The Ghost of Tobacco Road

by Dale Young

  By the time dawn came, Logan was awake once again. He felt like he had not slept at all. The first thought that came to mind was the talk he planned to have with Harmon about this house. After one night in the house, Logan knew that Harmon had not told him everything about his great-grandmother Rosemary Abigail Shaw, or about the house she had willed to him.

  As Logan climbed out of the bed, he noticed something lying on the floor near the bedroom door. He walked slowly to the object until he was standing over it. Everything that had happened the night before, and the idea that it had all been a dream was suddenly cast into doubt in Logan’s mind as he stared down at the small yellow flower lying on the floor at his feet. Then he slowly raised his head and turned to look at the dresser and the porcelain doll sitting on top of it. He knew he had put the doll in the drawer the night before. Or had that been a dream? At this point, Logan had no idea.

  Logan exhaled a hot breath and then reached down to pick up the flower. He then laid it on the nightstand next to the bed. The next thing he did was open all the drapes covering the bedroom windows. The early morning sunlight brought comfort to his soul as he sat back down on the edge of the bed.

  “Maybe it was all a dream,” Logan said under his breath. “The flower was stuck to my shoe and that’s how it made its way to the bedroom floor. Makes perfect sense…”

  He knew his theory was weak but he didn’t know what else to think. All he could do now was get dressed and maybe go eat breakfast. He needed to get out of the house and the thought of the diner and Colby was the first thing that came to his mind.

  Logan washed his face, brushed his teeth and then got dressed. On his way out of the bedroom he picked up the small flower from the nightstand and stuck it in his shirt pocket. Maybe Colby could tell him what kind of flower it was. He knew he would have to invent some story as to how he got it, because if he told Colby the truth he was sure that she would think he was crazy and would never want to see him again.

  And that was the one thing that Logan was sure that he didn’t want to happen.

  16

  Logan locked the front door to the house and walked briskly to his car. The air was fresh and laced with the earthy smell of the tobacco fields. He had never smelled anything like it and he thought about how it was a far cry from the diesel fuel scented air outside of his trailer back in Wilmington. Despite what happened to him last night, Logan was beginning to like the country.

  As Logan drove to the diner he surveyed the land around him. The fields on each side of the road alternated from corn, cotton and tobacco, mostly tobacco. Logan chuckled to himself as he looked at the plants in the fields.

  “Corn for eating, cotton for making clothes and tobacco for smoking. These people have everything they need…”

  He was trying to get his mind into a normal frame before he met Colby at the diner. But talking to himself about the farms around him wasn’t helping. What was he going to tell Colby? How could he tell her about the doll and the little girl with the flower? He knew he would have to come up with something. She was probably the only person he knew that would tell him the truth. Harmon had obviously withheld things from him about the house, but Logan knew he would see Harmon soon enough and would insist that he open up about Rosemary, the house and the land.

  Colby was happy to see Logan when he walked into the diner. He ambled up to the counter and sat down on a stool just as she put an empty coffee cup in front of him. Then she took the pot and filled Logan’s cup almost to the top but left him room for his cream and sugar.

  “Hey, stranger. I wasn’t expecting you until around noon. How was your first night in your new house?”

  “Awful. I think it’s haunted.” Logan smiled and began to shake a packet of sugar. He tore off the end and poured it into his cup and then followed it with two small containers of half and half before stirring the mixture with his spoon.

  “Oh yeah? Well that’s no surprise. All old Southern homes are haunted. If you weren’t such a city boy you’d know that.”

  “I’m serious. There’s a porcelain doll that can turn its head and a little girl in old clothes that wanders the upstairs hallway. That is when she’s not running around the yard and out through the tobacco fields behind the house.” Logan winked at Colby and took a sip of his coffee. “And that bottle tree doesn’t seem to be working. The little girl ran right passed it and didn’t get sucked into one of the bottles.”

  “You’re being a butthead,” Colby said as she sat the coffee pot down on the counter.

  “Just saying the bottle tree isn’t working, that’s all.”

  “Maybe it was full for the night. Like I said, the spirits trapped in the bottles burn off when the sun comes up. That makes room for the new ones that come around after the sun goes down the next night.”

  “Now there’s a thought,” replied Logan as he took a sip of his coffee.

  Colby tilted her head and smiled at Logan. His attempt to make a joke out of what had happened to him the night before seemed to be working because judging from the look on her face it seemed Colby had decided that he was just pulling her leg. Logan knew that later on in the day that he could tell her that he wasn’t joking.

  “Two eggs over easy, home fries and toast. And keep the coffee coming and I won’t make a scene.”

  “Yes sir,” Colby replied as she scribbled on her order pad.

  After Logan finished his food he had another cup of coffee while trying to chat with Colby. The diner was somewhat busy and this made it hard for him to talk to her for more than a half a minute at a time. Finally he glanced at his watch and decided it was time to go meet Harmon.

  “I get off after lunch. Are you up for an adventure?” Colby said as she picked up Logan’s empty breakfast plate.

  “Sure,” Logan replied. He knew what kind of adventure he wanted to have with Colby but he was certain that she probably had something else in mind at this point in their relationship.

  “Since you live in a haunted house and all, you might like to take a tour of some of Starlight’s other spooky places. We can go this afternoon. I’ll ride out to your house when I get off work.”

  “I should be done conferring with my legal team by then.”

  “I dunno,” Colby said. “Harmon loves to chew the fat. He might talk for hours. Just tell him you have a hot date with a waitress at the diner if he starts rambling too much.” Colby then turned and walked off with Logan’s empty breakfast plate. She looked over her shoulder as she went and smiled at Logan. Then she disappeared into the kitchen.

  A hot date… I like the sound of that, Logan thought to himself.

  Logan left his money and tip and got up and left the diner. Once outside he took a long breath of the fresh country air, savoring it as he walked to his car. Just as he reached the small parking lot behind the diner, Chip McPhale nearly ran him over with his pickup truck.

  Chip brought the truck to a stop directly behind Logan’s car to prevent Logan from getting in his car and leaving. Then he got out and walked up to Logan standing on the sidewalk. His brother Ethan got out of the passenger’s side of the truck.

  “I thought I told you to keep your fucking ass away from my girl. You city fucks don’t seem to know how to listen.” While Chip talked, his brother Ethan walked over and positioned himself behind Logan effectively blocking Logan from walking back to the diner.

  He felt the fight or flight mechanism gin up inside of him again just as it had last night. Somehow he knew that choosing to fight right now would lead to bodily harm on his part. But he also knew that if he tried to run off that it would get back to Colby and that might change the way she felt about him. Logan knew that no girl likes a coward and that he was going to have to stand up to Chip, even if it meant getting his ass kicked.

  “I don’t remember seeing your name written across her forehead. What makes you think that she’d be interested in a grubby loser like you, Chip?”

  As soon as the word loser left Logan’s mouth,
Chip McPhale’s fist landed in the middle of Logan’s stomach. Logan immediately gasped and fell to one knee. Chip then placed his hand on Logan’s shoulder and bent down so that he was close to Logan’s ear.

  “Like I said, city boy, Colby belongs to me.”

  Chip then got back in his truck and pulled it into an empty space next to the Dumpster sitting close to the back door of the diner. Then he got out and walked past Logan again, who was still down on one knee trying to catch his breath while at the same time trying to keep his breakfast from rushing up his throat. The last thing he wanted to do was vomit right there on the sidewalk. Chip patted Logan’s shoulder as he walked by.

  “Have a nice day, city boy. And tell that idiot Harmon that my family owns the Shaw land no matter what his fucking papers say.”

  Chip and Ethan then disappeared into the diner. After a few more minutes, Logan managed to get up and make it to his car. The last thing he wanted was for Colby to see him like this. There was no telling what Chip was telling her inside the diner right now but Logan knew there was nothing he could do about it for the time being. He knew the best thing for him to do was to just drive to Harmon’s office.

  ***

  Sandy was alternating between drinking coffee and filing her nails when Logan walked into Harmon’s law office. She straightened up in her chair and put down her nail file when Logan came through the door.

  “Good morning, Mr. Shaw,” she said as Logan approached her desk.

  “Well good morning to you too, Sandy. I’m a little early. Can Harmon see me or should I wait?”

  “Mr. Blackwell is on an important phone call right now. I’ll go stick my head in the door and tell him you’re here. It shouldn’t be long.” Sandy took a sip of her coffee and then motioned to the small coffee station in the corner of the office.

  “Help yourself,” by the way. “I’ll be right back.”

  With this Sandy disappeared down the hall. She returned moments later.

  “Mr. Blackwell is almost finished. He’s so busy this morning. He was in here at 6 a.m.”

  Logan smiled and then walked over to one of the chairs by the window. Then he had an idea so he returned to Sandy’s desk. He had already figured out that everyone knows everyone in Starlight, so he thought he could make good use of this with Sandy.

  “Say Sandy, can I ask you a question?”

  “Well of course, Mr. Shaw.” Sandy seemed to perk up at the idea of actually getting to answer a question that didn’t involve finding out when Harmon would get off the phone.

  “My great-grandmother, Rosemary Shaw, did you know her?”

  The expression that suddenly clouded Sandy’s face told Logan the answer to his question was yes, no matter what it was that Sandy was about to say.

  “Well, yes Mr. Shaw. I did know her. Everyone knew Rosemary.”

  “Please call me Logan.”

  “Very well, Logan. I knew your great-grandmother. She was a little older than me but when we were younger we used to be good friends. In her later years she, well, she kind of withdrew. I hadn’t talked much to her over the past twenty years. It’s the strangest thing because just over the past few months I started to have the idea that I should drive out to see her. And then she…”

  “She passed away?” Logan said.

  Sandy shifted in her chair and suddenly seemed very uncomfortable.

  “Yes, she… She passed away before I could make the time to go see her. I’m still angry at myself over that. If only I had been able to talk to her. Then…”

  Logan raised an eyebrow. “Then what?”

  Sandy reached for her coffee and took a long sip. Logan noticed that her hand was shaking slightly. She seemed nervous.

  “I, I just meant it would have been nice to see her that’s all.” Sandy turned and looked into her computer screen. Logan could tell that she was getting uncomfortable with the conversation. This confirmed his theory that there was more to the story than what Harmon had told him.

  “And that house, Sandy. It’s very old. Do you know much about it?”

  Sandy turned her eyes up to meet Logan’s eyes. It suddenly seemed like she wanted to unload something off her conscience but was afraid to.

  “It’s been there since before the Civil War. I supposed that Harmon has already told you about the murders.”

  “Yes, I know all about them.”

  “Harmon told me that you’ve taken a shine to that pretty waitress at the diner. Colby is such a sweet girl. But her…”

  “Yes?” Logan knew that Sandy was about to tell him something that he didn’t know.

  Sandy shifted in her chair and began to run her finger around the handle of her coffee mug. After a few seconds she spoke.

  “Her great-grandfather was killed in the Shaw Fields in the 1930’s. I wasn’t even born but the story has been passed down over the years. I believe his name was Franklin. Her family got past it and got out of tobacco farming by the time Colby was born. You could do worse than dating that Colby, let me tell you. She’s such a sweet young girl.”

  Logan could tell that Sandy had told him more than she had wanted to tell him about the land he had inherited. But now that he knew more about Colby’s great-grandfather he could ask her about that later. For now, Harmon would just have to come clean about the house. Sandy was obviously not going to say much more about it.

  “Thanks for the info, Sandy. That’s sad about Colby’s great-grandfather. She told me her family farmed the Shaw land way back when but she didn’t tell me what happened to her great-grandfather.”

  He tried to hide how horrified he was that Colby’s great-grandfather had been killed in the Shaw Fields. How in the world could he ever ask her about something like that? He knew he was going to have to wait until they knew each other a little better.

  Sandy’s face carried an expression that was a mix of confusion and fear. She hoped that Colby wouldn’t be upset with her for telling Logan about her great-grandfather’s murder. But then her face seemed to relax. Apparently she had decided that Logan would have found out sooner or later anyway.

  Just then Harmon appeared in the opening of the hallway.

  “Logan! Good morning. Why don’t you come on back to my office so we can get started.”

  Logan smiled at Sandy as he stepped away from her desk. Then he followed Harmon down the hallway. Moments later they were sitting alone in Harmon’s office.

  ***

  “Just what is the deal with the house, Harmon?” Logan wanted to get right to the heart of the matter.

  “The deal?” It was early in the morning but Harmon suddenly had an urge to light up his pipe. He knew where the conversation was headed.

  “The deal is that you own it, Logan.”

  “I know that. I meant what’s wrong with it?”

  “Wrong with it? I don’t know what you mean. Why would you ask that?”

  “Let’s just say I had a less than restful first night in my new home.”

  “Less than restful?” Harmon was stalling. He knew it and Logan knew it. Harmon had fully expected this line of questioning from Logan. He knew more about the house than he had originally let on and he knew that after one night in the house that Logan would call him on it.

  “Logan, I’ve told you about the land and the murders. I’ve told you about the McPhales. Like I said, most people believe the land is cursed. Most people don’t think the McPhales are behind the killings. But even though I don’t believe it, there is a very good chance that they are, regardless of what I’ve told you in the past. They want that land and they believe it already belongs to them. They always site some sort of legal foul-up with a land survey conducted decades ago but I’ve looked into it and everything is fine. The survey boundaries are correct. But the McPhales don’t believe it.”

  Harmon took a sip of his coffee and then continued.

  “Just this morning I was reminded of that by Chip McPhale as I was unlocking the door to this firm. He stopped by to have one of his fr
iendly chats about the legalities of the deed to the Shaw land.”

  “I know. I had a nice little chat with him myself at the diner. He has ways of getting his point across.” Logan could still feel Chip’s fist in his stomach. “But you said you don’t believe they are behind the killings. You said you believed the ghost story.”

  “Yes, for the lack of better words, I believe the ghost story. That land was worked by slaves before the Civil War. Just horrible. The legend has always been that the ghost of one of those slaves wanders the Shaw Fields and takes the life of anyone unlucky enough to be out in the fields during a harvest moon.”

  “Slaves…” Logan leaned back in his chair and looked at Harmon.

  “Yes, slaves. That’s the way things were done back then, Logan. It was terrible and I’m glad it ended. Based on how things were back then it’s not hard to believe that the soul of one of those slaves is carrying a grudge.”

  This was not the story Logan had expected to hear.

  “Harmon, the things that happened in my house last night didn’t seem to have anything to do with slaves, or the ghosts of slaves I should say. I’m not one to believe in ghosts, but after last night I’m starting to have a change of mind.”

  Harmon raised an eyebrow. He reached over to his ashtray and picked up his pipe. It didn’t take him long to get it lit and soon he felt the soothing power of the nicotine snaking through his veins.

  “What exactly happened? Can you describe it to me?” Harmon then took a few puffs of his pipe again.

  Logan proceeded to tell Harmon all about the little girl on the porch, the porcelain doll and then the little girl’s return later in the night. He left out the part about him and Colby having dinner and rummaging through the attic.