Knock Knock by S.P. Miskowski

Author:S.P. Miskowski [Miskowski, S.P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Published: 2011-07-31T04:30:00+00:00

Marietta and Beverly

"Do you promise to go by what I say, and do what I ask? Because it might sound like a bad thing to do."

This was the fourth time they had met since Beverly discovered Baretta's remains in her tulip bed. Marietta was easing her into it, she said. There were things Beverly needed to know that she might not like or approve of.

"How bad?" Beverly asked.

"It's a terrible thing, Bev. An awful thing."

"Well," said Beverly. "Tell me what it is, and I'll see if I can do it."

"That's just it," said Marietta. "If I tell you the rest of what I know, then you've got to do what I ask. If you hear it, you won't be safe unless you do exactly what I say, no matter how it strikes you."

Beverly took a minute to consider this. She looked at her hands, and then she looked at Marietta.

"How long have we known each other?" She asked.

"Since we were little girls. Since the first day of school we've been friends, you and Ethel and me."

"Why?" Beverly asked. "Have you ever wondered that? Different as we are, the three of us, how is it that we decided that day to be best friends, and we've never been otherwise?"

"That's not really true," said Marietta. "About best friends. We let you down. We let you have a baby by yourself, and all we did was write you notes about who said what at school."

Beverly shook her head. Then she asked:

"How did you know?"

"Because I saw your baby in a dream. I never told Ethel."

Beverly said nothing. The two women watched one another closely. Marietta reached across the table and took Beverly's hand.

"Listen to me. Your daughter isn't part of this, because she got away. She's safe, because you gave her away. You don't have to regret that."

"My family made me do that, they said I couldn't have a baby."

"You let her go. You saved her life when you decided to do that, before she was even born."

"How do you see these things? How?"

"I don't know. It comes to me. It isn't what I want to see, Bev. It just comes to me."

Beverly was silent for a while. She took a tissue from a box on the counter top and blew her nose. At last she said:

"What if my daughter, somehow, comes back here?"

"Why would she do that? She doesn't know you at all, does she?"

"No. But if she did, what would happen?"

"Nothing. I think nothing would happen."

"How can you say that for sure?"

"After we do what we're going to do, this will be over."

Beverly laughed, a bitter little sound. She touched the tissue to her nose and then said:

"Over and done?"

"Yes," said Marietta.

"Well, what is it? What is it you have to tell me?" Beverly asked.

"It's a story my aunt told me. Not all at once but gradually, over the years, like a bedtime story that never ends."

"All right, then. Let's hear it."

"The whole thing started here," said Marietta.

"In Skillute."

"On this property. Right where we are right now.

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