The Still, Part One

"Where are you taking me?" Leta questioned, as Albert seemed to be guiding her from their small living room through the house.

“Just keep your eyes closed,” he answered, which she did.

“If I trip and fall….” she added.

“You won’t,” he replied in a slight singsong sort of voice. “I’ve got you.”

“Well, okay,” she said, “as long as this doesn’t take too long. I have to get supper on the table. “You know how Dale gets when he doesn’t eat on a regular schedule.”

“He’s out playing with his friends,” her husband stated. “He won’t notice the time. Besides, he can have a pickle to tide him over.”

Their nine-year-old son had recently begun to crave pickles. He could eat up to ten at one sitting and not, he claimed whenever he did so, ruin his supper. If he did return home hungry as a hobo, she could tide him over for a short while with a couple of pickles.

“We’re at steps,” Albert said, moving more slowly. “Be careful.”

“You’re taking me into the basement?” Leta questioned, as she reached up her hands to feel the doorway.

“Yes. Now keep your eyes closed.”

“I am. I am.”

“That’s my good girl.”

He was using his smooth voice, like a fresh, warm glass of milk right from the cow, as her mother would say.

The steps were pretty rickety. Little more than wood planks on a frame. And narrow.

“Albert,” Leta cautioned, “be careful.”

He had moved in front of her and was stepping down the stairs backwards. This unnerved her. What if he missed a step?

“I am. And—“

“—I know, don’t open my eyes,” she finished. She was using her left hand to guide herself down, for there was nothing on the right side. Fortunately, she didn’t like clutter, so there were not obstacles on the narrow stairs for either to trip over. Her friend Millie kept all matter of household articles on her narrow basement stairs. Leta always thought that more than a hazard, it showed a lack of household maintenance.

After they reached the bottom of the steps, he guided her on the boards covering the dirt floor through the large room that ran both the length and width of their home.

Then they stopped.

“Okay,” Albert said, just after releasing his guiding hand from her elbow, “you can open your eyes now.”

To be continued.