Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Jimmy Juliano
- Language: English
- Genre: Ghost Thrillers
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
THE OLD WOMAN AND THE CORPSE
Esther and Gloria had a routine.
Every day at 1:12 p.m., the elderly neighbors would shuffle to their
mailboxes—Esther on one side of the gravel road, Gloria on the other—and
they’d wave to each other. The widows owned the only two houses on a
rural, one-mile stretch of road on Clifford Island. Their properties had been
cut into the forest a half century ago, their homes engulfed by pine trees,
with hidden driveways peeking through thin gaps in the sweet and earthysmelling woods. Not many cars went that way; some days it was only the
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mail truck. The fog was a bit heavier at this particular spot, and despite the
lack of island traffic, more deer seemed to dart out and get obliterated there
than any other place on the island. The stench of rotting flesh lingered for
days. Something to remind the women that death could sneak up at any
moment.
They were a superstitious pair, after all.
The women’s routine went like this: Esther walked down her driveway
wearing blue slippers, gray cotton pants, and a red cardigan. She reached
her mailbox and raised her right hand to Gloria, who would be wearing a
faded white nightgown. Gloria waved back. The women checked for mail
and then doddered back up their driveways.
It went like that every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow, for twenty-five
years.
Many days there was no mail delivered. Christmas, the Fourth of July,
Sundays, of course. But sometimes there was just no mail. No letters, no
bills, no JCPenney catalog. The mail truck drove right by, or simply didn’t
come at all. The women checked their mailboxes anyway, always at 1:12
p.m. If it was colder outside—and it certainly got very cold this far north,
especially in the clutches of a Wisconsin winter—Esther and Gloria
bundled up in jackets and mittens. But Esther always wore the gray pants
and cardigan underneath, and Gloria always wore the nightgown. It was
tradition.
The two women lived alone for decades, but they were far from bored.
Esther played cribbage at the small community center on Thursday nights.
Both women sang in the church choir on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and
Sundays. Gloria enjoyed tending to her garden; Esther had a chicken coop.
They often exchanged pleasantries at the café downtown, usually
commiserating about the runny eggs and burnt coffee. Esther and Gloria
were friendly, but they weren’t friends. Some islanders wondered why they
weren’t friends, as if being old and alone meant you had to be friends with
your neighbor, who was also old and alone. They’d even get asked that
question from time to time. Why don’t you drive together to church? You
live across the street. But both women felt that they couldn’t be friends.
They knew their bond ran deeper than friendship.
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