LUCY
for Ed Gorey
Lucy could not wake up, she wanted to, she could not, her dream though pleasant held her captive. On the meadow beyond the garden, the teaparty, she stood. Air sweet with sun-cooked wild grass, swallows, the oaks, a softened horizon. A man breaks from the throng. He's seen her. He heads for the meadow, excited, troubled, a little anxious for the most part. "Lucy, Lucy, is that you? Come and meet our guests, they're just dying to meet you, darling." "Oh, please excuse me, Robert, I, I.." "Lucy darling, would you rather I go?" "No Robert, I'll come with you." Robert's all enlivening smile cheered her a little. Slowly they walked toward the party, the waiting guests, in the rock garden. Suddenly Lucy felt a strange sensation. The summer sky a darkening, a closing in, a sinking weightlessness, a swooning away. "Wake up darling. It's me, Robert. Now don't say anything, keep calm, let me carry you, you're going to be alright. I'll get you out of here." "Robert, oh Robert, I had an awful..." "Yes, yes darling, just let me lift you out of bed." Robert carried Lucy across the bedroom floor. When he opened the door a thick pall of black smoke almost consumed them. Flames leapt up the hall walls, the staircase was ablaze. The house quaked with firey destruction. "Just keep calm, my darling, I'll get us out of this." As Robert quickly but cautiously descended the blazing staircase, Lucy felt that feeling again, a sinking weightlessness, a closing in, a darkness. Lucy awoke. It was a fine summer morning. A handful of house sparrows hopped and chirped outside her window, clear light and long shadows. Lucy sat up in bed, saw the very same clothes she had thrown on the dresser stool the night before, breathed a sigh of relief. She felt happy. Getting out of bed Lucy wrapped herself in her dressing gown. A light tap on the door. "Lucy, are you awake darling?" "Yes, Robert, you can come in." "How's my bride to be today?" he said lightly kissing her cheek. "Do you feel better?" "Better? What do you mean Robert, I've never felt better in my life." "Well, that's a relief. When you fainted yesterday, naturally I felt concerned." "Fainted, Robert?" "Yes, don't you remember, you were walking back with me over the north meadow when you passed out. Of course, I made excuses to our guests. You've no idea how good it is to see you completely recovered. I didn't get a wink of sleep all night worrying about you. The doctor said it was only strain and that you should stay in bed a few days. So come on back to bed you go." "But I don't want to go back to bed," said Lucy with the strangest look of tension on her face. "But darling, you must, for your own..." "Robert, don't you think I'm the best judge of that?" Lucy broke in sternly. "Why, yes, but the doctor..." "Dr. Wells? He's a fool." Lucy walked stiffly to her dresser table, gazed into the mirror. "It's all a dream," she said to herself in a whisper, "all a terrible nightmare." Robert stood rooted to the spot. He felt helpless. "Darling, you need rest, the..." "I don't need rest!" screamed Lucy. In a hellish rage she ran to the door, and flung it open. There in front of her, before her very own eyes, she saw it. She saw the hall, the staircase, in fact the whole house consumed in flames. Only Lucy's room remained untouched by fire, only Lucy remained unharmed. What was left of Robert's body lay at the foot of the charred staircase.
Page(s) 27-8
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