The Ghost of Tobacco Road

by Dale Young

  “That’s crazy talk, Logan. Think about what you’re saying. It sounds ridiculous. What could we have that she would want? We don’t even know who she is. I mean, she’s a…”

  “A ghost… I get it. But we need to try and figure it out, Colby.”

  Colby frowned and looked at Logan. He had a determined look in his eyes that scared her.

  Suddenly Logan had an idea. He looked down at Colby with a look of astonishment.

  “You said she’s a little girl dressed in old clothes, right?”

  “Yes,” Colby replied nervously.

  He looked back out into the field.

  “You’re scaring me, Logan. What are you thinking? We don’t have time for this. There’s a dead body out in your field, or what’s left of a dead body, and we need to call the sheriff. We didn’t do anything wrong. We have nothing to worry about. So let’s go call Patterson.”

  Logan acted like he had not heard a word Colby had just said.

  “Come on. I have an idea.” Logan took Colby’s arm and put it around his neck so that he could help her walk. Her ankle was still throbbing from being twisted out in the field as Logan led her off the porch and into the house.

  “Where are we going?” she said as they moved through the kitchen on their way to the front door. She thought for a moment that Logan was going to lead them through the front door and that maybe he wanted to get in the car and leave. But when he turned and began to lead her to the stairs she was even more confused.

  “Logan, where are we going?” She let go of his shoulder. “I think I can make it okay,” she said as she put weight on her ankle.

  “Are you sure? Just let me help you up the stairs.”

  “Okay, just tell me what we’re doing first.”

  “I’ve got a hunch and only you can help me. After all, you said you saw her.”

  “But you’re scaring me, Logan. This house scares me too.”

  “You said no one has ever been killed outside of the fields, so we’ll be fine. But come on, we’ve got to hurry. The moon is rising higher and if the little girl you saw really is the ghost then we don’t have much time.”

  He helped Colby upstairs and into the hallway. Then they walked down the hall to the attic door, Colby wincing as she put weight on her ankle. The door squeaked on its hinges when Logan pulled it open.

  “We need to go look at something.”

  “Logan, I don’t want to go up there.”

  “It’s okay. I’ll go up first. You just stay close behind. I can’t do this without you. You’re the only person that has ever seen her, Colby.”

  Colby huffed and shook her head. “Okay, but let me stay close to you.”

  Logan helped Colby along as they ascended the narrow attic stairs and once they got to the top Logan fumbled around until he found the pullcord to the light. It clicked when he pulled on the string and the attic was suddenly bathed in the dim incandescent glow of the solitary light bulb above them.

  He moved to the old trunk in the corner of the attic. Colby came along behind him and then they sat down on the floor. He opened the lid and began to pull the contents from the trunk one piece at a time. When he found the old photo album he sat backwards on his heels and pulled Colby close to him.

  “Help me find her.” Logan began flipping through the pages.

  “Help you do what?” A look of disbelief bloomed on her face.

  “I’ve got a hunch. You saw her so you know what she looks like. Just help me look through the photos until you see her.”

  “Have you lost your mind?” Colby looked down at the first page of the album. She didn’t know what else to do but humor Logan. As crazy as it sounded, he seemed to really believe that there would be a photo of the ghost in the old album.

  “Suit yourself,” Colby said as Logan laid the photo album on his thigh and then put his arm around her as she looked down at the old photos taped by the corners to the first page.

  “Nope,” was all Colby said after she examined the two photos on the first page of the album. One photo was of Rosemary when she was probably middle-aged and the other one was of a Labrador retriever. “Cute dog,” She said after she examined the photo. Then Logan flipped the page.

  She examined the photos and shook her head as Logan turned each page. When Logan was almost to the end of the album, Colby grabbed his hand just as he was about to flip the page. She opened her mouth and drew in a quick breath. Then she looked at Logan and back at the photo.

  Taped in the middle of the page was a single photo of two young girls standing side by side on the edge of a tobacco field. One girl was slightly shorter than the other one and looked to be just a few years younger than the taller girl. Colby put her hand on the page to steady the album and Logan could see that she was starting to tremble again.

  “Logan…” was all Colby could manage to say. She fell silent as she studied the photo of the two girls. Logan could see a mix of astonishment and fear cloud Colby’s face as she looked at the photo. After a few more seconds she spoke.

  “The… The taller girl, Logan. That’s her.” Colby then moved her hand to the page and traced her finger across the photo. “And she was even wearing that same dress,” Colby said as she pointed to the old gray patchwork cloth dress the girl was wearing in the photo.

  “Are you sure?” Logan looked at Colby.

  “I’m positive. How did you know there would be a picture of her in this old album?”

  “Call it a hunch.”

  “A what? A hunch? Are you serious?” Colby made no effort to hide her disbelief.

  “Come on. We don’t have much time.” Logan started to close the photo album.

  “Wait!” said Colby. She opened the album again and pointed to the second girl in the photo.

  “Do you recognize the other little girl?” Colby asked as she looked at Logan.

  He frowned as he looked at the photo. At first he had no idea who the other girl was but then it slowly dawned on him that he was looking at a very young version of his great-grandmother.

  “That’s Rosemary,” Colby said.

  His eyes grew wide as he recognized his very young great-grandmother. He paused as he studied the photo and then finally spoke.

  “So if that’s Rosemary who is the other girl?”

  “I’ll bet the other girl is her older sister. My grandmother was friends with Rosemary. I remember her telling me once that Rosemary had a sister who died when she was young.”

  “Well I’ll be damned,” replied Logan. “Harmon mentioned a sister but he didn’t say much else.

  “Talk about being damned. For some reason the soul of Rosemary’s sister returns to the Shaw Fields every now and then. But why? Why does she want to kill?”

  “She’s looking for something, for one thing,” replied Colby. “Why she kills, I don’t know. She could be angry.”

  Logan looked into Colby’s eyes. “You said she wanted something from you. But thank God she didn’t kill you when you couldn’t give it to her. I wonder why she spared you”

  Colby thought about this for a minute, trying to find a reason why her life was spared by the ghost of tobacco road. She knew she was the first person to see the ghost and live to tell about it.

  “She was about to kill me, Logan. Then she heard your voice and she stopped.”

  She drew in a breath when she realized that she had just answered her own question. She put her hand on Logan’s knee.

  “Logan, she’s family to you. If she’s Rosemary’s sister then she’s your aunt, your great-aunt. She’s your blood, Logan. That’s why she spared me when she heard your voice.”

  He brought his hands to his face and then ran his fingers through his hair. Then he exhaled and looked at Colby.

  “Why can’t I have a normal family like everybody else?”

  “No one has a normal family, Logan. But I will say yours is stranger than most.” Colby gently poked Logan in the ribs but it didn’t seem to lighten his mood.

  �
��Rosemary’s dead sister is the ghost of tobacco road…” Logan touched the photo one more time.

  Logan lifted his eyes from the photo and looked at Colby with a look of bewilderment. It took a few seconds for him to speak.

  “So what happened to her? How did she die?”

  “I don’t know. We might never know,” Colby said.

  “Wait a minute.” Logan began to shuffle through the pile of things they had removed from the trunk. When he found the large envelope he was looking for, he removed the photo from inside of it.

  “Remember this photo? The one taken at the train station?”

  Colby took the photo from Logan’s hand and examined it closely. Then she compared the two girls standing with the adults at the train station to the two girls photographed on the edge of the tobacco field.

  “They’re the same two girls,” whispered Colby.

  “Damn…” Logan muttered under his breath as he leaned over and examined the two photos. “You’re right, it’s them. And I’ll just bet the taller girl’s name is Clara.”

  When he said Clara’s name, Logan suddenly remembered there was business at hand. He took the train station photo from Colby and stuck it into the photo album and then closed it up. Then he began to put all the items back in the trunk. Colby felt a chill run through her body and looked nervously around the attic to make sure they were alone. For some reason she felt like they were being watched. When she turned her head Logan stuck one of the items from the trunk in the back waistband of his pants and then pulled his shirt over it to hide it from view. He had another hunch and knew that he would have to act on it. Then he finished repacking the trunk and closed the lid.

  “Come on, Colby. We need to hurry.”

  “Now where are we going? I thought you found what you were looking for.”

  “There’s one more thing I need to do. Let’s get back out to the field before it’s too late.”

  28

  Logan Shaw stood on the back porch of his house and looked out into the moonlit tobacco field. Colby was standing next to him.

  “You can’t go out there, Logan. I won’t let you. Have you completely lost your mind?”

  “Colby, this could be my chance to end all of this. Maybe I can help her find peace. We can’t live in this house worrying about the next harvest moon and if she will return. We have to put an end to this. I mean, I have to put an end to this. You have to stay here. You can’t come with me into the field.”

  “Logan Shaw you are certifiably insane if you think I’m going to let you walk back out into that field knowing that the ghost is out there. She has already killed one person tonight.”

  He turned and looked at Colby. He knew that she had to love him if she was so worried about him going out into the field. He gently took her face in his hands and kissed her.

  “I love you, Colby. I want you forever. But we can’t have that until I take care of this. If this is going to be our home then I have to help that little girl’s soul find peace. Think of how bad we’ll feel if we don’t fix this and she kills again. It will be on us.”

  Colby was on the verge of tears. “We can go away, Logan. We don’t have to stay here.”

  Logan shook his head. “You said yourself that she’s my blood. She won’t kill me, Colby. I believe that.”

  “Well I don’t”, snapped Colby. “I know I said that she’s your blood and that’s why she didn’t kill us but what if I’m wrong, Logan? And we both agree that she wants something and neither of us know what it is. What if you get there and she finds you and realizes that you don’t have what she wants? What will you do then? She’s angry, Logan. And she kills because of it. She even killed her own sister’s husband, your great-grandfather. Have you forgotten about what happened to Carson?”

  “He wasn’t her blood, Colby. I need to go. The moon is rising higher every minute. Who knows how much longer she’ll be out there.”

  “Logan no!” Colby cried as Logan pulled away from her and walked down the steps to the backyard. She grimaced in pain as she tried to follow him down the stairs. Logan had stopped in the yard and was looking out into the field when she caught up to him. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly.

  “Please don’t go, Logan! She’ll kill you. She’ll hack you to pieces just like she did Chip.”

  He knew he had to find some way to make Colby believe that what he was about to do was the right thing.

  “Colby, the fact that she killed Chip should tell you something. There is some good in her. I just know it. She knew what Chip was about to do to you and she killed him before he could do it. I have to help her, Colby. She deserves to rest in peace.”

  Colby reached up and wiped the tears from her eyes. Logan squeezed her hand and then turned and began to walk towards the tobacco field.

  When Logan reached the edge of the field he stopped and surveyed his surroundings. Had he really lost his mind? What if Colby was right? The idea that the ghost would not harm him was just that – an idea. And it could be a foolish one at that. What if he was wrong and she killed him? Colby would be alone and he would miss having a life with the kind of girl he had always dreamed of having. Logan thought about this but then quickly put it out of his mind. He knew he had to take a chance; he had to be a man and take care of this problem. If the ghost of tobacco road really was his kin then it fell on him to end this. After all, he was Rosemary’s only living relative. There was no one else.

  He took a deep breath and stepped in between the two closest rows of tobacco plants. Then he stopped and stood still. A gentle breeze rolled across the field causing the plants to sway in unison. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Colby had retreated back to the porch and was watching him from there. He could tell that she was terrified out of her wits.

  With fear boiling in his stomach Logan began to slowly walk down the row. As he moved he reached behind him and felt for the bulge in his shirt near his waist. When his hand found it he felt a sense of relief wash over him. He hoped like hell that he was right and that what he had brought from the trunk would appease the ghost. If it did not, Logan knew he would never live to see the light of another day and that Colby would have to go on without him.

  Logan continued to walk down the row until he was almost halfway across the field. He knew Chip’s body was lying somewhere close by but in the confusion of running out of the field with Colby he had forgotten exactly which row it was on. But after he walked a few more paces he suddenly smelled the sweet, metallic scent of blood. He knew right then that he had to be close to Chip’s body and the spot where Colby had seen the ghost.

  He stepped through several rows of tobacco plants and tried to follow the smell of the blood. After he crossed several more rows he finally found what he was looking for. Lying in the middle of a row was the ruined body of Chip McPhale. Logan walked up to it and could see what remained of the torso and legs. Then he saw Chip’s severed head lying close to the stalk of a tobacco plant, its blank expression frozen in the moonlight.

  “Serves you right, you fucking prick,” Logan said as he looked down at Chip’s body. Then he scanned the tobacco field around him.

  The harvest moon was high in the sky. Logan hoped that the spell was not broken and that the ghost would appear soon. He wasn’t sure if he was right about the ghost’s name, but he decided that calling out to her might be worth a chance.

  “Clara,” Logan said softly. There was no response. Then he said the name again, this time a little louder.

  “Clara!”

  A breeze combed through the tobacco plants causing the broad leaves to rustle against each other. It sounded like a whisper wafting across the field. Logan scanned the field around him but the ghost was nowhere to be seen. Then he called out again.

  “Clara!”

  When Logan turned his head back in the direction of the bank of the Skeleton River, he thought he caught movement down the row towards the far side of the field.

  Logan felt the hackle
s on the back of his neck rise as his eyes focused on the dark shape coming towards him. He took a step backward but then caught himself. He knew it was time to stand his ground and that even if he tried to get away he would never make it out of the field alive.

  As the shadowy figure approached, Logan looked down at the ruined mound of pulp that had once been Chip McPhale. He wondered if his foolish bravado was about to earn him the same fate as Chip. Logan tried to purge these thoughts from his mind as the ghost slowly approached, moving closer with every agonizing second. When she was less than ten feet away, she stopped and stood still. In her hand he could see the small tobacco axe, the moonlight glinting off of the sharp blade.

  “Clara?” Logan croaked as fear, raw and toxic bubbled up into his throat. His voice brought no response or movement from the ghost. She merely stood still and stared at him through lifeless, empty eye sockets.

  Then Clara took a step forward and Logan had to fight the urge to turn and run. When she raised the tobacco axe every ounce of courage left him, and he began step backwards down the row behind him. He knew right then that he had been a fool to assume that she wouldn’t kill him.

  In his haste to retreat Logan forgot about the body of Chip McPhale. As he moved backwards he tripped over Chip’s body and fell to the ground. The impact knocked the wind out of him.

  Clara slowly moved past the body of Chip McPhale and closer to Logan, who had managed to push himself backwards into the row of tobacco plants behind him. He wanted to get up and run, he wanted to save himself from what he knew was about to happen, but his body would not obey. His strength was gone, choked out of him by the impending doom that awaited him.

  Logan felt his entire body tremble as the ghost walked to within several feet of him. Then she stopped and stood still. Her long, matted hair hung down across the front of her face and Logan could again see the empty eye sockets set against pale skin. In her right hand was the tobacco axe. Her left hand was empty.

  He watched as Clara extended her empty hand towards him. When she did, he felt a strange sense of relief wash over him. Clara was asking him for something and he knew that he might very well have a chance to live if he could produce what she wanted. He prayed that his assumption about what she wanted would be correct.