Last Kiss Goodbye

Fifteen years later "DON'T GO BACK to Kudzu Hollow, Ivy. Please. I'm begging you, it's too dangerous. There's nothing but evil and death in that town." Ivy squeezed her adopted mother's hand, then bent to kiss her cheek, her cool leathery skin reminding her of the time she'd kissed her birth mother goodbye. The day she'd died. In fact that kiss was the last thing Ivy remembered about that horrible night. That and the terrified cries echoing in her head. Her mother's. Her own. She couldn't be sure which. Or maybe it was both, all mingled together, haunting her in the night. Miss Nellie wheezed, cutting into Ivy's morbid thoughts. Her adopted mother was close to death now, too. She'd suddenly taken ill a few days ago, and had gone downhill fast. She claimed she'd made peace with her maker, but Ivy wasn't so sure. Sometimes she saw doubt, worry, secrets in Miss Nellie's eyes. Secrets the woman refused to share. Secrets that told her Miss Nellie had a dark side. "I have to go back, Miss Nellie," she said in a low whisper. "I...I've been having nightmares. Panic attacks." And sometimes I see images from the past in the night, monsters that can't be real. Cries and whispers of death. Screams of ghosts and spirits crying out for salvation. And I'm lost in the middle.... Miss Nellie's hand trembled as she lifted it to brush a strand of hair from Ivy's cheek. "Forget about the past, dear. You have to let it go." "How can I?" Fading sunlight dappled the patchwork quilt in gold and created a halo around Miss Nellie's face. Ivy stood and faced the bedroom window, the scents of illness and dust surrounding her. She hated to lose Miss Nellie, but the elderly woman had looked so pale and her cheeks were sallow. The doctors weren't certain what had caused her illness, but they'd said she wouldn't make it another week, much less to Christmas. Christmas -- the Santas... Ivy shuddered and fought against the fear that gnawed at her at the thought of the upcoming holidays, with all the twinkling lights, festive ornaments and decorations. Snowmen and reindeer, and of course, the Santas. Those Santas were the only thing she had left of her mother. Dozens of them. Soft ones sculpted from fine red-and-white velvet, with tiny black boots and belts and long cottony beards. Crystal and homemade crafted Santas with glass eyes and painted smiles. Wooden ones carved from bark and painted in a folk art style. Ivy kept them boxed up, though, couldn't bear to look at them. Just as she couldn't look at Miss Nellie now. She'd always felt Miss Nellie held something back, some part of herself she kept at a distance from Ivy. She knew it had to do with Nellie losing her own son when he was small, but her foster mother refused to talk about him or even show Ivy pictures. A sob built in Ivy's throat. Miss Nellie was all she had. Another reason she wanted answers. When Miss Nellie passed, she'd take her secrets with her to the grave. Just as Ivy's parents had. And Miss Nellie had secrets. "Please tell me what you meant in the journal, Miss Nellie. How did you come to get me?" "That journal was private, you shouldn't have been snooping." Miss Nellie clammed up abruptly, her thin lips pinched and almost blue as she turned her head away. "I didn't mean to snoop, Miss Nellie, but I need to know." "All that matters is that God wanted me to raise you. And I got you out of Kudzu Hollow. That town is tainted, I tell you," Miss Nellie warned. "There's evil there. I knew it when I lived there. And I've seen the papers, heard stories on the news over the years. Ever since your folks was murdered, bad things have been happening. Livestock and animals attacking one another. Children dying before their time. Folks rising from the grave. Men becoming animals. Teenagers turning against their folks that raised them." Miss Nellie was superstitious. It was the way of the people of Appalachia. But IvHerron, Rita is the author of 'Last Kiss Goodbye', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373771028 and ISBN 0373771029.