by Aiden James
“The items in question are around a hundred years old, Norm,” said David, hoping this provided the mental image of a once lovely young female now either dead and rotting or existing as a century old woman in a nursing home. Judging by the grimace on Norm’s face, it worked. “We’re hoping the park service will know what to do with this stuff, maybe find a way to get the bag to the girl’s family.”
“Man, I must confess there are times I wish I was a young man growing up in Appalachia, say a hundred to a hundred and fifty years ago,” said Norm, handing the package to him.
“How so?” David asked, surprised by this statement. He wondered what in old Appalachia would be so interesting for a man who seemed to possess everything in the modern age: money, a sense of prestige, and a steady supply of willing females to help satisfy his unquenchable thirst for sexual conquest.
“Did you ever see the movie ‘Cold Mountain’?”
“No, I can’t say I have,” said David, unlocking his door as he prepared to get out of the car.
“It came out a few years back. There’s this one scene where Jude Law’s character and another guy are staying the night with this hillbilly family during the Civil War,” said Norm. “Everyone got drunk and then they left Jude Law’s character and the most attractive female in the house together by themselves. He gets up to leave, and she pulls out her leg to stop him from walking by, ripping open her blouse to offer herself to him. He doesn’t go for it, but then she lifts up her dress and bends over, shoving her naked ass high in the air and begging him to screw her. He almost goes for it, but his character’s noble—sort of like you, and so he doesn’t do it. But, if it were me…. Let’s just say I’ve purchased long Victorian dresses that remind me of that scene and had a woman or two wear them—sans panties, of course. Just stockings or nothin’ at all.”
He grabbed a slim silver box from his breast pocket and tapped out a cigarette, another amused grin in response to David’s look of pained tolerance.
“Please don’t smoke in here until we’re on the road again,” said David as he stepped out of the car.
“For your information, I planned on waiting for you on that bench over there by the steps,” he advised, perturbed by David’s lack of affinity for either of his addictions. He stepped out of the car and David locked the doors. “Might as well enjoy a day like this while it lasts!”
“There could be a line inside, but I’ll try to be quick.” David deposited enough quarters in the parking meter to cover a lengthy wait inside the post office.
“Lighten up, bro!” Norm told him, placing his arm on his shoulder as they walked toward the post office’s entrance. “It’s been years since I’ve seen you this uptight. Go on in there and mail your package, and then forget about it, man. I’m expecting my good ole buddy to be the guy that comes out of there when you’re done!”
He smiled, nodding to him before sitting down on the bench.
“Lunch is on me today,” said David. He turned and ran up the steps to the post office entrance.
“That’ll work for me!” Norm called after him, taking a long drag from his cigarette and exhaling a string of smoke rings into the air above where he sat. “See you in a few!”
Chapter Eighteen
Janice’s Subaru pulled up to the Hobbs’ house just before 5 p.m. The Colorado sun already leaned into the lower peaks of the Rocky Mountains, signaling darkness would soon follow. She finished parking the sedan near the steps to the front door. Along with Miriam and Janice’s friend, Sara Palmer, she got out of the car and all three stood in the driveway and surveyed the front of the house.
“I’m ready to go inside,” Sara announced after she gathered her duffel bag from the car.
A stoutly built blond in her early forty’s, she wore a colorful smock beneath her brown leather coat that hung just below her knees. An amethyst crystal necklace adorned her neck and matched a pair of long earrings. Possessing an easy smile and soft voice, Miriam liked her the moment she met her, less than an hour ago at Janice’s townhouse. At first glance, she wouldn’t have guessed Sara’s vocation as a certified Wicca witch.
“Are you girls going to join me, or would you prefer to wait outside?” Sara’s emerald eyes flashed for a moment. She pushed aside her shoulder length hair and adjusted the strap on her duffel.
“I’d like to join you,” said Miriam. “But I want to stay out of your way while you perform the rituals we discussed earlier.”
“I’ll hang out with Mir downstairs,” said Janice. “From what she’s told me, it needs to be cleaned up after what happened last night. Once you’re done with the main floor, she and I can work on that while you’re upstairs.”
“All right, then. I prefer to follow both of you inside, a step behind the normal energy flow here at the house.”
Sara waited for Miriam and Janice to move up the steps to the front door before joining them on the porch. Miriam unlocked the door and pushed it open, and all three women stepped inside the foyer. The hinges squeaked loudly as she closed the door behind them. The rest of the house seemed uncomfortably quiet, as if holding its breath in anticipation of the witch’s visit.
“I’ll start in the living room,” Sara advised.
After Miriam and Janice restored the coffee table to its original position, Sara set her duffel bag upon it. From the bag she removed two wooden dusters, one made of peacock feathers and the other with feathers completely white. She also took out an ornate brass incense container, a glass vile filled with blessed water, and a small leather-bound book.
Sara lit the incense through an opening in the container’s side and connected it to a long leather strap, pulling the strap over her head so the container rested against her waist. She picked up the other items and began moving through the living room, pausing to close her eyes every few steps while she whispered phrases difficult for the other ladies to discern. To them, it seemed she immediately forgot their presence, chanting and brushing past them as they stood next to the sofa.
When she swept the furniture and the fireplace with the white feather duster, they decided to wait to do anything else until after she had moved through the den, kitchen, and dining room. Continuing to ignore them, Sara moved slowly upstairs. Curious, Miriam peered around the corner to watch her until she reached the landing, noticing she had opened the little book and read from it while moving toward Tyler’s bedroom.
“She brought that with her especially for Ty’s room,” whispered Janice from behind her.
“Is that where she plans to use the holy water she brought?”
“That’s for your bedroom. Like she told us earlier, it’s tough to break a spell sealed by hemlock leaves.”
“I can’t believe David and I were foolish enough to handle the leaves like we did.”
Miriam thought of how she rubbed the leaves’ residue on her fingers and brought it dangerously close to her nostrils last night and this morning. Certainly David did the same thing when he piled the leaves and twigs in his dresser drawer two nights ago.
“It’s a blessing neither of you are in the hospital right now,” Janice agreed. “Let’s go ahead and finish cleaning up, so we can leave once Sara is done.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” said Miriam, noticing the worry in Janice’s eyes.
She followed Janice into the dining room where they straightened the chairs and centered the crystal bowl on the table.
“David did mail the package, didn’t he?” asked Janice once they moved into the kitchen to clean up the mess there.
“He did,” said Miriam. “He finally returned my calls to him around noon, when he left a message. I called him back at one-thirty, and he gave me the tracking number. He said he wasn’t able to mail it in Littleton due to a long line this morning. At least the package is on its way back to Tennessee now.”
“So he mailed it from downtown? A long line would be a certainty there, I’d think.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “But he made sure to get it
done before he ate lunch, and it’s verified by the 11:28 a.m. receipt time on the tracking report. I confirmed it online. He also paid extra to have it delivered overnight.”
“That’s impressive,” mused Janice, smiling as if surprised David would spend the additional cash for what might normally be considered an unnecessary extravagance.
“I thought so too. He’s working hard to make up for all of this.” Miriam returned Janice’s smile with her own, though she couldn’t hide her anxiety.
They finished hanging the copper pots that had fallen onto the kitchen island and checked the den and garage, which looked undisturbed. When they returned to the living room, Sara came down the stairs.
“Everything is all right for now,” she told them as she walked into the living room, her tone more serious than upon their arrival. “As a precaution I’d like to come back tom-orrow.”
“What did you find up there?” asked Janice.
“Aside from the damage done to Tyler’s room and the binding circle in the master bedroom? Nothing,” she advised. “And that presents a problem.” She moved over to the coffee table, where she began putting the dusters, book, and empty vile inside the duffel bag.
“What do you mean?” asked Miriam, alarmed. “Does this mean that sending the stuff back to Gatlinburg won’t be enough to fix everything?”
“It still might work,” said Sara, her tone compassionate. “If I were to make a prediction, I’d say it should take care of everything that has befallen your family.” She paused to remove the incense container’s strap from around her neck, and then extinguished the burner, closing it and setting it down on the coffee table to let it cool.
“Normally, when a cursed item is removed from a home besieged with problems like you have experienced, there’s still a trace which those of us able to see the other side can still sense,” she explained. “It’s usually very faint, but can be detected for quite awhile. Have you ever spent the night in a hotel room that’s supposed to be non-smoking, but you know someone has smoked there in the not-too-distant past?”
Miriam nodded that she had, recalling the family’s trip to Hawaii the past summer, and the cheap motel they stayed at near Waikiki for one night before their reservation at a nicer resort began. The room designated as a non-smoking room, it stunk of cigarette smoke bad enough to trigger asthma attacks for David and Christopher.
“Imagine if every non-smoking room you ever visited was like that,” said Sara. “That’s normally what it’s like for me to visit any haunted place, even if the source for the disturbance is long gone.” She returned the incense container to her duffel bag.
“Like we discussed last night, hauntings usually start out very subtle. A creaking floor and maybe a knock or two on the walls are eventually followed by something like a chair moved out of place or a light turning on or off,” she continued. “But that takes weeks and often months to manifest. The major disturbances and voices you told me about only happen in the most severe hauntings, and I’ve never heard of anything happening within the span of a few days….”
Sara’s words trailed off and her brow furrowed. She cocked her head to the side as if listening, but then shook her head as she looked around the living room.
“What is it?” asked Miriam.
“Nothing,” she assured her. “Anyway, despite the des-truction to your son’s bedroom door and window, as well as the circle in your bedroom, there should be plenty of psychic residue. But there isn’t any, at least nothing I can sense. It’s as if everything was staged, like what you or I might find on a Hollywood film set. That’s why I need to come back tomorrow, in order to be sure.”
“You don’t think we staged it?”
“No, not at all,” said Sara, walking over and clasping Miriam’s hands. “I do believe everything you’ve told me. It’s just odd for something that has wreaked such havoc in one location to suddenly disappear as if it was never there in the first place.”
Sara patted her hands before letting them go. She turned to leave, heading for the front door with the other two women right behind her. The last one outside, Miriam paused to make sure the security floodlights came on with the onset of dusk. She then set the alarm and closed the door, joining Sara and Janice inside the Subaru. They pulled out of the driveway and all three looked back at the house. Sara commented on how it seemed like any other home on the block, and would be a nice advertisement for the good life in suburban America. The topic dominated their discussion all the way to Janice’s townhouse.
Chapter Nineteen
“I’ve got two tickets to paradise, ba-be-e-e…. Two tickets to paradise!”
Norm leaned over David’s cubicle, waving a pair of tickets to the Broncos’ next home game set for Sunday afternoon. David barely acknowledged his presence anymore than he had his terrible effort to carry the old Eddie Money tune.
“Didn’t you hear me, David?” said Norm. “It’s the Oakland Raiders, man, and I’ve got two tickets, mid level on the forty yard line!”
“Sounds good,” said David, his tone curt while he hurriedly backtracked through the report. It was the last of the preliminary Applewood Associates paperwork.
“It should sound frigging great!” said Norm, irritated.
“What?” He glanced briefly and held up his index finger for Norm to give him a moment. Once he confirmed the figures he wrote, he slapped his pencil on his desk. “Yes!” he shouted. He glanced at his laptop’s clock. 5:58 p.m.
“Hang on for another minute, Norm.” David stood up from his desk. “Let me get this over to Ned before he leaves. I’ll be right back!” He grabbed the report and brushed past Norm, who had just stepped inside his cubicle, waving the tickets as David went by.
“Whatever you say, bro,” Norm sighed. Fidgety and always curious, he couldn’t help shuffling some of the papers on the desk, careful to not mess with anything David actively worked on. He’d just moved a small pile of manila folders when he heard something jingle and drop to the floor. He peered under the desk, and at first didn’t see anything. But then he noticed the leather strap to whatever had fallen lying near the bundled electrical cords from David’s docking station and printer. He pulled on the strap, hearing the jingle again as the little cloth bag came into view.
“Allie Mae’s Treasures,” he whispered, after picking it up. He smiled as he studied the pale blue stitching. “Well, well, David…what have you been up to lately?”
He craned his neck to see down the aisle. David stood inside Ned’s office. Norm shook the bag gently, hearing the items clink and brush against each other, the same sounds he heard when he shook the mailer earlier. Curious, he opened the bag and peered into it, seeing the glint of the bell and what looked like a gold necklace, a shiny blue ribbon, and a letter of some sort. An odor also arose from inside, but unlike the old and musty scent Miriam and David detected when they had opened the bag, it had changed to a mixture of lilac, honeysuckle, and female pheromones.
“Huh? Why you little devil…. After years of playing the perfect husband, it turns out David Hobbs takes a little action on the side after all!” He chuckled and allowed himself to laugh more heartily, until David returned.
“Sorry it took me so long.”
Immediately, Norm closed the bag and shoved it inside his pocket undetected while David moved over to his desk to shut down his laptop.
“Now what were you asking me earlier—something about the Broncos?”
“I’ve got great seats for us this Sunday, if you’re interested? That is, if you don’t have anything else to keep you from witnessing a good fight between the ‘Broncs’ and ‘Raidahs’?”
Norm eyed him knowingly and David responded with a perplexed look.
“I’m definitely interested,” said David. “I don’t foresee any problems getting free for the game, but I’ll have to check with Miriam.”
“Is she the only one you need to check with?” asked Norm, who now grinned like the Cheshire Cat.
David eye
d him curiously. “Does the bruise look that bad?”
Norm’s only response was his shit-eating grin.
“Of course Miriam is the only one I need to check with!” said David, indignant. “What kind of question is that anyway?”
“Let’s just say you and I need to have a serious talk about the secret life of David Hobbs and the things…how should I put this…the things he covertly treasures?” Norm moved toward the aisle, pausing in the cubicle’s doorway. “Meet me at my place at noon on Sunday and we’ll ride to the game together. Just be ready to tell me what you know I’d love to hear about, you ole player, you!”
“All right, I’ll see you then,” said David, puzzled by Norm’s words and the additional wink he gave him. He turned his focus to filling his briefcase with other reports he planned to look over tonight. By the time he grabbed his coat, Norm had already crossed the landing to his office. “You’re not planning to stay late tonight, are you?”
“Afraid so, David!” he called back to him. “Stephen wants the final revised contracts between us and Applewood on his desk first thing tomorrow, since he won’t be back in the office until late next week! He’s taking the wife on a cruise, I understand!”
“Well, see if you can get out of here before too late tonight!” said David. “I’m looking forward to the game—‘talk to you tomorrow!”
“See you then!”
***
David hurried downstairs, pausing to say goodnight to Nancy, who was ready to leave for the night as well. Other than Norm, only the night watchman, Troy Stewart, would be here tonight.
David glanced over his shoulder at the upstairs windows more than once while walking to his car, but at the time didn’t think much of it. Once on the road, he reflected on the events from earlier that day. He pictured the mailer traveling in some speedy USPS airplane on its way for delivery in Gatlinburg, Tennessee tomorrow. His thoughts turned next to his family. Miriam had forgiven him, and he could hardly wait to be with them again after one night away from his wife and two from the kids.
