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MILDRED

Appleby is a quaint mountain town where everyone knows each other and helps each other out, with the exception of the tourists. Most of them were alright, courteous for the most part, but there were the few that caused problems. Most times they didn’t come back for a second visit. As I said, we watch out for each other.

As a real estate agent, I suppose I feel more of an obligation to keep my small community safe. It’s not just for business either, I raised my daughter here and now my granddaughter, Chloe, lives here too. She and her friends deserve a safe place to call home.

My house sits up on a hill, in a small neighborhood, where the houses aren’t too close together, but close enough to visit within walking distance. I like to take a walk in the afternoon, when the weather is nice, like today. I snuck out without my dog, Ginger, a half shepherd, half doberman, because frankly, she's huge and chases the squirrels away. It was quite the stressful day at work and I needed some me time.

I headed up the street toward Mildred’s house. Her front garden is just a riot of colors and smells. She’s got flowers I’ve never seen before. How she gets them to grow in the mountains is beyond me.

Mildred is a really sweet old lady in her eighties and I’m actually a little jealous of her gardening abilities. It’s been ten years and I still haven’t planted roses in front of my home. A beautiful orange rose that looked like it glowed in the sunlight caught my eye and I leaned over the short, white picket fence and inhaled deeply. I was rewarded with disappointment. No fragrance. So many nowadays don't have good fragrances, instead bred for beauty. Oh well, the deep burgundy ones always smelled good but I would have to go inside her gate, which was open, to smell them.

I suppose it seems a bit ridiculous to invade someone’s property just to smell flowers, but if you can’t stop and smell the roses periodically, what’s the point of life? Besides, I could check in on her and maybe have a bit of conversation over tea.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. The scent of the Mirandy rose was everything I was expecting, a deep fragrant, rose scent. As I raised my head and opened my eyes, a glint of sunlight on water caught my eye. Well that’s weird. The hose was lying on the grass, water running freely from the nozzle.

Mildred was always water conscious, she would never leave the hose running. Worried something might be wrong, I hurried around to the front door. It looked closed but as I pressed my hand against it to knock, it swung open. I meant to call out her name, and I can’t tell you why, but in that moment, I didn’t. Instead I stepped quietly into the living room. Knick knacks lined shelves and curio cabinets in the small comfortable room. The kitchen was visible through one door, and a hall led back to the bedrooms and bath. It was small but comfortable.

Really, this is silly, what if I caught her coming out of the bath. Maybe she had to run to answer the phone, as she still only had a landline. Mildred was old enough to still relish the silence that came with not carrying a mobile phone around. Still, she would have taken the time to shut off the water, the faucet was right next to the front door. Mentally, kicking myself for not shutting the water off myself, I froze as a loud angry voice rang out from the back bedroom.

“Where’s the money, old woman?” My anger rose. First of all, no one talked to Mildred like that and secondly, no one was intruding on my neighbor’s house to rob the place. Wishing I had brought Ginger with me, I took a second to grab a weapon from the kitchen. Cell reception was spotty here as Mildred also had no wifi and a quick glance showed I had no signal. Although she didn’t like mobile phones, she did have a phone that wasn’t connected to the wall and was unfortunately, nowhere in sight.

A short shriek from Mildred let me know that time was quickly running out. Tiptoeing down the hall, I leaned back against the wall and took a quick peek through the bedroom door. The door was partially shut but through the crack I could see poor Mildred cowering on the floor with her hands held up by her face. The intruder's back was to me and I could see he wore a ski mask over his head. Outrage flooded through me. That man better not have hurt her! Filled with righteous indignation, I stepped up behind the man and swung the weapon in my hands with all my strength.

Focussed as he was on his victim, he didn’t hear me and that was his downfall. The extra large cast iron pan I held cracked him against the back of his head and he crumpled to the ground unconscious as Mildred rolled away.

“How do you move like that,” I marveled as I helped Mildred to her feet.

“I may be old but I’m not helpless,” she said as she gave me a hug. “Thank you for coming to my rescue. Now I’m sure I have some old clothesline around here to tie this guy up.”

“I should call the police, where’s your phone?”

“Don’t bother, they should be here any minute.” Opening my mouth to speak, she answered my unasked question by holding up her arm. A glittery bracelet adorned her wrist. “It’s my alert bracelet. I just press the button and they send someone out if I don’t answer the phone.”

A smile creased my lips, “you are always full of surprises.”

A few moments later and a paramedic was poking his head through the door. “Miss Beaumont, do you require assistance?”

“No young man, but the intruder in the bedroom is gonna need some help. I’m pretty sure Holly here gave him a concussion.” With a puzzled look on his face, he leaned into the radio on his chest and called for police assistance as his partner followed him into the bedroom. It was only seconds later when we heard him laugh from the bedroom.

The police showed up ten minutes later and handcuffed the still unconscious intruder to the ambulance gurney.

“My grandma always told me how useful cast iron pans were. Never thought I’d see one used like this though,” said police Detective Martin as he spun the pan in his hand like a basketball before handing it to Mildred and winking at her. “You better take this. Just in case anyone else comes around.”

“Don’t you usually investigate crimes?” Mildred asked with a little frown.

“I was in the neighborhood, there’s been a rash of break ins lately. This guy probably belongs to the same gang. I’m just glad you’re alright.”

Now it was my turn to frown, “how come we haven’t heard about this?”

“They’ve been empty cabins until now and we’re pretty sure that’s all it was until now.”

Mildred huffed. “Well I hope you’re going to send out an alert now.”

Detective Martin looked apologetic. “If we thought this might happen, we would have done it sooner. My apologies. Do you know what he wanted?”

My Scoobydar perked up at the question. “He was looking for money,” I said before Mildred could answer. “What else would it be?”

“Sometimes, they’re looking for drugs. What exactly did he say?” He looked directly at Mildred as he asked.

“Where’s your money old woman,” she said in a wobbly voice which made me look curiously at her. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to lie down for a bit, this has been very traumatic.” She put her hand to her chest and appeared every bit of her age.

“Of course,” he handed me his card. “If you remember anything else that can help or if you hear anything around your house, just give me a call.” He closed the front door behind him as he left and shortly after, the vehicles drove away.

I turned to Mildred with my eyebrows raised, “I’m pretty sure his exact words were, ‘where’s the money’.”

Mildred just went, “hmph. I guess I just got the words twisted around. I’m going to lie down, I really am tired and please lock the door when you leave. Oh, and turn off the water, like a good dear.”

“Sure thing Mildred. I’ll be back to check on you later.” Perhaps it was nothing or maybe it was something. What I did know was that l would have to wait till later to find out.

Visit my website to find out more about Mildred's adventures M.R. Dollschnieder, Author.