Mystic Shores

Elyse Tapley sat as passengers spilled out of the buses accordion door, all in a rush, to be where? The quaint drugstore was the bus stop in Niantic, Connecticut and where everyone bought their bus tickets in the small town on Long Island Sound. She waited until the last person was off, and then walked down the aisle to the door pausing before stepping down to the brick sidewalk. Elyse froze for a moment feeling as if she were instantly transported back to the 1950’s.  

She walked toward the bay where she had rented a room in the town’s only B&B, life was closing in on her and she needed time to think. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the old book store with cats sunning in the window, the café and at the end of the brick sidewalk the old Victorian home, this was where she would be staying over the next two nights. The home was beautiful, gingerbread style with tall gables, a wrap-around porch and gigantic double entry doors. The plants around the porch were draped with spider webs, huge black spiders were suspended from the ceiling. The yard leading up to the steps was filled with tombstones hands and feet protruding from the ground. Elyse had almost forgotten that it was Halloween and the B&B was decked out in its most horrific and finest.

Elyse went up the pumpkin lined sidewalk, it was Monday, she checked into her room which was located on the top floor with no elevator, by the time she reached her room, she was too tired to eat and she fell asleep right away. When she woke the next morning she found that all of her things had been removed from her suitcase and neatly put away. Going into the bathroom she looked into the mirror, when had she unpacked? After dressing she made her way down to the lobby/living room, coffee and sweet rolls were on a table that was covered with fine linen and fall flowers, a tiny witch on a stick graced the middle of the fall centerpiece. While devouring the orange covered icing on the rolls, a woman appeared at the antique table used as a desk for registering guest. It was not the same person that checked her in the day before.

               “Oh miss,” Elyse called

“Yes, how can I help you?”  The old woman seems bent with age, thick eyeglasses and face covered with makeup and not for Halloween, her tone screamed annoyed with attitude.

“I just wanted to thank whoever unpacked for me; I was so tired I decided to wait until morning.”

“We do not provide that service here at Mystic Shores, you must be mistaken.” The old woman tossed a questioning eye at Elyse.

“I am certain that I did not unpack.” 

Elyse tried to choke back the tears, she did not come here for this rudeness, and she thought that she had left such behind her in New York, maybe she was taking it too personal. Her feelings were hurt easily these days.

Leaving the B&B and the sharp nose old woman who apparently ran or owned the place, Elyse walked to the shore, she took only a piece of fruit from the lobby, a towel and a book; her intentions were to spend the day but she had gotten a late start. When she arrived she stopped to rent a beach shanty, the sparsely furnished one room would serve her fine she could lay down on the cot if she got tired of being in the sun which could be quiet warm in October.

The young man at the shanties rental booth could not have been over twenty, a college boy no doubt earning some end of summer money.

               “Young man, I want to rent one of your beach shanties.”

               “O.K., they are at half price until the end of the month, that’s today and it all shuts down.”

               “I am aware of that young man, how much?”

               “Twenty for the day.”

               “What brought you to Niantic?”

               “A rest.” Elyse did not like him questioning her. He seems nosey.

               “You staying at Mystic Shores?”

               “Yes.”

               “Alone?”

               “Yes.”

“Spooky old place and the owner looks more like a witch than human, right time of year for her.”

Elyse walked away with the key to Shanty #13 in her hand. Halloween, #13 on the key tag, what next a black cat running across the path; she could not help but scream when a black cat ran across the path? When she entered the shanty the smell of dead fish and muscle shells filled the air, she found a broom and went to work on the ceiling, walls and floor, removing weeks of cobwebs. She open the big doors to the bay air, soon it smelled fresh; she lay down her towel and book, took a bite of her apple and headed toward the water. Maybe this day would not be a total loss; the scene in front of her was beautiful. 

As she stood with the cold bay water washing upon her feet she suddenly heard her name being called. Yet, no one knew that she was there. When she looked back the young shanty boy was gone, his shanty booth locked. It was just as well she did not like his attitude either, was it a small town syndrome that everyone had an attitude? Elyse returned to her colorful shanty painted in yellow and sea blue, the paint chipping away, sitting in a faded red Adirondack chair, book in hand, she opened to where she left the marker on the bus, she began to read. She had no idea when her eyes closed.

When Elyse woke the shanty cast a ghost like shadow across the beach, waves were lapping onto shore with foam thick as cream. She locked the shanty, drops the key in the beach box and began to walk quickly up the sandy path towards Mystic Shores. When she entered the house there was no one in the lobby, the dining room was empty the table showing that guest had already eaten, so she was not alone. Elyse feeling a spurt of energy took the stairs two at a time, there was something fearful about the house, quiet, too quiet.  

Entering her room she actually looked at it as if it were for the first time; the pictures on the walls, the furniture all were the same, nothing had changed. Elyse went into the bathroom to draw a bath, a bud vase with a single rose sat on the old dressing table by the claw foot tub. She pulled it from the vase, tore away at the petals letting them fall into the tub, poured herself a glass of wine letting her clothes slip to the floor she eased into the steaming water.

As the steam formed droplets of sweat on her forehead she brushed back wisp of hair. She was not unfamiliar with Niantic, nor was the old gingerbread house B&B. She had requested this room. In those early days of her youth, sixteen and waiting in this very room at Mystic Shores for Cade Coleman her high school English teacher. She and Cade has been driving the back roads, parking behind barn and hiding in abandon houses in the New York countryside. She was still a virgin and Cade had arranged everything, he had promised that night that he would show her what love could really be like away from the back seat of his car. 

Elyse woke with the coolness of the bathwater touching her chin; she dried herself cleaned up the spilled wine, she must have knocked it over when she fell asleep. Dressing in the silk gown she had bought just for the special occasion she crawled between the cool sheets in the old high post bed, the comforter pulled close around her face leaving only her nose exposed. It was déjà vu.   She once again did not remember falling asleep. When she woke it was almost noon. Slowly and unwillingly she raised from the bed her dream so fresh and real in her mind. She could feel the weight of Cade’s body and the kisses that lightly fell upon her face, lingering in the moment she smiled.

Elyse walked down the brick sidewalk the store fronts so quaint that it once again transported her back to the 1950’s; she entered the Niantic drugstore purchasing her ticket back to New York. This would be her second and last visit to the small town on the Long Island Sound. The door to the bus opened and with much difficulty she pulled herself up the steps finding a seat in the back of the bus. She sat frozen looking out the window as tears fell upon her cheeks. The past was far behind her, Cade Coleman and his wife moved out of state when she was a senior in high school, just an affair to him, but it was love to her.  She had married and raised two beautiful children. Last year she buried her husband of sixty years. 

Last week she read the obituaries where Cade had passed away of natural causes, he was ninety. Elyse had to return to Niantic and the room she had shared one night with Cade. The bus pulled away from the brick sidewalk leaving behind the picturesque little town, Elyse closed her eyes; she had left behind her eighty year old heart, the bus would arrive in New York before anyone realized she had pass away hopefully in the arms of her first love.