Living in Darkness (Bloodbreeders) Read Online Free PDF Page A

out a white gown. She held it close, and said with tears
streaming down her face, “It was supposed to be me wearing this when I died,
not one of my babies.” After a few minutes, she made her way back downstairs,
and she and Mrs. Miller finished getting me dressed and fixed my hair. My
mother sat down in the chair closest to my head, and lovingly stroked my hair. Pa
was sitting on the porch smoking his pipe when Mrs. Miller came to the door.
    “Sam, we’re finished,” she said, but he didn’t respond. “Sam?”
    “Sorry, I didn’t hear ya come out,” he said,
discreetly trying to wipe the tears from under his eyes.
    “I’m sorry to bother you. I just wanted to let you know that Myrtle and
I are done.”
    “Oh. Okay, thanks Liella .” With that, he got
up and walked to the barn.
    Soon after, Sam Jr. and James showed up with Doc Taylor. The three
could hear hammering coming from the barn, but Sam Jr. was the only one that
knew for sure what my father was busy building my coffin. Sam Jr. went into the
barn, and immediately began to help. The doctor, still a little shaky after the
conversation between himself and my father that had occurred yesterday, decided
to go straight to the house. James ran up the steps to the back door, and threw
it open. When he saw my corpse lying on the table, he collapsed into the door
frame and broke down, sobbing heavily.
    Upon seeing my body, Doc Taylor took off his hat and went back out to
the barn. For a moment, he contemplated climbing back into his Model-T and
leaving. After
the nervous anticipation of facing a man whose daughter he couldn't save,
it took ten minutes of cringing outside the barn door before slapping his hat
against his leg and walking inside.
      “Mr. Crocker, I can’t tell you how sorry I am,” he
said sympathetically, standing in the barn entrance.
    “I need you to check on Myrtle,” he replied without even looking up.
“Give her something for her nerves.”
    He continued pounding away at the partially built casket. The doctor
knew not to push his luck, so with a polite nod of the head, he exited toward
the house to do as my father had instructed.

 
    Chapter 4

 
    In those days, when someone passed on, all of their kin, neighbors, and
most of the townsfolk brought food to the family of the deceased. So, needless
to say, many people attended the viewing. The women took care of any needs that
my mother may have had, ranging from housework to simply serving coffee and pie
to those paying their respects, while the men hung back and smoked their pipes.
Typically, the casket was open for the entire viewing; hence the name, but Sam
Jr. and my father had replaced the top to the coffin early in the day, mostly
for my mother’s sake. She never stopped staring in my direction, and though she
remained silent, her tears stayed wet on her cheeks. Late that afternoon, all
the guests filtered out so that my family could spend their last night with me.
Because my family was not wealthy, they couldn’t afford to have my body
embalmed, as was the case most of the time. This made it necessary to get the
body into the ground as soon as possible, so my burial was scheduled early the
next morning.

 
    *****

 
    I awoke to blackness. I couldn’t open my eyes or my mouth, and I was
unable to move any part of my body. I
must get out before I drown , I thought to myself. Then I took a breath
through my nose and knew I wasn’t at the bottom of the lake, like I had thought.
Finally I remembered and figured that I must have gotten so sick that I was too
weak to move. Even my hearing seemed affected, because I could hear voices, but
they all sounded muffled, like I as at the bottom of a well.
    “Thank ya’ll , for coming by, Earl,” I heard
my father say. “Means a lot to us.”
    “Well, we all loved that girl, Sam,” a man replied. “Known her since
she was running around in pigtails.”
    “Seems like just yesterday she was being born,” he said solemnly.