Water's Edge

Cordelia felt like she needed to get to the cabin as quickly as possible. She had just gotten off work and was on her way to her first vacation in what felt like forever. When she finally saw it, her heart leaped, she hadn’t remembered her grandmother’s cabin being so grand. It looked like something out of a calendar. Dark wood logs stacked three stories with a wraparound porch, surrounded by the polychromatic leaves of autumn. Getting away from the coast was exactly what she needed, regardless of what her friends had to say. Living on the beach had not helped her anxiety about water. This place seemed as dry as it could get and that was exactly what she really needed.

She got out of her car and looked around, taking it all in. She loved the smell and the sounds and didn’t even bother bringing her stuff in before laying on the couch for what she meant to be a brief nap. Several hours later she woke up and looked around confused, forgetting where she was for a moment. She was sure right before she woke up that she was at her beach house because she heard the familiar sound of water. When she opened her eyes, though it was getting dark, she could see that she was in the cabin. But what was that sound? She knew there were no nearby brooks or streams. She stood and fumbled around the living room until she found the light. A warm glow filled the room and she blinked to make her eyes adjust. The sound was coming from the back of the cabin, rooms she had yet to explore. She went to the kitchen and turned the light on in there, she looked through drawers for some sort of weapon. She was sure no one had broken in or the sound would’ve woken her up, but she wanted to be prepared.

She moved slowly through the hall and followed the sound through the master bedroom and into the master bath. She flipped on the light and saw that the sink was running. “That’s odd,” she said before turning it off. She knew it couldn’t have been running all this time or she’d have heard it when she arrived. Also, the bill that she got monthly from the caretaker would have been astronomical. She would have to remind herself to call him in the morning to ask if something was wrong with the plumbing. She turned the light back off and went to make herself some coffee. It was around seven-thirty, but she was so tired she knew coffee would only keep her up long enough to get settled in. She started the kettle and went out to bring her luggage. She had only brought a few clothes and enough food to get her through the weekend. On Monday she could go into town and buy more groceries. She got everything put away and poured the hot water into her instant coffee.

Wrapping a throw around her she sauntered onto the porch to enjoy the peacefulness. Crickets were chirping and frogs were singing. In the distance, she heard an owl and a pack of coyotes, too far away to be worrisome. She smiled and let herself relax, then she heard it. It sounded like a dam had broken. She leaped up spilling some coffee on her shirt, “SHIT!” She ran inside to see where the sound was coming from. The kitchen sink was on full blast and she had to turn both knobs to get it off, but she could still hear more. She went to the half bath and turned off that sink and then went to the master bath. Not only was the sink turned on full blast but so was the giant round garden tub. Confused, she looked under the sink at the waterline. There was no real reason for this because she didn’t know what she was looking for or at. She knew nothing about plumbing. Nevertheless, nothing seemed to be out of place or broken. She took her shirt off and threw it in the hamper, no need to put on another she was in the middle of nowhere.

She shook her head and decided to try calling the caretaker, but no one answered. Milt had been coming out once a month for her grandmother for as long as she could remember. He was a nice old man when she was a little girl. He had to be hovering near-ninety by now, but she couldn’t bring herself to replace him because he relied on this job, and she knew most of his other clients had replaced him years ago. Poor old soul probably couldn’t fix a piece of toast let alone do carpentry or plumbing at his age. No wonder it was going wonky. She walked out onto the porch in just her bra, it felt freeing. She shivered then grabbed the throw and covered up in one of the rocking chairs with her warm drink in her hands.

She started thinking about the water, she shivered again and pulled the throw to her chin. She ran through the thin amount of knowledge she had regarding plumbing in her mind. She was mulling it over and over again until her thoughts drifted to the garden tub. She hated water when it was very deep like in a pool or the ocean, but of course, a bath didn’t scare her, why would it? If her fear had been that bad, she'd have been to a doctor about it long ago. There wasn’t anything too crazy about being scared of rivers and ponds, especially after what had happened when she was little. Her grandmother’s cabin used to have a big pond behind it. Cordelia and her best friend, Mara had come to swim every summer. Until one year it flooded, and the pond got too deep and Mara had disappeared, presumed drowned. Anyway, after that year her grandmother had paid some men to fill in the pond with dirt and she planted a garden there in its place. Cordelia loved that garden, maybe she would go out there in the morning and see if she could fix it up. Her nice bath would have to wait until tomorrow evening, she’d need one after working in that dirt all day.

That night she had to get up countless times to turn all the faucets off one by one. It was tiresome and more like a job than a vacation. At six in the morning, she got up for the last time and had, had enough. She tried calling Milt again but still no answer. She made some coffee and looked for a phonebook to call a professional plumber. She couldn’t find one and it was no surprise. Her grandmother had never trusted strangers and so she never wanted to call one. If you met her somewhere that she could get to know you better, then she’d ask your phone number in person. She never hired anyone she didn’t know unless it was a friend’s family member or someone who’d worked for one of her friends. That’s how she found Milt; he had been working for all the ladies grandma knew her whole life.

She had her coffee and got dressed so she could drive into town to see if she could find some help.

The nearest town was where she had grown up and everyone knew her here. She hoped she didn’t run into anyone who’d want to visit, she wanted to be alone. It had been too long, too many days dealing with everything.

She walked into the nearest gas station. It looked like it hadn’t been updated for years. The floor was cement and the shelves were dusty. An old man sat behind the counter watching a small screen black and white television. A Charlton Heston movie was playing loudly. She felt like Marty McFly.

“Excuse me, sir.”

“Well hello miss, what can I do for you?”

“I was just wondering if I could find a plumber nearby, maybe you have a number or even a phone book?”

“Shoot my brother is the best plumber in town.”

“Great,” she said, a little nervous about the coincidence. She hoped his brother was an actual professional.

He called his brother for her after she wrote down the address for him.

“I’ll just have Jim stop here and I can give him directions, I know the cabin and knew the lady who used to own it,” he said.

“Yes, that was my grandmother.”

“Fine woman, shame about what happened there all those years ago.”

“I really should go, thank you for the help.” She rushed out the door before he could say anything else, it seemed as though what she feared was correct. A small town like this didn’t forget anything, especially when a child goes missing mysteriously. Things like that happen every day, it’s horrible but in bigger cities, it’s not fodder for gossip for twenty years.

She went back to the cabin and Jim the plumber, who was a bit younger than she expected, showed up in his very professional-looking truck. She sighed with relief when she saw the company name on the side of the truck. The faucets had come on three times since she got back and the last time, she just left them on so he could see what was happening. However, when he got to the porch steps, they all stopped at once. Frowning she opened the door.

“Well, that’s a mighty frightened look for a plumbing issue.”

“Oh no, I’m just frustrated,” she said, possibly lying. Was she frightened? That would be ridiculous. He came in and she told him everything that had happened. He listed off some things that could cause these problems and asked her some questions before she showed him all where the indoor shut-off was in the washroom. She left him to his work and went to make herself some coffee and make lunch.

She fixed enough lunch for the both of them and told him to take a break to eat. He thought that was very kind of her just like something her grandma would do. She tried to smile at the comment though it made her sad.

“Now I’m not trying to say nothin’ out of the way, but are you sure the water was coming on by itself?” He said through a bite of his sandwich.

She grimaced without thinking, because of his manners but caught herself before he saw, “Of course I’m sure, even the knobs were turned to the ‘on’ position,” she said.

“Now that is the troubling part, you see, that just doesn’t happen ma’am… er miss.”

“But it did, over and over again.”

“I believe you, that you think that’s what happened, but it just couldn’t, I thought you had misspoke when you told me the first time and after finding nothing at all wrong with the lines… are you sure?”

“What are you asking me exactly?”

“Is it possible that something is causing you to think it’s coming on? I mean being here can’t be easy for you after what happened to that girl…”

“We don’t know what happened to her,” she snapped, interrupting him, “I’m not crazy!”

“No, I didn’t say that…” he trailed off and looked down at the floor.

She stood angrily and started cleaning off the table, and he didn’t say another word until he had checked everything and told her nothing was wrong.

“How much do I owe you?” she asked.

“Nothing, I just looked around didn’t have to fix anything, and got a free meal.”

She smiled, “I’m sorry for earlier, I just wish I knew what was happening.”

“It hasn’t done it since I’ve been here so maybe it was built up in the lines and ran out.”

“Maybe…” she said.

After he left, she changed into her gardening clothes and went out to pull weeds and fix things up. Before she knew it, it was starting to get dark, so she packed up and went inside. She almost expected to hear water running but she didn’t. She decided on a nice relaxing bath to clean off. Since the water had seemed to have fixed itself. She drew the bath and went to get her bath bomb she received as a gift that she didn’t think she’d ever used since she was exclusively a shower girl. She hadn’t taken a bath in so many years. Not since she was a little girl. But the thought of one didn’t scare her much it was only a few inches deep. Of course, she hadn’t tried to take one in a long time. She walked into the bathroom and dropped the bath bomb in. The water started bubbling around it in a swirl of colors.

The bubbling got worse and she felt her breath get shallower. “Come on, keep it together,” she whispered as she stuck one foot in. Once she was standing in the tub she started to relax. It was only up to her ankles and she had turned the faucet off. The temperature was perfect, so she lowered herself to a sitting position. She sat there with her arms around her knees for a while wishing she could relax. She forced herself to breathe slowly and to lay back on the actual pillow her grandmother had fixed on the headrest. It wasn’t a real pillow, but one made for a tub. She stretched her legs out and closed her eyes. She felt herself start to become more comfortable and lay there for a while.

She must’ve fallen asleep because she woke up in a state of confusion. The water was lapping at her chest above her breasts when it had just been not even covering her knees. She rose up and looked at the faucet, which was off. No water coming out. She felt a tightening in her throat and fear wash over her. She started to stand but it felt like she was stuck. She could move freely within the water but not out of it. The side looked far away as she swam toward it. It seemed to stand still, and she couldn’t seem to reach it. “It is only about four feet wide, how is this possible?” She thought. She tried to just sit for a moment before springing up and leaping at the edge. She got ahold of the side, but the water seemed to be pulling her back in. She planted a foot firmly on the bottom and threw herself over the side and out of the tub. Gasping she clawed her way over to the toilet to pull herself up. She looked back and saw the water was starting to rise again. It started spilling out over the sides. She looked around and saw the same thing was happening in the sink.

She had skipped panic and jumped right into a numb sort of terror. She ran downstairs and saw that the kitchen sink had started to overflow onto the floor as well. She considered grabbing something to cover herself but couldn’t breathe because of her fear. She ran outside and it was freezing. Her feet landed off the last step onto something wet. She looked around in the dark and saw that water had started coming up around the house. It hadn’t rained a drop. She splashed through to the garden to where she somehow knew she would see the lake instead. There it was. I dark figure splashed in it. Mara. “Stop this Mara! I’m sorry!” she yelled. The water was getting deeper by the second, so she spun around, back toward the house. Her feet felt like cement. She lifted one heavy leg after the other. By the time she got to the porch, it was up to her waist. She gripped onto the porch railing and made her way to where the steps would be. She felt around for one of the steps with her foot. When she finally made contact, she dove for the porch. She swam to the front door and into the living room where the water was already a couple of feet deep. She stood and went toward the stairs. Once she reached them, she stopped and looked around. What was she doing? This was crazy. She couldn’t escape supernatural water by going upstairs, she had to get out of this cabin and away from the lake where she had watched Mara drown and done nothing. She knew how to swim so she’d just swim to her car and drive off.

Once she was on the porch again the water was up to her chest. She started toward her car then stopped. Instead, she swam toward the lake again. “Mara, I don’t see you, but I know you’re there. I said I was sorry but I’m not. Not anymore, I was just a child in shock, I don’t feel guilty anymore! You HEAR ME?! I DON’T feel guilty anymore!” she screamed it over and over until she was hoarse despite the water lapping into her mouth. Then darkness, she felt water fill her lungs as she wildly flailed her arms trying to resurface. She couldn’t seem to make contact with anything and couldn’t propel herself in any direction. It was like floating into nothing. Her body started to heave and spasm from lack of air.

She couldn’t see anything, so she closed her eyes and prayed. Then she realized something. She didn’t feel wet. All this time she hadn’t got wet. She opened her eyes and she was in the yard. Laying in the dark, naked and dry. She looked around and saw a little girl standing in the garden. She groaned as she pushed herself up. Her arms were sore and heavy. She walked slowly over to the girl. “Mara?” The girl looked up at her and smiled. Then she faded away.