The Wind in the Rose-Bush--Not a Rosy Tale

     “The Wind in the Rose-Bush” by Mary Eleanor Wilkins-Freeman is a quick read about a possessed shrubbery (last seen with the Knights-Who-Say-Nii). It begins with a woman, Rebecca, on a train headed to collect her niece who has been in the care of her stepmother following the death of her birth mother (the protagonist’s sister) and father.

Visual Approximation

     When Rebecca arrives, the stepmother greets her and insists the child is away at a friend’s house. Rebecca agrees to wait, but notices the bush outside seems to rustle even when there is no wind. The child does not arrive over the next few days, and the stepmother continues making excuses for her absence. She claims the girl is at a friend’s house. However, when Rebecca goes to visit the family to retrieve her niece, she finds the home empty and assumes they’re out of town with the girl.

Strange things happen at the stepmother’s house where Rebecca is staying. She hears songs play on the piano in the dead of night, sees her niece’s shadow under the window, but the girl never makes it to the door. Strangest of all, Rebecca enters her room one afternoon to see her niece’s white nightgown laid out on her bed, a single rose bloom gripped over its chest by the sleeves like a corpse laid to rest. It’s the same bloom she saw on the rosebush by the front door, but the bloom disappear when Rebecca tries to confirm this (the convenient disappearance in any haunting).

     Rebecca soon gets a letter, claiming her cousin has fallen ill and needs immediate care. Rebecca leaves for home, with the stepmother insisting she will send the niece on a train to Rebecca’s house as soon as she can. But the girl never comes and the stepmother breaks all contact with Rebecca. Finally, Rebecca contacts the local postmaster who informs Rebecca her niece had died a year ago from neglect and the family her stepmother had claimed she had been visiting had died out long ago.

My only feeling over the course of this story is how stupid Rebecca is. Of course her niece is dead. It’s entirely shady that she never sees the girl and her stepmother has some mysterious excuse for her constant absence. So the story is short without many surprises, but nevertheless leaves you chilled as you learn the truth of the dead little girl (unless you’re a sociopath and don’t care about the health of little girls). The story is too short to be boring, but doesn't do a lot in the suspense or surprise department.
     Mary Eleanor Wilkins-Freeman (aside from having a long name) has a reputation for mother-daughter stories. In many of her works, like “The Lost Ghost” there is a child who has died due to neglect. We see that woman theme this genre is so fond of; women belong in the sphere of domesticity and when they fail at this, abnormal things happen.

So in summation, women, don’t have a career—your job is suckling babies and anything less will get you eternally haunted (good to know Casey Anthony has it coming).

This story is recommended. 

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Bring me... a shrubbery.