Are You Haunted (part thirty-four)

Are You Haunted

(part thirty-four)

Powell kept back, loitering in a corner, unstacking a bowl after the others had shuffled past, moving himself to the end of the line. He took two deviled eggs, dropped in a handful of pretzels, a chicken leg, a scoop of orange slices in sweet dressing. These flavors would all have to mingle their way in. Once he’d emptied his bowl, he would need it for cake.

As a host short of chairs ought to, he chose a place on the floor.

“Age before beauty, old Dad. I don’t mind the floor if Powell don’t.” Alfin steered his father to a chair…but shot a glance at his cousin Dennis, parked already on another, holding the bottle between his knees.

Dennis drank, and leaned to tap Powell.

“Use your shirt cuff,” Alfin said.

“I can fetch a glass,” Isobel said.

“Oh, I don’t care.” He could feel his cheeks heat up, but would let the whiskey answer for that. Powell kept the tilt of the bottle cautious (not to have anything back up), but drank until Dennis said, “Okay, give it on.”

Alfin was next. “Ladies first.” He stretched an arm to Lois.

“Alfin,” Lois said, “do you see that man by the stairs? Isobel…?”

“I came round from the kitchen door. Heard you all in here, decided, for my purposes, not to shout. So he’s got himself inside. Is that right, ma’am?”

“He wouldn’t say a word to me,” Isobel answered Summers. “I’ll go up with you, though.”

“Now I’m assuming…” Summers crossed as she rose, to hover a hand under her elbow. “You taking it calm, like you are, Miss Gilshannon, that you found Mr. Rohdl…well, I don’t know if safe is the word. Not in need of medical help, let me put it that way.”

“That’s hard to say, isn’t it? The point where someone stops holding up? But it’s as I tell you, Mr. Summers. He doesn’t speak. I left a plate with him…if he’s been starving, a bite could bring him round. I suppose, for your purposes, he’s all right.”

Powell thought she looked wilted now, at the end of this long day.

“I will go up.”

Alfin’s father rose with a groan and a rubbing of the knees.

“So she’s out there tonight, Mr. Tovey? And you saw her yourself?”

“It may be that if I sit awhile with Mr. Rohdl, and tell him my story…”

“You were waiting by the car, having a smoke. You looked up to the hilltop, towards the back of the property. I was coming that way myself.”

“I’d have said it was the moon, low among the trees, as you see it sometimes. Lovely, clear light, shining just there. But the moon was creeping up the sky all the time, away over the mill. I was not afraid of her, Mr. Summers. Do you say, then, that you saw her, too?”

34

Haunted
Are You Haunted (part thirty-five)

(2019, Stephanie Foster)