Golden Box Book Publishing GBBPub February Magazine | Page 38

nice young man and as a Christian woman I can hardly leave you out
there in this devil’s darkness.”
“Yes, ma’am, thank you so much.” He moved toward her with a
slow gait and climbed the steps to her porch. “I only want to use your
phone. I don’t mean you any harm.”
“Your eyes don’t give me a chill, so I s’pose you’re all right. The
phone is in the hall just through the front door. You go make your call,
and I’ll make us a nice cup of tea. I have carrot cake, too, made fresh
this morning.” She nodded and smiled, showing him a mouth full of
widely spaced, stained teeth.
He followed her in as she hitched her way to the kitchen. She
pointed to the phone in the hall as she passed it. He looked around the
dim hallway. A tall staircase disappeared up into blackness and he
heard a creak from above. ‘Probably a draft,’ he thought.
Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned, but when
he looked toward it he saw only an empty room that faded into
darkness. The only light came from the left, where, he assumed, resided
the kitchen.
He reached for the receiver and lifted it to his ear. Dead. He rattled
the hang-up buttons: nothing. Following the cord from the phone to the
wall, he could see no problem there. He jiggled the buttons again but
nothing happened.
He returned to the porch, shaking his head.
She came out through a door on the left of the porch carrying a tray
with two steaming cups rattling on saucers and two plates bearing the
promised carrot cake.
“Your phone is dead, ma’am.”
“Oh, please, call me Miss Eva. Everyone around here does,” she
said with a sweet smile.