by Tifani Clark
*****
I convinced Sophia that we should take a break from the living room and head outside to the patio. After what I’d just heard, I needed some fresh air. I grabbed a bag of chips and a couple of sodas as we passed through the kitchen on our way to the patio door. I offered the bag of chips to Sophia first, but she politely turned them down.
She smiled slyly. “Actually, ghosts don’t really need to eat. Sometimes we do just to keep up appearances, but it isn’t necessary and we don’t really taste the difference between one food and another. It gets kind of old chewing on stuff that tastes like paper when it isn’t doing you any good.”
“Really? If you don’t need to eat, do you need to sleep?”
“No, but we can . . . sort of. We have a way of temporarily turning our minds off and falling into a trance-like state, but it’s not really sleeping. I do it just to help pass the time, though. I try to live as human of a life as I can, but I never actually change.”
Suddenly, a crazy thought entered my mind. I really hoped it wasn’t true. “If ghosts are real, what other mythical beings exist? Please tell me there aren’t vampires or werewolves or zombies roaming around out there.”
Sophia laughed. I could tell she was feeling better. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never met one of those characters, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It’s highly doubtful, Jamie.”
I got up and moved to the patio swing, rocking back and forth slowly. “So why did what’s her name, Captain Goodwin’s wife, want to save you if they got rid of everyone else? It obviously wasn’t for ransom.”
“Elsa. Her name was Elsa. Although for most of my life I called her Mother.”
“They . . . kept you?”
“Apparently she wanted a child, but they hadn’t been very successful in their attempts to conceive. When she realized that a perfectly healthy child was about to be sacrificed, she stepped in.”
“You were raised by the couple who killed your family?” I asked incredulously.
Sophia nodded.
“I’m still confused. If Captain Goodwin wanted the cargo and ship, why did he just leave it out in the ocean for the Dei Gratia to find days later?”
“Captain Goodwin had more crew members hidden below the decks of the Aurabelle. The plan was to divide the crew between the two ships and sail west to the Azores Islands. They would secretly change the name and paperwork of the boat and then sail both of them into the Caribbean, which was much more familiar territory to Jeremiah. This is the part of the story where the modern explanation of what happened to the Mary Celeste most closely resembles what really happened.
“The crew of the Aurabelle began exploring the rooms and cargo area of the Mary Celeste. They of course had to sample the alcohol in the barrels below deck even though I don’t think it was the kind of alcohol that was meant to be ingested. Somehow they unknowingly caused some of the barrels to leak or something, because the next day fumes were coming from below deck. Some of the crew got sick and everyone was nervous and scared. Seamen tend to be overly superstitious and they thought they were being poisoned and cursed for their piracy. No one wanted to remain on board. The crew went down in the lifeboat of the Mary Celeste and kept themselves tied to her to see if they could wait it out, thinking the fumes would dissipate. While they were in the lifeboat something made a loud noise from the ship and they were so scared that they didn’t dare board her again. Everyone returned to the Aurabelle and continued on their way, leaving the Mary Celeste to drift around on her own. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure that was Captain Goodwin’s first—and last—try at piracy.”
“What made the loud noise?”
“I don’t know. My memories are only of things that I actually witnessed or heard. No one was on the boat at the time so no one knows what the noise was.”
“This is by far the craziest story I’ve ever heard. You must have been terrified.”
“Remember, I didn’t have any recollection of any of this until my childhood memories returned. When I found out, I was so angry with Jeremiah and Elsa that I spent years haunting them. I couldn’t ever show myself to them since I’d known them when I was alive, but I definitely gave them a lot of sleepless nights,” Sophia said proudly. “After six or seven years I finally got bored and left. I took myself on a tour of the United States and I’ve been all over the world. No one can say that Sophia Briggs doesn’t know how to party. But I finally decided it was time to figure out what I needed to do to be extricated. I thought if I retraced the steps in my life it would all make sense. Here we are years later and I’m still trying to figure it out.”
I thought for a minute. “Okay, the best thing for me when I’m trying to figure something out is to make a trip to the library. I guarantee they have every book, paper, and pamphlet ever published about the Mary Celeste and your family. I think I should read up on the history of it all and see if I can come up with any more unanswered questions or—” We were interrupted by the ringing of my doorbell. I slipped back through the sliding glass door, walked hurriedly into the living room, and opened the door to find Camille standing on my porch. Crap.