- Ever since Burl Jr. the New Groundskeeper went on the
road in search of blues music fame and fortune, Gwen the Beautiful and
I have been looking for someone else to live here on The Mountain and help
us take care of the ranch.
-
- At first, we had high hopes for Karen the Post Lady's
friend, Morgan the Texas Biker. Morgan's as handy with engines as I like
to think I am with words. He fixed our riding mower in half a day. Had
it purring like new. And he was no slouch in the electrical arena either.
-
- "You need a 220 line in the Annex? I'll have it
done in an hour," Morgan said when I called him. And he did just what
he said, something that doesn't happen nearly often enough.
-
- I also liked Morgan's devil-may-care attitude and the
fact that he was an independent spirit, a rebel with a Harley in the middle
of the living room of his little rented house. But with Morgan's independence
comes a restlessness that can't be denied.
-
- When I called him on his cell to see if he wanted our
job he answered from Nebraska.
-
- "What're you doing there?" I said.
-
- "Passing through," Morgan replied. "It's
the wanderlust. Now what was it you wanted to talk about?"
-
- "Oh, nothing," was all I could say. I was sorry,
but we needed a stay-at-home kinda guy.
-
- Gwen and I thought we'd found that guy in Wanda the Arkansas
Angel's friend James. I've written before about how well he and I hit it
off. When I talked to him about living here as a hired hand he was all
gung-ho, and soon James and his wife Dorrie were ensconced in the Annex
for a one-week trial run.
-
- Which ended after one day.
-
- Bleary-eyed and exhausted looking, James knocked tentatively
on our door early in the morning after his and Dorrie's first night here.
"I'm sorry," he said, "but I can't do this."
-
- "But you've hardly even started," I said.
-
- "I know," said James. "It's just - well,
the sounds ... we heard 'em all night. Footsteps of people walking all
around the trailer. Voices. Flutes. Drums. Lights flying in and out the
closed windows. And nobody around to be causing any of it."
-
- I understood what he meant, of course, as do regular
visitors to this space. Ghosts, spirits, whatever you want to call them,
they're all over The Mountain. Although we didn't know it at the time,
that's why we got such a good deal when we bought this place.
-
- James went on: "We love you guys, but we can't be
living in this haunting. How can you live in it?"
-
- "We kind of like it," I said. "Lets us
know we're not alone."
-
- "I think Dorrie and I want to be alone," James
said. "I'm sorry."
-
- Feeling defeated, I mentioned the problem to an old friend
of ours, Maya, an ex-police officer turned school teacher in Florida. Maya
is small, quiet and strong, a woman who has seen way too much in her 47
years. She interrupted me before I got to finish my story.
-
- "I'll take the gig," she said.
-
- "What?"
-
- "I'll be your hired hand."
-
- "Why?"
-
- "Remember when I visited a few months ago? I heard
the voices and the music and saw the lights. Talked to the folks behind
them, too. Nice people, although 'people's' not exactly the right word.
Since I was at your place, some spirit or another has visited me every
night. They want me to come back to them, and I want that, too."
-
- "You're sure about this?"
-
- "Absolutely," Maya said. "Know how you
used to find Huck the Spotless Appaloosa's mane braided every morning?
The light in the window comes from the young girl who did it. She died
long ago, but the two of us are pretty good friends. Maybe she'll help
me with some of the tougher parts of the job. If she can't, don't worry.
There're plenty of other spirits who will."
-
- As I write this, Maya's in her car, driving up this way.
Something tells me that however this turns out, we're in for one wild time.
-
-
-
- Copyright C 2007 by Larry Brody. All rights reserved.
-
- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE! FROM PARADISE!
appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written thousands of
hours of network television, and is the author of "Television Writing
from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at <mailto:LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org>LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org.
Brody, his wife and their dogs, cats, horses and chickens live in Marion
County, Arkansas. The other residents of the mythical town of Paradise
reside in his imagination.
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