Get Up and Ghost

by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

  Some people claimed to see her spirit wandering through the kitchen or other dining areas, and a few people reported seeing her in the upstairs windows at night, but I never had, and I didn’t really believe ghosts were real anyway, but I could admit to being curious. I just assumed if she’d stuck around, she’d make her presence obvious. I knew I would.

  I stared out into the foyer as Olivia made small talk with the contestants, and I swore I caught a glimpse of a white beaded train scoot across the floor. The mind had an amazing way of playing tricks on people, didn’t it? I shook my head and refocused on the casual conversation at the table.

  Del caught my eye and mouthed, “Are you okay?”

  I nodded.

  The hostess came back with our drinks and placed a basket of fresh biscuits in the middle of the table. Bobby and Maybelle followed behind her. Bobby’s face was red and sweaty, and I couldn’t help but hope he didn’t drip any of that sweat into his food. I pressed my eyes shut to clear the thought from my head. I glanced down at the biscuits and suddenly had no desire to eat.

  Bobby blinked and pointed his chubby finger between Jesse and Julia. “What in God’s name are these two doing here?” His voice grew louder with each word. “They ain’t allowed in my business establishment.” He grabbed Maybelle by the shoulder. “You let these two crooks in?”

  Del stood and placed a calming hand on Bobby’s arm. “They’re key contestants in the competition, Bobby. You know that. They came to help finalize the to do list for the event.”

  Julia stood and walked a circle around the table next to us, running her hand along the place settings.

  Bobby’s face burned hotter than the late summer sun, and he snatched up the couples sweet teas and handed them back to the hostess. “I don’t care if they’re the President of the United States. They ain’t allowed in my restaurant.” He rubbed the top of his head and growled toward the hostess who’d attempted to quietly sneak out of the room. “You know they was here?”

  The poor girl stuttered as she spoke. “Yes, sir, but I...I thought you were okay with it seein’ as they came with Miss Delphina and all.”

  He grabbed the basket of biscuits she’d placed on the table and threw it across the room.

  Well, darn. There went any chance at having one if I’d changed my mind. The biscuits hit the wall all at once, dropped to the old wood planked floor, and stuck.

  “Git outta my restaurant.” He shook his finger at the couple and then at Rashid. “And you, too. All y’all come here like you’re trying to take over our town with your food trucks and your funny tasting barbecue restaurants, and don’t nobody want you here. Nobody.”

  Del grabbed hold of Bobby’s arm again and hissed in his ear. “Bobby Joe Pruitt, shut up. That’s the devil talking through you.”

  “I ain’t having no meeting with people trying to ruin my business.”

  Jesse stood and slammed his palms onto the table. “We haven’t done a thing to you. You’re the one that’s caused the rift between us, coming to the park and sticking that food cart up next to our truck like that.”

  “Without a permit,” Julia added.

  I swallowed a sip of my coffee. I didn’t want to rubberneck on their argument, but it was impossible not to.

  “I had me a permit,” Bobby said.

  “Yeah, weeks later, and only because you’ve got connections with the city council,” she said.

  “That permit was retroactivated. I didn’t do nothing wrong.”

  My English degree kicked in, and I almost corrected Bobby’s mispronounced word, but I didn’t dare poke the bear.

  Del interrupted apologies to everyone and suggested we continue the meeting via email or a later get together attempt. “I’m ashamed of Bobby’s behavior.” She shot a steely stare at the man. “I realize he’s not kin, but he’s like kin, and I feel responsible for him.” She dragged Bobby away by his left earlobe.

  “Ouch, Del. Don’t pinch so hard.”

  Julia set her purse on the table behind ours. “Is it appropriate for her to be a judge in this competition when she’s personally involved with someone like this?”

  Olivia raised her hand. “Excuse me, may I speak?”

  “You don’t need approval,” I said. “Go ahead.”

  “Thank you, Miss Chantilly.” She centered her eyes straight onto Julia Lye’s. “Miss Delphina here has been a judge in the competition for years. She’s never once been swayed by her relationship with Bobby Pruitt, and you should know that your very self since you’ve won the competition before.”

  Julia didn’t respond. She just raised the side of her lip, dipped the edges of her eyebrows in at her nose, and jiggled her head.

  “It was nice formally meetin’ ya,” Jesse said. He shook my hand. “It think I ought to get my wife out of here now. She’s got her momma’s Italian temper.”

  “That man could bring out the devil in the nicest person,” she said.

  Rashid Patel suggested I come by his restaurant again and try his secret family recipe BBQ prior to the competition, promising me I would love it. I told him I wasn’t comfortable with doing that so close to the competition. I suspected the secret ingredient was curry, which was one of my all-time favorite seasonings, and I really wanted to try them, but I didn’t feel it would be right.

  Olivia and I packed up our things to leave, but Delphina asked me to stay. “I have a quick favor.”

  “No problem.” I asked Olivia to drop off the new copy for Hamilton House at the Mayor’s office, gave her the file, and sent her on her way. I knew Mayor Holbrook would have questions, but I also knew I probably wouldn’t hear back from him until after the BBQ competition.

  As I waited in private eating area, I thought about Agnes Hamilton again. I hoped I did her justice with the new verbiage for the historic home. “You deserve to be remembered for your strengths, not your last moments,” I whispered toward the door.

  A white cloud drifted in front of me and then immediately disappeared. I jumped out of my seat and headed straight toward the door as Del walked through it. I pointed in the direction of where the cloud disappeared. “Did you see that?”

  Del’s eyes followed my finger. “See what?”

  I shook my head. “The white cloud. It was just... nothing, never mind.”

  Her smile wavered. “You probably should make a pit stop over at Doc Bramblett’s on your way back to the office. You’re not yourself since you bopped your head on the stairs.”

  “I’m fine. And it was the marble floor, actually.”

  She smirked. “Surprised the floor didn’t crack from that big thing.”

  I harrumphed. “Thanks. I feel better now.”

  She laughed. “I hate to do this to you, but Bobby wants to make some changes to the restaurant, and I promised him I’d get you to take a look after the meeting. I just didn’t expect the meeting to end like it did, but I think I got him cooled off now.”

  Since I was the head of the historical society, it was my job to review requests for changes made by owners of historic properties. The town had very explicit requirements for its historical buildings, many of which were pushed aggressively to be followed by the state, but we had a bit of wiggle room. Each was examined in great detail, partially because it was my job, but also because I had a lot of late nights free since I wasn’t spending them with my husband, and if necessary, put to vote with the historical committee. “Not a problem. Just so you know, I’ve reviewed Hamilton House’s file, and I know he’s made requests before, but they’ve never been approved. I can’t say this one will be, either.”

  She nodded. “I know, but I appreciate you letting him show you.” She led me past the stairs to the cellar by the back entrance to the home and toward the kitchen.

  I quickly glanced behind me, just wondering if that white cloud was still floating around, but it wasn’t.

  __________

  Bobby’s requests were a bit off the wall, but I understood his reasoning behind them
. “I’m just not sure this is in line with our historic property guidelines, but I’ll do a thorough review and let you know.”

  “Last year Billy Price got his place redone, and it’s a historic location. Not sure why my changes don’t never get approved.” His face reddened like it had earlier, and I feared I’d be the brunt of his anger like the others.

  Del attempted to soften his rudeness. “Now Bobby, you promised me you wouldn’t get out of sorts about this if I asked Chantilly to come talk to you, remember?”

  He wiggled that pointer finger at me, obviously that was what he did when he felt defensive. “She ain’t even been in town a hot minute, and she thinks she can make decisions about historical evaluations on our businesses? Don’t know why they gave her the job.”

  “I grew up here, remember? And this isn’t my first trip to the rodeo, Bobby. I know what I’m doing.” And I did. I’d worked with the historic society in Birmingham for several years. My experience far outweighed the need in Castleberry, and the lighter work load was exactly what I needed at that time in my life, other than the long, lonely nights when I had time to think, at least.

  Maybelle stepped into the small office. “Bobby, the oven’s done acting up again. Should I do that thing you showed me?”

  He threw the rolled up plans I’d asked for at his office door. It sailed past me making a whooshing sound. “Why you got to ask me that? Just do it.”

  Del marched over to his side of the desk and grabbed him by the earlobe again. I cringed. My momma used to do that to me when I was a kid and it hurt like a son of a gun. “Bobby Joe Pruitt, you have got to get a hold of this temper of yours, you hear me? If you don’t kill yourself from a heart attack, someone in town’s going to do it, and I got a feeling it’ll be me.”

  Delphina’s face was almost as red as Bobby’s. She breathed in loudly, letting the breath out in one full shot, and then she focused on me. “Don’t know how such a sweet woman like his momma ended up with a tyrant like this.”

  I wasn’t sure, but if there was one thing I was certain of, it was that one of my life’s goals would be to never do anything that would garner me an earlobe drag by Delphina Beauregard.

  “You done acting like a fool?” she asked him.

  He narrowed his eyes at me while he breathed through a clenched but opened jaw. “You get outta here, too, Chantilly. Don’t know what I ever saw in you back in the day, but I sure don’t see nothing but a dried up old pile of garbage now. Don’t need the likes of you in my restaurant either.”

  I stood. “Bobby, you certainly don’t deserve my effort, but since it’s my job, I’ll do what I’m required to do, and I’ll do it to the best of my ability. I suggest however, you tamper that temper of yours and act like the forty-five-year-old man you are instead of some kind of spoiled brat.”

  “Can’t make sugar from salt,” Delphina said.

  I apologized to her, and she to me, and then I left. As I walked out of the small office and down the stairs of the old home, I froze.

  There, swinging from a rope tied around a rafter in the main dining area, hung Agnes Hamilton. I saw her with my very own eyes, and I knew within the pit of my soul she wasn’t in my head.

  Chapter Two

  LACROSSE PRACTICE LASTED thirty minutes longer than usual because the coach wanted to make sure the boys knew the plays backwards, forwards, sideways, and upside down for their first game of the season. I sat in the bleachers reviewing Bobby’s plans as the sun’s warm amber glow set below the horizon.

  “Is that Hamilton House?” Lonna Appleton scooted up next to me.

  Lonna and I went way back, but I’d never once considered her a friend. We weren’t exactly enemies, though back in our high school days there were times it sure felt that way. Looking back with a mature eye, I realized it was more jealousy than anything. Lonna came from a family that spoiled their children with the newest and greatest buys—which, back then, were things like Nike high tops, leather bomber jackets and Ray-ban sunglasses—and that in turn, gave them a monumental sense of entitlement that stretched to everything they did.

  We’d both tried out for the cheerleading squad and made it, but I received the captain spot, and Lonna pitched a fit because of the unfairness of it all. Determined the title belonged to her, she went to the principal and said I’d mistreated her, making her a base for stunts when she was far too thin for such a powerful position. She thought she should be a fly like I was.

  I was a whopping five feet two inches and one hundred pounds back then, and Lonna trumped me by at least five inches and twenty pounds. Tossing her into the air would have broken our backs. She wasn’t heavy by any means, but in cheerleading, the smallest girls were the tossers, not the larger ones. The principal saw my side of things, and the argument ended with her ugly crying her Dial A Lash mascara all over her face.

  We also competed for the president of student council, and I’d won. It wasn’t that I was more popular, because I wasn’t. It wasn’t that I was smarter, because I wasn’t. It was that I worked harder, and that hard work paid off.

  And the entitlement thing probably had a lot to do with it, too. Kids raised in Castleberry weren’t typically entitled. We were lucky to have what we did, but Lonna’s family had money, and that mattered to them.

  “Yes,” I smiled as I made eye contact. “He’s looking to do some reno on the place, so I’m reviewing the architect’s plans.” I gazed out onto the turf lacrosse field just in time to see my son finish his part of a play. “What brings you here?”

  Lonna had two children, both of which were girls, so I couldn’t see a reason for her to attend an all-boys lacrosse team practice.

  “Oh, haven’t you heard?” She flipped her long black hair behind her.

  “Heard what?”

  “Coach Jack and I are dating. Have been for the past three months. I figured someone would have mentioned it by now. Lord knows the entire town is talking about it.”

  Maybe so, but they weren’t talking about it to me. Not that I cared anyway, but in an effort to bury the long held hatchet, I faked my excitement for her. She’d always had a thing for Jack Levitt. “Oh, that’s great news. Congratulations. Wait, didn’t y’all date in high school for a bit?” Okay, so that just flew out of my mouth before I could stop it

  Her smile wavered, but only for a moment. “Oh, yes, but we were so young then. Things have a way of working themselves out, and the time is right now, it just wasn’t then.”

  If I remembered correctly, and I was pretty sure I did, Jack Levitt broke up with her a few months into their relationship. I didn’t know the reason then, and I didn’t much care still. “Well, good for you. I hope it works out for you.”

  “Oh sweetie, I can tell you for certain it will. They don’t make men like Jack anymore. Bless his heart, I think he’s the last true Southern gentlemen from our era.”

  “That’s great.” I wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted me to say.

  “I just wish he’d quit that job of his. It’s so dangerous. Daddy’s company would hire him on the spot, but he says he’s got no interest in building homes.” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t know why. The market is booming. Why Daddy just bought two hundred acres south of here. He’s planning on building another three hundred or more homes in the next six months. Jack would be busier than a bee managing a crew.”

  I just smiled. I couldn’t argue Coach Jack’s decisions, I’d barely talked to him about anything other than lacrosse since moving back to town.

  “Oh, and I just can’t believe Bobby’s still trying to get those plans approved. You read my article on Hamilton House a few months back, right? It was one of the special historic features I do every now and again. He mentioned them to me, too. I love that old home. It’s just beautiful, and the history is to die for.”

  “I must have missed that.” I snuck a look at Jack as he spoke to the boys on the field. His broad shoulders, strong, trim physique, and salt and pepper hair cut close to his head didn�
�t say construction manager, but they screamed ex-Marine and police detective, which is exactly what he was. Jack headed the investigative division of our small police department. I suspected it wasn’t a hard job because Castleberry, Georgia didn’t have a whole lot of crime to speak of. But from what I understood, he’d done it for several years, so maybe it was because of him. Maybe he’d been doing something right. “About the job of Jack’s. A man’s going to do what he thinks is best. We can’t change them, now can we?”

  “Well, maybe you can’t, but I can, and I intend to get that hunk of a military man out of uniform for good. It’s just too dangerous these days, what with the state of our world now, don’t you think?”

  I nodded because I knew if I said anything different she’d push back even harder, and I just didn’t have the energy or desire to verbally spar with the likes of Lonna Appleton. Twenty or so years ago I would have been all over that, but not anymore. I’d learned to pick and choose my battles, and none of them included Lonna Appleton.

  Thankfully Jack blew his whistle signaling the end of practice, and the boys hollered their team chant. I gathered my things and put them in my bag. “Well, time to feed the monster. You’re lucky you have girls. My kid eats like food grows on trees.”

  She stared at me. “Doesn’t some of it?”

  “That was sarcasm, Lonna.”

  I met Austin at the entrance to the field as he walked over with Coach Jack.

  Jack smiled at me, and his hazel eyes sparkled with little sprinkles of gold around his irises. I’d never noticed that before. “Hey, got a minute?”

  I glanced behind me and saw Lonna staring at us with a familiar gaze I immediately recognized from years past. “Uh, sure?” I handed Austin the keys to the car. “Toss your stuff in back, and open the windows. I don’t need that stink of yours infiltrating my lungs. I’d like to get us both home safely before it kills me.”