The Carousel Horse
Just prior to the grand opening of her Copperwell restaurant, the Copper Pot, Teri McGovern made the rounds of the antique stores and flea markets, searching for inexpensive bits of Americana to fit the décor she had chosen. During an eight-hour shopping spree, she managed to find a nice selection of items: a washboard, a butter churn, a dairy milk can, a wagon wheel and a brass bed warmer.
She was about to call it a day and return home when she spotted a full-size carousel horse at one of the tables at the Puritan Falls Flea Market. Although she doubted she could afford it—authentic carousel horses normally sold for thousands of dollars—Teri walked over to examine the horse anyway.
On close inspection, she saw that although its paint was flaking, overall, it seemed to be in good condition. The horse was black with silver armor, and its lips were pulled back displaying a full set of white wooden teeth. It was a stander: three of its hoofs were on the ground, and one front leg was raised. There was no price on the figure, but Teri assumed it would be out of her budget.
When the elderly vendor, Jonah Pemberly, saw the customer looking at the wooden animal, he approached her, ready to make a deal.
"That's a fine piece of craftsmanship," he declared. "That particular horse was built in the early Twenties by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, the manufacturer of some of the finest merry-go-rounds in the country."
"I know," Teri replied. "I've collected miniature carousel horses for years, so I'm familiar with PTC, M.C. Illions, Looff, Dentzel and several of the other carousel manufacturers."
"Then you can appreciate the excellent quality of the carving."
"It certainly is a work of art," she said, stepping away from the horse to indicate that she was not interested in buying.
"A real bargain, too," Jonah continued. "I'm asking only three hundred dollars for it."
Surprised at the low cost, Teri turned back toward the vendor.
"Three hundred?" she echoed, sure he had meant to say three thousand.
"Yup. Three hundred dollars."
Was it possible that the man didn't know the value of the item? Teri had often heard stories of people buying treasures from uninformed vendors for a mere fraction of their actual worth, but she had never been that lucky herself. Perhaps it wasn't a genuine PTC carousel horse, after all. Maybe it was a reproduction, but if it was, it was a damned good one.
And what will it matter, one way or the other, to my customers? she reasoned.
"I'll take it," Teri announced and promptly took her Visa card out of her wallet.
When Teri pulled into the driveway of the restaurant, her husband, Kerwin, came out to help her carry the items inside.
"I'm glad I took your truck instead of my Honda," she told him, her subtle way of warning him that she had a big job in store for him.
"What on earth did you buy?" her husband asked when he saw the large wooden animal in the back of his pickup.
"A carousel horse. Isn't it gorgeous? With a little paint, it'll look just like new."
* * *
Shortly thereafter, the restaurant opened for business. Both the local radio station and newspapers from Copperwell and neighboring Puritan Falls and Essex Green had announced the grand opening, so there was a packed house that night. Everything was running smoothly until an hour before closing when one of the restaurant's more experienced waitresses walked into the kitchen with a bloody napkin wrapped around her hand.
"What happened?" Teri asked as she reached for the first aid kit beneath the counter. "Did you cut yourself on a broken glass?"
The woman laughed with embarrassment as her employer looked through the kit for a butterfly bandage.
"No, I got too close to the merry-go-round horse when I went outside on my break to have a cigarette. Honestly, I'm such a klutz sometimes."
"I didn't realize there was anything sharp on the horse."
"I think I scraped my hand on the horse's teeth when I bumped into it."
But the woman's wound was clearly a cut, not an abrasion.
* * *
"I think that carousel horse is in a bad spot; we really should move it away from the front door," Kerwin suggested a few weeks later after it had been the cause of several more injuries.
"Perhaps you're right," his wife agreed. "So many people have bumped into it. Just last night one of the busboys tripped over one of its hoofs as he was leaving and fell flat on his face."
"Was he hurt?"
"Just a split lip. I told him he could take today off with pay."
"At least none of the customers or employees has been seriously injured. The last thing we need right now is a lawsuit."
The following day Kerwin placed the carousel horse on a three-foot riser in back of the cashier's counter, in full view of the arriving and departing customers yet safely out of harm's way. For two weeks there were no further incidents. Then, one night when the cashier went to the back room to get a roll of quarters from the safe, a child stepped away from his parents' table and climbed up onto the stander. There was a crash, and diners and servers alike turned their heads toward the exit where the little boy was lying on the floor, crying and holding onto his arm. The injured child was taken to the hospital where his broken bone was set. The parents took no legal action against the restaurant, as they felt responsible for their son's injury since they had not been watching him at the time.
To prevent another such incident from happening, Teri blocked the carousel horse off with a red velvet rope similar to the ones used in theater lobbies. From the rope, she hung a sign warning people not to touch the horse. This seemed to work, yet many of the restaurant employees still felt uneasy around the carved animal.
It was when Abigail Cantwell visited the Copper Pot that many of the staff began to actually fear the carousel horse. Abigail, who owned the Bell, Book and Candle New Age shop on Essex Street in Puritan Falls, often received psychic impressions from people, places and even inanimate objects. None of her prior experiences were as strong as the feeling she got when she entered the restaurant and saw the black stander behind the cashier's counter.
"Abby, are you all right?" her long-time friend, librarian Patience Scudder, asked as Abigail began trembling violently.
A sudden pain in her head caused the shopkeeper to swoon. She would have fallen onto the floor had Kerwin McGovern not acted quickly and caught her in his arms. His wife immediately rushed over to the two women.
"Would you like me to call an ambulance?" Teri offered.
"No, I'll be fine," Abigail insisted. "I just have to go outside. I need to get away from it."
"It?" Teri asked warily.
"That horse. I have to get as far away from it as possible."
"Why? It's just a wooden carousel horse."
"It's evil," Abigail cried and hurried from the restaurant.
Teri looked at the carved horse, and for the first time saw what she perceived to be a malevolent gleam in its painted eyes. Even the wooden teeth in its open mouth looked threatening. Had the harmless animal always looked so menacing, or was Teri's imagination only reacting to Abigail Cantwell's frightening outburst?
* * *
As time passed, Teri forgot about the episode with the storeowner from Puritan Falls. Business was brisk, and the McGoverns spent long hours working at the restaurant. Then one Saturday night in late October, after the last of the guests had left, Teri and her staff began closing up for the night. The cashier brought the register drawer into the office, and Teri locked the money in the safe.
A few moments later, a shrill scream shattered the silence of the empty dining room. Teri darted out of the office and almost ran into her husband who was hurrying through the back door.
"Will someone please help me?" the cashier sobbed.
The McGoverns saw the young woman lying on the floor, behind the register, pinned underneath the fallen carousel horse.
"What happened?" Teri asked after Kerwin lifted the weight off the girl.
"I don't know. I went behind the counter to get my handbag and my sweater and then felt the horse fall on me."
"Are you hurt?" Kerwin asked.
"No, I'm fine, just a little frightened."
"Would you like me to drive you home?" Teri asked.
"No, thank you. I appreciate the offer, but I'm all right."
"That's it! We're getting rid of that damned horse," Kerwin announced angrily after the cashier went home.
Teri looked at the beautifully crafted wooden animal with regret.
"It's worth quite a bit of money," she said. "Maybe we can sell it."
"Fine, but until you find a buyer for it, I'm going to put it in the utility shed out back."
After the carousel horse was removed from the premises, Teri went back to her office to work on the payroll. Soon a sound in the doorway caught her attention.
"Kerwin, is that you?" she called.
There was no answer, so Teri went to investigate. As she rounded the corner, she nearly stumbled over the carousel horse, which was standing in the middle of the hallway.
I thought Kerwin put this in the shed before he left. I guess I'll have to do it myself, she thought, annoyed at having to take the time from her paperwork.
With great effort, she dragged the horse outside and put it in the shed. Then she secured the door with a padlock.
* * *
Early the following morning, Teri drove to Puritan Falls and went into the Bell, Book and Candle where Abigail Cantwell was busy waiting on a customer. After the man paid for his brass incense burner and left the shop, Teri approached the owner.
"Do you remember me?" she asked.
"Sure. You're the woman who owns the new Copper Pot restaurant in Copperwell."
"I would like to talk to you about the carousel horse I kept there—if you don't mind," Teri added uneasily.
"I had a feeling you'd come to see me about it," Abigail said.
The shopkeeper walked to the front door and locked it.
"I have a pot of hot coffee in the back. Want to have a cup with me?"
Teri nodded gratefully.
"You were afraid of the horse," she said once the two women were seated at a small table. "You said it was evil."
"I don't know if you believe in the metaphysical world."
"I'm afraid I don't. I always thought psychics were a bunch of publicity-seeking phonies—no offense."
"None taken. You're not the first skeptic I've come across," Abigail said with a laugh. "I'm not an actual psychic, but every once in a while I see things, and over the years I've come to trust those visions."
"And you had some sort of a psychic experience concerning my carousel horse the night you came to the restaurant?"
"Yes, I did. A very vivid image, in fact. I saw children injured by that horse. Afterward, I did a little research," Abigail admitted. "My friend, Patience, who was with me at the restaurant that night, is a librarian, and she was able to point me to the right sources."
"What did your research reveal?"
"I'm not entirely sure, mind you, but my intuition tells me the horse in your restaurant was once part of a carousel at a small amusement park located in Essex Green."
"I never knew there was an amusement park in the area."
"There isn't one anymore. The place closed in the Thirties, but during the Twenties, it was quite a local tourist attraction. Then, at the height of its popularity, the owners shut the park down, not for financial reasons but because of the unusually high number of accidents that occurred there, most of which involved the carousel."
"A carousel is normally one of the safest rides at an amusement park."
"That's true, but not this one. Several children fell from the ride and broke their arms and legs. One child even suffered a concussion when she hit her head after falling off a horse."
"A seven-year-old child in the restaurant climbed atop my horse, fell and broke his arm," Teri told the shopkeeper.
"Were there any other accidents that you're aware of?"
"Yes," Teri replied, not bothering to elaborate.
"The carousel in Essex Green was eventually closed when a five-year-old boy fell and broke his neck."
Teri shuddered.
"That's not all," Abigail said. "Not long after the ride was abandoned, seven people were killed when a fire swept through the amusement park. Fire inspectors determined that the blaze began in the area of the carousel. I believe your horse survived that fire. I also feel that it has some kind of consciousness and instinct for self-preservation."
"This is all so preposterous!" Teri exclaimed. "That horse is only a block of carved wood, a metal pole and a few coats of paint. How could it hurt anyone?"
"It could be that the horse is possessed."
Teri's skepticism turned to complete incredulity. She did not believe in demons or possession. Even if she did, there was no proof that the horse she bought for three hundred dollars at the Puritan Falls Flea Market was from the doomed carousel at the Essex Green amusement park.
* * *
Later that night, after the Copper Pot closed, Teri began to prepare her weekly supply orders. With her clipboard in hand, she performed a cursory inventory, making note of the items she needed to restock. She had just finished in the kitchen and was headed toward the storeroom when she saw the carousel horse in the middle of the dining area.
Teri reached into her pocket, took out her cell phone and called her husband.
"Why did you take the horse out of the utility shed?"
"What are you talking about?" Kerwin asked. "I haven't seen that thing since I put it in the shed last night."
"But you didn't put it in the shed; I did. I found it in the hallway after you left."
"I carried it out and put it in the shed while you were working on the payroll."
"How did it get out then?"
"I don't know. I'll come over and find out what's going on."
* * *
Kerwin shined his flashlight on the door of the shed. The padlock looked as though it had been sawed off.
"Someone must have taken the horse out of there, but why?" Teri asked.
The back door of the restaurant suddenly opened, and light spilled out onto the steps. Teri and Kerwin turned to see the head of the carousel horse in the doorway.
"I'm going to see who's behind this," Kerwin announced as he ran toward the restaurant.
After a thirty-minute search of the building, he had to admit that no one was inside.
"How did he or she get out?" Teri asked. "I was standing outside the back door while you searched, and I saw no one leave. And all the other doors are still locked."
The husband and wife both turned toward the carousel horse in unison.
"I don't care how much that damned hunk of wood is worth," Kerwin cried, "I'm getting rid of it now."
He dragged the carousel horse out onto the back lawn and then went to the utility shed and got the ax he used to chop wood for the restaurant's large stone fireplace.
"Stand back," he warned his wife as he swung the ax over his head.
The heavy blade struck the horse with a loud thud. Kerwin felt the force of the impact in his upper arms, but incredibly, the blow did no damage to the horse. Another swing produced the same result—or rather the same lack of result.
"I wish I had a chainsaw."
"You can always go over to Lowes or Home Depot tomorrow morning and buy one," his wife suggested.
"It can't wait. I want this thing destroyed tonight," Kerwin insisted and went back to the utility shed for the gasoline can.
"You're going to burn it?" Teri cried.
"I can't think of any other way to get rid of it. Can you?"
He poured the gasoline over the horse, reached into his pocket for a pack of matches and set the horse ablaze.
Suddenly, the charger's head turned and a flame shot out of its mouth. Teri's dress caught fire, and she shrieked in terror. Kerwin valiantly tried to help his wife, but the flames spread rapidly. In moments he, too, was ablaze. By the time the Copperwell Fire Department arrived, Teri and Kerwin McGovern had both been incinerated.
* * *
Millie and Ed Siegel, who had driven up from Connecticut for the day, strolled among the vendors at the Puritan Falls Flea Market one warm autumn afternoon. While her husband was examining an assortment of old Life magazines, Millie was drawn to a beautiful black carousel horse. The vendor saw her interest and approached her.
"That's a fine piece of craftsmanship," Jonah Pemberly declared. "It was built in the early Twenties by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, a manufacturer of some of the finest merry-go-rounds in the country. It's had a little smoke damage, but with a good coat of paint, it will look like new."
"It's beautiful," Millie said wistfully. "I run a nursery school and day-care center. The children would love to play on such an animal, but I doubt I can afford it."
"Today's your lucky day. This horse is a real bargain: only three hundred dollars."
Millie smiled. It was much cheaper than she'd imagined.
"Sold!" she said, and she reached inside her purse for her checkbook.
Leave it to Salem to find a carousel cat! (I think he intends to paint it black.)
