Midsummer's Eve (32 page)

“Looks t
hat way, doesn’
t it?” Teri smiled
seemingly unconcerned.

“Can w
e just leave? You see it’
s getting dark,”
Mallory
beseeched. “
Who kno
ws what he’
s going to do
next. And can we walk on the road this time and not go through the woods?”

“Anything to make you happy, precious!” Teri giggled, running over to give
Mallory
a bear hug. “It makes my day to see a smile on that little cherub face
with those fat cheeks
.”

“You are a bitch from the bowels of hell, Teri.”

Back at the cabin everyone was ravenous, so I poured charcoal on the grill and lit it, my mind drifting in a thousand different directions. Twice I had been caught in violent storms and once had been attacked by a swarm of near fatal bugs. It was entirely possible that I now had a concussion to add to my growing list of injuries. But this latest storm had definitely been the most
severe. It seemed the child had
tired of playing games and was rather insistent on making a point. But what
that point was
I didn’t have a clue.

Teri was slathering barbecue sauce o
n chicken when she turned to me.
“You know he is not going to let it rest until he shows you what he is so determined for you to see.”

“Shows me
what?
Could someone please tell me what it is we are looking for? And if not, could we at least change the subject for all of five minutes?”

“I’ve been thinking,” s
he continued, ignoring my outburst.

“Oh, just what we need! For you to f
reaking
brainstorm!”

“Excuse me?”

“Just tell me.”

“Okay. He knew we would go inside the house when the storm came. I think wha
tever
he wants us to find is inside the Buttercup House.”

“Almond House,” I said, correcting her. “And I think he was just pissed
about the
flowers and that’s why he sent the storm.”

Mallory
and
Tammy
were slicing vegetables for the salad.
Mallory
’
s hands were trembling so
badly that I prayed she wouldn’
t add a chunk of meaty finger to the vegetarian dish.

“This is not happening.”
Mallory
fretted. “I mean I saw it with my own eyes, but things like this happen in movies not in real life. My head is throbbing. I am bruised, swollen and scratched all over and look at you,
Eve
. You have so many bug bites and stings you look like you have chicken pox. If we tell anybody what happe
ned, they are going to think we’
re crazy and commit us all.”

“Amen,”
Tammy
agreed wholeheartedly with her assessment. “I
juth
want to go home and forget
thith
night ever happened.
Eve
,
will you take me home tonight
?”

“Yes.”

“Me too.”
Mallory
was quick to add.

“You two are totally pathetic.” As was most often the case,
Teri was unable to keep her pie
hole shut.

“I would rather be pathetic and alive than a crazy ass bitch and dead any day,”
Mallory
was only too happy to inform her.

After the meal
Mallory
and
Tammy
piled their belongings back into the truck. Teri had convinced me to spend the night and discover what the child was so determined to show me.

Good Lord, I was tired of hearing t
hat! I turned the switch on Dad’
s truck, tempted just to go home and crawl in my bed. Nothing happened!
Oh shit! I tried again.
“It’
s dead,” I said anticipating
Mallory
's screams and covering my ears in advance.

“He is not going to let us leave
, is he?
” she bellowed, reaching in her bag for her ce
ll phone. “He won’
t rest until we’
re all dead!“ Then her shrieks turned into a full fledged wailing and gnashing of teeth. “Oh my God, there is no signal! How are we going to get home? I am not spending the night in these w
oods with that evil little ghoul
!”

Checking our phones we found that none of us had a signal. “Then I guess you will have to walk,” Teri said
,
ignoring
Mallory
’s keening, as she calmly opened the door and got out of the truck.

“You know Teri, you are really starting to
get on my frigg
ing nerves!”
Mallory
snap
ped, jumping out of the truck. “
If we get out of this alive, I hope I never have to see your fake ass again.”

“Oh, you’
ll see me. Next time your cheap ass wants a free haircut.”

Mallory
turned several shades of red and raced toward Teri, calling her a few choice words in the process. When she got close enough Teri sidestepped, gave
Mallory
a little shove and sent her plunging headfirst into the river.

Laughing,
Tammy
and I jumped into the river with her. It was the only way we had to wash the dried blood from our skin and, plus, it felt heavenly in the
late
July
heat. I asked the diva to throw us a bar of soap knowing full well
she wasn’
t about to step one pedicured toe into the river water. I glanced up once and saw her using bottled water and paper towels to daintily scrub her porcelain skin.

We swam upriver allowing the current to carry us back down and cool
Mallory
off. “I wonder if we’
ll make it through this night alive?”
Mallory
whispered.

“Don’
t think about it,”
Tammy
said. “
Juth
don't think about it. With four of
uth
, hopefully there it
h
thaf
e
ty
in
numberth
.”

“Safety in numbers…
right,”
Mallory
mumbled. She
was quiet, for once, as we
crawled up the bank and
dried off. She might have been bruised, swollen and ter
rified as all hell, nonetheless it didn’
t stop her from scarfing down two more pieces of barbequed chicken and another baked potato. “Swimming a
lways makes me hungry,” she informed us
,
noisily
licking b
arbecue sauce from her fingers.

The rest of us nibbled at the remaining food as we listened to the night critters beginning to stir. Minks and muskrats scurried down the riverbank searching for their evening meal of delectable muscles. Fish jumped playfully and plopped back in the river. An owl hooted from the tree above us. And something was making an awful commotion as it raced through the nearb
y woods. Hopefully, it was a raccoon
. At any rate, we hastily decided that it was late and time to turn in.

It was evident that
Mallory
and
Tammy
were either really scared or really pissed off as they both presented us their backs and pretended to sleep.

Teri and I climbed into the bottom bunks and eyeing me curiously she said, “You know,
Eve
, I have noticed a remarkable change in you recently.”

“What do you mean?” I was snuggling down under the cover to get comfortable.

“I don’t know. I can’
t really put my finger on it, but you seem
more relaxed and
calmer than you
normally are. Actually, you don’
t seem like the nervous bundle of energy that I’ve known for the last 15 years at all. You know how stressed you always were. How you bounced from one drama to the next, falling in love with every man who looked sideways at you. It appears that the imbecile falling in love with another woman was the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“It probably was the best thing that ever happened to me. Visiting a hypnotist didn’t hurt either.”

“A
hypnotith
?”
Tammy
gasped. She and
Mallory
were wide-awake now, sitting up in bed and stunned by the fact that I had kept such a revelation from them. “When did you go to a
hypnotith
?”

So I told them about my visit to Marilyn and how I had floated to this very spot on a magic carpet.

“I had noticed a change in you too,”
Mallory
said. “But I just assumed it was because you weren’t having to deal with
Adam
’
s bullshit anymore.”

“How much
doth the
charge? What
ith
her phone number?”

“$60.00 an hour and worth every penny. But she gave me a coupon for a free visit at a Chamber meeting. I thi
nk you should all go see her if for nothing more than help
dealing with your intense hatred of innocent vegetables. Remind me to give you each one of her cards when we get home.”

“
If
we make it home.”
Mallory
said. “And the Amazing Kreskin coul
dn’t convince me to eat a cucumber
.”

Teri sat quietly watching me. “You remember
ed
something while you were hypnotized didn’t
you,
Eve
?”

“Yes.” I took a deep breath trying to m
uster the courage to relive
it. “It took about two weeks, but memories that I had kept buried deep inside have returned, along with bits and pieces of my childhood. I remember birth
days now, Christmas morning,
my first day of school
, and being sexually abused as a child
.”

Teri nonchalantly wiped a tear from her cheek. “I
always thought that something bad must have happened in your childhood for you to have suppressed all your memories. I
pray that I n
ever come face to face with the
bastard
that abused you
.”

“That’s all behind me now.
” I had no desire to travel down that road again. “
And honestly, I feel like a new w
oman. Like a tremendous load has
been lifted from my shoulder
s. At least, I did until all
this weird stuff started happening. If the man of my dreams c
omes along, fine. If not, that’
s fine too. Being alone doesn’
t terrify me anymore.”

“Well, right no
w I am terrified enough for
both of us.”
Mallory
said, showing us her ample backside again.

“Wel
l girls, it’s almost midnight and m
y fake ass needs
some
beauty sleep,” Teri said pointedly to
Mallory
’
s back
, but
Mallory
refused to acknowledge the comment. “Do you
want me to turn off the lanterns
?”

“Do you want to lose a finger?”
Mallory
snapped, flipping over and raising up on an elbow to glare at her.

Surprisingly, Teri only chuckled and left the lanterns on. I had to giggle as I envisioned
Mallory
tackling Teri to the floor if she trie
d to extinguish one of the two
blazing lanterns that bathed the room in a soft glow.

“What
h
tho
funny?”

“Oh, nothing.” I yawned loudly. “Good night
.
”

The next morning I was jerked roughly
from a p
leasant dream of Robert Pattinson
(
so what if he’s t
o
o young for me it was just a freaking dream!
)
by the most God awful, bloodcurdling screams I had ever heard. Immediately, I felt all the breath forced from my lungs in a painful “whoosh” as
Mallory
lan
ded square on my back
and scurried under the cover to lay whimpering and trembling beside me. She proceeded to jerk the cover off me as she pulled it over her head. What now?

I was still struggling to force air back into my lungs when I heard, “
Thweet Jethu
th
!”

I sat up and gasped,
looked around the room and took
deep breaths to still my racing heart.
Sweet Jesus was right!

Every glass, cup, bowl, pot and pan in the cabin was filled to overflowing with exquisite buttercups, and scattered around the room. The makeshift vases sat on the table, on the wood stove, on top of the refrigerator and stove, and on every chair.

I had brought a pack of twenty red plastic disposable cups. They were now filled with stunning arrangements of buttercups and lined in perfect little rows on the windowsills, even the windowsills behind our beds.
I shivered involuntarily realizing that he
had to climb over our beds to get to those wind
owsills
.

“He was in
here last night! With us! Wasn’
t he?”
Mallory
’s muffled wail rose from under the covers.

“I believe that would be an accurate assessment.” I had to agree.

“Why are you so scared?” Teri chirped, laughing and spinning gaily around the room. “I think it was a sweet gesture. And aren’t they the most beautiful flowers you
ever
did see
?”

“I thought you detested flowers?” I reminded her.

“Not anymore.”

“
Honeth
to God, Teri,”
Tammy
screeched barely poking her head out from under the cover. “You are a
certifiable
nut cathe
. You
thould
be locked up and
adminithered
weekly
thock
therapy.”

With an agitated frown, Teri waited for me to interpret her words.

“You
’re a nut case and
should be
locked up and
administered hourly shock therapy,” I translated.

“Don’t ad lib,
Eve
. She couldn’t have said weekly any plainer.” Then she glanced at
Tammy
and said, “Or you could grow a spine.”

“So Teri,” I asked scared out of my wits, but hoping to diffuse the argument before they pounced on her. “In your lofty opinion, what does this mean?”

“Well, that’
s obvious to anyone with half a brain.”

“What about those of us with a whole brain?”

“He likes us.” She marveled, waving her arms and still spinning aro
und the floral room. “This can
only be taken as a grand gesture of affection.”

“Affection my ass! He likes us all right!”
Mallory
yelped. “A near death experience from a head injury was tangible proof of that!”

“And,” Teri continued, choosing to ignore
Mallory
’s tirade entirely, “he is also confirming that my observation last night was correct. Whatever he wants to show us has something to do with the Buttercup House, hence the buttercups.”

I didn’
t bother to correct her anymore. “Dare I ask what you think he wants us to do next?”

“Go to the Buttercup House, of course.”

“Of course. Please forgive my obvious brain fart.”

“Well, I’
m going home,”
Mallory
announced with no small amount of conviction and finally removed the cover from her head. Although, she kept her e
yes squeezed shut so she wouldn’
t have to look at the flowers. “Teri, you can follow that little demon straight back to hell if you want to, but I am going home. Are you coming with me
Tammy
?”

“You better believe I am!”

“Are you coming,
Eve
?”

“No, I guess I’
m going back to the Buttercup Ho
use. But I have to warn you. It’
s a long walk out and it gets a little spooky in the cornfields.”

“I don’
t care how long the walk is or how spooky it gets,”
Mallory
said leaping from the bed to
the door in a single bound. “I’
m going home
before he turns me into a
buttercup! Do you want me to send your dad back for you?”
Then, s
he looked at Teri and snapped, “You can stay here and rot for all I care.”

“Huh!” Teri chortled. “If anything rots it will be the area between your legs with the vast array of semen it soaks in.”

“You’
re a fine one to talk.”
Mallory
sneered. “At least I’m not married.”

Even Teri didn’t have a comeback for that.

“Yes,” I quickly said, “ask him to ride down later and check on us.”

Tammy
almost reached out to touch one of the beautiful flowers, thought better of it, and joined
Mallory
on the stairs.

“If you see the child ask him what he wants,” Teri call
ed
as we followed them outside. “Sylvia Browne says if you see a spirit just ask what it wants and it will show you.”

Mallory
gave Teri a murderous glare and stormed down the stairs with
Tammy
close on her heels.

“Do you think they’
ll be okay?” I asked
, watching them trudge
up the long, dusty road.

“Oh yeah, it’s you he’
s after. He knows those two are useless.”

“Gee, thanks.
I feel much better now.
”

We fried bacon and eggs and made coffee. Thankfully, I had remembered to b
r
ing Coffee Mate
. I