The Lake

Leigh gagged, vomit lurched in her throat. She felt herself fold at the knees. She collapsed on the sofa.

“Wowww…,” breathed Mattie. “We gotta get outa here… But wait a minute, there’s something else. A letter…”

Leigh looked over Mattie’s shoulder at the bunch of creased, handwritten pages she was holding.

And read the words:

“I, Edith Payne, hereby…”

My God—not Charlie’s mother…

Quietly, the door opened.

FORTY-NINE

“Why, ladies. This is a pleasant surprise,” Mace said. “You wanna read my private stuff?” He snatched the crumpled pages from Mattie. “Here,” he said, thrusting them at Leigh. “Take a look, sweetheart. Ring any bells?”

“Mace, I’m sorry…”

“Oh, don’t be sorry, honey. I don’t mind you sneaking in here. Poking through my private things—”

“Wasn’t Leigh’s fault, Mace,” Mattie broke in calmly. “I had your key. I decided to pay you a visit. Don’t blame Leigh. She came along for the ride.”

“Came along for the ride, huh?” A corner of his mouth lifted. But he wasn’t amused. His eyes were cold, dark as bottomless pits. Whatever it was he felt, he was holding it in. Keeping everything under control.

As always.

“So, Leigh. Thought you’d nose around, did you? Time you knew anyway. Time you paid the price. Finally. After… what is it now? Eighteen, nineteen years?”

“What d’ya mean, Mace? Eighteen, nineteen years?” Her heart lurched. Damn right she knew what he meant. What was he, Charlie’s avenging angel, or what?

Mace relaxed a little, easing into the game, getting conversational. “Read it,” he said. “And watch it all make sense, baby. Just a little reminder of that wonderful summer, all of those years ago.”

Slowly, Leigh took the letter from him. Meanwhile, Mattie’s eyes considered Mace. She was tense, ready to pounce if need be. One false move and she’d drop him. She knew she could, but she also knew that Mace was on the alert. She held still. Waiting.

“Go on, sweetheart. Read it. Put some coffee on, Mattie. We could be here for some time.”

He set himself down, legs astride a hardback chair. Grinning. Watching Leigh. Enjoying her discomfort.

“Hey, baby. Don’t mind me. Settle back in that easy chair, why don’t ya? Just want to see your pretty li’l face when you read what Deana’s granmama has to say!”

Mattie glanced at Leigh. Her eyes said, “You okay?”

Leigh nodded, briefly.

She sat on the edge of Mace’s armchair. With trembling lips, she looked at the yellowed pages. Ma Payne had a good hand. Legible. Of the old-fashioned copperplate school. Charlie said she’d been a teacher…

Leigh drew a deep breath. Quickly, her eyes scanned the pages, scarcely believing what she read:

“I, Edith Payne, hereby state the True Facts regarding my Three Children and the Terrible Events that took place after their Birth.On December 15, in the year of Our Lord 1963, I gave birth to three babies. Jess, Charlie and Tania. Their father was my husband Charlie Payne. My, but they were three fine healthy babies! Beautiful as ever three babies could be. My Gifts from Heaven, I called them.Firstly, I should state that I came to Lake Wahconda as a teacher. I taught the children of the lake people hereabouts. It was here I met and married Charlie Payne, a man of native Indian descent, and of little means and education. I tried to teach him to write, but he didn’t take kindly to this and soon gave up trying. He was a man content in his traditional ways.Charlie said little when the three babies came along, but from the start, he seemed fearful of our little girl. All the babies had a good head of dark hair, but Tania had more than the boys. Charlie insisted she was a child of ill-omen, mumbling some tale that a female child covered in black hair was a bringer of ill fortune. When he was liquored up, he spoke of this old legend, telling that a woman mating with a wolf at Full Moon would give birth to such a child.Charlie Payne was a simple man. He stood by his beliefs, and nothing I said could change his mind. Tania must die, he vowed, to save us all from misfortune. He was set on this path. I begged him not to kill our daughter, but he was deaf to my pleas.I knew he would soon kill Tania, so I stole Mary-Ann Baker’s baby while she was at the lake washing clothes. The child was barely a week old. I dressed her in Tania’s shawl and placed her in Tania’s cradle. I hid my own daughter in the woods. Charlie Payne took Mary-Ann’s baby, hacked off her head and sank her weighted body into the lake.This was a terrible thing to witness, and in my distress, I told him he’d killed the wrong baby—that this one was not ours. He demanded to know where I’d hidden Tania. Distraught, I told him in the woods. He went to find her. I hurried to the woodshed, took the ax and followed him. In his drunken state he tripped and fell in the undergrowth. I hacked him as he lay, screaming for mercy. I just hacked and hacked till he was dead.After the disappearance of her newborn, Mary-Ann Baker drowned herself in the lake. Folks still say they hear her ghost moaning in the night as she searches for her little one.

Teaching class and making baskets brought little enough money to support my children. People hereabouts were next to dirt poor themselves. So I gave away two of my little ones. I gave Jess to my friend Ellie Burke and her husband Tom, in Duluth. I believed Ellie would give him a good home and look after him well, as she herself had not been blessed with children. I gave my daughter to a family of travelers. They seemed good, honest folk who vowed they would care for her.I kept my baby Charlie. I loved him with all my heart, and as best I could, kept him away from all that is bad and wicked in this world.When my boy Charlie was almost grown, he took up with a no-good whoring slut. A vacationer she was, out for any innocent young boy she could lay her hands on. She seduced, then murdered him and walked free of this terrible crime. Accidental Death, they called it. But I know different.I pray that someday, God will repay this Jezebel in full for her wickedness. May her slate NEVER be cleansed of the terrible wrong she did my Charlie and me.Let it be known, this statement is for the eyes of my son Jess Payne only. Tania is long gone. Wherever she is, I hope she is happy.May God forgive me. All I want now is to Rest in Peace.Signed: Edith Mary Payne.

FIFTY

Stunned, Leigh let the pages flutter to the floor. She heard Charlie’s voice telling her “it” was in the lake. But hadn’t he mentioned a brother? Maybe that’d been his own conclusion.

If he’d been told he had a twin, he might’ve naturally thought “it” had been a brother. And it looked like Ma Payne hadn’t been in any goddamn rush to explain otherwise.

And who was Jess? Where does he fit in?

Mattie shot a quick glance in her direction. It said, Leigh. We gotta get outta here. Fast.

Agreed.

But first, we waltz our way past Mace?

Are you kidding?

“Where’s that coffee, Mattie? We sure could do with a shot here.” Mace watched Leigh’s face. Saw her bewildered, agonized frown. Saw how the past had leapt alive for her, prodding and poking her in all the most vulnerable places. He was enjoying the prospect.

“Time she learned the truth about her in-laws,” he thought, smiling softly. “The real truth about the genes her precious daughter inherited.”

All that Payne blood running through Deana’s veins.