"Forget Me Not"
an excerpt

With each step that Mayson took to the barn, he remembered finding her the night before, standing on the front porch while staring at the barn and it's surroundings. He'd asked her if everything was alright, but it was her lack of response that hit home. Eliza turned, looked at him, and began to speak, but thought better of it and shook her head before returning inside and to the loft she shared with her sisters Letitia, Amanda and Sarah. As he neared the doorway to the barn, the stillness surrounded and enveloped him. The utter silence was deafening to his ears. He fully expected to hear Eliza rummaging through crates of material to begin a dress for herself or Letitia, or even for one of her little sisters. He thought he might hear the movement of furniture. She had expressed some time back that Sarah was having difficulty getting in and out of bed in the middle of the night and needed something to help her get to the slop jar in time. What he didn't expect, was what he saw when he opened the door.

The boys were coming out of the house about the time they heard the most awful guttural noise come from the barn. Unsure of what was heard, they looked at one another before deciding to change their plans to see what was causing the noise. The next sound they heard was unmistakable pain; undeniable torture within the voice of whomever was in the barn. At break neck speed, James, Joel, William, and Israel took to flight as their youngest brother, John Albert, was exiting the house. Thinking it was a game, he took off running after them so as to participate in the fun before the hard farm work began. Upon his arrival at the door, he stumbled across the threshold and into his brother.

Before him was his father cutting through the heavy rope they used for pulling the hay bundles to the livestock. James and Joel tried to hoist their sister Eliza up a few inches so once their father severed the rope, the three could lower her to the ground carefully yet quickly. William and Israel were frozen momentarily at the sight. Realizing what their baby brother had just seen, William quickly turned John Albert towards the house, imploring him to get their mother quickly. His hesitancy prompted William to raise his voice to exclaim, "Now, John Albert, get her now!"

Running as fast as his little legs could carry him, he burst through the doorway just as Polly and Letitia had sat down to do some mending of clothes.

"John Albert, shall I get your father to take care of you for your rude entrance into this house. We have talked about your storming the door, it has to stop before someone gets hurt."

"Mama ..... come quickly," he gasped, "Papa.... he needs you. It's.... it's Eliza."

"What has your sister done," quizzed Polly as she slowly rose from her chair.

"No doubt she's come across another snake and got bit again, "sighed Letitia. She'd remembered the last time Eliza was bitten by a snake. She bemoaned the event for weeks afterwards, thoroughly irritating Letitia and Amanda.

"No.... no, it's not a snake this time. Eliza was up in the rafters. She has a rope and is on it, but she not holding it," explained John Albert. Polly looked at him, not comprehending what he was telling her. As her brain processed what he'd said, the color drained from her face and panic set in. She barely was able to speak the word, "no", before rushing around the side of the table, gathering her skirts so as to fully run to the barn. Polly's actions confused Letitia as she shook her head.

"All this fuss over nothing," she sighed as she followed her panic-stricken mother's footsteps. Letitia heard the gallop of a horse and turned to see Israel riding Belle hard for the ridge and towards town. Crossing over the threshold of the barn, she heard her mother's deep sobbing and her father's moans. Standing next to William and John Albert, her eyes could scarcely take in the scene before her. Lying on the floor directly in front of them was her sister with the tattered end of a rope around her neck, and her mother, cradling her twenty-one year old daughter in her arms as she wept openly and aloud. Her father, standing behind them, leaned heavily against the post that held the rafter by which Eliza had tied off the rope she used to end her life. Tears streamed down his face as he ran his hands through his thick brown hair.