Chapter 6: Dinner With Robert

A Chapter by Anne

Posting this so I can show my bother his part in my book. His Middle name is Robert, hence the Character Robert.

“OK, you ready to be the lookout for anything resembling a house while I drive?”, Anne asked Colleen.

“You bet!” Although Colleen wasn’t really sure what she could see between the dense trees and brush that grew on that hill. ‘Maybe she has the wrong place.’, she thought. But either way, she was ready to be the eyes into the depths of the forest.

Back down Long Beach Road and around the curve they drove. Colleen sat in the back, behind Anne so she could be on the right side to get a good look up into the hill. Anne drove slowly down the road, trying to keep her mind and eyes on driving which was very difficult. She wanted to be looking up into the woods. A few times, Colleen caught her looking up into the woods and reprimanded her to keep her eyes on the road.

They reached Rassapeague Road, and Anne pulled the car over and stopped.

Colleen began “I didn’t see anything. It was hard to look up the hill though, and it’s so overgrown up in the woods. Are you sure this is the spot?”

“I know. Should we go down Rassapeague and see if we can see anything. I swear that is where the house was.”

“Yeah, let’s go down Rassapeague. We’ll get a different viewpoint.”

Turning left down Rassapeague Road, Anne began to wonder if it was a private road. There weren’t any houses, and it seemed eerily quiet.

“Col, this looks like a private road. Do you think we should turn around and try to hike up from Long Beach Road?”

“No! keep going. If someone stops us and tells us to turn around and go…then we’ll go.” Colleen looked at Anne like she had two heads. ‘What is she thinking?’, she thought, ‘She never thinks about whether she’s in the wrong place at the wrong time; why now?’

Anne’s heart beat faster; she felt like the inside of her head was whirring around. Panic started to creep in. “What if we get in trouble for being on the road. Or maybe…some eccentric guy lives by himself out here, in the middle of no where, and he kidnaps us!”

“Annie! Stop over thinking!!” Colleen could tell Anne was starting to freak out a little. Why, she had no idea, but they were on this adventure together, and she was not going to let Anne’s nerves get in the way of finding this house.

“I know, you’re right, Col. I really am having a hard time controlling it. But really, what if there’s an evil eccentric man living at the end of the road, and he does kidnap us?”

Collen burst out laughing. “Oh. My. God! You watch too much crime TV. We’ll be fine.”

They drove down the road slowly so they could really look up into the dense woods. The sun shone down on the leaves making them glimmer, and the rays that made it past the leaves illuminated bits and pieces of the forest ground. With their windows down, they could smell the deep richness of the earth. Anne had a strong desire to stop the car and just start to walk through the woods, breathing in the earthy scents, but her urge to find the Witch’s House was stronger. Besides, she thought ‘we have to be getting to Robert’s house and we’re meeting Zoe tomorrow at the library. We’ll have more clues then.’

“I think we’ve gone a little too far down the road, and we should be heading back towards Robert’s. I’m going to turn the car around.”

“Ok. We’re still going to Green Gates, right?” Colleen asked as she climbed up into the front seat. She was looking forward to seeing another piece of Long Island. Everything she was seeing in Smithtown completely changed her perception of what Long Island was, and she wanted to see more.

“Of Course! I’d love to. I wasn’t sure you really wanted to go. We don’t have to stay there too long.”

“Yeah, I want to see more. I’m surprised at how nice it is here"no offense.” She said laughing.

Laughing back, Anne said “No offense taken.”

They headed back to Long Beach Road, still peering up into the woods on the small hill hoping to catch of glimpse of something, anything.

“Bluff Road!”, Anne shouted. “I completely forgot I wanted to drive down this road and see what it was like during the day before we came back at night.”

“Come Back at night?” Colleen asked quizzically. “whyyy would we be coming back at night?”

“So we can see if we can find the ‘Ghost of the Sorrowful Mother of the Bluffs.” Anne was completely perplexed as to why Colleen didn’t make the connection. It seemed quite obvious to her, but ‘oh well’, she thought.

Driving down Bluff Road was a bit disappointing. There are houses all along the bluff. It didn’t seem like there was anywhere they could park and wait for The Ghost of the Sorrowful Mother of the Bluffs to ‘maybe’ appear. Colleen could sense Anne’s disappointment .

“What’s the matter?”

“Well, there’s no place to hang out here at night without looking like we’re going to rob one of these places.”

She did a U-Turn in the middle of the road and started to head back to Long Beach Road.

“Annie, what if we find a place on Rassapeague Road or Long Beach Road to park, and we can go through the woods over here.”, Colleen said pointing to a long swath of land between Long Beach Road and Bluff Road.

“Oh…that’s a great idea…” Anne scrunched her eyes and mouth thinking to herself ‘why didn’t I think of that.’

“Col, can you get my research book out of my backpack? I think there were three places her spirit was seen, I just can’t remember the last one.”

Colleen dragged the back pack from the back seat over the front seat, getting the book out. Thumbing through the pages, she found the printed story from the internet glued to a page in the book. She remembered the locations were noted at the end of the story and found the three places: Rassapeague Road, Bluff Road, and…

“Here it is”, she told Anne. “The intersection of Moriches Road and Nissequogue River Road.”

“Great!” That’s in the same direction to get to Robert’s house, so we can take a quick stop there.

It wasn’t long before they were at the intersection of Long Beach Road and Moriches Road. Anne slowly drove the car to the side of the road. Just before they got to the intersection, there was a beautiful horse farm on the left with white rail fencing enclosing a green pasture. It was like a scene out of Anne of Green Gables, including the patches of wooded land and gentle sloping hills.

“It’s not too far up here that Nissequogue River Road connects to Moriches. Let’s get out and walk a little bit and see what it’s like and how close the road is to the river.”

The girls got out of the car, phones in hand and began walking down the side of the road towards Nessequogue River Road. As they walked in silence, they took in the picturesque scenery all around them. Horses grazing in the pasture, sun shining through the wooded lots, and the country homes sparsely scattered in all directions. It was a relative easy walk. There was enough space along the side of the road, and in some areas there were larger sections of grass that they were able to walk on. Everything around them seemed so bright and hopeful.

“Can you imagine what it was like back in the 1700’s living here. No paved road, just woods, pasture and maybe dirt paths?” Anne was so lost in thought and imagining herself walking a smaller dirt path where the native American Indians and early settler once roamed and built their lives.

“I know”, Colleen said, but she knew she didn’t have the full, in-depth feeling Anne was experiencing right now. ‘It was almost like she is really there, the way she’s acting, Colleen thought.’

As they approached Nissequogue River Road, they crossed the street and headed down on the River side of the road. It was quite a wide river, with clumps of wood and grass clumps scattered within the river. The wooded area between the river and the road had trees and lots of brown leaves on the ground, but the trees were sparse. It was easy to see the river from the road.

“Annie, let’s go over to the edge of the river.”

“Ok”, Anne replied, but not very enthusiastically. She was not quite the country girl, and worried what kind of critters might be under the leaves and in the grass, and if it was swampy before they got to the edge. She really did not like water too much, and got nervous. ‘Thank God walking through here doesn’t bother Colleen’, Anne thought. It was in situations like this that Colleen gave Anne the courage she needed to move forward and do the things she would’ve been too nervous to do on her own.

At the edge of the river, the girls stood quietly watching it leisurely flow along and listening to its peaceful sound. They didn’t have to speak. They stood there looking at the land around them wondering if the Ghost of the Sorrowful Mother of The Bluffs was there with them. To their dismay, they did not see her.

“You know, Col, we’ll be coming back here at night. Take a good look around and see where some good places might be to walk safely around her.”

“That’s what I thought, I can tell where there are some good spots to come back to and walk around. Let’s remember to bring a flashlight though!”, she said. “and preferably, not tonight. I think

we’ve done enough today”, she added hopefully.

“Yeah, I agree. I’m going to be getting my crystals ready tonight and do some meditation to help me connect with what we’re looking for.”

Without saying a word, they turned around and head back towards the road, and back to the car. As they approached the car, Colleen noticed a bronze plaque on a stone at the bottom of a small hill.

“Annie, look at this.” She said walking over to the sign

The plaque read:

“Near this site the original settlement of Smithtown was established in 1665 including the homestead of Richard Smythe, the Patentee, and the First Presbyterian Church founded in 1675.”

“Oh my God…we’re right here, where they worked this land and talked with the neighboring Indians.” Anne looked up the hill and wondered what was up the hill. It looked like it flattened out near the top and there was a small, slightly over grown clearing. “I’d love to walk up there, but we should really probably get going. I don’t know about you, but I’m really starting to get tired.”

“Yeah, me too. Do you mind if we skip Green Gates?” Colleen asked. She really wanted to go, and she knew Anne wanted to go too, but Robert would be home by now, and she just wanted to plop into a nice comfy couch and relax.

When they got to Robert and Phyllis’ house, Robert was already cooking dinner. It smelled so good! “Robert, what are you cooking?”, Anne asked.

“Chicken Parm. Sound good to you?”, he said in his New York accent.

“Sound good?” she responded loud and strong, “For cryin’ out loud, it smells great! Can’t wait to eat.” Anne said as she gave her brother a hug.

“Hey Robert.” Colleen greeted as she gave Robert a hug.

“Hey Colleen, good to see you again. How was the trip down?”

While Anne was bringing their stuff into the spare bedroom Colleen filled Robert in on their drive down, going to the beach, and how they looked for the house but couldn’t find it. It didn’t take long for her to get cozy on the couch in the living room, which was open to the dining and kitchen area.

When Anne came back out, she went into the kitchen where Robert was cooking. “What can I do?”

“Not much left, if you want, you can make the salad. Everything is over there by the cutting board.”

“I can do that. So Colleen filled you in on our day, right?”

“Yeah, she did. Sounds like it was a good day for you. Was the beach crowded?”

“It was a nice day, but we’re both pretty tired. The beach wasn’t too bad. I thought there might’ve been more people there, but it was pretty empty.”

Anne chopped away making the salad. Even though Colleen was tired and would have loved to sit in the couch, she got up and started to set the table.

“Colleen, you don’t have to do that.” Robert said.

“I know, but everyone’s pitching in, and this way Phyllis doesn’t have to do anything when she comes home from work. Besides, if it helps us eat quicker, I’m all for that. It smells so good.”

The three kept themselves busy getting things ready for dinner when Phyllis came through the door.

“Hey Chubby, how was your day?” Robert asked. That was his pet name for Phyllis. It kind of irritated Anne because Phyllis was in no way chubby, but Phyllis didn’t seem to mind.

“Hi Phyllis” Anne and Colleen chimed in at the same time. It was amazing how they were in synch so much of the time. It happened so much, they hardly gave it much thought when it did happen.

“Hi Everybody. I had a pretty good day. Look at you guys! I don’t have to do anything.” Phyllis said with a little laugh. “Thank you, Annie and Colleen for helping, and Robert, dinner smells great.”

“That’s what everyone keeps saying. Here we go, it’s ready.”, he said as he brought the casserole dish of chicken parmesan over to the table setting it down in the center.

Anne brought the salad and dressings to the table, and Colleen grabbed the plate of bread and butter. Over dinner, they caught up on how Anne’s cousins were doing in college and with their sports. Both boys were on the college lacrosse team and were quite good. They talked about how Anne and Colleen’s parents were doing, and how Phyllis’ parents were doing. Near the end of dinner, Anne started to explain what the plans were for her and Colleen on Saturday.

“So”, she began “we have an appointment with Zoe Renca tomorrow at 10. We’ll probably be there till early afternoon. Then we’ll probably head towards the beach and try to find the location of the house again. I hope we find something.” She added in a whiney voice.

The four of them cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher before settling down in the living room to watch TV. in her head, she started to think of what crystals she would bring when they came back. Her Amethyst Pendulum to help guide them, the aquamarine stone for clarity, and her black tourmaline for protection. Anne didn’t say it out loud, because She knew Colleen didn’t feel comfortable when she talked about the crystals, let alone use them. She felt Anne was ‘playing with the devil’, so to speak, so Anne only used them and talk about them when she felt it was absolutely necessary.

“I’m going to get my crystal and pendulum out tonight. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to light a candle to clean them from any negative energies they might be holding.”

“No, that’s alright, Anne” Phyllis said. “Just make sure you blow it out before you go to bed.”

“I will, I’m pretty neurotic about candles and stuff because of my dad. It was always a big deal when we lit candles when the lights went out. I guess it’s from being a volunteer fireman and seeing what could happen when people aren’t careful.”

While Anne talked about cleansing her crystals and pendulums, Colleen started to get a little uneasy. She really didn’t like when Anne worked with them. She wasn’t really sure if they worked or helped communicate with the ‘spirit world’, but she felt it went against what she was taught to believe in the Catholic Church.

Thoughts started streaming through Colleen’s mind; ‘what if she does end up communicating with a spirit or ghost? Will they follow them and hurt them? What if an angry ghost came through? They were going to be in the woods, up off a deadly quiet road with no one around.’ As much as the thought of using the crystals and pendulum scared her, Colleen knew if she mentioned it to Anne, she would get really mad at her and start to get snippy. Colleen didn’t want to go there. It was going to be a long week for them to be together, and they usually got a little irritated with each other by day four. No use to start the irritation early.

Once they got into their room, Anne began gathering her crystals, pendulum, angel cards, the white candle, and the candle plate. Colleen’s stomach tightened a little and a weird prickly feeling spread over her arms and face. She took a deep breath and said a quick prayer for God to help her be okay with what Anne was doing.

Anne could see the look on Colleen’s face. “I know, I know…but I promise you it’s okay. The crystals just help increase the energy vibrations at different levels to help with specific situations, like this one. Anne pulled out her Tourmaline Stone[AI1] from her blue-velvet drawstring crystal bag. This is Tourmaline. This is one of the crystals that is used for protection from negative energies and a few other things. “Here, hold it in your hand. Can you feel anything? Colleen held the black stone in her hand. “No…not really.” She turned the stone around in her hand noticing the striations through the smooth stone. Some of the stone were black and in some parts, it became a light charcoal gray color. As she focused on the stone, studying it, she did start to feel a small sensation in her palm. It was a very faint pulse of…energy. There was no other way to explain the feeling. It wasn’t sharp or painful or strong. It just was. She decided not to tell Anne what she was feeling. She didn’t want to encourage any talk on the subject or get pulled into this unfamiliar territory of spirits, crystals, and demons.

“Oh….okay.” Anne was a little dismayed but she took the black tourmaline crystal from Colleen and placed it on her candle plate along with the white candle that was in the center. She continued placing specific crystals from her blue-velvet bag onto the candle plate. The aquamarine crystal for clarity in understanding what they find at the location of the house"that is if they find it. And last, but certainly not least, her Amethyst crystal pendulum. Before placing this crystal on the plate, Anne held it in her hand, looking at the clear purplish crystal and taking in its beauty.

With all the crystals on the plate with the candle, Anne lit the candle. Colleen noticed Anne had become quiet and drew into herself, like she was blocking out all that was physically around her. She watched as Anne closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath in through her nose, and paused before lighting the candle in the center. Then she began to speak.

“Spirit of Light and all that is good, please bring your healing, positive light to these crystals to help us and protect us in our search to know and understand what we learn at the library and at the witch’s house.” Picking up the black tourmaline crystal, she went on…”clear all negative energies from this black tourmaline so that it may provide us with clear and strong protection to anything we may encounter on our quest tomorrow. Placing the crystal back on the candle plate, Anne picked up the Aquamarine Crystal, and continued with her prayer…”Spirit, please cleanse this crystal so that we may fully understand all that we encounter.” Again, placing the crystal back on the plate and picking up the Amethyst Crystal Pendulum, she said…”Spirit, please bless this pendulum so that it can only be used to communicate with good and positive energies we may encounter. Please place your loving protection on this crystal so that all information we receive from it is from good and positive spirits who want to help.”

Placing the pendulum on the candle plate, Anne took another deep breath through her nose, closed her eyes for a moment and opened her hands up, stretching them out with palms up. The energy flow she felt in her palms rose and moved as far up her arm to her elbows. Anne loved this feeling as it was a reconfirmation of all that she has recently learned of the spirit world and the power of the crystals. The energy felt like a warm, wave-like sensation, almost tingly, but not quite. She kept this position for almost a full minute before bringing them back down to her lap. “There!” she said with a certain knowingness. “We’re all ready for tomorrow. This is going to be an amazing experience, Colleen, just wait and watch.”

Although Colleen was doubtful, her curiosity was slightly piqued. “Do you want me to start getting things packed and ready for tomorrow so we don’t have to rush in the morning?”

“Yeah! That’s a great idea. I’ll get my crystals and stuff packed up. When do you want to head out? Do you want to do anything before we meet with Zoe?”

“I was hoping we could go to the bagel store and get some bagels before we went to see Zoe.”, Colleen replied.

“That sounds like a great idea. Nothing beats a Long Island bagel. We should probably plan on getting bagels around 8:30 so we’re not rushed.”

The two friends finished up their packing and sleepily climbed into bed. It didn’t take long for the two to be sleeping soundly.