The Curse of Dr. Zola
Chapter 13
A week after she moved in, she was still puzzling over the mysterious message her mother had left. She phoned the attorney and was surprised to hear that all of her mother's other assets had been sold before her death. She had assumed he had only read the portion that pertained to her.
"She was living in a small rented apartment for the last year, hiring an aide to care for her. She never wanted to be a burden to you. I paid the aide with a fund your mother set up for that purpose. The rest was my payment for my services."
"You said she was a wealthy woman. What happened to the money she got from selling off everything?"
"I don't know. She never told me. I can only assume she gave it all away."
Mary sighed. "Look, I don't care what she did with her money. I don't care that she was wealthy. I'm grateful that she left me the house, but I'd just like to know where it all went."
"I understand perfectly. She was worth millions at the height of her day, but like I said, I did handle a lot of her business, but I was not her only attorney."
"Who handled the rest?"
"She never told me. Perhaps the clue lies in her will. Your mother often said one thing to me and yet, the meaning turned out to be something completely different. She wrote it herself, all the wording. It was actually quite poetic. I'm sure you didn't appreciate the full depth of it at the reading. I'll forward you a copy. I should have given you a copy when you were here."
"Thank you."
The next day a courier arrived and hand delivered the copy. Mary was quite surprised at the old fashioned service, but pleased.
She sat at the kitchen table and read the document, hand written by her mother in her beautiful print, just like the letter had been. Mary unfolded the letter and set it down next to the will. She looked at both documents, trying to will it to talk to her. But both were stubborn and just lay there on the table, silently mocking her.
My mother never did anything without a plan. Every choice she made had a reason behind it, even if I never understood her reasoning. So, why this house? Why set it with a theme and why this theme? Why the forties or fifties?
"She was born in 1940, and supposedly escaped in 1944. Maybe this reminded her of the house she lived in with grandma?" Mary sighed, and got up to walk around the house. She thought maybe there was a clue she missed.
She eventually made her way to the second bedroom. She looked around, and that's when she noticed how relatively plainer this room seemed. The old wash stand was lovely. The blue and white pitcher sat on the lower shelf and the wash basin in its cradle on the upper tier. It was the only bright spot in the room. She turned to the pictures on the wall; Brooklyn Antiques, the Brooklyn Majestic cinema, and a picture of the Cyclone at Coney Island, all from the 1940's.
In her first trip here, she had opened the closet; empty, but she'd never checked the dresser. She pulled open the top drawer, and found clothes in it! Her jaw dropped. She nosed around the tiniest bit. In the top drawer were pairs of men's boxers, tank style undershirts and socks. She pushed the drawer closed slowly. What the hell?
The second and third drawers held shirts and pants, but not all of them were forties styled. "That's a relief!" She threw one hand up in the air. "Now, I'm talking to myself!"
She went back to the closet. Why are the pants in the drawer and not hung up? She reached for the bar to straighten it, as it looked crooked to her. When she moved it, she felt it click into place and the back wall of the closet cracked open!
Her breath caught in her throat and she realized she'd discovered the secret door! A casual observer would have missed it entirely.
She tapped her knuckles on the "wall", and found it seemingly hollow. She pushed it and it opened to the basement.
She patted the wall for the light switch and flipped it on. Her breath was ragged with excitement as she descended the stairs. It wasn't as she feared; dank and damp, but cool and semi-finished. But she didn't see any door. She felt around the walls, but was unable to discern where there was a doorway. Puzzled, she stood in the center of the room and slowly turned in a circle. Nothing.
She moved directly under the ceiling light and looked at the keys; the front door key, 2 bedroom door keys, a back door key, a key to the small shed out back, and a strange looking Tchotchke. Frustrated, she huffed and puffed with her hands on her hips, and that's when the light bulb overhead flickered and blew out.
She screamed at the unexpected popping sound, and was engulfed in the sudden darkness. Thank goodness she'd left the door open at the top of the stairs or else she'd have had no light at all. She went over to the stairwell and began climbing the stairs, and that's when she saw it; a faint blue light.
At first she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but the blue tinted light remained.
She ran to her truck to get the flashlight out and quickly returned.
Feeling around she couldn't find any keyhole, nor was there any key on the ring! She shone the flashlight everywhere but still with no success. After a few minutes of stewing, she simply shut off the flashlight, and waited until her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
She backed away from the wall until she spotted a strange little symbol glowing blue. Knowing where to focus her eyes now, she approached it slowly. Could this be the keyhole?
She was about to dismiss it when she thought of the odd Tchotchke. She fumbled for it and when she went to insert it, it fit perfectly! The heavy door swung in and a blue light filled the room. In the center of the room was a draped object. She pulled back the cloth. "What the hell?"
She switched the flashlight on and peered into the little window and screamed! She jumped back so fast she lost her footing and fell heavily onto the floor. The flashlight went skittering across the floor, causing an eerie light to play off the walls.
There was a man in there!
It took her several minutes to slow her heart rate enough to realize that this surely must be a bad joke on her mother's part. It must be a mannequin.
She retrieved the flashlight, and with her hands shaking, she looked in again. "Mother, if this is a joke, I swear I'll…"
Then she noticed the buttons, with numbers on them and a little paper stuck underneath in her mother's hand writing.
Push in this order 32557038
She read the sequence and pushed the buttons. A faint hiss sounded and thru the window she saw a warm reddish glow.
The creaking and hissing caused her to back up fearfully. "What have I done?"
She watched for about 15 minutes, with a deer in the headlights stare on her face. Every creak and groan from the aged capsule made her grimace. "Why? Why am I so jumpy? This has to be a trick, and when it's all over, I'm going to laugh and cry and yell at you mom for tricking me!"
With a huff, she walked out of the room, and back upstairs.
An hour later, she was still pacing the floor, chiding herself for being sucked into this ruse. She looked at the letter again. The hand-writing was her mothers'. She knew it as well as her own sloppy writing. Mom had always pushed her at her schoolwork. She excelled at English/Language Arts, but her print and cursive never improved all that much.
"Fine. Mom this is too much! It's ridiculous."
She went back downstairs and crept to the still open doorway. The lid had moved slightly and was still glowing from inside.
Taking a deep breath, she went over to see if she could move the lid. When it didn't budge, she peered into the window again. The man's face seemed softer than an hour ago. Or was it her imagination?
She waited and watched and walked around the room for what seemed like forever. On the other side of the capsule there was an old composition book lying on what she assumed powered the thing, and she picked it up. When was flipping thru it when she heard a faint humming sound, and then a series of clicks. She peered down again. The glow from within was fading. Now, she heard another sound, but couldn't identify its' source, except that it came from within the cradle. She pushed on the lid again and with a groan, it slid open.
Her jaw dropped when she saw the man was completely naked! She reached out to poke his bicep fully expecting to find plastic. Her stomach turned and heaved when she felt cold human flesh. It's a dead body…..why would mother keep a… and then it moved!
She jumped and backed up until she felt her back against the wall. Overwhelmed, she sank to the floor and everything went black.
She came around about 15 minutes later. Her wits took longer. She looked up. The man's arm had moved and was resting against the side of the cradle. She eased herself to a standing position and slowly moved forward, just enough to see that his eyes were open. Her hand went to cover her mouth. OhmyGod…. Darkness threatened to overwhelm her again, and she felt dizzy. She forced it down.
"Don't move. Let me get you a towel."
She ran upstairs to find the towels that had been stocked in the bathroom cabinet, grabbed one and raced back down. He was trying to move. Panicking, she threw the towel over his lower body.
"Can you stand?"
She tried to help him to his feet. The towel fell away, much to her horror, but as soon as he was sort of in a standing position, she looped the towel around his hips and tucked in the end. Then he tilted forwards, and his weight carried her backwards. They crashed to the floor, with his face buried between her boobs.
The added weight had knocked the wind out of her, and all she managed to do was to push his head to the side so he could breathe. Unfortunately, his head still rested on her chest, and his body covered hers. It was a predicament she couldn't get out of until she got her wind back.
It seemed to take forever to catch her breath. Meanwhile, the man that lay on top of her made no attempts to move. How convenient!
She tried just pushing him off her, but he was too heavy, so she next tried wriggling out from under him at the same time she pushed. That worked a little better.
It took her a while, but she managed to extricate herself, and she used her legs to roll him onto his back. Of course, this now meant that he was exposed again!
Fighting with the towel, she managed to cover him again and tuck the ends in. She couldn't help but get an eyeful! Dear Lord!
She sat back to catch her breath again. He does have a nice body…OHMYGOD, what am I thinking? This poor man is half frozen to death and here I am admiring the view! She mentally slapped herself.
She watched his chest rise and fall. At least he was breathing regularly. She didn't want to have to put her rusty CPR skills to the test. She thought about calling 911, but how could she explain? Oh yeah, by the way, I found this guy in my basement that doesn't exist, in a room that doesn't exist, and defrosted him from the latest model of Mystery Science Theatre's freezer! Oh yeah, that would go over well.
When he turned his head to look at her, she knew she had to get him upright…somehow.
"If I help you, do you think you can get up? We have to get up the stairs."
His mouth and lips moved some, but his brain was still too sluggish to form a coherent reply. He did make an attempt to roll over, so she took that as his answer.
She grabbed an arm, and he used her strength to get himself to his knees. She then got in front of him and had him struggle over to the wall, so she could lean her back against it. She didn't want a repeat of the earlier crash.
He got unsteadily to his feet at last and the towel lasted about 10 seconds before it fell off and puddled around his feet.
"Great! Just great! Steady yourself against the wall. I gotta fix your towel again."
She ducked under his arms and secured the towel from behind him. She couldn't help but admire the backside view. He had a nice butt. She shook her head again, and chastised herself.
Leaning heavily on her, she just barely managed to get him upstairs without collapsing under his weight. She got him into the bathroom and onto the toilet and at the same time she managed to lift up the towel from his buttocks.
He was shaky, and his body was ice cold. She grabbed a washcloth from the rack, ran it under warm water and began swabbing his face and upper body. He was disoriented, and did not resist her ministrations.
When she had washed down all but his nether region, she asked him if he was done on the toilet. His head bobbed down as if he didn't realize he had a lower body. She noticed that the towel was soaked in the front. Oops!
She reached around and grabbed a wad of toilet paper and pressed it into his hand. His hand disappeared under the towel, and came back empty. She hoped that meant he'd wiped himself clean.
"Let me get you a fresh towel." She reached over and grabbed one out of the cabinet where she had found the first one. "Can you stand for me?"
She helped him to his feet, switched towels and got him onto the bed, where he promptly shut his eyes, and drifted off.