Are You Haunted (part three)

Are You Haunted

(part three)

Powell thought Guy’s job must be easy, though. Mostly driving around.

“You don’t need anything, I’m gettin on.” This, and a Jesus lord possible, under breath as Guy turned away. He was offended.

Powell wasn’t sure how he was going to work this out. “Mr. Guy, sir, can I beg a ride to town off you?” The appeal, with no heart in it, came out like sarcasm.

“Sir’s about right.” Guy popped the hat on. “I better hear please when you want a favor. But get in the car. We gotta find that girl. She told me she had to go in the woods, and I couldn’t do anything about that. She might have run off by now, but I want a look at the house.”

The Ford skirted the ruin, crossed the highway, bumped up a dirt and semi-graveled…mostly dirt…lane. Holes gouged by the lost and curious had filled with water. Guy hauled the wheel, pressuring the gas pedal with a practiced touch, a fight Powell willed him to win. He did not at all want to leave his seat, get harried through ankle-deep mud, pushing this behemoth over the hump.

“Do something useful with yourself there, Kenzie. Keep an eye out.”

But Powell preferred not to spot her. He couldn’t see his face giving anything away…that would depend on how Guy chose to view whatever appeared there. She might be pretty. She might even be someone he’d panhandled in the town.

The house, too… Something avid, or abashed, might creep into his gaze. The house sat plain and useful, an architectural milk-cow, whitewash over brick, green shutters, flat front, no veranda.

You would hate that, wouldn’t you, not having a porch for sitting? And why, Powell thought, looking at four big maples darkening the lawn, would you not like to lean back on a swing, sip at a cup of coffee, watch the famous colors come out when the leaves turned?

The driver’s door slammed.

Guy had pulled it open all the way before heaving it shut. Powell, who would at this shock have spilled his imaginary cup of coffee, leaned across, looking up.

“If you’re waitin for me to come round’n open the door for you, ma’am, ain’t gonna happen.”

The Big Chief was already up to the door, jogging the knob. He dug in a trouser pocket and pulled out a ring of keys.

“Can we go inside?”

“Nothin to look at inside. But you might as well find out for yourself. I know who was the last person in the house. Then we’ll see what happens next.”

At this latest implied threat, Powell shrugged. He waited until Guy had crossed the threshold and couldn’t see him do it. His eye was caught by a flash of red kerchief, and he saw her at the fieldstone shed, half hid by the trunk of a maple.

The girl wasn’t hiding. She was staring at him, a closed smile on her face. She had dark, dark hair and pale skin. Powell, feeling kinship with any fellow vagabond, shooed at her, the only warning he could give, before he slipped in after Guy.

3

Haunted
Are You Haunted (part four)

(2019, Stephanie Foster)