Echoes in the Bayou

by Dukes, Ursula

"Ava, I think meeting you however odd the circumstances were, was the best thing that Magnus could have done and if he told you that he loves you then know that he truly and undeniably does. I am so happy for the both of you, not only does Magnus get to finally find love, but I finally get the kind of friend that I've been waiting for," she grinned and winked at her. "And maybe Magnus could give my husband some pointers on how to treat his lady," she sighed.

  "What's wrong with Steve? He seems like a pretty good guy," Ava said.

  "You're right, he is but he's like a gremlin, give him too much to drink and turns into a bastard."

  "Wow, I'm sorry Kelly. I had no idea. Is there anything I can do? Maybe get Magnus to really talk to him?" Kelly shook her head; she knew that if her husband got wind that she'd confided in Ava about their troubled marriage. There would be hell to pay.

  "No, I should have never brought it up. I'm sure he'll be fine you and Magnus are here and it's going to be a great weekend," she smiled.

  "My sentiments exactly," Ava grinned back.

  "Are you having a good time so far?" Magnus asked. It was well after midnight and the two were in the guest house in bed.

  "I am having a wonderful time," she said and moved in closer towards him. He had cranked the air conditioner up as high as it would go for this very reason.

  Staring into the darkness she let out a heavy sigh. "Magnus, how could you let Jeanette embarrass you by telling Steve and Kelly that you were incapable of loving her?"

  "Kelly told you about that huh?"

  "Well we were just having a conversation and it came out, she meant no disrespect."

  "No, I know she didn’t. And I don’t know why I allowed Jeanette to treat me the way that she did. I guess I was so worried about finding love that I didn’t worry or care about the person that it was coming from, or should I say that it wasn’t coming from. Ava you have to keep in mind that I had no idea about the so called curse so when I met Jeanette, after being with her for so many years, it seemed like the right thing to do."

  "I know Magnus and I'm sorry, but you know what I'm not sorry about?" She asked.

  "I'm not sorry that she broke it off with you and I'm definitely not sorry that you made that call to Gavin," she chuckled in the night. "Now I want to feel you inside of me," she purred and kissed him as she got on top, her mouth never leaving his.

  The Boomtown Riverboat Casino was bustling with action, tourists and locals alike funneled through its large doors in anticipation of hitting the jackpot. By the time their small group had found space enough for all of them to sit together, it was late.

  "How about there?" Steve pointed to four empty seats in the video slots area.

  "Anywhere is fine, both women chimed in. "My feet are killing me," Ava said as she plopped down in the chair. The red Valentino heels that she was wearing looked fantastic, but wearing them for hours on end was starting to get painful.

  "Here, let me," Magnus said and playfully raised her legs just enough so that her feet were resting on his lap.

  "Careful, my dress," she lightly scolded him. "I don’t want everybody taking a sneak peek at my business," she smirked. They had all been drinking and the later the evening, the more drinks they were consuming. Several hours and several drinks later, they called it a night and continued talking and laughing during the taxi ride home.

  "I've got ghosts." Ava thought she'd whispered to Kelly. Magnus and Steve had been having a conversation of their own when they heard her. Magnus smiled and shook his head at her but it was too late. Kelly was already intrigued and listened intently as Ava began to recount the events of what's been happening at the plantation.

  The ride was over before she could finish, even the driver had to fight to keep his attention on the road, and the story was just too incredible not to be believed.

  She was still talking when they stumbled in the door. As both women removed their heels, Kelly was well absorbed in what Ava was telling her. But she had questions, lots of questions.

  "Well what are you going to do to get those two together?" She asked them.

  "We're working on that," Ava sighed.

  "And what about those evil spirits, what were their names? Oh yes, John and Amelia. How are you going to send them back to wherever it is that they came from? Wait, there weren't any spirits around when Steve and I came for dinner the other night was there? To think, we might have shared a meal with ghosts," she sounded excited and intrigued. Magnus looked at Steve in disbelief.

  "Don’t look at me pal; I thought she'd be freaked out too. Guess we underestimated her," he grinned at his friend.

  Kelly took no notice of the conversation that the two men were having, she continued bombarding Ava with questions. Ava thought it a relief to be able to share her thoughts and feelings with someone other than Magnus or Sinta. Sinta, she thought to herself, there's no need to tell them about Sinta. She wasn’t sure that they would understand. Hell, there was times when she herself couldn’t believe that Sinta found her way back to the big house after living so many other lives. And to come back as a solid human being was even more implausible yet there she was back at the plantation, living and breathing at least she'd be until the end of summer. Who knows where she'd go at summer's end.

  "And I suppose that Sinta is from another time and place, sent here to help you remove the curse?" Kelly said sounding pragmatic.

  Ava almost choked on the bottle of water she'd just taken a sip out of.

  "Kelly how in the hell…?" She didn’t need to finish her sentence.

  "Oh come on Ava, I mean the other night when you introduced her I thought that she was maybe from some kind of dinner theatre performance or something but the minute you started telling me that you had ghosts, well I simply put two and two together. I mean geez you guys, well don’t look at me like that," she said her eyes rolling. What did you all think? That I wouldn’t believe in this kind of stuff or that I'd get too freaked out? Nope as a matter of fact, I absolutely love the paranormal."

  She went on to tell them that before she met Steve, she and her friends would go ghost hunting. Their particular places of interests were old abandoned homes and deserted buildings. They'd even traveled into Connecticut, to visit Dudley Town. Dudley Town, or its remains she told them, is located in northwestern Connecticut within the town of Cornwall. The small village holds interpretations of supernatural tales, unexplained events, and curses coupled with over 400 years of British and American history -- including ties to King Henry VIII, and General George Washington. She told them that there was a curse which stated that all Dudley's from Edmund Dudley’s lineage would find one another surrounded by horrible, evil things.

  Her husband sat dumfounded at his wife's overabundance of information about the old town. "I had no idea that you knew anything about old legends and curses," he told her. "Let alone that you went so far as to go out and investigate them. I just always assumed that you would find it silly and frivolous," he put his arms around his wife. "But let's not overdue it," he whispered so that only she could hear and squeezed her arm a little too tight.

  "I won't," she faked a smile. "And Ava, Magnus, if you guys need help with anything you let me know, I've done research for my own recreational purposes and I'd be more than happy to help. It's all so very interesting, I love it!" She squealed and looked at them. Magnus and Ava could only manage to nod in agreement as they sat with their mouths agape, amazed at what Kelly had just told them.

  "I don’t suppose that you brought the diaries with you?"

  Ava winked at her and grabbed her hand as the two took off up the stairs and into the guest room. Once inside Kelly let out an excited gasp as she watched Ava pull out and gently uncover the two diaries. She had taken care not to damage them by wrapping them in several layers of tissue paper.

  She carefully sat them on the bed and watched as Kelly sat astounded. "Can I see?" She was almost beside herself with excitement. She cursed when she realized that she had to go get her reading glasse
s.

  Magnus leaned against the doorway and shook his head. "Ava, you know that Sinta told you to stop reading those, especially Amelia's," he cautioned her. "She told us the more she reads that thing, the stronger Amelia becomes," he was now looking at Kelly. She shrugged her shoulders before saying, "I'll be right back, gotta get my glasses."

  "I'm sure it will be alright honey, she rushed up and kissed him on the lips. "Besides, she said not to read them when I was alone and once again, I'm not alone." Ava pointed at Kelly who'd come back from retrieving her glasses.

  Magnus returned her kiss, he was happy that she'd made a new friend and the two seemed to get along quite well, it was as if they'd known each other a lot longer than a few days.

  "Well you two be careful," he said and returned downstairs.

  "Looks like it's just me and you," Magnus grinned at his friend who had already gotten out a bottle of A.H. Hirsch Reserve Whiskey.

  "No time like the present," Steve said and poured them each a glass.

  Two p.m. the next day, Magnus rolled over in bed and found himself alone. He tried to shake the hangover out of his head as he looked around and realized that not only was he in bed alone, but it wasn’t the bed that he and Ava were sharing for the weekend. In fact, it wasn’t even the same room. "What the hell?" He mumbled and staggered out of bed. Out in the hallway he could hear them talking. It was then that he remembered although it was all a bit blurry, that last night he had gone upstairs to bed but Ava and Kelly had dominated the king sized bed with snacks and were reading the pages of the diaries.

  He'd only said goodnight before finding his way into the first floor guest room, or maybe Steve showed me where to go, he thought to himself. Either way he woke up alone and still a bit hung over. As he stepped out into the hallway, Ava stepped out of the kitchen to greet him. "Well good afternoon, I was wondering when you'd decide to join us," she said. "Did you have a good night's sleep? Sorry about last night, Kelly and I kind of took over the bed reading the diaries," she apologized.

  "I did, but I missed you," he yawned and pulled her into his arms. "Where is everybody?"

  "Just getting changed, they'll be back in a minute. We're going to have a late lunch, go get washed up and meet us in the dining room."

  The rest of the afternoon sped by and before they know it, it was time to go.

  "Thank you so much for inviting us, I had a wonderful time," Ava kissed and hugged her new friend's goodbye. Magnus shook hands with Steve before giving Kelly a kiss on the cheek.

  "You guys are welcome anytime, but you already know that don’t you buddy?" Steve patted his friend on the back.

  "You guys should come out to the plantation and spend a few days, or a week," she laughed. "I could use the company," Ava winked at her. "I need to give Magnus a chance to get his writing done."

  Magnus gathered her in his arms. "I told you already," he said. "If it wasn’t for you, I would have never come up with the idea for my novel."

  "That may be, but the fact remains that you've hardly gotten any writing done," she frowned.

  "Hey, if it will get him closer towards his deadline, I'd be more than happy to send Kelly out there for a few days, sound like a plan? Oh and that reminds me, Magnus I should be getting that paperwork back from the publisher on Wednesday so how about I bring Kelly with me when I drop it off to you and then you and I can head on back here for the meeting with your editor on Thursday," he suggested. "Then we can return here, say Thursday night?" He knew that his wife would keep Ava busy and Magnus would be able to concentrate on his meeting, choosing a release date, book signings, and the rest. He had no doubt that this new novel was going to hit the best seller list in no time and that was always a good thing. He was already in talks with a major television network about making "Secrets in the Bayou," into a made for television movie. But that was a long ways away, in the meantime he would continue with the tour. He hadn’t mentioned the possible movie deal to Magnus yet, and there were two reasons why he. The first one being, the book wasn’t finished yet and the second one was because Magnus had made it clear to him that he did not want to become too commercial, he wanted his writing to be appreciated and not made into some kind of crazy franchise.

  "Of course not buddy," Steve promised him. But if Magnus was offered a movie deal he was going to try his hardest to convince his client that it would be in his best interest to accept the deal. Steve knew that a wealthy client made a wealthy agent and wealth was something that he wanted more than anything.

  Chapter Seventeen

  As much as Ava hated to leave her friend, she was anxious to get back to the plantation. They still had to undercover what exactly happened the night of Celeste's murder and besides having to reunite the two, they had to figure out a way to get rid of the evil spirits of Amelia and John. "Magnus I want to finish this whole curse business," she told him. They were nearing home when an ominous feeling suddenly came over her.

  "I know you do and so do I."

  "Kelly and I were talking, what if we had another séance with she and Steve this time? I know the last one was a bit over the top but I was thinking that if…"

  Magnus had reached the end of his rope. "No!" He shouted at Ava. "Now I know that we have to put this whole curse business to rest in order to live peacefully but you are taking this séance stuff way too far Ava. Might I remind you of what occurred the last time we all had a séance?" He was fuming now, he wasn’t sure if she understood the severity of the situation. "Ava, Sinta herself has told you to stop reading the diaries so much and on your own none the less and now you want another séance? Haven't you noticed that ever since the last one, we haven’t been visited by anyone or anything malevolent? Why in god's name would you want to stir up more trouble? No, I forbid it Ava, you and Kelly can come up with some other more sensible way to move things along but neither I nor Steve will participate in another séance you got that?"

  She had never seen him so angry before, but that wasn’t what pissed her off, what pissed her off was that he said he forbid it. What the hell was she? A child?

  She turned to look him, her eyes ablaze with anger, she wasn’t going to let him talk to her that way, and the ominous feeling inside of her was beginning to boil over. There was something going on with her but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

  "Okay, first of all I'd appreciate it if you didn’t speak to me like I'm a child and second of all, don’t tell me that you forbid something that I want to do, you're not my parent," she reproached him. "I'm a grown woman Magnus and if I want to do something then I'll goddamn do it and if you don’t like it, just say the word and I'll leave. I don’t fucking need you."

  Ava was startled at her own words. Had she not felt the heated emotion rising inside of her when she said them she would have thought them the words of a complete stranger, something was happening to her. She wanted to take the words back and apologize but something inside of her told her not to, told her that it wasn’t important. Magnus too couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was glad that they had finally made it home; he could stop the car and give her his full attention.

  "Ava, I'm sorry that it came out like that, I didn’t mean it like that. All I meant was that I don’t want to see you get hurt. Look, having another séance is not a good idea right now, how about we talk to Sinta and see what else we can do?" He was looking at her and the expression on her face was one that he had never seen before, it was as if she had completely blocked him out.

  "Ava, are you even listening to me?" He asked and gently squeezed her arms.

  When Ava looked up, she realized Magnus was looking at her and his hands were rubbing her arms. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" He could hear the mockery in her voice and thought it more than a little odd, this wasn’t like her; it wasn’t like her at all.

  "Ava I was talking to you and you completely ignored me," he had concern in his eyes as he stared at her.

  He watched as she awkwardly moved her head from side to
side, it looked as if she was stretching her neck muscles. But the expression on her face was still one that he hadn’t recognized.

  "I'm listening, I'm listening," she said and got out of the car. There was an annoyance in her tone and he wondered what was going on in her head. Magnus watched Ava as she walked up the stairs and to the front door. She stopped when she reached the porch and looked around as if she was looking at it for the very first time. She leaned her head back and gazed up at the upstairs balcony and shielded her eyes from the harsh sun. "I see you haven’t been keeping up with the house," she mumbled and gave him one last glance before disappearing inside.

  He found her lying on the sofa in the sitting room, her arm covering her eyes.

  "Ava, are we going to talk about this?"

  "Talk about what Magnus? There's nothing to talk about, you forbade me from having another séance and I said I'll do what I want, end of discussion."

  "Please Ava, I just want you to be alright, we've been through enough already and I don’t want some stupid séance to come between us."

  "We Magnus? We? I didn’t see you getting accosted by evil spirits, and I didn’t see anyone become momentarily possessed and try to knock your lights out either so forgive me if I am unable to sympathize with what you've been through because I just don’t see it!"

  After several minutes of trying to think of what to say, Magnus decided that the best thing for him to do was to leave her alone. It was more than obvious that there was something going on but she wasn’t in the mood to tell him what that something was.

  "I'm going to leave you here to rest for a while," he said sympathetically. "We'll talk about this later." Ava only managed a slight nod and continued covering her eyes as he walked out the door.

  When he was out of sight, he let out a long sigh, Ava was the first woman whom he told he loved and they'd just had their first fight. Thinking back on it, he wished he'd rephrased his words. Forbid? How could I have been so damn stupid?" He questioned himself. He thought it best to let her cool down, and then maybe try to talk to her. In the meantime he figured he'd try and get some writing done, he didn’t want to waste the quiet time.