“Must of been nothing, have to
adjust to my own place”, Leonard breathed out and he returned to
preparing his dinner. Eventually forgetting about it, he settled in
for the evening and then retired to bed.
One of the many benefits of waking up
in the country, is the beautiful sunrise. Leonard loved sunrises and
looked forward to opening his eyes to see the sun peering through the
window and lighting the entire room. When he did wake up, he saw a
dull light in the room as if it were a rainy day. He looked out the
window and saw that the countryside was brilliant in the morning sun
but not his room; Leonard was somewhat confounded by this.
Mid afternoon Leonard pulled into his
neighbors' driveway if that's what you wanted to call the dirt path
with tire tracks. The old driveway ended under an ancient walnut tree
that was in front of the large two story white house with ancient
pealing paint. Leonard rang the doorbell several times and got the
impression that no one was at home until the door rattled and finally
opened. Standing behind the doorway was a lady of seventy to eighty
years of age with disheveled hair and a dress that looked like it was
from another time period.
Leonard started to greet the elderly
woman with a friendly salutation when he was interrupted by her.
“Can I help you?”, she said in
a crackly soft voice.
“Hello, I am Leonard James,
and I'm your new neighbor”, he said as he gently reached out his
hand.
“Neighbor? Did you recently buy
the new place up the road aways?”
“No Ma'am, I bought the white
house with green shutters, several miles down the road.”
She finally grasped his hand, “You
mean you live in the Ella Cartwright house? Did anyone tell you the
history of that house?”
“No Ma'am I just know that it
had been on the market for some time.”
“One could say that. Forgive my
manners dear, I am Ruby May and I go by Ms. May. Can I call you Mr.
James?”
“Yeah, that's fine by me. I'm
sorry to digress, but what were you saying about the history of
the... Ella Cartwright home.”
“Follow me over to this swing”,
she said as she limped over to a decrepit looking porch swing.
Ms. May took a seat on the swing and
Leonard leaned a against the porch railing beside her.
“Dear, there is much to tell
about that old house, much of which is horrific, inhumane, and
utterly terrifying. I will tell you the long and the short of it. If
you feel that this may make you see your new house in a different
light, you may want to leave now.”
“No Ma'am, I would prefer to
know the truth of what happened there. Go ahead and tell me
everything.”
“Very well then. Ella and George
Cartwright were married and moved into that house around 1965. The
house was new and built on land obtained from Ella's father. I
remember them to be a good couple at first, always waved as they
drove by. Then they began to have kids and I began to see more of
Ella walking down the road, until one day I met her and asked what
she was doing. When I saw her face, she had a black eye and busted
lip. I immediately asked if George did this and she denied it and
said she had fallen off a ladder. In the back yard of that house
there is a small barn isn't there?”
“Yes Ma'am.”
“Have you been inside of the
barn?”
“No, its got a lock on the
door and I wasn’t given a key”
“Before the barn was there, it
was a small well house covering a deep well. Supposedly, they capped
the well and built the barn over top. Anyway, that may be irrelevant.
Ella continued to show up in town with the kids and with a patchwork
of new cuts and bruises, until one day the police came knocking on my
door asking if I had seen old George Cartwright at all in the past
couple of weeks. I replied that no I hadn’t and asked if he was
missing. The policeman said that no one in town or even Ella and the
kids had seen George for three weeks. A year passed and no George,
but the cuts and bruises on Ella disappeared and everyone's
disposition appeared greatly improved. Just as it seemed the sun was
shining, tragedy struck again. Will, the middle child, went missing.
It was a bizarre situation because Ella and the other children
claimed they all went to bed and woke up with Will missing. Time
passed and the family seemed to heal again, but it happened again
except this time it was the two younger children Jack and James.”
Leonard interrupted, “Weren’t the
police the least bit suspicious of Ella by now?”
“You're right, that's what I was
getting ready to say. By now the police were in a full investigation
of the where abouts of the children and George. While the
investigation was ongoing, and while there was so much pain and
anguish in the air, it turned out that the two older children, Sarah
and Mitch went missing. By now the entire town was being turned
upside down and in emotional turmoil due to these missing persons.
Poor old Ella was at the center of all the investigations, judgment,
and sorrow caused by the disappearances of her children. They never
were able to find explanations, nor any bodies. Some of the few folks
that remember it, see it as a true mystery, while others think it was
a crime done by Ella herself.
Copyright 2014 M.G. Wylder
