Meeting Mother

 Stay away from the "Free Candy van" types of cars.  You know the ones, right? Sure you do. The ones that drive too slowly passed you at the bus stop or while you are walking home.  The ones where the driver is looking a little too hard at you as he does this. Sure. It's called Stranger Danger. We've been taught and been teaching it from the time we could hear and our children could listen.  It's the first ghoulish story introduced to youngsters.


Robert Brendel always tried to watch out for Missy.  She was his best girl, he reminded her.  Missy painfully but innocently joked she was his only girl. Robert drove her to school, even when Missy begged otherwise. "PLEAAAAAASE let me walk with my friends! you can't baby me forever."


"Actually I can.  But if you want, I will let you walk.  I'll simply walk WITH all of you. I can't wait to tell Kelly about you having to sit at the table to finish your vegetables. Or share with Amy, how you are afraid of the flying monkeys in the Wizard of ..."


"Start the car. I'll get my lunch." she would sigh and drag herself out, defeated, to the waiting chariot.


It was a little tough for them at times. Robert missed his wife and best friend, Carol. As Missy grew up and discovered boys and hormones, Robert was certain one of them would wind up in an institution with only scattered clumps of hair remaining. But there were some fabulous times; laughing until they couldn't catch their breath good times. That was what he cherished and what fueled him through the rough spots of being a sudden single parent.


It was Halloween. She had wanted to go dressed as a slutty pirate which was immediately vetoed. She instead was given the choice of a clown or a hobo. There was nothing sexy about either. Robert was pleased. Missy was not. She had been given specific instructions. Call when she got to her friend's house and when she was on her last street.  He would come and get them all and they would stay at Missy's house for the night. But it didn't go like that.


She went and changed her clothes when she had arrived at Kelly's house; to be the sexiest clown she could.  They went in Amy's boyfriend's car to the local fast food and at last, they went down Beggar's road  to the old Cooper house.  Of course THIS night, everyone wanted to be there.  It was the local haunted attraction. Long ago a man and woman had tried to have a baby.  She kept having miscarriages and was very sad.  At last she made it through the pregnancy and her water broke at home.  There was a problem though.  The woman didn't have time to get to the hospital and had to have the baby at home.  There were complications and she died in childbirth. Her ghost wandered the halls in search of her baby.  Most of the spectators stood outside the gates and told the story; too afraid to go in. The triple dog dares were thrown like jousting challenges. Missy was the one to accept.


"Open the gate" she said defiantly.


"Prissy Missy is going to get dirty?" her friends chided.  That was it. She wiggled her way through, ignoring the resistance and warnings the rough iron issued by snagging her clothes. She disappeared in to the forest of briers and ivy. Her friends' voices that jeered and howled at first, fell eerily silent as she reached the warped front steps.  


"Creepy old building. That's all" she reassured herself and pushed on.


The smell of mold and neglect stung her nose. She snuffed and began to move about the abandoned home.  Furniture draped in sheets cowered and shrunk back in to the shadows.  Animals who had nested ,scurried about to peek at their uninvited guest.  She watched the crooked and gnarled trees outside as they scratched at the shell of the house.  Eerie yes, haunted? she wasn't so sure.  The shadow play could have been perceived as ghosts moving around.  The wind whistling through the old uninsulated walls could have been heard as screaming whispers of the dead. The cold blasts that surrounded her might have been spirits long gone from the physical world. Or, as she concluded, it was just an old sad forgotten home filled with someone else's memories.  She did not disturb anything, just walked around.  


"Thank you." she said to no one. (just to be safe)


"Don't go" came a distinct voice low and soft.  


She turned quickly, startled by the conversation.


"Hello? I can't see you. I didn't mean to ..."


"Don't go." It came again.


"You want me to stay with you? Can you come out so I can see you?"


"My baby. Don't go"


"Are you hungry? Is  your baby hungry?  I have some candy. Would you like some?"


Silence.


She left the bag on the floor and said thank you once more.  She would never deny the chilled sweat that covered her body.  She couldn't lie about her racing heart.  She walked much more quickly down the walk toward the gate.


Which was empty.  No one had waited.  They had all gone.


"Greaaat." she angrily muttered and began the schlep home.  She decided she would walk to the middle of town and THEN call her dad.  He might be less angry when she had to explain why she was so late AND in the middle of town when she was supposed to have just been in her neighborhood. She had decided to tell him part of the truth when she saw him next. She recognized the van as it rolled up next to her.  "Get away from me you Creeper." she joked.  The window rolled down and there sat her friend's buddy, Patrick. 


"Why are you all the way out here alone?" he asked.


"Aww I came with Amy and Dillon and the gang.  They ditched me when I went in to the Cooper place. Now I have to hustle home before my Dad blows a fuse. I think I'm too late on that last one.  What time is it?"


"It's only 8:30"


"COOL~" she clapped happily. "I still have half an hour. Can you drive me so I can call him? I might just survive this night!" 


He stopped and she scampered around to get in. "Thanks Paddy. you're great."


"Gotta get in on this side.  The door's broken. Sorry. Piece of shit. "


"You're all class Paddy. Alone again? They ditch you too? My dad says never ride with boys alone.  Bah. I don't care. You're the best!"


He said nothing and headed off.  


"Want to get something to eat?"


"Nah. I'm really just looking to get home. I don't want to be grounded for the rest of my life." 


"We have plenty of time. I'm starvin. Mind if I stop?" 


They were close so she thought nothing of it.  "I guess. Just make sure that I get home safely."


"Hey Prissy...safety third." he grinned and pulled over.


"What's up Paddy? Why ya stoppin?"


"I want to talk to you." he said quietly.


"We can talk tomorrow. I want to get home." for the first time, she felt uneasy. She thought about pulling the door but didn't. Paddy wouldn't hurt her.


He leaned over to try to kiss her, confessing he cared for her.  She whacked her head on the window trying to dodge it.  He grabbed her and pulled her to him.  She smelled alcohol and pot for the first time that night. His eyes were wild and his words were tight; angry. The struggle was brief. He hadn't meant to hit her so hard but then he just couldn't stop. He turned and drove back out of town. She tossed and turned groaning in confused pain.  He took her back out to the Cooper place and parked around the side unseen.  He carried her in and cleaned her up as best he could; waiting for her to come around.


The house was silent and dark.  It seemed to be listening to them.  He sat next to her, stroking her hair and clothes; talking quietly, soothingly as if trying to coax her back to consciousness.  It was late when she finally stirred. 


The pain in her chest was heavy and hot.  She choked on the smell and taste of blood. She rolled her head and focused her eyes on the boy she'd known forever; since junior high.  The boy who had beat her up and tried to assault her.  She scrambled away from him and tried to stand.  Her head felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds; filled with wet cloth.


Paddy reached to soothe her. "It's okay Prissy."


"Don't touch me you fucking FREAK!" she hissed.


He ground out his cigarette and stood above her.  Missy tried to scramble to her feet, but his boot to her gut insured she would stay down; coughing a sputtering. Panic was in her brain. She glanced around and began to shout


"You told me not to go!  PLEASE help me now"
and she waited. Paddy knelt above her, pulling at her hair. His lips met hers for the first time, rough and furious.  She bit his lip and growled at him, swinging wildly at his face. Her nails digging at his skin.


Paddy laughed and knelt on her chest.  His hands were around her throat.  He thumped her head on the bare floor and told her it was sad it had to be this way. She didn't have to fight him.  She could just be a good girl and no one would know.  His fingers tightened and she grew weak. "Doesn't matter who you talk to or ask for Prissy Missy. This is going MY way." furious spit dripped from his lips.  His breath was sour and jagged


"This is death." she thought to herself. "It comes slowly, darkly and I will sleep.  Sleep at peace with no more pain. Here in the dark. Forever and ever. Amen." Her vision became fuzzy, thick and black around the edges.  She felt safer closing her eyes and at last there was a stop from the pain. finally she heard it. "My Baby. Don't go."


The shadows in the house shifted. There was a scream in the night but it was Halloween so no one paid attention to it.


There was a warmth around her, soothing and strong. "I'm dead?"


"My baby. Don't go" came a voice soft and pleading.  


She opened her eyes. "Daddy?"


Nearby sat Paddy. He was alive but could not speak. Would not. He sat staring at Missy rocking back and forth as paramedics loaded him in to a "safety van" and took him away.  


Missy's dad stroked her hair and hugged her close. "How did you know?"  


"You didn't come back. The girls called and told me what you'd all done. Awww Missy you're so lucky. I'm so lucky.  You shouldn't have done this. Oh Sweetie."  He gathered his baby in his arms and held her.  He cried softly in her hair. "I couldn't lose my best girl"


"Someone saved me tonight Dad."


He pulled back and held her face. "That couldn't be truer. Do you know who?"


The woman who died in this house.


"No." he said abruptly and stood.


"Dad. It's true. She was looking for her baby. Her name was Cooper and she lost her baby and she..."


"I know this stupid story. It's crap Melissa Carol and you are weak, tired and in shock. Let's finish up and go home."


"It happened Daddy. I know what I saw. What I heard."


"Missy, you are confused."


"No Dad. I'm not."


The officer came and gave them a meeting time for the morning. Her dad ushered her to the car and pulled the blanket around her. She closed her eyes.


"She's lucky Mr. Brendel."


"I know it. She knows better than to do what she did."


" Aww she's a good girl. Her mom would be proud.  So would the rest of the Coopers."


Missy's dad ducked and peeked at his daughter, grateful that she had fallen asleep.  The introduction to her mother would have to wait.