The Crone Who Lived in the Well

‘Where are the spirits of those who went

Before, do they still survive?’

I said to Alice who pitched our tent

Outside, in the cottage drive.

We couldn’t sleep in the cottage then

There was still a mess to repair,

And rubble lay in the dining room

With dust, most everywhere.

 

We thought that we were so lucky then

For the cottage and grounds were free,

An ancient Aunt, called Emily Sahnt

Had left in her will, to me.

I’d never met her, the dear old thing

But I raised a glass to her now,

Despite the fact that her neighbours thought

That she was a right old cow!

 

They said that she was a witch of sorts,

Had given the evil eye,

Had grumbled all round the neighborhood

Had killed some pigs in a sty.

And out in back was a wishing well

Uncovered, that somebody found,

And that’s where Emily met her end,

She fell in the well, and drowned.

 

I said, ‘I’ll clear it away some day,

The rubble that hid the well,

You never know what it might conceal

A tunnel that leads to Hell!’

And Alice shuddered as Alice does

Whenever I freak her out,

I love to tease her as well as please,

She knows what it’s all about.

 

There wasn’t time for the well just then,

The cottage was coming first,

We cleared a couple of rooms inside

Moved in, and Alice had cursed,

The paint peeled off from the ceiling and

It dropped in chips to the bed,

We woke, with bits in our mouths and ears

And Alice felt strange in the head.

 

She felt quite ill for a day or two

Was sick, confused for a spell,

I left her sleeping it off and went

To work in clearing the well,

I dropped a bucket into its depths

For the water, clear and chilled,

And used it up in the cottage then,

And kept the bucket filled.

 

The groaning started that very night

And a grumbling in the eaves,

I said to Alice, ‘Is that you, Pet?’

Then I heard the crunch of leaves.

There were footsteps round about the place

And I lay, tensed up with fright,

I wasn’t game to be venturing out

In the middle of that dark night.

 

Alice said she was hearing things

And I tried to calm her down,

We’d burned our boats in moving there

And couldn’t go back to town,

She seemed to be sleeping a lot by day

And plagued with fears at night,

I wanted to do the best for her

What I did, it wasn’t right.

 

We were using the water from the well

To wash, to cook, for tea,

I suffered from blinding headaches then,

I found, and so did she.

The pigment in her nails had changed

She convulsed, not once, but twice,

I said I’d bring in the doctor just

To get some sound advice.

 

Alice died in the morning, she

Lay still on the side of the bed,

I shook her a couple of times, she was

So cold, I knew she was dead,

The doctor sent for forensics, and

They checked the place, the well,

There was arsenic in the water there

And the ceiling paint that fell.

 

I’m lying here in the hospital

But I’m chained, and under guard,

The police think they have a murder case

And they say I might be charged.

But I had a dream of a rustic crone

Who was clutching Alice hard,

Who said, ‘I don’t want to be alone,

You can walk with me in the yard!’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Marie]

I suppose the arsnic was in the paint and well water too. Time for an exorcism, I'd say.

Apparently Aunt Emily devious reasons for leaving the place to her nephew, and she was anything but a "dear old soul." In fact, I agree that she was really a "right old cow."

[TPK Stories]

I hope he'd not be charged for the "murder"...another great tale...

[R Smith]

wow! that's a pretty bad way to leave poor Alice, I hope she finds rest eventually and for God's sake burn the house down, really good poem and even better tale of horror, thanks for the shivers :)

[Valentine]

I read this one on the other site, and thought it was really good. The last grouping brings into effect that it wasn't just the poison that was wrong in the place he inherited. Kathie

[Barbz]

I wondered while reading this,who had ghosts in who's closet. But I smiled at the scribes imagination...Have I figured it out?? Not yet!!! I'll get it right, in the middle of the night, when all mysteries arouse me, and come to that apt conclusion, and never again confuse me. Brain Food, DLP, Brain Food!!!

[MomzillaNC]

Okay then! Well, that's just peachy! He'll go to the hangman for something supernatural… ah well (a deep one I presume), they never said life was fair!

This is another great, macabre tale. Well done. I enjoyed it immensely.