The Hathaway

A Fortunate Failure

We parked near the emergency room and rushed to reception to ask where she was. The receptionist told us that no one was being allowed in with her yet because they were still working to stabilize her condition. We were directed to the waiting room, where we found Heather watching the rain through a window. “How is she?” I asked.

She turned toward me and I could tell from her swollen eyes that she had been crying. “Oh, Joey, I never expected…” She dissolved into tears again and I offered her some tissues from the table. When she had recovered enough to talk she managed, “She didn’t answer the door, but I could see her through the window. She was sitting in her favorite chair, but she was kind of bent over to one side. I knocked and knocked but she didn’t move, so I called nine one one.”

“It’s good you came home when you did,” I offered as encouragement. “That may have saved her life.”

“I wasn’t supposed to come home for another two weeks,” she smiled weakly. “But I just...I kept having this dream. I could never remember it, but I knew it was always the same one. I would wake up and I could still hear the echo of singing. It was strange, like at a church, but I didn’t recognize the tune or the words, only a strong sense that I needed to go home.” Ben and I looked at each other, recognizing the musical signature of the spirits from the ruins.

Just then one of the nurses came out to give us an update. “We have her stabilized and she will make a full recovery. She’s going to need to be here for the night, and before she leaves we would like to get her set up with some counseling to help her deal with whatever it was that motivated her actions. She is still unconscious, but you can come in if you would like.”

We sat by her bedside, Ben quietly crocheting, while I gave Heather more details about the ghosts. “Are you sure it’s from the seventeen hundred?” she asked as I described the newly discovered ruins behind the Hathaway.

“I’m not an expert, but the layout seemed pretty distinctive.” I replied. “Not as simple as seventeenth century structures, but certainly not as complex as nineteenth century buildings.”

“Have you been able to find anything about the settlers here at that time?” she asked, welcoming the distraction.

“Not yet. The shadow inside Evelyn made her refuse to help me in any way, and I didn’t want to sneak around behind her back, so…”

“So, now that I’m back you’re thinking that maybe we can find out who these people were.”

I looked down and admitted, “Well, I was kind of hoping…”

She laughed, “Of course you were. I’ll see what I can dig up in the…”

Evelyn began to stir, letting out a low moan, and all attention turned to her. Heather was immediately at her side, while Ben and I hovered on the edge of the room, uncertain as to how she would respond to our presence. She slowly opened her eyes and tried to lift her head but she was too weak. “Where am I?” she managed to mutter still not fully awake.

“You’re in the hospital,” Heather whispered calmly. “Everything’s going to be alright.” She stroked the side of her face and Evelyn turned to look at her.

“Heather? But you’re not supposed to...What are you doing here?”

“I cam back early,” she smiled. “And good thing, too. But you’re ok now and…”

“No I’m not,” she screwed her face up into a mixture of pain and anger. “I’m not ok. Nothing’s ok. If only you knew what I’ve done…”

“We do.” I stepped forward so she could see me, and continued, “And we know it wasn’t you.”

“But it was me!” she insisted. “I encouraged the protesters, I said all those horrible things to you, I...I started the fire. It was me.” she began to sob as Heather comforted her.

“I know,” I said gently. “But it wasn’t you, it was the shadow inside you.”

She looked up, almost pleading. “What was he?”

“We’re not sure yet, but we do know that he was human once. So he is a ghost of some sort.”

“But I don’t believe in ghosts,” she protested.

“I don’t think that mattered to him,” I chuckled. “In fact, he probably relied on that to control you.”

“But I meant all those things I said, I could feel the anger, such anger. And…” she hesitated before whispering, “I wanted to burn down the carriage house, even though there might have been someone in it. I wanted them to die. I wanted you all to die.” Once again she fell into violent sobs and we waited for her to collect herself.

“I understand,” I offered quietly. “I have had a ghost control me as well. It’s very hard to distinguish between what they wanted and what I wanted. And the ghost who was controlling you was very strong and very evil.” She looked up as If I were giving her hope. “Those weren’t your feelings, they were his. He drew you into them so you thought they were yours, so you would do the things he wanted you to do. When you said those awful things to me at work, I knew it wasn’t you. And when I realized it was you who set the fire...” I reached down and took her hand. “Well, I’m glad you’re back with us. The real you.”

She didn’t say anything but smiled weakly, accepting my forgiveness. Ben came up beside me, placing his hand on my shoulder, and when she caught sight of him she stretched a quavering arm toward him. “I remember…” She closed her eyes to search her memory and continued, “It’s only vague, but I remember you helping me up last night. I was surprised to see you there.”

“What else do you remember?”Ben asked gently.

“Not much,” she apologized, “Everything before that was just dark and angry. I remember a bright light. It was beautiful and warm. It made me feel safe when I looked at it, but at the same time it made me angry and want to run away. I could hear a voice telling me to get away from it, but I couldn’t tear my eyes off it. I could feel the voice peeling itself off of me, like when you spread glue on your hand and peel it off after it has dried, it felt good and painful all in one. And then I was on the floor.”

“You remember about as much as I do,” he laughed. “I had a ghost inside me too last night, but evidently my ghost knew how to preach.”

“He must have,” she smiled. “The meeting was in chaos after you left.” She tried to continue but was clearly still too weak to go on. “The pastor called for…”

As she faded, Heather hushed her. “That’s enough for now. You can tell us more later. Right now I think you should rest.” She turned to us and said, “I think she’ll rest better if you weren’t here,” bending her head towards the door.

“Of course,” I agreed.  As we made our way out, we passed one of her sons in the hallway, but he was so intent on getting to her that he never even noticed us. I took Ben’s hand and sighed, “Good, she’s got her family now.”

As we drove home in the rain I called the HR manager and filled him in, telling him not to look for her to be at work for a few days at least, but I expected she would be calling him an a day or two to give him more details.

The kids had been watching for us, and when we entered the front door we were greeted with a thousand eager questions. Thankfully Beth was the supervisor for the night and she anticipated the emotional strain the events of the evening would have. “Give them a minute!” she chided. “It’s not easy having a friend in the hospital.” She shooed them down stairs and asked us, “Have you eaten? I saved a plate for each of you downstairs, if you want.”

There was a comfort in being surrounded by the normal hubbub of the house. Life went on and we were needed here. That was very satisfying and helped put things into perspective. We didn’t mention that it was a suicide attempt, but did tell the kids that it was Evelyn who was in the hospital, reminding them that they had met her when they visited me at work.

“The lady with the shadow inside her?” Sabina remembered her instantly. “Is he still there?”

“No,” Ben told her. “He went away last night, now it’s just her.”

“Good,” she smiled innocently. “He was not a very nice spirit. I think we can be friends now, can I come and see her at the museum when she’s better?”

I looked at Ben in surprise, and shrugged, “Sure, why not?”

After saying goodnight to them all, we headed up to our apartment to crash. We had just barely managed to clear up the mess I had made in my rush to change after work, when my phone rang. It was Phil. “Are you boys busy?”

“Not really,” I answered, “Just settling in for the night.”

“Could I ask a huge favor?”

“For you, anything.”

“Good, I’ll explain when you get here. Just come on in and meet me in the basement.”

“The basement? What on Earth…?”

“Don’t worry, no ghouls or ghost involved,” he laughed. “Don’t talk when you get here, at least not downstairs, and If you do have to say something please whisper.”

“Whisper?”

By this point Ben was getting curious. “Who is it? What do they want?”

I waved him away with a grin and continued, “Ok, we’ll whisper.”

“Good,’ I could hear the smile in his voice. “Oh, and...umm, wear clothes that are easy to take off.”

He hung up before I could respond. Ben just looked at me and asked, “Well?”

“I don’t know what Phil is up to,” I said with a curious chuckle, “But it looks like we’re going out for the evening.”