Katherine stood outside Aunt Penny’s house on Cherry Street, hesitant to ring the doorbell. A light tea had been served at the funeral home after Uncle Carl’s memorial service, and afterwards, Aunt Penny had gone home alone. Kat thought about her grandparents’ deaths, and the hordes of family and friends who had stopped by the house after each of their services. Aunt Penny had isolated herself, withdrawing from society by her own need to connect through gossip or criticism.
Suddenly the porch light snapped on and Penny opened the door. “Come in! Come quickly.” She whispered loudly, beckoning Kat towards to door.
“Took you long enough” she muttered when Kat stepped through the door “Never understand you young kids these days, always acting like time is of no consequence. Well, let me tell you my dear, time stops. That’s what it does. It just stops.” Kat bit her tongue on the numerous corrections she would have liked to share with Aunt Penny. At 41 years of age Kat wouldn’t call herself a “young kid”. And no one had told her what time to show up at Aunt Penny’s! What with Aunt Penny’s secret invitation and the General’s ambiguous comments, Kat had no idea what to expect. Arriving under the cloak of darkness seemed to add to the sense of mystery clinging to this whole evening.
“You’re my last hope Katherine, and probably the only hope for the rest of the old codgers that took up with Bad Ben a few years ago. You’d best take this seriously.” Now Kat was starting to get angry. It was one thing to be patient with someone so recently bereaved, but being called the last hope for some group of unknown people was pushing the limits of her forbearance. And suggesting that she wasn’t taking some cryptic messages seriously!
“Here, have a seat.” Aunt Penny led Kat into the living room, where delicate porcelain tea cups adorned with pink and yellow roses sat next to a silver tea pot on a low coffee table. A small apple cinnamon loaf cake was centred on a rosebud plate, with a silver serving knife lying along its side. Kat’s frustration melted away as she recognized the scent of the Apple Harvest tea mingling with the sweet smell of the cooling cake. Aunt Penny, in the midst of her own sadness, had remembered Kat’s favourite tea blend from Candy and Comfort.
“How can I help you Aunt Penny? What’s going on?”
“Carl wasn’t sick. He was poisoned” exploded Penny, tears coming to her eyes. “And they made him take the poison himself. Every day. One teaspoon mixed into his morning coffee for the past 6 months. They said it would only make him sick, but then he died and they just shrugged it off. His age they said! Not their fault they said!” Penny’s speech was getting louder as she spoke, until the last words were shouted. She glanced at the curtained window and lowered her voice as she got up to peek through the glass. Pacing now, Penny continued “He shouldn’t have died. The old fool, if only he’d gone to the police and explained it all. But no, he said he wouldn’t be the one to break the vow, or let the other’s down, and now he’s dead. Always was too trusting that man. Always too trusting.”
Kat sat, frozen in place. Uncle Carl had been murdered? “Aunt Penny, have you spoken to the police?”
Penny turned towards Kat and advanced, her large frame only inches away, agitation making her words sharp “NO POLICE” she all but shouted, now shaking with fear. “I told the General that you would want to call the cops”, she resumed pacing in front of the window, “always by the book you are Katherine, aren’t you?”
Katherine took a deep breath, hoping to calm her instinctive desire to leave this house and never return. “Sit down Penny, tell me what I can do to help”.
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