Echoes in the Bayou

by Dukes, Ursula

  "I knew it then, but I ignored it," she said out loud and took a sip of wine. How could I have been so stupid? She asked herself. It's over and done with, her conscience soothed her. You've much better and more important things to look forward to.

  Magnus sat in front of his laptop trying to think of a first sentence, that’s all he needed was a first sentence. Once he got that first sentence out of the way, the rest of the words would flow freely, of this he was sure. Ever since his fiancée Jeanette dumped him six weeks ago, he’d been suffering from severe writers block. The old place was something that he thought would be a dream come true, it was out in the middle of nowhere, the nearest neighbor was miles away and the history of the place was enough to stir up even the most skeptical imagination. But here he was, six weeks in and nothing. He had a deadline; he had to show his publisher something, anything.

  I should have stayed in New Orleans, he thought to himself. "That’s what I get for buying something on a whim," he murmured as he looked around the old place. Oh stop lying to yourself Magnus, his conscience scolded him. You left New Orleans because you needed solitude, and when Jeanette told you that she didn’t want to go with you, well let’s just say that put quite a damper on things. Then she dumped you claiming that the distance was too great. "Yeah right, distance my ass," he mumbled to himself. He knew the real reason why his fiancée had refused to move in with him, she had told him that she’d changed her mind about getting married and that deep down she thought him incapable of loving her.

  Magnus knew what she meant, it wasn’t the physical love he had a problem with it was the emotional love, the most important kind of love. He had spent several years getting to know Jeanette and all the wonderful things about her but time and time again he found himself lost. By the time they had reached their third anniversary she had given him an ultimatum, either he propose or she was out of his life for good, so feeling pressured he proposed.

  He loved her, or at least he thought he did but he just couldn’t come out and say the words, he would always tell her that he was quite fond of her and when he proposed he simply told her that she knew more about him than any other woman and would she do him the honor of becoming his wife. He was surprised when she accepted; he thought for sure she’d say no. But as the planning commenced, Magnus soon realized that she wasn’t in it for love; she was in it for the money.

  What was supposed to be a small ceremony, ended up becoming the social event of the season and that was something he wasn’t prepared for. When he tried talking to her about it, she’d simply guilt his loveless proposal on him. She told him that since he couldn’t say the word, he better show it and what better way than to go all out for the wedding ceremony. That was all it took, his fiancée had quilted him into paying for the entire wedding, everything from the horse drawn carriages, to the opulent honeymoon in Paris. She had it all planned out, the entire venue rivaled that of a Hollywood wedding. And up until six weeks ago he was willing to shell out the money for it all, anything so he wouldn’t end up alone. But when she broke it off, it was all he could do not to beg her to come back to him.

  For Jeanette, living life anywhere that wasn’t New Orleans was not something that she was willing to do, so when he bought the plantation she was beside herself. "When will I see my friends? What am I supposed to do all day while you’re writing? I hope you don’t expect me to just sit here all day and do nothing while you write, because that’s not going to happen!" She argued. Even though they were only an hour or so from New Orleans, for Jeanette the distance was too far. "And what if there’s another hurricane like Katrina?" She asked. "We’ll be dead before anyone even thinks to come and check on us."

  It was then that he knew he’d be living at the plantation alone.

  And when he moved to Corinth without her, he realized that she wanted to put the miles between them and not just the driving kind. Each time that he would make the trip to see her, she would end up being busy or having other plans; it got so bad that he found himself staying at her apartment alone most weekends. Finally, she told him that she'd had enough; there was no use in continuing a long distance relationship she told him. He knew then, probably even sooner that she had been seeing someone else.

  So Magnus lied to his friends when they told him to come on back to New Orleans. He told them that he needed to get the old place ready to sell and that it would take a long time to take care of the renovations. He also wanted peace and quiet to write his novel. And since Jeanette no longer wanted to be with him, he saw no reason to go crawling back to New Orleans with his tail between his legs, no way. He was going to stick it out alone, as long as he possibly could.

  Just look at how far you’ve gotten Magnus, not one goddamn word has been typed on your computer, you’re smart, real fucking smart. "Well, there’s no going back now," he replied to his own conscience. I made the choice to move out here, now I have to live with that choice for a very long time. Everyone thinks this place is haunted and after what happened to that older couple, not one person has come to even look at the place. No one interested in actually buying it that is.

  He knew how hard it was going to be to sell the place plantation or not, people nowadays couldn’t afford a plantation, let alone a semi-dilapidated, haunted one. The plantation was out in the middle of nowhere and if and when a good rain came there was no way out because the one road that led to the plantation almost immediately flooded. That was just one of the many problems the place had. Anytime a potential buyer would come to view the property, they always ended up being too spooked to even finish looking around.

  He remembered one evening several weeks ago when his realtor had brought an older couple out to look at the place. They were retiring and were in the market for an old plantation, something that they could refurbish and turn into a bed and breakfast. Magnus had been excited to meet the prospective buyers; he was even willing to lower the price if he had to.

  But the moment they stepped over the threshold and into the large plantation, the older gentleman got violently ill and his wife said she felt as if she’d been slapped in the face. They all stood in awe as a large red mark appeared on her skin. Needless to say, they didn’t wait around to see if anything else was going to happen, and they certainly didn’t want to hear any explanation from Magnus, he simply did not have one.

  Shortly after that particular incident, he told his realtor that if she kept what happened to herself, that he would pay the fee and cancel his contract. She wholeheartedly agreed, so that left him in search of a new realtor, he needed someone who could be discreet and hands on. But before he’d put the house back on the market, he’d hire a staging designer. He needed someone who would spruce up the entire place and make it look inviting. And after searching online, he found a real estate office that employed an in house staging designer. Even though the office was located in Savannah, some twelve hours away, he decided to give Gavin a call. There weren’t many staging designers that were willing to come out to the old place, let alone move in temporarily, so when Gavin told him that he had the perfect woman for the job, he was glad that he had gone outside of his usual comfort zone.

  Magnus hoped that with the offer to pay for her time and free room and board that she would be willing to stay as long as possible in order to get the place looking good as new. He trusted that all the renovations wouldn’t deplete his bank account; he wasn’t really worried about that though, because there was no lack of money. His latest book sales were doing phenomenal according to Steve, his friend and agent and that was something he enjoyed hearing.

  Even though his father was a very successful oil tycoon, Magnus was glad that he had made his own way and was pursuing his dream. But now he was more inclined to worry about the designer, this Ava Montgomery. He wondered if she’d take one look at the place, turn hard on her heels and haul ass out of there.

  He couldn’t tell Gavin or anyone else for that matter that he too thought that the place was haunted. The last thing he need
ed or wanted was ghost hunters prowling around or calling him to ask if a camera crew could spend the night. He may be a bestselling author of historical, sometimes haunting romances, but this was different, this was his home. If anyone was going to investigate it was going to be him, and he would start by looking into the history of the Montieu family.

  He had already managed to find out that there had been a suicide inside the house back in its hay day, when it was an operational plantation. But that something bad had happened that left the Montieu family virtually penniless. Magnus believed that is was the suicide of their son, William Jr. that led to the family’s ruin. It’s documented that his mother, Amelia Montieu found their only son in the kitchen with a bullet hole through his head.

  When some of the house slaves were questioned, they said that he killed himself because of a young slave girl with whom he had fallen madly in love with. But when his mother told him that she had run away, he got hold of one of his daddy’s pistols and blew his brains out. Magnus believed that William Jr.’s spirit was still haunting the place. What he couldn’t put his finger on was why? And who was the slave that he was in love with?

  His mind suddenly filled with unconscious insight. The forbidden relationship that went on behind plantation doors would be the premise of his new novel. The master’s only son falls in love with a house slave from the plantation; their love was so strong that when he finds out that she’s run away, he decides that he’d rather die than live without her. It’s timeless, he told himself.

  He knew that if he wanted another best seller that he was going to have to do some serious digging into the past of Montieu Plantation. Just then, he realized that calling Gavin and getting Ava to come out to the plantation had been perfect timing. He would give her free reign over the entire house and allow her to oversee the renovations while he busied himself doing research. "This is going to be perfect," he said out loud as he began writing the outline for his new novel.

  Chapter Four

  It gave Ava unexpected pleasure to pack the rest of her remaining bags, leave the key on the dining room table and simply drive away. Everything she packed fit perfectly into her car so there was no need to put anything else in storage. There was nothing, absolutely nothing that could make her want to run as far away from Savannah as she could like being betrayed and used by the man that she loved.

  Even though Magnus wasn’t expecting her for another day, she figured that there was no time like the present and she wanted to put some distance between herself and the betrayers, that's what she liked to call them. It was a new name she had come up with last night while she lie awake going over what had happened. To her, there was no other word that best fit the two of them.

  Gavin had told her that Magnus had been stricken with writers block and almost never left the plantation, so she figured she’d take a chance and arrive there a bit early. And if he wasn’t home, she’d simply go into town and get a room for the night. Either way, she wanted to get the hell out of Savannah. It was six o’clock in the morning and according to her gps, she would be arriving in Corinth at about seven o’clock that evening.

  She had driven straight through to Alabama, and was in Tuscaloosa when her stomach began to rumble. Glancing at the time, she realized that there was no rush; Magnus wouldn’t be expecting her tonight anyway so she could take all the time she needed. Although, she did want to reach her destination before nightfall, and maybe she’d give him a call to let him know she would be arriving a bit earlier than expected. "I gotta eat something first," she whispered as she pulled into a local fast food restaurant.

  With a full belly and gas tank, Ava hopped back onto the interstate, drove through Tuscaloosa and headed towards Jackson Mississippi. She found it quite liberating to be making the long trek to Louisiana alone. It was something that she never would have thought of doing, ever. Mom and dad would be so proud, she thought to herself. If only they were around to see it. Her parents had both passed several years ago, but she remembered when they had informed her that she was adopted. It was at a time when they knew she’d understand; they also told her that they loved her as if she was their own and Ava knew that they had meant it.

  Her parents soon told her all they knew about her birth mother, she was young and she had been a victim of rape. And rather than get rid of her baby, she decided to give it up for adoption. Although Ava’s adoptive parents were older than most of the couples that were looking to adopt, it didn’t stop them from wanting a child. Besides that, the fact that both of her parents had led very successful lives made them all the more appealing to the agency.

  With her father being a prominent business attorney and her mother running her own daycare center, it was only a matter of time before they wanted a child of their own. So when they found out that they were unable to have children, they knew that they still wanted to provide a safe, nurturing, and loving home for an adopted child. And that was also taken into account by the adoption agency. They were ecstatic when the agency told them about Ava’s birth mother, finally they would get the chance to have a family.

  You’re doing the right thing. Ava could almost hear her mother’s voice. It was times like these that she wished her parents were still alive. With both Gavin and her best friend out of her life, she had no one. She hoped that she would enjoy this new job and that Magnus would be pleased with her work because she intended to drag it out as long as possible. Not because she was hungry for money, her parents had left her a small inheritance, it wasn’t that. She wanted the job at the plantation to last because she simply needed time to think about where it was that she was going to go when the job was finished, but for now she'd take comfort in the fact that someone needed her help.

  By the time Magnus looked up from his laptop it was close to five o’clock, after he finished his outline he had decided to get a couple pages down. Thirty five pages later, he had managed a great first chapter and a second and a third. He emailed his agent and told him about his new idea. Steve immediately responded congratulating him on writing what sounded like another best seller. "I think I’ll celebrate with a bottle of wine," he said as he stared at the computer screen. "Damn you’re good," he told himself.

  Although he himself had never witnessed anything too out of the ordinary at the plantation, he wasn’t about to be cynical. After all, he did see that woman’s face and the red mark that had suddenly appeared and there were the late night traipses to the kitchen. At least three times a week, sometimes more, he would find himself standing in the kitchen. There were times when he would be facing the window that overlooked the garden. At other times he’d find himself in the pantry and then he’d wake up to find himself staring at nothing but a wall of canned goods and jars.

  At least I think that’s what I was staring at, he told himself. When he asked his parents if he’d ever been a sleep walker, they told him no. They said that once he went to sleep he stayed asleep and that maybe his move out to the plantation wasn’t such a good idea and maybe he should move back. But he told his parents no. He needed to be there, needed to see things through and he intended to do just that. Besides he told them, his sleep walking never took him outside the house or anyplace dangerous so he would go with it, for now. "It’s not even real sleep walking," he reassured his parents.

  To Magnus it felt like he was being led somewhere and there had been several times when he could feel the hardwood floors under his feet. The smell of gardenias would always fill his nostrils, and for some reason, he was intoxicated by the scent. "It’s obviously a coincidence," he whispered. "The gardenia bush outside the kitchen window carries the strong scent right into the room, that’s all." He looked over at the large shrub. It became important; he needed it to fit into his story.

  By the time she had reached Louisiana, Ava decided that it was pointless to call Magnus and tell him that she’s arrived a day early. I'm already here, she told herself. Might as well just head over to the plantation and hope that he’s at home. She was already o
ff the interstate and following the directions that the gps was giving her turn for turn. She smiled when she saw the overabundance of oak trees, they were so heavy with Spanish moss that they looked like clouds had tumbled from the sky and got caught up in the heavy branches. The sight was something she had only seen in photographs and in movies.

  "Where the hell is this place?" She asked. Even though it was still daylight, it was hard for her to keep her eyes on the road. All around, the great oaks were on either side of her. It was as if the giant trees were shielding her from the rest of the world, beckoning her to enter a bygone era. The further down the road she drove the thicker and heavier the trees seemed to get. "I must be losing my mind," she said to herself. "I knew I should have googled this place. That’s the last time I take Gavin’s word for anything! That asshole had me come out here to no man’s land," she cursed.

  Deep down she knew that no one was forcing her down here, the decision had been hers, and hers alone. Gavin had only suggested that she take the job and since she had no place else to go at the moment, it was as good a choice as any. "Okay, pay attention to the road Ava, you’re almost there." The further she drove down the deserted road, the more it looked as if she were driving out of civilization and into a time that had long since passed her by, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was driving into an adventure. This was an adventure that would surely leave her more self-possessed than she’d ever been before.

  Before she could develop any second thoughts, the gps instructed her that she had reached her destination. Glancing around she noticed that the oaks were even more crowded now and the Spanish moss was even thicker than the ones on the main road, and they formed a ghostly appearance or at least to her it seemed that way. She could see the thick bayou on either side of her as she drove down the gravel road. Just as she was beginning to think that Gavin had sent her to a false address, the mansion seemed to materialize out of nowhere.