A Five-Minute Ghost Story
"MELODIE IN E MINOR"
By AUGUST W. DERLETH
There is a certain section of St. Louis that gives one nausea to go through. There is a perpetual cloud of smoke above the section, a cloud which no one seems to mind, not even the people who walk about below it with soot-streaked faces. Once in a while, on a clear night, the smoke disappears, only to appear in a much denser form the following morning. A heavy rain drives the smoke away for a while, but it is sure to come back when the rain stops. A stench that seems alive creeps from one dim alley to another, gathering strength as it goes. This, too, the people do not mind. Dirty children play in the midst of it; they go home reeking with it. But what difference does it make? Their homes reek with it.
There are more than two hundred houses in this section, and each house is just like all the others. Thus, each house might have belonged to Jack Hammond, except for one little difference: In Hammond's house the noise started exactly at 6 o'clock in the evening, and ended exactly at 6 o'clock in the morning, when both Jack and Amy went to work.
When Amy married Jack Hammond he had "prospects", but, somehow, he lost them, and Amy never forgave him for it. When they moved to this squalid section, it was to be temporary. But it had become permanent; Amy would not forgive Jack, either for this or for making her go to work shortly after their marriage.
Amy made life miserable for Jack in all ways, but especially at the supper table. She had taken a fancy to a piece by Rachmaninoff that she had once heard in a recital, Melodie in E Minor. She bought the piece and learned it note for note, until she was able to play it after a fashion. Every night while Jack ate his supper she played it. At first Jack didn't want to say anything about it, though he hated that kind of music, and Amy knew it. Invariably he began to hum St. Louis Blues when Amy started to play, but Amy soon drowned him out. Cursing did Amy no harm, nor did his threats. The situation showed no sign of progressing either for better or for worse.
At 6 o'clock in the evening the program opened, somewhat like this:
"Supper ready?" from Jack, to Amy's young brother, who stayed at home and did the cooking for the two workers.
Amy would throw down her bag and hat, and move toward the door of the parlor. It was called a parlor only because of the piano in it. "I'm not hungry; guess I'll play the piano for a while."
At this juncture Amy's brother vacated.
"Listen, Amy (this from Jacek); if you think you're going to play that thing again, you got another guess coming. And if you play that E Minor thing, I'll——"
"Shut up, Jack. Why'd I ever
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