Chapter 3

My life seemed to settle down for awhile. Christmas would soon be upon us, and Benny and I were planning to spend it together. No big deal, but you know how excited women get when planning an event. I had been down to a jewelers and ordered a "Friendship Ring" for her, properly inscribed, of course. A phone call from Carol changed that.

"Burt, I may have a problem. You remember my cousin, Amy? I have been trying for two days to contact her. She never goes anywhere, and I'm really worried. These last few years we have been at cross purposes, but she is my cousin and I feel responsible. My aunt was an invalid for many years and it fell on Amy to care for her. When my aunt died Amy sold her house. I asked her if she would live in my house and keep it open as I was away at school. That is why she was living in my home. She has lived there for five years and I never charged her anything. Her only duty was to keep the house open. I have just recently deeded the house to her.

"I feel as though I have done something wrong, but I don't know what. All the time she was taking care of her mother, she was the nicest, happiest person you would want to meet. Since she moved into my house, she has turned moody and nothing seemed to satisfy her. You saw how she was the one time you met her. She has turned the rest of the family against her, so I guess I'm the one to find out about her.

"What I am asking, would it be possible for you to drive over and find out how she is? I'm sure you will not be thanked for your trouble when you find her. She can be really bitchy, but I need to know. You have been so good to me, but I am really worried, so I have turned to you. Do you mind? By the way, I was so certain you would that yesterday I overnighted a key to you and it should arrive shortly."

"Carol, rest easy. When the key gets here I'll start. I think I will take Benny with me if she will go. It takes about three hours to get there. I will call you late this afternoon. Don't worry, I'm sure I will find things okay and I will gladly go."

The key arrived while I was asking Benny if she wanted to take a ride, and of course she did. The weather had been nice for this time of year, so we anticipated a good journey. I asked her to pack a bag in case we were gone overnight. So in less than a half hour we were on our way. I related everything that Carol had told me, and how worried she was. The nearer to our destination, even I began to experience an uneasiness.

I knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. I couldn't hear any movement so I tried the door. It was locked and I opened it with the key Carol had forwarded to me. The house was cold and felt empty with no sound from anywhere. I thought we might be here awhile. I would investigate and try to find Amy. I found the thermostat to turn it up. I could hear the furnace try to run but it shut down shortly. I knew it must be out of fuel. This was strange as it was winter time. There was no heat or way to keep the house from freezing up.

We went into the kitchen to look around. I said to Benny, "Why don't we look in the other rooms? Maybe she fell or something." About that time I saw a bunch of papers on the table. Most of them were overdue bills. The last one was postmarked two days ago. "She must have brought these in no earlier than yesterday, so she could have stepped out. She is going to be some upset when she comes back and finds that we have let ourselves uninvited into the house."

"We are doing just what Carol asked us to. Amy can't complain too much."

"Oh yeah! You haven't met her, I have."

We started through the house. I started down the cellar stairs. Before I reached the bottom step, Benny yelled from a bedroom, "Burt, come here! Hurry!"

I rushed up the stairs and into the room where Benny was standing beside a bed. Amy was laying there covered up, with only her face visible. I stepped over and felt for a pulse. I found one, but it was faint. "Try the phone and call 911."

Amy was very cold so I went into another room for more blankets. I piled them on and started chafing her hands. I doubted it would help. Amy was pale and you could almost see through her skin. As I did this I was looking around. On the bedside table was a sheet of paper with four saltines on it. There were some squares marked off with pencil in the shape of the crackers. The squares had numbers counting down from ten to two. I picked the crackers up and underneath was the number one. After this there was a notation, "going to meet mother." I swiftly drew the conclusion. Amy was starving to death. She must also had counted on the cold to help her along. Luckily the weather had been unusually warm for December, or she would already have been dead.

Benny came back into the room and said, "Emergency will be here in about fifteen minutes. I told them what we had found. I looked in the refrigerator while I was talking to them. It was empty, and I could see no food anywhere. I said I didn't know if she was freezing or starving or maybe both."

I showed Benny what I had found and what I concluded, and she agreed. Benny then took over trying to rouse Amy. I went back to the kitchen and looked around. When I went into the living room, I spotted a small wood heater, so I went out the back door and into a shed. There was no wood as such, but there were several wooden chairs that were broken. I took an ax I found and smashed them up.

While I was bringing in the first armful, the EMTs came and we turned Amy over to them. I started a fire to heat the room up, and then went through the papers again that were on the kitchen table. I found a bill from the heating company, so I called and ordered oil. They said it had to be cash. I said it was. Then they would deliver tomorrow morning.

The head of the emergency squad came in and asked me what they should do about Amy. I asked what her options were. He said she should be in a hospital located twenty miles away. But here in town there was a rest home run by a registered nurse. He said that they had got her warm and she was awake. She was nearly starved, literally, but as long as she had some food like the crackers, that had kept her alive. She had apparently subsisted on very little for a very long time. I asked if he could arrange to have her transported to the local facility and admitted. The lady with me would go with them. He said of course.

It hit me, Amy had no idea who Benny was. I went in to see if Amy was lucid enough to recognize me. The EMTs were getting ready to move her. I asked, "Amy, do you remember me?" I could tell that she did. "Carol was worried, so she asked me to help. The lady you don't know is Benny, a good friend of Carol's. We are going to have you taken to the rest home across town. You will stay there until you get well."

Amy looked at me and whispered, "Why bother?" Then she turned her head away.

I asked Benny to follow the EMTs in our car and get Amy settled. When she came back, we would call Carol about the condition we foumd Amy in. Maybe we could figure out what had happened to make Amy want to starve herself to death.

I knew that the little wood I had made out of the broken chairs wouldn't keep me warm all night, so I went looking for more. On the back of the shed I found a stack of dry wood. It looked like it had been there for years, but was still sound. I carried several armloads in and put them beside the heater. When I came around with the last load, a man and woman were standing outside. He opened the door for me and they followed me inside. I assumed they were neighbors.

"I saw the EMTs here taking Amy away. What happened?"

They did look concerned so I answered them. "Amy's cousin couldn't get any response to her calls here, so she asked us to check on her. We are friends of Carol's from Vermont. When we arrived, we found Amy in bed, near starvation, with no heat in the house. She will live, but the EMTs said she wouldn't have survived more than two days, especially if it turned off cold. I wonder why the neighbors didn't notice that something was wrong here?" I was pretty pointed in my question.

"We have known Amy for the last five years. When she first came here she wasn't too bad. As time went on she not only withdrew from everyone, but actually pushed us and everyone away. We just gave up trying to be neighborly. Nobody knows what her problem is. She sure has a bad attitude, so don't blame the people here."

All I could say was, "I don't know her, I am just doing a favor for my friend. Thank you for stopping by. Maybe her cousin can figure it out." With that they turned and left. Soon I had a fire going and the house was slowly warming up. By the time I expected Benny back it should be at least comfortable. While I was waiting for her, I went through a sideboard that was in the dining room.

I found all of Amy's papers and records. I began to see why she was in such dire straits. I looked in her bank book. It had a balance of two dollars and three cents. I also found the deed to the property. Carol had transferred it to Amy in September. I looked back in her bank book and saw where she had withdrawn the amount listed for the transfer tax. At that time she had a balance of two hundred and ninety-seven dollars. Every week she withdrew a little, until she had reached the balance she had now. That was three weeks ago.

The woman was destitute! She had a major asset in the ownership of the property. The question why she didn't borrow on that to live on, only she could answer. I looked back to when she had opened the bank book. It showed she opened it with a balance of eleven thousand and some change. That must have been all she had received when she sold her mother's house. I'll have to discuss this with Carol. I'm sure she didn't know what shape Amy was in financially.

I went to the pile of mail on the kitchen table. In it was a bill for water and sewer rent and a tax bill from the town. All these were due on the third of January. She had received these on the second of December. Then I opened a letter from a bank. It was a rejection for a loan application she had made out. They didn't feel she was a good risk, as she couldn't show any income.

Benny came in as I was sitting there figuring out why Amy must have decided to let her life slip away. I showed her what I had found and what I thought happened. "We have to call Carol. Maybe she can fill us in a little more about Amy."

Carol was waiting for my call, and answered on the first ring. "Did you find her?"

"Yes, but she was so sick we had to call Rescue. We have placed her in a rest facility, and are going to watch over her until she is better."

"I just knew something was wrong. Why didn't she answer?"

"Before I tell you, could you answer some questions about her?"

"Of course. What do you mean?"

"Well I have been through some of her papers, and I suspect things were different than you knew about. Do you know how well off she was, or said she was?"

"I tried to question her at one time but she told me it wasn't any of my business. You know how she is. She must have had plenty of money. I know she sold my aunt's house for well over a hundred thousand. Why?"

"I suspect that house had a large mortgage on it. All I can find that she had for assets was eleven thousand dollars. And that was five years ago. Since then she has been making withdrawals up until three weeks ago. All she has now is two dollars and three cents."

"Oh no! What you are saying is that she had nothing. But I gave her the house when I got a steady job. I thought she could use it, because I don't plan on coming back to New England. It was just a headache to me and I thought I was being generous."

"She still owns it, but she found no bank would lend her money on it. Then the bills started coming in, you know, taxes, etc. I think she was overwhelmed. When we got here, she wasn't sick as such, but she was near starved to death. Don't blame yourself, she wanted and planned it that way. There wasn't any heat in the house and the only food were the four crackers she had by her bed. The EMTs said her metabolism was so low she might not have survived one more day."

I could hear Carol crying. "What shall I do? I thought I was helping and I only made it worse for her."

"Carol, get hold of yourself. Benny wants to talk to you." I handed the phone to Benny.

The gist of what Benny said to Carol was she was going to take Amy home with her just as soon as she was back on her feet. That was going to be the day after Christmas she thought. Would it be possible for Carol to come east and have a belated Christmas with all of us? She also thought that I would close things up here and we could all decide what was best when we got together.

I wondered what Amy would have to say when she found that others were making plans for her. From what I had seen, Benny would have her hands full when she laid this on Amy. I didn't talk to Carol before Benny hung up. Benny said Carol wanted us to know we were great friends taking on something that wasn't our responsibility, and it was above and beyond the call.

I went to the neighborhood convenience store and got some food. Then we went upstairs and found Carol's room and that is where we slept. It had turned cold, but we were warm enough, snuggled together. Actually we were like a pair of conspirators and having a great time. It was nice to have some extra disposable income to do things like this when we wanted to.

The next day, Benny and I set about doing the things we thought should be done. The oil truck came and filled the tank. I gave him a check. The driver was a little hesitant about taking it. I told him to go to the bank and cash it. The bank could check to see if it was good. I went through the other bills and set about paying them. I debated whether to shut the heat off and drain the water pipes, or find someone to watch the house. I went over and found the neighbor I met yesterday. He was feeling bad about what had happened to Amy, even though she had pushed him away. He was glad to do what was necessary to keep the house open. I left Benny off at the rest home to see how Amy made it through the night. She told me what transpired.

The nurse said that Amy had caused some trouble before Benny reached the rest home. The nurse also said that her patient had tried to leave and couldn't afford to be cared for and demanded her clothes. When Amy found out that all she had with her were nightclothes, she didn't know what to do. She also found that she was so weak she couldn't stand upright. That made her all the madder. When the nurse told Amy that her friend was bringing some clothes very shortly, Amy retorted she didn't have any friends. Bit by the scathing remarks, the nurse left Amy alone.

Benny entered the room, laying the clothes she brought with her on the dresser. Benny had been warned of Amy's mood by the staff. She started right in. How did we people have any right to kidnap her and run up bills on her account? She was going to get even and we'd be sorry. Finally she ran out of breath. She was just too weak to continue.

Benny reminded Amy that she would be dead right now if we hadn't interfered by request of someone who loved her. Her response was that Carol never loved her. Then Benny told her how things were going to be, like it or not. She said that in the next few weeks Amy was going to do just what she was told to do. She was going to get well and they were going to leave the day after Christmas and meet her cousin at her home in Vermont. Carol was going to visit during her school vacation and would stay a few days.

Amy asked where we were staying now. Answer, "Your house."

"And I suppose you have gone through my things?"

"Yes. All of them, and Burt paid all of your overdue bills."

"Burt, he's the one that Carol sold her body to. Don't say he didn't because I saw his check to her for twenty-five hundred dollars."

"Money to a friend. Believe it or not friends do that."

"I wouldn't know."

"I know you don't have any. You couldn't have. You are too small-minded."

This last brought tears to Amy's eyes. Usually those that came up against her biting remarks went away, but Benny was taking it and giving right back.

Benny finished it off with, "If Carol had a relationship with Burt, she would want to be paying him, not him paying her. He is that good. Just ask me."

Amy turned away and Benny sat there silently for half an hour. "Amy, can we talk now?" Amy, still not looking at her, nodded yes. "I guess you reached a point where you didn't know what to do. Burt figured it out, with you owning the house and the bank turning you down for a loan, it was too much. There is no serious damage done." She paused and then went on, "Your mother was probably the last person you loved. It is natural that you want to be with her. Let me ask you, do you know what purgatory is?"

A shake of the head and a no, from Amy.

"Purgatory is where souls go when they have done something on this earth that is really bad. Murder is one thing. Souls go there and are stuck there, maybe for eons, never approaching where their loved ones' reside. I must tell you that another of the things that can place you in purgatory is suicide."

Amy's head whipped around and stared at Benny, to see if she was being put upon. She could see that Benny was serious. At that moment I think Amy was reached like she never had been before. Amy held out her hand and Benny held it as tears coursed down both their cheeks.

I picked Benny up a little before noon. She was all smiles when I opened the car door for her. "We have to go shopping. Did you see what condition that woman's clothes are in? They are nothing but rags." Then she sobered a little and said how bad a time Amy had, relating a lot of the conversation.

I observed that she brought a lot on herself. "Is she going to cooperate and go back with us?"

"Yes, I'm sure she will. I hit her with where her soul would end up if she committed suicide. That brought her around so I could talk to her. I think she was overwhelmed with problems. Most concerning money. I would like to help her. She is so fragile, and my heart goes out to her."

"Okay. You said the staff said she ought to stay at least three more days. That will mean the day after Christmas. Do you think she can stand a three hour ride by then?"

"Yes. She is on a liquid diet today and will go on soft foods tomorrow. Let's go shopping."

The nearest large town was only about thirty miles away. The first thing bought was a nice frilly nighty. Then she went the whole route from the inside out, purchasing two complete outfits. One of them she had wrapped in Christmas paper. She said she would like to buy more, but knew Amy would fill out after she started eating right.

When we returned, she took the nightgown in and helped Amy with her toilet. Benny kept her makeup kit fully stocked, so Amy got the deluxe treatment. When Benny came out she made the statement that Amy was really a lovely woman, or would be when she regained her weight. "I'm so glad we got here in time to care for her!" We then went out to have dinner.

It was turning real cold, so we had the heat turned up. Carol called for an update. I told her that Benny and Amy had made friends. Also how close Carol was to not having a cousin anymore. We couldn't help reflect that if we had waited, we might be arranging a funeral, instead of planning Christmas. Carol said to expect her five-ish on December twenty-sixth. Give her love to Amy and she was anxious to see her.

Benny called home to her hairdresser and begged for a two o'clock appointment the day after Christmas. She said there would be two of them. The hairdresser said she hadn't planned on working that day, but Benny laid it on thick, reminding her how good a client she had been and for how long. Benny got what she wanted.

Amy was able to get up and move around some the next day. Benny timed her visits so Amy could rest a lot. The staff had said Amy had to be cautioned for she had a ravenous appetite. I had not been in to see her, but Christmas day, Benny and I were invited to have dinner with the staff and the patients. I caught Amy staring at me several times, as if she couldn't figure me out. She was not obnoxious about it, just puzzled.

After dinner we went back to her room. As I opened the bag that held the presents Benny had purchased on our shopping spree, I said Carol sends her love, but these are from Benny. I wonder if Amy had ever had Christmas presents before. She sure didn't act it. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I guess she did both. I did my part. When Amy calmed down, I opened a little box and extracted a chain with a cross of gold, and put it around her neck. That set the tears off again, so I made my adieu before I got choked up. I stopped and settled the bill for Amy's stay, asking if they were sure she was ready for tomorrow. She would be. Okay, I would pick her up at eight in the morning.

It was a long trip home. I asked if Amy wanted to go by her home before we left. She shook her head no. There wasn't much conversation, and Amy slept most of the way. We pulled into Benny's house about eleven. I helped Amy in and Benny installed her on the couch. I asked if they needed me before dinner tonight. Benny said no, but what was she going to serve? I said Carol will be tired after traveling and you are going to be busy. I thought I might go to the supermarket and get some rotisserie chickens and whatever might go with them.

I was excited about seeing Carol again. She was such a vibrant person, it was a joy being around her. I went shopping for food, both for myself and for our evening meal. Benny and I were planning a home-cooked meal before Carol returned to Ohio.

As I was waiting to return to Benny's, I gave some thought to what Benny and I should advise Amy to do, now that we had saved her life. We couldn't get her well and then drop her. She wasn't trained to do any kind of work. Maybe she could receive training in some line. We certainly would follow through on anything she thought she could handle.

I took all of the groceries I had acquired for dinner and went over to Benny's about four o'clock. When I went in Benny said Amy was resting. Benny said, "Wait and see how Amy looks. I had the hairdresser cut, shape and highlight her hair. She is lovely! I know she is just skin and bones, but she glows! When she gets her shape back, she is going to be beautiful."

I heard a car outside. I looked out and saw a vehicle with Ohio plates in the driveway. Carol had found us alright. Then I realized that Jimmy was getting out of the driver's seat. Great, this was like old times. I could almost hear that country music in the air. I opened the door and Carol rushed into my arms, saying how glad she was to see me. Benny was right behind me, waiting for a hug too. Jimmy was all smiles. "Surprised?" Then he said, "I didn't want my fiancee driving all that way alone."

Benny picked up on that before I did. Carol just flashed her hand to show off a ring. Benny and Carol went ahead into the house. Jimmy said, "I think I have loved Carol ever since you opened that motel room door and she stepped in. She feels the same way. I gave her the ring yesterday for a Christmas present. She said if I hadn't asked her, she was going to ask my dad for my hand. Mom and Dad love her like a daughter. We are getting married at the end of the semester, when I graduate."