Free A Death in Canaan by Joan; Barthel

light down, then I got back in, shut it off, put it in gear, and locked it up. I walked in the front door. The screen door was open, on the catch, and also the inside door wasn’t quite closed. I walked in and I yelled, “Mom, I’m home!” There was no answer, so I figured she probably fell asleep. I looked in the bedroom, up at her bed. We were very limited on space, so we had bunk beds. When I wasn’t home, she always slept in the top bunk.
K:
Oh, I see.
P:
I looked up, and I didn’t see her. I turned, like I’d seen her, because I’m so used to it, and I turned around again, and found she wasn’t there, and I looked down, and there she was on the bedroom floor.
K:
Now, tell me exactly how she was.
P:
She had a T-shirt on, and it was kind of pushed up to here. Nothing else on. I think she might have had that blue shirt on, but I don’t remember. There was blood all over the place, around the chin and the throat and on the carpet around her. She was breathing, and she was having trouble breathing, but she was breathing, and she was unconscious, her eyes were closed, and she didn’t respond to me when I yelled to her. She didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore, but there was blood all over the place.
K:
All right.
P:
Ah, what’s his name, the lieutenant?
K:
Shay.
P:
Shay. He told me that my first reaction should have been to go directly to her to see how she was. But my first reaction was to hit the phone. He said there might have been something a little wrong, but I was afraid to touch her for some reason. Mysterious reason. So I called the Madows. They’re on the VFW ambulance squad. Mrs. Madow said they’d be right down. Then she told me to call my family doctor. So I hung up and dialed information, one-four-one-one, and then I called and I got the number for Dr. Bornemann, and then I called there. His wife told me Dr. Bornemann was on vacation. She said call the Sharon Hospital emergency room. So I hung up and dialed information again and got Sharon Hospital. I dialed there, and they connected me with the emergency room. They asked me whether she was still breathing, and I went in and looked, and at that point she’d almost stopped breathing. I came back and told them, and they asked if I knew anything about artificial respiration. I told them I didn’t. They said they’d contact the state police. I said I already contacted an ambulance.
K:
What did you do then?
P:
I walked out the door. I ran . There was a hibachi by the door. I threw it out of the way so it wouldn’t be in the way of the ambulance. Then I got in the car and pulled it around to the side of the house. I shut off the car, then I went to put the headlights on, and I thought no, it would kill the battery. So I left the emergency flashers on, and I stood in the front yard. Then I saw this little car coming out of nowhere, a Toyota, and Geoff was driving it, going like a bat out of hell. He pulled in the yard, and we both went in the house and looked at her.
K:
What did Geoff say?
P:
He said it looked like somebody raped her. Maybe I said it. But I think he said it.
K:
I was just wondering what his reaction was when he saw all the blood.
P:
He just turned pale. I was already like a ghost. We went back out and stood in the front yard. By the time Geoff got there it had been seven or eight minutes, I think. Maybe five. Then, a couple minutes later, the cruiser pulled in, and the ambulance was right behind it.
K:
Well, what do you think happened there?
P:
I honestly don’t know. My mom used to get very depressed. She told me that sometimes she felt suicidal, but that she didn’t have the guts to go through with it.
K:
Do you think your mother committed suicide?
P:
I don’t know. I don’t know the facts on what actually happened to her.
K:
Do you recall her being all wet?
P:
No. But the police officer showed me the pair of pants and asked me if they were mine or hers. He told