Читать книгу Lizzie Didn't Do It; Emma Did! - E. Elaine Watson - Страница 6

The morning of August 4, 1892 dawns bright and sunny and warm. It is 6:00 a.m. John Morse is the first one to come downstairs. He spent the night in the second floor guestroom. Fifteen minutes later, Bridget comes down from her attic room and starts the fire in the kitchen woodstove in preparation for breakfast. At about 6:30 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Borden come downstairs. Mrs. Borden goes into the kitchen and gives Bridget orders about food for breakfast. The menu includes left-over warmed-up mutton (this is the third day of eating the mutton), Johnny cakes, bananas, coffee, cookies and milk.

Mr. Borden goes first to the sitting room where he puts the key to his bedroom door on the mantel. Mr. and Mrs. Borden keep their bedroom door locked all the time, but leave the key in plain sight on the mantel during the day. Supposedly this is done because they believe Lizzie previously stole something from their bedroom. Keeping the key on the mantel is sort of a way to tease Lizzie, a “playing with her mind” type thing, saying we dare you to do it again. After leaving the sitting room, Mr. Borden takes his slop pail down to the basement, then goes out to the barn, picks some pears from the trees hanging over the back fence, comes back through the yard and into the house.

At or about 7:00 a.m., Uncle John Morse, and Mr. and Mrs. Borden have breakfast together. Bridget waits until they finish before she eats. At about 7:30 a.m. Morse and Mr. Borden finish eating and go into the sitting room where they talk and visit until about 8:40 a.m. During that time Mrs. Borden is in and out of the sitting room as she does her morning dusting with a feather duster. At about 8:40 a.m. John Morse leaves the house to visit other relatives across town. Mr. Borden lets him out the side door and hooks the screen door after him. Then Mr. Borden goes back to the sitting room, takes the key from the mantel and goes upstairs to his bedroom. Bridget is in the kitchen during this time between 7:30 and 8:40 eating her breakfast and washing the breakfast dishes.

At 8:45 a.m. Lizzie comes downstairs, goes into the kitchen and sees Bridget washing dishes. Bridget asks her what she wants for breakfast, but Lizzie says, “I don’t know as I want any breakfast, but I guess I will have something, I guess I will have some coffee and cookies.”

As Lizzie sits down at the table to drink her coffee, Bridget suddenly feels ill from a sick headache and she goes outside in the backyard to throw up. She stays ten or fifteen minutes. She comes back into the kitchen. She hooks the screen door again. She finishes her dishes and takes them into the dining room. Mrs. Borden is there; she is dusting the door between the sitting room and dining room. She says she wants the windows washed, inside and outside both. Bridget does not see Mrs. Borden any more that morning.

It is now close to 9:00 a.m. on August 4, 1892. Bridget is preparing to wash the windows, getting her pail and rags together. Mr. Borden is upstairs. Mrs. Borden is dusting in the dining room. Lizzie is drinking coffee in the kitchen. Lizzie’s older sister, Emma, is off on a visit to friends in Fairhaven which is about 15 miles from Fall River. No one else is in the house.