Unexpected Evil(Arlene Hartzell) UNEXPECTED EVIL
By A.A. Hartzell


The phone rang. It was the marine operator saying she had a ‘ship to shore’ call from the Fishing Vessel, “Sea Falcon.”

It was Dan calling. I felt my stomach tighten, at the thought of talking on the marine station. I always felt like I was on stage, only my stage was the air waves at sea, and my audience a tough crowd of commercial fishermen. The last cowboys, sea cowboys. Independent, hard working men playing the most dangerous game left. They would ride Dan ‘big time’ if I sounded ‘ditsy’ in the least, and every darn one of them was sure to be listening in!

“Hey Annie, how about coming up to Newport for the weekend, I’ll be delivering tuna, it will be a nice get-a-way for you and the kids.”

“Gosh, that sounds like a good idea.” I loathed the sound of my voice during these exchanges. Trying hard to be natural, I still sounded like ‘Beaver Cleavers’ mom, June. Fake as hell.

“Well, try to get away as soon as you can.”

“Are you having a good trip?”

“Yeah, I’m catching a few.”

It was August 26, 1969. The drive up was beautiful. The kids were excited about seeing their daddy. The usual fight about who crossed the invisible line in the back seat, didn’t happen. Thank you God! The kids fighting in the back seat always made me so nervous. I was looking forward to having time with Dan, he’d been at sea for days. It was a plus not to worry about meals, in fact I enjoyed counting how many meals out. Hanging out in Newport in the summer was always fun.

As soon as we got into town I checked into a motel. Not the best, we couldn’t afford the best, but it was clean, new and on highway 101. While unpacking, I let Holly Anne and Nicholas turn the t.v. on.

They found cartoons right off the bat.

I’d planned to take the kids down to the docks as soon as the unpacking was finished, we’d see what boats were in, and I’d buy the kids a crab cocktail, but suddenly I felt tired.

The kids were laying on their tummy’s with their chins cupped in their hands enjoying ‘Scooby Do.’

Holly’s hair is the color of a bright new penny, it curled in ringlets around her face, her cheeks lightly dusted with freckles. Nicholas has the deep blue eyes of his daddy, his hair sun bleached to a light gold. I felt like hugging and kissing them. I did, and they kissed me back not once taking their eyes off the television. I thought I’ll just shut my eyes and lay down beside them for a few minutes. I pulled a pillow out from under the bedspread, and then covered myself with Holly Anne’s ‘sucky blanket.’

I awoke to the 5 o’clock news. The kids were still asleep beside me.

“Hey, wake up you two. Daddy will be coming in pretty soon, and he’ll expect us to be waiting on the docks.”

Dan was deeply tan, and he’d started growing a beard. I’ll have to tell him I like it, otherwise he’ll shave it off.

He saw us, and his smile went from ear to ear. He quickly joined us on the dock.

The plant was already unloading our tuna. The bullet shaped silver fish made a slippery, slapping, thudding sound as the men threw them into the wooden boxes.

“Looks like you had a good trip.”

“Yeah, I think it should be close to 10 ton.”

Later, when the tuna been unloaded, Dan showed me the plant receipt. I saw the numbers, 19, 980 and I said something stupid.

“Are those numbers dollars?”

Dan laughed, saying, “I wish they were.”

“No, that’s pounds. It's still going to be a good trip Annie. The plants giving me .25 cents a pound.”

We had dinner at Mo’s. Then we stayed close to the docks until around 9, hating to say good-bye. Finally the kids and I headed back to the motel.

Dan headed back to sea for another 10 days. The fishing seasons are short, and one must, as the farmer’s say, ‘make hay while the sun shines.’ Dan worked hard and we were getting ahead. Now, more then ever before, he was feeling pressured to make money. Recently we’d purchased the ‘Sea Falcon.’ The new boat cost plenty and Dan was nervous about paying for it.

The next day I gave Holly and Nicky each $5.00 to spend. One would have thought it $50.00. We went to several stores, before they found what they wanted. For Holly it was a doll so tiny that I foresaw every itsy bitsy, teensy weenie item that belonged to ‘Pretty Patty’ being lost long before we got home.

“Honey, I think it would be a good idea if you kept ‘Pretty Patty’ wrapped until we get home. Otherwise you're going to loose all her cute little bitty things.” I repeated myself several times. I might as well have talked to ‘Pretty Patty’ herself for all the good my warnings were. ‘Pretty Patty’ was naked before we got back to the car.

Nicky loved ‘G.I. Joe’s, or Matchbox cars. Today he went for the ‘G.I. Joe’s. Now ‘Pretty Patty’ had a bagful of boyfriends.

I took the kids to lunch at a seafood place down by the river. When the cook saw the kids he put a tape on, soon there were sounds like waves, and the horns of ships passing in the fog. The kids loved it.

After lunch, I said, “Now it's my turn.” We went to a couple of antique stores. Finding nothing I couldn’t live without, we headed for the park down by the lighthouse. I had to drive though more then once, it was crowded. Finally I parked the car facing the river. We walked the sand along the Yaquina River bank. The weather couldn’t have been nicer, so nice that we left our jackets in the car. We walked towards the Yaquina Head Lighthouse keepers house. I’d never been inside, and anything to do with lighthouses fascinates me. There were steep steps leading up to the house. The kids ran ahead.

I opened the front door expecting to see a turn of the century home completely furnished. The inside was devoid of furniture. There were several people milling about. Sun streamed in though bare windows. I stopped the children at the door making them each take a hand before entering. I never let the children run around unsupervised. Once inside they pulled away and headed for a steep set of bare wooden steps leading to the upstairs. I hurried after them saying, “Wait! You have to hold my hand.!”

It was then that I felt it. Evil. It was pure evil. So strong, that at first I felt frozen to the floor. Frozen, unable to move. It was like a nightmare, only I was awake. The evil was like a physical push against every sense in my body. I couldn’t breathe. My heart was racing, I looked around in panic, thinking 'why can’t the others feel it?!' Everyone was acting as if nothing was wrong. What’s wrong with every one? I started to warn them, but then the sensible me said no, they’ll think your crazy... Then I got a hold of my emotions and looked around. The sickening, permeating badness seemed to be emanating from the upstairs and the kitchen. Up till now I hadn’t moved, but then I saw the children starting up the stairs! Stop I said, but they didn’t hear me! Act calm I told myself, get the children out of here, but get yourself in control. Otherwise Holly and Nicky are going to be traumatized for life. For life. Summoning every bit of strength, I calmed myself by slowing my breathing. Okay Annie, you’re alright now. Don’t act like a nut-case. I went up the stairs after Holly and Nicky.

The children were facing a bare wall. They had their backs to me. I saw a brownish stain on the old wood floor. It was a dark, foreboding, spreading stain.

“Holly, Nicky come here, it's time to go.”


Dan came home after 10 long days at sea. He was pissed at Annie. She hadn’t called him once. What the hell has she been doing since Newport? He’d called several times during the day and she was never home. She’s probably been taking the kids to Cleawox Lake. She loved the lake, a perfect day for Annie was a day at the lake with the kids. He really shouldn’t complain as she always had everything done at home before leaving. Already he was looking forward to seeing them, no longer feeling angry. Why shouldn’t she take the kids to the lake when the weather was good? They were growing up too fast, and she did a good job of keeping ‘all the balls in the air’ when he was gone.

He came to their street.

It wasn’t until he pulled in the driveway, that he had a feeling akin to fear. The car wasn’t there. The grass had turned a dirty yellow. Around the door pots of red geraniums were in the last stages of death.

Jumping out of the pick-up truck he ran to the door, his hand shook slightly as he turned the key in the lock. The house was empty. Everything was neat and tidy, and empty. Empty! Where were they? Where were Annie and the kids?!

The police found their car quickly. Dan was there when they opened it up. Their suitcases were in the trunk. Annie’s jacket and the kids jackets were lying on the back seat. There was a tiny yellow haired doll on the back seat too. Scattered all over the floor and seat were tiny doll things, little shoes, tiny socks, and a half inch doll bottle.

For a few weeks it made the front pages of all the papers in the state. Mother and two children disappear at the coast. There were no leads. There were no clues. The police brought divers in to search the river. A detective suggested that Annie ran away with another man. Psychics called suggesting all kinds of far out things, a U.F.O. picked them up, kidnapped by aliens. It went on and on. The police did their best, but eventually they gave up.

Back in 69' Annie’s grandmother May was still alive. After Annie disappeared, May told Dan that the lighthouse keepers house was the setting for a mysterious murder. It was supposed to have happened over a 100 years ago. Dan was a skeptic and it all sounded like so much crap to him, and besides that, people didn’t even keep good records back then. The story was far fetched, but Grandma May swore it was true.

Dan recalled May’s telling, it went something like this:

In the late 1800's a storm forced an English ship to put into Yaquina Harbor. Traveling with the Captain was his teenage daughter. When the weather improved the Englishman left his daughter with a respectable family, saying he would return for her in late summer.

Local young people decided to have a picnic on the beach close to the lighthouse keepers home. The home was abandoned even then. After lunch, the young people decided to explore the empty house.

The surviving teens told a story of climbing the stairway in the lighthouse keepers house and seeing a hidden room behind a moving wall. Some of the children had explored the empty home before and they’d never seen a hidden room. Unnerved, they left quickly. They hadn’t went far, when the English girl realized she’d left her handkerchief in the old house. The others waited while she went back to retrieve it. Then they heard a blood curdling scream! They ran inside the lighthouse keepers house and no one was there, then they ran upstairs where they’d seen the hidden room, now it was just an ordinary room, the walls as they should be, but on the floor was a large puddle of blood and in the middle lay the handkerchief. The English Captains daughter was never found.


Dan wondered where the years had gone. It was hard to believe Annie and the kids had been gone thirty four years. He’d remarried five years later, selling their home in town. Barbara, his new wife, wanted to live up the North Fork. They built a home with a view of the Siuslaw River. Now, Barbara was gone. He was alone again. A widower. Never once in thirty four years had he been able to look at old snapshots or home movies of Annie and the kids. No, he wasn’t that strong, it hurt too much. Now, though, he felt compelled. He’d taken lots of home movies, films that only lasted minutes. Last month, he’d had them all put on a disc. Tonight he put the disc in the DVD player. He found himself laughing, he would press pause on the remote from time to time and look into each of their faces. One happy face and then another. There was a fishing trip up the North Fork river. The kids had on their bathing suits, and over the top their bright orange life-jackets. Did they really smile and laugh all the time? He’d forgotten that. Annie climbed out of the boat in her two piece white bathing suit. She was tan, and her hair was loosely tied in double ponytails. The pink ribbon was almost falling out on one side. Dan went up and down her with the camera, Annie was frowning and mouthing, “Stop it.” When they saw the film, she told Dan, “You shouldn’t have done that, its embarrassing.” He said, “you’ll be glad I did someday.” She replied, “Maybe so, but I’m embarrassed now.”

Annie, Annie, Annie, what happened? What happened to you, sweet Holly, and my little boy? He thought of the three mysterious incidents in Newport, all had happened since 1969. All strange. A woman who was last scene walking by the bridge. Two fourteen year olds, walking alone on highway 101. And wasn’t there another missing woman? Yeah, she got mad at her husband, and the last time anyone saw her she was by the lighthouse keepers house. He stopped the DVD player, remembering something. It was important that he go and get it now. About two weeks after his family disappeared a tourist found a “G.I. Joe” plastic toy on the second floor of the lighthouse keepers house. Even though the shopkeeper swore he remembered the family buying a plastic bag full of these toys, the police said it was such a popular toy it could have belonged to anyone. Dan asked if he could have it, and they gave it to him. Dan wanted it because it reminded him of Nicky. He held the toy in his hand. Before it had always comforted him, but not tonight. He put the toy down, realizing what he had to do. He would go to Newport. He would stay in the same motel. It was old and seedy now. He remembered their room number, he would get the same room. He would retrace their steps. He got the police report out of his files. The detectives had been able to follow all of Annie’s stops, his family had been remembered everywhere, from Mo’s to the antique stores. Hell, he would even visit the lighthouse keepers house. Grandma May would have liked that.

Dan’s pewter colored chevy pick-up was encircled with yellow ribbon, not the kind around ‘the old oak tree’ no, this ribbon said, ‘do not cross-crime scene’ repeatedly. The silver long bed pick-up was parked across from the old Yaquina Bay Lightkeepers house. Where was the owner? Where was Dan Harrington?

The End.
By A. A. Hartzell

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