The Wedding Picture
A Harold and Sallie story
Sallie felt like she was being watched.
She had stayed home while Harold was out doing whatever woodsman things woodsmen do. He had mentioned something about checking some of the animal and bird snares he had set in the forest.
Sallie always turned her nose up at the thought of eating meat and said she would stay home and guard the cabin against any noisy visitors. She knew the unexpected appearance of Henry had really rattled Harold. He hadn’t said anything at the time. It was more of a gut feeling that she had.
Sallie had the idea to surprise him by dusting up around the main room in the cabin. Harold liked things in certain places. Everything had a home in the main room. She could at least give things a general wipe down and maybe dust around the room.
Sallie had started to realize her magic powers were manifesting. All fairies had at least two things magical that they could do. Usually fairies were able to realize their magical abilties when they were in their teens, but Sallie’s three years spent holed up in the stupid tree (as she would always think of it like that) had put that on a pause. Recently, she had discovered she could make objects float around. Sallie thought she could use this time to practice before showing Harold what she could do. She grabbed a napkin, tossed it on the floor, perched on the edge of the counter, and concentrated.
She thought she’d start off with something light and simple. If she could try hard enough, maybe she could get the napkin to float in the air to her or just to move it around the room. It would certainly make dusting go by quicker.
The feeling of being watched intensified. “Is there anyone there?” Sallie called out. She was apprehensive, as she remembered the gossip about the cabin from the village years ago. The smudges in the polaroid pictures they had found seemed so lifelike.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a white shape form. A smudge. Just like in the polaroid pictures. Sallie sat still. “Hello? Can you hear me? I see you.”
The smudge took on a more solid human form. It floated gently a few inches above the floor near the fireplace. Sallie thought it might be female. Was it the previous owner’s wife who had died here? Harold had told her about the old man’s wife who had drowned in the creek when Harold was a child. Her name had been Victoria.
Harold had left the box of pictures on the bookshelf in the living area of the cabin. Sallie flew over, lifted the lid, letting it fall to the floor with a small clatter. It startled her, and she glanced up at the pale, ghostly form. It was female. “Sorry, I hope that wasn’t too noisy. I’ve got pictures here; do you want to see them?” Sallie tried a faint smile at the ghost. She was nervous. How do you act around a ghost? She thought.
She had heard rumors and stories of things in the forest but growing up the Elders had always said to stay nearby, don’t go wandering around the forest without a companion.
Of course, that’s exactly how she had wound up in that stupid tree. Her friends and older sister thought it would be fun to try and out magic each other and tricked her into coming along with them. Her mind wandered back to that day for a moment and how it felt when she realized she was stuck.
Shaking off that feeling because now, a three years later, it had just made her mad, she continued looking through the pictures. The female ghost hadn’t moved. She continued to float gently by the fireplace.
“Aha! Look! I found this! YAY!” Sallie pulled out a picture of a young couple standing by the same fireplace. Harold had said that was probably a picture of the previous owner and his wife and of their wedding day. The picture had yellowed with age. The couple were standing arm in arm and smiling. They were dressed well and looked like they might have gone somewhere 'fancy,' as Harold would say.
Was it their wedding picture? Did they get married here in the cabin? So many questions swirled about in Sallie’s head. For once, she wished Harold was more than willing to go into the village more often. He had told her he had asked the old owner a few questions but got no actual information. That had been right after Harold had moved in, over twenty five years ago. Sallie wondered if the old man was even still alive.
Sallie removed the picture from the box and approached the ghost. “Your name is Victoria, right? Is this you? And your husband? You used to live here a long time ago, right?”
The ghost was wearing the same outfit as in the picture. Her hair was braided and put up in a bun at the back. Harold identified her dress as being made of a delicate white material that he described as lace. In the picture, she was holding flowers. They looked like they might have been flowers picked from the wildflowers that grew around the cabin.
Sallie leaned the picture on the mantel and perched on the edge, waiting to see what would happen. The ghost looked at the picture and back at Sallie.
Faintly, almost in a whisper, “Yes, I am Victoria. This is my wedding day. Thank you for finding it. The others will be happy.”
THE OTHERS? There were more, really? Sallie tried to wrap her brain around this. The cabin really had ghosts.
“I hope I didn’t upset you. It’s a nice picture and a pretty dress you wore.” The ghost smiled and shook her head.
“Thank you. I must go now. Thank you for taking good care of our house.” And with that, the ghost faded into a faint smudge until there was nothing left.
Sallie was still sitting on the fireplace mantle, staring at the picture, when Harold came in with freshly killed rabbits. She wrinkled her nose. “Please tell me you’re taking those poor little innocent rabbits to the cellar.” Sallie never lost a chance to let Harold know how gross eating meat was.
Harold gave her an odd look, noticing the picture on the mantel. He shrugged, nodded in agreement, and took the rabbits down to the cellar.
Sallie felt more than heard a voice in her head. “We will talk more later. Again, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Sallie whispered.