Spirit Surrender
By Judy Kaye Thompson
Prologue
Michaela & I left my apartment and walked down the hallway to Jasper’s apartment at a little past eight p.m.
Jasper had just arrived home from his mechanic job at Hugh’s Auto Shop on the outskirt of town and hadn’t had the chance to shower yet. Yep, Jasper had grease and oil on his shirt and jeans. Jordan was at the front door as we approached his apartment.
“Are you absolutely sure Michaela’s tomb is hidden in a wall somewhere in my apartment?” Jasper asked, opening the front door of his apartment.
I looked at Michaela who nodded.
“Yes I do.” I confirmed. “I’m certain of it.”
“Okay. You can come in and look, but no tearing up my apart-ment.” Jasper said.
“Gotcha!” I answered.
Michaela and I entered Jasper”s apartment. Jasper followed us in and closed the door behind him.
“Look I don’t like the idea of anyone searching my apartment alone. So I will appreciate it if you two would wait until I’ve had a shower.” Jasper suggested.
…
Introduction
Life in a small town can either be simple and sweet or it can be rough and hard. In some cases, life in a small town can often be a combination of both.
Well, in my case, it’s actually both simple and sweet and rough and hard.
Why?
Let me put it this way, it is not easy sharing a tiny bedroom with three younger girls even if they are a person’s own sisters.
The rough and hard part of living in a small town is not having a private place to go and relax especially in a tiny house on a town square with no front yard and an extremely tiny backyard.
Moving onto my sisters. Each sister has her own way of irritating me.
Hello! My name is Lissa Morgan. I am the person that I speak of. The sisters I am talking about are my own sisters.
Lily who is two years younger than me; Carrie who is four years younger than me; and then there’s Serena who is five years you than me.
While I admit Lily isn’t as bad as Carrie and Serena, but she is irritating. Particularly when it comes to collecting fashion magazines. I mean Lily had collected so many fashion magazines stacked up by her bed that she has to literally cling over those magazines just to get on her bed; and then she spends most of the night flipping through them sighing when she sees fashions she likes.
Sometimes Lily will even cut them out and tack them onto the wall at the head of her bed.
Now Carrie’s not big on fashion but she is a big fan of horror books and I mean every kind of horror novel she can find and buy. Although her reading horror books doesn’t bother or irritate me, what does is when she reads those horror books aloud late at night while I’m trying to sleep.
That leaves Serena. What does she do that irritates me?
Serena talks to herself pretty loudly almost like she’s trying to make a person clear on the other side of the bedroom to hear her.
Sometimes Serena goes as far as to sneak out of the house and disappear until morning. When she returns, Serena fires off at the mouth waking everybody up except for dad who’s usually up and gone by that time. As for mom, well, she do like it but she does seem to have a way of dealing with us girls.
Me?
Not so much. This was especially rough on me while I was attending school. Thank Heavens I am finally done with school and I have graduated from high school. My high school graduation happened just about a week ago.
According to my father Sean, I can now get me a job and earn enough money so I can get my own apartment. A place where I can have my freedom and especially a place where I can have privacy.
—
It has been a few days now since I landed a job as a laundry folder at the laundromat next door to us and I have mom to thank for it.
My mother Laura and Mrs. Marjorie Stetson had been close friends ever since we moved into this old funeral home.
Thanks to their friendship, I was able to land a laundry folder job at the laundromat.
Yes, my mother works there too. She washes the clothes and puts them in the dryers. I take the clothes out of the dryers, fold them and stack them neatly in their laundry baskets.
It’s not always a pleasure pleasant job but a I am wo and earning money.
Yes, this is the simple and sweet part of life in a small town. Most of the time anyway. The only part I don’t like is not being able to sleep at night because of one of my sister’s inconsideration.
FYI, all three are still in school so I do get a break during the day so that does help me out while I am working.
Now if I can just make it through July and August, I should have earned enough money so I can get my own apartment.
—
Today is Independence Day, the Fourth of July. Mrs. Stetson is giving him and I the day off so we can spend it with family.
Just like all other Fourth of July mornings, this Independence Day begin with dad, Lily and Serena going to Franklin and getting a gallon of freshly made Burgoo and bring it home. Mom gave us all a bowl of warm burgoo. As always, Franklin Burgoo is still delicious. For twelve dollars a gallon, the burgoo had better be good. It is. Simply delicious. I love burgoo.
Moving on, we are spending this Fourth of July at the town lake park.
To my relief, Carrie, Lily and Serena are hanging out with their friends, so this year it’s mom, dad and me. We’re just hanging out at the van next to the lake.
For our late dinner, we had grilled cheeseburgers, potato salad, chips and watermelon. Along with ice cold soda.
Afterwards, I stayed at the van while mom and dad went for a walk.
The fireworks tonight are fabulous! I love fireworks. Most of the time anyway.
We got home about midnight. Had to nearly crawl out of the town lake park, but we finally made it home.
I am so exhausted, I don’t think Serena’s late night sneak outs and yelling as she sneaks back in can keep me awake tonight.
—
Good morning!
It’s now late August and I am getting closer and closer to earning enough money to get my own place.
According to Mrs. Stetson, I only have two more weeks and I’ll be ready to get my own apartment. She even suggested I go ahead & start looking for an apartment.
For the record, I have been working as a laundry folder for Mrs. Marjorie Stetson who owns and runs the laundromat next to my folk’s home since June.
Today’s the day I get to start looking for an apartment.
Because Fleur only has two apartment buildings – the old Fleur Grade School Apartments and the recently opened La Haunte Manor Apartments, I don’t really have too many apartments to choose from.
This morning I am checking to see what the Fleur Grade School Apartments have to offer.
I arrived at the office a little past ten o’clock. The manager – a handsome middle-aged man name Oscar Reynolds smiles as I approach the desk.
“Hi.” Oscar said zero looking up.
“Hi,” I smiled.
“Can I help you?” Oscar asked.
“Do you have any apartments for rent?” I asked, sitting down in a brown chair in front of the desk.
Oscar thinks for a few moments.
“Yes. I do believe we have one apartment available.” Oscar said
“Great. How much is it per month?”
“Five hundred and fifty dollars.”
“How many bedrooms and bathrooms?”
“It’s a one bedroom, one bath with a kitchen and living room.”
“What floor is it on?”
“Actually, it’s in the basement.”
“How much is the deposit and application fee?”
“Five hundred dollars and there’s an application fee of thirty-five dollars.”
“Any pets allowed?”
“No.”
“May I see it?”
“Sure.”
Oscar gets the key to the apartment, gets up from the desk rising to a height of way over six feet and escorts me out of the office.
We walk through a long corridor to a staircase. We enter the staircase and descends the staircase into the basement.
Oscar and I enter the basement corridor and walked through it to an apartment door.
We stopped at the apartment door that bore the number Obe-BA.
Oscar unlocked the apartment door and op it. He gesture for me to enter first. I did.
“May I look around?” I asked.
“Help yourself.” Oscar gestured.
I did a walk through of the apartment. While it is in good condition. Clean and seems to have new appliances, the apartment just didn’t feel right to me.
I returned to Oscar in the living room and stopped.
“It is a nice apartment, but there is another apartment I’d like to check out before I decide.” I admitted.
“That’s fine.” Oscar answered, sounding a bit disappointed.
Oscar and I leave the apartment and after returning to the first floor, we go our separate ways. He returns to his office while I leave the apartment building.
Once outside, I walk across the street to Danielle’s Diner.
I enter the diner and take a seat at the counter. I ordered a cheeseburger, fries and a large Cola.
After I finished eating and have paid for my lunch, I left the diner and headed for the La Haunte Manor Apartments where I’m supposed to meet up with the manager – a woman name Edythe Chesterfield.
I arrived at the front’s porch of the La Haunte Manor in a shirt time later. Edythe was already there and had been waiting for me.
“Good afternoon, Miss Chesterfield,” I smiled.
“Good afternoon, Miss Morgan,” Edythe smiled back. “Ready to see the apartment?”
“I sure am.” I answered.
“Let’s go.” Edythe suggested.
Edythe entered the La Haunte Manor entryway. I followed her into the manor and closed the door behind me.
“I must warn you, Miss Morgan.” Edythe said, entering the living room. “The apartment is on the third floor.”
“I wanna see it anyway.” I said.
Edythe and I climbed the steep wooden staircases – both of them until we reached the third floor.
We stepped onto the third floor hallway and walked along it to apartment number Three-three. Edythe and I stopped at the apartment door.
Edythe unlocked the apartment and opened the door.
“After you, Miss Morgan.” Edythe gestured.
“Thanks.” I smiled.
I entered the apartment and did a walk through of the apartment. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
The apartment looked like a bedroom suite straight out of a Hollywood mansion.
“WOW!” I exclaimed, emerging from the bedroom. “It looks like a Hollywood starlet’s bedroom suite.”
Edythe laughed. “That might be because the woman whose bedroom this used to be had a fascination with Hollywood and wanted to be a Hollywood starlet herself one day.”
“Did she?”
“Afraid not. Her life was cut short before she could even take a trip to Hollywood.” Edythe explained.
“What happened?” I inquired.
—
In the mid afternoon of the next day while I lounged on the long beige sofa in the living room of her tiny third floor apartment on Main Street in downtown Fleur, Illinois, halfway listening to music on her cell phone and halfway watching a sitcom on TV, I was starting to fall asleep when I noticed a tall brunette walk into the living room from out of the bedroom and sat down on the sofa a short distance from me.
While most people would be terrified out of their wits, I remained calm.
“Who are you and how did you get in here?” I asked.
“The name is Michaela La Haunte and I live here.” Michaela answered. “You need to explain yourself.”
“Excuse me?” I hinted.
“What are you doing in my bedroom?” Michaela sharply asked with sterness in her voice.
“How can that be?” I questioned. “Michaela La Haunte has been dead for nearly fifteen years.”
“Do I look like I’m dead?” Michaela argued.
“No, but it doesn’t prove you are who you claim you are either?” I protested.
“You are talking as if I’m the intruder here.” Michaela argued. “In reality, you are the intruder.”
“Excuse me!” I said a bit rough.
Judy Kaye 2 