Dawn opened the door, and standing before her was Roy. It wasn’t exactly the person she wanted to see at the moment. Part of her was furious with him for the way he had treated Brian earlier. In the back of her mind she was hoping it would be BB. Although in her dream Sophia had told her that he was buried in the basement with Reverend Thompson, but she didn’t put much credence into that. ‘It was just a dream’, she told herself. BB couldn’t be buried in the basement… he just COULDN’T. Even considering everything else, BB being buried in the basement made no sense at all.
“Dawn I have to talk to you.” Roy’s tone was quick; deliberate.
Shaking her head back and forth, and making motions to close the door, Dawn said, “Roy, I can’t talk now. I have to go.”
The door was all but closed when Roy called out, “It’s about Brian.” Quickly, Dawn opened the door back up. Roy went on, “I think he’s in trouble.”
“What do you mean?”
“Can I come in? I have something to tell you… and to show you.”
Dawn invited Roy in, and led him into the kitchen where they sat down at the kitchen table. She didn’t offer him a drink or a snack like she usually would. Instead, she sat down next to him, staring at him attentively, waiting for him to start speaking.
Reaching inside of his jacket, Roy brought out the photo he had taken from under his counter back in the store. He didn’t show it to Dawn at first, he said, “I’m sorry that I left so quickly this mornin’, but… Last night when you came down to the store to use the phone, and brought Brian, I thought he looked familiar. But, for the life of me I couldn’t place the face. Then, this mornin’, when I saw him again, it came to me.”
Roy made a motion to show Dawn the photo, then stopped, and took the photo back into his chest. “Before I show you this,” he said, “I have to tell you somethin’. I have to tell you the history of this street… and this house.”
There was no question that Dawn’s interest was peaked by this mysterious photo, and Roy’s tone of voice. She wanted to snatch the photo from his hands, but decided to be patient, and let Roy tell his story. Leaning back in her chair, she was ready for anything… or at least, she thought she was ready for anything.
“Now, I’m goin’ to go through this the best I can. I’ve heard this story so much growin’ up; it’s a story that my daddy told me over and over when I was young. It was kinda like a ritual – him telling me it. Every summer me, Jess and Fred used to go huntin’ with our fathers in the woods right behind this place, and every year they would tell us the same story… the story of how Bridgetown – and more importantly – how Reed Street came to be. And as a kid I always thought it was a made up story. But then when my father let me take over the grocery store, he made sure that I knew the story was true. He told me that if I ever saw anything in the store, or heard anything upstairs in this apartment, that it was just the ghost’s that he told me about as a kid. Well, even after that warnin’ I still didn’t believe it. Until one night when I was downstairs workin’ late, and I heard footsteps walkin’ around up here. It kinda got my heart a goin’, but then, a few minutes later, I saw an Indian standin’ in the storeroom. Well, I ran outta the store faster then a jack rabbit runnin from a fox.”
As Roy spoke of the Indian in the storeroom, she thought back to the previous day when SHE had seen an Indian in his storeroom.
Roy continued, “Well after that night I knew that my daddy wasn’t lyin’. You see Dawn, back before there was even a Bridgetown, Maryland, my dad, Jess’s dad, and Fred’s dad all worked for this fella named Kroger – this was around the late 1880’s, early 1890’s. That’s how me, Jess, and Fred all became friends. Kroger – his first name was Phillip – he was a big time businessman, and explorer. He made a fortune buyin’, sellin’, and developin’ properties all over Maryland, parts of West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. My father always described him as a fair, but hard man to be around. His business – Kroger and Sons, even though he didn’t have any sons when he started the business, they didn’t come until later – was based outta Baltimore. My dad – he was like an assistant to Phillip Kroger – went with him on many occasions when he would be scoopin’ out a new property that he was thinkin’ about buyin’.
“Well, on one of these trips they came out here, to western Maryland. “Phillip Kroger heard about a powerful river around here – Nidd River – which is about four miles away from here, and he was looking to start building out here. Nidd River would, Phillip thought, be the perfect opportunity to start up a factory that would be powered by the river’s water. Back in Baltimore he already had a hundred or so men willing to come out here to work and live. Anyway, him, my dad, Jess’s dad, and some other men came out here to check everything out first. And, the way my dad told it to me, they liked what they saw – the layout of the river was perfect. Phillip Kroger was in fine spirits, so instead of going back home to start gathering men to come out, he decided to follow the river a ways to find a place for the workers, and for him, to live.
“They followed the river as it turned into a stream, and then as it turned into a creek. That creek is the one that runs out back. That’s when they came across this mini village. There were some small huts, and such things. They soon discovered that they stumbled upon a small Indian tribe. The other men, my father included, were all ready to just move on. But Phillip, he fell in love with this place. Which my father couldn’t understand; to him it looked like every place else they had been – except for the huts that is. But Phillip Kroger said that this was the place, and since he was the one with the money, my father and the other men agreed… at first.
To Be Continued…
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