Chapter 17: Chain Letter by Stephen Simpson
“What's wrong, Stephen?” She asks worriedly.
He croaks, through gritted teeth and locked jaws, “My mom.”
She is silent for a while. Softly he hears her voice again,
“What about your mom?”
“I think she is dead.”
“What do you mean, you think she is dead?” She asks unsure
“Because, she is just lying there. She looks awful, her face
is pulled all funny and she looks scared.”
“Stephen, take a deep breath and then tell me.”
“She is dead!” He yells into the mouthpiece.
Adèle immediately takes charge, as she always does. “Get out
of that house, close the door behind you and go wait outside. I am on my way.”
The phone goes silent and as if in a daze, he does as she instructed.
The police arrive before Adèle.
When she does get there, she starts to organize things. She
speaks to the police officer and the medical examiner first. Only then does she
walk towards Stephen. Holding him close to her, he cries.
*
When Lisa, Adèle and E’lisa reaches the Blue Ridge Mountain
Heritage Site the sun is already low on the horizon. After Adèle parks her car
they walk to the Customer Service Hut, just inside the entrance gate. As they
walk in through the door, the woman of perhaps fifty behind a thick glass pane
says, “Sorry, my dears, but the park will be closing in ten minutes.”
“Oh, okay,” Adèle says and looks at Lisa, who looks at her
in return. Adèle can see the wilful purpose in Lisa's eyes - there will be no
turning back tonight.
“What time do you open again in the morning?” Adèle asks the
woman friendly.
“We open the gates at five for all the early birds who enjoy
walking with nature, first thing in the morning.”
“Oh.” Adèle pretends to be interested. “And what about the
backpackers, if you have closing and opening times?”
“They pay to stay overnight, but all our cabins are fully
booked, my dear, this is a very popular site and more so since there have been
regular sightings of our famous lady.”
More interested now, Adèle asks, “So these sightings, do
they say if she is an actual person or just an apparition?”
“Everyone who has seen her swears high and low she is not a
ghost. They say she is a real person. But how can that be, my dear? People have
been seeing her here for more than a hundred years.”
“So long already?” Adèle already knows this from their
research on the Internet. She just wants to keep the woman talking while Lisa
figures out a plan.
Lisa is standing at a large map on the wall, studying it
intently, while E’lisa stands next to her, looking bored. Lisa suddenly turns
around, taps Adèle on the shoulder and says, “So, we better come back early
tomorrow morning, then?” She smiles friendly towards the woman behind the
counter.
“That would be best, dear,” the woman agrees.
Adèle looks at Lisa puzzled and Lisa motions with her head –
come.
They walk out of the building and Lisa turns to Adèle,
saying softly, “If I can break into a house, there is nothing stopping me from
breaking into a heritage site.”
They walk towards the car and get in. Adèle starts the car
and reverses out of the parking area. They drive away from the building.
“Okay, what is your plan?” Adèle asks, while concentrating
on the narrow road.
“While you were talking to 'dear', I was looking at the map
and if we carry on a little further up this road there is a service gate. If we
can get through this gate, it would be a ten-minute walk to the actual heritage
site.”
“So, we will get there before dark?”
“Most certainly,” Lisa assures Adèle.
Not long after, Lisa suddenly says, “There it is. The gate.”
As Adèle stops her car on the grass verge, she asks
worriedly, “Must I park my car here on the side of the road?”
“I can't see why not.”
“What if we come back and it is gone?”
“We will be gone at the most for half-an-hour. I have not
seen another car pass us by, so I think it is safe to say that your car will
still be here when we get back.”
“I am doing this against my better judgement, but I suppose
with all this weirdness I do not really have a choice,” Adèle mumbles.
After everyone got out of the car, Adèle walks around it
twice, making sure, making double sure the doors are all locked securely.
The three-some walk down the short dirt road towards the
gate. It is just an ordinary farm gate, so they bend over to climb through the
steel wires. Once on the other side of the gate, Lisa leads them in the
direction she can remember from the map.
“As long as we stay on this dirt road, we won't get lost,”
Lisa whispers.
“Why are you whispering Mom, and why are we on this wild
goose chase?” E’lisa asks, saying the most words she has said since they all
started on this journey.
“Did you not hear anything I have said in the last hours?”
Lisa asks her.
“I have, but you cannot really believe a silly email is
connected to all these deaths, can you?”
“It seems far-fetched, but everything I have seen and heard
today only leads to one answer, yes!”
“Maybe Aunt Adèle’s over-reaction and paranoia has
influenced you to believe this.”
Adèle gasps insulted.
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