"ENRAGED" - A Short Story Thriller by Miss Cheyenne Mitchell
It was nearly the end of Summer in Gatewood, the town where I live. The rose bushes planted in almost every other yard were in full bloom as well as beautiful. There were red, white, pink, and yellow ones. Tall, lovely Elm and Fir trees lined the idyllic streets, and there were Weeping Willows.
Every house stood by itself. Often I marveled at the well-kept lawns, and white, picket fences around their periphery. I heard the population was 8,000 people. However, it seemed like more people were living there than that.
People who lived in Gatewood kept to themselves unless there was trouble in the quiet purlieu. At the beginning of the Summer there was. Five members of the community were murdered. I would never forget it because it was the same year I was to start a new job as a Teacher.
I was going to be an English Teacher in the evenings at the local high school. I would be teaching adults who couldn't read very well, and help them get their high school Diplomas
I was looking out of my window enjoying a gentle, warm breeze as it brushed against my face. "Elisabeta, are you awake yet?" It was my Landlady calling to me from outside the door of my room. "Yes, Miss Alice," I answered her. "Well," she said, "you better come downstairs for dinner. It's almost six o'clock." "Alright, Miss Alice," I replied smiling.
Alice Redding was a very nice, elderly woman who had mixed-gray hair, dark, brooding eyes, and a pale complexion. She was medium height, and a little stout. She had been a widow for ten years she told me. When I first met her we hit it off right away so I rented a room from her.
My mother, and I moved here during the Spring. We were living here for two months when I applied for the teaching position. It wasn't easy for me. I hated to tell anybody what I had to go through to get the job.
We moved into our own home months before the terror that occurred at the beginning of the Summer. When it was over I ended up moving in with Miss Alice. I could've left Gatewood, but I chose to stay, and ride out the scandal. As I stood by the window I thought about the five people who were brutally murdered.
The first, and most prominent person was a woman named, Mildred Hedgrow. An elderly woman almost seventy five years old when she was killed. She was a very important member of the School Board that eventually hired me. And the only member who gave me a hard time.
The other members were more than satisfied with my credentials, but for some reason she wasn't. She wasn't satisfied with my references either. They weren't many I had only been teaching for a little less than a year.
The other members of the School Board didn't need to verify my references. They were ready to hire me on the spot. In a small town like Gatewood Teachers were not plentiful. The pay wasn't that great either. Mrs. Hedgrow stopped them from hiring me. For some reason the woman took an instant disliking to me, and she didn't even know me.
At first I couldn't understand why she didn't like me. Some time after that I found out why. She told a friend of hers' from Maywell, a nearby town, about the job. She was another Teacher who was looking for work. Mrs. Hedgrow wanted her to have the job, and nobody else.
Mrs. Hedgrow was a good looking woman for her age. Believe it or not she could easily have passed for a woman in her fifties. She was fairly tall with long, white hair and ugly, piercing, blue eyes. You could tell by the texture of her skin she used a lot of skin creams, and oils but very little makeup. It was obvious to everybody she hated growing old. "Maybe she is jealous of my youth," I thought.
There was a lot of gossip around town about her. People thought it was a shame how Mrs. Hedgrow wanted to stay young so badly. As far as that goes who didn't want to stay young? Personally, I thought she should just get over it, and grow old gracefully. I wasn't alone in my thinking regarding her either. Obviously, it eluded her that it was a blessing to live to old age.
My hair is thick, medium-length, and jet black. I am dark-complexioned, tall, slender, and my eyes are light-brown. People thought I resembled my mother, but I didn't think so. I thought I looked a lot like my Dad. I am twenty eight years old, and have never been married or had any children. It was something my mother was always on my back about.
I wished my father was still alive. When my mother started getting on my nerves about getting married, and having babies he would come to my rescue. After that she would leave me alone about it........for a while that is. I wasn't interested in men for reasons of my own.
I was asked out on dates by a lot of guys. My mother saw each, and every one of them that liked me as a potential husband or steady boyfriend. She would say to me, "He seems like a nice fellow, Beta." Those were her favorite words. "You ought to be thinking about settling down," she would add. "You're not getting any younger you know."
"Will you please leave that girl alone, Magda," my Dad would tell her. "Let her run her own life, and stay out of her business." I thanked God for him. He was always able to get her off my back. My father was always on my side whenever my mother, and I were at odds with one another. He and I had a very close relationship, and his passing left a great void in my life. It affected my mother much worse than it did me. I would catch her looking sad with tears in her eyes, and I knew she was thinking about him. She missed him very much just as I did.
I was an only child, and somewhat spoiled I guess. My parents were in their early forties when I was born. They named me, Elisabeta Mary Lee, after my paternal grandmother. I only knew her briefly, because she died when I was six years old. I never knew any of my mother's relatives. She was orphaned when she was a small child. Then shuffled in, and out of nine foster homes until she was eighteen years old, she told me. She was a troubled child. I knew it had to have some kind of negative effect on her emotionally as well as mentally. Yet, if it did she hid it well from my father and I.
There were times when I was sure it must have affected her mind in some way. She would act so strangely, and staring blankly into space. My father and I would have to call to her four or five times before she heard us. She seemed to drift away from us. I recalled my Dad telling me she had been doing that ever since he knew her...long before they got married.
"I don't mean any harm, Miss Lee," Mrs. Hedgrow told me on the day I confronted her about the teaching position. We were in the grocery store at the time. "It's just that we have someone else in mind for that job," she continued. "Well," I replied, "I've lived in Gatewood for months, and I'm a very good Teacher. I think you should consider that."
"We'll look over your application, and credentials again," she promised me condescendingly. "But I don't want you to get your hopes up." After that she walked away from me without another word as I watched her angrily. I had a good job in my grasp, and one, fastidious, old lady was trying to hinder me because she didn't like that fact I was a young woman.
There was another member of the School Board named, Aaron Rosen. He was a tall, dark, handsome, middle-aged man who had lived in Gatewood all of his life. It was he who informed me about Mrs. Hedgrow wanting her friend from Maywell to have the teaching position instead of me. "As far as the rest of us are concerned, Miss Liee," he told me unequivocally, "the job is yours. But she has a lot of influence in this town having lived here for so long. You know how it is."
"Of course," I said smugly, holding my anger inside me. "Maybe she shouldn't be on the Board anymore. Did you ever think about that?" He smiled at me then walked away. I told my mother about Mrs. Hedgrow, and what Aaron Rosen told me. To my stupefied surprise she was more angry about the matter than I was.
"Somebody needs to do something about that old bag!" my mother spate when I told her. "How dare she try to stop you from getting that job! I hate people like that!" I had never seen my mother so envenomed before, and it disturbed me a little.
I knew where Mrs. Hedgrow lived as did everybody else in Gatewood. In my anger against her I decided to keep my eyes on her for a while. Each time I saw her I would get more angry with her. "I just can't believe she's doing this to me!" I thought one day as I watched her working in her rose garden.
My hands started to tremble a little, and I began to feel light-headed. I knew I needed to go home, and take my medication. I skipped it that morning after breakfast. My mother was always on my back about that, too.
"Please take your medicine every day like you're supposed to, Beta," she would tell me. "You know you need it so don't miss taking it. Please!" She especially stayed on me about it ever since we left Carpetin. The town where we lived for ten years, and moved away from during the Spring. People there were actually afraid of me. I knew behind my back they used to call me 'crazy Beta'. Two people were murdered when we lived there, and nobody knew who did it.
I had a slight problem controlling my anger at times. The medication I was taking was supposed to eliminate that problem. If I didn't take it the doctors told my mother I could become a nervous wreck, and maybe hurt somebody. I laughed about that, because I thought it was absurd. I never heard the doctors tell my mother that. It was something I only heard from her.
"Hurt somebody?!" I thought laughing to myself. I didn't consider myself to be a violent, or dangerous person. Although I did have violent thoughts sometimes, but who didn't? I felt my mother, and those doctors she told me about made my 'illness' out to be much more than it was.
My mother didn't think it was so funny after I attacked her once when we lived in Carpetin. All I ever had to go on was what she told me. I would black out, and when I came to I couldn't remember anything. I was so sick, and tired of taking pills every morning after breakfast. Pills I didn't think I really needed. Sometimes I felt as if I was locked in somewhat of a quagmire over it.
So one day I didn't take them. On the second day, and third day I didn't take them either. That's when it happened. As always my mother would tell me all about what happened.
"Don't forget, Beta," my mother said to me that morning. "You have to help me with some of the housework today." I was sitting at the kitchen table. I remember quietly getting up from the table, walking over to the kitchen sink, and picking up a butcher's knife. Then I followed her upstairs. She was in her bedroom making the bed when I walked up behind her with the knife in my hand. After that I couldn't recall a thing. The whole incident completely eluded me.
My mother told me I raised the knife over my head while her back was turned. She turned around just in time. Before she could stop me however I sliced her arm with the knife, she told me. She managed to wrestle the knife away from me she said. Then ran from the bedroom locking the door on me. "Let me out of here you crazy bitch!" I screamed through the closed bedroom door she said. A few minutes later the police, and an ambulance arrived. I couldn't recall doing any of what she told me.
I did recall three police officers who wrestled me to the floor of the bedroom, and put handcuffs on me. They put me on a stretcher, handcuffs and all, and took me to the hospital. After that I passed out completely. I was kept in the hospital for three days for observation at the request of my mother. She did have to have three stitches in her arm.
One of the police officers came to our house to talk to me about the incident. I was at home alone that day. "Beta," said the officer, "there's something strange about the incident that happened with your mother." "Oh?" I said curiously. "What is that?" "Well," he told me, "your fingerprints were not on the knife." It got me thinking, and I was as obfuscated as he was.
"How could I have held a knife in my hand, and my fingerprints were not on it?" I wondered. "So what are you going to do?" I asked the officer. "We're going to keep investigating this," he replied. That was the end of that. Neither I nor my mother ever heard anymore about it. If she did hear anything about it she never told me.
It all started after my father died. Neither my mother nor I knew what happened to cause my 'illness'. I was almost twenty three years old, and getting ready to graduate from college. My father wasn't feeling well one day. So I decided to stay home with him.
My mother went shopping that day. I had a lot of studying to do for my final exams. So I didn't mind staying home. My Dad was sitting in his favorite recliner watching television. I was sitting at the dining room table with my school books opened. Suddenly I heard him moaning.
When I looked over at him he had his eyes closed. I thought he was asleep. Then he started snoring. It was a loud, rattling sound. I did nothing thinking he was just sleeping. When his snoring abruptly stopped I paid no attention to it, and went back to my studies.
I was deep into my school work two hours later when my mother came home. As soon as she saw my father she knew something was wrong. "Oh, my God!" she cried aghast. "Beta, your father isn't breathing! What happened?! Oh, my God!" I was stunned, and I didn't know what to do.
"Call an ambulance!" cried my mother hysterically. "Why didn't you bother to check on him, Beta?! What the hell were you doing?!" I couldn't move or say a word, so she rushed to call for an ambulance. When the Paramedics arrived the confirmed my Dad had been dead for two hours. All I could do was scream. "I didn't know!" I cried grievously. "I didn't know! I thought he was just sleeping! Oh, Lord! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" He had a massive heart attack.
After that I slipped into deep depression I couldn't seem to shake. I felt that I was to blame for my father's death. And I felt that way for a very long time.
The doctors at the hospital gave me stronger, and stronger medication for my depression. It was so strong it made me feel like a zombie. It was around that time I started having the black outs. And after I came to I had hurt someone. That is according to what my mother told me, and the someone was her. I could never understand why I couldn't remember anything.
My mother told our neighbors about me when we lived in Carpetin. I gather it was the reason why people were afraid of me. I could never understand why she did that. It never occurred to me she wanted people to know about my 'illness'. When I asked her why she did it she said, "In case something happens to me." In my mind I thought it was best if people didn't know. But obviously she didn't think so.
My mother insisted the doctors continue to give me medication to quiet my nerves, even though I felt I didn't need it. They took me off of the pills for depression, and gave me other medicine to take every morning. It usually put me to sleep during the day. It was so strong, and I would be up at night. However, my mother felt I had my uncontrollable irascibility under control.
Personally, I never thought there was anything wrong with me. I stayed to myself, and rarely bothered with anyone. I began to feel better about my father's death, too. I didn't believe I needed any kind of medication whatsoever any longer. Yet, my mother for some reason kept insisting I did. And she would always get the pills for me. I hadn't seen a doctor in a long time.
Since I managed to control my anger with medication for four years I landed a teaching job. Although I had to have night work it presented no problem for me. There were plenty of people who were going to night school to get their Diplomas. When I stopped taking the medication again the black outs would return.
It wasn't long after the two murders that the people in Carpetin wanted us to leave. It wasn't hard to figure out they believed I had something to do with them which was ridiculous. My mother told me the School Board there promised to give me a good reference which they did. No one had to know about my past. I made up my mind to stay on my best behavior in Gatewood. Now one, old lady was trying to sabotage my career.
As I continued to watch Mrs. Hedgrow that day my anger at her grew, and grew. When she went inside her house I decided to pay her a visit. I walked across the street to her house, and rang the doorbell. She answered the front door, and saw it was me.
"Why, Miss Lee!" she exclaimed in surprise. "What brings you over here to see me?" "I was wondering if I could talk to you, Mrs. Hedgrow," I told her. She sighed ponderously. "Sure, hon," she replied. "You can come inside. But as I told you we have someone else in mind for that job." I entered her house.
Right away I noticed a big, sledge hammer laying on the table on on front porch. I remember thinking about picking it up, and putting it behind my back. "Why don't you have a seat?" she asked me, motioning to a chair in her living room. "Sure," I replied politely. "I'll get us a glass of iced tea," she continued. "I'm really sorry about the job, Miss Lee. You seem like such a nice, young girl. As soon as something else becomes available you'll be the first one to know about it. I promise."
"That's fine," I told her. "But I wanted this job." "Oh well," she said sweetly. "Like I said I'm really sorry." "So am I," I replied. I remembered standing with her in her kitchen as she prepared the two glasses of iced tea for us. Also, I recalled leaving her house, and going home. As soon as I got inside my house I took my pills. It was then I noticed the droplets of blood that were on the front of my blouse. I had no idea where they came from.
I was glad my mother wasn't at home. She would have seen them, and questioned me about them. I wouldn't have known what to say. Quickly I changed my clothes. I put my blood-stained blouse into the washing machine to wash it out. I was doing that when my mother came home.
"Beta, are you here?" she called to me. "Yeah, Mom," I said. "I'm downstairs in the basement." "My, Lord, girl!" she said. "What are you doing down there? I just washed clothes the other day. So you can't be washing clothes again." "Just a few minutes, Mom," I told her. We were having dinner that evening when we heard about Mrs. Hedgrow on the news. Somebody murdered her inside her home.
The Announcer on the news said she had been bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument. I was just as shocked by the news of her death as everybody else was. Still, my first thought was, "I'll bet I have that job now!" I believed the killer had inadvertently done me a favor. Needless to say, I received a telephone call from Aaron Rosen informing me I got the teaching position set to start in the Fall.
Everyone in Gatewood turned out for Mildred Hedgrow's funeral three days later. She had been highly respected. She had friends in high places, politically, too. One of them was the Head of the Chamber of Commerce, and his name was, Fletcher Handgrin. He, and Mrs. Hedgrow had been friends all of their lives, someone told me. Naturally, she told him about me. And how she didn't want me to have the teaching position. But when he tried to undermine my appointment he failed.
Another woman by the name of, Rutga Ames, was appointed to the School Board to take Mrs. Hedgrow's place. I knew Mrs. Ames. She was a kind, generous lady who had helped a lot of people in town find jobs. She was short, stout, fair-skinned with blue eyes, and red hair that was mixed with a little gray. She liked me, and I liked her. With her vote I was assured the teaching job. However, I couldn't forget how Fletcher Handgrin tried to stop me.
Fletcher Handgrin was a tall, skinny, ugly, fair-skinned man. He had a big knot on the tip of his nose that made hime look even uglier. And a bald spot in the top of his head that was always shining. I knew where he lived. However, I put off going to visit him for quite some time.
I started to take my pills faithfully with some urging from my mother. For a long time I wasn't as angry with Fletcher as I had been with Mrs. Hedgrow. It was just a matter of time before the day came when I stopped taking those pills again. And my anger at Fletcher grew stronger. I began to watch him as I had Mrs. Hedgrow.
I hadn't taken my medicine for three days when I stood across the street from Fletcher Handgrin's house one afternoon. I waited for hours because I didn't know if he was at home or not. I watched him drive down the street, and park his car in his driveway. I didn't know he had a car. He got out of the car, and went inside his house. About a half an hour later I was ringing his doorbell. He answered the door.
"Why, you much be Miss Lee," he said surprised. "What are you doing here?" "I would like to talk to you for a minute," I told him. "What about?" he asked me. "It's about the job at the school," I replied. "Don't you already have the job?" he asked me sarcastically. "Yes," I said. "But I would still like to talk to you about it." "I don't know why," he said curiously, "but come in." I entered his house.
"Have a seat," he told me walking toward his kitchen. "I'm fixing myself a T.V. dinner. You're welcome to have some if you're hungry. My wife left me three years ago so I have to fend for myself." "I see," I replied disintered. I sat down in a chair in his living room, and watched him as he moved around the kitchen.
"Can I use your bathroom, Mr. Handgrin?" I asked him. "Sure, hon," he said politely. "It's straight up the stairs, and to your right." I climbed the stairs toward his bathroom. I could feel my body trembling with anger. Once I was inside his bathroom I looked around just being nosy.
I searched his medicine cabinet, and saw a straight razor. I examined it as if I had never seen one before. I remembered thinking about putting the closed razor in my hand. After that I crept slowly back down the stairs. By that time Mr. Handgrin was sitting at his dining room table eating his T.V. dinner.
"Did you find it alright, hon?" he asked me referring to the bathroom. "Yes," I replied. "Well," he began, "why did you want to talk to me about a job you already have?" I hesitated as he continued to eat his dinner. I stood in his dining room next to where he was sitting. "You don't like me," I said. "Do you?" "What do you mean?" he asked me sincerely. "I have nothing against you, Miss Lee. I don't even know you." "Yes," I said."You don't, and it's because of Mrs. Hedgrow."
The next thing I knew my right hand was covered with blood. Mysteriously, I thought I saw the shadow of someone else out of the corner of my eye. But there was no one else there. The razor I was thinking about taking from the medicine cabinet was laying open in front of me on the floor covered with blood. I picked it up. Then quickly went into the kitchen.
I rinsed the razor off, and left it in the kitchen sink. I didn't know what happened, and I couldn't remember anything. I walked past Mr. Handgrin whose face was now in his plate of food, and left his house. My body was trembling because I was scared.
When I got home my mother wasn't there. But she came home a few minutes after I did. "Beta," she said, "you haven't been taking your pills because I counted them." I stared at her blankly still thinking about Mr. Handgrin. "Do you hear mr talking to you, Beta?" she asked me. I continued to stare at her without saying anything.
I could feel the anger welling up inside me. I wanted to talk to her about Mr. Handgrin. I was so upset I wanted to cry. I didn't know what happened to him. Yet, before I knew anything I grabbed a heavy plaque from the top of the television set, and threw it at my mother. She quickly tried to subdue me.
When she ran upstairs to her bedroom I followed her. She locked the door. Soon an ambulance was there. After being subdued I was taken to the hospital where I spent the next day. I was just so unnerved about Mr. Handgrin. I heard about his murder when I came home from the hospital from my mother.
He was dead for a whole day before anyone found him inside his house. His face was still in his plate of food, and he was still sitting at his dining room table. His throat had been cut from ear to ear, they said. I couldn't understand why anybody would have wanted to kill him. I did recall being inside his house, and talking to him. But I couldn't remember anything else beyond that.
It was very hot on the day I decided to go shopping for a new dress. Summer had come in, in full blast. I wasn't too familiar with a lot of the people in town. However, as I walked to the dress shop that day many people greeted me on the street. They were very friendly, and it made me feel good.
They were different from the people in Carpetin. Of course they didn't know about me as those people had because of my mother. In Carpetin people would actually cross the street when they saw me coming just to avoid me. I had my mother to thank for the way I was treated by people there.
Everything was going along nicely. Until I passed by a group of boys who had nothing better to do than throw stones at one another. As I was walking I felt a sharp sting to my back. One of them hit me with a stone. I turned around quickly as they stood there looking at me. I walked back to where they were standing.
"Why did you hit me?" I asked the tallest one. He looked to be around twelve years old. He had fiery, red hair, a ruddy complexion, dark-brown eyes, and a face full of freckles. He just stood there saying nothing at first. "Do you hear me talking to you?" I asked him. He looked down at the ground. I raised his face gently with my finger. "I asked you a question," I said to him. "I didn't do it," he told me looking into my eyes. The other boys moved away from him.
"Well," I said, "if you didn't do it who did?" He looked at another boy who was almost as tall as he was. He was darker in complexion with gray eyes, and jet-black hair. I walked over to him.
"Don't you know better than to throw stones at people?" I asked him. "Sorry," he said apologetically. "It was an accident." "You better be careful," I admonished him. "You could hurt somebody." I smiled at him, and walked away after that. As soon as I got some distance from him he yelled, "You're nuts, lady! If I ever see you again I'm going to hit you again!"
I spun around, and started walking toward them. All of them ran away in different directions after that. I was a little ticked off, but decided to forget about it. It was no big deal. I continued on my way to the dress shop, and shortly arrived at the store.
I was amazed at all of the lovely dresses on display in the store. A Saleswoman walked over to me. "Hi!" she said cheerfully. "Can I help you with something?" She seemed to be very kind. "I'm just looking for a nice dress," I informed her. "Do you want something casual for for evening wear?" she wanted to know. "Oh, something casual I guess," I told her. "Let me show you what we have," she said. I followed her to a rack of nice, casual dresses.
"You're such a pretty girl," she said to me. "What's your favorite color?" She was very nice to me, and no one had ever called me pretty before. "Dark orange," I told her. "That's a perfect color for you," she commented. The woman was fairly stout, short, fair-complexioned with short, dark-brown hair, and light-brown eyes like mine.
"Aida!" called another woman who was behind the check-out counter. "Come here, please!" "Excuse me for a moment," said Aida. "I'll be right back. You just keep looking for what you want." "Thank you," I told her. She walked over to the woman who called her.
The other woman was middle-aged like Aida was. She had dark hair that was pulled back into a bun,fair skin, tall, and she had gray eyes. She looked mean. And she definitely didn't seem to be as friendly as Aida was. I started to look at the dresses that were on the rack when suddenly I heard yelling.
The woman behind the check-out counter was yelling at Aida. I couldn't hear everything she said. At times she had the decency to whisper. However, I did hear most of it.
"You're just a screw up!" she told Aida angrily. "I've gone through all of your sales receipts, and you're short by nearly twenty dollars. If I wasn't so desperate for help in here I would fire you!" "I'm really sorry, Manda," said Aida pathetically. "It's just I have a hard time keeping the items that are on sale apart from the ones that aren't. I'm so sorry."
"You are sorry!" said the woman named, Manda, nastily. "I'll be so happy when I can get rid of you. Go back to your customer, and try to do something right for a change." Aida looked so embarrassed. I was glad for her sake I was the only customer they had in the store at the time. She came back over to where I was. I could tell she was feeling badly.
"I'm so sorry about that, hon," Aida told me. "I feel sorry for you," I said, "having to work for a hag like that." "Oh, it's nothing," said Aida. "We've known each other for thirty years. She has always treated people badly. No one pays any attention to her because they know how she is. I'm the only one in the whole town she could get to work with her in here." "Still," I replied, "it's terrible to have to work for somebody like her. Can't you find another job?" She chuckled softly.
"You must be new around here," said Aida chuckling a little. "Jobs are easy to come by in Gatewood. I have no choice. My husband left me six months ago, and I'm all alone. My children can't even help me out. My son, and daughter hardly visit me because they live miles away, and have families of their own."
Immediately I felt more sorry for her because she was such a nice person. But as far as Manda was concerned I didn't like her one bit. I thought she was a gigantic asshole.
Aida helped me picked out a lovely, dark orange dress. When I tried it on it looked really good on me. I thanked her for all of her help. Then I walked to the front counter where Manda was to pay for it. Needless to say I had an instant attitude with her. If it wasn't for Aida, and the fact Manda's was the only dress shop in our area I wouldn't have bought anything in that store.
"Is there anything else you'll be needing?" Manda asked me half-heartedly. "Not in here," I told her as sarcastically as I could. Her presence was an affront to my sensitivity toward people like Aida who were mistreated. She put on a spurious smile for me as I glared at her. When I left the store I said good-bye to Aida, and thanked her for helping me. I completely ignored Manda. After that I saw Aida on several occasions.
I visited her at her home sometimes, and we would go out to dinner. Also, I visited her at the dress shop, and we would have lunch together in the nearby park. Over time we became good friends. One morning I saw her sitting on a bench in the park crying. I walked over to her to see what was wrong.
"Aida?" I said standing next to her. "What are you doing here?" I could see from her red eyes she had been crying for quite a while. "What's the matter?" I asked her concerned. "Oh, Beta," she sobbed softly, "it's Manda. She treats me so shabbily I don't know if I can take it any longer." "What has she done this time?" I asked a little miffed.
"She yells at me in the shop all of the time," sobbed Aida,"even in front of the customers. It's embarrassing! She doesn't care anything about other people's feelings." "I think you should quit that job, Aida," I told her matter of factly.
"I can't quit, Beta," she replied sniffling. "I tried to get my son, and my daughter to help me out financially, but they say they can't do it. I don't know what to do." "Why can't your children help you, Aida?" I wanted to know. "Don't they know what you're going through?"
"Well," said Aida, "I can understand my son, Robert. He is a Garage Attendant, and he has four, small children. His wife does temporary, office work so they don't have much money." "What about your daughter?" I asked her. "Oh," said Aida, "Derea is married to a Funeral Director. They have money, and they don't have any children. But she refuses to help me out for reasons I will never understand."
"That's terrible!" I cried. "Yes," said Aida smiling a half smile. "I know. Beta, you wouldn't believe the sacrifices I've made for my children while they were growing up. I went without many things I wanted just so they could have nice things. While their father spent his money on booze, and other women. I feel like they have forsaken me sometimes. Like I said I can certainly understand my son. He, and his wife are barely making ends meets. But Derea I just can't figure out. It's like I've done something to her I don't know about."
I became angry with Aida's daughter, Derea, even though I never met her. I couldn't see any reason why anybody would allow their own mother to go through what Aida had to go through just to keep a job. Unknown to her I decided I would pay Derea a visit. Aida told me everything about her. She told me where she lived, and showed me photographs of her.
Derea lived in a place called Witnam. It was a nice suburban area thirty miles from Gatewood. Its' residents were considered to be affluent. I didn't dare ask Aida for her address. All I really needed was her last name which Aida already told me. Once I got to Witnam all I had to do was look up her address in the telephone directory. After all how hard could it be to find a Funeral Director?
As luck would have it on the day I was to visit Derea, whose last name was Gambrealla, she decided to come to Gatewood to visit Aida. At first I didn't know she was in town. I happened to telephone Aida to see how she was doing, and she told me Derea was there. I was surprised.
"My daughter is here visiting me for a few days, Beta," Aida told me on the telephone. She sounded so happy. "Is she going to help you out financially, Aida?" I asked her point blankly. "We've talked about that," she replied. "But she still says she, and her husband can't help me out." "That's too bad," I said hiding my anger.
I could feel my hands shaking as I continued to talk to Aida on the telephone. I hadn't yet taken my pills that morning, or the morning before that. I could feel my anger at Derea mounting.
"Why don't you come over, and meet Derea?" Aida asked me. I really didn't want to meet her daughter. I thought she was a terrible, selfish person to treat her mother so badly. "Maybe," I replied. "Oh, come on,Beta," prodded Aida. "She's really a nice person, and you are both around the same age. You never know. You might have a lot in common."
I doubted that. I would never have treated my mother the way Derea treated Aida. I told my mother about Derea, too. And about how terribly she was treating my friend. She didn't like Derea either. And like me she never even met her.
"Well," said Aida, "will you think about it, Beta? She'll be here for the next few days." "Okay, I'll see," I told her. "Alright," she said. "Maybe you'll come over this evening because I'm going to work in a few minutes." My hands started shaking badly. I had to get off of the telephone. "I'll talk to you later, Aida," I said. "Okay, hon," she replied sweetly. We hung up the telephone.
My mother was out for the day. So I didn't have to worry about her noticing how badly my hands were shaking. She would've known I hadn't been taking my pills. I got so tired of taking medicine day in, and day out. For once I would've liked to talk to those doctors myself.
I knew Aida would be at work all day. Therefore, I made up my mind to wait until she left for work. Then I would pay Derea a visit. I just wanted to talk to her. I thought I could make her understand how much her mother really needed her help money-wise.
I walked to where Aida lived, and stood across the street from her house. I hid behind some bushes until I saw her leave the house for work. She left home around nine thirty that morning to go to the dress shop. I watched her go down the street as a young woman who resembled her stood in the front doorway waving good-bye to her. I knew she had to be Derea.
As soon as Aida was out of sight I walked over to her house, and rang the doorbell. Derea answered the door. "Yes?" she said. "Hi," I said to her. "I'm a friend of Aida's." "She's not here right now," she informed me. "I know," I replied. "But I was wondering if I could talk to you. You're her daughter, Derea. Right?" "Yes," she said. "I'm Derea, and you are?" "My name is Beta," I told her. "Oh, yes," she replied smiling. "My mother told me about you." "Can I come inside?" I asked her. "Sure," she replied, please come in." Once I got inside the house she lead me into the living room.
"Why don't you have a seat," said Derea. "I was just washing the breakfast dishes." I tried to hide my trembling hands. I saw all of the dishes that were piled up on the kitchen sink from the living room where I sat. I felt the anger welling up inside me. I thought about how badly she was treating her mother who was my friend. I noticed a big, butcher's knife on the kitchen counter top.
"Just let me empty the garbage in the kitchen," said Derea. "I have to put it outside so I'll be right back." She took a bag of garbage, and headed toward the back porch. I got up slowly from my chair, and walked into the kitchen.
I thought about picking up that butcher's knife on the counter top, and hiding it behind my back so Derea wouldn't see it. She came back inside, and started to clean off the stove, and the kitchen sink. While her back was turned I walked up behind her. Before I could stop myself as if I was being controlled by someone else I thought I raised the big knife over my head. Suddenly, like before out of the corner of my eye thought I saw someone come up behind me. I saw the knife being plunged into Derea's body over, and over again. And I knew it wasn't me doing it.
It felt as if I was inside a dream or something, or truthfully more like a nightmare. Blood was all over the place. I heard the knife fall to the floor. Derea lay on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood. I picked up the knife, and rinsed it off in the kitchen sink, and left it there. I headed for the front door to leave. It seemed like I was in some kind of trance or something. I realized it had to be side effects from those pills I had been taking.
The next thing I knew I was at home inside my bedroom. But I couldn't remember how I got there or anything else. I noticed the front of my dress was covered with drops of blood. I had no idea where the blood came from. I took off my dress, and rinsed it out in the bathroom sink so glad my mother was not at home. She would've wanted to know where the blood came from.
My mother returned home about an hour after I did. I was upstairs in my bedroom. "Beta!" she called. "Are you here?!" "Yes, Mom!" I called downstairs to her. "I'll have dinner ready in about an hour!" she told me. "Alright," I replied. I heard her downstairs moving around in the kitchen. A little while later I smelled the aroma of spaghetti, and meatballs cooking.
Before she could count my pills again I decided to take a couple of days worth of them. According to my mother the doctors said it was alright if I did that. The others I hadn't taken I flushed down the toilet. About an hour later my mother called me downstairs for dinner. We were sitting at the dining room table eating when we heard an ambulance, and police sirens.
"My, Lord!" cried my mother. "I wonder what's happened now?!" "I don't know, Mom," I said. We got up, went to the front window, and looked outside. But we couldn't see anything. "I'm going outside, Beta," said my mother. "Maybe I can see something or at least see where they're going." She walked outside to the sidewalk.
All of our neighbors came out of their houses to see what was going on. I saw a couple of them talking to my mother. Then I saw Rachel Bangkok running down the street toward them.
Rachel was another middle-aged woman with fair skin, mixed-gray hair, light, gray eyes, and a long nose. She was the nosiest woman I had ever known in my life. Everybody in town thought the same thing about her. She knew everything that went on in Gatewood. And she told everybody's business if she knew anything about you that is.
Very few people in town associated with Rachel. She was considered to be somewhat of a trouble maker. I watched as she ran up to my mother, and the others. I overheard what she told them.
"Did you hear?!" she exclaimed with exigency. "Somebody murdered Aida Munro's daughter, Derea, right there in her kitchen! She was stabbed twenty five times they say!" Everybody was ingenuously stunned including me. Nobody in town had seen Derea for years.
Naturally, being new in the community my mother, and I didn't know her. My mother came inside the house to tell me the news I'd already overheard. She knew Aida, and I had grown close to one another. Believe it or not I didn't remember talking to Derea earlier that day.
"My, God!" cried my mother after she told me the ghastly news. "I'm not so sure this place is safe anymore, Beta. That makes three people who have been killed since we moved here. I'll be glad when they catch whoever is doing this. Won't you?" "I sure will, Mom," I replied in agreement with her parlance. "I better go over, and see Aida. She's probably beside herself with grief." "Yes," said my mother with empathy. "That's a good idea, sweetie, you do that." I got my sweater, and headed for Aida's house.
I couldn't believe someone killed her daughter. Although from all Aida told me about Derea I didn't like her, I surely didn't want her to lose her life. "Poor Aida!" I thought. "There is a monster running around loose in this town. How horrifying!" I hurried down the street toward Aida's house. With a killer out there somewhere I didn't like being on the streets alone, especially after dark.
Once I got to Aida's house she was still talking to the Police Chief, Forrest Mimms. Police Chief Mimms was middle-aged, tall, slender with a dark-complexion, mixed-gray hair and icy, blue eyes. He was a handsome man, and very nice. Aida couldn't stop sobbing as he tried to question her about Derea.
"Did she have any enemies around here you know about, Aida?" I heard Police Chief Mimms ask her. "No," answered Aida, sobbing heartbreakingly. I felt so sad for her. "She hasn't lived around here for a long time," continued Aida. "All of the people she grew up with have been long gone from Gatewood." "What about her husband?" asked Chief Mimms. Aida stopped sobbing, and looking at him. "What about him?" she asked a little indignantly.
"Well," he said, "you do know we have to check out everybody. Don't you?" "Of course," replied Aida relaxing. "Also, I know the husband or the boyfriend is always the first suspect in a case like this. Isn't that right?" "Usually," said Chief Mimms. "It doesn't always mean they committed the crime. It's just that we have to check out everybody like I said." "I understand," replied Aida quietly.
"We'll have to find out if anybody was in the area, and saw anything," Chief Mimms told one of his Deputies who was there. "As around, and see what you can find out." "Yes, sir," said Alvon Danielson, who was one of his Deputies. He winked at me on his way out of the front door.
I knew Alvon. He was one of the first people I met in Gatewood after my mother, and I moved here. He was around my age, tall, dark, and handsome. Also, he wasn't married, and he had no steady girlfriend.
He asked me out on dates many times, but I always refused. Not because I didn't like Alvon, but becausse I didn't trust myself knowing the 'illness' I had. I had my mother to thank for my fear, too. She never failed to remind me about how 'sick' I was. There were times when I just couldn't figure her out.
That was another strange thing about my 'illness'. I could never remember hurting anyone....only the anger I would feel toward someone. Beyond that everything would be a complete blank.
Whenever I would feel anger toward somebody, or felt that someone had something against me unjustly, I never failed to talk to my mother about it. She always made me feel a little better about the situation. She would say, "Don't worry about people, Beta. Just don't worry about anything because everything will be alright."
I told her all about Mrs. Hedgrow. And how she was trying to stop me from getting the teaching position I wanted. I told her about, Fletcher Handgrin, and all about, Aida, and how Derea treated her so badly. I even told her about the young boy who hit me with the stone when I was going shopping that day. I found out his name was, Barry Coombs. Suddenly it dawned on me.
Every person I talked about with my mother turned up dead.....violently murdered by some homicidal maniac. Except for Barry Coombs, and that was strange. I wondered if my mother had noticed it, to. I refused to believe it was all a coincidence. Something just wasn't quite right.
I stayed with Aida for a few hours that evening. The next day Derea's husband, after being questioned, and cleared by the police, took her body back to Witnam for the funeral. Aida went with him because Derea would be laid to rest there.
"I'll be gone about a week or so," she told me. "Alright, Aida," I said giving her a hug. "I'll see you when you get back." She got into the front, passenger's seat of the hearse with Derea's husband. Then they drove off. I waved good-bye to her, and she waved back as I watched the car begin to grow smaller, and smaller on the horizon.
On my way home I ran into Alvon who was patrolling the streets in his patrol car. "Hey, Beta!" he called to me. I waved to him. He pulled the car over to the curb, and parked it. Then he walked over to me. "How are you doing, Beta?" he asked me walking beside me. "Okay," I said.
"Well, listen," said Alvon. "How about us going out to a movie tonight?" "I don't think so, Alvon," I replied. "Shouldn't you be looking for that serial killer who is running around loose?" "Oh, don't worry about that," said Alvon confidently. "We'll get him. It's just a matter of time." "I'll bet you guys don't even have any clues. Do you?" I asked him. "You're right," he replied, "not even a fingerprint."
"I heard the Chief telling you to find out who was in the area when Aida's daughter was killed," I said. "Did you find out anything from that yet?" "Yeah," he said. "But it was nothing." "Why do you say that?" I asked curiously. "Because," he said, "the only person who as seen in the area around the time of the murder was your mother, Beta. What are we going to do, arrest her as the killer?" He chuckled softly.
"My mother?" I said a little surprised. "Yeah," he said still chuckling softly. "She was the only person anybody saw in the vicinity that day, Beta, nobody else." "I see what you mean," I told him as he continued to walk beside me. Soon I was in front of my house. Alvon must've been at least three blocks away from his patrol car by then.
"Well," I told him, "here I am." "Listen, Beta," he said. "I like you. So I would like to take you out sometime. Will you please think about that movie or maybe dinner or something?" "I guess so," I told him. "That's all I ask," he said hopefully. "I have to be getting back now. And I hope nobody has called over the radio for me. So I'll see you later." "Okay," I said. He quickly headed back to his patrol car. I walked up the walkway to my house. My mother was looking out of the front window.
"What are you doing with him?!" she asked me catching me off my guard. I was surprised by her question as well as her attitude. She was always telling me to find a nice, young man. Here she was jumping down my throat about being with Alvon. She seemed almost contemptuous about me talking to him.
"We were just talking," I told her. "You don't need a man like him, Beta," she said again catching me by surprise. "What?" I said to her stunned. "Why not? Alvon is a nice guy." "There are plenty of other nice guys around here for you to talk to instead of him," she said impertinently. "I think you should stay away from Alvon Danielson."
Her remarks, and her bizarre behavior shocked me. If I hadn't known better I would have thought she didn't care for Alvon because he was a Police Officer. If that was the case most mothers would have been proud to have their daughter dating someone with an honorable career like that. I couldn't understand her reaction for the life of me.....not at the time.
I didn't say anything else to my mother about Alvon....ever! And I seriously began to consider letting him take me out on a date. I went upstairs, and laid down on my bed looking up at the ceiling. I was thinking about the murders that occurred, and the ominous clamor it was causing when something strange happened.
"Beta!" my mother called to me from downstairs. "Yes,"I answered. "I'm going out for a little while," she said. "I'll be back shortly." "Alright," I told her. I heard her when she left the house. It was nearly nine o'clock at night. She never went out of the house after it got dark. As I laid there on the bed I drifted off to sleep, and had an eerie, and intricate dream.
In the dream I was back in Carpetin looking out of our living room window. A crowd of people were gathered in front of our house. They were yelling, and screaming for my mother to come outside. But I couldn't see her anywhere. The Sheriff, and his Deputies came into our house, and demanded to see my mother. "She's not here," I told them in the dream.
"Well," said the Sheriff, "she's wanted for murder!" "No!" I screamed in the dream. "No! No! Not my mother, because she wouldn't do anything like that!" "Oh no?" said the Sheriff. Then I heard a noise behind me in the dream. There standing in the living room like some sanguinary lunatic was my mother. She was covered in blood from her head down to her toes. And had a big knife in her hand that was dripping with blood. I screamed in the dream then I awakened.
"Oh no!" I whispered as I bolted upright in my bed. "What a nightmare!" I couldn't understand how I could have had such a crazy dream about my mother. I got up, and went downstairs. I decided to make myself a glass of iced tea. When I looked at the clock on the wall it was nearly midnight, and my mother had not returned home.
"She said she would be back shortly," I thought recalling what my mother told me before she left the house that evening. "That was hours ago!" I said to myself. "I wonder where she is?" I tried to wait up for her. But around two o'clock that morning she still hadn't come home. I couldn't imagine where she could be so I went to bed.
I hadn't taken any pills for a few days, and I had a peaceful night's sleep I believe because of that. When I awakened that morning I felt very refreshed. I went downstairs after I took a shower, and dressed to have breakfast. It was eight o'clock, and my mother was still sleeping. I didn't know what time she came home, and it was unusual for her to still be in bed. She was usually up, and making breakfast for us by seven thirty every morning ever since I could remember, but not that morning.
I decided to listen to the radio while I made myself a cup of coffee. I was shocked when they announced over the radio that Barry Coombs, the young boy who accidentally hit me with the stone, was found stabbed to death inside his home. Later on from Alvon I learned the Coroner surmised the boy's death occurred somewhere between ten o'clock the previous night, and two o'clock that morning.
I was even more astounded when he told me somebody informed Chief Mimms my mother was seen in the area during that time. They questioned her, but she told them she had not seen anybody suspicious-looking. "What was she doing over there?" I wondered.
Barry Coombs lived across town from where we did. There was no reason I could think of why my mother should have been in that area at that time of night. I didn't mention what I was thinking to Alvon. But I was troubled by what he told me to say the least.
Four, well-known, and long-time denizens of Gatewood were murdered. And the police had no clues who could have committed the murders. I couldn't shake the fact my mother was spotted near the scene of the last two murders. I just couldn't understand it. I made up my mind to ask her about it one morning. We were sitting in the living room watching television.
"Mom," I said, "why were you way across town on the night Barry Coombs was killed?" "I was visiting a friend," she told me. But somehow in the back of my mind I knew she was lying to me. So I pressed her further. "Who?" I asked her. "Just somebody I know," she replied nonchalantly. "Well," I said pressing her more, "what is your friend's name?" "What is this," she aske me a little irritated, "the Spanish Inquisistion? I don't like being questioned about my comings, and goings, Beta."
"I don't mean any harm, Mom," I told her. "But I was just curious. We haven't been living here that long. And I'm anxious to know about any friends you've made that's all." "Well," she said calming down a little bit, "her name is, Karen Battles, and you wouldn't know her anyway." I didn't question her anymore after that. But her duplicity was obvious. I was determined to find out who Karen Battles was.
Three days later Aida returned home from Witnam so I decided to pay her a visit. When I got to her house she, and I went into the kitchen to talk. She made us both some iced tea. I told her all about Barry Coombs' murder, and she was shocked. Then we talked about Derea, and the funeral. Aida was still very distraught over her daughter's murder....rightly so. Surprisingly, Derea left a Will leaving Aida a little over $75,000.00, and her brother, Robert, $50,000.00. She quit her job at Manda's immediately, and was happy to do it. Then I questioned her about the woman named, Karen Battles.
"Oh, yes," said Aida. "I know Karen." "What do you know about her, Aida?" I asked her curiously. "My mother told me she was visiting with her on the night Barry Coombs was killed." "That's strange," said Aida with concern in her voice. "What is?" I asked her. "I've known Karen Battles for over twenty five years," replied Aida with more concern evident in her face. "She never bothers with anybody in this town that I know of." "Why is that?" I wanted to know. "Because of something that happened here a long time ago," answered Aida. "Tell me about it, Aida," I said anxiously. Aida told me a very interesting as well as sordid story about Karen Battles.
"It seems that Karen's husband, Jack, was involved with a woman who lived in Gatewood named, Doris Freedan," began Aida. "They were going together behind Karen's back for many years before she found out about it. Everybody in town knew about Doris and Jack, but nobody told Karen. All they did was talk about it behind her back. Some of the people were supposed to be her friends. It was a terrible scandal, Beta." Aida paused before continuing her story.
"When Karen did find out what was going on between her husband, and another woman," continued Aida, "and how everybody in town knw about it, and didn't tell her she flew into a rage. She threw Jack out of their house on his head, and vowed she would never bother with anybody in Gatewood again. Also, she said she would never leave town so it would always remind people about what they did to her. It was really bad, Beta. It got even worse when Jack, and Doris ran away together. He divorced Karen, and married Doris. It was a very nasty divorce, because Karen nearly took everything he had. There was a great deal of money, and property he didn't think she knew about."
"She became a virtual recluse after that," continued Aida. "She just stays in her house, and rarely goes out. I can't imagine how your mother could've met her, Beta." Things were getting more, and more strange, and inscrutable to me. It was then I decided to pay Karen Battles a visit. Even if she wouldn't talk to me I had to know if my mother was really with her on the night of Barry Coombs' murder. I told Aida what I was planning to do.
"Well," she said, "I wish you luck, Beta. You can try to see her, but I doubt if you'll get past the front door. And that's even if she answers the doorbell." "I don't care," I told her. "I have to try anyway." I stayed with Aida for a couple of hours, and got Karen's address from her. When I left her house I headed straight for Karen's house.
Karen Battles lived in one of the larges, and nicest houses in town. It wasn't hard to see she was financially copious. I rang her doorbell, and waited. She took so long to answer the front door I had to ring the doorbell a few times. I was determined to talk to her, and I wasn't going to leave until I did. I guess she figured that out. Finally, she came to the front door. She looked absolutely nothing at all like I pictured her in my mind.
Karen Battles was medium height, slender, dark-complexioned with long, black hair and beautiful, blue eyes. She was very pretty. Immediately I figured she had to be around fifty years old. However, I learned from her she was nearly sixty five years old. She looked so much younger than she actually was as she stood in the doorway with the front door partially open.
"Can I help you?" she asked me curtly but politely. "How do you do, Maam?" I said just as politely. "Are you Karen Battles?" "Yeah," she replied curiously. "Who wants to know?" "My name is Beta Lee, Mrs. Battles," I told her. "I don't mean to bother you. I just need to ask you a question that's all." "What is it?" she asked me, still standing in the partially opened doorway.
"Do you know a woman by the name of,Magda Lee, by any chance?" I asked her. "No, I don't," she replied with certainty. "I've never heard of her before. Why?" My heart fell to my knees. "She is my mother," I told Karen. "And she told me she was visiting you on the night Barry Coombs was killed." She chuckled softly, but sarcastically.
"I'm sorry, honey," she replied. "I don't know if you're aware of this or not. But I don't fool with anybody in this whole rotten town. I wish I could tell you I know your Mama, but the truth is I don't. And I don't know why she would say she was here with me, because trust me she wasn't." My heart sank even more, because I realized my mother had lied to me. But the reason for her fallacy I couldn't fathom.
I realized she could easily have heard Karen Battles' name mentioned around Gatewood. In a small town like that people do talk. "Alright, Mrs. Battles," I said with a feeling of dismay. "I'm sorry to bother you." She went back inside her house with saying another word to me, and shut the front door. I headed for home. I cannot tell anyone how dispirited I felt all the way there.
I just couldn't understand why my mother would deliberately lie to me. Disheartened, I realized if she lied to me she lied to Chief Mimms, and his Deputies. When I got home my mother was there. I confronted her right away about Mrs. Battles. She got very upset to put it mildly.
"What are you doing, girl?" she asked me angrily. "Are you checking up on me or something?" "Mom," I said as calmly as I could, "Mrs. Battles doesn't know you, and she has no reason to lie to me about that. It's you who have lied, and I want to know why. I want to know what you were doing in that area of town that night, too." "How dare you!" she spat at me becoming more dissolute.
"You don't question me about my whereabouts, Beta!" she said to me still angry. "And if anybody asks I was visiting with that woman, and that's all there is to it!" "But if Chief Mimms questions Mrs. Battles," I said, "she will tell him she doesn't know you. Can't you see that? You'll automatically become a suspect in all of these killings!" I will never forget the look I saw on my mother's face when I said that, or her impassive words.
"Well," she said smugly, "maybe he'll never get the chance to question her about it." "What do you mean by that?" I asked her astonished by her remark. She just walked away from me without answering my question. Something was definitely wrong. That's when I came to the disturbing conclusion my mother was hiding something.
A little while after that she decided to go out. "I'm going out for a while, Beta," she told me. "Dinner is in the oven, and I won't be gone long." That was the same thing she told me on the night Barry Coombs was killed. But this time things would be different. "Okay, Mom," I replied. I watched her as she walked out of the house, and down the street. I decided to follow her.
I stayed far enough behind her so she wouldn't see me. We walked for nearly twenty minutes before I saw her go to Karen Battles' house. I watched as she rang the woman's doorbell, and Mrs. Battles opened the front door.
They stood there talking for a few minutes. I don't know to this day what my mother said to Karen. But she let her inside her house. I watched her as she went inside with Karen. I waited for ten minutes before I walked over to the house, and ran Karen's doorbell. But nobody answered the door. I walked around the house to the back door which was open.
Once I got inside the house I called to Karen but I got no response, and I didn't see anybody. My heart started pounding. "Where did my mother go?" I wondered. I began to search downstairs, and walked into Karen's living room. When I did I could see two feet sticking out from behind a chair. "Oh, God, no!" I thought.
There lay Karen Battles on her living room floor covered in blood. Without even checking her I knew she was dead. Despairingly, I realized who murdered her. The same person sho had murdered the others.
I ran from Karen's house as fast as I could, and kept on running until I reached my own house. Naturally, my mother wasn't there, and I didn't know where she was. I didn't know what to do as I stood in the middle of our living room floor trying to catch my breath, and wrap my mind around what happened. Suddenly, I heard the back door open, and in came my mother. When she saw me she looked startled, and quickly hid something behind her back.
"Mom, where have you been?" I asked her trying to be as equable as possible. I tried not to let on I knew what she had done. "Nowhere s-special," she answered nervously. "What is that you have behind your back, Mom?" I asked her still trying to remain calm. "I-it's nothing," she said. She was sweating profusely, and she had a crazed look in her eyes I had never seen before.
"I want to know what you have behind your back, Mom," I insisted, "and where you've been." Before I knew anything she began to mumble incoherently. Her mouth was moving, but her words were excursive. Slowly, I walked toward her.
"Mom," I said to her softly, "are you alright?" Suddenly she lunged for me with a sledge hammer in her hand. It was covered with blood. Blood I knew was Karen Battles'. "Oh, my God!" I cried with fear gripping my heart. "Mom! No! No!" I cried as I ran up the stairs, and into my bedroom. She was right behind me. Quickly, I locked the door so she couldn't get inside. She started banging on the bedroom door with the sledge hammer.
As I telephoned Chief Mimms in my bedroom I was terrified! The police arrived in a matter of minutes that seemed to me like a lifetime. I started screaming as soon as I saw them.
They broke down our front door, and came running upstairs where my mother and I were. I heard Chief Mimms talking to her. "It's alright, Mrs. Lee," he said to her quietly, and calmly. "Just put down the hammer. It's going to be alright. Just let us help you." I heard her crumble to the floor sobbing softly, as she fell against my bedroom door. She never said a word as Chief Mimms took the sledge hammer from her hand.
"You can come out now, Beta!" he told me through the closed door. When I came out of my bedroom I saw them taking my mother away in handcuffs. In the end she confessed to all five murders that occurred in Gatewood. Also, she confessed to the two murders that occurred in Carpetin. I was in a state of shock for a long time.
My mother wanted me to believe I was psychotic, and I needed doctors, and pills. But it was her all along. The pills I had been taking were pills for her to take that doctors were prescribing for her. I noticed a long time ago the labels on the pill bottles were always peeled off. But I never bothered to question her about it because I trusted her. She developed serious mental, and emotional problems on top of the ones she already had before my father died. She couldn't cope with his death or with her past. We never knew the horror she must have gone through in so many foster homes growing up. She never wanted to talk about it.
Chief Mimms, and the other Authorities thought she would be classified as unfit to stand trial. Sure enough she was deemed incompetent. She escaped the death penalty with an insanity plea, and a good Attorney. With her past it wasn't hard to know she was mentally unbalanced, and had been for a long time.
Occasionally, I visit her in the mental institute where she is for the criminally insane. Some days she knows who I am, and some days she has no idea who I am. I feel sorrow, and sadness for what happened to my mother, as well as for what happened to all of those innocent people she killed. But I know it wasn't my fault, because I never hurt anyone......not even her. I found out she would harm herself, and make me think I had done it.
After she was put away I stopped taking any pills. My mother had a lot to do with my remaining on those pills for as long as I had. And they started affecting my mind. It was the reason why I was blacking out, and losing my memory.
I had been hallucinating, too. She tried to convince me there was something wrong with me. But all I ever needed was some counseling to cope with my Dad's death, which I never got. And a mild sedative once in a while to calm my nerves. I never had to take any medication like she wanted me to. I believe she was trying to get back at me for what happened to my father. Secretly, she always blamed me for his death. But she never let on she felt that way.
Now I'm doing just fine. Yet, I know my mother will never be fine, because she never really was in the first place. She hasn't been right mentally or emotionally for longer than my father, and I ever knew. I decided to stay in Gatewood, and make a life for myself here. I gave up the house, and moved in with Miss Alice.
After all of the scandal died down things became really nice for me. I started dating Alvon on a regular basis. Our relationship is devloping into something wonderful. It's getting very serious, too. I am finally getting my life on track where it should be. Although I will never forget what my mother tried to do to me. I hate to admit it. But deep down inside her I believe she really hated me. Things turned out alright for me despite what she tried to do. I thank God for that.
"THE END"
