Mrs. Benson - 6. Chapter 6

6

“Did you find out what was causing the noise upstairs?” Alice watched me carefully.

I suddenly felt like a little kid again. I mean, do you really want to admit to ghosts?

“I … I couldn’t find anything, which is why I called and begged you to come back,” Alice admitted, as she once again wrapped her arms around herself.

“Alice, this is going to sound totally nuts.” I paused and looked at her, knowing there was no way to say this that wouldn’t sound like I had lost my mind. “I think it is the ghosts of her family. I mean, what I heard sounded like conversations from the past.”

Alice looked down at the ground and wouldn’t make eye contact. “I thought it was just me.”

“You heard it too?”

“Yeah.” Alice slowly looked up. “It scared the hell out of me. Why do you think I was standing out here? I didn’t want to be in there alone.”

“Well …” I didn’t get to say another word because we heard the phone ringing.

Alice looked at the house, then me, and then she marched in to grab the phone.

“This is Mrs. Benson’s residence. This is Ms. Frank. How may I help you?”

I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but it didn’t take me long to find out what was wrong as the color drained from Alice’s face. They wanted us to go to the hospital immediately.

“She’s not expected to make it through the night. She’s going to die, James.” Alice looked at me with wide eyes, and then she broke down and began sobbing uncontrollably.

I sat and pulled her to me, letting her cry it out.

“Alice, come on. We need to be there for her.”

Alice nodded and slowly managed to stop crying. We both changed, and it seemed like moments before I was driving us both to the hospital. We were shown in and left with Mrs. Benson.

“Oh my God.” Alice took in all the machines hooked up to Mrs. Benson.

It seemed like only a moment ago Mrs. Benson had been sitting in the back of the car, alive and healthy. Now there were tubes in her mouth, arms, a machine hooked to her chest, and wires that ran everywhere.

“She looks so pale,” Alice muttered, trying hard not to cry again.

I sat beside Mrs. Benson and gently took her hand in my own.

“Hi, Mrs. B. We wanted you to know we are here for you. Alice and I will be here whenever you need us.”

Alice went to the other side of the bed and sat down. Her eyes followed the wires and she just bit her bottom lip.

There was a knock on the door, and I turned to find Officer Cassidine standing there. She waved to me, indicating she would like to talk to me outside the room.

“I’m sorry to bother you. I heard the news from the nurse, but I thought you might like to know. We found the urns from her family. Seems a bunch of teenagers and vagrants were breaking into the different mausoleums, trying to find stuff. We caught them, and the urns will be reinterred shortly.”

“Thank you. I am glad to know you found them.”

Officer Cassidine looked at the door, and then back to me. “Poor woman shouldn’t have had to deal with that shock. I’ll make sure things are handled correctly. You go be with her.”

I nodded and watched as she walked off.

“James?”

I heard Alice call and headed back in. It seemed Mrs. Benson’s breathing was getting more difficult. I took a seat at her side, and slipped my hand back around Mrs. Benson’s smaller one.

“Mrs. Benson, I thought you should know. They found the urns. Your family has been found. We are going to make sure they are put back where they belong. You don’t need to worry anymore.”

There was a moment where she seemed to take a deep breath and then all the machines went crazy. Moments later, nurses and doctors were all over the room. There wasn’t much they could do. Alice and I stood to the side watching and clinging to each other.

“She’s gone.” One of the doctor’s announced.

“I’ve got the time,” a nurse stated.

It was then one of the nurses noticed that Alice and I had stayed in the corner out of the way, watching as Mrs. Benson left this world.

“Would you two like a moment with her?”

Numbly we both nodded. We stood crying as the nurses tried to clear away some of the machines, but mostly, Alice and I were lost in our own little worlds of grief.

Eventually, we headed downstairs, stopping only to sign off on some papers they needed. Then we headed home in silence.

We arrived home and headed into the kitchen. Almost without thinking about it, Alice put on a pot for tea and began to make us sandwiches. The pot whistled and Alice poured out the water for our tea and we sat at the table, staring blankly at each other.

As we sat there in the kitchen, there was a moment of silence, and then we heard a loud bang, as if someone had rushed in the front door. We got up and moved toward the foyer. Alice looked around fearfully, but I wasn’t afraid of anything we might encounter.

“James, let’s just call Mrs. Cardigan. Maybe she will know what to do.”

I turned to answer her, when I heard Mrs. Benson’s voice from the top of the stairs.

“Susan! Bobby! I’m home.”

Alice looked wide eyed at me, and we both then turned and looked up the staircase. There was no one there, but a moment later, we could clearly hear the sounds of running feet.”

“Mommy,” cried a young girl’s voice.

“Momma!” A little boy’s voice was just as loud.

We stood there listening as two children seemed to cry and Mrs. Benson cooed softly.

“James, what is going on?” Alice stared at the top of the empty staircase and began to visibly shake.

I had just begun to climb the stairs, when another voice I’d heard before spoke.

“Cathy … I’m … I’m so sorry for everything. It was … all my fault.”

“Hush, Regina. It is all in the past. We are together now.” Mrs. Benson’s voice echoed down the staircase.

I felt Alice grab my arm, but she never said another word. We slowly climbed the stairs.

There was the sound of a kiss and then we both heard a man’s voice. “I’m so glad you are with us, honey. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, Robert,” came Mrs. Benson’s voice.

Then there was silence. Alice and I checked all the rooms, but couldn’t find a single person. We also didn’t hear another sound.

It was three days later that we buried Mrs. Benson. Her family’s remains had been reinterred with her in the family mausoleum. They had found a bunch of vagrants had broken open the graves, hoping to find jewelry, but only had the bones or the urns from various places. Teenagers had also been partying in the cemetery, and had broken open a number of crypts. There had been twelve arrests in the desecration of the crypts. Mostly, Alice and I left the problems from the crypt being broken into to Mrs. Cardigan.

Alice and I found we couldn’t live in the house. It was too big for the two of us without Mrs. Benson. It took nearly a year til everything was settled from Mrs. Benson’s estate, and Alice and I began our separate lives.

Alice had been seeing Mr. Ralph Bearings, who ran the local meat market, off and on for a few years. With what she had inherited from Mrs. Benson she invested in a small home, and began to seriously consider settling down with Ralph. Honestly, we knew she could have moved anywhere and done anything, but she was content taking care of Ralph. We talked regularly on the phone, and once, I asked her if she missed Mrs. Benson’s home, but she still thought the house had been haunted, and was grateful to be away from it.

My siblings had all married or were finishing their last year of university. I’d managed to help all of them, and now I was alone. I’d dated Peter from Malbury’s, but he didn’t want to get serious, and soon moved on to other people long before Mrs. Benson had passed. I soon found myself wishing for a new position, and was rather surprised when I found an ad searching for a Guy Friday. I really didn’t need the job, or the money, but went to the interview anyway. It seems that Mr. Alfred Whitestone found me to be a perfect match, learning I could cook, drive, and do most repair work for his small brownstone. It didn’t hurt, of course, that he was five years my senior and gay, as well. A little bit of digging found that, actually, I was worth a hell of a lot more than him, but then again, Mrs. Benson always told me to do what made me happy, and I was sure that being with Mr. Whitestone was going to make me happy.