The Tin Pale | SHORT STORY

"The Pale"

There it was. Jennifer Carter had never seen it before in all her life, but
there it was. Of course, she asked her mom about the cute
statue, but she denied ever seeing it before. She also told
Jenni she would check with the neighbors to see if they had
misplaced theirs. Then again the dog could have brought it
home. She stared at it for the longest time. It was a white
concrete statue of a young girl on the beach. Jennifer could tell
it was a beach, since around her feet were sea shells. One
hand was holding her straw hat in place while the other held
her tin pale. She wore cover-alls over shirt and had the
legs of them rolled up.

"Well, it doesn't belong to the Joneses or the Peacocks," Helen
told her daughter as she entered the medium-sized kitchen.

Jenni sat at the table, where the statue was standing for the
moment. The kitchen had cabinets in the center as well as
around the wall. The sink and dishwasher were parallel to
the center cabinet with the refrigerator on the adjacent
wall. Oh, how Helen loved stainless steel appliances and
wood-stained cabinets. Of course, the counter tops had to be
marble.

"So what are you going to do?" Jenni asked as she looked toward
her. She could feel this throbbing in her head. Migrains were
always such a pain.

"I guess we'll just keep it," she spoke as she gave Jennifer a
funny look. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a mild headache," Jenni replied as she stood and
staggered.

"No, I think you should lie down," she said. "GO!"

"I'm not nine, you know?" Jen complained. She wasn't in the
mood to argue, though. Even if she was sixteen. She made it to
her room and sat down for a moment. Clutching her head as a
sharp pain shot through it. She had to turn off all the lights
and close the blinds. She didn't need the light or noise. She
even closed my door. Breathing deeply, she laid on top of
her blue bed sheets. They were so cool. They were quite
comforting. With her eyes green eyes closed, she rested her red
hair-filled head on the pillow. Comfy.

Her mom had been in the kitchen preparing dinner for the two of them. She had
such a hard time not setting out a third plate. Her father had been
gone for six months already. It was hard, Jenni was sure. It was
like having your arm or leg severed and still feel it
itching.

Jennifer had dosed off at some point and was dead to the world.
Well, She was, until she heard mom yell. It startled her enough
to shake the poor girl out of bed. Her heart raced. She thought it would
burst out of her chest and beat her to the kitchen. When she entered, she found her mom holding her arm. "What happened?"

"I burned myself," she said. "I'm fine."

"Let me see," Jenni responded, hoping to see the extent of the
damage. "How did this happen?"

"I just wasn't paying attention."

"I'll finish it, okay?" Jennifer told her as she moved away from the
table where she sat. "Spaghetti?"

"Yeah, your dad's favorite," she replied.

"Okay, I can do it," Jennifer stated as she began to work with what
her mom already had. It had been so long since Jen had cooked. She
spent the first few weeks after her father died cooking for her
mother. Helen wasn't well.

"Thanks, honey," she said breathing deeply.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Jennifer asked as she grew more worried
about her. The statue now faced her mother. Jennifer put the
thought out of her head that it had moved on its own. Of
course, she recalled it in another position.

"I'll be fine," she spoke softly.

Jenni continued to make the spaghetti to her mother's liking. She had
shown Jen many years ago when she was smaller. Jennifer still
remembered the basics. Something wasn't right, and the girl could feel it. Her mom started to feel weird and dizzy. The next thing Jen remember was hearing a loud thunderous crash. Helen was on the floor. Jennifer rushed to her mom to check her breathing, but couldn't feel her pulse. She jumped to the phone on the counter and dialed the emergency number as fast as she could.

This was her first real health issue ever. Jennifer had never even heard stories of her mom being ill even during her childhood, which was rare. Why all of a sudden? Jen allowed her mom to be carried off to the hospital, but she had to put things away before visiting her. She put away dinner into plastic storage containers and stashed them into the fridge. She was so busy that she hadn't noticed one odd thing about the room now.

It was gone. The statue was gone.

"Lacy?" Jennifer called out for our dog, but no luck there. She thought Lacy had taken the small statue out to the garden. So, she went to check. It wasn't there. She sighed heavily as she went back into the house to finished her cleaning.

Withing an hour, she was all done and on her way to see her mom, but her gut was churning. Jen had an uneasy feeling about that statue. It was stupid, she knew it, too, but all this bad luck all of a sudden was making her point fingers. She wasn't the kind of girl to believe in voodoo or witchcraft. So, why was she feeling this way? The statue was around when she got her bad headache, when Helen got burned, and when she had her fainting spell. Coincidence?

Jennifer was stopped at the front desk by the receptionist. "I'm looking for my mother, Helen Carter."

"You must be Jennifer Carter," she said to Jen. "Please, go on up. She's in room 312."

"Thank you." Jenni replied as she headed to the elevator. It was taking its sweet time and the feeling in her gut wasn't subsiding. It was getting worse. Her foot began to tap impatiently on the floor. It was only three floors up. She could make it up faster than the elevator. After all, she used to run track, so it would be easy.

Okay, so maybe she was mistaken. She hadn't run track in two years since her hurt my knee. Jen was out of breath, but she reached her destination. She made her way down the hall to find room 312. Medical personnel were racing past her and yelling something. "Code blue." Her heart stopped.

They were all going into room 312, where her mother was. Jenni pushed her way through to see them doing CPR on her mother.

"I'm calling it," one of the doctors said. "I don't know what happened. She just started crashing."

"Mom?"

The doctors all turned around to Jen to calm her and get her out. They even tried to sympathize with her. As she was being pushed out, she saw it! That damn statue and her pale. Jennifer stayed out in the hall as everyone in the room cleared out. She wanted to see her mom and get that statue. How did it get here?

"Jenni?" A doctor called out to me.

"Yes?"

"You can go in now."


"Thanks," Jenni said as she stood and wiped away her tears. She entered and was shocked to see it still there. "Oh, mom. . ." She didn't know what else to say. Jen was heart broken, having lost her father six months before. Why did this have to be? She took one last look at that statue before knocking it off the table. It shattered into a hundred pieces, except the tin pale. Jennifer felt relief rush over her. It was over. No more voodoo and bad luck. The price paid already was great.

***

15 years later. . .

Jennifer Carter wiped sweat from her brow as she worked her garden. It was hard to believe it had been fifteen years since the accident. At least that's what the coroner called it. They believed the shock from the burn caused her asthma to act up. Jen knew better. It was behind her, usually. On days like today, she always remember her mom. Jenni took up her mom's habit to be closer to the woman who raised her. The garden was so beautiful now. She would've been proud. Jen set her hoe down in the grass behind her so she could maneuver down the row. She was pulling out a few weeds when she noticed something in the dirt. She dug it out and saw it! The tin pale!

She jumped back, forgetting about the hoe and stepped on it. Jenni lost my balance and slipped. As she fell, the bird bath broke her fall, smashing the back of her skull. The blood began to flow over the pieces.