Broken Mirrors, Fractured Minds

by Carmilla Voiez

  “Could you t...ta...take me to t...th...the nearest town, Mis...t...ter?”

  “Get in. Shut the door,” he replied. “Gracious, child, you look like a drowned ghost.”

  She clambered in; her spindly arms and legs reminded him of a daddy-long-legs spider. The girl put her blanket and knapsack on the floor, finger-combed the straw colored hair from her ashen face and gave him a grimace filled with relief and trepidation. “I’ll just bother y...y...ya for the next t...town.” She silently threw off another series of shivers. “Thank ya k...k...kindly, M...Mister.”

  Elijah stuck out his hand, an automatic reaction given his many years of being a sewing machine salesman. The little girl retreated from it with an alarming quickness, huddling quietly against the door in an attempt to avoid his friendly gesture. Her narrowed eyes glanced at the hand, then his face, as if he had threatened her with an unspoken vow of physical harm. He calmly left it extended and allowed a small grin to grace his chiseled features.

  “I didn’t mean to scare ya, little one. I’m Elijah Kattschmidt.”

  She swallowed, hard. Her shaking hand had barely touched his when she reeled it back in, hiding it in the dampened red and black plaid shirt that seemed two sizes too big for her coltish frame. “B...Beth A...Ann.”

  “Well, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Beth Ann,” he replied grandly. “Hopefully this deluge, which compares favorably to the one that took Noah’s Ark for a lengthy voyage, acquits us soon.”

  She nodded, so slight he would have missed it if he blinked. It was then he noticed her teeth were clattering in rhythm with her quaking body. Elijah slowly reached into the back of the car and pulled out his coat, offering it to her with a gentle nod. “Put this around you, sweetheart. It’s not thick, but it’s dry.”

  Beth Ann cautiously accepted it and bit her pale lip while draping the garment around herself. They sat in silence for an hour after that, staring at the torrential downpour while it buffeted the car with sheets of water and leaves. When Elijah consulted his pocket-watch, noting the time as being three fifteen in the morning, he glanced over to see the sleeping hitchhiker. The sight of the girl, protectively wound into a tight trembling ball, made him think of his recently deceased wife and the child she took to the grave with her. Elijah shook his head in an effort to cast off the demons still possessing him, slipped his bowler back over his face and closed his eyes.

  * * *

  Beth Ann Cooper opened her eyes and stared out into the cornfield. Her body ached. Legs that had walked over five miles in the night painfully complained when she tried to stretch them out. Feet that wore canvas shoes two sizes larger than her own – threadbare hand-me-downs from her youngest brother – rubbed against the blisters garnered from her travels. Her arms felt the worst. The long sleeve shirt that enveloped her body hid the bruises her father had doled out the day before – but the pain still remained. She tried to move as stealthily as possible, intent on not waking the man who saved her life hours earlier. She wrinkled her freckled nose at the way her clothes stuck to her skin. The damp material stunk from a combination of her sweat and the rain. Beth Ann sat upright and fell back into the seat, clenching her jaw at the fire coursing between her legs; also courtesy of the man she once called her daddy. Just one more unpleasant memory out of the many she suffered in her recent past. She reached out a hesitant hand and tugged at the sleeve of her Samaritan’s white button-down dress shirt.

  “Mister, wake up.”

  Elijah stirred, fluttering his brown eyes in a way that reminded Beth Ann of a butterfly alighting on the white lilies her mother used to grow in her garden. A section of earth which once flaunted a vibrant bed of flowers, now relegated to a barren area of dirt as dead as her beloved parent.

  “Rain’s stopped,” she said softly. “Ya still taking me to the next town, aint’cha?” She watched him stretch, gamely trying to keep his long arms close to his body.

  “That is correct, little miss.” He smiled at her. She liked the way it complimented the gentleness in his eyes. “Your name’s still Beth Ann, isn’t it?”

  “Last I checked,” she agreed, giving him a glimmer of a grin she usually kept locked up inside her. “You’re Elijah...Katt…something.”

  “My friends call me Eli, but my real good pals call me Katt – with a K.” He reached out and cranked up his car. “You can call me Katt if you want.”

  “Momma used to call me mouse,” she volunteered. “I reckon it’s because I always keep to myself and tried not to bother no one.”

  Beth Ann grimaced when he struggled to put the car in gear, causing the vehicle to emit a harsh grinding noise. It soon sputtered to life and staggered forward onto the road. She removed his coat and shifted her body to put it in the backseat, emitting a small cry from her injuries when she turned back around.

  “You okay?” he said. “Are you hurt?”

  “Nothing that won’t stop in a few days, I reckon,” she said, picking at a hole in her jeans. “Thanks for asking.”

  He gave her a look, one that reminded Beth Ann of her mother; the kind that could tell if she was sad, mad, or in really big trouble. Not that she was ever up to mischief. Her two older brothers had been the ones to proudly brag about their involvement in those kinds of situations. She had loved them both up until the last month, when they too began to take a sinful interest in her developing body.

  Elijah cleared his throat. “If you’re hungry, I have some soda crackers in the glove compartment. I’m going to stop at the first gas pumps I see and fill this baby up. Maybe they’ll have sandwiches.”

  Even though her stomach knotted with a day old hunger, Beth Ann cautiously opened the compartment and looked inside. What she saw made her heart sink and her breath leave her body in a hiss of surprise mingled with abject fear. Wrapped up in a piece of twine were several shiny, double-edged carving knives. She swallowed and stared at him, but his eyes were glued to the two-lane road.

  “Oh, don’t mind them kitchen knives, Beth Ann,” he casually called out. “I bet the crackers are behind ‘em.”

  She moved away from the console and closer to her door, putting a hand on the latch as she began to gauge how perilous it would be to throw her body from the vehicle. She cringed when he reached over and pulled out the bundle of blades with a graceful flick of his wrist and casually threw them into the backseat. After a terrifying moment or two, her eyes left his hand and traveled up to his face. She winced at his broad grin.

  “Now don’t be acting so skittish, little miss. I sell sewing machines for a living and the fancy cutlery’s something I sweeten the deal with to appeal to the womenfolk.” Elijah chuckled. “Go on, eat you some saltines. You’ll feel better.”

  Beth Ann released the door handle with a soft whimper and plucked out the small box. She grimaced at the way her trembling hands betrayed her mixed emotions. She took a wafer out and held it to her mouth, eating it in three steady bites. When she heard his stifled laugh, Beth Ann gave him a suspicious glance. “What’s so funny?”

  “Just the way you eat,” he replied, not taking his eyes off the road. “You kinda look like a field mouse with the way you held the cracker.”

  “That’s what my momma used to say,” she replied, amazed at the soft giggle that left her lips. “It’s just the way I eat, I reckon.”

  They drove in silence for a few more miles, the only sounds the muted hum of the car and the crunching noises from her impromptu breakfast. She had offered him the box, but he waved it off, quietly implying he could wait until arriving at a gas station.

  “I know it’s none of my business,” he remarked, almost making her choke from the way it appeared out of the blue. “You ain’t running away from home are you?”

  He seems nice, she thought, but what if he can tell I’m lying? If he finds out the truth, there’s no telling what he’ll do if –

  He turned to stare at her. “I just need to know if you’re in trouble, or if you got a real destination to go t
o?”

  She exhaled and twisted a knuckle into her thigh. “After my momma died, things got rough for us, Mister...uh...Katt. My aunt...um...in San Francisco offered to take care of me to...uh... relieve the burden on my daddy.”

  He pursed his thin lips. “So, that’s where you’re headed – Frisco?”

  “Yes sir.” He sounds like he believes me. That’s real good.

  “I’ve been there,” he said, smiling at an apparently private joke. “I don’t see how such a sunny day can be cold as heck with those winds coming off the ocean.”

  Beth Ann chose only to nod at his comment, hoping he wouldn’t ask her anything more. I shouldn’t be running my dang big mouth off to a stranger. The less he knows about me, the better.

  She sadly shook the empty box and put it back into the glove compartment. She settled back in her seat, stared ahead at the white lines and occasional road-kill, and hoped her company was the nice man he appeared to be. She twisted her mouth, thinking of the way her father, a pastor of her hometown’s Baptist church, preached to his congregation.

  I’m only thirteen, but now I know evil men can hide behind a caring smile. Beth Ann sighed. Don’t trust this man for a second, keep watching him, and pray he don’t carve me up with them there blades.

  * * *

  As soon as Elijah saw the weathered road sign advertising gasoline and food, his stomach began to growl. He glanced at his mute companion, seeing her cold, blank stare.

  “There’s a store coming up, Mouse. I was gonna stop for gas and see if they had anything to eat.” He slowed down to grin at her. “You okay with cheese sandwiches?”

  He watched her nod before she turned to give him a crooked smile.

  “I reckon I’d eat a newspaper, Mi...er...Katt. I kinda missed out on dinner last night.”

  “Missed out? You and your family didn’t have no food?”

  He saw the way her mouth sneered at hearing the word family. The next words that left her mouth made him adopt the same expression.

  “Daddy didn’t like the way I ironed his shirt. He said momma shoulda showed me how to do it before she died.” She released a sigh that seemed to physically hurt her. “He sent me to my room without any supper...and I even cooked it for him. When I left home last night, I looked to see if there were any leftovers, but he and my brothers ate it all.”

  “I see,” Elijah murmured, shifting his body to keep his bottom from growing numb.

  “You know, Mouse...if you ran away from home, I wouldn’t blame you. It sounds like your papa wasn’t taking care of you none.”

  “I ain’t lied to ya about running away,” she said; a coy grin appeared on her pink lips. “I reckon I walked away just fine.”

  Elijah’s laugh produced a satisfied chuckle from her as well. Beth Ann reached down between her legs, grabbed the knapsack, and opened it up to paw through the bag.

  “What’cha looking for?” he asked.

  “I’m gonna change my clothes behind the store if no one’s looking. These wet ones I got on are making me feel awful poorly.”

  Elijah gave her a skewed look. “I reckon they most likely have a bathroom in the store, Mouse. Why don’tcha do it in there?”

  She shrugged before emitting a mumbled excuse, “Easier for me. I don’t wanna cause no trouble.”

  With anybody else I’d be suspicious as heck, he thought. She’s been abused, I can tell that. Maybe she don’t make it a habit to trust people, so I better quit pressing her. “I can understand that.” He gave her a soft smile before looking ahead. “What kinda drink you want with your sandwiches; a co-cola, or maybe some juice or milk?”

  Her eyes lit up. “I ain’t never had a co-cola.”

  “Then that’s what you’ll have. Course, they may only have RC’s there – same thing.”

  He watched her nod, her smile disappearing into the grim corners of her mouth. On the left side of the street a solitary white building appeared on the horizon; a steel pole in front of it held up a rusty sign proclaiming it to be ‘Hamby’s Gas.’

  “Looks like we’re here,” he announced. “And Beth Ann...I know this might be hard for you to believe, but.” He paused to establish eye contact. “You can trust me.”

  “Ya know,” she rationed out the biggest smile to grace her pretty face since they met and nodded, “I think I can, Katt.”

  Elijah pulled into the clearing and came to a stop beside the gas-filled sentinels; one marked regular and the other diesel. A young man with a large birthmark extending from the left side of his chin to his forehead left the store and approached the vehicle. His red hair looked greasy, but his appealing smile almost made up for his unusual appearance. He sidled up beside Elijah’s door.

  “Getting gas?”

  “Go ahead and fill her up for me.”

  “I’ll wash your windows too,” he said with a strange excitement. “They’re mighty dirty. Want me to check your oil?”

  “Just the gas and windows, fella.” Elijah turned to Beth Ann. “You coming, Mouse?”

  She silently opened her door and slid out with the knapsack in her hand. The two walked side-by-side for a few seconds before she slunk away behind the building. Elijah looked back at the young man, blissfully occupied with washing the windows, before a grim thought crossed his mind. You be careful back there, sweetheart. No telling what a guy would do if he happened across you changing and all.

  He sauntered into the store, announcing himself by the tinkling bell attached to the door. He took a moment to look around and get his bearings. Two aisles of canned goods flanked both sides of him, leading up to a counter occupied by an elderly man with a head full of snow white hair. The owner stared at him like he was an escaped convict, making Elijah glance at his shirt to make sure there were no black letters and numbers on his pocket.

  “What can I do you for, Suh?” the man rumbled. “You just getting gas?”

  “Nope. I’m filling up, that’s a fact,” Elijah said with his usual confident air. “But I need to get a loaf of bread and some sliced cheese if you got it?”

  The old man lumbered off his stool with an aggravated grunt and moved over two feet. “I got some – Swiss and cheddar.” He paused to cock his head. “Got meat too – ham, turkey, sausage, and some deviled ham my wife makes. It’s deee – lish – ious.”

  Elijah pulled out his wallet and gave it a cursory look, sighing for the shopkeeper’s benefit since he knew he only had ten dollars to his name. “Just give me a pound of the cheddar, loaf of bread, and two co-cola’s. Cold if you got ‘em.”

  The store owner seemed to take the stranger’s refusal to buy his wife’s deviled ham as an insult, trudging off to complete the order with a less than enthusiastic growl. Elijah stood by the register and waited for the shopkeeper’s return when the bell jingled again. He looked to see the disfigured young man poking his head in the doorway.

  “Harvey. The man there filled up his car; came to four dollars and eighty-one cents.”

  Just as quickly, he shut the door and disappeared.

  Wonder where he went off to so fast? Maybe I better go see if Mouse is…. Elijah’s thoughts were interrupted by the store owner putting the goods on the counter before he manipulated the cash register.

  “Lessee, four-eighty-one in gas, pounda cheese thirty-eight cents, bread twelve cents, and two co-colas are a dime.” He punched in the numbers, producing a total at the top of the machine before grinning at Elijah. “That’ll be five-forty-one, Mister.”

  * * *

  Beth Ann Cooper found a place behind the building partially obscured from view by two holly bushes. The clearing surrounding the store ended at a line of oak trees, so she was confident her hasty nakedness would go unnoticed by curious eyes. She shed her damp pants and underwear first, pulling on their dry replacements with a quickened ease. After putting on new socks, she slipped back into her canvas shoes and began to take off her flannel shirt. A loud crunching noise told her she had an unwelcomed visitor.

 
She stood as still as possible, leaning into the rough bushes to avoid being seen. She heard footsteps coming closer to her, broadcast by the loose gravel, and tensed up when the voice of the man that pumped the gas for her benefactor called out. Beth Ann held her breath, reached into her knapsack, and pulled out the straight-edged razor her father used to shave with every morning.

  “I know you’re back here,” he said. “If ya had to pee, we gotta bathroom inside.”

  She opened the knife, clenched it in her right hand, and exhaled. “I didn’t know. Do you mind goin’ away so I can finish up, Mister?”

  He laughed. Not a nice one, she decided, more like a crafty chuckle. A giggle she had heard many times in her past from her daddy. One she promised not to tolerate anymore.

  “I don’t hear no peein’ goin’ on, girl. I think ya done finished.”

  She swallowed and readied her hand. “I’m warnin’ ya, Mister. Leave me alone.”

  After a few tension-filled moments, he whispered, “Aww, don’t ya worry none, darling. I’ll go away.” He snickered. “I’ll tell ya daddy you’re almost done.”

  “You do that,” she hissed out. Because if you don’t, she thought, I’ll make sure you won’t say much of nothing in the future.

  Beth Ann listened to the footsteps getting fainter and exhaled in a burst of relief. She quickly secured the knife in her jeans, took off her wet shirt and bra, and replaced them with a dry pair from her bag. She gathered up her wet clothes, stuffed them into her knapsack and left the bushes. Beth Ann gasped when she saw the freakish-looking man standing by the edge of the building staring at her. She ignored the fleshy stain covering half of his face and concentrated on his steely eyes. They contained the same lusty gaze she had seen so many times. She pushed her mind into the place she created to salvage her sanity, placed her bag on the wet ground and leaned against the building. She smiled and rubbed her chest with one hand while the other crept into her jeans pocket.