When Roy and Dawn first sat down at the kitchen table, they were sitting in warm sunlight bars that sloped in through the kitchen window. Now, as Roy continued to speak, the only light that came in was cool moonlight. The shoppers out on Reed Street were pretty lively. It sounded like business was pretty good for Bridgetown tonight. Sitting there listening to everything Roy had been telling her, she had an urge to go get Brian and leave; if not that, at least check on him. There was a big part of her that didn’t want to believe anything that Roy was telling her. Yet, in her heart she knew it was true. The old black and white photo was Brian, and there was nothing in Roy’s behavior that told Dawn he was lying about anything at all. Therefore, after a second of thinking, she thought it best to just let Roy finish what he was saying. Although it went against every sane thought she had ever had, she didn’t want to go snatch Brian from his bedroom, and possibly upset any evil spirit’s that may have been lurking around.
So Dawn asked, “What’s this last thing Roy?”
“Well,” Roy said, “I told you that after Phillip disappeared, and Melody, and Jacob were murdered the town started goin’ downhill. The mill fire, the business’s that left, the people that left.”
Dawn shook her head up and down, urging Roy to get to the point.
“NOW, listen to it out there.” Roy motioned his head towards the window. “Business is booming, the town is really doin’ well again. And you know, that didn’t start until about five years ago. Do you know what happened then Dawn?”
She shook her head back and forth: ‘no’. But in the back of her mind, she knew what happened.
“Dawn, five years ago Thomas – Phillip Kroger’s other son – died. He was one hundred and eight years old. He came around from time to time when he was an old man. And let me tell you Dawn, more then anyone else who first settled this town, he had the hardest life. I know, because him and me talked occasionally.
“I don’t think he ever had more then a hundred dollars to his name at any one time. But, as we all know, there’s more to life then just money; Thomas Kroger didn’t even have those things. No kids, no wife, no home, no happiness at all. Heck, he didn’t even have a job most the time. And, from what I knew about him, I couldn’t explain that. What I mean is, when he came around here – even though he was in his eighties when I saw him – he seemed like an intelligent guy. Usually, he came around lookin’ for a job to do. Isn’t that somethin’, a man who should be lookin’ to retire is comin’ around her lookin’ for any scrap work he could find. Sometimes I’d let him work the counter down at the store, although it wasn’t like we were busy. The grocery store, until five years ago, only ever made me enough money to just get by. Heck, most of the time I had to turn Thomas away when he came around.
“You see Dawn, a few months after Thomas’s family was destroyed in 1895, his grandmother past away. From there he went to an orphanage, and up until he was seventeen he was past around from home to home.
“Some night’s when he’d come around, I’d sit outside the store with him, and we’d talk. Mainly, I told him about his papa, Phillip, at least what my daddy told me about him. But one night, it was around one in the mornin’, we were havin’ one of those long deep talks; he told me that many of the family’s he stayed with were pretty abusive. I felt bad for the old guy. But then I remembered what my dad told me about the curst of the Indian tribe.
“So that night, after we had this long talk, I just couldn’t send him away, so I told him that he could sleep upstairs above the store… which, of course, is HERE in this apartment. So I gave him some blankets and a pillow I had in the storeroom, he thanked me, and went on up. I went back into the store to close it up, and when I finally left to go home, I saw him sleepin’ on the street. I asked him what in the heck he was doin’ on the street when I gave him a warm place to stay. He told me: ‘I couldn’t sleep due to the bad dreams I was havin.’’ I asked him, ‘what dreams?’ He told me: ‘The dream about the Indian chasin’ him with a hatchet.’ I mean, this was a eighty year old man tellin’ me this. So I figured the dreams musta been pretty bad.”
“Brian has had bad dreams about Indian’s chasing him with hatchets before. Ever since he could talk actually. And I’m sure even before that.” Both Roy and Dawn sat, momentarily, in silence, thinking. Then Dawn asked, “How did Thomas die?”
“Well, five years ago he was walkin’ home from some job he picked up in Baltimore. A group of kids cornered him, and attempted to rob him. They didn’t get much, because, like I said, Thomas Kroger didn’t have much. But what he did have, he fought for. So he fought these thugs, and was beatin’ to death with ball bats for his trouble.
“Once he died, things around Bridgetown started pickin’ up. Business came back, people came back, it turned into a trendy place to be. It was like, with Thomas’s death, the curse of the Indian tribe was broken. And I’m goin’ to bet you Dawn, that the night Thomas Kroger died, was the same night Brian was born.”
Dawn spoke up, “Brian was born August 21, 1998.”
Roy said, “Thomas Kroger was killed August 21, 1998.”
“It can’t be.” Dawn said in one last, desperate breath to try to convince herself that this whole situation was not true.
Roy, looking at Dawn compassionately, said, “I’m afraid it is Dawn… I’m afraid it is.”
Just then, the phone rang.
To Be Continued… You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
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