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Heaven Help Me
By
Robin Renee Ray
Robin Renee Ray
It took a good ten minutes, but Timothy finally talked Lynn into coming back into the house. Holding herself like she was freezing, she couldn’t stop looking at every dark corner of the narrow entrance way. The main living room of the house and kitchen was to her left and the three bedrooms were in the right. All the way down the hall Lynn was making sure that all the doors were closed, causing Timothy to snort out a chuckle.
“It’s not funny. You said you would take care of the creepy things before I got here.”
“I set off three bug bombs just like I said and I will set the others off when you go into Abilene to buy groceries tomorrow. I would have set them off but you can’t be around them in your condition,” Timothy spoke as he went into the bathroom, next to the last bedroom to get her things so she could change.
“If you set off those things then why were those things in the bathroom sink?”
“Wendy, if I tell you, you’ll just freak out and that will be the end of my getting a good home cooked meal in our new house.”
“Then don’t tell me, I don’t want to know…just forget it.” Lynn took her bag out of his hand and stepped into the kitchen to change. It was the only room in the house other than the bathroom that had a working light. “How strong do you think this old table is?”
“Are you seriously thinking what I think you are thinking?” Timothy raised one brow.
‘Well, yeah. I think we should put the mattress on it so we will be off the floor. I will never fall asleep thinking some yucky poo is going to be crawling up to check us out.”
“Yucky poo, honey? Where on earth did you come up with that?” Timothy pulled out one of the six chairs then stepped up and onto the table top. “They sure don’t make these like they used too, I bet five men could…”
Crash!
With the two end legs broken off, and sliding across the floor, Timothy rolled off the slanted table and pulled himself up with the aid of the cabinet. “Never mind.” He put both hands on his hips and stretched out his back. “Want me to break the other two legs off and move the top into the bedroom?”
Lynn was bent over when Timothy turned around to look at her and in a panic, he was at her side in two steps. “Did you get hit? Are you hurt?”
Lynn shook her head then sucked in a deep breath and continued to laugh. “That was the funniest thing that I have ever seen happen to you.”
“Woman, you just scared the crap out of me.”
Lynn changed her clothes, cleaning up the best she could, while Timothy took the other two legs off of the table and lined them under it to keep it a little off the floor before sliding the mattress onto the top of it. “So, the Allen that first lived here was your great grandfather right?”
“Yep, and every boy born after, at least one of us was named after him. My dad refused to be called “Jr.” and that’s why he always told people his name was Tim, his middle name. And Aunt Wendy—Great Aunt Wendy that is, never married.”
“So if this little one is a boy…”
“Don’t worry, I don’t believe in carrying on the family tradition,” Timothy said, turning around to see disappointment on Lynn’s face. “I mean, unless of course you want to name the baby after me.”
“Don’t you think we should respect your great grandfather? Aren’t we the first real family to come home, so to speak?”
“Let’s get a good night’s sleep and worry about all of this another day,” Timothy yawned. “You can fix us some sandwiches and I will makeup this wonderful bed.”
“We could turn the name around to, Timothy Allen.”
“You are too much.” He kissed her cheek and headed for the hall.
“I think it sounds nice,” she said then began taking things out of the grocery bags.
~ῲ~
Emma received a letter two months after she had taken the two children, that Allen had filed for a divorce, and willed that the land go to only his heirs. It was clear they had to live and care for the land and that it could not be sold for any reason. Not even upon his last living family’s death. The land would rot and in his own words, ‘be cursed for eternity as his beloved had so claimed’. He had stated that she was to never return, nor were the two that freely went with her unless they were coming home for good. He died twenty three years later, never to see his children or the children they had given birth to.
Emma died shortly after Allen’s wife gave birth to Allen Timothy, only after her son swore to never go back to the home he had been raised in. “It’s cursed and you know it, son. The only reason you have a family is because I took you and your sister away from that place. Promise me…promise me you will never go back and never tell your children of that horrid place.”
“Should I at least write to Paw and let him know about you being ill?”
“Nothing, not one word. And don’t tell your wife and children of the evil that has harmed this family. There’s no need for them to know of your siblings or that land and the man who stayed on it. You be happy and free from our past. Watch over your sister for me. Her mind is touched and she will never be able to care for herself.”
Allen Jr. made his promises and soon after buried his mother with the horror that had plagued his family from the time he could remember his oldest brother getting killed to the last. He swore to himself that day, that his own children would not find out a single word about it.
~ῲ~
Lynn couldn’t sleep, it seemed that the house was making noise in every room. The only light was the glow from the full moon and it was illuminating the kitchen as if candles were lit throughout the house. “Timmy, you awake?” she whispered, but he just rolled to his side and continued to lightly snore. She sat up on the side of the makeshift bed, quickly lifting her feet to look down at the dusty kitchen floor, making sure nothing was crawling around. Lynn then stood and grabbed the flashlight from the kitchen counter.
To Be Continued…
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