Sharyn McCrumb - Sick Of Shadows

I wonder who this is, she thought. Not the minister, surely! Maybe he’s somebody from Cherry Hill who has come for the wedding. Aunt Amanda would love that. He must be new around here if he hasn’t gotten used to Albania. Who else is supposed to come?

A few seconds later, when he introduced himself, she remembered.

“Come in, Dr. Shepherd. I’m Elizabeth MacPherson, Eileen’s cousin.”

“Thank you very much. I wasn’t sure I had the right house.” He glanced uncertainly over his shoulder. “What is that facility across the road?”

“Oh, that’s my Cousin Alban’s castle,” said Elizabeth sweetly. “Would you like to come into the library? I can get us some coffee. I’m afraid I’m the only one here right now, but the family should be back soon.”

He followed her into the library, pausing only to register a glance of recognition at the gray and black painting in the hall.

“Aunt Amanda just sent you a wedding invitation,” said Elizabeth, settling down in the wing chair. “Yesterday! You couldn’t have received it yet!”

“No, that’s right, I haven’t. Eileen presented me with a handwritten invitation and a map before she left school. Actually, I know I’m a few days early, but-circumstances changed.” He shifted uncomfortably.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened. Circumstances had changed! She thought of Alban’s description of Eileen: “extremely dangerous.” Her uneasiness about the situation had been right! “Who-who called you?” she asked faintly.

“Called me? Nobody called me. It’s so idiotic.” He looked at her carefully for a moment. “I think I’ll take you up on that offer of coffee, if you don’t mind. And then if you want, I’ll tell you about it. It’s really been a trip for me.”

He followed her into the kitchen and watched as she filled the copper kettle, and rummaged around the cabinets for cups and instant coffee.

“Did you have car trouble on the way down?”

“No,” he said, settling down on the kitchen stool. “Y’see, I’m on vacation from the clinic. I have to be back for summer session, but right now I’m off. So instead of going home to New York I figured I’d play tourist and take my time driving down here for the wedding. Eileen’s a nice kid, you know. Did you say you’re her cousin?”

“Yes. Our mothers are sisters.”

“Anyway, she didn’t seem to have many friends, and I know it’s been an adjustment for her, so I promised her I’d come to the wedding. I’ve always wanted to see this part of the country anyway-ever since I saw Gone With the Wind as a kid.”

Elizabeth nodded, suppressing an urge to giggle.

“Well, anyway, I drove up to that big national park in the mountains, and I rented a cabin. That was day before yesterday. Commune with nature, you know. I’m from the city myself, but some of my colleagues have been Sierra Clubbing me to death, and I decided what-the-hell, I’d give it a try. So, anyway, I got this cabin, and night before last I’m lying on my bed reading a book when this thing flew over my bed. I just saw it out of the corner of my eye, you know? But I threw down my book, and he made another pass. That time I saw it clearly. It was a bat! Ugly little sonuvabitch. Just cruising around my room. I let out a yell and ran for the bathroom, and he followed me. Sat right there in the doorway and peered at me so I couldn’t come out.”

“Why couldn’t you just leave the cabin?”

“I didn’t have too much on, you see. It was a hot night. So I went to the bathroom window and I yelled, ‘Help! Somebody! He’s got me trapped!’ hoping somebody would hear me.”

He was telling all this in a perfectly serious tone of voice, but Elizabeth decided that he knew how absurd it was. Her laughter nearly drowned out the rest of the story. Every time she tried to picture the pudgy Shepherd nude and trapped in the bathroom by a bat, she laughed even harder.

“Did it look like Bela Lugosi?” she managed to say.

Shepherd frowned. “Well, it might have been rabid. Anyway, a couple of minutes later-I’m still in the John in a staring contest with Beady Eyes-somebody kicks in the door to my cabin. This guy had been out tinkering with his car and heard me yell. So I look up and he’s standing in the doorway with a.30/.30, saying ‘Where is he?’ ”

“And you showed him the bat.”

“Well, yeah. I can’t say he was impressed.”

“Did he shoot the poor little-I mean, the monster?” Elizabeth asked.

“No. He put the gun down, sneered, and then shooed it away, so I could get my pants and get out. Luckily I hadn’t unpacked.”

“What happened to the bat?”

Shepherd sighed. “I left right then. I don’t know what happened to the bat. But his rent is paid up through Sunday.”

“Dr. Shepherd,” said Elizabeth, “you’re going to feel right at home here.”

Amanda Chandler’s reaction to the new arrival was impossible to determine from her behavior. When she came back from her expedition at four, laden with packages and demanding to know where everybody was, Elizabeth appeared in the hallway and whispered to her that Dr. Shepherd had arrived and was having coffee in the library.

Immediately her face froze into a chilling smile that did not reach her eyes. She strode briskly into the library with cordial noises and outstretched hands that did not waver even after she had seen the yellow Jung tee shirt.

“Such a privilege to have you!”

Dr. Shepherd apologized for his early arrival, attributing it to an “unforeseen accident in a national park,” and Amanda was all sympathy. She refused to hear of his plans to stay at the Chandler Grove Motel.

“Why, we have more room than they do!” she assured him with an arch smile. “And please don’t think I’m being kind! Why, I’m just as selfish as I can be. I want to have you right here where we can get to know you. And, anyway, some of our out-of-town wedding guests just may need those motel rooms, so there! It’s all settled. You’ll stay here.”

Shepherd, unused to the blitzkrieg form of Southern hospitality, succumbed in a puzzled voice, and shambled off to his car to collect his belongings. When he had gone, Amanda’s smile vanished.

“What can Eileen have been thinking of?” she murmured, glancing at him through the window. “He can’t possibly understand the problems of-of-”

“Of what, Aunt Amanda?” asked Elizabeth.

Remembering that her niece was present, Amanda summoned the wraith of her previous smile. “Why, Elizabeth!” she purred. “You’re going to think I have a silly old thing against Yankees after all these years, but really! -Oh, dear, could you just run out to the kitchen and tell Mildred that there’ll be another guest for dinner? I’m afraid she’ll be cross, but tell her that we are simply martyrs to the unexpected!”

“Martyrs…” murmured Elizabeth, shaking her head as she left. Bill would never believe that line!

She was on her way back from the kitchen when Shepherd appeared again at the front door with a brown suitcase and an armful of books.

“Would you like me to carry something?” she offered.

He shook his head. “I bet I have to go upstairs, right? Upstairs?”

“That’s right. Third bedroom on the left.”

He deposited his belongings in the hall chair. “It can wait. Boy, this is interesting. Seeing people in a social context that I’ve been hearing about for months!”

Elizabeth gasped. “She didn’t! I mean-I wasn’t mentioned, was I?”

Shepherd grinned. “People always ask me that. And I really can’t tell you. Honest. I’ll bet I hear that question ten more times while I’m here.”

“I’ll bet you do.”

“Where’s Eileen?”