Another Man’s Castle
by Kelly S. Hossaini
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Table of Contents parts 1, 2, 3 |
part 2
Daniel then took a step back and felt something sharp cut into his shin, just above his ankle. He pulled his foot away and looked down at the edge of the blade he had just sharpened. Blood began dripping from the cut, and Jimmy inspected it gingerly. He would definitely need stitches.
Daniel’s first thought was to drive himself to the urgent care clinic in town, but decided that would be unwise. Instead, he called Rosando, who was out in the orchard and, within half an hour, Daniel found himself in the emergency room. Based on the amount of blood soaking into the shop rag that Daniel had tied around his ankle, Rosando had insisted on the emergency room.
The attending doctor inspected Daniel’s ankle, didn’t seem to think the cut itself was too bad, but became concerned when Daniel couldn’t remember if he’d had had a tetanus shot in the last five years.
“I’ll give you a tetanus booster,” said the doctor, “but I want you to watch for symptoms of tetanus. The nurse will give you a handout. Come back in a week so we can take a look at this and, probably, take out the stitches. In the meantime, I’ll also give you a course of antibiotics. Come back in right away if you see any signs of infection.”
Rosando took Daniel home and settled him in the family room recliner, with his foot up on the recliner’s footrest. Daniel fell asleep with his ankle and foot throbbing. Over the next couple of days, the wound appeared to be healing well. On the third day, however, it felt hot. Daniel carefully pulled down the gauze bandages and saw that the wound was puffy and red, and possibly oozing. Oh damn.
Rosando took Daniel back to the doctor, who was surprised at the virulence of the infection, despite the antibiotics Daniel had been given. After ensuring that Daniel had been faithfully taking the antibiotics, the doctor cleaned the wound again and gave Daniel a course of a different antibiotic. Again, the doctor told Daniel to monitor the wound.
That afternoon, Rosando deposited Daniel on the deck behind the house. It was a nice day, and Daniel said he couldn’t stand being in the house again. Rosando brought him a pitcher of iced tea from the refrigerator and a footstool so he could keep the foot elevated.
Gretchen came and sprawled out next to the footstool. Slumped on the deck’s built-in bench, Daniel gazed out into the forest that formed the edge of the back lawn. What a piece of bad luck. How had he been so careless? And what could have been on that blade to cause such an infection?
As Daniel considered his plight and how it had come to be, he saw the green trees begin to melt and his eyes start to close until his brain, in its haze, registered movement right behind the tree line. Daniel’s eyes snapped open just in time to see the shadowy figure disappear into the forest darkness. Was all of this Mr. Hembrey’s doing? That sounded insane.
While continuing to contemplate the culpability of Mr. Hembrey, Daniel heard a diesel pick-up truck slowly drive up to the house. A small cloud of dust drifted toward the back where he sat. Gretchen shot up immediately and disappeared around the side of the house.
Daniel heard the truck’s door close and soon saw Merton Sawyer, the neighboring farmer, come around to the deck, Gretchen bounding in front of him. Merton was a tall, well-built, handsome man even at 70. He wore his signature pinstripe overalls and dusty, green ball cap. Daniel had gotten to know Merton a bit since purchasing the Hembrey farm, and Daniel was always impressed with Merton’s equilibrium. Daniel had never seen Merton as anything other than contemplative and in control.
“Hey, Merton,” said Daniel, waving him over, “so good to see you. You must have heard about my little mishap, huh?” Daniel gestured to his foot. Merton nodded and sat down next to Daniel.
“I did,” he said simply. “I’m real sorry to have heard of it.” Merton then produced a loaf-sized object wrapped in tin foil and set it down between them. “Marion’s sourdough bread. She said you should make sandwiches with it. It’s good fresh or toasted. Do you have groceries? I can get one of the kids to pick up whatever you need from the store. Just tell me what you need.”
“Oh, no, no need. But thank you. I have lots of groceries. I tend to buy too much, so it’ll be good to make it through some of the stuff I already have.” Daniel chatted with Merton a bit more over things that farmers tend to chat about with each other, but then decided he would take the opportunity to inquire about Mr. Hembrey.
“So, can you tell me a bit more about Richard Hembrey? I guess, specifically, was he a vindictive guy at all? I mean, do you remember him being prone to that?” Merton frowned and looked a bit confused.
“Vindictive?” he repeated. “Well, no, I don’t ever remember him doing anything that could be thought of as vindictive. Not that I ever knew.”
“No rumors or gossip in that direction or anything?”
Merton shook his head. “Nope. Nothing. He definitely got unhappy toward the end there. Frustrated is I guess more like what I would call it. Richard really wanted to get out there and continue farming, but he couldn’t. Just too sick.” Merton paused and stared at the edge of the deck. “He loved this place. Understandable, of course. This was his life. He didn’t like how things were ending. No one would. Can I ask why you ask that question?” Merton looked directly at Daniel.
Daniel looked sheepish. “Well, to be honest, I don’t think his ghost likes the fact that I’m here very much,” Daniel said, but made it come out like a joke.
Merton laughed as if it truly were a joke and put a big hand on Daniel’s shoulder as he stood up. “That I can believe,” Merton said. “That wouldn’t surprise me at all. Listen, son, don’t be afraid to let me know if there’s anything we can do for you. If you need food or a little extra help up here, don’t hesitate to call. I know you lost Jimmy, so you’re a bit short-handed.”
“Thank you,” said Daniel. “I’ll definitely let you know. Rosando has found someone to replace Jimmy, and the new guy should be able to start within a week or so. I really appreciate your concern and your offer to help. I really do. Thank you.”
That evening, Daniel called his parents to tell them of his predicament. Even though he insisted he was fine and didn’t need any help, his parents insisted on coming anyway. They told Daniel to expect them in a couple of days. Daniel objected once more, but they wouldn’t hear of it.
David and Carol Gaines were retired and getting to spend some real time with their son on his farm sounded pretty irresistible. In any event, the more Daniel thought about it, the more relieved he was that he would have his parents around to help, at least for a while. The infection was taking its sweet time responding to the new antibiotics. He could use the help until the wound healed.
* * *
The next night, Daniel felt worse than he had felt since the accident. He began to feel feverish and then ice cold. His foot throbbed mercilessly. And he felt so, so tired. The rational part of his brain told him he needed to call an ambulance.
The irrational side of his brain, which prevailed, told him that he just needed to rest. He would rest right there in the family room recliner with a blanket, sleep just a bit, then feel better, then go upstairs to bed, and sleep for the rest of the night and maybe well into the morning, and that would do it. He was sure that was all he needed.
At some point in the night, Daniel awoke; everything hurt, and he felt very cold. He moved his head gingerly to the right and saw the shadowy figure. In his delirium, he knew it was Richard Hembrey.
“What do you want?” Daniel said or tried to say. He wasn’t sure if any noise actually came out. His mouth was dry and his tongue had tripled in size. Daniel found he couldn’t move, either. He felt paralyzed. Where was Gretchen? Had he left her outside? The shadowy figure said nothing. Then it leaned over him, and Daniel felt pressure on his neck. The old man was trying to strangle him!
Daniel tried to struggle but could barely move. His whole body remained paralyzed. He felt the old man’s hatred burn into his neck. Daniel tried to scream, to do anything but just lie there helplessly. He could do nothing.
* * *
A nice-looking older man paced the floor in the hospital waiting room. He was tall and lean, but pale and clearly anxious. A similarly nice-looking older woman sat nearby in a chair, magazine opened in her lap, unseeing eyes staring ahead at the floor. Mr. and Mrs. Gaines had arrived at their son’s house to find that he wasn’t responding to their knocks on the locked front door.
After a few minutes of increasingly intense knocking, they went around the back to see if a different door was unlocked. As they rounded the corner, they saw Gretchen sitting in front of the sliding glass door staring intently inside. She didn’t even bark when she saw Daniel’s parents. She just looked at them, whined, and continued to stare inside.
When they reached the door, Daniel’s parents saw Daniel reclined in a chair, motionless, blanket heaped onto him. Thankfully, the door was unlocked, and they were able to get to him. He was unresponsive and clammy with fever. They called an ambulance and followed it to the hospital.
After hours had passed, Daniel’s doctor finally came out and told the Gaineses that they were giving Daniel intravenous antibiotics and that, if the infection didn’t improve soon, he might lose his foot or worse if they waited too long. The infection was caused by some kind of particularly virulent staph bacteria. It would be watched closely.
The next few days were harrowing for the Gaineses. They spent their nights at Daniel’s house and their days in the hospital, waiting for something good to happen, which it eventually did. Slowly the infection began to improve and the doctors expressed cautious optimism. Daniel would almost certainly survive, and the foot might also be out of danger.
Daniel also began to have periods of wakefulness, but with that came a new worry. When Daniel verbalized anything at all, it had to do with an old man trying to kill him. When the Gaineses asked about it, one of the doctors stated that it was common for someone in Daniel’s condition to have mental confusion and disorientation. They were not to worry. Daniel would come out of it in time.
When Daniel recovered to the point that he could understand his condition and the circumstances that brought him to the hospital, Mr. Gaines jokingly brought up Daniel’s wild rantings. The older man stopped short, however, when he noticed that Daniel wasn’t amused.
“I’m sorry, Daniel,” he said, looking at Daniel’s stricken face. “I’m sure you don’t like being reminded of how ill you were.”
Daniel shook his head. “No, that’s not what bothers me. And don’t apologize. You couldn’t possibly know.” Daniel fell silent.
“Know what?” By now, Mrs. Gaines was standing near her husband and looking pensively at Daniel.
Daniel sighed heavily. He really didn’t want to tell his parents anything about Mr. Hembrey, but sooner or later he probably would. “Has anything weird happened while you’ve been staying at the house? Like have you been seeing any shadows or... I guess, just shadows?” That sounded lame, but what else were they?
“Shadows? Like shadows on the ground? From trees or buildings?” asked Mr. Gaines.
“No, like a shadow person. Just a shadow. Not a person.” Daniel looked at his parents. They obviously thought he still wasn’t well.
“Well, no,” replied Mr. Gaines slowly, and then looked meaningfully at his wife. “We’ve seen no shadows, have we honey?”
“No, no shadows,” agreed Mrs. Gaines in the same slow tone of voice as her husband. Daniel looked away and grimaced.
“Okay. You think I’m crazy, but I’m not. Mr. Hembrey is mad that he’s dead and that I own his farm. He’s trying to run me off.”
Mr. Gaines laughed before he could stop himself and immediately covered his mouth.
“I’m sorry, son. Really I am. Isn’t Mr. Hembrey the guy who used to own the farm?”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“And he’s dead, right?”
“Very much so.”
“Then how can he run you off?”
“Well, first, he tried to scare me by appearing in and around the house. It didn’t work. But he did manage to scare off Jimmy. Jimmy was my right-hand guy. He was Mr. Hembrey’s, too. Mr. Hembrey kept showing up where Jimmy was and, according to Jimmy, Mr. Hembrey made it clear that he was none too happy with Jimmy. So Jimmy quit.
“Right after that was when I cut my ankle on a blade I was sharpening. It didn’t seem like a bad cut; not bad enough to cause all of the problems I’ve had because of it. The thing that made it bad was whatever nasty bacteria was on the blade that had no business being there. How did that bacteria get on the blade? You’d have to ask Mr. Hembrey.
“And then, because I still wouldn’t leave the farm, Mr. Hembrey tried to choke me to death while I was sleeping in the recliner. I don’t know why that didn’t work. I passed out.”
When Daniel finished, the room was silent for some time. Neither of the Gaineses knew what to do or say. Finally, Mr. Gaines spoke up. “Okay, that’s a lot. I think something spooked you for sure. I can’t say that I think it’s a dead guy, but that’s not important right now. Your mom and I plan to stay through the fall, and we’ll help you get back on your feet and help with the farm. So, if this Mr. Hembrey really is hanging around, we’re bound to see him.”
* * *
Copyright © 2025 by Kelly S. Hossaini
