Tell Me I'm A Bad Man

Berries and Cream

Jepha’s point of view.

After lunch, there was nothing to do, so I went for a walk outside. The grounds were huge and I wanted to see what was there. It was cold outside, still February, and the sun was hiding behind the clouds today.

I walked around, looking at the huge grassy field that was surrounded by woods. The Overlook was kind of scary at first, but now I’ve gotten used to its size and decor. Kind of.

But outside was a different story.

I was standing in the big grassy field, and all around it was the woods. It was very quiet here, so I decided to explore the woods and see what was there.

I walked through the dense trees, stumbling over rocks and branches. It was getting darker and darker the farther into the forest I went until I couldn’t see anything.

I was scared of the forest now. It was so dark and threatening, but still quiet and comforting in a dark way. I felt my way over to a rock and sat down, trying to figure out what to do now.

Suddenly, I heard a rustling noise coming from the ground. A small snake slithered onto my shoe and I screamed, running farther into the dark forest.

Finally, I could see some light between the trees. My heart sped up, thinking I had reached the Overlook again.

I could hear the sound of someone laughing. As I stepped into the light, though, I realized I was not at the hotel at all.

I was in a little round clearing, about 20 feet across. In the middle of it was a small house made of gray stones. The house was about 10 feet across and had smoke coming out of its tiny chimney.

"Would you like some tea, Mr. Squiggles?” I heard a girl ask.

I walked over to the house and knocked on the door. The door opened and I saw a girl about my age standing there. She was a little taller than me, with her long black hair pulled back into two French braids. She was wearing a long light blue dress with a white apron.

“Hi,” she said smiling. “My name is Delilah. What’s yours?”

“Um, I’m Jepha Louise,” I said. ““But everyone calls me Jepha.”

“Well, Jepha,” Delilah said. “You came just in time for tea. Come in.”

She led me inside the house. It was small inside and quiet. There was a fire place that had an old fashioned tea kettle boiling over it.

I was relieved by the warmth that filled the cabin. Across from the fireplace was a table. It was shorter than a normal table and had dolls and stuffed animals filling three of the four chairs.

Delilah moved a doll so it was sharing a chair with a stuffed bear. “You can sit there,” she said, pointing to the now empty chair.

I sat down and watched as she served tea and cookies to both of us and the dolls and bear. Her petticoat rustled as she moved around, setting me a place at the table and making sure everything was in place for our tea party.

When she finally sat down, Delilah smiled at me. “Well, I wasn’t expecting your company, or I would have cleaned this place up a bit,” Delilah said apologetically. I thought it was clean enough, but when I told her that, she laughed.

“See, this cabin is my own,” she explained. “No one else knows about it, so I don’t clean it that often-“

She was cut off by a spider landing on the table from an invisible string hanging in midair. Delilah shrieked and stood up, backing away from the table. I was used to spiders, though. I found them all the time in my apartment, so I just lifted it onto a cloth napkin and released it outside. Delilah was fanning herself with her hands and holding a handkerchief to her mouth when I went back inside.

I raised an eyebrow at her and she stopped. “Sorry,” she said, sitting back down at the table. “I usually just tell my brothers to get rid of bugs. I’m kind of afraid of them. Don’t your brothers get rid of bugs for you?”

“No,” I answered. “I don’t have any brothers. Or sisters. Or even a father. It’s just me and my mom.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Delilah said. “Is your father deceased?”

“Um, well, I never met him,” I told her.

“Oh,” she said like she finally understood something. “So you’re an illegitimate child?”

I hadn’t ever thought about it like that. “Yeah, I guess so,” I answered.

“That’s very interesting,” she commented before going on. “Now I’ll tell you some stuff about me.

“My full name is Delilah Elizabeth Antoinette Dynam. I’m 12 years old and live about three miles away from here. I have 2 brothers, Harry and James. Harry had a twin sister, but she was killed two years ago, when she was sixteen. Her name is Helena, but my family never talks about her anymore.”

My mouth fell open slightly as she told me this story. “I’m sorry about your sister,” I said. “But if you don’t mind, how did she die?”

“She was murdered, Jepha,” Delilah said quietly looking down at the napkin in her lap. “No one knows who did it. After the funeral, no one has mentioned her at all.”

We sat in silence for a moment, and then we heard a clock ring the hour. It was three o’clock.

“I should start cleaning up,” she said, brought out of her daze. “I have to walk the three miles home and get there before dark.”

Delilah got up and started putting things away. “There’s a stream outside where I wash the dishes,” she said, gathering up the plates and cups and going outside. It was colder than I had expected as we made our way across the clearing. A few feet into the woods, there was a stream, about 10 feet across. We washed the dishes in the freezing water, and my fingers felt like they would fall off from the cold. I noticed a tree trunk stretching across the stream as a bridge.

We put the dishes back inside and put on our coats. ”Do you know how to get home from here?” Delilah asked. I shook my head, suddenly realizing that I didn’t. “I’ll come with you, then.”

We set off into the woods, and this time the darkness wasn’t so creepy. We had been walking for a while when we finally saw light from through the trees. “Jepha? Jepha, are you out there?” I heard someone calling.

“I’m back now,” I told Delilah. “Thank you for the tea party.”

“It was fun,” she answered. “Let’s meet at the cabin tomorrow at noon. We can be best friends!”

We agreed and Delilah went back through the woods. I went out into the field and could see the Overlook a few hundred feet away.

“Jepha? Where are you?” someone was still calling.

I saw Ray standing about 20 feet away. He saw me and had a look of relief. “Where have you been?” he asked as I ran over to him.

“Exploring around,” I answered, deciding not to tell anyone about meeting a new friend. Ray picked me up and carried me into the hotel where it was warm.

I could hear my name being called from different places in the hotel. “She’s right here,” Ray called, putting me down onto a chair in the lobby.

My mother came running down the stairs and over to me. “Where were you?” she asked.

“I took a walk,” I answered. “I wanted to explore.”

Frank, Kelly, and Adele walked in from different places.

“You were in the woods?” Frank asked. “You didn’t eat random berries, did you? Because I did that once, and I was sick for a week.”

“Yeah,” Ray said. “You ate them cuz I said they were skittles with the ‘S’ rubbed off.”

“You told him what?” Kelly said in a warning tone of voice.

“Um,” Ray looked kind of scared. “I think I hear my mommy calling me.”

Ray ran away, I don’t even know where he went. “Aren’t you gonna go chase him? You know you want to,” Adele chimed in.

“Oh, he knows I’ll get him later,” Kelly said nodding evilly. “He knows. He’ll be all paranoid and stuff. Oh, the fun I will have.”

“Wow, you’re not evil, are you,” mom said.

The way Kelly and Ray’s relationship worked was funny. Funny as in weird and also just makes you laugh funny. Kelly told Ray what to do and they would get into fights over everything. Ray was so whipped.

“Jepha,” My mom said to me. “I have to tell you something important.”