Caraliza (16 page)
Authors: Joel Blaine Kirkpatrick
“
Well, the scratch in the woodwork, there on the side, down at the corner.” Every eye in the room went to Papa’s camera. “We know how it got there…my family that is, and I guess you all do too. It’s the only sure way to know it is the box Menashe Reisman would never focus or put a plate into.”
Well, the scratch in the woodwork, there on the side, down at the corner.” Every eye in the room went to Papa’s camera. “We know how it got there…my family that is, and I guess you all do too. It’s the only sure way to know it is the box Menashe Reisman would never focus or put a plate into.”
Aunt Dannie leaned over to Shelly and whispered, “If Beth doesn’t rip his head off, marry this idiot. He’s a dream.” And then she sat back up as if she hadn’t said a word. Shelly pinched her aunt on the leg as hard as she could.
Grandma Sareta calmed the rising storm a bit, but not by pleasing her sister-in-law Beth. She invited Evan to tell them what he knew of their most treasured heirloom. He apologized for interrupting them the way he did and politely asked if they could wait for his story after dinner, after all it looked delicious and Audrey was looking ready to plow in anyway. Shelly would have to wait for the anticipated fireworks, but the meal was wonderful, even with Beth glaring and Sareta pleasantly beaming in turns at the sacrificial lamb seated under Shelly’s wandering fingers. When they were finally ready for coffees and dessert, and his tale, he knew how it would be told. She stopped tormenting him under the table so he could keep his thoughts together.
The famous Waterbury was twin to another, and the Bryant family owned the other still. That raised some very thickly penciled eyebrows. At first breath he told them something they never heard. And it got a bit worse for them. Why ever in the world it would matter to anyone how Papa came to possess the lovely camera, Shelly could not understand. Her aunts and Grandma Beth seemed to think it was a scandal when Evan told them both cameras belonged to his great grandfather, Martin Bryant. One of them was damaged in an accident in the street, now a family legend to the Bryant clan. The broken box was given, not to Papa Reisman at all.
Evan was not sure how to tell them it was purloined to become a Reisman possession and he tried to tell them they would not like the news. Grandma Beth challenged him to tell her something he could actually prove. She regretted the challenge. He bested her in an instant and Shelly fell deeply in love with him. She took off her shoes under the table and began to caress Evan with her toes. He was being a very good boy, she thought.
“
Martin Bryant made the gift of that box,” Evan pointed, “to a youth named Yousep Kogen, the clerk in the Reisman Portraits. The young fellow who died upstairs, but was never found.”
Martin Bryant made the gift of that box,” Evan pointed, “to a youth named Yousep Kogen, the clerk in the Reisman Portraits. The young fellow who died upstairs, but was never found.”
The mention of the murdered youth’s name was an unholy act to the clan. Very few of the eldest even remembered his name at all. Shelly always thought it sad they could never quite remember the poor fellow who Papa felt such devastating grief to lose. Now realizing he was both the hero to his date, and possibly a couple of her aunts, but the villain to the eldest Reisman at the table, Evan concluded with his damnable proof. His family kept a university album from the year 1919 in which Yousep Kogen himself was given credit for the photo of the varsity basketball team. Yousep took the image moments after the Reisman Waterbury crashed to the sidewalk, and he used the Bryant Waterbury to capture the team.
It seemed in almost eighty years, only Martin and Yousep would have the fame of using both instruments, never again would any other person be able to do such a thing. Beth Reisman was beside herself, she insisted Yousep never used the now tarnishing treasure, but she was cut off in that charge by Audrey, who reminded them Papa himself hid away the only two plates Yousep was known to have taken, before his murder.
One was well known to them, just a brick wall for a lens test and nothing more. But the second, which Papa would never show to anyone, was still fabled to be stored inside the treasure box. Papa became ill because of his grief at the two murders in his shop and he never worked again.
Every eye at the table turned to Shelly, because she had announced several weeks before, she now possessed the Menashe Reisman secret case. She deflected the attention back to the story itself, or tried.
“
Does anyone alive still remember who was murdered with the boy up in the storeroom?” she asked the other ladies. Beth would never have answered in front of a Bryant, but Grandma Sareta had no trouble telling what she knew.
Does anyone alive still remember who was murdered with the boy up in the storeroom?” she asked the other ladies. Beth would never have answered in front of a Bryant, but Grandma Sareta had no trouble telling what she knew.
“
They say it was a young girl. She was in danger, of which sort we have never been told, but the lad put her in the shop to hide her. Papa was trying to find a way to safely get them out, when someone got in during the night.”
They say it was a young girl. She was in danger, of which sort we have never been told, but the lad put her in the shop to hide her. Papa was trying to find a way to safely get them out, when someone got in during the night.”
“
Imagine spending the night in that huge building,” Audrey shuddered. “I can’t even walk in there for very long.”
Imagine spending the night in that huge building,” Audrey shuddered. “I can’t even walk in there for very long.”
“
The place wasn’t haunted until
after
the murders,” Aunt Tess reminded her. “What I’d like to know is, why Papa let those two kids run around the place alone? They must have been like rabbits in every room.” The ladies entirely lost their somber mood at that, and the attention began to turn back to the adorable young man who kept putting his elbows into Shelly’s side.
The place wasn’t haunted until
after
the murders,” Aunt Tess reminded her. “What I’d like to know is, why Papa let those two kids run around the place alone? They must have been like rabbits in every room.” The ladies entirely lost their somber mood at that, and the attention began to turn back to the adorable young man who kept putting his elbows into Shelly’s side.
The evening ended a smashing success. And Shelly walked out with the treasured item in the silly leather case Grandma Beth thought was so appropriate. The Reisman Waterbury would be kept in the box Papa made for it, and Shelly hoped to be able to keep it there always. She asked Evan to come to the studio whenever he could the next day, and to be ready for some darkroom making out, and a bit of development. She did not tell him she was going to have a little ceremony when she opened the box again for the camera. The thought of the closet sent a shiver into her, and he sensed it when she kissed him goodnight.
He wanted to be invited to her place, or to do the inviting, but her kiss told him he would be alone again. As playful and enticing as Shelly Reisman was, she had never given him a moment alone after dark, that was not in some favorite corner of hers in her building. He was beginning to suspect only the Reisman Portraits could arouse Shelly to passion.
Evan’s appearance at the dinner echoed through the clan. That Sareta would invite any man was news in itself, but to have invited a Bryant? Shelly loved he was both famous and infamous. It made his presence all the more delicious to her. The clan was asking, where had he come from? And seemingly, just at the time their Shelly was doing the most important restoration the building felt in four generations? Some smelled around for fishy reasons in the event of his appearing, some thought it charming, a few thought it would only bring trouble.
Shelly was determined if there were any more trouble, she would be causing it. Evan was just what she was looking for, in and out of the shop; she did not care if the entire clan turned against her. With his help, the Reisman Portraits would return to its prime and the two of them would be praised for their brilliance. But she never imagined anyone would be at her side while the building was transformed.
She was going to have to tell him soon what she really planned to make in the renovation, because it was time to design in the kitchen equipment. That was going to disturb the original counter area, and entire back room, which was the original office, and it would take up a bit of corner in the smaller studio. The larger studio in the back would not be affected.
She planned just enough dining tables to fill in spaces around the display, only one table in the beautiful studio and two in the smaller one. She thought it would be perfect to have thirty guests, and be completely full. If this worked out, she would have guests making reservations six months in advance just to get a table. Since all the downstairs extra space was being taken up with kitchen, the ‘death’ room upstairs as she called it, to watch him blanch, would become her new office. She was eager to share all these details with him when he came, he was certain to think the ideas were grand. As long as the renovation did not disturb the ghosts, it
would
be ideal.
would
be ideal.
The ghosts simply had to stay; she no longer doubted they were there. That certainty came to her in the closet when she lost her will to breathe if Evan would not take her in his arms. That sensation still was with her, it had been so strong, and she would follow the desire back into the closet to feel the warmth, which seemed to be waiting for her. The darkness would call her in, and Shelly would go, and the building would silence every sound that might distract her before the door closed her inside.
Several days passed without Evan appearing at her divan in the studio. He did not call in fact, and they were still planning the drive up state in a few days. She wanted to open Papa’s chest with him long before that. She was quite impatient just to do it, and the urge was growing. She was missing Evan and it was a very nice feeling to have. She knew it was false to go to the closet to feel something of him there, but it would call to her, and she missed him so.
He appeared with just a day left before he was going to force her out of her lair for an entire three days. She had not been out of the city that length of time in quite a few years. She already knew it would be too long to be away from the studio. It would have been more fun to spend the three days on the divan and let the woods stay where they were. But he was there and he cradled his family’s precious Waterbury in his hands. He apologized for his absence; he was forced to beg the use of it again, it was not his alone to carry about, and several other Bryants were known to need it constantly. She produced Papa’s camera and the two boxes were placed next to each other on the divan for the first known time in likely the entire seventy-five years.
Shelly was not feeling faint again, but she was not feeling perfectly well. It was a powerful sight, and she was affected a bit. Evan said he understood it; Martin and Yousep were probably the last persons to see the boxes together and the sight stirred his emotions too. The mention of Yousep’s name brought a sigh through the studio, which sounded like a breeze with a female breath. Shelly did not hear it at all. Evan not only heard it; he felt it and he did not like it. It was her turn to ask if anything were the matter, because of his expression, and he was not entirely sure what to tell her. At his every thought of the studio for the last several weeks there came the thought of the ghosts in her family’s past, he was spooking himself and getting tired of it. The weekend idea was born out of his desire just to spend time with Shelly that was not in her building.
Evan did not like the feelings he was having as they stood there in the studio and decided they should just move the cameras to the coffee table and sit down for a bit. They were still making tiny arrangements for the trip. The longer he sat with her and they talked, the more he understood he was feeling angry, and he could not decide what was angering him. Shelly put his confusion into clearer words than he was able to do; she said the cameras did not like being side by side. Just seeing them together, silent, powerful, it bothered her now. It gave her a feeling like carsickness.
One of those cameras experienced some heartbreaking sorrows in its past and only brooded over them in the clutches of secretive relations. The other was lively and active, a member of the family, constantly viewing and capturing the world. She was not sure what the Reisman Waterbury captured last, and it might have been horrifying. Papa seemed to think there was something horrifying about that wood and brass instrument. To prove it, she took the Reisman and set it out on the shop counter, out of sight. Evan was stunned. The anger he was trying to hide began to ebb, and his smile was less strained.
“
Shelly, you believe there are ghosts here,” he stated.
Shelly, you believe there are ghosts here,” he stated.
“
I’m counting on it,” she replied without thinking.
I’m counting on it,” she replied without thinking.
“
Did you enjoy what you just felt before we put your camera in the other room?”
Did you enjoy what you just felt before we put your camera in the other room?”
She looked at him without much answer in her eyes; she did not reply either.
“
Did you enjoy the sensation in the closet a few weeks ago?”
Did you enjoy the sensation in the closet a few weeks ago?”
She still did not say anything about what she felt. She became more concerned with the condition of the polish on her toes, than giving him his answer about the closet.
“
What are you going to do if you open this place and the ghosts are not the fun evening show you are pretending they might be? People died here. They might not entertain us. Have you thought of that Tiddles?”
What are you going to do if you open this place and the ghosts are not the fun evening show you are pretending they might be? People died here. They might not entertain us. Have you thought of that Tiddles?”
She moved slightly from where she sat, leaning out over her legs, studying and wiggling her toes on the coffee table; she turned a bit and was looking at him and he had never seen the expression before.
“
Why did you call me that?” she asked.
Why did you call me that?” she asked.
There was no humor in her voice; it was flat. Evan shifted uncomfortably a moment, trying to answer. He did not know exactly where the word came from.
“
Why did you call me that?” she asked again, but was insisting now.
Why did you call me that?” she asked again, but was insisting now.
“
I just call people silly things. Just goofiness. I get teased all the time by family about it.”
I just call people silly things. Just goofiness. I get teased all the time by family about it.”
“
I’ve been called that more times than I’ve been called Shelly,” she told him with a frown. “It’s more personal than you would understand. It’s not a name I like at all, but its mine to hate forever. Why did you do that? Did Dannie put you up to that?” She was moving away in the other direction.
I’ve been called that more times than I’ve been called Shelly,” she told him with a frown. “It’s more personal than you would understand. It’s not a name I like at all, but its mine to hate forever. Why did you do that? Did Dannie put you up to that?” She was moving away in the other direction.
Evan had crossed a line he did not see. There was nothing to see at all, but he was on the wrong side of Shelly Reisman, as surely as there had been a wall. The thought of a wall stuck in his mind suddenly.
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