Currier Hall

         Eighty-three years was a long time on this earth and Margaret knew her time would come soon, maybe even before the night was out. But right now there was still time...Time enough for something so much more pressing than death. It was time for her to ask for forgiveness for the murder of three women.

           Margaret, whose beloved husband Charles passed away five years before, was the youngest of five sisters. She and Charles had met and fallen in love during the summer of 1911. Everyone loved Charles, even her strict Catholic father, which was saying a lot for a man with six daughters to protect and guide. A job which he took most seriously.

           Charles was not only a professor at Iowa State University, but a devout Catholic as well. Charles was good to Margaret and very respectful to him and his wife. So he allowed them to marry the very next spring.

           Since that time they had built a beautiful life together and a very large family of their own. They had two daughters and three sons who in turn gave them twelve grandchildren in total. Through the years, those grandchildren blessed them with twenty great grandchildren. The youngest of which was only two months old and fidgety as a squirrel, Margaret would say. Most of them except for the ones, who had already passed on or couldn’t make it until the next day, now crowded Margaret’s living room, dining room, and kitchen.

           Doctor Wilson, a longtime family friend and neighbor walked out of the bedroom and quietly shut the door behind him. With a heavy heart he looked upon each expectant face until he found Father Thomas. A nod was all he needed to know that Margaret was now calling for him.

           As Father Thomas took the seat beside her bed, she began. “Forgive me father, for I have sinned. It has been five years since...’ Her body was momentarily wracked with pain. “It has been five years since my last confession. I was so happy when Charles and I wed. We were so in love.” Her eyes became glossy with tears as she spoke. We were married not even a year when I found out I was pregnant with Emma. I was so excited that I just couldn’t wait to give Charles the good news. So I went to his office at the University to surprise him.”

           “As I peeked through the window of his door, I was dismayed to find him not alone. He was with one of the students, I assumed going over class work. But as I watched they soon embraced. I was appalled. I didn’t know what to do so I ran home and spoke nothing of it.”

           “The next day I was angry and decided I was not going to let this go. I powdered my face, picked up my skirt and ...” More coughing interrupted her. Father Thomas reached out in concern, but she waved his hand away. “I’m alright father. I marched right down to the University again. As I passed the atrium, I caught site of my Charles in the arms of yet another girl. I was so upset. All I wanted to do was tell my father so he could beat him to a bloody pulp.” She raised one very wrinkled and shaky fist and then relaxed. “I stomped my way up the road and realized that I would become a divorced, single mother at the age of twenty-four. What kind of a man would want me after that? I would be a disgrace to my family. So I vowed to find out who the girls were and make them see that he was a married man about to have a family.”

           I found him with a third girl on the next day. Infuriated, I followed her back to room 402 on the fourth floor of Currier Hall. I listened outside the door while she and two other girls went on about the love they felt for the same man and that two of them would have to give him up. I peeked through the keyhole and recognized the other two girls as the ones I had seen with Charles. I had to do something to save my family father.”

           “I returned that next week and presented myself as one of the beauty consultants from the beauty parlor on campus.” Margaret smiled wickedly and stared off in the distance. “They were all too eager to invite me in. I brought out all the fancy hair combs I had from home, a beautiful gold inlaid brush from my grandmother, and a thermos full of homemade tea of which I did not take a sip. This was no ordinary tea mind you-Oh no. I made this tea especially for them. You see father, it was laced with poisonous mushrooms. I did have to add quite a bit of sugar to take the bitterness away, but it worked.”

           “As they sipped their tea, they let me play with their hair told me how they were all the best of friends. It took longer than I thought, but eventually they began to froth at the mouth and vomit. Ugly business, death is for some. I let them lay dead on the floor while I wrote a most convincing suicide letter of true love and everlasting friendship and signed it from the three girls. I snuck out of their room and headed home.”

           “Word of their suicide was all over the University the next day, but without the name of the man they loved in the letter, there was nothing else to do but bury them. To this day, father the legend says that three young women shared the same dorm room in Currier Hall at the University of Iowa and were best friends. They were talking about their boyfriends only to realize they had fallen in love with the same man. A huge argument ensued. In despair, not wanting to give him or each other up, they killed themselves. A suicide note and their haunting souls were all they left behind.”

The truth finally told to the only two men who could never reveal it, Father Thomas and God.

She looked pleadingly at Father Thomas. Her regret was palpable as her once, beautifully bright, blue eyes now clouded by cataract, overflowed with tears. “In the name of the Father, the son, and the holy ghost, you are absolved of all sin. Your soul is clean Margaret. You can rest now.” And with that she took her final breath.