Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Divide

By: Deke Graham

    Brad awakened to an unfamiliar voice, or so he thought. Lisa stirred as he touched her lightly on the forehead, she stared at him as if she didn't know him with the look of a total stranger. Brad rolled over looking at the clock on the nightstand it was 3:15 am. He rolled back toward Lisa and she was sound asleep. This was not the first time Lisa had seemed by look, mannerism and speech to be a completely different person.

    Lisa had been seeing a therapist for about a year. She had been suffering from severe mood swings. Her doctor thought they were caused by repressed memories from her childhood.

    Within the next several months these occurrences continued. 

    Two months later, Brad came home from work finding Melissa playing in her room, with Lisa in the kitchen making dinner. Lisa seemed to be very much herself this day, dispelling one of Brad's daily fears. He went into Melissa's room, picked her up and hugged her, she smiled and gave him a kiss.

    "How was your day pumpkin?"

    "It was great Daddy, I learned how to draw a tree."

    "Very good sweetie," Brad said, lifting her drawing book

from her desk and flipping through it to a page with a

typical child's drawing of a tree with what seemed to be red apples on it.

    "This is very good, Mel, I love it."

    "Thanks, Daddy, I made it for you and Mommy."

    As Brad walked toward the kitchen to show Melissa's drawing to Lisa, he noticed a mark on the back cover of the drawing book. Opening it to the last page he just about fell over backward. There on the back page of Melissa's drawing book was a sketch in red of a little girl with a face in total horror. He was totally stunned. When he came out of his stupor, he noticed that the red on the page was not really red, but brownish. Then it hit him like a slap across the face, this was not ink. He turned to the mark on the back cover. It was still rather red at its center, he touched it, looked at it, rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger, then smelled it, it was blood.

     This was not the drawing of a four-year-old.

    Brad walked upstairs to their bedroom to compose himself. When he sat on the edge of the bed he saw two band-aid wrappers and a tissue with blood on it in the wastebasket.

    "Dr. Parker, this is Brad Willis, I feel very sneaky calling you like this, I think there is something very strange going on with Lisa. I searched her purse to find your number. I am at wit's end with worry about Lisa and Melissa's safety. You probably know more of what's going on in her head than I, anyway, here's the story…"

    After Brad told her what he had discovered she assured him that she would take care of everything.

    "And Brad, don't say anything to Lisa, I will handle all the details, and thanks for calling me."

     Brad hung up. Instantly the phone rang, he answered it.

    "Brad, this is Beth Parker, may I speak to Lisa?"

    "Lisa, it's for you," he said. 

    She picked up the phone in the kitchen and Brad hung up.

    About an hour later the doorbell rang and Brad opened the door.

    "Hello Brad, I'm Beth Parker,"

     He smiled and shook her hand.

    "Come in Dr. Parker," Brad said, seeming very puzzled.

    Before he could say a word, she said that she had come to

take Lisa away for awhile.

    "I don't have time to go over the details now, but I will call you later to explain things. I need to see Melissa's drawing book." She said seeming very rushed. Brad went quickly to retrieve the book and returned. Dr. Parker glanced at it, nodded, carefully tore out the back page and handed the book back to Brad.

    Just then Lisa appeared from their bedroom with a small suitcase and called for Melissa.

    "Baby, please come here, I need to talk to you."

    Melissa came into the living room.

    "Who is that lady Mama?"

    "This is Mrs. Parker, I have to go with her, you be good for Daddy, I love you very much," Lisa said seeming very distant.

     "But Mommy..."

    Lisa stood up, turned and walked to the door following Dr. Parker. As Dr. Parker stepped out of the front door, Lisa turned to Brad abruptly with her face a few inches from his with her eyes blazing in silent rage. 

    Lisa whispered in a deep voice, "I will punish you for what you have done."

    She then turned and walked out of the house.

    Brad woke the next morning alone in their bed realizing that the events of the night before were not just a bad dream. He went over things in his head and got out of bed. He put on his robe and went to Melissa's room. He peeked through the door and she was sound asleep.

    Clearing the sleep from his head, he went over what he had told Melissa after her mother had gone. Brad had simply explained that her mother was going on a vacation with Mrs. Parker. Melissa looked at her father, smiled, and seemed to understand. He told her that her mother would call when she got to their hotel.

    At 7:30 Brad took a shower and got dressed. Melissa was already up and eating her cereal in the kitchen. He kissed her on the cheek and started the coffee. 

She asked if her mother had called yet, and he told her that she hadn't, but that she was probably still sleeping after traveling. That seemed understandable to her. When she finished eating, Brad asked her to get dressed for school.

    He was reading the newspaper when Melissa appeared in the living room wearing her red coveralls with her drawing book in her hand. He made her lunch and returned to the living room to find her watching cartoons.

    Very good, he said to himself, at least her world seemed normal.

    At 8:45, Brad dropped Melissa off at daycare, they hugged and he said he would pick her up after school. They waved as she walked up the steps and through the door. 

    Brad sighed, took a deep breath closing his eyes for a moment and then exhaled slowly. As he pulled away he dialed his cell phone.

    "Bob Johnson, can I help you."

    "Bob, this is Brad, Lisa had to go out of town last night to take care of a family emergency, can you handle things today if I don't come in?

    "No problem. Can I do anything to help?"

    "You just did, thanks, I'll call you in the morning."

    Brad clicked off his cell phone and drove home.

    When he arrived the answering machine light was blinking, it showed one message. He played it back, it was Beth Parker's office, evidently from her secretary. The woman said that Dr. Parker had asked her to relay a message that everything was fine and that Lisa was in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She added that for security purposes she couldn't give him the name of the facility, or the phone number at this time. She closed by saying that either Dr. Parker or herself would contact him as needed with updates. She told Brad not to worry about Lisa, that she was in good hands. He cleared the message and sat down in his chair.

    "A moment's peace," Brad said to himself. leaning back and dozing off...

    He opened his eyes getting up from his chair and walked upstairs to their bedroom. Opening the door, he noticed something was different, but nothing seemed out of place. Then it struck him, it was a smell, a familiar one, but he couldn't quite place it. He took his novel from the nightstand and turned dropping it to the floor. There in front of him was the page from Melissa's drawing book, attached to the door with a blood-covered kitchen knife. Brad was terrified! Then adrenaline came to his limbs, and he was in flight through the house looking everywhere but saw nothing. He then heard a voice in his head saying:

    "I will punish you for what you have done," with the same intonation as the night before. 

    That same instant the phone rang…

    Brad opened his eyes, soaked in sweat, realizing he was still in his chair. The phone rang again and stopped halfway through, then the answering machine picked-up:

    "This is Kim from Fairy Tale Preschool, I just wanted to let you know that when you picked-up Melissa, you forgot her drawing book, see you tomorrow."

     “I must have had a really bad dream waking to a nightmare. Where was Melissa? Who had picked her up?” He said to himself. 

    He was now questioning his sanity, he picked up the phone, fumbling for the daycare number, dialing it the phone rang four times and a voice answered:

    "Fairy Tale Preschool, we are now closed for the day, please leave a message…"

    Thinking for a moment, he tried to remember where he had put Dr. Parker's phone number, then it came to him, he had dialed it with the number in Lisa's phone book that was in her purse.

    "Damn," he said. 

    He ran upstairs, grabbed the portable phone he had used to call Dr. Parker the night before. He turned it on and pushed re-dial, it rang twice followed by:

     "You have reached a number that is no longer in service at this time..."

    Brad dropped the phone on the bed and staggered downstairs. He walked into the bathroom, turned on the faucet and splashed water on his face. Looking at himself in the mirror he saw a person on the edge of sanity! He grabbed a towel wiping his face and walked into the living room looking frantically for answers, any answers!

     As Brad contemplated calling the police when he heard a car pull into the driveway. He looked out through the front window but didn't recognize the car. The car door opened and out stepped Lisa. His jaw dropped as he stepped outside.

    "Hello Brad." She said, then laughed demonically!

    Brad glanced at the license plate on the front of the car, it read: BPARKER. 

    He looked at Lisa with a combination of fear and loathing. 

    She stared at him and said, “I told you I would punish you for what you had done!”

    Brad glanced at the car and noticed red liquid dripping onto the driveway from under the trunk!

    "Oh my God!" Brad said screaming, with tears flowing down his cheeks. 

     Just then everything went dark, Brad could feel something pulling him back by the shoulders, and he was falling...

     "Brad, wake-up, you're having a bad dream, Brad, wake-up!"

 As he opened his eyes Lisa looked at him holding his shoulders and smiled.

     "I think you were having a bad dream, it's after three in the morning, roll over and go back to sleep."

    Brad stared at her.

    Lisa smiled lovingly, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.