Ghost on Black Mountain

by Ann Hite

  Thirty-eight

  My first close look of Black Mountain was through the window of a car Mama gave me. She thought staking claim to Hobbs’s place was my best idea. Finally I was wising up and following her example. Lonnie was asleep on the backseat. Each place was just as Hobbs described. The Connor cabin stood in the middle of where the road forked into two, a narrow island of land. Aunt Ida’s house was down the left side of the split, sitting in the bend. If I went a mile farther, I’d come to Hobbs’s house on the right overlooking the valley.

  I parked in Aunt Ida’s yard, opened the car door, and got out, watching the house with hands on my hips. I stood there until Aunt Ida waddled out on the front porch.

  “Who are you? Is that you, Nellie?”

  At the sound of a strange voice, Lonnie sat up in the backseat. “Mama.”

  “I’m Rose Gardner, and this is my son, Lonnie. I’m sure you’ve heard of me.” I opened the car door for Lonnie. I wanted to ask about Nellie. What happened to her? Was she still in the house I came to take? Well, she could just move over.

  “I’ve never heard mention of a Rose. I’m watching for Nellie, Hobbs’s wife.”

  I yanked Lonnie close to me, which caused him to wail like a cat in heat. It wasn’t his fault the old biddy was telling the biggest lie I’d ever heard. “Hush now,” I said sweetly, but that only made him yell louder.

  “You hurt that baby.” Aunt Ida came off the porch like she would take Lonnie away from me.

  “This is Hobbs’s son. We live alone in Asheville. I’m Rose, the girl he loved. I know he told you about me. He said so.”

  “He told a lot of things, girl.” Aunt Ida cut me a stare. “He was the meanest boy that ever walked this good earth and it caught up to him. But he was good to his aunt Ida.” The old woman had the look of someone who had come to the end of her frayed rope. “He never had no children with Nellie. He came up missing. I’m guessing he might be dead.”

  “Is Nellie up there living?” I nodded to the road.

  She looked at me hard. “Nellie was never found, girl. She’s been missing nearly as long as him. She’s probably dead too. No kids to be had here.”

  I fought the urge to yell. “This is Hobbs’s son. I promise. Can’t you see him in his face?” I turned Lonnie’s little head in her direction. “See him.”

  She came close. Lonnie tried to hide behind my skirt. “I reckon Hobbs never had no son.”

  “He had this one, Aunt Ida.”

  She studied me. “He liked women, the younger the better.”

  “Yes, I suppose you’re right.” This knowledge never changed the ache in my chest.

  “I let Nellie down. I didn’t help her when Hobbs near beat her to death.”

  A cold chill walked up my back. “He never raised his hand to me.” The glimpse of Hobbs’s life with Nellie turned my stomach inside out.

  Aunt Ida put her face in Lonnie’s. “How do I know this is his boy?”

  “Look at his eyes.”

  She looked at Lonnie, and he watched her back. “Hobbs; Lordy, Hobbs, you’re there. You’re alive in this boy.” She shook her head and touched Lonnie’s light hair. “I loved your daddy more than anyone would ever know.”

  “I still love him.” I spoke in my softest voice.

  “Yes, you knew him like me. He didn’t show that to many. Mostly he showed the side Nellie knew. He wasn’t all bad. And if you knew that sweet part, you couldn’t help but love him.”

  The sob stuck in my chest hurt. “I love him. He sent me here. Came to me on the beach and told me to come.”

  She nodded. “His old place is empty, just like Nellie left it that day. I wouldn’t let Jack mess with any of her stuff. I was hoping she’d come home so I could tell her I was sorry for not helping her. He beat her bad. But it was because she was so sweet and just like his mama and AzLeigh. He ain’t never kept that anger down. You can live there if you like, but they say Hobbs’s soul is stuck. The young boys have seen his ghost, and what I hear it ain’t a pretty sight, seeing how he ain’t got no head. That’s what they say. It could be hogwash.” Tears filled her words and she nodded up the road as if she could see the house.

  “Hobbs doesn’t scare me. He can stay right there with me.” I turned back to the car.

  “We found his truck near the waterfall. No sign of him. Didn’t find a bit of blood or nothing. It’s like he just walked off this earth, but we both know that couldn’t be. Lots of people wanted him dead. They didn’t know him like you and me.”

  I opened my mouth to agree, but I couldn’t speak.

  “I tried to tell that wife of his he would hurt her. But she wouldn’t listen. Now, if he had brought you home, I would have known he was in love. But that girl was bound to get hurt. I just hate she had to learn it all the hard way.”

  “It’s the only way most of us learn.” I helped Lonnie back into the car.

  “I’ll help you all you need. You’re family, having that boy and all. Good luck, sweetie.”

  “I make my own luck, always have. I’ll take care of myself. That’s what Hobbs and I had in common. We know how to make something work.”

  The house sat in the clearing as if it were left over from another time and life. For the longest, I studied the weathered wood from inside the car. What in the world had I been thinking?

  The front door pushed open almost on its own as if someone were waiting on me. I walked to the large fireplace and stood. A cold chill washed over me. Upstairs a door closed, and I could have sworn I heard a sigh. “Hobbs,” I whispered. But all was quiet.

  “Where we at, Mama?” Lonnie tugged on my skirt.

  “This is going to be our new home.” I led him to the stairs. “Come on and let’s have a look.” I opened the only closed door. The bed was a beautiful four-poster affair. I touched the bare mattress. At one time fine linens had dressed the bed, white ones with a delicate lace border; they belonged to Hobbs’s mama. I knew this. Pictures came to me sometimes. I saw the bed made, elegant. Romantic.

  Lonnie pulled open a big wardrobe with double doors. There hung Hobbs’s clothes. I took a shirt off the hanger and held it to my nose. I still caught his scent around the musty smell. Grief oozed in my chest like the disease his death had become. With the shirt to my nose, I prayed Hobbs would appear. Is that why I had come? To find Hobbs? I caught my reflection warped in a large mirror. One long crack ran diagonal from one corner to another. The reflection rippled, turned dark as night, and I saw the headlights of a truck moving down a steep road. The crack was visible again, clearing away the vision but not before I got the heebie-jeebies. I’d glimpsed something about Hobbs, about his death.

  “You crying, Mama?” Lonnie looked at me with solemn eyes.

  With the salty tears on my lips, I laughed. “No, sweetie. Look at this mirror. It’s just ruined.” I dropped Hobbs’s shirt on the floor. “Let’s go downstairs and have a look at the kitchen.”

  I wouldn’t sleep in the room. I wouldn’t even enter the doorway again, but this was crazy thinking. How could I live in a house and never go in a room? It wasn’t living. I wanted life.

  The first thing we needed was food. I had a little money Mama insisted I take. I think she was feeling guilty about the way she’d treated me. I opened the cupboard door. A flash of gray shot across my feet. I screamed, which caused Lonnie to break into sobs, wrapping his arms around my legs so I couldn’t move. My breakfast churned in my stomach.

  “The house ain’t been lived in for a while. Mice take up in empty places.” Jack stood in the door. “Ain’t no wood or food. Tough place to lay claim.” His words were guarded, quiet.

  He kept a safe distance from me, hovering in the doorway. His looks were just as homely as I remembered.

  “I don’t have a choice. This is my chance, my only chance.” Why in the world did I choose to be honest with him? “Is there somewhere I can buy food?” Why hadn’t I thought of buying groceries in Asheville?

  “Folks always willin
g to help around here, but they won’t take your money. They’re funny like that, solid plain folks. We best get you a late garden in for extras this winter.” He sighed as if this were his job, a burden on his shoulders. “You do know how to can vegetables, don’t you?”

  I didn’t even stumble. “Yes.” At least I was back to my old self. “I should have planned better.” I held out my hand. “I’m Rose Gardner, and it looks like I’m going back to Asheville to buy some food.”

  He looked around. “This is a mess, but you could make it work if you had a mind to.” He walked past me. “You know, kids around here see Hobbs out by that hollow tree.” The tree stood on the edge of the woods with limbs like some kind of creature’s arms. “He ain’t never showed himself to me, but I don’t guess he would anyway.” He looked out the window. “Nellie turned into another person up here.”

  Damn, he was sweet on Nellie. What made everyone love that girl? “When you marry the wrong person you change.” I wanted to stomp my foot and scream. “I’m not Nellie. Hobbs didn’t change me a bit. I guess that’s why we loved each other so much. We accepted who we were, the good and the bad.”

  Jack looked me over as if searching for a crack in my honesty. “We ain’t talking about the same Hobbs Pritchard.”

  “He could be decent. He was good to me, but like all of us, he had his faults, and getting caught up with young women was one of them. Nellie’s pretty looks outshined mine and he married her. But in the end, he came back to me.”

  “Where’d you get the idea you weren’t something to look at?” He studied me with his green eyes.

  Under his stare my cheeks grew warm. I looked away. “I’ll be okay. I know how to take care of myself.”

  “I’m sure you will. You might just make it after all. You remind me of someone I knew.”

  “Who?”

  “AzLeigh Pritchard, Hobbs’s sister. She was one smart girl. She didn’t take anything off of people.” His voice was tender.

  “I’ve heard about her.”

  “Yep. I’m sure you have.”

  Lonnie pulled on my skirt. “Mama.”

  Jack looked at him for the first time since he shadowed the door. “Hello, little guy.” He held out his large hand. Lonnie took it instantly. “We got to get you and your mama some food. What you think?”

  Lonnie smiled. “I love cookies.”

  Jack threw his head full of dark curls back and laughed a belly laugh. “You look just like your daddy, the good parts he never seemed to use.” He ruffled Lonnie’s hair. “Too bad Hobbs never got a chance to know his son. It might actually have changed him.”

  “I thought the same thing. But he had his easy ways too.”

  He gave me a doubtful look. “Never saw them myself, but AzLeigh used to claim the same thing. Said that’s the reason she kept giving him one chance after another. Me, I learned early on not to go back for more.”

  “Do you know who might have killed him?” It seemed the wrong question to ask a person who disliked Hobbs so much, but I asked anyway.

  A quiet pall fell between us, but finally he spoke. “Who can say? So many people hated him.” He patted Lonnie’s back. I could tell he had a firm belief in who hated Hobbs enough to kill him. “We’ll stock the cupboard.”

  “I’ll pay. I don’t want charity. I was working up until I decided to make this change.”

  He cocked his eyebrow. “What kind of work? It must have been pretty bad to up and quit a job nowadays.” His smile was wonderfully clear and free of all the junk hanging on my shoulders. How could I tell him something that would make him think less of me?

  “I cleaned houses for a living,” I lied. “Lonnie’s too big to take with me now. He gets into everything. I had to come up with another life.” The story ended true enough, but I couldn’t look my son in the eyes.

  “You’re starting fresh here.” He turned to leave. “I’ll be back in a little while.” And he was gone out the door.

  Lonnie ran after him. “Bye, big man.”

  Jack turned around and studied my boy with his cool green stare. “Bye, little man.” He looked at me. “I’ll bring plenty of food. You can pay me by cooking some suppers. Poor old Aunt Ida can’t remember half her recipes and mixes up the ingredients.”

  Thirty-nine

  Jack was in and out of our lives, helpful but distant all the same. I wasn’t looking for a friend. One day while searching halfheartedly for Hobbs’s money, I found Nellie’s diary and a beautiful red garnet necklace pushed into a sideboard drawer. The necklace wasn’t worth too much but Nellie probably thought it was a treasure of rubies. Hobbs could have bought it for her, but his style was to win gifts at poker games. I fastened the clasp around my neck. The stones caught the sun. I liked the fact that I didn’t know its story or real worth.

  I read the diary in less than thirty minutes. The few pages were revealing. Nellie started out innocent. Her last entry sent a shiver up my back. Hobbs destroyed something deep inside her. The thought crossed my mind to give the diary to Jack, but that would spoil the story that Nellie died because she walked off into the woods with a broken heart. Could Nellie have killed Hobbs? I burned the book in the fireplace.

  * * *

  Lonnie and I moved into a small bedroom tucked near the attic door at the end of the upstairs hall. This turned out to be Jack’s old room.

  “You didn’t want the big bedroom?” Jack had stopped by to help with the garden.

  “No.” I busted a dirt clod with the toe of my shoe.

  “Why? Have you seen anything?”

  “If you mean Hobbs, no.”

  He nodded to the garnet necklace around my neck. “I was thinking more like my mama. I don’t believe in things like that, but Nellie said she saw her. That there is Mama’s necklace you got on.” He turned his head and the brim of his hat hid his eyes.

  “I’m sorry. I found it in a drawer in the dining room. It’s not worth anything, so I thought I would wear it.”

  He pushed his hat back. “I wonder how it got to the dining room. The last I knew, she was buried with it.”

  The words made my thoughts scramble at once. “Oh, I can show you the drawer where I found it.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t doubt you, Rose. I’m just wondering how the necklace got out of Mama’s casket. Maybe Henry James had a change of heart, but I doubt it.”

  I took the necklace off and pushed it towards him. “The box is in the same drawer.”

  Again he was still. “Don’t worry none. I don’t think you had anything to do with it.” He half grinned. “I mean, you weren’t living here then.”

  “I’m glad you can joke.”

  He shrugged. “It’s just another mystery on this mountain full of them.” But I could tell he was concerned.

  I dropped the necklace into his open hand.

  “I got a keepsake. There’s not many of those.” His finger curled around the red stones. His sadness stood between us.

  “I chose the small room because the big bedroom is haunted with something besides ghosts. That room has Hobbs in every corner.” I watched his face become stern.

  “I know you didn’t like Hobbs. I know he was mean to most of the people on this mountain, but he wasn’t mean to me, Jack. I loved him.”

  He nodded. “Every person, mean or not, must have someone they try to love.” Then he cocked his head. “Did you ever go against him?”

  “I told him he had to leave Nellie or else I’d go home.” A seed of truth. “He came back here to leave her.”

  “We’ll never know.” He took his hat off and ran his fingers through his curls.

  “Know what?”

  “Whether he was going to leave her or not. Whether he was going to come back to you. Whether he would have been there for little Lonnie.” His words weren’t mean, but they did hit a mark inside.

  Lonnie ran full steam across the yard to Jack, pulling on his arm. “Come and play, please.”

  “Lonnie, Jack is busy with
the garden.”

  “Come play.” He tugged harder. “The man near the tree says you’re good at playing.”

  “What did you say, Lonnie?” I looked around the yard.

  Lonnie ignored me. “Come on. The man says you can teach me to throw a baseball.”

  Jack looked at me. “What are you talking about, little man? What tree?”

  “He’s right there by the tree with the hole. He’s watching us. He’s my friend.”

  “I don’t see anything, Lonnie.”

  My son looked at me like I had three heads. “He’s there, Mama.” Then he pulled on Jack’s hand. “Come on.”

  Jack gave a little smile. “Does this man have a name?”

  Lonnie shrugged. “He won’t tell me. He said it would upset Mama. He likes her a lot.” Hobbs was talking to my baby.

  Jack looked at me. “Well, I think we should go play some ball.” The two of them walked off toward the barn. This quiet man was becoming part of my son’s life whether I liked it or not.

  The shadow leaned against the hollow tree with its arms folded over its chest, a position I’d seen more than one time. “Hobbs.” The sweet scent of whiskey and cigarettes surrounded me. “Hobbs Pritchard,” I whispered.

  Forty

  The summer months were hot during the day and wonderfully cool at night. I was content in my new life. The small garden near the kitchen was full of vegetables. The tomatoes were big and red. My favorite supper was a yellow squash sliced with fresh onion and cooked in butter. Next spring I planned on having a larger garden near the front of the house. The mountain had become my home, a safe friend. “You’ll stay here the rest of your life,” it whispered in my ear.

  Slowly Hobbs moved to the back of my mind. I went days without even remembering his face. Jack grew to be a silent friend, even though I knew nothing much about him.

  “So, did you ever have a girl, Jack?” I said this in a matter-of-fact way. I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.

  He paused ever so slightly with the maul over his head. “Yes I did. The problem is Hobbs had a liking for her too.” He lowered the maul. “We both know how easy it was for him to get what he wanted. Patty loved me, but Hobbs wouldn’t have no part of it. He followed her everywhere, making her life miserable. Her daddy threatened to call the sheriff up here.”