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Jake sleep hard and heavy and never gained consciousness until well after eleven o’clock he next day. Waking up slowly letting his eyes focus on the light coming in through the white silk curtains Janice had left with the house Jake started to let his thought process begin and it started at the exact place it had stopped the night before the diaries and the beautiful young woman on the deck. He knew he could not deal with it today so he decided to get up, shower and get busy catching up with chores that had accumulated over the past three months. He had a handyman and cleaning lady to make sure the place was keep up and looked lived in while he was away but there were certain things he always wanted to do himself as it brought him closer to the memory of Janis.
Before going to bed he had placed the diaries in the safe he had installed in the floor of the kitchen not really wanting to deal with what happened last night.
His shower finished and the coffee had perked and was making the kitchen smell lived in again he poured his first cup of coffee and stared out on to the beach and the white capped waves that were common early in the day from the Gulf of Mexico if there was some bad weather brewing out in the Gulf. He tried not to think about last night or diaries but knew sometime during the day he would be drawn back to the haunting lines written by a women from the past.
First he had to catch up on the business of life. Then if he could not get the diary out of his head he would surrender to the mystery that had started last night. Jake finished his coffee and since the little food left in the kitchen was again spoiled beyond recognition he had to run into town and stock up on food and pick up all the mail that has accumulated in his mail pick up box. Since he planned on a long vacation with no work he decided to really stock up on food and to enjoy the kitchen he loved so much.
Driving into town in his much used old station wagon that had to have the battery charged before it would start Jake also decided it was time to find a new car and a new handyman. The old one had not started the car once a week as Jake had instructed. Apparently he had been paid weekly and had not been to the house but on a sporadic basis.
Jake was not one to be concerned with vehicles as they were there for transportation and that was their chief purpose. He had been raised to love cars in his earlier life but as time changes everything so it changed his hobbies and goals in life. His thoughts had been changing later about how he wanted to continue to spend his life. Janice had brought a new outlook on life to him and without knowing it Jake had become to change slowly with the little things in his life. While working on a new search he would find himself thinking about home and how soon he could get the job done and get back to the beach and the house where there was the only memory he had of Janice. There were times he would stop by the bar Janice still owned but it was not the same and the new operators always said they never communicated with Janice, their lease was sent to a bank account in Kentucky.
Today was no different he was eager to finish up the chores that had built up over the last three months and get back to the house and spend the day and the following days working around the place and cooking to his hearts desire. In a span of a few short months he had become a homebody without a wife or children, just a homebody. He did not want to travel as he once enjoyed doing. He still enjoyed the searching and the research but the thought of being on the road again was disturbing to him.
He had money enough to last the rest of his life if he was smart and the stock market stayed smart. There were very few things he had not done over the years, things that most people would never even dream of doing or would have the opportunity. He had been responsible for some extremely valuable and historical finds during the last twenty years and that made him very proud.
Jake stopped off at the post office first to pick up his mail that had been held for three months and to have the mail delivery started again to his house. It took a huge box to carry out all the mail and Jake knew he would not enjoy going through that mess but it was something that could keep him busy and away from the diary.
Next job on the list was looking for a new or better car. New had no appeal as he just wanted transportation and not a keep up with the Jones’s look. He slowed down at several different used and new car lots but there was nothing that caught his eye so he keep driving slowly working his way to the large grocery store he shopped at on a regular basis when home.
Jake had turned onto Madison avenue and was trying to get into the left lane to pull into a large used car lot when felt a breeze flow through the car. Since he had all the windows up and the air conditioner on he felt the hair stand up on his neck and the chill bumps pop out on his arms. The breeze had stopped in the car but Jake was afraid to look to his right as he knew what was there. He could feel her presence in the car and that fact made him even more uneasy. Should you be able to feel the presence of a ghost? Jake knew she was not there to hurt him but somehow that did not make the situation all right.
He knew he had to turn to the right and look at her but he also knew he could not do so while trying to get through traffic. He continued to concentrate on the job of getting the car across the oncoming lanes into the parking lot of the used car lot he had been trying to turn into when she appeared again.
Finally he made it into the parking lot and to be on the safe side in case anyone else could see her he pulled to the very back of the lot and parked between two cars. He put the car in park and turned the key off and never taking his eyes off he front of the car he ask?
“Are you still here?”
There was total silence and he knew he had to look if she was setting in the seat next to him. There was no smell, no sound, or no movement of air but still he was afraid to look. He began to turn his head and he could see her coming into view as his head rotated to the right.
The white dress was still there and the long red hair was almost lying in the seat from the drape of her shoulders. He finally stopped moving his head as his eyes once again came into contact with the dark green eyes of a ghost. He had read and heard many ghost stories but none were even close to the truth if what he was seeing was a ghost.
“Are you going to say anymore this time than you did the last time “
Jake decided that since she apparently was not going to go away there was no need of fear as that would not have served any purpose. So talking to her was not going to hurt but could get some answers.
Her gaze began to slowly turn to the right to look through the front of the car’s windshield. He still had not taken his eyes off of her even as she moved her gaze away from him.
“She needs your help.”
She turned her gaze back to Jake’s eyes.
“Read the diary.”
There was not another word spoken for several minutes, Jake just sat there with his hands on the steering wheel looking into the depths of the darkest greenest eyes on earth. The last time he had saw her she was partially in the dark and he did not get a good look at her face.
Now that he had a good look in the daylight he knew if there was one memory he would never loose it would be the face of the ghost who saw beside of him in a used car lot. She never spoke another word but there were facial expressions that Jake could not understand. The sadness was there in abundance but there was something else. It was almost as if she was disgusted with him and did not know how to make him understand. Finally she slowly started to disappear again.
“Wait don’t go, please tell me who you are and what you want.”
Never a word as she continued to disintegrate into the air conditioned air. Finally again there was a slight breeze going through the interior of the car and then nothing. Jake never moved, he just sat there again not believing what he had just witnessed. It was hard to imagine something like this was happening. He knew there was nothing wrong with his mental state or so he hoped. Perhaps he should check in with the old leather couch people for a few days. This was getting to be a daily occurrence.
He decided he needed to do something normal in the next few minutes to make sure he was not going off the deep end. Getting out of the car he walked to the front of the car lot and started looking at cars, nothing in particular just trying to act normal and do something that was considered to be normal. He walked over to a salesman standing under a canopy set up in the center of the lot.
“Hi, having a good day?”
“Fair I guess for a weekday. Can I help you?”
“No really I am just looking for around for a different car. Time to make a change.”
He walked back to the car and stood beside of it for a few minutes before getting in and going on with the days activities. The grocery shopping had to be finished, Liquor had to be bought, and most important the day had to get back to normal and in a hurry.
Jake finished up the shopping and then worked over the liquor store before heading back across the bridge and home. By the time he pulled up into the driveway the memory of the last encounter had just about been forgotten. After putting the groceries away he opened up the sliding doors that lead out to the deck, put on some long playing blues cds and settled in with a drink on the deck with the diary to try and make sense of the events of the past few days.
There were emails to reply to and new searches to start organizing but if the problem of the ghost was not settled then he would never be able to go back to his normal boring life. Opening the book he decided not to read every page but to look for inserts that might give him some insight into the messages she had left him.
This time he started at the back of the book on the last page.
He knew this would save him time if there were some events that were out of the ordinary. The last page was not completely full of writing but had only a few lines on it.
Today is going to be the last time I will write as it is time to place the diaries in the desk before leaving this house forever. I am leaving this diary for the future and to the person who finds it so my story can be told and the fate of my family can be really known. My life has been taken away by an enemy from the past. A past my family and I had no part in but where the final victims. To the person who finds this diary along with the two diaries from my sisters I include not for information but to allow the person to know who we were.
There I have placed certain information within the pages of this diary that will lead to what I believe is to be the final legacy of Samuel Lowe, my father.
He sat there staring at the page not really wanting to have to read the whole book to find the answer he was searching for but knew in his heart if he pursued the problem he would have to read and understand the woman who kept appearing before him.
“Well, maybe later, now I have to get started on the 3 months of mail and email before I can tackle this problem.” Though Jake as he closed the book and just sat there for a few minutes taking in the breeze from the ocean and listening to John Lee Hooker on the stereo system piping the sound outside to speakers mounted close to the lounge.
Picking up the book where it had fallen he got up and walked inside to freshen up his drink and start to work on the huge mountain of paper mail he had picked up earlier. The large box was full and the junk mail was sorted first and placed in the garbage and then he started on the good mail. Bills he needed to pay and checks from clients he had completed jobs for.
Going through the mail sorting the checks from the bills he saw with surprise there was a letter from Janice. He would get a postcard or a short letter every 2 or 3 months and he always read them with the hope of her announcing she was returning to Florida. This one had no more than 2 or 3 lines and only asked how he was doing.
Putting the letter aside to be placed in his personal files later he looked at couple of letters from people wanting to hire his services to find some letters from President Lincoln dated the day before he died, if there was any and if they were for sale. The prototype of the first Shelby cobra built which he knew could not be bought for any amount of money. Also there was one interesting letter asking about the possibility of locating the first acetate recording of each of the five national stars that came from the original Sun music studios.
Since he was overly interested in music and the offer was quite substantial he put the letter aside and decided that would be his next project. He knew where two of the first acetates were for Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis plus several others of black singers that were the main stay of Sun records before changing over to hillbilly rock.
He made the phone call and worked out the arrangements for payment and the schedule for reporting in his findings. The deal was going to be a lucrative one for him so he was content to get back to his two weeks of imposed vacation. The email could wait until the next day it was time for a long swim in the ocean which he had missed doing for the last three months. The ocean was the one place he could think and be really alone to relax and clear his mind of all past problems and future plans. It was a time of not thinking but of enjoying the waves and the snorkeling in shallow water. There was always something new to find as things were always being washed up out of the Gulf of Mexico. Sometimes on the beach but most of the time just under the water level of low tide.
Sometimes he would put on his tanks and really do some serious searching but he did not like to do that alone and it was one of the things he really missed about Janice he was just learning her to scuba dive and she was actually quite good at it. Today he just wanted to take a long swim down the beach and try to stay out of the ebb tides that were present at certain times of the day especially when high tide started to come in.
Finishing his swim he made his way back down the beach to his house and a long hot shower although it was hot in Florida and the water temperature was warm a long period of time in the water would make the body cool off. Finding the key he kept hid in the ashes of the barbecue pit he unlocked the door replaced the key in the pit and walked in straight to the bathroom and a hot shower. This was something to be enjoyed after a long swim. He turned the water on and made sure it was the right temperature and then took off his trunks and climbed into the shower. It didn’t take long for the steam to start rolling out from behind the glass door and the bathroom filled up with steam. Jake was thoroughly enjoying himself letting the hot water bring the cold out of his bones and the stiffness of a long exerted swim.
After washing his hair and rinsing his head he turned to get out of the shower, reaching for the door handle he noticed letters being written on the outside of the glass door of the shower. He looked around frantically for a towel or something to cover himself with realizing he was stuck in the shower without anything to cover himself with or even to defend against an intruder.
Realizing he had nothing he decided to just ask who was there, not really reading the letters that were being written on the glass.
“Janice is that you?”
No answer.
“Janice are you home?”
This time he had started to read the letters being written on the door as he spoke out. The shower continued to run making even more steam and Jake turned cold even with all the heat from the shower water.
The letters continued to appear and were written without a finger being present on the other side of the clear glass door. Jake knew who it was and decided not to say another word he knew it would be useless so he decided to watch the letters and see what the message was this time.
The words please and help were completed and finally the word me appeared then the letters were wiped away as if in a motion of anger.
Jake opened the door but there was no one there. He knew there would not be, the ghost had struck again and again Jake had no clue as to why she was coming to him. He knew who she was now, Jaclene Lowe the daughter of Samuel Lowe. What he did not know was why she had decided to appear only to him.
What he did know now was that she was getting anger because he wasn’t understanding what she was trying to say. Now he was getting worried she was not going to be so pleasant the next time he saw her.
He had not taken the situation seriously and now she was getting anger and he did not know what she would do the next time she appeared. Apparently she did not understand he had things he had to do before he finally got down to reading the diary and trying to understand what was in it.
He stepped out of the shower stall and walked over to the linen closet hopeing she was not around as he had nothing to hide behind except his birthday suit and he was not accustomed to being seen in it. Jake was tired mentally and physically from the day of ghosts and catching up on three months of being away from home. He made it to the bedroom and pulled out a pair of cotton pajamas to lounge around in the rest of the evening. He had had enough and decided it was time for some quality entertainment reading. Not one to enjoy the nightlife of Fort Walton being two old to stand the pressure of bar hopping just for the fun of it. Jake had become a homebody who enjoyed his own company and the company of good music and books when he had the time.
He went about putting away the rest of the food and liquor he had bought and mixed up a ice cold drink and had turned the music on picked out a book he had been wanting to read of Clive Cusslers. His body fit the old recliner he had packed around for years and now he was stretched out with a book, good blues music on, a fresh drink of Maker’s and Pepsi.
He had been reading for less than an hour when there was a knock at the front door.
“Now what!” Jake said as he looked up. I can’t seem to get a break today. Getting out of the chair he walked over to the front door and turned on the outside light and looked through the peephole.
Just as he eyes started to focus through the small hole He thought he saw a young woman fall to the ground. He quickly opened the door and sure enough his eyes had not deceived him. There was a young woman lying on the walkway.
She was wearing only a skimpy two piece bathing suit and the pieces were not worn where they should be. Jake stepped out of the house and kneed down beside of her and felt for a pulse to make sue she was alive. She had a pulse but it was weak and Jake could feel that her skin was cold as if she had been in the water for a long.
She appeared to be in her late twenties with long black hair and a dark complexion from spending a lot of time either in the tanning bed or on the beach. He was just getting up to call 911 when she moaned and opened her eyes.
“Please help me I thought I had drown but now I don’t know. “
“Where am I?”
She moved around enough to straighten her legs out and get her arms out from under her body and looked up at Jake.
“I am so cold do you have something I can cover my self with?”
Jake thought it best to get her inside and get a blanket wrapped around her then worry about the 911call.
“Can you walk?”
“I don’t know help me up”
Jake reached down and gently took hold of her arm and helped her rise to her feet. She was unsteady but was able to stand with help. He started her toward the front door when all of a sudden she jerked away from him and walked by herself through the front door.
Jake reacted by running after her trying to grab her arm. Just as they got through the front door and into the middle of the living room she turned around stopping Jake short and smacked him hard across the face with her right hand leaving her hand print on the left side of Jake’s face.
“You have got to be the dumbest son of a bitch that has ever walked the face of the earth.”
Jake was so taken a back he was speechless.
“What in the hell is going on now, this day has got to end or I am going to be dead.” He looked at her and saw she had a look of pure dead serious anger on her face. He had seen that look once before today and it still wasn’t any prettier on her than on the first person he had saw it on.
Still speechless Jake did not know what to say his mind was running a mile a minute but the words would not come.
While he was standing there trying to find words to say she looked down at her front and screamed and this did not help Jake’s condition. The top of the bikini was down around her waist displaying a set of firm uplifted breast with tan lines leaving a thin white line across her nipples.
She quickly turned around and jerked up the bikini top and kept on screaming feeling of her body and making sure the bottom was on correctly.
Jake quickly came to his senses and made a dash for the bedroom and grabbed a quilt from the bed and ran back into the living room and held the quilt out to the young woman who was almost bend double so he could not see her body.
“Look lady please settle down I am not going to harm you. Please put this quilt around you if you are embarrassed.”
She grabbed the quilt and around her body covering everything except her head.
“Are you all right? Is there someone I can call for you?”
She still had a look that could kill on her face but there was also a look of bewilderment there to.
“Why did you make me do this?”
“Lady do what?”
“I found you lying on my sidewalk outside and that is all I know about you except you pack a mean right cross. “
“What is your name?”
“My name is…….”
I don’t know what name I am supposed to use. I know my name but I don’t know the name of the body I am using”
Jake not sure if he was hearing correctly asked her again.
“What is your name and where do you live?”
“I live……”
“I don’t live anywhere now.”
The conversation was making Jake nervous and he decided it was time to make that 911 call.
“Look can I get you something to drink to warm you up? A Pepsi, water or a mixed drink?”
What is a Pepsi?”
Never mind I will get you some water and then a hot mixed drink that should get you warmed up. He walked into the kitchen area and got a bottled water out of the frig. While he was gone she had walked down into the sunken living room and was setting on the lower level cushions with the blanket still wrapped tightly around her.
Jake walked down into the living room and stood before her. She was still looking around the room as if she had been dropped into an alien world. Jake handed her the bottle of water and she first looked at it as if it was poison.
“Take it, its just water in a bottle.”
She reached up and took the cold bottle and almost dropped it.
“It’s cold.”
“I just took it out of the frig”
Wait just a minute and I will have a mixed drink ready that will warm you.”
I’ll be right back.’
Jake rushed back to the kitchen and poured a dr. pepper out of the can into a large class and placed it in the microwave until it was hot and then took it to the bar and poured in a generous amount of Maker’s Mark.
When he got back to the girl she had finished the water and was still looking around the room but she had not moved from the couch.
“Here is something that will help you get warm but don’t try to drink all of it at once. Just sip on it a little at a time.”
She took the warm glass and raised it to her lips and took a small sip and then looked up at Jake.
“This is the first warm thing I have tasted in over a hundred and fifty years.”
She said this and then continued to sip on the drink.
Jake was trying to get his thoughts together about the situation and decided to just jump in. The girl was beginning to appear more relaxed as the drink was beginning to take affect. Perhaps if he still acted as if she was a normal person in distress for a few more minutes he might get a better understanding of what to do.
Jake sat down across from her and picked up the empty water bottle to have something to do with his hands and maybe she would not notice the tremble in his hands.
“Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes thank you.”
“Again is there someone I can call to pick you up?”
She just looked at him and the angry look was returning.
“Sir I have been waiting for someone to find the diaries for the past one hundred and fifty years and you are the one who found them. I have tried to make contact with you and make you understand what I wanted but you appear to be a buffoon without any amount of sense.”
“How can you be alive after one hundred and fifty years that is impossible.”
“Sir I have no idea, after I was killed I did not return to dust I did not go to heaven and I did not go to hell. I have been in this world and I have not been. I have watched and waited for the diaries to be discovered and when you finally found them I thought it would be easy to come to you and make you understand what I wanted but you kept ignoring the message each time.
I thought I had failed when I saw this young woman walk out into the ocean. She did not swim but just kept walking until the water was to deep for her stand and still she kept walking until the water was completely over her head. There was nothing I could do I knew she was going to kill herself by drowning and I was helpless or so I thought. In desperation I tried to pick her up but since I am not alive there was nothing I could do. Finally I made a rush at her hoping it would somehow gain her attention and I ended up in her body. I don’t know how and I don’t even know if she is alive or if I am in a dead body but here I am. Now I can talk to you and we can get on with helping her.”
Jake never took his eyes away from her face as she was talking. When she came into his life less than half an hour ago she was appeared to be almost dead, soaking wet and half naked. He still had no idea who she was and even if the tale she was telling him was real. What he did know was she was now looking like she had never been near death. Her face was animated and her skin was once again the color it should be without the blue of cold and death. There was no way he could accept the story she was telling, at least not yet.
Jake had never been a person who had a closed mind about anything. He had learned through the years that anything was possible even ghost and things that were not supposed to be. This was going to be a stretch to accept but he had been finding himself looking at a ghost or something during the past few days and that had not happened until he had found the diaries. He decided to play a long for a while longer to make sure she was whom she said she was. There was no way he was going to be let into something he did not understand so he prepared himself for a long evening of making sense of the lady who now set in front of him.
Jake looked at her long and hard and never said a word. She stared back and never flinched. Her long black hair had dried as if by magic and was not knotted but now perfectly combed. She now set straight as if she had a rod in her back keeping her from bending or drooping as most people do. She also seemed comfortable in this position as if it was nature for everyone to do the same.
She had relaxed the blanket until it had become draped comfortably around her shoulders displaying a slender neck and ears that were pieced with small diamond earrings. Jake could see they were not fakes as they reflected the light back at him. Her eyes seem to follow every move he made and although the anger was still there he could tell she was becoming relaxed with her surroundings and the body she was in. If what she was saying was the truth.
There was much to be cleared up about the situation but Jake was becoming more and more intrigued by the thought of being in the company of a real ghost. The one troubling issue was the body she now possessed. Was the girl really dead by committing suicide or was she just being taken over by the ghost and could not so anything about it.
“Look if what you say is true it is unbelievable and I must be crazy to even thing what you say is true.”
First you have talked about the girl but you have not even told me your name.”
“ Sir you know my name you have been reading my diary but you have not told me your name.”
“At the present my name is not important, we must first determine who you are.”
You are saying you are Jaclene Lowe who wrote the diary and died over one hundred years ago?”
“One hundred and fifty seven years ago to exact.”
“Would mind answering a few questions for me just to make sure you say you are Jaclene Lowe?”
“I will do what ever it takes to make you understand so we can help her and do it quickly.”
“Ok, first tell me the names of your mother, father and sisters.”
“My fathers name was Samuel Lowe, my mothers name was ????? and my sisters names were ???????? and ????????.”
Jake needed one more question answered before he would truly believe he had a real life ghost sitting before him.
“Wait here for just a minute I will get the diaries and then there will be just one more question you will have to answer.”
Jake got up and walked into his bedroom where he had laid the diary on the night stand. He picked up the diary and stood there for a moment trying to gather more confidence in believing the girl was Jaclene Lowe.
Did he really want to believe and did he really have a choice.
If that was Jaclene Lowe in his living room he knew from what he had read in the diary and the ghost he had met in the last few days that she was not going to take no for an answer. Whoever she had come to life to help was going to get that help and Jake was destined to be a part of the plot whether he liked it or not. Turning back toward the living room Jake knew if she answered the last question he would be committed.
When he came back into the living room she had moved from the couch and walking around the room looking at everything with the same look of amazement on her face.
She turned as he came up behind her.
“I have seen the world change but I never knew what the changes were nor could I understand them.” Can you show me how the new things in the world work?”
“Let’s work on that later, you have yet to answer the last question.” Jake noticed she was carrying around the empty glass and ask her if she would like some more.’
“I would love some more if you would be so kind as to tell me what I was drinking.”
“It was a mixture of Makers Mark Kentucky Bourbon whiskey and a drink we call Dr. Pepper I heated before putting in the whiskey.”
My lord if father saw me drinking Kentucky bourbon he would turn over in his grave, but it is delicious and I would appreciate another glass full.”
Jake went back to the kitchen and mixed another drink for her and brought it to her. She had made her way over to the massive stereo system Jake had installed after he had bought the house from Janis. The system was from the seventies but was top of the line components and produced a sound that filled the house when all the speakers in the house walls were tuned on at the same time.
“What is this?” she asked pointing at the wall covered with the electronics of the system.
‘That is something we will discuss later if you are who you say you are. Again he could see the quick look of anger flare up in her eyes.
“ If you are Jaclene Lowe then you are the only one in this room who could possibly know the answer to the question I am going to ask you. If you do answer the question right then I will believe you and we can then move on to first finding out the name of the body you have taken over and then we will start with the person you say needs help.
“Sir I am who I say I am and I will answer any question you ask about my father or myself.” Please let’s get these silly questions over with and get on with the task at hand. We are losing time and she is getting deeper in trouble everyday.”
“The question first and then we move on as I say or you can walk out of here and do this thing on your own. Jake reach the diary over to her and then turned away from her.”
He walked over to the windows and door that faced the ocean. He could see the reflection of the woman from the glass in the door glass and she had held the diary in her hand and never opened it instead she just stared at the book rubbing her hand over the front cover.
“If you are Jaclene Lowe then you would know where you were on the day of your eighteenth birthday and who you were with.”
She looked up suddenly her face and eyes took on a look of confidence and excitement. She knew the answer and wasted no time with the reply.
She held the book out toward him and said.
“I don’t need this to know where I was at on my eighteenth birthday although it is written in the diary.”
“I was with my father that day. He took me to the farm that belonged to my mother and on that day he gave me control of the farm to run as I wished. That was the most important day of my life and even death can’t take that away from me.”
“Jake kept looking out the window not daring to turn around, he was afraid the look on his face would give him away. There was deep gut feeling of fear in him. Not from the woman who stood behind him but the thought that he was in the presence of a real honest to life ghost or something like a ghost of a woman who had been dead for over a hundred and fifty years. He took a few more moments to sort out his feelings and to hide the amazement on his face before turning around to face his future.
“You really are Jaclene Lowe!”
“I told you who I am so can we get on with helping her?”
“First you we have a got to do and you telling me who her is will be a part of what we have to do. The first thing we are going to do is get you some clothes and then figure out who the body you took over belongs to. Then and only then are we going to work on your problem.”
“But we can’t do that we have to get to her now before it is to late.”
Sorry but that is the way we have to do things. You are not a ghost now and you definitely are not living in the 1800s. You are a stranger in this time and we have to make sure we don’t attract attention to you unless that is what you want.”
“No I want to help her without anyone knowing that is the only way I can help get her clear of those people.”
“Ok then lets find you some clothes. Luckily I have a friend who left some clothes here and they should be a close fit for you. If we have to we can go out tomorrow and buy everything else you will need while you are here. You are going to leave once the problem has been solved aren’t you?”
“I don’t know since I have no idea how I got in this body I might not be able to figure out how to get out of it.”
“Well let’s take the situation one step at a time first the clothes. Follow me and let’s see what Janice left behind.”
He took her into the bedroom Janice had stored some of her clothes and other belongings she did not want to travel with. He found lots of shorts, blouses and pants stored in a box and then started looking for underclothes. He knew from the view he had of their first meeting tonight Janice’s underclothes would not fit Jaclene but he took some out the drawer anyway for her to try on.
She was looking through the blouses and shorts when he threw the bras and panties over on the bed to her.
“I am going to leave you along now to get some clothes on and then we can start discussing her and the body you now own. After you are decent I will be in the kitchen fixing some thing to eat.”
Jake left the room and closed the door as he left. He headed for the kitchen and something to eat. Today had been full of surprises and he had forgotten to eat all day. It was late at night and it would still be along time before he got to bed. He wondered if ghost eat as he started digging through the frig for something fast to heat up.
There was little control over the situation he now found himself in and just thinking about what the future would bring was a nightmare even with what little he knew about what had happened to the woman the body had belonged to and he knew nothing about her that Jaclene kept referring to.
Jake was busy at the stove heating up the two cans of chicken noodle soup he had found in the cabinet and did not hear her come from the bedroom. He sensed her in the room as she came up behind him looking over his shoulders at the pot he was stirring on the stove.
‘These clothes are not much more than the ones I took off. Don’t women wear clothes anymore?”
“I have to admit they don’t wear as much as the women of your time but again there are less restrictions on women now.”
“Yes well I was never concerned with clothes the way my sisters were so I do not really care as long as I fit in. I guess I can stand to be half naked as long as the job is done.”
She was talking as if she had been born and raised in the
21st century, not a woman raised in a society that would not even give a woman a decent education in most cases were kept beaten, pregnant and dead before the age of fifty. Only the strong survived the settle of the country during those early years and Jaclene would have not only been a survivor but a leader if given the least bit of a change.
Jake turned around to see how she had managed the clothes from another century and was pleasantly surprised. She had picked out a cotton blouse that buttoned up the front and a pair of shorts that came almost to her knees. She was still barefooted but that could be taken care of tomorrow.
Jake did notice the bra did not make it into the selection of clothes she had chosen but refrained from making any mention of it. The cotton blouse did little to hide her large firm breast and the tell-tale sign of her nipples pushing through the soft thin material.
He adverted his eyes before she noticed where he was looking but she had followed his eyes and knew where he was looking. This caused a slight blush to come to her face as she had never been interested in men or anything that related in anyway shape or form to sex unless it was a bull and a cow adding to the stock of the farm. There was more to this man than she had first though.
He had not read the diary as she had first though she could get him to do by appearing in that stupid way to get his attention and even after that she had tried everything she could to get him to read it the diary but like her he would only do things when he wanted to do them. She saw there had to be drastic steps taken and the appearance of the young woman who wanted to end her life was a godsend. She would not have taken the body if there were anyway she could have forced the young woman back onto the beach.
Even then forcing her way into the body of the woman had been an accident and she had no idea how she had done it. The issue of giving up the body may be more a dilemma than getting into it. However that was an issue to face after she had come to do what she needed to do for her family.
Jake had finished with the soup and had placed two bowls full on the table with spoons and tall glasses of milk.
“I had no idea if ghost eat so I fixed a bowl for you anyway. If you like soup this will be a treat. I add a few spices to ordinary chicken noodle soup and it changes the complete taste.”
He had sat down at the table and she walked over and settled into a chair across from him.
“I don’t know if ghost eat or not, I have not eaten since I have been dead but I would assume this body is going to need nourishment to keep it going so I had better try to at least to take care of the body as long as I have it. Apparently it is a good one considering the way you have been looking at it. The statement made her blush again but she was not one for holding back when there were things to say.”
She picked up the spoon and took a small sip of the soup and then started taking larger bits.
“This is so good, I have never tasted food this good before. This century has certainly made headway in making food taste better.
Jake though about that for a few seconds and wondered if she remembered how fresh pork and beef tasted like with large platters of biscuits, gravy and fresh vegetables from the garden. Apparently she did not. The soup was good but nothing compared to the food she had eaten as a young woman.
“Before we get started on working to find out who the body belongs to tomorrow why don’t you give me some idea as to what or who she is that needs help.”
“She, is a descendant of the Lowe family and is descended directly from me. The story is a long one and if you had read the diary as I have been trying to get you to do you might have some idea as to whom she is. I have been watching over my family since being taken away by that awful man. It has been hard for my descendants to make their way in this world after all the land holdings were stolen and I have not attempted to interfere up to this point but this time she is the only one left and although appears as strong as I am there are some forces she can not overcome and I have the answer to her problems if you can help me find it.”
“Do you know where she is now?”
“Yes I have kept up with the development of the country and I can take you to her but we need to find something first to take to her so she can be free from those people.”
“Ok that’s enough for tonight now we need to find you some more clothes to sleep in and then I am going to bed it has been along day thanks to you.”
“Don’t bother with the clothes it feels as if the body has a mind of its own sometimes and I feel as if it wants to sleep without clothes. I wonder what sleep will feel like after all these years, hopefully as nice as before.”
“You can sleep in the room where you got the clothes from and you won’t be disturbed by me. I am going to bed and please if you get up early don’t wake me I am not a very good morning person if I have been up to late. Seven o’clock is early enough to get up for me tomorrow.”
Jake made his way to the master bed room and shucked off his clothes and dived under the covers hoping against hope that today had been a dream and tomorrow he would wake up and find out there was not a beautiful young black headed woman in his spare bedroom with the spirit of a woman who had been dead for over a hundred and fifty years. Slipping into a deep sleep within minutes his last thoughts were of making love to the woman in the spare bedroom. As she had been a dream to start with there was no harm in enjoying some intimate thoughts that were about a woman that was not real to begin with.
Center>If anyone whats to read the rest of the novel or any of the other four novels email or I am going to discontinue this section of the website. Time at my age is not to be wasted on matters of ego. I write good novels but if no one is reading them I will write for myself.)