The Great Ghost Hunt

It was so beautiful there, Mom and I were taking a trip all over the US in search of ghosts.  We aren’t researchers or anything; we are just interested in the supernatural and wanted to see a haunted house.  Now this plantation we stopped at in Louisiana is supposed to be haunted by almost every person who ever lived there.  I won’t give the name, though if you’ve read about the place you’ll know what I speak of.  I think if I leave out the name it makes my story all the more mysterious.  

This plantation isn’t really very well known.  It’s not the Winchester Mansion or anything, but you might see it on one of those paranormal shows on Sci Fi.  I personally knew of it because of a book I had once read called, “America’s Not so Famous Haunts.”  So as our final stop Mom and I decided to check this place out.

Now, this place is shrouded in death, people were murdered, sick, committed suicide, disappeared, drowned in the creek; this could explain all the ghosts.  My favorite story of the place was of two little girls, twins, who had phenomena back during the post depression.  They had been instructed to stay inside, but these girls, about nine years old I think, never listened and they slipped past their nanny to go out and play.  Well, no one could find them until the next day when both girls were found dead under a tree by the creek.  The girls were buried under that tree.  A few days later the girls’ nanny was found dead as well, she’d hung herself from one of the tree limbs, the girls’ medication still clutched within her hand.  Ever since then the tree had bloomed the most beautiful flowers.  The spirits of the girls are said to still play in the creek, splashing and laughing and the nanny can be heard crying.

Mom and I pulled into the drive of this plantation and were looking around.  The place is a bed and breakfast and isn’t unaccustomed to people wandering around looking for ghosts.  There are tombstones everywhere.  The family couldn’t pick just one place for a cemetery.  Most of the family members were buried either wherever they were found dead or wherever their favorite place to sit had been during their life.  

There was a small rise where there were a cluster of about six tombstones dated from 1706 to 1833.  The place had an abundance of history, but so far no ghosts to be seen, which was no surprise.  Mom and I had yet to see a ghost on our trip around the country.  I suggested maybe the ghosts were afraid of us which made us both laugh.

We neared the creek and I spotted a tree with flowers of many different colors.  I knew the tree and hurriedly told my mother the story of the twin girls.  Sure enough as we neared there were two tombstones for the young girls.  I took a moment to stand over the tombstones.  I was so in love with their story and knew it so well, I felt as if I knew the girls personally, and felt sorrow over their death.  

A gentle wind blew and it felt good against the heat of the day.  I looked down to spot a piece of paper that had blown against my leg.  I picked it up and looked at it.  There was a message of some sort on it.

“Follow the creek to the building to the building that is out of time and space,” I read aloud and gave my mother an odd look.  

“That’s weird,” she said, arching a brow.

“It’s a puzzle.”  I grinned.

“Right.”  She rolled her eyes.

“Aww, come on.  Where’s you sense of adventure.”

“Fine, lead the way.”

Okay, maybe I should explain a little bit here.  I did not expect anything to happen, but since I hadn’t seen a ghost the whole trip, I really wanted for something to happen, even if I just imagined it.  So I did what the note said not because I believed it, but because I wanted to pretend I was a ghost hunter on the trail.

So we followed the creek and sure enough it let to a building, though I didn’t see where it was out of time or space.  It was the servants’ quarters, though it was no longer used.  The building was a little run down, but I didn’t see how that made it out of time either, but why not?  So I marched up to the front door.  My mother was right behind me. “I don’t think we’re supposed to go in there,” she said but I just laughed at her.

“I’m on the trail!” I said. “I’m going to find a ghost if it kills me!”

Mom just rolled her eyes.

I went to push the door open, but I stopped before doing so.  I thought I heard someone talking, well, not really talking, just whispering really. “The girls be needin’ their pills,” the voice said.  I couldn’t tell where it came from, it rode on the wind.  A second voice followed the first but I couldn’t make out what it said.  The first voice spoke again, repeating its line.  

I looked back at Mom.  “Do you hear that?” I asked.

Mom shook her head. “Hear what?”

I furrowed my brows and pushed the door open.  The inside was just as run down as the outside. Debris were everywhere, including some yellowing and half eaten playing cards scattered all over the floor.  The place smelled awful.  I stepped in and looked around.  Mom was waiting outside.  My heart was pounding.  There had to be someone in here talking, my logical mind told me, but my imagination wouldn’t listen.  It had been a ghost who spoke.  I was hearing ghost voices.  As I stepped further into the building I felt a cool draft, such a contrast to the heat of the outside, but I associated this to the fact that it was a dark, dank building.   Then things started to move, blowing around.  

I spun about, trying to make sense of what was happening.  The front room I stood in looked clean and was lit by oil lamps.  Where had the lamps come from?  Playing cards had organized themselves into a game of Rummy on a tabletop.  A single black woman was sitting at the table, crying.  “Them girls be needin’ their pills and I can’t fine ‘em anywhere,” she said.   “Dunno where they gone to.”  She looked up at me and set two capsules down on the table top.  “Them girls be needin’ their pills,” she said again.  

I blinked my eyes and the woman was gone.  The room was back to its original disarray.  Only one thing was different.  On the table were two pills.  I picked them up and looked at them in awe.  Had I just seen a ghost?  Had I really just witnessed a paranormal phenomenon?
I rushed outside to where my mom still stood, oblivious to what had just happened and I didn’t bother to explain.  I just grabbed her hand and ran back to the tree as fast as I could, dragging my mother behind me.  Mom was yelling at me to slow down and demanding what was going on, but I just told her to hurry, there wasn’t much time.  As we neared the tree I heard laughing and splashing and by the look on my mom’s face and her lack of yelling at me I knew she heard it too.  

Once there we saw two girls stripped to their undergarments playing in the creek.  I took a moment to stare at them and Mom did as well.  “I don’t believe I’m seeing this,” she said in awe.  

I just grinned and approached the twin girls.  “Hey,” I said.

They both looked up at me and smiled.  “Want to play?” one asked.

I shook my head.  “You’re nanny wanted to you take your pills,” I told them and held out my hand with the medication.

Both of the girls groaned, but they each took a pill.

“You ought to go inside,” I said.  “You’re sick and shouldn’t be out here.”

The girls sighed and nodded.  “Fine,” one said.

And then they were both gone.  I turned and looked at my mom with a grin.  She just shook her head. “I don’t believe it,” she said again.  “You found a ghost.”

“Three of them,” I said and stuck out my tongue.

Mom rolled her eyes and looked to the tree. “Hey, Jamie…” she pointed and I followed to where she was indicating.  It didn’t take me long to see what she was pointing, or wasn’t pointing at I guess you could say.  The tombstones… they were gone.  

I started laughing.  It just seemed so impossible.

As we were leaving I couldn’t help but glance up at the main house in awe.  Sitting in a rocking chair on the porch was an old woman, she looked to be over a hundred.  She kind of gave me a funny look and then smiled knowingly and waved at me.  I waved back.  Somehow I knew that she was one of the twin girls.  I think perhaps she held me in the same awe I held her.
Mom and I have never really spoken about what happened that day.  It’s sort of a mutual agreement between us to keep it to ourselves, but sometimes when we are showing friends pictures of our “Great Ghost Hunt” we will exchange glances and smile in remembrance of that day.