The Death

Virginia was going to die within the hour.

She was always a pretty girl--plump, with a round, childish face, pale white skin, and rosy cheeks.  She looked much younger than her 24 years.  I had been her nurse for several months now, but it was plain to see the consumption was going to claim her, as it did so many others.

Her face was gaunt now, all the plumpness gone from her.  The rosiness remained in her cheeks, but now it was a flaming red reminder of her burning fever.  She coughed violently, and I rushed to her side to hold a handkerchief to her mouth.  When I took it away, a brilliant red blotch of blood stood out against the crisp white of the fabric.  I threw it into the washtub with the others.

Virginia’s husband paced back and forth across the room.  I could have smelled the scotch on him from my own house, several streets over.  He was an older man, well into his thirties, but he loved her.  Perhaps too much.  I was certain her death would kill them both.

“Eddy,” Virginia said, and he came to her.  He leaned his head close and she spoke to him so weakly that I couldn’t make out the words.  I’m not even sure if he, resting his head against her chest, could make out the mumbled whispers, but he said “Yes, Virginia.”

She smiled and closed her eyes, and I knew she was gone.

Edgar Poe stayed with his wife’s body for an hour as I stood in the corner, not wanting to move and disturb him.  When he finally rose and walked away from the bed, I walked over to her and lifted the sheet to pull over her face.

“Stop,” Mr. Poe said, grabbing my arm roughly.  I looked at him in surprise.  “I’ll never see her again…” he whispered, then he collapsed onto the floor.

“You’ll remember her,” I soothed him as best I could.  The tiny bedroom was beginning to feel unusually cramped.  I needed to get away from this man.

“I need her,” he moaned and crawled back to the bed.  I inched my way towards the door.

  “You will help me!” He exclaimed before I could escape.  The wild look in his eyes frightened me.

“Help with what, Mr. Poe?”

“Help me keep her here…always…no one will take her away.”

He rushed past me out of the room, and when he came back he was carrying an axe and a shovel.

“What…?”

Before I could finish, he lifted the axe high over his head and swung it to the ground, breaking through the floorboards.  I understood now.

I ran for help.

I returned with my husband,  and we managed to subdue him. 

“For the love of God!” he screamed as my husband held him down.  “Virginia!”

I covered Virginia with the sheet so that she might not have to see the madness her husband had already descended into.


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