Adelaide Henry rode out from town toward her home.
Didn’t take long to realize she’d been followed.
“Telling tales.”
It wasn’t one of the townsfolk.
“Telling secrets.”
Adelaide rode as quickly as Obadiah could go, but the old horse couldn’t go but so fast. She leaned back in the saddle even though he trotted across flat ground. She only felt like she was going downhill.
“Hello, Eleanor,” Adelaide said.
When she looked to her right, she found her mother walking there. On foot and yet she kept pace with the animal Adelaide rode.
“That’s how you address me now?” her mother said.
“I’m grown,” Adelaide asserted, but who believed it? Sure didn’t sound like Adelaide did.
Eleanor choked or laughed, hard to tell the difference because of the way the sound traveled out of the tear in her throat.
“What kind of grown woman forgets her responsibilities?”
“Not my responsibility,” Adelaide snapped back.
“Then whose?” the spirit hissed.
Adelaide slumped in her saddle.
“Let someone else take it up,” she begged. “I never wanted it.”
Eleanor didn’t argue this point. How could she? Or perhaps the spirit had been thinking the same thing about her own existence.
“Why don’t I ever see Daddy?” Adelaide asked.
Eleanor Henry clucked softly. “Him you still address with respect.”
“I didn’t know him like I know you,” Adelaide said. “Talking to you is like talking to myself.”
“One and the same,” Eleanor whispered.
They moved together across the plains. How the wind howled, but Adelaide hardly heard it. It was like a conversation happening in another room. Her mother’s voice rang louder.
“It got loose from us one time,” Eleanor told her. “Killed cattle, killed sheep. We were lucky that’s all it killed. News spread all over about something savage and wild in the Valley, and, sure, we played right along. Your daddy went hunting with the other men. They captured a mountain lion. But did anyone believe that little thing caused so much loss? No. Not really. Suspicions spread between every farm. Lotta ugly feelings all around. If it had happened again, people might’ve come looking for us. Who knows? But we fixed the problem, best we could. Lashed that demon with a heavier chain. Never got free again.”
Obadiah didn’t snort or whinny at the sight of Eleanor, nor at the sound of her voice. He only trotted forward and this was how Adelaide knew Eleanor haunted her alone.
“That’s why I’m warning you,” Eleanor said. “Whatever damage the demon does, they’ll come for you. And they will repay you a hundred times.”
“I’m not scared of them,” Adelaide insisted, sounding more like a stubborn child.
“You should be.”