Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers (8 page)

Bingo
. A violet cloth journal with flowers painted on the front.

Regina reached her hand into the unlit hole and lifted the book into the dim light of the closet. The book was thick and Regina held it up, causing a shower of white envelopes decorated with crimson hearts to flutter to the carpet.

“Regina,” she heard a sweet voice call from the hall. Surprise knocked the wind from her. Suddenly, the woman’s heart was pounding in her ears as she frantically swept the envelopes back into the journal; she swept everything back into its tomb, replaced the wood panel and let the carpet fall back into its place. Regina tripped over the hamper that she had placed behind her as she tried to scramble through the cluttered space.

“Shit,” she cursed as she threw the hamper back into its proper place just in time to meet Leo at the threshold of the closet.
The two greeted with a strong embrace. She sighed restfully, in the comfort that came with having a man wrap you in his arms lovingly; the same sigh half-filled with relief that she had not been caught in Lola’s secret place.

Why do I feel the need to hide it still?
She wondered…
still feel the need to keep Lola’s secret?

“What are you doing in here?” he asked.

“Just looking at some of her things; her clothes, I loved the way she dressed.” Regina gave a lie and the truth in the same sentence.

“This is just crazy, I know,” He said as if reading her mind.

“I know,” Regina commented. Leo released her from his grip and took her hand, leading her to the bed.

“How are you, Leo?” Regina asked. “I heard that you have a family of your own now,” She prodded sweetly.

“Yes, I do. They’re beautiful,” He said thoughtfully. “I’ll introduce you when we go down. The pair took a moment to smile at one another before having the conversation that was inevitable, but Regina was anxious to begin the conversation only because it meant being closer to the end of the conversation, her stomach was tumbling like a slinky.

“So what do you think happened?” Regina was anxious to know what he was thinking. Leo thought for a long time. He knew what he wanted to say, but he pondered what was appropriate before he spoke.

“Honestly, Regina, I loved my sister, but I just can’t do this again. She is dead, she’s been dead all of this time and despite her body being discovered and all the new uncertainties one thing is still unchanged.”

“She’s dead.” Regina finished his thought sorrowfully and he smiled a smile that lacked any kind of joy, but appreciation of her understanding.

“She’s dead.” He repeated dryly while nodding his head. Leo leaned over, placing his forearms on his legs and dove deeper into his private thought vault. Regina just sat being still in the moment, knowing it was best to leave him undisturbed. Moments later, he
lifted and looked inside of her as if he was trying to determine something.

“Do you want to know another reason why I want this whole situation to be done and over with?” he asked. Regina studied his features trying to figure his puzzle.

“Why?” Her voice instinctively dropped to a whisper. She had no idea what Lola’s brother was going to say, but somehow knew that it called for no one outside of this room to hear.

“Because I lied,” he said. Regina’s eyes widened in suspense. “I lied to the police, to my mother, to everyone,” he finished sullenly. A terrified Regina began to pray that the boy who had always seemed like a loving older brother did not have some degenerate side that he was about to divulge.

“About what?” Regina was still speaking in a whisper.

The way Leo stared at Regina made her uncomfortable as if he were laying his eyes upon her body naked. He then looked down, wondering if this was a secret that he was ready to reveal or if it should ever be revealed at all.

“I did speak to her that night, after she left the library.”

“What? What did she say, Leo?” Regina could hear nothing now, but the sound of Leo’s voice as if the two of them were a million miles away from everyone and everything.

Regina could see the tension rising in Leo’s stern face. She teetered on a mental tight rope in fierce anticipation of his next words.

“She sent me a text message. I had gone to bed early that night and the phone woke me up. All she said was that she was going to be home late and to leave the back door unlocked for her. I figured that she was going to try to sneak off to that party. I was so tired I never even got up to unlock the door. I meant to but I fell back to sleep before I could get up. I was just so damned tired.” Leo’s face was beginning to streak with tears as he silently chastised himself.

“When she was not home in the morning, I knew something was wrong, I knew but I never said anything. I never…said…a…word. I was afraid that my parents would blame me, I was afraid
that it was my fault, that maybe she had come home and when the door wasn’t open she went somewhere else and got hurt. I was so afraid. Why didn’t I just get up and open the door? I don’t know why I am still keeping this secret. Even now, I can’t tell my parents.”

“It’s not your fault, Leo. Your parents won’t blame you.” Regina assured him. He nodded slightly. Regina grasped his hand tight and pressed her head against his in a sincere gesture of platonic intimacy.

“The guilt just eats away at me. My wife was the first and only person I ever told. After a while, she was finally able to convince me that it wasn’t my fault, but I still don’t have the heart to tell my parents. I still can’t tell the truth.” Anguish was bubbling inside of him. “Does that make me a bad person, Regina?”

Regina was shocked by the question, she could barely speak. She had absolutely no answer for him because she was unsure herself.

Who else was keeping secrets?
she wondered.

“No,” she told Lola’s brother. “No, it does not make you a bad person at all.” She consoled him.

“All I want to do is lay her to rest. Grieve this situation. Move on,” he stated as he swept his flat hand through the air swiftly, illustrating the simplicity with which he wanted to complete this chapter of life. Regina nodded in agreement as she looked over the unchanged room again and was not at all disturbed by his cold distance from the heart of the situation.

“It took my mother a year to stop pulling her covers down at night. Once, I talked about Lola in the past tense and she slapped me so hard. I will never forget the look on her face. For a long time, my mother was not my mother; she was the mother of a ghost. Before, we never used to keep the porch light on at night, but after Lola disappeared she started leaving the porch light on every night because it would make it easier for Lola to find her way home.” Leo snickered; he was no longer talking to Regina, but to himself, to his mother and maybe even his sister. “Lola was not coming home, ever and somehow everyone knew that but Mom.” Regina squeezed his hand tighter.

“I wanted to miss her too, you know? But with Mom, there was no room for anyone else to grieve because she took all of the sorrow for herself.” He looked at Regina. “So that’s why I’m here. Hopefully this funeral will lay all of our hearts to rest…finally,” he finished as they began to leave the room.

“Yeah, I hope so too.” Regina told him. They hugged again. “Everything will be OK, Leo. Whatever happened, she is in a much better place now.”

“Regina,” Leo began, but Regina could easily read the worry on his face.

“I won’t say anything,” Regina promised to keep his secret.

In Black Water it seemed that everyone knew something, but no one knew everything, which was the subterfuge that held it together and kept it sick at the same time.

Regina returned to Lola’s family and met Leo’s wife and son. Profusely, she refused dinner in response to their many invitations. The sun was beginning to set and Leo offered to walk her home, even tried to insist, but after assuring him that she needed the time alone, he understood her wishes and she was able to emerge from the home without any dinner and alone. The day had grown into evening and the sun was beginning to fade rapidly leaving the street dark under the added cover of the trees. She trotted down the steps of the porch and was on the street when she turned to see the front porch light of the Rusher home flash to life. She looked up and down the street waiting for Lola, but was strangely disappointed when she did not see the sixteen-year-old ghost bouncing up the sidewalk and just concluded that despite the fact that old habits die hard, once you die, you’re dead.

L
asagna was Regina’s favorite and she was overdoing it at her mother’s dinner table. After gorging herself on pasta and cheese and TV with the parents, Regina settled in for the night. She was tired but knew her body well enough to know that she would not sleep after the eventful day unless she unwound. Her workout clothes stared at her from her open suitcase on the floor, she undressed and slipped into a purple tank top and cotton leggings. Regina kicked her suitcase into the closet and found a wide-open space on the hardwood floor where she was comfortable. She stood erect and wiggled her toes, feeling them against the hardwood. Regina let her body weight sink into her feet, rooting her to the floor like a strong tree. With her focus on deep breaths in and out, she lifted her arms out to her sides, and then farther until they were pointing toward the ceiling. Regina exhaled deeply as her upper body took a swan dive toward the floor and her fingertips touched her toes. The young woman reveled in the release that she felt while stretching her muscles. Regina lifted her body gracefully, raising her upper body one vertebrae at a time until she was standing erect once again.

Regina coughed lightly noticing a chill in the room. Again, she lifted her arms from her sides with the grace of a ballerina, an angel spreading her worn wings. When her fingertips pointed toward the sky, she exhaled and let her body fall with methodical choreography to the floor until she was touching her painted toenails. Her mind cleared itself and again she began to lift herself from the yoga position when she felt a tremendous weight on her back, she gasped in discomfort, feeling herself being pushed down farther toward the floor. Discomfort gave way to pain as the tops of her palms were now touching the floor and her body was still being pushed lower. Trying to scream, the woman was stifled by a position that kept her from being able to eject a full breath
through her throat for sound; instead, she managed only spontaneous awkward squawks. Something was pressing her down farther and farther into an unnatural position that would soon break her. Her palms were now completely on the floor and her upper body was steadily descending, threatening to collapse her upper body completely to her lower body. Regina’s forehead was touching her knees and getting lower with every second that passed. The torture was now excruciating. Regina had lost all control of her body and the only thing that she could give were involuntary gasps of pain. Her blood flow pulsed behind her eyes, she could hardly breathe at all and she heard a pop that initiated from somewhere in her lower back. Only moments away from losing consciousness, suddenly her body released itself, unlocking all of her joints and muscles, and her limp frame collapsed to the floor. Regina’s mother was there holding her.

“Regina, are you OK?”

Regina took in several panicked gasps before she was able to speak.

“I’m, I’m fine,” she stuttered, finally feeling the blood beginning to circulate through her limbs again.

“I heard you in here shuffling and spitting, I thought you were having a seizure or something.”

“I was just doing some yoga stretches before bed.”

Her mother’s face was rife with alarm. “You must have had a muscle spasm or something.”

“Yeah, a muscle spasm,” Regina repeated hopefully.

“OK. Well go ahead and get into bed. Maybe we should get an appointment with Dr. Duval tomorrow.” Her mother said as she helped her daughter into the bed.

“Mom, I’m fine. Really!”

Mrs. Dean smiled on her resolute daughter, remembering that she was a grown woman and capable of taking care of herself.

“Good night,” her mother said, staring at her daughter for a moment longer before pulling the string on the lamp sucking all of the light out of the room.

“Good night,” Regina responded weakly as she pulled the covers up to her chin and turned onto her side with a cough, smelling the aroma of dead roses and soap that followed her mother out of the room.

“I’m allergic to you.” Regina whispered as she closed her eyes.

A thick fog blurred Regina’s vision as she carefully made her way through the trees. She wore an Oakley High School T-shirt and gray gym shorts with no shoes at all she noticed, but experienced no discomfort. Thunder growled through the sky and at once, the rain came down. Through the trees, Regina could feel hard pellets of dark water beat her forehead. The trees parted and she came upon two black garbage bags beside a dug grave. Two shovels lay rested next to mounds of dirt that were beginning to soften with the rain. The earthy aroma unleashed by the oncoming storm infiltrated her nostrils. Regina stepped carefully toward the hole in the earth, her toes sinking into the malleable mud. No longer able to register anything else around her, with a few precise steps she was standing at the edge of what she now saw was Lola’s burial site. The cold body lay still, infected with the blue hue of death. Her head, cocked at a wretched angle, displayed the atrocious gash on the right side of her head; dry black blood painted that side of her face like a deforming birthmark. On the other side of her head was a smaller but more severe wound that had crushed in a portion of her skull. Regina jumped back when she thought she witnessed Lola’s fingers twitch, her eyes fixed on the phalanges daring them to move again. Lola’s purple mouth dropped open and took in a slow, but long whistling breath. Regina was rooted into the ground as she watched Lola’s arms reach for the clean and alive air that was just outside of her dirt grave, her arms reached up and her fingers stretched in a pathetic attempt to grasp any kind of life. Regina dropped to her knees and extended her hand in a dismal bid to save her dead friend, but her hand was just out of reach. Regina’s eyes blurred with heavy tears as she stretched her upper body to the absolute limit. Regina stretched harder with Lola’s hand inches from her until finally she could feel the cold corpse fingertips against her own, then the hand. It was too late; by
the time Regina realized that she was falling into the grave there was no way to help herself. Someone had pushed her into the arms of death.