Preach to me Baby

by Hazel Parker

  As she closed the door, she reminded herself that she was just being silly. She didn’t know anyone in town and was latching too onto the first person that she had met. Just because a handsome man had been polite to her didn’t mean she was about to live happily ever after.

  Regardless, she felt a tad bit happier than she had a few hours ago.

  Elizabeth did not plan to live in the main part of the house. There was a guest house to the back of the property where she would live once the inn was ready. But for now, she was staying in the main house. She’d brought in an air mattress and set herself up in one of the back bedrooms.

  It overlooked the outbuildings, including the house she would eventually call home and the caretaker’s house. There had been a light on in that building, but it was off now. She knew Philip lived out there year-round. She wondered if anyone lived with him. Well, actually she was wondering if Rick lived there with him.

  From this view, Elizabeth decided that she liked the town. The rooftops and steeples made it look like a postcard. She wondered what it would be like in the winter; seeing these rooftops dotted in snow would be adorable. She figured she’d get a ton of people out who wanted to take advantage of the nearby ski areas.

  Elizabeth lay down on the air mattress. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but she’d be glad when she got her own bed. Her things weren’t scheduled to be delivered for another two weeks. She’d brought the bare minimum with her. Getting by on so little was rough.

  Her mind wandered as she started to drift off. If there was a chance she’d be meeting men in town, maybe she didn’t need to hit up the local shelter for a cat just yet. Unmarried women over forty were almost required to have cats; maybe she’d be able to dodge it.

  Elizabeth didn’t realize that she had been asleep until she jerked awake. For a moment, she wondered just what had awoken her. Then she heard it again.

  It was a faint scrapping sound. It sounded like a door that had gotten stuck. That made her sit up in bed. Who could be in the house opening doors?

  Elizabeth got off of the mattress. She stood with her hand on the door. She wasn’t entirely certain what she was going to do. Quickly, she reached down to grab her cell phone. She should do the logical thing and call the local police.

  But what if it was nothing? She was in an old house that was unfamiliar to her. She hadn’t spent a night in the house in thirty years. It was going to be a bit unusual. She didn’t want to be the new, crazy person in town for calling the cops out on her first night.

  With a renewed sense of confidence, Elizabeth threw open the bedroom door. She stepped into the hallway, looking around suspiciously.

  She heard something creaking downstairs. It might have been floor boards, it might have been nothing. Frowning, Elizabeth started down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she unlocked her phone. She typed a “9-1” into the keypad. If someone was in the house, she’d only have to hit one more number to call.

  Elizabeth went into the hallway that led into the kitchen. She could no longer hear the creaking. That relieved her a bit. Placing her hand on the door, she pushed it open hard. If someone was standing behind it, they were going to feel that.

  She was not surprised to find that the room was empty. Elizabeth chastised herself for being ridiculous. She stopped when she noticed something odd on the counter.

  Propped neatly on the edge of the kitchen counter was a toy monkey. Elizabeth thought it was probably the ugliest thing that she had ever seen in her entire life. As she drew closer, she saw that it had once been brown. Now it was losing fur in patches, revealing a filthy, faded body. Its eyes were black buttons sitting on top a wide, flat nose. It had two overly large ears poking awkwardly from the side of its head. It appeared to be smirking at her. It was even uglier up close.

  Elizabeth’s lip curled in disgust. She got a roll of paper towels and a plastic bag. Holding the roll in her left hand, she awkwardly swiped the ugly doll into the bag. Then she unlocked the back door and carried the bag to the burn barrel. She dropped the bag in with an unceremonious crinkle. She did not want to look at that doll again.

  As she made her way back upstairs, Elizabeth tried to come up with a rational thought for why the doll was even in the house. She knew it had not been there earlier. So the doll mixed with the strange sounds….

  Elizabeth settled back into bed, trying to put the ideas out of her head. No one had broken into the home of a single woman only to put a creepy doll on the counter. She must have missed it. Or someone had dropped it off while she was out.

  She fell back into a troubled sleep with the thought of the creepy monkey burned into her brain.

  “Good morning!” Rick was standing on the other side of the door, looking ridiculously cheerful. Elizabeth wished that she could extend the same sentiments. She hadn’t slept well after the monkey incident. A hundred thoughts raced through her brain; none of them did much to calm her down.

  Rick appeared to notice, for he frowned.

  “Everything ok?”

  “I, uh.” Don’t tell him; he’ll think you’re crazy. “I’m just tired, that’s all.”

  “Well, you’ll sleep tonight.” Rick turned. Behind him was an older man in a pair of worn overalls. The man’s hair was gray, but his eyes were blue like Rick’s. His son had obviously gotten his tall, strong build from his father. He offered her his hand.

  “Ma’am,” he nodded. “Nice to meet you. I’m Philip Turner. Sorry I missed you yesterday.”

  “Oh, it’s fine.” Elizabeth shook the man’s hand. “Are you a Phil or a Philip?”

  “I’ll respond to either,” he said with a wink. “You met my son Rick. This is my other son, Daniel.”

  Daniel had his brother’s dark good looks, but did not look as friendly. Elizabeth gave him a bright smile and offered her hand nonetheless.

  “My pleasure,” the other man mumbled.

  “We’ll be getting started. You want the carpet up first so we can do the floors?” Philip asked.

  “I heard that we should refinish them last. Is that true?” Elizabeth didn’t claim to know the first thing about redoing old houses.

  “That’s it.” Rick gave her another of his sweet smiles. “No use it doing it over.”

  “We’ll get the carpet up and out. And we’ll start checking the plaster. That’ll be the biggest job. Have you hired an electrician?” Philip paused a few steps into the house.

  “I found a great recommendation,” Elizabeth assured him. She figured if Philip knew everyone in this town, she could vouch for the particular man’s credits.

  “That’s great.” Philip motioned the other two men into the house. “All right, boys, let’s get going.”

  Elizabeth was pleased that the men seemed to know what they were doing. She’d heard too many times of women getting ripped off by contractors. In this case, she couldn’t imagine that it would happen. Philip had known her grandmother for years, and he’d taken care of the house for just as long. He’d never rip off one of her family members.

  Elizabeth let the men handle the hard stuff. She set to spraying the wallpaper so she could start tearing it down, finding that it wasn’t terrible work. She found the process satisfying, peeling long strips from the wall. Slowly, the walls beneath began to become visible.

  She’d gotten a good bit done when she heard a voice calling to her. Moving into the kitchen where the men were working, she found Rick standing at the door.

  “What is it?”

  “Did you know this was here?” Rick was pointing to an open door. But there had been no door there earlier.

  “What on earth?”

  “Looks like it’s the door to the cellar. Connects into the servants’ stairs.” Philip was leaning in the doorway, looking up. Elizabeth looked. Sure enough, a twisting staircase led up and out of sight.

  “But my grandmother never said anything about it.”

  “She probably didn’t know,” Philip explained. “She might have had an idea about it, bu
t we just got the latch uncovered.”

  “Good thing.” Daniel was leaning against the counter. “Anyone could have come walking in here.”

  “Daniel.” Philip shot a harsh look over his shoulder. Daniel ignored his father.

  “It’s true. Those stairs connect down to the basement. Probably an outside door somewhere. Anyone could have walked in.”

  “There’s no need to scare her.” Rick gave his brother a harsher look than their father had done.

  “I’m not trying to scare her.” Daniel wiped his hands on his pants. “I’m trying to be honest.” He turned, walking outside. Rick glared after him for a moment.

  “Sorry about that.”

  “No one could have gotten that door open,” Philip offered. “The latch appeared to be stuck good.” Elizabeth forced a tight smile.

  “Of course. I didn’t imagine that someone would just come walking in. I mean, this is a safe town, right?”

  “Of course. And I’m right outside all night.” Philip’s warm voice and smile made her feel better. Elizabeth nodded.

  “That’s what I thought. I better get back to my wallpaper.”

  She left the men in the kitchen. She gave the wallpaper precisely another half hour of work before she decided that she was getting nowhere. Looking outside, she chose to walk the grounds.

  The house wasn’t on a lot of land, but they’d saved the outbuildings. The barn had been torn down years before. Now there was only a shed, the two small houses, a chicken coop, and the well. Elizabeth went to sit on the edge of the well. She studied the stone walls where they disappeared into blackness. Anything could fall down there, and no one would ever know.

  “Anyone call you Lizzie?” a man’s voice startled her. Elizabeth turned, finding Daniel crossing the grass to her.

  “No.” Elizabeth felt a bit awkward. “Why do you ask?” Daniel shrugged.

  “Just asking. The only Lizzie that I ever think of is Lizzie Borden. You know, ‘Lizzie Borden took an axe?’”

  “I’m familiar.” The man was just plain strange. Elizabeth couldn’t believe the difference between the two brothers. Daniel watched her.

  “Just a kids’ song.” He glanced back to the house. “You know, Fall River isn’t too far from here. They turned Lizzie’s house into a bed and breakfast too.”

  “Good to know.” Elizabeth replied blandly.

  “They never proved Lizzie did anything. It was the O.J. of her time.” Daniel waited for a response; Elizabeth didn’t have one. Why was this stranger was discussing axe murderers with her?

  “Why did you mention someone coming into the house?” Their earlier conversation still unnerved her a bit. Not that she wasn’t already. Last night was still hanging in her mind.

  “Woman alone…you can never be too careful.” Daniel started towards the house. “Bad things happen in small towns too.”

  He went back into the house, leaving her alone. Despite the warm sun, Elizabeth felt a chill. She was not a fan of Daniel’s. Not at all.

  It was after five when the men were finishing up. Elizabeth had gone upstairs to rearrange some of her clothes, as well as think about what she wanted for dinner. She’d been eating out since coming to town, and it was getting tiresome. But Philip had promised to install her stove as soon as it was delivered, so hopefully it wouldn’t be much longer.

  “Hey,” there was a soft knock on the door. Elizabeth turned to see Rick in the hallway. “Sorry for being so forward.”

  “Oh, please,” Elizabeth gestured around her. “There’s hardly anything you shouldn’t see up here. Besides it’s not even my bedroom since I’ll be living in the guest house out back.”

  She felt like she was babbling, but he didn’t seem to care.

  “Well good.” Rick took a step forward. “I was going to run home and clean up, but I thought maybe you might want to grab some dinner with me.”

  He was asking her out? It was entirely too good to be true. Elizabeth felt the pang of butterflies in her stomach. Rick grinned at her.

  “I wasn’t thinking much. Not that this town has a ton to offer. You like bar food? There’s a place not far away that has great burgers.” Elizabeth finally let her smile spread across her face.

  “I think that sounds wonderful.”

  “Great.” She thought she imagined that Rick’s smile was getting bigger. “How long do you need? I can be back in an hour.”

  “That’s perfect”.

  Rick nodded, “Then I’ll be back.”

  Elizabeth reminded herself that she was too old to be giddy over a man asking her out. But she was just that. Instead, she hushed the little voice and reminded herself that if a man had her this excited, it had to be good.

  She showered while deciding what to wear. He’d said a bar, so she wouldn’t do more than jeans. She rummaged through the few clothes she had, finally settling on a blue, denim shirt and some dark jeans. It was still cool at night, so she found one of the pairs of brown boots she’d packed in case of bad weather. She put those on and deemed herself ready.

  She’d just headed downstairs with her purse when she heard a noise on the front porch. A heavy thud immediately followed it. Elizabeth frowned; the noise annoyed more than frightened her. Squaring her shoulders, Elizabeth yanked open the door.

  She had expected a stray cat, maybe a raccoon at the most. But that wasn’t what she found. Instead, a large rock sat on the porch. It appeared to have been dropped there rather than thrown. It had a piece of paper attached to it with gray duct tape. Elizabeth reached for it. Scrawled on the paper in large, childish print were the words

  Look in Back

  Elizabeth was annoyed. If this was someone’s type of joke, she was not entertained. She was entirely too old to handle a game of ‘harass the new person in town.’ She was not going to give someone the satisfaction.

  Just as she was about to slam the door shut, she heard something hit hard enough on the back door to rattle the glass pane. It wasn’t quite a knock, more of a splat. It sounded wet, heavy. Now Elizabeth froze.

  She was truly frightened now. She stood rigid for a moment. Her blood thrummed in her ears. Elizabeth slowly let out her breath.

  Now she had to go and see.

  Elizabeth inched down the hallway to the back of the house. Something was running down the glass. Biting her lip, Elizabeth pulled open the door. A scream instantly rose in her throat and she stepped back.

  Blood was streaming down the door. On the concrete stoop were the remnants of….something. Elizabeth couldn’t identify it. She noticed bits of fur sticking in the disgusting mess.

  “Elizabeth!” The voice was accompanied by the sounds of feet thudding through the house. Suddenly Rick was behind her. His hands were gripping her upper arms. He made a sound of disgust, pulling her away from it.

  “What the hell?”

  “I….” Elizabeth closed her eyes. Her stomach rolled. “The note….” Rick was pulling the paper out of her hand.

  “What kind of sick bastard would do this?” He was staring at the mess on the ground. Elizabeth took a deep breath, easing her eyes open.

  “What…what was it?”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Rick turned her away from the mess. “Go sit down. I’ll clean it up.”

  Elizabeth listened to the sounds of the clean up as she sat on the stairs, her head rested on her knees. She wondered just what someone was trying to pull. She didn’t know anyone in this town. Her grandmother still had friends in town, but she couldn’t imagine that a group of eighty-year-olds were capable of anything like this.

  “Ok,” Rick appeared in the hallway. He was wiping off his hands on a paper towel. “Dead rabbit is gone. You still feel up for dinner?”

  Elizabeth stared at him. If he was joking, she didn’t find it funny. Rick apparently sensed it. He smiled awkwardly.

  “Sorry, bad choice of words. If you don’t want to go out tonight, I’ll understand, but I think that you should. You need to get out of here for a bit.”


  “Who would do such a thing?” Elizabeth asked as she took to her feet. “And why?” Rick shrugged.

  “I have no idea. We’re not a town that is known for this kind of crazy.”

  “If this is someone’s idea of a hazing, I’m not entertained.” Elizabeth followed him to a bright-blue truck that was parked on the street. He opened her door for her.

  “Honestly, I can’t imagine anyone in town doing this.” He closed the door and went around, getting into the driver’s side. Elizabeth leaned back in the seat, taking a deep breath. She knew he was right. It was better for her to get out than sit in the house thinking about what had happened.

  Rick started the engine. He pulled the truck onto the street, immediately pausing at a red light.

  “I don’t know how much you’ve seen of this town,” he changed the subject, “but it doesn’t have a very happening nightlife. Now if you like cafes and coffee shops, it’s got those.”

  “I’ve noticed.” Elizabeth was calmed by the change in topic. “I did walk down to a couple.” Rick started through the now green light.

  “I'm partial to Mocha Bean myself. You can smell it before you hit it.”

  They kept up the small talk as they drove a few more blocks. Rick pulled the truck into a corner parking lot. He got out, immediately coming around to open her door again. Elizabeth decided that she could get used to this treatment; her ex had never been much of the gentleman type. This was a refreshing change.

  It was truly a bar in every sense. It was dimly lit with a pool table settled behind a half wall on the far right side. An old jukebox sat in one corner. The bar was a dark mahogany with cheaply covered stools in a line beside it. The wide open space between it and the door was dotted with small, black, iron tables in clusters of one or two with two or four chairs around them. Elizabeth was surprised to notice that most of them were full. She hadn’t expected such a crowd in a small town.

  Rick lead her to a table near the wall. She settled into one of the chairs. The room smelled like fried food and beer.

  Rick produced two menus from the metal holder on the table. He offered one to her. She took it, perusing the bar foods.