Bittersweet Page 2

  *****

  Return to Dark Hollow Creek

  It had been ten years since I had been to Dark Hollow Creek, Kentucky in Boone County. I drove a bus back then, but not anymore. We all promised to have a reunion at the inn where we were stranded. I wondered what they would say and how much everyone had changed. The snowplows had already cleared the roads. There were piles of snow beside the roads and patches of snow on the ground, but nothing like it was in 1949. The air was crisp with a bitter twist that would bite you if you weren’t careful. It was hard for me to picture the scenery because when I was here before there was so much snow and ice, I couldn’t see much. Not far up the road was where I turned off. That night there was a detour sign there and I had to leave the main road; that’s how we happened upon the inn. I don’t remember much; it’s all different now. Could all that snow make that much of a difference? Within minutes the inn was in sight. There were a few cars already there. I wondered if they belonged to the others I had shared the inn with. As I pulled up, I looked around to see if I recognized anyone. I noticed a young girl standing on the porch. She looked to be about seventeen. I wondered if it was Heather. The last time I saw her she was seven years old.

  As I walked up to the porch I said, “Hi, young lady. Remember me.”

  “Kinda,” she replied.

  “My name is Haskell,” I said.

  She ran up and hugged me. About that time Bubba came out on the porch.

  “Hey, man,” he said as he hugged me.

  “It’s good to see you again,” I replied.

  “Man, it has been a while,” he said. “How have you been?”

  “Pretty good,” I replied. “I have sugar now and last year I lost my leg. You know how it is with diabetes.”

  “Y’all come on in and meet everyone else.”

  We made our way into the inn where the others were gathered. It had been a long time since we had been together. There was Audrey and Stephen with their twins, Susan, Susan’s boyfriend, Heather, Bubba and myself. I noticed an elderly lady in a wheelchair, so I went over to say hello.

  “Evelyn?”

  Her shaking hand reached for mine as she softly spoke, “Haskell.”

  I said, “Yes ma’am.”

  She introduced me to the lady standing behind her.

  “This is my best friend, Agnes. She brought me here, you know.”

  I looked up at Agnes, shook her hand and said, “I’m so thankful you could bring her. We are all here,” I said.

  “Not quite, we are one short,” replied Bubba. “Irene hasn’t made it yet.”

  “Here let’s have some wine before supper so we can talk about what’s been happening in our lives over the past ten years. Supper will be ready in about an hour.”

  It was good, once again, to be with and talk to them again. We never heard from Irene; she never showed up. After we had our wine, we all went into the dining room and ate; it was good. Bubba had closed down the inn so we could have our reunion. Bubba had done good for himself. He had passed back through here about five years ago and noticed the inn was for sale, so he decided to buy it. He had remodeled it. He added a stage floor for plays and enlarged the dining room. Yep, he had done real good. Susan introduced me to her boyfriend, Roger Shelton, a lawyer from Lexington. All Audrey and Stephen talked about was their set of twins. Those twins were something to talk about. As for me, I have seen better days. Health wise it looked as if my road ahead would be all downhill.

  As evening fell, we all gathered around the fireplace and talked about years ago. Evelyn had to go to her room because the excitement of the day had all but worn her out. We all said our goodnights to her as she went to her room.

  “That Peroy was a lucky man,” I said. “She stuck with him to the end.”

  “There won’t be another like her,” replied Stephen.

  “When are we going to put up the tree?” asked Susan.

  “I don’t know,” answered Bubba.

  “I wish we could go ahead tomorrow and put it up tomorrow. Roger has to be back in his office on Wednesday,” she explained.

  “Well, is that alright with everyone else?” asked Bubba.

  “That’s fine,” agreed the others.

  The night slowly turned to morning and almost everyone was up early. Those that were already up were downstairs waiting for breakfast. It appeared it was going to be another good day when Agnes came downstairs and told us that Evelyn had passed away in her sleep during the night. Our spirits fell in her mourning, but yet our hearts were cheerful for we believed she had gone on to be with Peroy. Bubba called the sheriff and he said he was on his way. We all thought it was strange that Peroy had died here and ten years later Evelyn died here too. It seemed like they were supposed to die at the same place.

  “Hey, everyone,” shouted Bubba so he could get our attention. “I believe Evelyn would want us to enjoy our stay. So what about the tree? Are we still game?”

  “I believe you’re right,” I said. “I believe Peroy and Evelyn would want that.”

  Susan spoke up, “Where is the tree?”

  Bubba yelled, “Follow me.”

  I turned to Stephen and asked him if the grandfather clock still struck thirteen times. He told him me no, it doesn’t.

  Audrey stepped up, “The music box is broken; it won’t play,” she said. “And it was their favorite song.”

  About that time they brought the tree and decorations in. Quickly, everyone scrambled about to do their share of decorating the tree. Everyone was talking, laughing and having fun when there was a knock at the door. Bubba answered it. It was the sheriff and the coroner. As we all stopped and stood, the sheriff, the coroner and Agnes went upstairs. All was quiet around the tree. Some were cried while others prayed. Within a few minutes, the sheriff stood at the top of the stairs as the coroner’s men brought Evelyn down. Nobody said a word. The sheriff told us he was sorry for our loss and he’d keep in touch. We all watched them load her in the ambulance. Agnes said she needed to be going too, but I told her she was welcome to stay.

  She said, “Thank you, but there are a few more things I need to do for her.” Then she reached over in the chair and picked up Evelyn’s stocking cap, turned and placed it on top of the tree and said, “Merry Christmas, Evelyn.”

  Slowly, we all gathered around the tree.

  “This time we may not have a Christmas wish, nor throw snowballs, build snowmen or sled in the snow, but we do have our memories of how it was before. However, today is a different day,” I stated.

  We all joined hands and softly said, “Amen.”

  A few days later, the sheriff came by. I went out to meet him. We had general small talk and then the sheriff asked if everyone showed up for the reunion. I told him everyone except Irene; she didn’t come and nobody had heard from her.

  “I doubt you will,” replied the sheriff. “She’s in jail.”

  “Jail,” I yelled. “What for?”

  “Irene worked in a doctor’s office where she met Peroy; you called him, and Evelyn. She falsified some insurance documents and took out a large policy on him. As part of her plea bargain, for lesser time she admitted she unlocked the door the night Peroy died. She was in the kitchen when he came downstairs. She didn’t try to stop him from going out. She followed him down to the pond, but she swears he slipped and fell in. When he fell in, she panicked and went back into the house to her room as if nothing had happened. That’s when she heard Evelyn screaming his name. And the rest of the story you know.

  “You got to be kidding me,” I replied. “I would have never imagined she was like that. She seemed so sweet and innocent. She helped nurse Susan back to health.”

  “Another bizarre twist is that Irene admitted she was the girlfriend of Susan’s husband. Originally, Irene was to help get Heather away from her mother to go live with her daddy. She was supposed to kidnap Heather. Irene was so in love wi
th him, she would have done anything for him and she did. But you still haven’t heard it all yet. Irene didn’t know Peroy and Evelyn were on the bus. She came to the inn to kidnap Heather, but realized that it wouldn’t be long before Peroy died. So she decided not to kidnap Heather since she knew she would be getting the money from the insurance policy. Susan’s husband was Peroy’s doctor. What do you think about that?” asked the sheriff. “Both Irene and Susan’s husband, Kenneth, are serving time now. Well, I guess I’ll go on,” he said. “Now you can stop wondering why Irene never came.”

  “Yes, sir, but I’m still shocked” I replied.

  “Well, I’ll see you around,” the sheriff said as he left.

  Stephen came out as the sheriff was driving off.

  “What was that all about?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” I replied, “just a little small talk.”

  The day soon passed and I thought about what the sheriff had said about Irene, but I was also curious if the sheriff was suspicious about anything else. As I looked at my surroundings I noticed Bubba had a new car, the inn was remodeled and he had new clothes as well. Yeah, it seemed like Bubba had done extremely good for himself.

  The next day I decided I needed some exercise so I decided to take a walk. As I was leaving Roger decided to join me so he could get out of the house some. As we strolled along, we started talking about different things. When we reached the pond where Peroy had died, we stopped, looked around and reflected on the day we had found him in the pond.

  “Bubba has a nice place here,” Roger stated.

  “Yep, he seems to have a good thing going,” I responded.

  “It’s a shame it’s not going to last,” said Roger.

  “What do you mean?” I questioned.

  “I work with the firm,” said Roger, “that handles the estate of the inn. Bubba is in the process of bankruptcy. When they ran the road through here it nearly broke him. The inn is too far from the main road.”

  “I didn’t know that,” I replied.

  “That is probably the reason the other owner sold out. About five years after he bought the inn, it caught fire and nearly burned down. He had to spend quite a bit of money to have it rebuilt.”

  “No kidding,” I replied. “Where did he get the money for all of that?” I asked.

  “I guess he took out some loans,” replied Roger. “Rumor has it that he torched the inn to get insurance money. I don’t know that for sure, but it was talked about for a long time.”

  About that time Susan yelled, “It’s time to go.”

  “It has been a pleasure to meet you,” said Roger.

  “You, too,” I responded.

  “I’ve got to run,” Roger replied. “I’m coming, sweetheart.”

  I wondered if Bubba had found the other bag of money or if he had taken it from the beginning. Rumor had it that at first there was only one bag of money and then it was told later there were possibly two bags. The facts weren’t very clear. I figure Bubba suspected I had hidden the second bag of money in the inn when no one was looking. I think that was the only reason Bubba bought the inn, so he could look for the money. Who knew the real truth of this bizarre twist surrounding the money bags. I believe Bubba may have seen me hide it. But if that was the case he never would have bought the inn; he would have been long gone by now. I suspected that he hadn’t found it yet. This doubt made me think Bubba had found it before the fire got to it. My problem now is since the fire and all the remodeling, if he hasn’t found it he will have to start tearing down the walls. It’s obvious he can’t do that. Bubba finally confronted me about the money and he wanted a share of it. But, I really had no idea where the money was; at least now I’m sure Bubba doesn’t have it. After ten years later, the fire, and all of the remodeling, who would know where to start looking.

  “So what are we going to do, tear the inn down or just forget the whole thing and leave it?”

  “Oh, no,” cried Bubba. “I need that money. I’ve got to get something taken care of.”

  “What if it was burned up in the fire,” I asked.

  “Don’t talk like that,” replied Bubba.

  “For me, I’m going to forget it,” I said.

  “I bet you will,” replied Bubba. “You know where it is, don’t you.”

  “No I don’t,” I said. “Bubba, you are going to do what you want to anyway. I’m headed home.”

  As that day slipped by, the awaking sun shone through the trees. Everyone was ready to go. I was leaving that morning and the others were leaving later in the day. We said our goodbyes again knowing that this time we would probably never meet again. Bubba stayed behind to look for his pot of gold. As I drove on, I decided to stop off at the sheriff’s office. When I arrived, I went into his office and sat down. Within a few minutes the sheriff left the room and returned with a bag. It was the second bag of money; he handed it over to me.

  “I believe you’re looking for this.”

  “Yes, sir, I am,” I replied. “It has been some long hard years. I tried to get back here earlier but due to sickness I had to put it off. Did you get your cut?”

  “Yes, sir, just like we agreed. This will come in handy for my upcoming retirement in a few months. When you came back that weekend and we talked about it, I figured I could find it. The fire was unexpected; it just about got it,” he said. “The next morning after the fire and after everyone had left I went back out to the inn to see about getting it. After a few minutes of looking I found it. The bag was smoky and charred but the money was still green. I remembered hearing about Sid McClanahan getting killed in the car wreck and that’s when I recalled the rumor of the missing money. When I saw Bubba (Rex) at the inn, I remembered seeing him in some mug shots. The rest you know. We joined together after Peroy’s death to lay low and split the money. But, I didn’t think it would be ten years later.”

  “Me either,” I said. “But it still spends.”

  As I got up to leave, we shook hands and I left. At the inn they were saying their goodbyes. As everyone except Bubba left, the lights went out on the Christmas tree and a Christmas ball fell to the floor and broke.