Lenore and Gilead

Photo By: A.M. Moscoso

Once I saw a man wearing an expensive business suit and a man in clothes that were torn and dirty – digging a hole together next to the railroad tracks.

I couldn’t imagine under what circumstances these two could ever have met, talked and decided one morning to go out with shovels and start to dig as trains roared and hissed by them, as crows lined the barbed wire topped fence that they climbed-

just so that they could up digging side by side

next to the railroad tracks early one Monday Morning.

When I drove by eight hours later the men were gone and the shovel was resting right there next to the fence.

It was there two days later when I drove by and it was still there a week later and I started to wonder by the third week

about the man in the suit and the homeless man digging side by side next to the railroad tracks.

I went out one Sunday just after sunrise and stood next to the shovel, and then I actually touched the shovel and I wondered about those two men.

And I took the shovel in my hands and laughed and then I put it back and scaled the fence and dropped to the other side and when I did there was a man standing there.

He asked me what I was doing and I told him about the Well Dressed Man and the Not So Well Dressed Man digging through all that rock and hard packed earth.

” Crazy ” said the man.

” No kidding.” I agreed.

” So what do you suppose they were digging for? “

I laughed some more just to show that it didn’t really matter to me.

And then I turned back to the fence and grabbed at it and said, ” We’ll need another shovel “

Photo By: A.M. Moscoso

Back in 1864, exactly 100 years before she was born the hotel that would one day become an apartment house that Mylee Dabbles would one day call home opened for business. 

On that day in 1864 all of its rooms were freshly painted, the doors had just been hung and the floors creaked and popped as they settled into place.

There was nothing extraordinary about the rooms at the Davenport House- except for a small problem in 4-A.

One of the closet doors  wouldn’t stay shut.

It was always swinging open-

all by itself.

Exactly 144 years to the date Mylee Dabbles turned up at the Davenport and she arrived, as she had promised the Manager, just after dinner on September 5th.

Mr. Teachman- Rodney Teachman the Manager of the Davenport and Mylee Dabbles chatted about Mylee’s trip- most of which she had taken by train- and the weather which was unseasonably cold and then she signed the last of the paperwork and gave him a check for her rent and for her moving in fees.

Rodney asked if she would need any help taking anything up to her place and she pointed to her two suitcases in the hall and told him she could manage.

” Well, I mean if you need help with your furniture of anything big like that. Being you’re up on the fourth floor and we don’t have elevators it’s a task but the Assistant Manager’s sons don’t mind helping new residents out and they’re  used to moving things up and down those narrow stairs, so if you need help just let her know.”

” Oh that. Yes, well thank you for the offer but I’ve got it covered.”

Rodney usually took new tenants to their door but Mylee Dabbles reached out for his hand and gave it a small shake and then she smiled at him and thanked him for letting her in after hours and on his own time.

Rodney Teachman tried to smile back and he couldn’t quite do it- instead he waited until she left and then he went into the bathroom and scrubbed his hands until they were raw.

After that first night Rodney only saw Miss Dabbles a few more times- he saw her on the stairs going up to the fourth floor and he also saw her once in the courtyard reading a book.

It was called, ” 101 Magic Tricks Made Easy.”

She was laughing as she read it.

It only ever took the tenants of the Davenport 72 hours from the time they first moved in to get into the private lives of the new residents.

Except for this time – no one really had a take on Miss Dabbles- all they had  to say about her was that she was so quiet it was like 4-A was empty and that no one lived there at all.

It was on Halloween that Mr. Teachman got a call to 4-C. 

4-C was the Bayer’s place and one of the little  Bayers had jammed something into one of the electrical outlets and now all of the power was out up on the 4th floor.

Everyone up there was annoyed-everyone except for Miss Dabbles.

She was taking her keys out of her bag just as Rodney came up the stairs and she moved just as easily in the dark as anyone else would in a well lit room.

He wasn’t sure why he did it, but Rodney was about to shine his flashlight at her door to help her find the lock when he heard a click.

He lifted the light to her face and saw that she was smiling at him with her mouth, and her teeth…

but not her eyes.

Those were as flat and dark as the blackness around them.

Worse then that look was the feeling he got she started to talk. Rodney backed up a little at the sound of her voice and when he realized how foolish he must look he tried to step forward and so did she.

She was still smiling.

” Would you mind taking my rent check with you now Mr. Teachman? I’m going away to visit some friends- they’re only in town for a few days and I must fly. “

” Well, I don’t have my receipt book…”

” Just tape it to the door” she said and then she reached out and pushed at his wrist and the beam from the flashlight went over her shoulder. ” If you don’t mind.”

No I don’t mind doing that, Rodney thought to himself, what I mind is standing here in the dark talking to you and I especially hate the feeling that I have right now that you can see my face and the rest of the hall just as easily in the dark as you can during the daylight.

I don’t think you’re normal Miss Dabbles.

” That’s funny, it usually dogs and sometimes cats who feel that way about me. “

” Excuse me? “

” Nothing, nothing at all, now if you don’t mind I would really to take care of my rent- “

YES I DO MIND his brain screamed and Rodney tried to hold his voice steady and he said, ” not at all.”

Just then the lights clicked on in the hallway and  then all of the lights in the apartments came on…all of the lights except for the ones in  Dabble’s place because…

from where he stood, with the door wide open Rodney could see that there were no lamps in 4-A.

 There were no bulbs in the over head fixtures there wasn’t a single piece of furniture in the living room or a picture hanging on the wall and right next to the entrance way to the kitchen Rodney could see Miss Dabbles two suitcases leaning against the wall.

Rodney could even smell the cleaner that the maintenance people used on the carpets and from the kitchen he caught a whiff of the vinegar and water mixture they used to clean the refrigerators.

” I’ll just grab my bag- it’s on the kitchen counter.” 

Just before she got to the kitchen she looked down the hallway to the back of her apartment.” Oh…you’re early, well I sup…”

Rodney watched her turn the corner and he only waited for a few seconds before  he called out, ” Miss Dabbles? Miss Dabbles?” and then he added ” Are you there Miss Dabbles? “

He walked into the apartment and he looked into the hall Miss Dabbles had just walked down and he could see that the bedroom and bathroom doors were wide open and that both rooms were empty.

Empty of any signs of life- and empty of Miss Dabbles.

And then to his right, in the kitchen he saw the broom closet door swing open and then it shut…

all by itself.

Photo By: A.M. Moscoso

If you go to the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in Seattle you can visit Sylvester.

He’s famous for being a Mummy.

It’s well earned because as far as Mummies go he’s a good one.

But when I go down to the shop I’ll stand there and stare at him-

like I’ve been doing at least 40 years

and I will look to the people standing next to me as they speculate

and ohh an ahh over the Mummy

 and think:

Does anyone see the

DEAD MAN?

” Shrunken”

by a.m. moscoso

” That’s  a fake ” Tourist Number 1 said to Tourist Number 2 as I leaned in and took my picture of the Shrunken Torso.

I stepped on Tourist Number 1′s foot as I tried to get in for a shot and I turned around and said without meaning it, ” Sorry about that.”

” Yeah. Obviously it’s a fake.”

I snapped my picture and decided to take a safety shot when Tourist #2 wondered how they made the fake Torso.

Now.

I’ve been visiting the Shrunken Torso and the Shrunken Heads for almost all of my life and I’m 44 now. So that means I’ve known the Torso longer then most of my friends. I like the Shrunken Torso, I used to have nightmares about it and for years I wouldn’t take pictures of it because I thought it was cursed.

The Shrunken Torso is  a wicked little thing and I adore it.

So I guess that’s why I said, ” Yeah it’s a fake. But it’s cool looking don’t you think?”

They agreed.

” But you know, it’s not the Torso that’s the real curiosity. I mean, in itself it’s not the real story.”

” Oh? So what’s the real story? ” Tourist #1 asked.

You bonehead, I thought to myself.

” Well, it was this thing that this Doctor bought when she was down in South America trying to learn about Homeopathic Medicine, which of course is pretty much all they do in the Jungles you know. So like it was like back in the 1920′s and back then well I guess you know how the medical field was back then.”

They didn’t want to admitt they didn’t know so I enlightened them.

Sort of.

 ”Her name was Doctor Hazzard and she used to believe that you could cure people by bloodletting and blistering but she was also believed you could cure any disease by Purging the body of toxins and she did that by using laxatives and lots of them.”

” That’s sick.”

” That was science. Anyway Doctor Hazzard finally got around to this technique- she came up with this new method to rid the body of things like cancer and cravings for alcohol and viruses.

” So what did she do?”

” She put her patients on a strict diet.”

“Seriously That was it?”

” Yep.”

” How did it work?”

” She starved the diseases by starving the body.”

” You mean…”

“I mean, she starved her patients to death. Dozens of them. She was Washington State’s one and only female serial killer.”

” You’re kidding. “

” I’m not laughing her, am I. Regardless, that thing…” I said pointing to the Torso ” was hers. I mean it’s a fake. But you know, it was her’s. And it was after her trip that she opened her clinic out in Kitsap”

” No way, that thing was not hers.”

“Well. It could never have belonged to anyone else. I mean think about it.”

And I am I’ll be willing to bet every time they take a bite of food they will.

You can read about the Real Doctor Doctor Linda Hazzard HERE.

She didn’t own Shrunken Heads and Torsos.

That was my idea- but hey, it’s a good one.

Dr Linda Hazzard