The Wind In The Rose-Bush by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, 1903
The magic trick:
Driving reader interest with a spooky mystery
Every story is a mystery story to some extent. It’s what the reader doesn’t yet know that drives narrative. But “The Wind In The Rose-Bush” is even more mysterious than most.
Rebecca arrives in a small town to retrieve her niece, the daughter of her now-dead sister. Problem is the niece is nowhere to be found. The spooky vibes start early with a local couple on the ferry, talking very strangely with Rebecca about the situation. The oddities continue to mount, and the story even verges into horror territory. Nothing keeps you reading like an unsolved mystery.
And that’s quite a trick on Freeman’s part.
The selection:
“Seems as if I’d ought to have told her, Thomas.”
“Let her find it out herself,” replied the man. “Don’t you go to burnin’ your fingers in other folks’ puddin’, Maria.”
“Do you s’pose she’ll see anything?” asked the woman with a spasmodic shudder and a terrified roll of her eyes.
“See!” returned her husband with stolid scorn. “Better be sure there’s anything to see.”
“Oh, Thomas, they say—”
“Lord, ain’t you found out that what they say is mostly lies?”
“But if it should be true, and she’s a nervous woman, she might be scared enough to lose her wits,” said his wife, staring uneasily after Rebecca’s erect figure in the wagon disappearing over the crest of the hilly road.
“Wits that so easy upset ain’t worth much,” declared the man. “You keep out of it, Maria.”
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