Chapter Four
       page 15
  
 
 
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  hen she opened the kennel door the three ‘Bobs’ were standing in a row facing her. She gave a little scream and jumped backwards. From behind her, she distinctly heard Henry's wheezy, choking laughter. Stiff-backed, she reentered the building.
     Henry had tied them to the wall. She could certainly tell that they had not died in their sleep. She left them where they were. Henry was going to have to learn to clean up after himself.

fter lunch she lay outside on one of the deck chairs with her eyes closed, soaking up the sun. One of the cats lay on her lap and the other was sleeping on the deck railing. She had about two minutes of peace before Henry's voice sounded from below.

 
 

     “Aren't you going to read your e-mail?”
     “Not now, Henry.”
     “You need to read it now.” He sounded both indignant and astonished.
     “Later, Henry.” She didn't even open her eyes.
      She could hear him breathing heavily for a few minutes. Then she heard him stomping out from under the deck. Around the corner he began fussing with the big boxes that the ‘Bobs’ had arrived in. There were wheelbarrow sounds followed by thumping and scuffling. Then she heard the ripping sound of package tape being applied. After that, she dozed off. She was awakened by the sound of a vehicle coming up the driveway. Raising herself a little and craning her neck, she just caught a glimpse of the Federal Express logo as the truck came up the hill. She laid her head back and closed her eyes, laughing silently. She heard boxes scraping across the porch and then the truck leaving.
     “I hope you sent them Overnight in this heat.”
     “We always go Overnight of Next Day Air. I prefer UPS, but I didn't have any extra stickers.”
     “If you had asked, I might have helped you. I told you this morning to stay off that leg.”
      There was no response. She had a feeling Henry would not want a human touching the ‘Bobs’ even in death. It was taboo.

e lurked under the deck, directly below her. He didn't speak, but he huffed and puffed and fidgeted and sighed until she gave up and went upstairs to read his e-mail.

“Edna,
Inconvenient as their arrival was, the ‘Bobs’ must have convinced you of what we are. Since you seem to be taking it well, I feel that it is time to tell you what we want.
      I have six eight by ten black and white negatives that I need to have prints made from. We need you to do this right now. The negatives are on the kitchen counter.
Henry.”

Well, for Christ's sake, why couldn't he just say so. She went downstairs and had a look at the negatives. All of them seemed to be of a woman, leaning on a car, sitting on the deck of a boat, lounging at the edge of a swimming pool.
     “Who is this, Henry?” she said, feeling sure he was nearby.
     “We need to talk to her. We used to know her husband, but he died.”
     “What did he die of?”
     “His house caught on fire.”
     “Where did you get the negatives?”
     “The man was an amateur photographer. He treasured his negatives. There was a large quantity of them in a fireproof safe. Most of them were of non-people stuff, like yours are.”
     “All this trouble so you can identify one woman and ‘talk’ to her?”
     “Yes, we are very interested in her welfare.”
      “I don't think so.”
     “Make the pictures! We need them right now! Make the pictures! You, you, you will m-m-m-make the pictures n-n-now!”
      She put the negatives back on the table. Getting her camera and gear, she got in her truck and drove to the far end of the open field. She set up her tripod and her camera and began to work. From under the focusing cloth, everything was still as beautiful as ever. Same gnats around her head, same hawks in the neon blue sky, same rushing of the stream in the distance.

here were little yellow Post-It notes stuck all over her house when she came in that afternoon. “Check you e-mail!” Ignoring them, she put on her hiking clothes and took the dogs for a long ramble. After a hot bath and a cold supper, she turned on the computer. There was e-mail from two of her sisters and a notice from Amazon.com that her order had been shipped. Edna read and answered both sisters and then looked at Henry's message.

“Edna.
This woman, who we know to be employed at the grocery store where you shop, has killed one of our people. As you know, if a dog or bear or animal of any kind kills or even injures a human, the perpetrator must be killed. It is the same with us. If we cannot identify this individual we will exterminate all the female employees of the store. Make the print!”
She yawned. What a bunch of baloney. A sixty-pound squirt who was scared of his own shadow was going to wipe out two hundred people. Maybe by annoying them to death. She looked at the clock. She could probably crank out a set of prints before bedtime. Why should she worry about some strange woman? If Henry had the negatives, eventually he would get prints made somewhere.
      She turned everything on in the darkroom and mixed up all the chemicals needed. After closing the two doors that acted as a light trap and stuffing a towel under the inner one, she was ready. She paused for a moment listening. Surely Henry would be in the crawl space.
      In a loud voice she said, “Oops, I dropped the negatives in the solution and they all turned black.” There was a loud thump from below followed by sounds of frantic, beetle-like crawling. He was making that weird hissing noise, too. Then she heard the front door burst open and Henry was pounding on the outer darkroom door, wailing like a pack of wolves.. Edna rattled the doorknob like she was coming out and Henry hastily retreated to the kitchen. “Just kidding, Henry.”
      Crash. He slammed out the front door. If he hadn't bumped his broken leg before, he surely had now. She felt a moment of remorse.
cont. on page sixteen		  
 
 
Copyright © 2000 by Jay Arraich. All rights reserved.
All photographs copyright © 2000 by Jay Arraich
jay@arraich.com
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