“You know how it can really be him,” said Carter. “You told me yourself that souls tend to reincarnate into their own families.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Brenda. “Martin probably hitched a ride into a new life inside the capsule of Willy. Hopefully that’s not the case. It’s like having a ghost follow you. Sometimes families moved to different places and the evil spirit is attached to the people, so no matter where they go, the possession remains intact. In this case, maybe Martin found a capsule and made the steps possible to return to this house. He just wanted to go home.”
“And to think that we believed we had seen and heard the last of him,” said Carter.
Carter reached over and pulled Brenda in for a hug. She was clearly shaken up by this. For her, it was more real because she understood that Martin was returning to his house in Boulder, Colorado to be back with and closer to Shirley. It was a hard pill to swallow, but everything was pointing to their theory being real. Time would tell, but they were not going to let Carl and Wendy in on their little secret. Not just yet, anyway. They may be good parents who loved their children, but they were useless to them for what they needed.
They made their way into the bedroom to check on Billy and Willy and tuck them into bed. The boys lit up when they arrived. Billy whispered into Willy’s ear.
“Can you tell us a bedtime story?” asked Willy.
“Oh,” said Brenda, “Billy wants a bedtime story, does he?” Brenda replied.
The twins both shook their head up and down as if Brenda did not just make that snide comment.
There was another whisper, and another request from Billy via Willy.
“Can you tell us a scary story?”
“Oh, Billy wants a scary story, does he?”
The twins had a weird, mischievous look on their faces and then giggled. “Yes,” said Willy.
Carter looked over at Brenda and smiled.
“Not a good idea,” said Brenda.
Carter knelt between the two beds and said to Brenda, “I got this.” He made sure all twin eyes were on him, and then he said, “I’ll tell you a scary story.”
Billy looked at Willy, and Willy said, “We want Shirley to tell us the story.”
“No,” said Carter. “First of all, there is no Shirley here. Brenda is the only female here… not Shirley. Shirley is dead!”
“Carter,” Brenda replied, waving her hands inconspicuously in a downward motion in an attempt to tell Carter to calm it down.
Carter wasn’t finished. “If you want a bedtime story and you want it to be scary, I will take care of that because Brenda doesn’t know any.”
“We want Brenda,” the twins chanted in unison. “We want Brenda.”
Brenda was standing behind Carter and took a step backward, saying nothing. Carter got to his feet and turned the light out. There was still light from the hallway shining into the bedroom, and together with the nightlight in the outlet between the beds, the backdrop for a scary story was set. There was also a slight howling wind outside the window.
Carter returned to kneeling between the beds, and fired up his scary tale. “There was an old man who lived alone in an old, white house. He was not a nice man, and he just wanted to live out his days in the house that he helped build with his father.”
Billy looked over at Willy, and it was only a look with no whispering, but apparently the other twin got the message and said, “Was it Martin?" Willy then looked back at Billy, and they smirked at each other.
“Yes,” said Carter, “as a matter of fact it was.” He got his bearings back and just carried on. No four-year-old twins were going to get the best of Carter Spence. “He had a wife who mysteriously disappeared one night, and nobody knew where… ”
“Did he have anything to do with her disappearance?” Willy asked.
Again, Carter was forced to stop and regain his composure. These four-year-old twins were starting to get the best of him. He needed to act as if he was just telling a scary story and their little freaky questions were going to be ignored. He again glanced over at Brenda, and she looked nervous as well. He was hoping that it didn’t show on him.
“So there was a family who eventually moved into the house to keep the old man company.”
“Tell your parents we said hi,” Billy said.
Carter looked up briefly, but then continued. “Then one day that couple disappeared as well.”
“I like trains,” said Billy.
“And I like the desert,” said Willy.
Carter didn’t bother even looking up this time. “It just so happened that the woman was found in the desert.”
“So were you,” said Willy. “Desert son.” The twins connected glances and laughed.
“And then the woman came after the Blankenship twins.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” said Willy.
“Yeah,” said Billy, “wouldn’t doubt it.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it either,” said Carter, riled up and trying to regain his composure, but it wasn’t working out too well. “They especially like to come after wise guys who get under people’s skin. You both better watch your back. I think she may be coming after you!”
The kids began to cry. There was a switchover. Just like that. They were fit to be tied, saying anything they wanted without regard for feelings or retribution. The fact that they knew all about the story Carter was telling them was downright creepy. Carter and Brenda lost this round, and they ended up having to console the crying boys, but they just wanted this round to end and they did not wish to be in their company anymore.
“Now get to bed, kids,” said Carter. “This story is over.” He walked out of the room and Brenda followed, closing the door solidly as she left.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
There was talking, and then loud noises, which roused Carter from his sleep. Wind howled fiercely and spurts of rain splattered the house. He lay in bed staring at the ceiling and trying to breathe softly to determine if there was noise from the other room, or if the noise was the result of the oncoming storm. The weatherman had predicted high winds associated with the storm front, and Carter wanted to verify that was all there was to it. When he heard Carl yell out again, he shook Brenda in an attempt to wake her up so he could eavesdrop with company. That way he could share the guilt if need be.
Brenda woke up at Carter’s urging and heard Wendy yelling at Carl. She lifted herself up to a sitting position with her hands, without even asking Carter why he woke her in the middle of the night. The wind increased to another level, which seemed to shift the old house on its foundation. They both sat up in bed, listening intently for another round of fighting. They got just that, but unfortunately the rooms were too far apart, and the distance too great for them to know anything more than the fact that there was an argument going on.
Moments later, the kids could be heard. Now it was a family affair as all members of the Blankenship family were involved. They could hear the kids talking, and then Carl could be heard screaming, and Wendy’s retort followed. The battle went on for several minutes before they heard footsteps in the hallway and then a knock on their bedroom door.
“Yes?” Carter yelled. He and Brenda glanced at each other, and then looked at the door.
The door opened, and in walked Carl, followed by Wendy. They had disturbed looks on their faces, like they were going to tear into them good. Carl was wearing pajama shorts and a matching blue patterned shirt with buttons. Wendy was dressed in a thin pink nightgown. They were both bothered by something, and Carter, without doing more than sitting up in bed asked, “What’s going on guys?”
“I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Ca
rl began. “My boys told Wendy and I that you had a few questions for them earlier today. They said that you were making them upset. What were you guys asking? What were you guys thinking?”
Carter looked at Carl and saw more animation than he’d ever seen in him. He looked over at Wendy, and her forehead wrinkles indicated an equivalent level of anger. They had asked the twins some questions, but did not recall anything that would make them want to run back and tell their parents about. Carter was trying to convince himself of this.
“Maudie is an innocent little game Willy plays and has played since he was little,” said Wendy. “There’s no reason for you to get involved in his little game. That’s all it is… a little game. Why would you get all in his face about it.”
“I didn’t get all in his face,” Carter pleaded.
“He said you did, and Billy agreed,” said Carl. “Are you calling them… liars?”
“He’s not calling them liars,” Brenda said. “He’s just saying he didn’t get all in his face, and I’ll corroborate that story because I was there for the whole conversation.”
“Maybe there is a little misunderstanding,” said Wendy. “The boys… I admit… can exaggerate a bit. If you say you didn’t get all in their faces, then what can we say. I guess we’ll have to let it slide.”
“You’re right, Wendy,” said Carl. “We’re just protecting our kids, because if we don’t look out for their best interest, then who wi… ”
Willy pushed the door open and entered the room as Billy trailed behind. “Liars… you’re liars!”
“Willy stop being disrespectful!” his father said. “Enough of that!”
“Enough of what? They started it. They were telling me that I’m not Maudie, and they said I wrote in the book and they were being mean!”
“Wait a minute,” Brenda stepped in. “Nobody was doing any of those things and you know it.” Brenda was irate and unnerved by these accusations. “We were simply asking if you had written in the book, and you can be who you choose to be. I happen to know a little bit about that… as does Carter here. If you say you’re Maudie or Marty or Martin, then have at it. You can be whoever you wish to be. I’m not gonna step in the way.”
Willy made an angry face and ran from the room, and again Billy followed him. Carl got up to try to go after the boys, but Wendy stopped him in his tracks.
“No, don’t bother. Let them be. They can get like that, and sometimes it’s best to let them blow off steam before we pursue them. Willy tends to really blow his top. He’s what they call a loose cannon. He scares me sometimes. He has a temper.”
“Does he ever,” Carl agreed. “We’ve brought him into child counselors and everything and they tell us that in all their years, they’d never seen such behavior from someone so young. That’s when we move on to another counselor… when we hear that. That tells us that they have no experience with our problem, so we need to keep it moving on, but three counselors in a row said the same thing.”
“That’s not good,” Carter said.
“My God,” said Brenda. “That’s terrible. They couldn’t even recommend anybody?”
“No,” said Wendy. “It’s as if Willy is the worst child in the world, and the first to act out in that age group.” Wendy followed that comment by putting her head in her hands and sobbing. “It’s been such a burden on our family and a strain on us socially. We couldn’t do anything about it. We couldn’t find help. We were ostracized by friends, neighbors and coworkers. He’s put such strain on our lives. When they gave us the opportunity to move away, we jumped on the chance for a fresh start. Willy said he would run away if we didn’t move to Boulder, Colorado. It’s like he had a strong bond.”
“Maybe he does,” said Brenda, whispering. Wendy and Carl both picked up their heads and looked at Brenda with a mix of curiosity and disapproval. “What I’m trying to say is that maybe there is something to Willy wanting to move here to Boulder, Colorado.”
After Brenda said this and two sets of daggers were staring at her, she knew that she was backed into a corner and had to just come out with it, but Carter was the first to come to her rescue.
“What she’s trying to say is that maybe there’s something more to Willy pretending to be someone named Maudie. Maybe there’s something more to him demanding to come to Boulder, Colorado. Are you guys thinking that this is all coincidental? Are you blinding yourself to what this could all mean? You have to open up your minds a little bit. This might not be just a little boy who is acting out and creating a different world for himself… a world in which he once lived.”
“What are you getting at Carter?” Carl was more curious than angry now.
Brenda wanted a crack at it. “Carter and I have been through a lot together, and we were brought together by a will far greater than we could have imagined, and we now know it was a plan all along and not just a coincidence. There was a man who used to live in this house… and his name was Martin. He had a wife named Shirley. They had tenants… a married couple named Darren and Alexandra. We found diaries years later that told the story. Darren wanted to jump in front of a train while Alexandra was pregnant and return to this earth as the reincarnation of their son.”
“Reincarnation,” said Wendy, “a fascinating topic.”
Carl looked at his wife as if he had just learned something new about her.
“Yeah, until you find yourself to be one of the characters of this grand scheme,” said Brenda.
“You were one of the characters?” Wendy arched her disbelieving eyebrows.
“I was,” said Brenda. “It turns out that Darren had been having an affair with Martin’s wife, Shirley. After Darren’s death, Martin found out about the affair, and strangled Shirley. Alexandra saw this and went into premature labor. Martin scooped them up and put them in his car. He drove them all the way to the Four Corners region, which is the desert where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona connect, and he left them for dead.”
“Oh my God,” said Wendy, holding her mouth. “Did Alexandra and her baby die?”
“I survived,” said Carter.
Wendy turned to him, pointing with her index finger. “Wait a minute… you were the baby?”
“Yes I was.”
“So where do you fit into all of this,” Wendy asked, turning and pointing to Brenda.
“I’m Shirley.”
“Wait… you’re Shirley? Martin’s wife? How can that be? How old were you when you married Martin?”
“No,” said Brenda. “It’s not like that. It turned out that I’m the reincarnation of Shirley. Carter is the reincarnation of his father, Darren. When Darren died for an experiment, we needed to determine if Carter was the reincarnation of his father, which… as it turns out… he was.”
“How do you know that he is the reincarnation of his father? Come to think about it… how do you know that you are the reincarnation of Shirley?”
“We ended up at this very house,” Brenda explained. “We found diaries that Carter’s mother, Alexandra had written. They were quite revealing.”
“That’s how we found out about my father’s experiment,” Carter added.
“Yes,” Brenda confirmed. “We found out about Darren’s plan and also that Alexandra was pregnant with Carter. Alexandra was all for Darren just going away, so she went along with it all. Then when Martin was on his deathbed, he told us additional details about what happened that fateful day. I actually coached Carter how to do hypnosis, and when he had me under, he went beyond my birth and I went back to a previous lifetime… as Shirley. When I was reliving my time as Shirley, Martin was answering me as if we were communicating within the same realm.”
“It was really bizarre,�
�� Carter said. “Brenda was screaming for Martin to stop choking her, and Martin was reliving Shirley’s memories at the same time. Together, Martin and Brenda were reliving Shirley’s death.”
Carl and Wendy were listening, but they became numb. Carter could see the doubt in their eyes, so he went to his bookshelf and grabbed his mother’s diary and flipped it open, reciting some of the details to a stunned audience. Carl and Wendy read over Carter’s shoulder in order to see the age of the writing and dates, which matched everything Carter and Brenda had told them thus far. The doubt in their faces morphed into convinced and stunned looks.
They were now on the same page. Carter knew that it was time to introduce Maudie, and how that relates to this story, and how Martin had found his way home. It wasn’t going to be an easy discussion, but it was one that had to come out, since it affected everybody in the room greatly. Carter and Brenda needed to locate Martin, if he really had returned. They were thinking that this was how Angie was pulled into the story. Carl and Wendy had their own agenda. They needed to know if their child was the reincarnation of Martin.
“Let’s put it this way,” said Carter. “We needed to tell you where we are coming from, because it seems that our lives have become intertwined for a reason. What we’re thinking… now hear me out… is that Willy directed you guys to Boulder, Colorado because he’s being driven to do so by Martin.”
“But he’s not claiming to be Martin,” said Wendy. “He’s claiming to be Mau... ”
“Oh my God,” said Carl. “Maudie… Marty… Martin.”
“That’s right,” said Brenda. “That’s how he pronounces Marty. He has troubles with his R’s?”
“That’s right, he does,” Wendy agreed.
“So Marty is Maudie is Martin to a four year old,” said Brenda.
“And that’s how he spells it too. Look at this new diary.” Carter came to them with the new book with Willy’s entry. “He spelled it M-A-R-T-Y outloud, but writes it M-A-U-D-I-E probably to throw us off, but it could just be how it sounds to him phonetically.”
Desert Son Trilogy: Desert Son, Wayward Soul, Spiritual Intervention (Books 1-3) Page 38
