Reckless Endangerment
- Up to 2,500 words
- Genre – Ghost Story
- Subject – A snowstorm
- Character – A zookeeper
When a tormented soul shows no mercy, will Mother Nature be their salvation? Or will she be just as unforgiving?
“Manny, Maddie, come in and start unpacking these boxes please!” Jasmine Robles called out the screen door, yelling over the rumble of the moving truck pulling down the gravel drive. Boxes lined the walls of the living room and hallways of the Craftsman style home Jasmine and her twin teenagers were moving into. Flipping the knob on the antique radio, she tuned until she found a local news station, supplying the weather updates.
“…and experts say this first snowstorm might be a big one. All models currently point to a strong possibility of more than a foot of snow to fall in this first 24 hours. Local authorities are urging residents to bring in extra firewood and have plenty of warm clothes and blankets on hand in case conditions worsen. In other news…”
Jasmine turned the radio volume down while the news reports continued and pushed the screen door open once again. “Guys, seriously, get your rears in gear and come help!”
Manny and Maddie, sixteen, came barreling through the door, laughing as they pulled off their gloves and coat. “We need to find the bedding and pantry items. There’s a snowstorm on the way and I want to be warm and have food when it hits.” Jasmine directed them towards the boxes as she shut the back door.
For the next few hours, they worked methodically to sort boxes based on the rooms they belonged in. As the first flakes of snow began to fall, all the beds had been made and the pantry was stocked.
“Hey Mom, can Maddie and I go check out the attic?” Manny asked, his eyes looking towards the staircase leading to what he could only assume would be the most awesome part of the house. Their old house had an attic, but you couldn’t hang out in it. It had been full of wires, ventilation stuff, and insulation.
“I suppose, once” she emphasized the word ‘once’ as Manny had started to turn towards the stairs, “you help me bring in some firewood and stack it in the living room. I don’t want to go outside for more if it keeps snowing.” Manny and Maddie bundled up once more to help Jasmine stock the wood. Once a dozen or more logs were stacked next to the fireplace, Jasmine nodded her head and waved both of her hands at them, the universal sign of ‘go on, get out’. As their footsteps pounded on the stairs, she went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of red wine. Picking up her cell phone, she headed back into the living room and curled up on the bay window seat to relax and watch the snow fall.
Manny and Maddie ran up to the attic, amazed at how this house was so different from their last. Actual flooring, dirty as it was, covered the length of the attic. Several beams were evenly placed around the large open space. A window at the far end of the attic showed the enormous elm tree outside. Snow was already covering the bare limbs as the storm rolled in. A stack of boxes sat in the corner by the window. Maddie pulled the flaps back on one and started to look through it.
“Oh Manny!” Maddie exclaimed as she pulled a picture frame from the box. “Look at this,” she continued. Eyes wide, Manny looked at the picture of the massive lion and the man who looked so small standing next to it.
“This has gotta be the guy who used to live here.” Maddie continued to pull items from the box and laid them out on the ground, Manny picking them up in turn to see them for himself.
“Dude this is a gorilla!” Manny exclaimed. “Yeah, look at this picture,” Maddie replied, pointing to one with an elephant, “He’s wearing a uniform for the local zoo. He must have been the zookeeper. See, he’s got pictures with lions, elephants, gorillas, tigers, monkeys, even a giraffe! How cool is that?” she cried out as she continued to pull picture after picture from the box.
“Hey, wait,” Maddie paused, holding a piece of paper in her hand. “Here’s a newspaper article about the guy.”
Local Zookeeper found negligent in accidental death of Jenni Raymond
Judge Dennis Neworth has found local zookeeper, Jim Malvo innocent of involuntary manslaughter but guilty of reckless endangerment in the unfortunate death of five-year-old Jenni Raymond. Jenni and her parents were enjoying a leisurely Sunday afternoon at the zoo just outside of Willow Springs when tragedy struck. In the few moments it took for the Raymonds to begin unpacking their Sunday picnic, Jenni chased her hat, blown off by the wind, down near the gorilla exhibit. Crawling under the railing to retrieve the bonnet, which had snagged on a shrub, she unfortunately fell approximately twenty feet down into the enclosure. While the gorilla exhibit was closed, the fall itself proved to be fatal for young Jenni Raymond.
Expert witnesses testified in the non-jury trial the zookeeper had a responsibility to maintain safety measures both inside and outside of the enclosure. They further testified Mr. Malvo’s failure to properly care for the soil and foliage around the railing had led to erosion, which allowed young Jenni Raymond to squeeze under the bottom rails. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wept openly during the announcement, with Mrs. Raymond clutching the very bonnet Jenni had been chasing that day. Judge Neworth will announce the sentence in the coming weeks.
“Holy cow,” Manny exclaimed, digging through the box to see if there was more. “Look here!” he yelled as he waved another newspaper clipping in his hand.
Disgraced Zookeeper found dead in apparent suicide
Local authorities were called to a home in Willow Springs Thursday evening for a welfare check and discovered the victim of an apparent suicide by hanging. Unnamed sources indicate former Zookeeper Jim Malvo, was found in the attic of his home, having taken his own life. This shocking discovery comes mere days after the sentencing of Mr. Malvo in the felony conviction of reckless endangerment in the death of Jenni Raymond.
Before Manny could finish reading the article, the attic was plunged into darkness.
Downstairs, Jasmine was sipping her wine and watching in concern as the wind picked up outside. Snow was swirling and she could barely see the fence in the front yard, less than fifty feet away. Just as she stood to stoke the fire, the house was plunged into darkness and the door to the attic slammed shut. The backdoor flew open, the sudden wind extinguishing the fire.
From upstairs, a scream tore through the silence causing Jasmine’s blood to run cold.
Inside the attic, Maddie whimpered, the scream an embarrassing response to the sudden lack of light and the crashing of the door.
Manny reached in his pocket for his cell phone, using the flashlight app to illuminate the attic space. As he did, a silvery image seemed to flicker out of existence. A sudden gripping cold enveloped the attic. Manny shivered as a branch from the elm tree scraped across the windowpane.
Bang, bang, bang
“You guys okay?” Jasmine’s tone was even, and she hoped the twins couldn’t sense her unease.
“Yeah mom,” Manny replied, shining the phone around again, mostly to reassure himself they were okay. As he did, his phone seemed to briefly illuminate a shadowy figure, but he blinked, and nothing was there.
Jasmine groaned in frustration as she tried turning the handle to the attic door. It wasn’t locked but the door itself would not budge. Yanking on the handle, she let out an “oof” as she fell backwards, the knob coming free from the door. She grunted as she rose back up then knelt to peer through the hole where the handle used to reside.
Manny suddenly appeared on the other side looking back. “The handle popped out mom,” he said, holding the light from his phone over his head so they could see each other. “Hey,” he continued, “did you know the guy that used to live here died in the house?”
Jasmine sighed and slid down the door to sit on the floor. “I did actually,” she replied as she explained to her kids the house was affordable because there had been a death in it. The real estate company had tried selling it multiple times, but the house had been unoccupied since the zookeeper’s death two decades before.
“Did you know he killed himself?” Maddie asked, having crawled over towards the door. She shivered as a cold draft pushed in from behind.
“No, but how do you know that?” Jasmine countered as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms to ward against the chill now seeping through the hole and under the door.
“There are boxes up here, one has some newspaper articles. He was responsible for the death of this little girl at the zoo, so he killed himself.” Manny summarized the information they had been reading.
Without warning, the shutters outside the window began to bang violently against the house as the elm tree’s branches scratched the windowpane again. Creaking and moaning sounds accompanied the howling as the wind picked up. Downstairs, doors began to open then slam shut as the lights returned, flickering on and off quickly. The radio in the kitchen turned on, the knob spinning wildly as static, music, and news fought for attention.
Maddie nudged her brother, scooting closer for comfort as Jasmine began to tug on the door, from the hole and by the gap at the bottom. The noise and clatter from the wind, the doors, and the radio were nerve racking and she just wanted to be able to see her kids.
The sound of breaking glass was underscored by Maddie’s scream cutting through the air again, though this time she wasn’t embarrassed, she was terrified. The window in the attic had exploded outward, sending shards of glass flying into the night. Manny’s cell phone suddenly died followed by a horrible crunching sound as the phone was crushed by some unseen force. He dropped it, suddenly filled with dread.
“Mom, get us out of here!” Manny’s tone anxious as he grabbed for his sister’s hand.
A roar sounded, bellowing from the depths of the house as the pipes abruptly burst, first in the bathrooms, followed by the kitchen. The sound of rushing water tangled with the howl of the wind in an ominous racket. The Robles family had received the message, they were not welcome here.
“Manny, Maddie, you’re going to have to kick the door from your side, I can’t get it open!” Jasmine screamed over the clamoring of the storm and the house. She backed down the hall, tears freezing to her cheeks as she silently prayed for this nightmare to be over.
Pounding echoed down the hall when a cracking sound signaled the frame breaking free of the attic doorway. Maddie and her brother tumbled through the gap as Jasmine lunged for them both, grasping them tightly. “We have to go, now,” her voice was abnormally flat, terror flooding her system as she sought to protect her children.
Running down the hall, the trio grabbed their coats and gloves from the rack in the mud room and ran to the back door. Feet away from their escape, the back door unexpectedly slammed closed, a ghostly image flickering for a moment in the reflection of the glass. Jasmine grabbed the door and yanked as she pushed her children out into the snowstorm, and they fled in the night.
All three trudged against the wind and snow, hardly able to see the house down the street.
Looking back, Jasmine saw the zookeeper’s ghost staring from the gaping hole that was once the attic window. She knew they might not make it, but it was the only chance they had. She prayed Mother Nature was more forgiving than Jim Malvo’s tortured spirit.
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