Chapter 13

D anica sat in her RV, working on her laptop, with the windows and the doors open, enjoying the early morning breeze. She heard a vehicle drive up, the crunch of the tires on the gravel giving easy warning of the arrival of the visitor. She wasn’t sure who it was, but, as she mentally reached out, it didn’t appear to be anything she wanted to deal with. She groaned and looked down at Benji, who sat at the open door.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, although he was not yet growling, but had definitely bared his teeth at the oncoming visitor. She didn’t know whether the person was coming to visit Nana or her. When a Howdy was called out in her direction, she sighed, got up, and walked to her open front door, and looked out to see a deputy’s cruiser. She nodded calmly at the man standing there. “Hello,” she murmured. “What can I do for you?”

He studied her and smiled. “I’m Deputy Benson. I spoke with our good Dr. Cameron late yesterday.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything and just studied his face. Something was off about that genial look. “What can I do for you?”

“I understand that you believe your grandmother was attacked.”

Again she just nodded and didn’t say anything.

“Do you want to give me some details?” he asked.

“I’m sure you got the details from Dr. Cameron,” she murmured. “So, not a whole lot more I can tell you.”

He looked at her. “How about you tell me what you do know?”

She shrugged and gave him a quick reply. “From what I heard, the doctor at the hospital said that Nana didn’t have any swelling or bruising at the hospital, correct?”

“At the time, it wasn’t evident. You checked?”

“No, I did not check then, so I have no idea.”

“Right,” he replied.

Such patent disbelief filled his tone that she stiffened and glared at him. “Is there a reason that you’re here?” she asked, bristling.

“I should ensure that your grandmother is okay, shouldn’t I?”

“No, I’m not certain that you should,” she replied, staring at him. “As a matter of fact, you’re on private property. So, unless you have a real reason to be here, I suggest you leave.”

He looked at her and frowned. “Now, hang on a minute. I’m here to help.”

“No, you’re not,” she argued, trying to calm down, chastising herself internally. “You’ve more or less just accused me of hurting my grandmother, something I would never do. And I don’t care whether you believe me or not.”

He flushed bright red. “Look. I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Yes, you did,” she declared, cutting him off with a wave of her hand. “I get it. You don’t want to believe that the doctor may or may not have seen an injury. Therefore, if it wasn’t there at the hospital, it must have happened at home. But you’re wrong, and the facts don’t matter because you won’t listen to anything anyway. So just take a hike. Nothing to see here.” She motioned for him to get back in his vehicle and leave. He looked at her, opened his mouth, and then closed it again. She nodded. “Exactly.”

“I’m not trying to cause trouble here,” he said. “Obviously I’ve come across a little too harsh.”

“Ya think?” she asked, openly mocking him now. “I’m not sure that you came across too sharp. You already had your mind made up before you got here. The least you could have done was check out the facts first and not just assume you had them.”

“But you haven’t given me any facts,” he said in exasperation.

“No, but Dr. Cameron did. So, if you’re planning on arresting me, do it now.”

At that moment, Nana called out from inside her house, “You better not arrest my granddaughter. She hasn’t done anything.” Slowly her grandmother made her way out to the front step.

Danica hopped down from her RV and raced over. “You shouldn’t be moving.”

“I’m fine,” Nana said, brushing Danica off with a wave of her hand. “Besides, if this BS will go on, you can bet I won’t sit on my butt and let another travesty happen.”

Danica glared at Deputy Benson and tried to tell her grandmother who he was, even as her grandmother raised her voice. “I don’t give a shit who he is or what he’s doing here. He can leave now.”

Looking at the openly hostile old woman, Deputy Benson shrugged. “I was just coming to ensure you hadn’t been attacked.”

“No, you weren’t,” she snapped. “You were coming because you had a sense of duty to come and to check on a report. But now you can go back and say you checked on it. Everybody’s alive. Duty done. That’s all you care about, right? It’s got nothing to do with the facts. It’s got nothing to do with right or wrong.”

“If you were taken to the hospital and you had no apparent injury, and yet you come home and find an injury, what am I supposed to think?”

“I wouldn’t try thinking at your age. It’s obviously a strain on your brain,” Nana retorted.

At that, Danica giggled. Her grandmother was nothing if not sharp.

Nana continued her scathing remarks. “For you to even think about accusing the one and only person in my world who absolutely loves me, who would do nothing to hurt me, is complete and utter bullshit. You’re obviously not here because you truly care about us.” She pointed to his official cruiser. “So just get in that vehicle of yours and get lost.”

Deputy Benson shifted uncomfortably. “Ma’am, I’m a sheriff’s deputy. And if somebody attacked you—”

“Oh, just go away. You’re one of the superstitious cult in town,” she declared, cutting him off. With that, she walked back inside and slammed the door hard.

Danica burst out laughing. “You see, Deputy? That is my grandmother. No way anybody’ll pull the wool over her eyes.”

“Yet you were worried enough to take her to the hospital,” he pointed out.

Her smile fell away, and she nodded. “That’s because she was unconscious, but apparently that isn’t of interest to you either.”

He slammed the hat back on his head, walked toward his vehicle, then looked back at her and called out, “There better not be another incident.”

“On that, we can agree,” she snapped, now glaring at him. “Yet it won’t be my doing if there is.”

He shrugged. “Says you.”

“I can’t say I have anything to prove my innocence, but you’re not looking for proof of that anyway, are you?” she snapped right back. “All you want is to see something that’s not here,” she murmured. “So go back to your office. You’re perfectly safe. Nobody here will hurt you.”

He flushed at that and asked, “Are you threatening me?”

“Of course not,” she said, with an eye roll. “You came already terrified, without my having to threaten you in the least,” she explained, with a bright smile. “Now, go on, go on. You’ll be fine. You survived a visit to the Crazy Ladies’ House. Not to worry,” she assured him. “No need to come back ever again.”

And, on that note, he got into the cruiser a little too quickly and raced down the driveway.

Her grandmother stepped back out of the house and said, “You really shouldn’t antagonize him.”

“Me?” Danica asked, looking at her. “What about you?” she cried out.

Her grandmother shrugged. “What? I’m too old to care, but, in your case, they might hold it against you.”

“I really don’t give a damn,” Danica replied. “I’m surely not staying here once you’re gone anyway.”

Her grandmother looked at her, sorrow in her eyes, and whispered, “No, Danica. That makes me very sad too.”

“It shouldn’t. You know as well as I do that no way anybody here in this town will ever accept me.” And a certain sad knowing settled into Danica’s soul.

“You don’t know that,” her grandmother retorted. “Some people appear to be on your side, like that nice doctor.”

“You mean, like the nice doctor who somehow gave the deputy the impression that I attacked you?” she asked, one eyebrow raised.

Her grandmother winced. “It’s really not his fault. From a medical perspective—and those people have very limited thinking, you know—it really does make sense that you would be the one who attacked me.”

She stared at her grandmother in shock. “What?” she cried out. “You really think I would have attacked you?”

“No, of course not,” she stated. “Don’t be silly. I know you didn’t attack me, but, for these people, who only see what’s in front of them and don’t know the difference, it makes sense to them. Because an injury appeared, after there being no injury, they don’t know what to think about it.”

“Yeah, you want to tell me what you did?” Danica asked, finally seeing the sense in that.

Her grandmother gave her an innocent smile and then chuckled. “While I was healing, I held it off while I was unconscious for a while,” her grandmother explained. “But then I really struggled. I’m not as strong as I used to be. So, while I fell asleep again, all of it just popped up, even though I was trying so hard to keep it down so you wouldn’t worry.”

She stared at her grandmother. “So, all that time you were unconscious, and I was worried about you, you were in there trying to heal yourself?”

“I was trying to rest,” she stated, with a sniff in the air. “And with rest comes healing. So, it’s not as if I did anything wrong.”

“No, but you could have told me that you needed to take some time out to heal,” Danica complained, looking at her intently. “Instead you let me worry. Why?”

“It’s not as if I let you worry,” she said, suddenly looking frailer than Danica had seen her in a long time. “I’m just not as strong as I was, so I can’t do what I used to do as easily.”

Immediately Danica walked over with a forlorn look on her face and muttered, “I’m so sorry.”

“Getting old is not for the faint of heart.” Her grandmother chuckled.

“No, it sure isn’t,” she agreed, giving her a pat on the cheek.

“You need to stop worrying. My time will come, and I will go in peace, the same way I’ve always lived my life.”

“Oh, right. Will you try to tell me that you’ve always lived in peace? Now I know you’re lying,” Danica declared, stiffening at the thought. “There was no peace when my mother was around and not likely all that much peace since she’s been gone.” Danica hesitated. “You’ve never once told me if you ever talked to Daisy on the other side.” Her grandmother looked at her, tears in her eyes, which made Danica feel awful. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“Of course you should have asked,” her grandmother responded. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask before, but the answer is, I’ve tried, and I haven’t been able to make contact.”

“Do you think she doesn’t want to make contact or isn’t capable of it?”

“I would suggest she isn’t capable. She was a pretty sick woman here, and we like to think that the minute you cross over, all the disease in the world that plagued you while you were alive is gone,… but that’s not the case. I am genuinely surprised that you didn’t ask before.”

“I wanted to ask,” Danica admitted, “but I didn’t want to bring up any more harsh memories.”

“Right. We’re both bound by those memories, aren’t we?” her grandmother muttered. “And it permeates everything in our world, whether we like it or not.”

Such sadness filled her grandmother’s words that Danica once again wrapped her arms around her and held her close. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“You might as well have. I’ll cross over and meet her sometime soon anyway.”

“Maybe that’s what she’s waiting for. Maybe she has her own things to apologize for.”

Her grandmother looked at her and laughed. “Don’t ever expect apologies when you’re on the other side,” she stated, with an eye roll. “Sometimes people over there are just plain angry.”

“Maybe it’s not that they’re angry. Maybe it’s more that their own perspective prevails,” she suggested, rearing back and looking at her grandmother.

“If you wanted to reach out, you could,” Nana mused.

Danica snorted and stepped back and asked, “Even if I could, why would I?”

Her grandmother looked at her shrewdly and replied, “So you could get answers.”

“She won’t answer me,” Danica retorted. “I asked her at the time, and she was in such a blinding rage. She couldn’t do anything but slash and cut,” she described, glaring at her grandmother. “I doubt her answer will be any different now.” With that, she looked back at Benji, who was whining beside her. “I need to get back to work.”

“Fine,” her grandmother muttered, “but you can’t run and hide forever.”

“Yes, I can,” Danica replied, as she stepped into the RV. “I can certainly run and hide long enough to avoid Daisy. There will be no good day for me to come face-to-face with my long-dead mother.”

“One of these days, you should deal with it.”

“Maybe, but not today. You guys might have fun with all that reunion stuff. I had more than enough fun when I woke up in the morgue,” Danica declared.

With that, she stepped into her small RV and got back to work, struggling hard to refocus on what she was doing before the deputy had arrived, yet knowing that she had to work. She had to produce. It didn’t matter what distractions were going on around her, there just wasn’t anybody else who would help pay her way.

Other than her grandmother in her childhood years, there never had been anyone for Danica. Once she had turned eighteen and left, she had only herself to rely on. Danica doubted that would ever change. Besides, she was happy being independent. It gave her a lot more than she had been expecting, and it was good for her. At least as long as she was independent, she didn’t worry about people betraying her. She was done with that. She’d been betrayed by the very person who should have looked after her, and instead all she’d done was try to kill her.

*

You cannot waste any more time .

The urgency in his tone was unmistakable. Harriet shuddered. “I know. I know, but—” she muttered.

No buts. You’re out of time.

She nodded and stared out at the distance. “I know,” she whispered.

You’ve tried to talk to her many times, but you keep stopping and not telling her what she needs to know. Now you’ve left it too late.

“No, I haven’t,” she snapped. “I still have time.”

Soon it is Halloween, as you well know.

“So I still have time,” she repeated softly.

But not much. Not much . The whispers rolled around her. You know what it’ll be like, if we’re the ones who tell her .

She winced at that and nodded. She got up slowly, feeling old, sore, and tired. It would end soon; she knew that. She was grateful to know that the end was very soon, but she had so much to do first, so much that had to be dealt with.

It’s true. You do have a lot to do, and yet you keep wasting time.

“No. She’s had a terrible time. We don’t even know who attacked Danica all those years ago,” she muttered.

Do you want us to find out? the voice asked.

She shook her head. “There’s always a payment, a cost due.”

Sure, it takes energy to sort through people’s minds, to figure out what somebody may have done and what they may not have done. If you don’t want us to do it, that’s fine, but you still need to do your part.

“I am,” she muttered. But she was losing hope of anything changing, anything interfering that would make this something she didn’t have to do. It was her responsibility to do it; she knew that. But that didn’t make it any easier.

None of this will be easy, but it doesn’t change the fact that you should do it .

And, with that, the voice faded once again into the distance in Harriet’s mind.