She continued staring around the table. Then she noticed Ricky was missing. “Where’s your brother?”
No one spoke. Under the table, Ricky began to tremble.
She stood up again and waited for the right words. Then she announced, “Cindy Ralston can’t come over any more.” She glared at Jeanie and Ann, her watery eyes bulging out of their sockets. They both winced at the same time.
“But, why?” blurted Liz.
Miss Briggs turned to Liz. Her pupils dilated with anger. “Because I say so,” she said angrily, pounding the table. “Because I say so, that’s why.”
####
Chapter 9: The Message
“How did she know Cindy’s name?” Jeanie asked later, when she was alone with Liz and Ann.
“Golly. I don’t know. We didn’t even know her last name ourselves. I know she didn’t hear it from us,” Ann said.
“I’m going to tell Mother,” Liz added, pleased to be the tattle-tale for once.
Miss Briggs walked in very quietly. “What’s all the whispering?”
They quit talking and stood looking at each other.
“All right, then,” she commented. “I’ll just separate you girls. Jeanie, go wash the windows on the third floor. Ann, you go to the second floor. And Lizzie, you can do the first floor, right now. Now go.”
Jeanie looked at Ann. Ann looked at Liz. Liz looked at Jeanie
“Right this minute,” she yelled. Startled, they rushed from the room without a word. But Jeanie gave Ann and Liz a look that said not to worry, we’ll get even.
They went their separate ways, while Ricky and Neil took a nap, their first in years.
The ringing of the doorbell startled them. Liz ran to the front door, just in time to see Miss Briggs crack it open, and peek out. Someone greeted her by name, and slipped an envelope through the doorway. She read the message inside the envelope, and put it in the pocket of her apron. Liz noticed a big smile on her face when she went back to the kitchen.
The boys got up from their nap, and joined the girls in the kitchen where Miss Briggs treated them to hot butter cookies. She even smiled at them, her beady eyes gleaming brightly.
They took their cookies and went outside. “She smiled at me,” Neil said.
“Sh-h-h,” said Jeanie, holding her fingers to her lips. “Listen.”
“She’s singing,” said Liz.
“These cookies are good,” added Ricky, as he stuffed another one into his mouth.
“Something’s not right,” said Ann. “Something is definitely not right.” They all looked at Ann, waiting for her to say more. “She’s too happy. And those eyes, “She shuttered, thinking how red and watery they were. “They’re just too weird.”
When their mother drove up and parked the truck, they ran to greet her. They all yelled out their complaints about Miss Briggs at the same time. Most of it was too garbled to understand.
“Hold it, kids,” she yelled over their chattering voices. “One at a time, please.”
When they finished, she shocked them, saying she would not listen to any more complaints about Miss Briggs. “No one is perfect, and that goes for grownups, too. Miss Briggs comes with excellent references.”
They looked at each other in despair. They could only hope that she would eventually see how mean Miss Briggs really was, at least to them. But to their dismay, Miss Briggs was a completely different person when their mother was in the room. The two of them chatted easily, and Miss Briggs even bragged how good they were. She even bragged about Liz.
“She’s a first cousin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Jeanie commented later to Ann.
“She definitely has two personalities,” said Ann. “But what can we do? Mother thinks she’s so great.” Her heart pounded at the thought of living all summer in the same house with those beady eyes.
“Just keep your mouth shut and your eyes open,” said Jeanie. “We’ll figure out what her game is.”
“Girls, boys,.” their mother called from downstairs. “Miss Briggs wants to play some group games before bedtime, to help you rest. Come on down to the living room.”
“Oh, gripes,” Jeanie whispered.
They played ‘doggy with a bone’ and Jeanie and Ann half-heartedly participated. Ricky, Neil, and Liz were a little wary at first, but put aside their feelings toward Miss Briggs and joined in with some enthusiasm. Besides, it was one of their favorite inside amusements.
When Miss Briggs tired of that, she switched to ‘I Spy’, hiding a small thimble with obvious delight. Their mother played also, and Jeanie and Ann felt a tinge of guilt watching her have such fun. They eventually got into the spirit of the game, though reluctantly, and put aside their apprehensions for the moment Soon the house was filled with laughter.
Their mother prided herself again on hiring Miss Briggs. She was absolutely convinced her children were in good hands for the summer. They just needed time to get use to each other.
They finished the evening piled on their mother’s bed while she read ‘The Sugar-Plum Tree’ and ‘Seein’ Things’. They snuggled against her as she read these old-time favorites from her own childhood. It was a way of connecting.
When they got into their separate beds, they went into a deep sleep almost immediately. Even their mother, who started to read, fell asleep instead. Her magazine slid out of her hands, off the bed, and to the floor. Its pages flapped silently she slept.
Miss Briggs was right. The games were restful. She puttered around downstairs until the wee hours. No one heard a sound, nor did they know what time she finally came upstairs to bed. They were fast asleep.
####
Chapter 10: Voices in the Night
Jeanie and Ann hid in a corner of the cellar the next day so they could discuss Miss Briggs in private. Besides, if she saw them without anything to do, she’d assign them some tedious chore. Ann was talking and stopped in mid-sentence when she heard the cellar door creak. The overhead light flashed on, and shadows began to dance around the walls. They sank back into the darkened partition, out of view until they knew who it was. It didn’t sound like any of the little kids.
Jeanie recognized Miss Briggs’ tall frame as she cautiously came across the room toward them. She held her breath, hoping that Ann wouldn’t panic and start coughing or sneezing. When she got about half-way across the floor, she stopped in front of the coal furnace, opened the door, and dropped something inside. Something she took from her apron.
Ann felt a sneeze coming on, but held her nose until she heard the door close at the top of the stairs. Then she sneezed. Not once, but three times.
“Oh-h, I hope she didn’t hear that,” Jeanie whispered. She waited, her eyes dilating as she tried to see in the unlighted cellar.
“Let’s see what she threw away,” said Ann, as she found her way to the furnace. Jeanie held on to her shirt tail when she glided across the floor.
“You have cat eyes.”
Ann peered inside, but it was too dark. “My cat eyes don’t see anything.”
“Let’s get out of here,” said Jeanie. She was beginning to feel squeamish. “Suppose she comes back.”
Ann wasn’t ready to give up. “I think it was a piece of paper.” She reached into the furnace again, but only got a handful of ashes from the unburned coal..
Jeanie grabbed her sister’s hand, and headed toward the outside stairwell that lead into the back yard. The sunlight blinded them for an instant, and when they regained their sight, Jeanie saw a curtain flutter from the kitchen, and a quick glimpse of Miss Briggs. “Come on, Ann. Let’s go,” she whispered. She headed around the side of the house to the orchard where the trees would shield them from those probing eyes inside the red-brick house.
Just when they reached the orchard, they saw Cindy coming through the gate with her croquet set. Ricky, Neil, and Liz were playing tag nearby.
“Hello,” Cindy called out in her friendly manner.
“Hi,” they responded, running to the
front yard.
Ann looked at the croquet set. “Are we playing croquet today?”
Before Cindy could answer, Miss Briggs screeched in her high voice, “Lizzie. Come here, child. Come here.”
Liz looked up at the red-brick house. Her knees shook and knocked she ran up the walkway to the front porch. Miss Briggs met her at the front door, and glared with wide, watery eyes. “You tell that Ralston brat to get out of this yard right now, and never come back.”
Liz was too scared to argue. “Yes’m,” she answered hastily, running down the steps. She told her sisters what Miss Briggs said, her arms flailing around in all directions when she talked.
“Calm down,” said Ann.
“I’ll go,” said Cindy. She kicked at the green grass with the toe of her tennis shoes. When she reached the gate, she turned around to wave. Tears flowed down her cheeks. Jeanie and Ann couldn’t hold back their own tears, feeling a pang of loneliness as they watched their only friend cross the street back to the mansion where she lived.
*****
That night Jeanie and Ann were awakened by the sound of a strange voice coming from their club room where Miss Briggs slept. They listened from their bed, trying to make out the conversation. From a distance, it sounded like loud mumbling. The thick walls that separated the rooms muffled their words.
“Do you hear that?” Ann asked. “Someone’s in there with Miss Briggs.”
“Sh-h-h,” said Jeanie. “I think they’re arguing.”
“Why don’t you get closer, so you can hear them?” suggested Ann.
“Why don’t you?”
“You’re the oldest.”
They finally got out of bed together, and tiptoed to the adjoining wall. But now all they heard was raspy snoring.
“Why didn’t you go when you first heard them?” Ann asked. She was too exasperated to sound civil..
“Why didn’t you do it yourself?” Jeanie responded impatiently.
Ann got back into bed without answering. Jeanie was wide awake, but crawled into bed anyway. Not that either one slept much. They moaned and groaned and kicked each other the rest of the night.
####
Chapter 11: Devising a Plan
The hot summer days rolled by slowly. The ground became parched and burnt, and the air gritty with sand. The sky was clear except for an occasional dark gathering of clouds that dallied for awhile, offering possible relief, but dissipating before the hoped-for precipitation.
Then, for days, it seemed more like weeks, the sky was completely clear, with its livid blue color contrasting sharply with the hot yellow sunlight that had free access to the earth below. It was one of the hottest summers on record.
In early August, dark clouds gathered again for their usual game of coquette. They were hardly noticed. Even the Weather Bureau ignored their presence. When the storm broke, though, it was with a frenzy, drenching everything in sight. The red-brick house, old and dissipated like it was, somehow withstood the deluge with a vengeance of its own. The roof shook and rattled endlessly, the shutters blew back and forth defiantly, and water spattered against the window panes in a continuous stream. This continued for two days and two nights before it finally subsided.
The ground was wet for days. Miss Briggs wouldn’t let anyone outside to play. “You’ll drag in all that mud and water on your shoes,” she complained. They all had a bad case of ‘cabin fever’ from staying inside too long.
They congregated in the third-floor bedroom when Jeanie happened to look out the window just a messenger boy drove up on his motor scooter. She slipped quietly out of the room and down to the second-floor landing, and watched Miss Briggs snatched a note that the boy slipped through the front door, read it, then put it in her apron pocket, smiling broadly as she went from the foyer into the living room.
Jeanie tiptoed up to the third floor, holding her breath all the way back to the bedroom. If I could only get that note, she kept telling herself, then I’ll know what she’s up to.
After the smaller kids left their bedroom, and went downstairs to play in Ricky’s room, Jeanie told Ann what she had seen, and they began devising a plan to get the note away from Miss Briggs. They went downstairs together and offered to help with some cleaning. Miss Briggs looked up from her mending and smiled. “Like what?” she asked suspiciously, since they had never offered to do anything to help her before now.
“Well-l-l,” stuttered Ann. “Maybe we could wash woodwork.”
“We’re bored,” added Jeanie. “Could we polish the silver?”
“The woodwork is clean and the silver is polished,” she answered sarcastically, her eyes and fingers still on her sewing.
“Good try,” Jeanie said later.
Their plan to get Miss Briggs to lend them her apron failed. But it wasn’t out of the question, because she had let Jeanie use her apron the day she cleaned the banisters.
“Do you think she can read our minds?” Jeanie asked her sister. “She seemed awfully distrustful right off.”
“Yeah. I noticed that, too. The minute we walked in the room.”
Later that night, both girls were again awakened by voices coming from the adjacent room. “Hear that,” Jeanie said, shaking her sister, who was already awake. This time they didn’t hesitate, but jumped out of bed and crept across the room in the dark, and leaned their heads against the wall. The sounds were too muffled to understand, but they were definitely voices from two people.
Jeanie cautiously opened the door leading into the hallway. “Sh-h-h,” she warned her sister. They hid in the hall closet for a long time, waiting for someone to come out of her room. But they waited in vain, for no one ever left. Eventually they heard Miss Briggs’ labored snoring, and returned to their bed.
They couldn’t get back to sleep. There were too many unanswered questions. “If we know for sure someone else was in there,” reasoned Jeanie, “and yet no one ever came out, where did they go?”
The next morning, after hearing Miss Briggs open her door into the hallway, they again hopped out of bed and slipped across their room to the door, peeking out just they saw her descend the stairs by herself. When they were certain she was in the kitchen, they sneaked into her bedroom and looked around for evidence that someone had been there the night before. Unable to find anything suspicious, Ann said to Jeanie, “Maybe we just dreamed we heard noises.”
Jeanie looked at her sister, thinking.
“Is it probable?” asked Ann, really wanting to know if they could just be dreaming. Maybe hoping it was all a dream, or a bad nightmare.
Jeanie pondered the question again. It was becoming dreamlike. The footprints on the porch, the trap door that closed all by itself, the two notes that Miss Briggs got from a messenger in the middle of the day, and now voices in the night. Twice. It was just too bizarre to even think about.
Jeanie knew she had to bring them back to reality. “How could we both have the same dream at the same time?” she asked her sister.
“You have a point,” said Ann, still skeptical. “But could we anyway?”
They went downstairs to eat breakfast, still pondering what was real and what was imagined.
When their mother left to drive to the farm, she again noticed mud prints on the porch, just like before. They went to the middle of the porch, and then back to the steps and down the walkway. She called the police, and insisted they come immediately.
Neil and Ricky watched quietly as two burly police officers made a plaster of one of the footprints. “It’s a size eleven,” one said, adding, “Pretty big feet.”
After they left, the two boys played police officers all morning, and investigated footprints in the front yard until a tall, lanky telephone repairman arrived to repair the telephone on the second-floor hallway outside their mother’s bedroom. They watched him just as intently, and when he left they became telephone installers the rest of the day.
It was an eventful day for the whole household. Even Liz had a good time, dressing up
in her mother’s jewelry and makeup, undisturbed while everyone was occupied elsewhere in the house.
####
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Part II: Impending Danger
Chapter 12: Watchful Eyes
A feeling of mystery continued to haunt the red-brick house. Miss Briggs became more tense and harder to please as the summer came closer to ending. Her watery eyes flashed angrily over the least infraction. Jeanie and Ann felt her unease, and knew that something was about to happen. But what? When? The waiting seemed endless.
Liz was dawdling in her mother’s room as usual, rummaging in her costume jewelry, when she heard the creak-creak of shoes in the hallway. She held her breath for fear she’d be caught. The footsteps stopped just outside the door. She froze.
Liz heard someone dialing the telephone in the hallway, then the receiver being slammed down. She heard Miss Briggs mutter something, then heard her redial. On the second try, she reached the correct number. Liz heard her whisper, “I’m telling you. These brats drive me batty. Get the job done and get me out of here.” She banged the receiver down and left.
Liz waited until she heard Miss Briggs climb the stairs to the third floor and slam her bedroom door before slipping quietly down the stairs to her sisters. She told them what she had just heard.
Jeanie and Ann were ecstatic. “Wait until Mother hears this,” said Ann. “Now she’ll listen to us.”
“Wonder what job she’s talking about?” Jeanie pondered.
“What did she mean?” Liz asked, her big round eyes flashing, hoping for an answer.
“We’re proud of you, Liz,” Ann said, hugging her sister.
Ricky interrupted by asking, “Maybe it’s a bank robbery?”
Neil tried to speak. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He tried again, but his vocal chords just weren’t working. He tried waving his hands, but all he could do was stand there shaking.