Chapter XIII
There was no such thing as time in that little room. Hazel woke up with no idea as to how long she had been in there. Things had gone so wrong so fast. Was there any way to get things back to normal? Maybe they could if she forgot about the mystery and went back and apologized to her grandmother. Whatever was happening was obviously too traumatic to recount.
Hazel looked around. Mrs. Norwich was sitting on the edge of one of the tunnels looking solemnly at her. Hazel quickly backed up towards a tunnel.
“Don’t,” Mrs. Norwich said quietly, “we need to talk.”
Hazel stopped and curled up against the wall. Mrs. Norwich sat down beside her.
“I want to apologize for the way I acted and explain why I was like that.” Mrs. Norwich said quickly.
Hazel listened intently, but refused to look at her grandmother.
“When I was your age several events occurred all at once that changed my life.” She spoke softly without any emotion. “As you know my father died when I was ten years old. He was on his way to a business trip in a nearby town. He sold furniture. Only minutes into his trip he came to a bridge and lost control of the car. The car was discovered in the water below, his body several miles downstream.” She paused for a minute to recompose herself. “Earlier that evening he promised that he would never leave me, and then he was gone. I couldn’t get over that for years. I thought about when he said that to me. Was he lying?”
“He couldn’t help dying.” Hazel whispered.
“He shouldn’t have made the promise. My younger years were spent trying to figure out why he lied to me. I began to fight with my mother. She had troubles getting over it also. I needed someone to comfort me and reassure me, and she couldn’t do that. It drove us apart. I spent many nights right here in this playground. She never knew where I was going.” She smiled sweetly at Hazel, who didn’t look back. “I think I know what’s been going on with you. Several days after my father died I heard a strange noise coming from my father’s room. I went and looked as any curious child would. There was a box on his bed. I don’t know what he was going to do with it, but it was there. Next to the box was a little monster. It was a hideous creature with green skin and horns. I was so frightened that I ran from the room. It followed me into my room started tugging at my doll. My father gave me that doll several years earlier for my birthday, and I refused to let that evil creature at it. After a while it disappeared. I thought that was it, but it wasn’t.”
Hazel finally looked at her grandmother. She was staring at the opposite wall, tears streaming from her eyes.
“The next night another creature came from the box. This one was black, and just as frightening. It came into my room that night and took a dime from my dresser. That dime had my birth year on it. I chased the thing through the house and finally got the coin back. Over the next few weeks similar creatures came from the box and tried to take things. I started to feel strange every time they emerged. The feeling was so strong, and it took me a while to figure out what it meant, but then I understood. Somehow every time those creatures came from the box I felt that I was responsible for my father’s death. It was so strong I knew it had to be true.”
“But you weren’t responsible.” Hazel asserted.
“I wanted answers and I couldn’t find any, and then that feeling came with the little monsters and I knew I did it. I can’t explain to you how it felt, how strong the feeling was.” Mrs. Norwich removed a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her eyes. “As the emotions grew my relationship with my mother got worse. I sent her away from me crying on so many occasions. Finally I made the connection between the creatures and the things they were trying to take. Every night a different one came, no matter where I put the box they came. There were five of them and they came in order over and over again. The last one, a purple monster, would only come after me. Those nights were the worst. I would close my door and hide under the covers. The monster would sit outside my door all night, scratching to get in. I didn’t want my mother involved so I didn’t tell her.
“That wasn’t the only thing that happened that was strange. I began to hear creaking outside my door and shadows in the halls. Once I even heard a car running outside. All these things together terrified me and scarred me. One night I decided that I had enough. I took three of the four things the monsters were after and went out into the night. I hid those things all over. One I even hid in a little play house my father made for me. That’s why I don’t like toys. I am constantly afraid that those things will show up again if any are in the house. When I got home I hid a clock in the basement. I expected to see one of the monsters, but I didn’t. Nights passed, and they didn’t reappear. I didn’t even hear creaks or see shadows after that. I did it, I won.”
“So what happened then?” Hazel asked.
“Nothing’s ever over. Through my teen years I started to forgive my father and see things clearly again, but then my mother died. We never truly patched up our relationship. Her passing hurt me more than I ever thought it would. I was alone, and once again scared. Though this was a different scared. I didn’t know how to take care of the house or how to be an adult, I never bothered to learn. For several years people came to the house, telling me they were people I had to pay to keep the house or to pay the bills. I was scammed on several occasions, losing most of what my parents left me. I wised up quickly enough and stood up to them, finding out who was telling the truth and who wasn’t. I didn’t trust anybody after that. It was years before I went out to do more than get food. I started taking walks around, and that was how I met my husband. He worked at the grocery, but had big plans to get into the furniture business. He wanted to work for the business, Matthew Norwich Furniture that my father started. When he realized who I was he asked me questions every time I came in, as if I had something to do with that business.”
Mrs. Norwich laughed. Hazel smiled.
“We got to know each other and he eventually asked me to marry him. I said yes of course. He began selling furniture. I was so proud to have somebody in that business again. It didn’t take him long until he was running the whole thing. He chose to change his last name to Norwich, which is my maiden name. He thought Norwich would make people trust him more since he was running Norwich Furniture. Anyway a few years later we had a daughter, your mother. I was at once scared that she might have some strange occurrences, but I attributed it to my paranoia.” Mrs. Norwich’s smile faded. “Ten years later Frederick, my husband, became sick. No doctor could tell what the matter was. I dreamed of my father every night. He was always trying to speak to me, but for some reason I could never hear him. That’s when the nightmare started over. One night I was going to my room from the bathroom when I heard your mother talking in the room you sleep in now. I opened the door and saw my old doll on her bed. Everything came back to me. I lost control and screamed at her, taking the doll away. Under her bed were the rest of the things I hid. I didn’t know what to do.
“I calmed myself down and thought through it. It wasn’t so bad that she had found the things. I didn’t hide them very well. The next day Frederick died. That night I heard your mother talking to something again. I grabbed her, locked her in a closet and ran to hide the things again. For some reason that feeling that I was responsible came back full strength. I ran out into the night once more and hid the things all over. One was in the play house again and one was in the basement. After that everything fell apart again. I sent your mother away to live with Frederick’s parents until I could get myself together. I gave her the clock and the box in hopes that they would never reunite with the other things. I lived in a state of depression for years, unable to pull myself out. Before I knew it your mother was married and living on her own. She never left me, she always wanted to come and see me. I never wanted her to come, I felt so bad about what I did. I wrote to a friend that I had when I
was younger. I told her everything that happened. She was my way of venting. But I still felt bad.”
“You blame yourself for too much.” Hazel said. “You weren’t right, and you realize that now.”
“Everything was fine until you came. I don’t mean to say I don’t want you here. I told your father to let you come. I didn’t want him to tell you that I wanted you here because I figured you wouldn’t want to come. I wanted you to think that you were coming to help me or to help your mother get better. The thing is, your mother is sick, and it seems so similar to what happened to Frederick. I didn’t want you to go through what I did or what I and your mother went through. I was vainly trying to protect you from death and its aftermath, to keep your life as full as it can be.”
Hazel chuckled. “You can’t protect someone from life. I think that you had the wrong reaction to your father’s death. Nobody told you that everything was alright and that it was fine to feel sad and mad so when the next death came you continued with the wrong reactions. It would be like if one of my teachers didn’t correct me, I would go around making the same mistake.”
“You don’t get it and you can’t unless you’ve gone through it. And that’s why I wanted you here.”
“Well I hope you realize that you can’t blame everything on yourself.” Hazel patted her grandmother’s shoulder.
“I do, and you know what? I actually feel a lot better now that I’ve talked this over.”
“Well good, I’m glad I could help.”
They both laughed.
“I put them back where they belong and I hope you don’t go looking for them again. It’s best that you don’t.”
Hazel sighed. “Alright.”
“You know what Hazel? I’m glad you came. When you arrived I thought you would be like the kids I see around town, but you weren’t. You are well behaved.”
“Maybe they are too, you have to get to know them.”
“Well either way, you helped me feel better from the start. I’m kind of sorry that you have to go home so soon.”
“Maybe I’ll come back next year.”
“I hope so.” Mrs. Norwich said. “Well, its time I go back, you stay as long as you need to. I’ll have dinner ready when you get back.”
Mrs. Norwich got up and went out through one of the tunnels. Hazel sat for a few minutes longer. She felt so much better now that she knew everything. Suddenly an idea came to her. She got up and crawled through the tunnel. Once outside she waited to let her grandmother get back to town and then ran down the road. Hazel jogged through the streets of the town looking for a phone. There weren’t any payphones. There was only one place that she thought she could find a public phone. A short time later Hazel walked into the library and went up to the desk.
“Excuse me, Miss.” Hazel said to the rude librarian.
“What?” the librarian asked rudely.
“I need to use your phone, do you have one?”
“Want to leave here early?”
Hazel ignored the question. “Do you have one?”
“Yes, it’s right over there.”
Hazel went to the end of the desk and picked up the receiver of the phone. She dialed her father’s cell number. The first few times she got it wrong, but in the end he picked up.
“Hello.” Mr. Winbolt said over the phone.
“Dad, its Hazel.”
“Hazel! Did your grandmother get a phone?”
“No, I’m at the library. When are you getting here?”
“Well, I thought I would come up on the thirtieth and stay the night, if that’s alright with your grandmother.”
“Cool, can you bring up the clock in my room?”
“That old thing, does your grandmother want it back?”
“No, well yeah sure.”
He laughed. “All right, I’ll see you then.”
“Thanks bye.”
Hazel hung up the phone. The feeling of wanting to follow the little animals was back. Which brought her to another question: why had she seen animals while her grandmother saw monsters? Hazel remembered seeing the book from the bookcase in the house. There were little monsters on that, maybe there was a connection.
The night passed without further incident. Hazel had dinner with Mrs. Norwich. Neither said anything about their previous encounter in the playground. She had a strong feeling that the clock would finally resolve things. Hazel went to bed that night making a promise to herself that she would not say anything to Mrs. Norwich. She wasn’t sure how much her grandmother could take if the matter was discussed further before the clock arrived. Hazel had another strong feeling that things were bound to get better if the clock was with them. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t care. While Mrs. Norwich ran from the feelings she got, Hazel was going to embrace hers.