Cora waited for Harry at their meeting place just like he’d asked her to, but he was late. She checked her watch. Ginny should have been asleep long ago.
Their secret meeting place was really nothing more now than a small cleared spot under some trees. Once it had been so much more. In the beginning they chose that spot because some trees had fallen, leaving two nice trunks to sit on. It was surrounded by brush so they were invisible to anyone walking past. Harry cleared the space out, tried to make it as nice as he could. One summer when he was not more than ten, he pounded small tree trunks into the ground and covered the top with tree branches. It ended up looking like a crude little hut. It was here that he, Ginny and Cora met so often. They all scrounged things from their homes to try and make it cozy. Ginny and Harry brought some old cushions to sit on, two old coffee cans filled with supplies like cigarette lighters and small tools, and one for gum balls, candy or marshmallows. Harry would ration them out as he saw fit.
Cora didn’t have much in the way of luxuries to add but she did find an old kerosene lantern in the carriage house. Harry got some kerosene at the gas station and they found they could sit in that spot for hours after it got dark. Cora smiled with the thought. The three of them huddled together around that old lantern, telling stories and laughing. It was the happiest time of her life.
The tree trunks had long since rotted. Their make-shift hut had fallen apart and was rebuilt so many times, they’d lost count. The year Harry left for college Cora went there and tried to rebuild it on her own. Ginny had gone away a few years before to West Chester College to become a teacher, so she was all alone. She pounded those trunks in and then gathered branches. She worked all evening. In the end it just wasn’t the same. She had everything, the coffee cans, the lantern, even some cushions. She lay there that night by herself. She’d never had a lonelier, longer night in her life. Her lifelines to the world were gone.
She turned at the sound of cracking leaves behind her. Harry. His eyes were shining.
“You’re late. I was worried Ginny was acting up again.”
“No,” he shook his head. “Virginia seems to be behaving herself quite well. Your guest on the other hand…she was over again.”
Cora stared straight ahead. “What did she say?”
Harry leaned against a tree. “I’m not sure. I could only hear but so much.” He picked up a twig and snapped it in half. “Eventually Virginia will tell her …”
“If Nick didn’t already.” she interrupted. They were both silent. She moved over to the very spot where their hut had been built so long ago.
“Cora” His voice was soft. “The time has really come to get her out of here. Remember, we said we’d wait and watch and when the time was right…”
“I love this spot. I should do something here. I don’t know why I didn’t before, you know, have a little gazebo built, or…I don’t know, something…” She was deep in thought.
Harrison took her arm. “I have been watching her. I’ve been trying to put it all together, figure it out. If she knew, she would have dropped some sort of hint. But she is looking for something. It’s a dangerous thing having her on this property.” He pushed off the tree and stood next to me. “We agreed to do it my way…”
“In thy love for me, reduce my enemies to silence…” She stared into the distance.
“Cora…”
“and bring destruction on all who oppress me…”
“Cora.”
She was startled by his voice. “Psalm 143, that’s it, Harry. Bring destruction on all who oppress me.”
Harry looked down at her and shook his head. “God, help you…” he muttered. “I’m going to tend to Virginia. Meet me here tomorrow. 10 am. We’ll come up with a plan to get rid of her. Understand? One way or the other.” He moved through the brush and was gone.
She stood transfixed. The words of the 143rd Psalm played over and over in her head. “ …an enemy has hunted me down, and has ground me underfoot and has plunged me into darkness like a man long dead so that my heart is dazed with despair…deliver me, Lord from my enemies…and bring destruction to all who oppress me…” The words sung in her head. She tromped quickly through the trees towards the house. God had given her an answer. She knew what she had to do.