Category: Mystery/Suspense Type: Fiction
Copyright: October 3, 2011
Short Fiction
Excerpt
The Canaan Ferry
Written by Carla Bonnell-Rickard
“Mom why don’t you just use a mop?” Kaley quipped. Anna remained silent as she continues her long circular motions across the corner of the hardwood floor. “ a mop….you can’t wax a floor with a mop… geeze that girl is so lazy…”
“Mom can you drive me to work? I don’t have enough money for the bus…. MOM! Answer me please I’m going to be late”. She began to pace across parts of the newly touched up floor. Anna’s hands clenched around the sticky rag as she slowly brought herself up off her bruised knees. She didn’t’ dare look at Kaley right now. She was angry. The bitterness from the years of unappreciation and disrespect curdled in her heart like sour milk in direct 90 degree sunlight. “if she ever left home, she’d know what it means to have nothing and have to work for every single good thing in life….”
Anna inhales deeply, I’ll take you this time, be ready because I am not waiting around for you.”
The drive to the golf course just didn’t feel long enough. Anna argued with herself internally trying to grab all the thoughts, feelings and words she wanted to say to Kaley. Courage arose and just about the time she was going to open her mouth and begin, she hurt the click of the car door handle.
“Thanks Mom! Can you pick me up at 1am too I?I have clean up after the restaurant closes.” The car door slammed shut. Anna watch Kaley walking away with confidence like she won a prize of a million dollars. Anna threw her head back against the head rest of her cramped Toyota Camry. Thoughts of unfinished work, dreams that disappoint, and a one minute fantasy or two of being swept up by a white knight in shining armour, raced through her flitting mind. “Clean up..right.. I pity the owners…”
She put the car in drive and started driving. She didn’t know where she was going but it would be somewhere no one knew where she was , at least until she was ready to be found. She didn’t even notice the brilliance of the autumn leaves shimmering in the orange tinted sunlight. There was no time to appreciate these things. No room in her heart to allow such distractions in. It might slow her down.
She parked along a small lake, facing the center of the water. The cool water was met by the last warm air of fall. The fog and the mist blocked the view of the opposite shoreline. Anna didn’t care, she wasn’t really here for the view. She was here to be numb.
‘I can’t even cry. I can’t even get mad. I can’t even say I don’t give a shit because I don’t care if I do or not. ….” She leaned her head against the driver’s side window. The glass was cold and moist giving her a slight head ache with first contact. The experience reminded her of the cold aching pain of her estranged husband. Sure he lived with her, but he certainly was too busy with his cheat called booze to bother caring what happened to her.
Anna began to doze in the car exhausted from frustration and anxiety. She fell into a sudden deep sleep. Her neck contorted into the best position for a major Charlie horse. BANG BANG! Anna’s shot awake, her eyes scrambling to focus on where the noise came from while she grabbed her necked wincing in pain from the predicted Charlie horse from her short nap. With her hand squeezing the pain out of her neck she slowly was able to turn her head toward the direction of the intrusive noise. She rolled down the window, still wincing with the pain she had inflicted upon herself.
“Am I glad to see you” the burly voice entered out of the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes upon in her life. She attempted to get her brain working faster, still in the fog of an interrupted sleep. “ are you waiting for the ferry to Canaan?” he asked. Anna couldn’t hide the confusion from her face. She attempted to use her sore neck to mask that uneasy feeling of not knowing what the hell this handsome creature was speaking about.
“ ah, no…uh… are you?”
He turned his face toward the misty darkened fog and pointed while leaning into the open window, “ Can you see the light of the ferry? It hasn’t made this run since 1878.” She squinted and peered through the windshield. “ I don’t see anything yet” she said attempting to amuse him. He must be nuts and she must be nuttier to allow any conversation to take place.
“Please come outside so that you can get a better look. “ He was very persuasive like the smell of a fresh pot of coffee tickling the nose in the early morning, luring your senses to wake up and move toward the aroma. She pulled the car keys out of the ignition and slid them in her jacket pocket, obeying his call to come outside of the vehicle. “ I can’t believe I am doing this, I’m a bigger fool than that husband of mine”.
The finely dressed man didn’t seem to fit the scene of a hiker, or camper. His clothes were formal and his shoulder length hair glistened in the dew against the collar of his sports jacket. “He’s going to kill me or rob me… and he had to dress up to do so… what a wack job…. Look at him, he doesn’t have a car… he’s dressed like he’s going to a cocktail party… and he’s wearing THOSE shoes …they are going to get ruined in these wet leaves….” While her thoughts were racing he gently guided her to his viewpoint, placing his warm soft hand on her shoulder. She tensed up awaiting fate to occur.
He pointed with his free hand, leaning in toward her view, “ she will appear just beyond that point, about 10:15 if she’s on time. “ Anna felt her legs lock up both in fear and curiosity. “Anna, “ he he gently spoke. Her surprise swept over her poker face like the winter winds hurrying the topical snow into its final position. How did he know her name? Who the hell is he? Her mind couldn’t keep up to her racing thoughts.
“ Anna Reeves…”
“How did he know my maiden name?” Her thoughts rolling away faster than a snow ball down a steep hill.
“ The ferry last ran on October 1878. It won’t be coming back this way again. The lumber has long passed and England has no need for its service. The last person to travel on the ferry was your great great grandfather. I knew him well. “ Anna was intrigued, and less scared at this point, although she logically couldn’t figure out why. “ You are an important root in this province daughter of confederation. ” Anna strained her ears attempting to hear every last word this man said. “You have a nice day Anna, it was a pleasure.” He opened the car door for her and she slid into the coffee stained seat. She inserted the keys into the ignition. “Daughter of Confederation?” her spirit lept as she poked her head out the window only to find no one in sight.
She didn’t remember the ride back home or how long it took her to get there. Her thoughts were racing between wonderment of who that man was and the story that he told her. She burst through the door of her immaculately clean home and headed straight for her computer. She frantically typed as many search questions as she could with the information this crazy man had given her.
As her eyes scoured the computer screen she kept asking out loud “ who the hell was that?!” . Her eyes fell to an article on google. “ Canaan ferry will make historic run to mark the 125th anniversary of Gunivar Lake Community.”
Get out! She thought to herself. But that run was supposed to happen 20 years ago? This was an old article. She began speed reading the article, hungry for answers like a bear in the middle of a lush blueberry field. Her eyes fell upon the name Jebadiah Reeves, the grandson of Leonard Tilley. Jebediah was her grandfather! She had never met her family and knew little about them, just a name here and there with no information to who they were and what they did. The family was separated by years of hard economic times and clan fights. She scrolled to the bottom of the page. There was a picture of a painting- the ferry and a man standing on the deck dressed in a suit with medium length hair. She zoomed in to look. She slapped her hand to her mouth in shock .
