Out of the Mist Read Online Free Page A

of June. His father had
spoken. He was certain of that. Even the look in the raven’s eyes
had his father’s glare. “No,” he shook his head at his good buddy,
Jerry. “I can’t change the home my father built. It would be
disrespectful.”
    He didn’t even listen as they tried to
persuade him. Disappointed and somewhat angry, the partners went
away, Melvin shaking his head and saying, “You have a gold mine
there.”
    At 35, June still lived in
the Edwards Mansion, alone. People in town discussed his
case.
    “ Everything to
offer—house, income and money in the bank—and he’s still
alone!”
    “ Too much the mother’s
boy,” said one.
    “ Too much Captain Edwards’
bullying,” said another.
    “ You get peculiar after
living alone,” said a third.
    “ He’ll never marry,
now.”
    But they were wrong.
    One day, June found a young woman at the
station struggling with her suitcase. He gave her a lift to the
local restaurant, where she had come to take a job as cook. But
when they arrived the proprietor came out of the kitchen, looking
discomfited.
    “ Sorry, the position’s
been filled,” he told the young woman. He shrugged. “My
sister-in-law, she decided to take the job. You know how it is,” he
said, darting an unhappy glance at the partly open kitchen
door.
    “ I’ll have to go back to
Halifax.” Disappointed, the woman picked up her suitcase and turned
away.
    “ Wait!” June said. “I need
a cook. Come along with me.”
    After Sabrina moved in, June had the best
meals he had eaten since his mother died.
    The raven had the best
hand-outs it had ever had, and never even had to squawk to ask for
them. Sabrina kept its plate full and ready for it.
    In three months, June and
Sabrina were married. Before he was 45 years old, June was the
father of Archie Edwards III, Amelia, and Little ‘Rina, who
cheerfully chased each other around the yard, fell out of trees,
and broke windows playing ball. The raven family still nested in
the spruce tree nearby, raising nestlings, and the calls would go
back and forth: “Avast there!” June and Sabrina would call, and the
ravens would cry back, “Belay
that!” and “Straighten Up! Blast your eyes!”
     
    ~~~***~~~
     

 
    Gran-gran’s Ghost
    Maida
Follini
     
    “ Will Gran-gran stay in
the box?” Evelyn whispered to Margaret, as they walked behind their
mothers away from the flower-heaped coffin. Uncles, aunts, cousins
had come up to the coffin after the funeral, stood with bowed
heads, prayed, touched the sleek metal box, or taken a flower as a
token from the array.
    “ Of course. She’s dead!”
Margaret replied. Margaret was seven while her cousin Evelyn was
only five, and didn’t know anything.
    Once Margaret had seen a
dead bird on the front walk and went to pick it up, but Dad had
quickly scooped it up and thrown it in the compost bin, shutting
the lid. “It will fall into a dust,” Mother had consoled Margaret.
“It will just become part of the compost, and then it will mix with
the garden earth and help the plants grow.”
    That was what death was…at least…Margaret
had once put her cat in a shoebox and covered it with the lid. Soon
there had been a scrabbling noise, the lid bumped up, and an angry
paw reached out. Seconds later, the whole cat emerged with an
indignant scream and ran off. Could a dead person get out of a box?
One that was shiny, metal, and fastened down tight? What if
Gran-gran came alive in the box? Could she breathe? Wouldn’t she be
angry that the family had shut her in a box?
    “ I’m leaving Margaret and
Evelyn here at the house,” Mother told one of the aunts. “Young
children shouldn’t come to a burial. There’ll be so many of us
there, anyway.” She looked around at Gran-gran’s children—all grown
up now. “We thought Margaret and Evelyn should be at the funeral so
they could say good-bye to their grandmother, but that’s enough.
Can’t expect them to be quiet and behave for too