Page 62 of Stay Buried

There was no arguing with her, even if I’d the strength and conviction to do so.

“Uncle Thomas will be along soon. He’s… with Mr. Stoddard.”

“How is Benjamin?” Margaret asked.

I gave a quick shake of my head, looked in Pearl’s direction. My aunt gave me a knowing nod.

“Pearl, why don’t you come help me in the kitchen? I was makingapplesauce cake and putting more coffee on.”

“I’d love that,” Pearl said. “There’s nothing worse than feeling helpless. Put me to work, please. And Frankie, you know I’m not the least bit squeamish. I’m happy to help you as well until your uncle returns.”

I smiled at her. “You can bring some hot water and clean cloths to me in the surgery.”

“Come, dear, I’ll show you where everything is.” Aunt Margaret hooked her arm with Pearl’s. The dog trotted off behind them.

I took off my coat, rolled up my sleeves, and went into the waiting room. There were six townspeople, all talking at once, fearful and frantic. Their words all mixed together in a hysterical buzz:knackerman, bite, Clarice, madness, Emile, devil, possession.

“We’re doomed,” said John Lancaster, the town blacksmith. “He’s marked us. He’s possessing us, calling us to him one by one.”

“They say once you get bitten he’s inside you, you can hear his voice. Your soul isn’t yours anymore. You belong to the devil,” added Eugene Fitzpatrick.

One of the men let out a strangled sobbing sound.

I clapped my hands together to silence them, cleared my throat, then spoke as loudly and with as much authority as I could muster. “Dr. Endicott is on his way. Until then, I’m going to take you one by one into the surgery to get you bandaged up.” I looked around, saw that Niles Smith had the worst wounds, deep enough to need stitches, and was bleeding heavily into the towel he held against his shoulder. I brought him back first, Pearl meeting me there with hot water and cloths. She stood by my side, assisting me, handing me the things I needed. We worked well together, and I let myself imagine us like this years in the future, me doctoring and her acting as my nurse.

By the time I was done cleaning the wound, stitching and dressing it, Uncle Thomas was back, his face grim. He gently peeled back the bandage, inspected my work, and nodded. “You’ve been in good hands, Niles. Frankie’s done an excellent job with the sutures.”

“What’s going to happen to me? Will I get sick? Turn mad?” Niles asked, voice high with panic.

“I’d like you to stay here, in the house, so we can keep an eye on you.”

“I want to go home,” Niles pleaded. “To my wife.”

“It would be better for you to stay here,” Thomas said. “Better for your wife and little girl. The way the sickness runs its course—”

Niles touched the bandage on his shoulder and nodded, understanding. He had a two-year-old daughter, Abigail, at home.

“Is it true what they’re saying? That’s he’s the devil? That I’ll be possessed now? That’s he’s taking us all, one by one?”

“No, Niles. It’s a sickness. Like the flu or the measles, it’s caused by germs, not by devilry. We may not understand it, but that doesn’t make it witchcraft.”

“But they say… they say he died and rose again. That he’s not human. He’s the beast in human form.”

Aunt Margaret came in just then with more hot water and bandages.

“Margaret, could you and Pearl perhaps open up the dining room for our guests? Get some blankets. Bring Niles back with you?”

“Of course,” she said, smiling at Niles. “It’s this way. Come, I’ll get you a nice cup of coffee.” Pearl accompanied them.

“We’re going to keep them all here, in the house?” I asked once Uncle Thomas and I were alone.

“We can’t send them back out there. When the sickness comes on, they’ll hurt their families. We can’t have it spreading any faster than it already is.”

“But, Uncle Thomas, having them here—how are we going to keep ourselves and Margaret safe?”

His face was pale, the dark circles under his bloodshot eyes giving him the appearance of a skinny raccoon man. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “We’ll think of something. Perhaps we’ll have to bind them all… or sedate them. The first task is to just get everyone’s wounds tendedto. For now, we keep them here.”

I nodded.