Janet McNulty - Mellow Summers 07 - Two Ghosts Haunt a Grove (2 page)

Frequented by travelers from all over, Bourtonson became quite wealthy. He bought the property around his inn and established a grand estate. After the loss of his wife to pneumonia, Bourtonson started speaking nonsense one day. Many of his relatives and friends assumed that he had succumbed to madness and grief. He disappeared in the winter of 1689 only to have his frozen body found a week later.

Soon afterward residents reportedly saw Bourtonson walking around as though he still lived. Such sightings continue to be reported to this day. There is the belief that any who see Bourtonson’s, or Smiley as he is now called, ghost will die. Merely legend? Well, there seems to be some truth to it. Adelaid Kingsley was the first to see Smiley’s Ghosts in 1690. The next morning her father found her dead in her bed. The cause of her death is a mystery as she was a very healthy young girl. Since then at least 50 out of the 75 who have reportedly seen Smiley’s Ghost have died of unknown, or natural causes.

I scrolled through the pictures that people had taken which supposedly had Smiley in them, but I couldn’t make anything out. I checked my clock. Five in the morning. Well, it’s as good a time as any to get up when you can’t sleep. I checked the webpage and wrote down directions for how to get to the property. No harm in checking it out for myself.

Of course, I wasn’t going to go alone. I went to Jackie’s door and knocked. “Jackie?”

“Go away!”

“Jackie, come on. I got something I want to do and you’re coming with.”

“Do you know what time it is?” demanded Jackie.

“Yeah, but I can’t sleep.”

“Where do you want to go anyway?”

“Joseph Bourtonson’s estate. He is also known as Smiley’s Ghost.”

“What!?” Jackie bolted upright in her bed with an astonished expression on her face. “Are you insane?”

“Mr. Kellmore claimed to have seen the apparition and then he died. I want to know if the legend is true and find out what is really going on.”

“Mel, the guy died of a heart attack.”

“But don’t you think it’s a bit strange that it happened after he saw a ghost known for killing people?”

“Go back to bed,” moaned Jackie.

“Fine. I’m going alone then.”

“All right!” Jackie crawled out of bed. “I should have known you wouldn’t let this go.”

Jackie and I both got dressed. I grabbed my keys figuring that I should drive since I was the most awake out of the both of us. Before we left, I snatched a couple of bananas.

The fifty mile drive to the abandoned estate took three hours. It would have been less if we hadn’t gotten a flat tire on the way out there. The strange thing was, I had had my tires checked a week before and they were fine, but the left rear tire popped just as we were a mile away from the estate.

Luckily, I had a jack and wrenches in the trunk. “Wrench?” I said to Jackie.

A wrench held in a gloved hand appeared in my face. I couldn’t believe it. Here it was already eighty degrees out with high humidity and she was wearing gloves to avoid getting her hands dirty on the tools.

“Really, Jackie?”

“I just had a manicure a few days ago.”

“A few chipped nails is nothing to worry about,” I groaned as I attempted to get the washers off.

“It wouldn’t kill you to get a manicure once in a while, Farmer Jane.”

Yep, we were polar opposites. Jackie always looked perfect and put together no matter what outfit she wore. Nails and hair were always perfectly groomed or filed. Her makeup, flawless, and you couldn’t even tell she wore any. Me? I wore boot cut jeans and a tank top with steel-toed boots. No point in getting dressed up all pretty when you’re going to go hiking in the woods.

“Oh, curse the guy who put these on,” I said as I tried to work the lug nuts loose. That’s the problem with changing a tire. At the shop they use an air wrench to put the lug nuts on and I was stuck using what strength I had. “Jackie, I need your help.”

“But it’s muddy right there.”

“Will you stop complaining and get you butt down here?”

Grunting, Jackie went to the trunk and pulled out a spare blanket I always kept in there. She carefully placed it on the ground before kneeling down on it.

“You are unbelievable,” I said.

“I don’t feel like getting dirty.”

“A little dirt won’t kill you.”

After several minutes and working up quite a sweat, we managed to loosen the lug nuts. All I needed was to get it to budge; the rest was easy after that. Soon I had the tire off. The spare was in good condition, though I would have to drive more carefully with it.

“Okay,” I said once I had put the hubcap back on, “when I say, remove the jack.”

Jackie grasped the jack waiting my command.

“Now!”

She pulled it free while I steadied the car allowing the new tire to plop on the pavement. “All right let’s go.”

In about ten minutes we pulled up to the abandoned inn.

“Oh, look there’s a gate,” said Jackie, “It might be locked.” Her tone was too hopeful.

I put the car in park and hopped out. It wasn’t that difficult to pick a lock. As I neared the gate I noticed I wouldn’t have to. No lock was there. I swung the gate open remarking at how well-oiled the hinges seemed for a place that was supposed to not be in use. I checked them. Sure enough, someone had recently sprayed WD-40 on them. Not sure what to think of it at the moment, I got back in the car and steered it inside parking near the gatehouse.

“What was that all about?” asked Jackie.

“The hinges were just oiled.”

“Strange. Well, we’re here and I’m hungry.”

“There are some bananas in the back seat.”

“You mean the back seat that the tools are on?”

I turned around. Sure enough, I had forgotten to put the tools back in the trunk. Instead, in my efforts to get here faster, I just tossed them in the back seat right on top of the bananas.

Jackie pulled out a mushy, flattened, and very unappealing banana. “For some reason, I lost my appetite.”

“Come on,” I said.

We tossed the bananas on the ground for the animals. Immediately, I headed for the biggest building on the grounds. After a few moments I realized that Jackie wasn’t with me. “Jackie, come on,” I said turning around.

“Uh,” answered Jackie, “there’s a lot of mud around here.”

“So?”

She lifted up one of her feet and for the first time I realized she wore her flats instead of hiking boots. “You wore those for a day in the woods?”

“Well, you didn’t exactly specify that there would be mud around.”

“I thought the fact that we were exploring a piece of abandoned property conveyed that.”

“It was five in the morning!”

Luckily, I kept a pair of spare boots in my car. Yeah, I know. I carry a lot of stuff in the trunk of my car. I even have a sleeping bag back there. I took the boots and handed them to Jackie. We wore the same size so I knew they would fit. “Put these on.”

Jackie did so tossing her shoes in the back seat.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Yep!”

I started for the building, which was missing part of the roof. It certainly looked like the picture of inns from the 1600s. The original stable still stood as well, even though one of the walls crumbled away a bit at the bottom. Somehow, this place managed to escape being completely destroyed by time and teenagers.

Jackie grabbed my arm. “We’re not going in there?”

“Well that was the plan. Why?”

“Remember the Pen Mills Estate and the creepy ghost with the axe?”

“Yeah, but this place is different,” I said.

Jackie gave me one of her “I don’t think so” looks. “It is an old building. It’s dark and creepy in there. I am not going in there.”

“Then I’ll go by myself.”

“Oh no you don’t!”

“Well we have to explore the house at some point,” I said.

“There is a lot of acreage to this place, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then, why don’t we explore the grounds first and save the house for last. Like when we have a few guys with us,” said Jackie.

Relenting, I allowed Jackie to have her way. Besides, the house could wait. “Then, let’s start over there,” I said pointing at a grove with vines and some overgrowth.

Jackie seemed to like that idea. We headed over to it. Despite being an abandoned piece of property, the grove seemed to be well cared for. Green vines with blue and white flowers dotted the entire area. I momentarily watched as bees hummed from flower to flower in the morning sunlight oblivious to our presence. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that this section had a caretaker. I checked a rose bush next to a trellis. The thorns had been clipped off and the bush pruned so that the flowers thrived instead of crowding one another out.

“What is it?” asked Jackie.

I showed her the flowers. “Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that these flowers and this small garden look well-tended?”

“Most people do tend gardens,” said Jackie.

“Except that no one has lived here for a couple hundred years. And this is the only spot that seems to be bursting with life. Look at the rest of the place. It’s all run down.”

Jackie glanced around. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the entire area. “That is strange.”

I continued on through the little walkway formed by the ivy. Patches of sunlight marked our footsteps. We reached the end of the ivy and grapevines. Before us stretched a garden. I guessed that it might have been a vegetable garden in the days when people lived on the property. The strange thing about this garden was that the soil looked tended and plants grew out of the ground.

“What is all this?” I asked. “This place looks like it has been tilled and planted.”

“Well this just puts the strange in strange,” said Jackie.

A bit of movement caught my eye. Whirling around, I saw a man humming merrily to himself as he pruned a bush. He danced around on his feet waving his scissors around while he sang. Usually this wouldn’t have seemed odd except that the man was slightly see-throughish and this was supposed to be a place with no people. He also wore some strange clothes that no one in modern times would ever don.

“Excuse me,” I called.

He stopped. The man took one look at me and Jackie, dropped his scissors, and jumped on his horse. He galloped away without a word.

“Hey,” I yelled, chasing after him. “Hey, stop!”

Nothing. The man had disappeared.

“That was odd,” said Jackie.

“I think we just saw Smiley’s Ghost,” I said.

“Smiley’s Ghost!” Jackie snatched my arm forcing me to face her. “Now we’re gonna die!”

“Jackie, stop,” I tore her hands off of me.

“I know the legend,” said Jackie. “Those who see Smiley’s Ghost end up dead.”

“Not everyone. I did some reading up on the legend too. Some people do survive an encounter with the ghost.”

“Oh yeah? How many?”

“About 25% I guess.”

Jackie crossed her arms. “Somehow I don’t think the odds are in our favor.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Jackie. Besides, he could have been another ghost entirely.”

“Now you’re just trying to cheer me up.”

“Is it working?”

“No.”

“Come on. I want to check out the area near those trees.”

Reluctantly, Jackie followed. “Whoever heard of a ghost gardening,” she muttered to herself.

The soggy ground latched on to our boots with each step we took. Despite the lack of rain, there seemed to be a lot of mud around. My steps made repeated clop, clop sounds. The morning sun already caused me to sweat from the heat. It was definitely going to be another scorcher.

We reached the trees in a few minutes. Tall oaks with some ash mixed in. I had to admit that their big green leaves were quite beautiful and provided some relief from the hot sun. “We’re going in there,” I said pointing at the trees.

“Into the creepy, dark woods!”

“What is with you today?”

“Sorry,” said Jackie, “it’s just that every time we go exploring something it usually involves a ghost and some kind of haunted property.”

“And you watched the
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
last night.”

A guilty expression crept across Jackie’s face. I don’t know why she watched such movies. They always scared her and then she had nightmares for days afterward.

“I’m sure nothing will happen in there,” I reassured her.

“Well, if some guy in a hockey mask attacks us, I blame you.”

“That’s Jason.”

“Who cares?”

I pulled her into the bit of forested area. Birds chirped joyfully not caring about our presence. Nothing out of the ordinary stuck out to me. I half expected to see something unusual, but it looked like a normal wooded area.

“Why are we going this way anyway?” asked Jackie.