Book IV: The Raven

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary;

men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

–Joseph Conrad

-And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demons’s that is dreaming

 And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted - nevermore!

–Edgar Allen Poe

______________________________________________________

Chief had been driving in silence since leaving his ravaged home. He appeared to be deep in thought, his jaw muscles clenched, his eyes staring sharply under a weighted brow.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Elly commented when she could stand the silence no longer. Behind her, Mike and Maggy’s muffled voices passed through the open window. She sensed no tension in the bed of the truck, but in the cab it was suffocating. “Is Kelly all right? You surprised me when you came home; I thought you’d stay with her.”

Chief faced her, his eyes locked on hers briefly before he returned to the road.

“What is it?” Elly said, sensing his grief. “She is all right?”

“I failed her. She begged me not to send her away. She knew of the danger, but I wouldn’t listen. We didn’t make it in time, El. But thank God Billy did.”

“Billy?”

“He saved her life. Fred is dead. Billy killed him.” Chief's voice was drained of emotion; his eyes remained fixed on the road spilling out in front of him.

“I don’t believe it.”

“Fred must have had Kelly pinned. She was beat up pretty good when we found her. From the bruising it looked like he tried to rape her. But Billy got there in time. He and Fred fought. The boy’s pretty gashed up as well. Fred died as a result of that fight..”

“I didn’t know Billy had it in him to fight.”

“Neither did I, but for my daughter’s sake, I’m glad he did.”

“Then she’s all right? I mean aside from–”

“She was in shock when we found her. Contusions and a sprained ankle, concussion from when the bastard hit her in the head and her feet were ripped up from running full out through the woods barefoot. Aside from that and possible emotional damage, she’s just peachy.”

Elly turned to his profile. He was concentrating on the road but she sensed his thoughts were elsewhere. A deep scowl etched his face with misery.

“What’s really bothering you, Bob?”

The scowl deepened as he turned to her. “I should have been there. God, Elly, I should never have sent her away.”

“You had no choice. You thought she’d be safer away from the dangers here. For crying out loud, Bob! Quit acting like you’re supposed to be God! What you did made sense at the time.”

Chief refused to look at her. Her words made sense and were designed to comfort him, but he didn’t deserve or want that comfort.

Through the corner of his eye he saw Elly turn away from him and face the passenger window. The quiet of the cab returned, but was immediately disturbed by Elly’s soft crying.

Chief pulled his eyes briefly from the road. “Hey,” he said softly. He reached for her but she pulled away. “What’s the matter?”

She shook her head while facing the window as though she couldn’t bear to face him.

“Elly,” Chief said forcefully. “Look at me.”

When she turned, the tears streaked her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?”

“You couldn’t know...”

“Couldn’t know what?” Chief divided his attention between Elly and the road.

Again Elly shook her head to the window.

“Elly talk to me.” Chief took the wheel in his left hand, as his right went to free his handkerchief from his back pocket. He handed it to her.

Elly took the cloth and wiped her eyes dry.

“What don’t you think I’d understand?” 

Elly avoided his eyes.  “If you insist on taking blame for something you could not control, then I’d have to take responsibility for my own mistakes.”

“What mistakes are those?”

“For ever stopping in Middleton; for ever involving myself with your family. For insisting we go through with the wedding today,” she ticked off quietly as though the words were groceries on a list. Chief watched through the corner of his eye as her demeanor shattered.

“I brought Perretti down here,” she sobbed. “My God, Bob! I had no choice but to sit there and watch as that man pulled Maggy upstairs with him. And then the noises we heard. Can you imagine what I was thinking? It was entirely my fault. I brought that on your daughter. When I think about what I almost cost you and your family, I get sick inside.” She began to shake.

Pulling his attention briefly from the road, Chief reached his arm out for her and this time she didn’t pull a way and he draw her in.

“It’s going to be all right,” he said quietly. He shook his head. “Why are we doing this to ourselves?”

Elly glanced up. “We better stop doing it before we see Kelly. She needs us to be strong for her.”

Chief smiled and nodded. “You’re right.”

A mile from the hospital Elly broke the silence. “Bob? I know technically we’re not married. But...”

“But what?”

“I don’t want to be alone tonight. I don’t want to sleep alone tonight. I meant what I said earlier. All I want is to wake up in your arms tomorrow. Married or not. I don’t care if people talk.”

Chief smiled at her. He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead before making the final turn into the hospital parking area. “Tell you what,” he said as he shouldered the truck around and headed for the emergency entrance. “After we finish here, we’ll go find a justice of the peace.”

Elly looked up.

“I know its not the wedding day you had planned–”

“It was never the wedding day that I cared about,” Elly broke in quietly. “It was the wedding night. And the morning after. And the rest of my days after that.”

Again Chief smiled. He pulled the truck up to the emergency doors of the hospital and parked. He quickly kissed his bride before hastily leaving the cab to help the orderlies with Stevens.

*  *  *  *  * 

Inside the hospital, Chief saw to Stevens’s care while Mike took the women to be examined for stress and shock. At the admissions desk Chief filled out the necessary forms for Stevens and was about to inquire after his daughter, when he noticed Doc Granger walking toward him with another doctor, who Chief recognized at his side. Chief handed the documents to the nurse and went to meet the doctors.

“How is she?” he asked Doc Granger

“She’s doing fine, Bob,” Granger answered, nodding to the other doctor. “This is Dr. Miller–”

“Good to see you again, doctor.” He shook Miller’s hand. "Can I see my daughter?”

“We have her in a private room upstairs.”

“Private room? I can’t afford–”

“It’s all right. The wards are full. There will be no additional charge. Dr. Granger and I took care of it.”

“I see,” Chief said quietly, then told Granger, “Maggy and Elly are with Mike down the hall in observation. They’re being treated for shock. Could you see to them, and then bring them upstairs?”

“What happened?”

“The men guarding Elly were called off at the last minute. Stevens was shot– he’s in surgery–and Perretti and his men terrorized the women. I’ll fill you in later.”

Doc nodded. “I’ll see you up there.”

“Thanks,” Chief said and turned to Miller. “Let’s go.”

Miller led Chief past admitting, to the elevator at the end of the hall. He slipped the cage closed and pressed the button for the fourth floor and after a sharp jolt the cables pulled them up the shaft.

“Your daughter has a grade-two concussion,” Miller said as the elevator grated upwards. “Currently it’s not too serious, but in your daughter’s case, the bruising is in a relatively dangerous area. Pressure from the formation of fluid can build causing blockage to arteries carrying blood to the brain. Though that is unlikely, it is possible. She will need to stay in the hospital for at least a week under observation. If by the end of that time, there are no complications or adverse developments, we can send her home.

“As far as the rest of the damage: mostly minor cuts and bruises. Her ankle is sprained and the pads of her feet are severely torn. She should remain off her feet for at least three weeks until they are completely healed. Quite frankly I don’t see how she managed that extensive damage. The pain must have been excruciating.”

Chief looked at the doctor intently. “Has she regained consciousness?”

“Briefly, off and on. Each time she wakes, she asks for you. She’s very frightened. Knowing her from last spring ... I mean– I realize being in a hospital is frightening, as well as her ordeal, but it seems this fear is deeply rooted. Almost dark. I believe she’s going to ask you some very difficult questions, and it is very important how you answer them.”

“I’ve watched this build for the last few weeks. I understand.”

 “She’s in here.”

Miller opened the door at the end of the hall and held it open for Chief to pass through.

Kelly lay with her eyes shut tightly. Her bruises were more pronounced and growing darker, like shadows spreading across the child’s face.

Joe was seated in a hospital chair next to the bed. “She’s been asking for you, Chief, “ he said as Chief approached. “She was awake just a little while ago, then she fell back asleep.”

Chief placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“She’s still in shock,” Miller explained. “Her system went through a complete emotional overload earlier. It left her drained. She needs her rest and sleep is the best thing for her. But I think it is the trauma that is keeping her from a restful sleep. I just took all her vital signs. I’ll come back up in about an hour. That way you can visit with her alone. I’ll talk to you later, Chief.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” Chief watched the doctor slip the door closed, then returned to his son. “Did she say anything, Joe?”

“Just asked for you. Is Maggy–?”

“She’s going to be fine, son. She’s downstairs with Elly and Mike getting squared away. How’s your aunt?”

“She’s on the second floor. Craig took me down to see her about an hour ago. Room 208.”

“Craig?”

“Dr. Miller. He’s really a stand up guy, Chief. Not like the other doctors around here. He really cares.”

Chief smiled. “Your sister is lucky to have so many people care about her.”

Kelly stirred on the bed. “Chief?” she whispered, her eyes remaining closed.

“I’m here baby,” he said softly, moving closer. He sat next to her on the bed. “Daddy’s here.”

He took her hand in his and her eyes opened at his touch. 

She smiled for him. “Hi.”

He smiled despite himself. “Hi back.”

“Is Maggy okay?”

“Yes, pumpkin. She’s fine. She’ll be here in a little while. How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay, I guess. Craig’s my doctor. He said I only have to stay here a week- for observation stuff.”

“I know. I spoke with him. He says you get scared?”

Kelly looked at him. Her eyes became shaded. “Yes.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“I can’t,” she whispered.

“Why’s that?”

“I don’t know what I’m scared of exactly. It flickers. Chief?”

“Yes, pumpkin?”

“Are they going to hang Billy?”

“Hang Billy? No, honey.”

“But he killed Mr. Blackney–the tiger. I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn’t. I never saw him so mad, Chief. It was like Jack Gunther’s dog, remember, two years ago, when it got the rabies and you had to shoot it?”

“I remember. But Billy was just trying to protect you, honey. There’s no reason for you to fear Billy.”

“It’s because he was in the Dead Place. It’s how he knew. I should have thought of that. He was the only other one that was- I mean that was there but not already dead.... like Preacher, and Sam and Mary Lou.”

Chief nodded. “You and Billy were connected in all of this. Your friendship is quite a bond. I should have thought about that.” Then Chief looked sharply at the child. “What about Mike? And Mr. Mort? Weren’t they in the Dead Place?”

“They was just in the dreams... not in the Dead Place. There’s a difference.”

“I see,” Chief sighed. “Kelly, I want you to believe that this is all over. The tiger is dead. Nothing will harm you–”

“What about the bird?”

Chief sat back and looked at his daughter. “The bird was the tiger’s delusion, pumpkin–his motivation. There’s no reason for you to fear whatever the bird represents. That died with the tiger.”

The door to the hospital room opened and Doc Granger led Mike, Maggy, and Elly into the room. He smiled at the child when he noticed she was conscious. “So how’s my patient?”

Kelly looked at him. “Fine.” She glanced at her sister and Mike.

“Hey, Squirt,” Mike said. “I heard you had quite a run.”

“I’d have beaten that old tiger for sure, Mike if my buckles didn’t get caught on the weeds..”

Mike smiled. “I bet.” 

Kelly looked over his shoulder at Maggy and noticed her bruises and torn clothing. “Maggy are you all right?”

“I’m fine, honey.”

“Did that man hurt you?”

The question brought the attention of everyone in the room to the child.

“What man?” Maggy asked slowly, testing the words.

“The greasy one.”

Maggy’s face flushed. Mike stared at the child, and then turned to Chief.

“The one Mike punched,” Kelly continued. She glanced at Mike. “You should have hit him harder." 

“How do you know about him, Squirt?”

“I saw.”

“When?” Mike asked.

Kelly frowned and ran her tongue over her teeth. “When it got cold and the fog came in. I didn’t want to stay with the tiger, so I left. I went home. I saw. You were tied to the couch. The greasy man had Maggy...” Kelly looked up at Miss Elly. “Mr. Taylor was there. He was being mean to you. I don’t like him anymore." 

Elly gasped. “You saw all of that?”

“Uh-huh,” Kelly said, as though the experience was a natural one. “That’s when I came back to tell Chief. I told him Maggy was in trouble- the greasy man had a gun on her ... and he wasn’t acting very nice.”

Maggy approached the bed. “How much else did you see?”

Kelly noticed the tremor in Maggy’s voice. “That’s all, Maggy. Did he hurt you?”

Maggy sighed. “Just a little.”

“Did you shoot him?”

“What?”

“With the little gun Chief gave you this morning. Did you shoot the greasy man?”

“Tell me you didn’t see that too!”

“Just that you had the gun.”

“Oh.” Maggy relaxed her rigid posture. She looked at her reddened fingers she’d been clenching.

Chief had been listening in silence. The accounts by the child were amazingly accurate. How she knew was irrelevant, he accepted the reality of her account on the spot.

“Are you tired yet, pumpkin? Would you like us to let you rest now? Or hungry? Do you want me to get you anything?”

“I don’t want you to leave, Chief.”

“Are you still frightened?”

“Yes, sir. Please don’t go.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Kelly settled deeper in her pillow. Her eyes danced from her father, to Miss Elly and back again. She seemed reflective before she spoke. “There’s a preacher man that comes in every now and again. He said he’d come back up here at six.”

The statement caught Chief off-guard. “Excuse me?”

“He can get you and Miss Elly hitched.”

Chief glanced at his fiancée, but her attention was focused on the child.

“That’s not a bad idea, boss,” Mike said behind him, shattering the tension. “I still have the ring,” he added patting his chest. “And in all honesty, after what you both went through today, I see no reason why you should be separated.”

“They have a point,” Chief told Elly, who shrugged.

“All right, pumpkin. Six?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Sounds fine with me. Would it be okay if I popped downstairs to check on your aunt? I’ll be right back in a few minutes, okay?”

“Yes, sir. But hurry, okay?”

Chief smiled. “I will, pumpkin.”

Chief rose from the bed, pausing briefly to brush the bangs from his child’s brow and kiss her forehead.

*  *  *  *  * 

I watched Chief shut the door after himself and Miss Elly. He closed it real slow-like, it didn’t even make a click. The rest of them were staring at me so hard I could feel their eyes prickling. Maggy’s were the hardest to deal with. Joe’s ran a close second.

“What?” I asked them, but they all just shook their heads at me and went on with their staring.

A nurse came in wearing squeaky white shoes.“I’m afraid everyone is going to have to leave. Visiting hours has been over for the last hour. They resume at 6:30.”

“But they just got here!” I let her know. “And if they go–I go.”

“That’s very funny,” she said, facing me. Her eyes hit mine and suddenly I didn’t like her at all–something about her that felt... cold. She reminded me of Miss Celban and Miss Purty and all at once I saw Hoover– his neck tied to a tree and the blood that covered him ... and his little pink tongue stuck between his pointy little white teeth. My breath came short and all the hairs of my arms stood up as a sharp stab went down my back.

 “I’m sorry, folks but rules are rules. Out.”

“No!” I didn’t want to be stuck alone with her.

“Kelly, it’s okay,” Mike said quietly. “We’ll come back.”

“But I don’t want to be alone, Mike. Craig said it was okay.”

As if he heard his name, Craig pushed open the door. “What’s going on in here?” he asked the beastly nurse. “This child is not to be upset.”

“She killed my dog!” I screamed before I could figure on why.

“I did no such thing.”

“Did too!” I was starting to get hot and cold at once and the shaking came back.

Craig shot a look at me before telling her, “Get out!”

I felt Doc Granger near me but all I could see was Hoover. I started to think of ways to pay back Miss Celban.

“I am not leaving,” I heard the nurse say. “She needs a sponge bath and the bedding needs to be changed. It’s on the clip.”

“Give it to me.” Craig said sharp. “There. It is no longer on the clip. Now get out.”

“But I–”

“You are upsetting my patient. Do you want to go on report?”

“Dr. Burchfield will hear of the infractions here, Dr. Miller.”

“I’m sure he will.”

The door opened, then closed.

Craig sat down on the bed next to me. He took out his heart-listener and set it on me, all the while looking at me and moving the metal around. “Tell me about your dog.”

I swallowed and looked at Doc. It was one of the pieces that drifted. “I tried to get him down. So he wouldn’t hang himself to death.” I turned to Joe. “Did’ja get ‘im down, Joe?”

“Yeah, sis. I got him down.”

“How did Nurse Scholeman kill your dog?” Craig asked me.

“For bein’ what she is.”

“And what is that?”

I tried grabbing another piece but missed. “I don’t know.”

“It’s the lady next door,” Maggy said. I watched Craig turn to her, taking in all of her, his eyes shining until Maggy turned away. Mike also noticed, just like he did with the greasy man in the dream, right before he decked him.

Craig cleared his throat. “What about the lady next door?”

Maggy looked up at him, then turned to Mike. It was Joe that answered.

“She wouldn’t let Kel tie the dog up in the front yard. We had to tie him up in the back.”

“It’s where the tiger could reach Hoove,” I told Craig. “I told them the tiger would get him. But rules are rules. And nobody cared. Even if her flowers were already dead. Huey cut my dog with the tiger’s claws. He hung ‘im too.” I felt my eyes filling up. “Now he’s dead. And it’s all her fault. I’m gonna get her–”

“Your neighbor?”

“Yes. She’s a old hag–”

“Kelly!” Maggy shot at me.

I looked at her. So did Craig, only he looked at her a bit longer.

“But she is one, Maggy,” I told her as the door opened and Chief walked in.

He nodded at Craig. “How is she, doctor?”

“We were just discussing her dog. And your neighbor’s contribution to its demise.”

Chief squinted at him. “I see,” he said catching a look from Craig that got by me.

“May I talk to you, outside?”

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