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After I helped her to her feet, I asked her “Edith, can I trust you not to do anything crazy? I want to be able to trust you.” Edith replied “Take the pillow case off of my head Michael. I can’t see where I am going and if I am going to trust you, then you have to trust me.” I thought about it for a second but then I realized that she would know I didn’t actually have a gun and she would try to get away. I said “No, Edith, but if you don’t walk I will get you downstairs another way.” She hesitated and then said “Ok Michael, I guess I have no choice.” I put my hand on her back and directed her to the door. When we got to it I stopped her and told her to open it and step out into the hall. She did without incident.
As soon as she stepped into the hallway she split. I was a little dumbfounded. She ran down the hall grabbing at the bag on her head trying to pull it off. In her panic it didn’t look like she could quite get it all the way off and she reached the end of the hall at a full steam and ran straight into the wall. By this time I was running as fast as I could behind her, the old bat was quick. When I saw her make contact with the wall, she stumbled back a couple of steps trying to regain her balance. She wobbled to the left then to the right and just as I reached her she tipped over.
The end of the hall takes a sharp right and the back stairs are there. I watched in slow motion as she fell down the stairs. She fell rolling over and over down the stairs, bouncing off of the walls. I couldn’t help myself and I started laughing. I laughed so hard I was crying. After I mopped up the tears with my sleeve I went to the bottom of the steps. She we out again. But she did the hardest part for me so all I needed to do was get her outside and into the wheelbarrow. I climbed over her body stopping for a second to make sure she was still breathing, and opened the door to the back yard.
Un-wedging her ragdoll body from the bottom of the stairs was a little difficult but after I got her dislodged I grabbed her ankles and dragged her out of the house and over to the wheelbarrow. She weighed in around a hundred and ten pounds. She wasn’t incredibly heavy but I was only thirteen and maybe one thirty soaking wet. I pulled her up to where she was standing hunched over in front of me and just pushed hoping that she would land in the wheelbarrow without tipping it over. I remember thinking to myself “I really should plan this better next time.”
After making sure she was secure I started to cart her out to the woods. It went pretty smooth, we have a nice two wheeled wheelbarrow and it carried without a problem. As I was walking I was trying not to think about all of the possibilities, all of the things I wanted to experience. No matter how I tried to distract myself the excitement kept sweeping over me and my mind kept drifting back to Edith. She would make someone an awesome grandma wherever she was going.
The wheelbarrow bumped along over little rocks and sticks until I broke through the threshold into the clearing. I had worn a small path through the tall grass from walking back and forth so many times but the path wasn’t big enough to make this easy. I pushed the wheelbarrow as hard as I could to get it to plow through the high grass on either side of the path. It took a lot out of me to shove it that last fifty feet or so. Finally we came to the area around the little fort that had been clear for some time. I wheeled her around to the door. Of course the wheelbarrow was too wide to roll through the door. Then the memory of carrying shovel full after shovel full of dirt to the doorway when I was digging the hole for the coyote trap danced through my mind.
I looked down at Edith’s face, she looked so serene. Like nothing was wrong at all. I wondered if she was dreaming. If she was, what about. I imagined briefly that it was a pleasant dream, the last one she would have. I sighed with a huge smile on my face and tipped the wheelbarrow forward spilling her limp body through the doorway. “I should probably hurry, she should wake up soon.” Moving the wheelbarrow out of the way I stepped past her and reached down to grab her wrists. My fingers wrapped around her limp wrists and I pulled hard enough to drag her across the dirt floor to the center of my sturdy spikes. With the rope that I grabbed from the shed I tied her wrists and ankles to the posts as securely as possible. Then I ran rope around her throat just tight enough to hold her in place but not tight enough to choke her. I walked that rope to the side of the fort and fed it through the logs that made up the wall. “That will hold you in place.” I thought to myself.
Having her tied up tight and feeling confident that there was no way she could get away from me again, I positioned all of my tools on the table just to the side of her. Everything that I would use laid out in perfect order. Everything clean and ready. I had my trusty pocket knife, my drill, and a pair of pliers. I thought to myself “This should be perfect.” I took the rabbits foot that I made into a necklace all those years ago out of my pocket. I had been keeping it on a nail on my wall. For some reason I didn’t feel like it should be worn. I pressed my lips against it gently. When I did the memory of how I got it rushed through my mind. I sat it next to my clean shiny tools. Last but not least the first aid kit that I had kept in the fort sense the coyote incident. I would need this if I wanted to do everything I meant to.
After being completely sure everything was in order and checking the ropes again I decided to lay down with her and wait for her to wake up. I laid as close to her body as I could and rested my head on her chest. I listened to her steady heartbeat and slowly drifted off. She would be awake soon and we have so many things to do.
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