Dead Voices (40 page)

“Is there anyone here?”

In the silence that followed, Elizabeth thought she heard something. Whatever the sound was, it was muffled and fleeting, and she passed it off as a sound either she or Eldon had made, shifting on the couch. She tried to remember exactly what each of them had done during her questioning, but she knew that she could never reconstruct it accurately.

And maybe that’s how he tricks people
, she thought. By not telling you what’s going on, he pulls ... whatever sleight of hand he has planned, before you even know it.

“I-uh, I’d like to speak with my daughter, Caroline,” Elizabeth’s recorded voice said. It sounded tinny, and she couldn’t dispel the notion that it had been recorded in a vast room, not this cozy living room. The white noise of the radio continued unabated in the background.

There was nothing — no sound at all in the silence that followed that statement. Elizabeth looked questioningly at Eldon, but he simply nodded, sending her a silent signal to be patient.

After another long gap filled with white noise, Elizabeth’s recorded voice spoke again. “If my daughter is ... is nearby, I’d like to speak with her ... I’d like to let her know that I —”

In the short pause that followed, Elizabeth clearly remembered the thoughts that had flashed through her mind. Again, she cringed with embarrassment as she wondered what Eldon knew of her situation. It bothered her that she would let herself be set up like this. Why was she so trusting and confident with a man she had just met?

“I want to tell Caroline I’m ... I’m sorry,” the recorded voice said.

Before all the words had been spoken, Elizabeth heard something on the tape something that made gooseflesh rise instantly on her arms. From out of the speaker on the small tape recorder came a warbling rush of noise that rose to a peak and repeated several times before quickly cutting off. Her first thought was that it was the sound of a car passing by the house; but she had driven up Eldon’s long driveway, and she knew that, even if a car had gone by the house, the recorder never could have caught the sound of its passing so clearly.

“Bingo! There yah are,” Eldon said, as a satisfied grin spread across his face. He sat back and slapped his legs with the flats of his hands, making a double-loud cracking sound. Nailing Elizabeth with a sharp glance, he said, “Can’yah tell me what that was?”

Elizabeth’s fingers felt as useless and senseless as balloons as she fumbled to stop the tape. Her hands were trembling as she pressed the rewind button, let the tape run backward for a little bit, then hit play again.

“ ... to tell Caroline —

The sound —
what in the name of sweet Jesus is that sound
— began with the word Caroline, rose quickly and repeated, then cut off; but this time Elizabeth didn’t get the impression that it was a car driving by the house. Her mind instantly caught what sure as hell sounded like foreign-sounding words being spoken, whispered like the harsh ripping of doth.

“This is ... weird,” she said, but that was all. She clicked off the recorder and looked at Eldon, feeling suddenly empty and helpless.

“It’s the spirit world,” Eldon finished for her. “Someone from beyond is tryin’ t’talk t’yah.”

“It can’t be,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head in earnest denial. “This just can’t be! It isn’t
possible
!”

Eldon’s smiled widened, exposing the stumps of his rotting teeth. The expression on his face was almost comical, and if she hadn’t been so terrified just then, Elizabeth might have laughed aloud at his clownlike face.

“It ain’t up to you or me to figger out what is and isn’t possible,” Eldon said simply. “Go on ‘n’ play the rest of the tape.”

“I don’t know if I ... dare to,” Elizabeth said. No matter what she thought about what was happening on an intellectual level, that sound, that
whooshing
noise sounding almost like another voice, reached deep down inside her and filled her with dread.

“Spirits generally ain’t gonna harm yah,” Eldon said calmly. “Usually they simply got some kinda message to pass on to the livin’. I ain’t never encountered what I’d have t’say was an evil spirit, although I ‘spoze there must be some.”

It amazed Elizabeth how Eldon took what was happening so easily in stride. Possibly he could do that because somehow — she didn’t know how, but somehow — he
had
manipulated the tape to get this sound onto it. His entire show about not touching the blank tapes or the recorder once she had picked it up were just that — a show designed to distract her from whatever it was he
did
do to screw around with things. It had to be that! It simply wasn’t possible that static on a radio could attract spirits and make them speak!

Looking at Eldon, Elizabeth said, “Well, there are some folks” — she had to fight hard to keep her voice level and strong —”who think any amount of fooling around with stuff like this is ... is downright evil. I don’t know what we just heard. I have no idea! As far as I can remember, I didn’t hear anything like that when we were recording, but I just can’t — can’t swallow this.”

“Hold on a minute there,” Eldon said. “Lemme see that tape. “

Elizabeth pressed the stop button, ejected the tape, and handed it over to Eldon. He moved to take it from her but then didn’t. Pointing over toward the stereo system, he said, “One of my boys rigged that tape machine there so it can play things backward.” He chuckled and continued. “I ‘spoze it was so’s he could listen to them Satanic messages that are ‘spozed to be in the rock ‘n’ roll music. You know — like the Beatles and such.”

“Oh, sure — horrible Satan worshippers, every one of them,” Elizabeth said, catching the gleam of humor in his eyes and smiling back at him.

“Why’nt you play the tape you just made past that sound, whatever the hell it is, then put it in’ta my tape player. Lot’s’o times, the messages don’t make sense till yah hear ‘em backward. That little toggle switch there will make the machine run backward.”

Elizabeth almost told him that this was getting completely ridiculous. Simply accepting that disembodied spirits even existed and could talk to you on a blank tape took quite a leap of faith. But then to propose that those messages from the spirit world could be recorded backward was just too damned much! There was something strange going on here. She didn’t know what, but she sure felt like she was the sucker.

She went over and knelt in front of Eldon’s tape deck, taking a moment to study the dials. After switching the amp from FM radio to tape player, she opened the cassette housing, popped in the tape, and pressed the reverse/play toggle. She adjusted the volume and then, sitting back on her heels, folded her hands in her lap as she and Eldon waited and listened.

At first they heard nothing but the same white noise, slightly distorted from being played backward. Then they heard the odd sound of Elizabeth’s voice being played backward.

“That was the next question you asked, after that noise we heard,” Eldon said in a hushed voice. Elizabeth glanced at him, about to say something, but he waved a silencing finger at her. “Shhush — now wait.”

After the backward voice stopped, there was a split-second pause of intense white noise. Elizabeth expected the sound to be as indistinguishable backward as it had been when played forward. She wasn’t ready for it when a whining voice hissed from the speakers, filling the room and sounding as clear as if it were right there beside her.

“I — saw — you — there,” the high-pitched voice said.

It was obviously that of a young girl, but in the instant, blinding rush of fear, Elizabeth couldn’t even begin to wonder whether or not it was Caroline’s voice. Astounded and terrified beyond belief, she collapsed backward, away from the stereo. With frantic, fear-filled eyes, she turned and looked at Eldon, a scream building up inside her chest, seeking to escape.

The tape played on, and the voice continued, stuttering on the words, “Here I ... here I ... “ It started to warble up the register, higher and higher until it faded away, leaving nothing but the reverse sound of white noise. With trembling hands, Elizabeth switched off tile tape player.

“I tole’yah,” Eldon said, smiling with satisfaction as he looked at Elizabeth and nodded. “We sure as hell got
someone
.”

Elizabeth was trying desperately to compose herself as she got to her feet and, trembling violently, went back to sit on the couch. A slick sheen of sweat had broken out on her forehead. She didn’t dare speak aloud for fear that nothing more than a terror-stricken whimper would come out of her mouth. She picked up her glass of water and took a sip.

“Why don’t’cha play the rest of the tape forward, ‘n’ we can see if there’s any thin’ else,” Eldon said calmly. “After that, we can play th’whole thing backward t’catch what we might’ve missed. I’d like to find out who we got here.”

Elizabeth hesitated, then with a deep sigh went over to the stereo and released the reverse button. After pressing the play button again, she sat on the couch beside Eldon. Her knuckles were bone white, and she held her breath as she clenched her hands in her lap and waited to hear the recorded words repeated. The only relief she felt was knowing that, played forward, they wouldn’t make sense ... even though she now knew what they said.

When they came again, they were the same as the first time she had heard them — nothing more than a warbling rush that rose up high as it repeated itself several times and then abruptly cut off. Elizabeth let her breath out in a slow, deep whistle. Echoing in her mind, she could still hear that tiny, high voice.

“
I saw you there! ... Here I ... Here I ... Here I ... “

For several seconds there was just a faint trace of recorded white noise from the radio; then Elizabeth’s voice spoke out clearly, “I want to tell her that I ... that I didn’t want for her to die.” As terrified and as disoriented as she had felt back when she recorded those words, she now found it reassuring to hear her own normal voice. But even as relief spread through her, she knew she would
never
be able to forget that other voice. Someday she might find the courage to listen to that tape backward again, in a calmer moment. She would like to determine, if she could, if that had been Caroline’s voice. For now she wanted to dismiss it from her mind and continue listening to the tape.

“Caroline — honey,” her recorded voice said. “Can you ... can you forgive me for what ... happened?”

Another white-noise pause was all they heard, but now it seemed to pulsate with possibilities.

“Can you, honey?” the tape recorder said.

As soon as the word you was spoken, another rush of noise filled the tape. It was different this time, thank God; certainly nothing that sounded like someone trying to talk! This new sound came in hard, steady pulses, and Elizabeth had the mental image of a searchlight spinning rapidly, sweeping a wide arc around and around, bright for just the instant it focused on her, then fading rapidly as it spun away. She suspected this mental image arose unbidden from Eldon’s claim that white noise acted like the beacon of a lighthouse that drew attention from the spirit world. There was no denying there was
something
on the tape! The sound was dizzying as it warbled intensely, rising and fading and rising again.

“Oh, my God! Oh, my
God
!” Elizabeth muttered when she heard something that sounded like words flutter and fade in the rush of sound. “Oh, my sweet, loving
Jesus
!”

Elizabeth told herself
I can’t be hearing this! It’s got to be my imagination
!

Tension coiled inside her stomach like a poisonous snake preparing to strike. She was aware of a heavy-fisted pounding inside her head, and it took her a panicked instant to realize that it was her own heartbeat. A flush of cold gripped her body. She wanted to open her mouth, to say anything to Eldon that would break the tension that was spiraling up inside her, but she was filled with the fear that if she opened her mouth, all that would come out would be one long, never-ending scream. She had a vivid mental image of being hauled off to the psychiatric ward, still screaming until her throat and lungs began to bleed.

“D’yah hear that?” Eldon asked, his eyes twinkling with excitement. “D’yah
hear
that?”

Elizabeth nodded, even though her neck and shoulders felt like they were cast in iron. The rushing whoosh of words rose and faded, but each time they got clearer until, finally, there was no denying what was on the tape. Somehow-she didn’t know how Eldon’s tape recorder, had captured the only two words that could cut into her soul like the blue-white flame of a blowtorch.

“
... Helpl ... Mommy! ... Help! ... Mommy! ... “

Elizabeth screamed. She wanted to get up off the couch and run from Eldon’s house; run all the way back to Bristol Mills if she had to to get away from it; run until she collapsed on the roadside and simply died of exhaustion or fright.

“I think that might do it for now,” Eldon’s voice said.

The voice was so clear that, for an instant, Elizabeth wasn’t sure if it had been on the tape or if Eldon had spoken those exact words again. “You can shut that thing off now, if yah’d like.” She heard the recorded
click
from her shutting off the tape recorder. Then there was nothing in the room except the sound of the blank tape, with no white noise, thankfully, being played on Eldon’s stereo. That sound and her own labored breathing filled the living room like the sound of a crashing tide.

Eldon got up off the couch and went over to the stereo system. He stopped the tape, then pressed the rewind button. Looking at Elizabeth, still sitting on the couch, he smiled grimly and said, “Well —
now
d’yah believe that somethin’ like this is possible?”

Elizabeth’s mouth made an odd gulping sound before she said, “I don’t ... know
what
to think.”

“D’yah feel like listenin’ to the whole thing in reverse now, or d’yah wanna take a little break from it?” Eldon asked.

“I could —” Elizabeth said, but then stopped and swallowed with difficulty. It felt as though a fist-sized rock was working its way down her gullet. “Another glass of water might be nice.”