The Haunting of Pitmon House

by Michael Richan

  “She said that?” Rachel whispered back, surprised. “Rabid dog?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Wow…and no idea what’s wrong?”

  “Not yet. He really scared me, though. When I saw him in The Mikado Room, it’s like he was crazy. It wasn’t a normal fight between kids. He lost his mind completely.”

  “That is scary,” Rachel said, folding a t-shirt. She seemed to drift off a little, and Eliza noticed her pause in the folding.

  “What?” Eliza asked.

  “Huh?” Rachel said, returning mentally. “Oh, nothing.” She started folding shirts once again.

  “You were thinking something,” Eliza said. “What?”

  “Oh,” Rachel replied. She lowered her voice even more. “You remember that thing we were talking about? Last week?”

  Eliza did remember. The two of them had spoken about Eliza’s “gift.” Eliza had half-joking mentioned something about seeing a ghost in the parking lot, and Rachel had seized upon the comment, spurring a long conversation about ghosts, the paranormal, and whether or not people could interact with entities that had died. It had ended with Rachel insisting that Eliza had a “gift,” and Eliza hadn’t entirely discounted what she’d said.

  “Yeah,” Eliza replied. “I remember. You think that has something to do with Shane?”

  “Not here,” Rachel replied as Bernice brought a tray of fudge past them, headed for the display counter. “Smoke break once we get these out.”

  Eliza noticed Bernice trying to listen in on their conversation, and she decided to simply shut up and continue stickering placemats until she could talk with Rachel alone.

  A small trickle of tourists began to enter the shop just before noon. The entire exhibit took three or four hours to get through, and even though they opened at nine, it was unusual to see people show up at the gift shop earlier than eleven.

  As lunchtime rolled around, Rachel announced she was taking a smoke break. Eliza turned to look at her, and received a subtle wink in response.

  “I’m going to join her,” Eliza said. “That OK, Lois?”

  Lois was the lead, so asking permission was a smart move unless she wanted a lecture. “Normally it’s one at a time,” Lois replied. “But it’s slow yet. Go.”

  Eliza walked back through the offices until she reached an exterior door that led to a pair of outdoor benches where employees could smoke away from the sight of the tourists. Rachel was already sitting at one of them, a lit cigarette in hand. Eliza sat opposite her.

  “You think my gift is involved?” Eliza asked. “I don’t see how it could have anything to do with it.”

  “Not your gift, per se,” Rachel replied. “The place you can go to. That’s what I mean.”

  Eliza was confused. Ever since she was a little girl, she knew she was different, that she had some kind of ability that other people didn’t seem to possess. It was a kind of intuition, an ability to sense things. It frightened her, making her feel different from the other girls, and she didn’t like it. All through high school she had fought desperately to fit in; being special wasn’t a good thing.

  She remembered when she confronted her father about it when she was twelve, sensing that her father might be able to tell her more. She remembered vividly how her dad had responded: “We’ll talk about it once you have children.” He never said anything more about it.

  “The place I can go to?” Eliza replied. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You know, the River,” Rachel said, glancing around to make sure no one was nearby.

  “The River?” Eliza replied. “What are you talking about?”

  Rachel seemed irritated. “You got the gift, you just don’t use it!”

  Eliza shook her head, trying to understand what Rachel was getting at. “I’m so completely confused right now.”

  Rachel sighed. “Those of us who have the gift can go to a place, in our minds. It’s how we use the gift. You’ve never done it?”

  “You’re not even making sense to me. I have no idea what you mean.”

  Rachel shook her head. “That’s right, you said no one ever showed you.”

  “Right.”

  “OK,” Rachel said. “Let me give you a demonstration. I want you to close your eyes and clear your mind.”

  “What, right here?”

  “No one’s here,” Rachel replied. “And even if they were, this is something you can do without anyone even realizing you’re doing it. Now. Close your eyes, think of nothing, and do what I say.”

  Eliza placed her hands on the table between them and closed her eyes. She waited for Rachel to respond. After ten seconds she became impatient.

  “Well?” Eliza asked, her eyes still closed, shrugging her shoulders a little.

  “Don’t talk!” Rachel replied. “Just stay quiet! I’ll tell you what to do.”

  Eliza sighed and resumed silence, waiting for Rachel’s next command. It seemed as though several minutes passed by before Rachel spoke again. She could hear Rachel taking drags on her cigarette and exhaling the smoke.

  “Now,” Rachel said softly. “That sense you have that there’s something just beyond. Let that come forward, right into the center of your thoughts.”

  Eliza listened carefully, trying to keep a thousand other thoughts from interfering. She still wondered what any of this had to do with Shane, but she pushed that thought aside and tried to concentrate. She felt the sensation of something rushing past her, as though a tornado was ahead of her, several feet in the distance, moving things sideways. It scared her a little.

  “So you see it?” Rachel asked.

  “It’s moving,” Eliza replied.

  “That’s it. Now. Slowly, move toward it. Keep going until you’re right next to it.”

  Eliza felt the skin on her neck begin to crawl. The movement in front of her was growing, quickly becoming something that heightened her fear.

  “Don’t be scared,” Rachel said. “Wait for a bit. Watch it. When you’re ready, jump in.”

  “Jump in?” Eliza replied. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

  “It’s fine, trust me,” Rachel said. “I’m already there.”

  Eliza resisted the temptation to open her eyes, and instead tried to make out the images that were flashing past. It was a whirlwind of movement, and all of her senses told her to stay back, to remain safe.

  “It’ll slow down once you enter it,” Rachel said. “Don’t be afraid.”

  Eliza felt herself moving forward, and as she made contact with it, it sucked her in, pulling her into its motion. For a second she felt as if she’d stepped on a moving carnival ride; as she took a look around her, she could see Rachel sitting across from her, tamping out her cigarette.

  So what was that? Eliza asked.

  You’re in The River now, Rachel replied. You did it! This is what I was talking about.

  Eliza turned to look around, feeling herself slowly detaching from her body. It unnerved her, and she tried to return.

  Don’t worry about that, Rachel said. Just don’t go too far from your body, at first.

  Eliza drifted up, rising a few feet from the ground, looking down at Rachel. I don’t get it, she said. What’s the point of this?

  We’ll, it’s pretty fucking cool, for one thing, Rachel replied.

  What does it have to do with Shane?

  Come back down, Rachel said, reaching into her purse. She removed a small item and sat it on the table between them.

  Eliza drifted back to her body and looked at what Rachel had placed on the table. It looked like a wooden block, about two inches high. There were intricate miniature carvings on the sides, and a hole that ran through the middle of it.

  May I? Eliza asked, reaching for it.

  Sure, Rachel replied.

  Eliza held the item to her face. The carvings were beautiful and detailed, showing scenes of battle. The more she looked into the carvings, the more she saw; elegant horses and men in armor, holding swords; a catapul
t, loaded and ready to fire; hundreds of soldiers, lined in rows, awaiting orders. A castle on a hill.

  What is all this? she asked, mesmerized by the engravings.

  Drop out, Rachel said.

  Drop out? Eliza asked. From what?

  From The River, dummy! Rachel replied. Leave it. Jump back out to normality.

  How do I do that? Eliza asked, still staring at the carvings.

  Push it away, Rachel answered. Back away from it, the opposite of what you did to jump in.

  Eliza tried, and she felt herself retreating suddenly from the flow. It appeared as a whirling tornado in front of her once again, and rapidly shrunk away until she could sense her eyelids, which she opened.

  In her hand was a tube of lip balm. Rachel reached forward and took it from her fingers.

  “What?” Eliza asked. “How’d you do that?”

  “I didn’t do it,” Rachel replied. “It’s an object that’s different in the River than in the normal world. You asked what was special about the River? That’s an example.”

  “I asked what it had to do with Shane,” Eliza replied. “I don’t see the connection.”

  Rachel sighed once again. “You’d get it if you understood it.”

  “Well, I don’t,” she replied, irritated. “It’d be nice to have it explained. I feel stupid.”

  “I gotta get back,” Rachel said, standing. “Whatcha doin’ tonight? If you’re free, why don’t you come by my place and we’ll have a few drinks.”

  “I would, but you know I have no interest in seeing Rodney.”

  “I kicked that loser out weeks ago!” Rachel said. “You come by, and we’ll have more time to talk. If we don’t get back, Lois’ll have a conniption.”

  Eliza rose from the table without accepting the invitation. Rachel had always been a friendly but distant co-worker. The few times she’d interacted with her outside of work, Rachel had some asshole boyfriend on her arm, and Eliza hadn’t found the get-togethers to be very fun or enjoyable. She’d turned down Rachel’s last few requests.

  Visiting Rachel tonight, however, might be intriguing; if there was some way to help Shane using what Rachel had shown her, she wanted to know what it was.

  Chapter Three

  “I thought you and Rodney were a serious thing,” Eliza said, settling into a round leather chair in Rachel’s trailer. It was a double-wide, parked on ten acres of land a couple of miles north of Dodgeville.

  “None of the guys I see are serious things,” Rachel said, standing behind the kitchen bar, preparing drinks.

  Eliza didn’t know quite what to say, so she decided to remain silent. She knew Rachel well enough to get along at work, but didn’t really know her well enough to pry.

  “Oh, you don’t gotta be all that way about it!” Rachel said. “I was married when I was your age. Divorced the son of a bitch after three years. Now it seems I have the very bad habit of hooking up with men exactly like the bastard. I swear, sometimes I think I should see a shrink or something.”

  She walked two large glasses filled with ice and liquid to where Eliza was seated, and handed her one of them. Before Eliza could take it away, Rachel clinked her glass against hers in a quick toast. “Here’s to girl power.”

  “Girl power,” Eliza repeated, and took a sip. It was strong.

  “How’d you get your gift, anyway?” Rachel asked, falling into a chair opposite Eliza. “Your momma or your daddy?”

  “My dad, I guess,” Eliza said. “He never really talked about it.”

  “Sure it wasn’t your mom?”

  Eliza thought. Her mother had disappeared from their lives when she was little; she had faint, fuzzy memories of her. Nothing she remembered suggested to her that her mother was gifted. “No,” she replied, “I’m pretty sure it was my dad. It seemed like there was always something unsaid between us. I asked him about it once, but he shrugged it off.”

  “Some people don’t like it,” Rachel said, followed by a big gulp of the cocktail. “Some people think it’s a curse, and hate themselves for having it. I think that’s stupid.”

  “I don’t know if he hated it,” Eliza replied. “He just wouldn’t talk about it. Or, at least, he said it was something we’d discuss after I had children.”

  “Probably so you didn’t use it,” Rachel replied, “and he was gonna tell you how to suppress it in your kids.”

  “Maybe.”

  “How’s Shane? Any word?”

  “Still sedated,” Eliza replied. “They said they’d call when he became coherent enough to talk.”

  “That’s a shame,” Rachel replied. “Still, I think it might have had something to do with House on the Rock.”

  “How?” Eliza asked, skeptical of the idea. “What do you suspect?”

  Rachel looked at her. “How much do you know about the River? Really?”

  “Until today I’d never been in it,” Eliza replied. “So, practically nothing.”

  “No one else has ever explained it to you? Someone other than your dad? He should have, by the way.”

  “No.”

  “Do you ever feel things? Sense things, like we were talking about last week?”

  “I sometimes feel like I know what someone is going to say, just before they say it.”

  “Interesting. Different people have different experiences of the River. Some people get good at certain aspects of it.”

  “You?” Eliza asked. “Is there something you’re good at?”

  Rachel looked down into the ice in her glass. “No,” she replied, suddenly melancholy. “I’m not good at much.”

  “Listen,” Eliza said. “If there’s some aspect of this that impacts Shane, I want to know.”

  Rachel looked back up. “Alright,” she said, regaining some energy. “Well, you know the River is where you can see ghosts.”

  Eliza felt her body stiffen. “Ghosts?”

  “Shit, that’s right, you don’t know anything…” Rachel muttered. “Well, yes, ghosts. Some of them. Not everyone who’s died, just the ones that are hanging around.”

  A flood of childhood nightmares came crashing into Eliza’s mind; fear of the dark, fear of the unknown. Words she thought she could hear softly spoken in her room at night; the feeling of fingers at her feet, tugging on the comforter. A wispy shadow that always lingered in the back room of the library at middle school. The hands she thought she could see rising from the grass-covered graves at Memorial Hill Cemetery. They had all been vivid nightmares that plagued her, things she had learned to dismiss and hold at bay. Rachel acknowledging ghosts as real — and as something accessible — released all of these nightmares from the holding cell she’d sequestered them in.

  “Ghosts?” Eliza repeated. “You’re serious?”

  “As a heart attack,” Rachel replied. “Almost anyone who’s gifted can see ghosts if they enter the River. It lets you look at all of the unseen stuff that’s around us. Like how you could see what my lip balm was.”

  “Ghosts…” Eliza repeated, muttering, trying to accept it.

  “I used to spend a lot of time in the River, years ago,” Rachel replied. “About ten years back, right around the time you came to work at House on the Rock as a teenager, I gave it up. I decided to have nothing more to do with it. I sold all my stuff, and I swore I’d never jump in again.”

  “I’m guessing that didn’t happen?”

  “Well, it did for a while,” Rachel replied, sticking a finger into her glass to swirl the ice around. “I made it five, six years without dabbling. Then parts of it came creeping back, like an old dog. I’m not as averse to it as I was back then, but I don’t spend nearly as much time with it as I used to.”

  “What do you mean you sold all your stuff?” Eliza asked.

  “Like the lip balm,” Rachel replied. “I used to have many River objects. Just like that one, they looked one way in the normal world, and like something else entirely in the River.”

  “What’s the point of that?” Eliza asked
. “What are they, trinkets? Like collectibles?”

  “Well, people collect them, yes, but they do it because each object usually has some kind of power.”

  “The lip balm?” Eliza asked skeptically. “It has power?”

  “Not the lip balm,” Rachel replied. “The carved block. In the River. That has power.”

  “What kind of power does it have?”

  “Every time I use the lip balm on my lips, I like to drop into the River and hold the block up to my eyes, and look through the hole. It improves eyesight.”

  Eliza looked at her doubtfully.

  “It’s true. Before that thing I wore glasses as thick as Coke bottles! Now I hardly need them.”

  “If you sold all your stuff, why do you have the lip balm?”

  “I found it one day a few years ago in an old purse,” Rachel replied. “Forgot it was there. Decided to keep it. I wasn’t as anti-gift by that point, and I kinda liked having it around; it reminded me of the old days. Not to mention the savings at the optician.”

  “Sounds wacky,” Eliza said.

  “Well, the block does a couple of other things, too,” Rachel continued. “Some objects are nasty. You have to know what you’re doing with them. Just like some people. There are some gifteds who are truly unpleasant. We’re not all nice, like you and me.”

  “And Shane? What’s the relevance of all this to him?”

  “Well,” Rachel started. “I’ve had my doubts about that place for years.”

  “That place?”

  “The place we work at, honey,” Rachel replied. “The House on the Rock. I’ve walked through some of those exhibits while in the River. I can assure you, there’s some very weird shit in Alex Jordan’s collections.”

  “That’s obvious,” Eliza said. “The whole place is full of weird stuff.”

  “No, I mean River weird. Beyond what most people see.”

  “Like what?” Eliza asked, becoming intrigued.

  “Well,” Rachel continued, “you know that clown in the glass case near The Spirit of Aviation?”