When
Drew Walker was 23, his parents died in a car crash, leaving him their farm. Drew was 'different', and got teased a lot. He built strange scarecrows that moved when the wind blew. One would suddenly stand up in a field, one took off its
hat and scratched its head, and one made a courtly bow. There was one that
danced a mad jig in a high wind, and another that waved and whistled when the breeze was right.
Drew was getting letters and packages through the mail around then.
One
day Drew surprised us all by announcing he was
getting married. Drew would fetch his bride and throw a wedding
celebration in the spring. In May he left to collect her and was gone
several weeks. Details were sketchy, but that was normal for Drew. No one knew
how he found his bride and none of us got to meet her, for Drew brought her home in
the dead of night and she never came out of that house afterwards. She may
still be in there for all we know.
At
first Drew said his bride was tired from the journey. He seemed preoccupied, and became more and more
withdrawn. Eventually we rarely saw him. We gave up hopes of a wedding
celebration and eventually of ever seeing his wife. Rumours flew: she was ill, deformed, mute,
mad, or worse. Some said she was a store mannequin. You know how stories get
out of hand if no one is watching your back.
Kids
would sneak around Drew’s farm as a way to scare each other,
but they never saw anything. Drew installed locks, heavy curtains, and an iron
grate with a sliding cover on the door. The grate was open a crack so someone
could peek out without being seen if someone knocked on the door. Not that any visitors came.
It
got so we rarely saw Drew. He must have been shopping in another town. We forgot about him. Out of sight, out of
mind. One day we discovered his farm had been abandoned. We never found out what happened to Drew or his wife, if there was one. I wonder if things would be different if we had made an effort with that kid.
Challenge: Write a brief story about the above image and post in comments below.
