RDP Friday: Mercurial
Photo by: DianeLytwyn
When I was little, my Aunt used to tell me the best stories- if she told me a story about ghosts- then that haunting was happening right now in a house a few blocks away from where we were sitting ( probably with Archie comic books in our hands ).
Her stories never happened ” once upon a time, long long ago ” her spooky stories were not only happening now you could be there in that second- trapped in a haunted house, you poor devil you.
One year we were at a museum and there was a beautiful display of items made out of mercury glass- I think there were vases and even Christmas ornaments. I remember thinking the sturdy pieces of glass looked like they were made out of water.
My Aunt looked into the case and then she asked me- ” do you know Mrs Grinstein? ”
Mrs. Grinstein lived a few doors down from my Grandma’s house. Mrs Grinstein’s house was pink and white and she had lace curtains in all of her windows. She had tulips growing up her walkway and instead of a screen door she had a wrought iron gate in front of her door.
I remember that instead of a handle on the gate, there was a hand and you had to lift the hand in order to open it.
There was nothing delicate about the hand- the knuckles were swollen and you could see veins popping up from wrist and they spider webbed themselves down to the fingers.
” Mrs Grinstein had a twin sister. ”
I caught the word ‘had‘.
” What happened to her? ” I asked.
“Mrs. Grinstein and her sister used to like to sip sherry in her garden after dinner. They sat under an apple tree and they looked just like a painting. ”
” Well, one year Mrs. Grinstein’s sister died. It was a hard death. She coughed and coughed and when she wasn’t coughing she was throwing up. ”
In my mind’s eye I saw a cat with a hairball hacking and retching it’s little pink lungs out.
” What happened to her? ”
” Mercury poisoning. ”
I pressed my nose as close as I could to the glass case without touching the case itself.
” From mercury glass? ” I whispered.
My Aunt touched her lips to my ear, ” probably, don’t you wonder how she got the mercury glass into her sister? ”
” Maybe she ground it up and put it in the Sherry- or maybe the cookies. ”
My Aunt thought for a moment. “What makes you think she put it in the cookies? ”
I motioned to my Aunt and it was my turn to whisper into her ear, ” because that’s what I would do. ”
My Aunt stood up. She looked down at me.
She smiled.
” Remind me to not eat your cookies. ”
I smiled back- but here’s a little side note.
My Aunt never did eat the cookies I baked for our family gatherings. She would just pick up the platter and then she would to hand them out to everyone else.
