An Afternoon Walk

An Afternoon Walk by Dorothy Eden
published by Fawcett Crest Books
Copyright 1971

THE SHRILL RINGING
OF THE PHONE ...

shattered the peaceful sun-drenched afternoon.

The voice was the voice of a stranger. "Am I
speaking to Mrs. Simpson?"

"Yes," said Ella tensely, "I am Mrs. Simpson."

"The very lady I want. Just a word of advice,
love. Drive carefully."

The caller hung up abruptly.

Not that Ella would have wanted to talk to him.
She hated the sound of his voice. Very vulgar. But
why was he calling her all the time? Warning her?
About lots of things. Even about her small
daughter, Kitty.

"Do you know where Kitty is?" the voice
threatened.

Her husband didn't believe a word of it. Told her
she was imagining things. That she was loony.

He also didn't believe about the old, empty house
she and Kitty had stumbled upon a few afternoons
ago.

But she had seen the house. And so had Kitty. And
now that she thought about it she realized that all
her troubles had begun with the visit to that house.

There was something dark and evil about the
place. Something terrible. But what? And who
would believe her even if she did find out?

Now I don't want to take sides here, but really, I'm sure her husband has some reason to not believe her. A person just doesn't up and decide to call their spouse a loon without some precedent. The poor man has probably been through all this before. He has probably struggle with it only to finally break down and accept that fact that his poor wife was crazy and very likely had passed the "crazy gene" town to their child.

How horrible for him. How utterly hopeless a place to find yourself, with no one to talk to but the loon herself.

Poor, poor Mr. Simpson.