Halloween: No Love is Lost

"Dana!" a piercing screech exclaimed from behind the short, bald, white man that had opened the door. Dana Carter couldn't stop the grin that came as the man's bushy brows lifted in surprise. He stepped aside and her favorite cousin Aisha scrambled around him to envelope her in a firm hug. Dana almost stumbled with the force. Aisha wasn't very big, but she still managed to throw Dana off balance and make her drop her shoulder bag and purse.

"Hi, Eesha!" Dana said trying to blink back the tears that were filling her eyes. She had just seen Aisha and Antwon over the summer, but she'd still missed Aisha living just around the block from her own mom's house in Hoboken, NJ.

"How was the drive?" Aisha said slipping an arm through hers and leading her into the mansion that would be her home in a matter of days.

"Great, considering I didn't actually do any driving." Aisha had insisted on sending a car across the river to pick her up. She'd feigned insult when Dana tried to beg out and take the bus instead.

"You are going to be in my wedding!" Aisha had said over the phone. "It won't do for you to go Greyhound when I'm the one that needs you to be in my wedding."

"Are your sure Jamison won't be upset if you send his driver out of the state just to get me?"

Aisha giggled. "Jamison loves me and he knows that this wedding is going to be the only one I get...he'd walk to Hoboken and carry you here piggy-back if I asked."

Dana had met Jamison when he'd joined their family for Christmas. She could tell he was raised differently from them. They'd always had loud, raucous holidays with meager gifts and great food. Jamison had watched the entire family with what appeared to be awe. It was as if he'd never seen so many people in one place before. She'd even seen him stare into the kitchen as Aisha's mom and aunts cooked the Christmas feast.

He was so nice, though. He'd gotten presents for everyone in their family, right down to Aisha's three week old second-cousin. Dana had thought the Bugaboo stroller/car seat was a bit overboard, but that was before she knew that Jamison could afford such gifts and wasn't just trying to suck up to the family. He was obviously a good man. He'd even insisted on Aisha moving into his house on the Hill while he stayed in his apartment. He'd said she needed to be there since the wedding was going to be in the back yard, she'd be able to get everything prepared. Plus, the time apart would make their wedding night all the more special.

"Dana!" Aisha snapped tugging on her arm as they entered what must have been a sitting room.

"Huh?" Dana had a bad habit of getting lost in her thoughts and tuning out when she should have been listening.

"I said your hair is gorgeous. Do you think it'll keep for the wedding or should I schedule a hair appointment for you with mine?"

Dana touched her black and brown micro-braids self-consciously. "No. They'll keep fine. I just got them done before I left."

"Cool. Come on and I'll show you to your room."

"What about my stuff?"

"It'll come up right behind us," Aisha said pulling her toward a curving stair case. Dana followed her up the carpeted steps, and through a wide, well-lit hallway. Dana lost count of the number of doors they passed, but they stopped just before a table with a vase full of roses on it. "Here it is," Aisha said using her shoulder to push open the door to their left.

Dana gasped audibly and took a moment to appreciate her accommodations. There was a large canopy bed to the left of the door with sheer red draperies, a flat screen television on the wall opposite, and a sitting area by a large bay window that had a window seat. There was a small fireplace behind the sitting area that looked like it had never been used. That couldn't have been the case though, considering the age of the house. They certainly didn't have central heat and air when it was built. Still, the red brick didn't even have a trace of soot or dust. The floors were highly polished wood and there was a large red, black, and gold Oriental rug that covered almost all of it.

"The bathroom is across the hall," Aisha said, snapping Dana out of her state of awe. Dana nodded.

Dana allowed herself to be pulled to the bed and sat beside her cousin. Aisha smiled shyly and took her hands. "I'm so glad you're here, Dee-Dee," she said in almost a whisper. Tears welled in her hazel eyes. "Thank you so much for being my maid-of-honor. I don't think this wedding would feel real if you weren't here to do this with me."

"If my favorite cousin is getting married, where the hell else do I have to be?" Dana said squeezing gently on Aisha's hands.

Aisha laughed. "I can't wait for you to try on your dress! Stinson will be up with your bags soon. He's probably taking the elevator. That thing is slow as Christmas."

***

That night, unable to sleep, Dana shuffled to the window and sunk onto the seat there. She stared out into the darkness when something caught her eye. Jamison's house was surrounded by trees, since it was built on the Hill but between some trees, there seemed to be a tiny light glowing steadily. Dana pressed her nose against the glass and narrowed her eyes. There must be a house out there she thought to herself. She got to her knees in a futile attempt to make out more of the mysterious clearing, but the darkness kept its cover.

She jumped when she heard a soft knock. She hopped down from the window seat and hurried to open her bedroom door only to find no one on the other side. She glanced up and down the brightly lit hallway and was about to step out of her room when she heard the soft rapping sound again. It was coming from inside the room. She flipped on the light and gazed around the room to find the noise that was getting louder. The armoire was open and she could see plainly that there was no one and nothing under the high bed. There was nowhere for anyone to hide. She crept back to the window and the knocking changed from slow, steady thumping to short, quick rapping.

Her heart was starting to do its own knocking around in her chest. "Calm down," she muttered. "It has to be a trapped mouse or something." Her reasoning was anything but sound and she knew it. Dana grasped the side of the window seat and let out a slow breath. This was the point in the movie where she was yelling at the blonde girl to get the hell out of the house...and here she was about to look into the window seat to find who or what was in there. "Dammit," she swore and slung the seat upward. The knocking stopped and she saw there was nothing inside. She leaned further into the shadowed box just to make sure. Something was in there. Dana reached in and pulled out a book. It was old; the black leather cover was cracked and worn, not to mention the three inch layer of dust that scattered as she brushed it off. There was no title on the cover so she opened it to a page close to the middle.

April 6, 1951: I HATE, HATE, HATE Martin Bedeau! He treats me so badly. I can't believe he's the same boy I used to play with every day. We were the best of friends but now, since he's turned eighteen, he's changed and I HATE him. I was walking to the bus stop this morning and he drove up in his red Chevy Styline. He had the white top down so I saw it was him that slowed down. I had just turned full around to look when the car swerved toward the curb, hit a puddle from the early morning rain and splashed me with the muddy water! My socks and shoes were soaked, so was the hem of my new skirt. Mama just finished sewing it last night! I heard him laugh as he sped up and drove off. I HATE MARTIN BEDEAU!!!!!

Dana closed the top of the window seat and sat down staring at the last sentence. The girl who had written those words was beyond angry. She'd almost torn the page from the pressure she'd used to write the exclamation points. "What an asshole," Dana mumbled running her fingers across the cracked cover of the diary. She opened the front cover and read the name written on the inside in careful cursive.

Mary Louise Jefferson

Dana flipped through the pages until she got some general information about Mary Louise Jefferson. She had just turned eighteen, her mother was the maid for the Bedeau family, and they lived a two bedroom house behind the manor.

Dana looked out the window again but the light was gone. She couldn't even make out the spot where it had been in the inky blackness; even the tree line had been absorbed into the night.

Dana flipped through the yellowed pages skimming for more information. Martin, she found out was the eldest son of Marie and Peter Bedeau, whose family had been wealthy in Europe and somehow continued to maintain their wealth in America, even after the Great Depression and the Wars.

While Martin and his brother Claude had both been sent to Europe to boarding school, during the summer breaks, Mary and the boys would play on the grounds...that was until they were old enough to know better. Then, the boys became distant; Claude would say hello, but nothing more, on the rare occasions that he was home. He'd been at Cambridge for over two years when Mary had begun the diary.

Martin, however, was now enjoying the life of a privileged teenage boy, attending his lax American school when he felt, and driving his new red, Chevrolet Styline all over town. Instead of ignoring Mary as his brother did, he chose to pick on her or harass her. At first the entries just said that Martin was annoying and a bother, but as his antics became worse, her writings about him became longer. When Dana came upon the entry she'd started reading first, her watch said it was almost 2am. She yawned and decided to go back to bed. She stashed the diary back in its original hiding place and went to sleep dreaming of cherry red Chevies and soaking wet bobby socks.

***

"Took you long enough to get up!" Antwon said when Dana shuffled into the kitchen the next morning at 10 am.

Dana grinned and threw her arms around her cousin's neck. He let out a slight, "Oof," but hugged her back.

"Leave her alone, Twan," Aisha said from behind the stove. "She had a long day yesterday and it's hard to get used to a strange bed."

"Well, if your beds are so shitty here, she should stay at my place," Antwon said winking at Dana. "All my beds are brand new."

"I know, asshole, I picked them out for you!" Aisha rolled her eyes and ushered Dana toward the kitchen table and sat her down in front of a plate of pancakes.

"How is the house?" Dana asked Antwon as she tucked in to her breakfast.

"Great! Thanks to Jamison, I was able to buy the house for next to nothing and I'm working on fixing it up right now."

"Jamison sold you your house?" Dana said quizzically. "I didn't know he was in real estate."

Aisha and Antwon exchanged nervous glances behind Dana's back.

"Uh...he's not," Aisha said quickly. "The former owner died suddenly and the house and everything in it was the property of the bank. So, Jamison bought it and sold it to Antwon for real cheap. It was just a portfolio thing, I mean, real estate on the Hill is never put up for sale, it gets passed down. So, it was actually a great financial opportunity to move some assets around." Aisha wondered if she sounded as full of shit as she felt.

"How did the owner die?" Dana asked turning around to face her cousins. She'd heard some stories about the twins being in on some kind of weird shit but she didn't know what to believe.

Antwon cleared his throat. "She was really old and died...uh...suddenly."

Dana nodded and went back to eating her breakfast. Once again she missed the looks Antwon and Aisha gave each other.

"So," Aisha said with a slight quake in her voice. "The seamstress is bringing your dress for a fitting this afternoon. What do you want to do until then?"

Dana swallowed and thought a second. "I'm just going to hang out. It's so loud at mom's, I think I really need to take some time and appreciate the peacefulness here. I'll probably just catch up on some reading and I may explore the back yard."

"In the cold?" Antwon asked.

"I have a coat," Dana said rolling her eyes. "Besides, when else am I going to be able to live in a mansion?"

Aisha smiled. "Anytime you want."

Dana waited for Antwon and Aisha to leave the house to run errands for the wedding before putting on her warmest sweater and heading down stairs.

Stinson, the portly butler met her at the bottom of the staircase. "Will Miss be needing the car?" he asked.

"Umm...no, Stinson, I'm just going to take a walk outside. You know...fresh air...and whatever."

He nodded and gave a polite nod as he stepped back. Dana thought she saw a faint smile play on his lips. "Very good, Miss."

Dana exited the house through the kitchen door, which led to a patio that looked large enough to hold a party of five hundred. She wondered for a second what it would be like to have one of their family cookouts on that deck. The idea was quickly dismissed. Jamison would be crazy to let their entire family into his house for any reason. The ones that didn't steal his shit would probably get drunk and break his shit and all their bad ass kids would run around doing the same.

She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jeans. She sighed at the fact that she'd gained some weight since the weather had turned cold. Her hands barely squeezed into the pockets. There was definitely a chill in the October air even at noon. She wondered what the hell possessed Aisha to get married on Halloween instead of in June like sixty percent of the other brides.

The back yard was just as opulent as the house itself. It was no wonder Aisha wanted to pop up a tent in the back yard and get married there instead of the church back home or whatever country club Jamison surely belonged to. The lawn stretched for miles and it was surrounded by trees. Curiously, there were no leaves on the ground. The groundskeeper was just that good. Dana noticed a bit of white in the distance behind one tree and made for the small forest bordering the yard.

The tiny house looked serene. The light beside the door was not on; in fact there wasn't even a light bulb there. The door was painted white like the rest of the house. There were empty window boxes under the two windows that flanked the door and what appeared to be a small garden to the right. Dana knocked, mainly out of politeness; the house had to be abandoned. There was no reason for anyone to actually live in out there.

Dana tried the ancient knob and the door opened easily. She stepped into the house and shivered. It was as if she was stepping into some secret club house. Dana walked slowly through the kitchen and into the small sitting area. There was still furniture in the house, it was battered and old, but it made the tiny shack feel like a home. She ran her hand along the back of the couch as she passed. To the right was a hallway, which must have lead to the bedrooms and bathroom.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" a deep voice boomed causing Dana to jump a mile.

She turned around to face an extremely large, angry man. His face was set in a frown, and his clear gray eyes were narrowed. He had a narrow nose and his thin nostrils were flared. He was over six foot tall with broad shoulders evident under his black jacket. His dark wash jeans were frayed at the bottoms and his boots were caked in mud. He snatched off his tattered Mets cap and large black curls fell into his face.

"I...uh...I was just..." Dana couldn't form a sentence for some reason. She found herself backing up, which she realized wasn't a good thing once her back was pressed against what she hoped was a bedroom door.

"Well?" he boomed again.

Dana put her hand behind her and turned the knob. She stumbled backward into the bedroom and slammed the door. "Shit!" she swore when she saw there was no lock. She ran to the window and began to tug it open. It gave about two inches before it refused to budge. Dana continued to struggle even as she heard the bedroom door open behind her.

"Hey," the guy said putting his large hand on the window to stop her fight with it. "Are you gonna tell me what you're doing in my house or what?"

At that Dana stilled. "I didn't realize anyone lived here. I'm sorry." She turned around and was face-to-chest with the stranger. "I'll just leave."

"Who are you anyway?" he asked sliding the window shut behind her. "I haven't seen you here before."

"I'm Dana," she said sidestepping him to head for the door. "My cousin Aisha is staying here while she gets ready for her wedding."

"Ahhh," he said with a nod. "Well, I'm Mark."

"You live here?" Dana asked glancing around at the small bed and dresser that took up most of the room.

"Yes, I'm the groundskeeper. Mr. Bedeau hired me this past summer to get the grounds in shape in time for him and his wife to move in after their honeymoon."

"They won't be back until March; he hired you prematurely didn't he?"

"Actually, the grounds were a mess after years of being abandoned while Mr. Bedeau lived in his apartment downtown. I needed the entire summer to clear out the weeds and dead trees. I had to create specific areas for flowerbeds and dig a pool. Right now I'm planting all the bulbs for spring so when they get back the perennials will be blooming. Oh...sorry."

Mark had just noticed the look of confusion on Dana's face and halted his rant. He tended to forget that not everyone was as into horticulture as him. For some reason he'd gotten caught up. It had to be his nerves. It had been a long time since he'd been so close to a beautiful woman. Dana, he had noticed, was a definite beauty, her hazel eyes held him transfixed as she ran a hand over her finely braided hair.

"No, no, I'm sorry. I broke into your house and then grilled you about your life...look, I'm gonna just go." She wiped her hands over her hips anxiously and backed toward the door.

"Wait," Mark said in that deep gruff voice that was beginning to make her insides quiver a bit. "How did you find this house? It's all the way in the woods."

Dana blushed. "My bedroom faces the back yard and I saw a light on last night through the trees."

Mark drew his eyebrows together in confusion. "That's weird. I wasn't here last night."

"Well, you must have left a light on," Dana said with a shrug.

"I don't think so. I went to visit my grandmother in the hospital at three and didn't get back until this morning. I wouldn't have left a light on all day and night."

Dana thought back to how the light had been turned out when she'd looked for the house a second time. She decided not to mention it, he think her insane. She gave another shrug. "That is weird. I'd really better get going."

"I'll walk you back to the house," he said with a smile that showed his perfectly aligned teeth. Dana agreed and tried to ignore the somersaults her stomach was doing as they left his house.

***

"That dress fit you perfectly," Aisha said at dinner that evening. Stinson was clearing the soup bowls just as someone from the kitchen staff entered with two plates full of food...evidently dinner was to be duck l'orange and lentils over couscous. Dana was wary of eating duck, but didn't want to insult anyone, especially Aisha.

"It did and that peach color is great with my skin." She glanced at her honey-hued forearm and smiled. She remembered getting picked on for being so much lighter than Aisha in school. For some reason, everyone in her family and most of the black kids in the neighborhood were medium to dark-skinned. She'd grown up self-conscious of being different from almost everyone around her. As they got older, Aisha told her that the people that picked on her were just jealous. They wanted her light skin and the hazel eyes they both had. Now, Dana loved her skin. It was perfect, rich and warm. Paired with her figure, large breasts, small waist, and generous hips, she could have been a pin-up girl back in the day. She could have given Lena Horne a run for her money!