Page 24 of Devils and the Dead
Lonnie? You still there?
I’d forgotten to respond to Rita.I’ll be there in thirty, I told her. I’d be cutting it a bit close getting to work tonight, but I needed to know what Rita had seen.
Probably a zombie in a sheet peeking through the kitchen window.
“I’m sorry, Babylon.” Maude tilted her head as she looked back up at me. “I didn’t get a chance to really look around when you brought me back and I wanted to see my home. I wanted to visit the graves of my family. And...and I wanted to see the great granddaughter that I’d never been able to meet.”
“It’s okay.” I patted her arm reassuringly. “Next time you want to go visit, let me know. I’ll drive you and act as a lookout. And maybe we can get you a black sheet or something to wear so you don’t stand out as much.”
“I will. Thank you for understanding.” She smiled.
I quickly showered and changed into my work clothes, then drove out to Rita’s. As I pulled down the long gravel lane leading to the farmhouse, I saw the place in a different light. I’d been here so many times for parties, barbeques, and just to visit, but now I tried to view the farm through Maude’s eyes. She’d married her high school sweetheart. He’d driven her down this same lane, to this very same house. She’d sat in the passenger seat, excited to be building a life with her husband, and probably nervous over her new role as a farmer’s wife. I envisioned laundry swinging in the breeze on the line that still stretched from the corner of the house to a giant oak. That oak had probably been a lot smaller when Maude had first arrived. The laundry would have been dresses, sheets, overalls, and unmentionables, then in a few years it would have also had tiny baby clothes. She’d sewn, crocheted, cooked, raised a family. She’d helped in the fields when hands had been short and the work urgent. She’d socialized with other farm wives, church folk, the people in town.
She’d won a blue ribbon at the state fair with her peach crumble.
To some people it might seem like a dull life, but I saw it as a rich and wonderful experience. Home. Family. Maude had built her world around those two things, and she’d been more than satisfied. I only hoped she’d be just as satisfied with round two.
I hoped I could provide her with a round two.
Parking over near Rita’s truck, I got out and made my way to the front door. The steps creaked as I climbed, their treads worn with more than a century of traffic. Rita opened the door before I had a chance to knock and ushered me inside, offering me tea or a soda. I declined, following her into the kitchen.
“So…a ghost?” I asked, knowing I couldn’t stay long.
She nodded. “A couple of nights ago. I couldn’t sleep and saw a white figure in the family graveyard. At first I thought I was imagining things. The bonfire party was crazy fun with the corn maze and everyone dressed up as monsters and demons. I figured it was all still on my mind, or that maybe I was thinking about Halloween and mistook a plastic bag blowing around as a ghost. But it was bigger than a plastic bag. I could tell that when it went by the hay rake.”
Maude in a sheet. How the heck was I going to explain this one? “A white garbage bag?” I asked. “It was kinda windy the other night. I could see one of those blowing around and looking like a ghost, especially without much of a moon to see by.”
“That’s what I ended up deciding it was. I was still wide awake so I went downstairs and got a drink of water from the kitchen then went into the dining room. When I looked back, I saw the white thing by the kitchen window. I tell you, Lonnie, it about scared the pee out of me.”
“The plastic garbage bag?” I suggested. I definitely needed to get Maude a black sheet if she intended on continuing this sort of nighttime prowling. The white one was far too visible.
Rita shook her head. “It wasn’t. I saw it clearly since it was so close. Lonnie, I swear to you it was someone in a sheet. I was getting ready to call for Ralph to wake up and to go grab the shotgun, thinking there was some intruder getting ready to break into the house, but then it reached out to touch the window, and the person-in-a-sheet didn’t have a normal hand. It was like a skeleton hand, except not totally bone. Bone with grayish skin stretched tight over it.”
“It was late, a cloudy night with not much moon,” I countered. “Are you sure it just wasn’t a plastic bag that blew up against the window from the field? Maybe a branch got caught in it, and that’s what you saw.”
She frowned. “There was a bit of light from the porch because we always leave that on, but I didn’t think about it being a branch. Maybe it was a branch. There’s a forsythia bush just outside that kitchen window. Maybe the trash bag got snagged on it, and that’s what I saw. Although I swear it looked like a person and a bony finger.”
“It was late, you were tired, and it was dark,” I assured her. “I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen something at night that looked like a ghost, or a werewolf, or a vampire.”
Theywereghosts, werewolves, and vampires, but Rita didn’t need to know that.
“You’re probably right,” she admitted. “Still, is there something you can do to check for ghosts or hauntings or something? Sweep the house and maybe the graveyard? It’s not just the sheet-person from the other night. Aunt Edna called last week absolutely convinced that my great grandmother had risen from the grave.”
I caught my breath. I’d never met Edna, but Maude would have beenhergrandmother. This Edna was probably in her late fifties or early sixties. If she was any younger than that she’d have no real memory of her Aunt Maude.
“Aunt Edna was sixteen when my great grandmother died, but she definitely remembers her. I’d believe it if she said she’d seen a ghost or something, but this risen-from-the-grave story is freaky and so unlike her.”
I tried to calm my heart rate. “Did you ask her why she thought her grandmother was back?”
Rita nodded. “She saw her. She was very fond of my great grandmother. From what I’ve heard, everyone just adored her—kids, grandkids, dogs, cats. Everybody. She won a blue ribbon at the State fair for her peach crumble.”
“She saw her?” I thought for a second. “Maybe your aunt ran across a picture or some belonging she’d inherited and was subconsciously thinking about Maude? Maybe she had a really vivid dream about her.”
“Maybe, but Aunt Edna has always claimed to be sensitive to the paranormal. Growing up she was always telling us tales about haunted places she’d visited, and how things had moved on the shelves or how she’d hear footsteps when no one was home. She’d never claimed that someone rose from the grave, though.”
“She really believes your great grandmother visited her?” I clearly needed to have a talk with my roomie about her late-night wanderings.
Rita nodded. “She claims to have seen her about four days ago, right before she called me. Aunt Edna said that my great grandmother appeared one night after she’d dozed off watching TV. She was a little disoriented when she woke up, and told the ghost she wished she had that crumble recipe because it had been lost about thirty years ago. She nodded off again, and when she woke and went into the kitchen, there was the recipe written on a notepad by the stove.”
