there a smell in your room?”

  “Not that I noticed,” Robert replied, “but we certainly smelled something over the course of the dream.”

  “Was this dresser here when you bought the place?” Eliza asked. “It looks similar.”

  “It was,” Milton replied. “I replaced a lot of pieces, but an antique never goes out of style.”

  “This was where we found the box with the shears,” Eliza said. “The box was full of animal bones.” She turned to Milton. “The man who left. He complained about screeching from outside.”

  “Oh, that,” Milton said. “We’re in the woods here. Occasionally you get an animal sound or two, it can’t be helped. This time of year the rabbits really go at it, and sometimes they let out a screech during the process. It’s rare, but it’s bloodcurdling when you hear it. It’d bother me too, but I didn’t hear anything like that last night.”