Working on a story can feel a lot like living in two worlds. Whether I'm taking a (responsibly socially-distanced) walk, or doing chores around the house, my mind inevitably wanders to my characters. I think about their conversations & their backstories, their quirks & their next steps. Sometimes that comes back to bite me, because I get a brilliant idea when I'm driving on the freeway with no reasonable means of stopping to write it down. But lately that hasn't been a problem because I'm always near my laptop--can't imagine why.
In my current project, the story takes place in a small town in southwest Oregon (totally fictional location, & no, it's not Gravity Falls). The town is very haunted, with ghost hunting being one of the biggest tourism draws. So I've interjected the first five chapters of the manuscript with exerts from the town's official ghost tour! I love a good ghost tour, & since I can't go on one right now this has been a lot of fun to write--not just coming up with the spooky stories, but then putting them in the voice of a tour guide. It makes a nice break from my usual style & it's a good exercise for my craft. Anyway, as an intermission from my recipe adventures, here is the first draft of one such ghost story.
Enjoy!
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| This is the Walker-Ames House, one of the most haunted buildings in the most haunted town in Washington State, Port Gamble. I went on their ghost tour a few years back with my best friend & we got to go in--at night! And...nothing happened. But the house itself was definitely the visual inspiration for the story below. |
The fourth stop on the Official Catspaw Ghost Tour is Spring House, where the story is a classic tragedy of broken hearts. The house was built in 1871 by Thomas Spring, a veteran of the Civil War who came out west and made good money in the logging industry. He married late in life but was blessed with two daughters: Madeline and Alice.
Alice was the elder by a good six years, and when her mother died she took over raising Madeline. The sisters were very close. When Alice married Frank Landley, the owner of the Catspaw Chronicle, she insisted he buy her a second carriage so that she would always have the means to drive across town and visit her father and her sister. Truth be told, it was thought that Madeline would never leave home. Madeline was not a beautiful woman. As a child she’d been struck with polio, which had inflicted an ungainly limp in her left leg. It didn’t help that her father, Thomas Spring, was getting older and needed daily help. It seemed that Madeline was bound to be a spinster, caring for her father for as long as he lived.
But in fall of 1893 Carter Barons arrived in Catspaw. He came from New York by way of California, a railroad investor who saw Oregon as the next big opportunity. He claimed that his father had served in the Union army with Thomas Spring, so he sought the gentleman out to pay his respects. He visited Spring House often that winter, and by the end of it Madeline was deeply smitten. Carter Barons said he loved her for her patience, for her laughter, and for her determination, and he married her as soon as the snow melted.
He moved into Spring House so that Madeline could continue to care for her father. At first everything seemed a picture of domestic bliss: a fairy tale happy ending, where the deserving girl married her prince. As time went by, however, Carter Barons’ true nature revealed itself. The man was a regular at the local bordello, and never without a steady mistress on the side. Alice saw what was happening. Married to the publisher of the town newspaper, she had an ear for gossip. She tried to call out Carter as a wastrel, but her sister would have none of it. Madeline loved her husband deeply, and believed the lies he told to cover up his infidelity, no matter how shallow or outrageous.
Alice got fed up. Since her sister wouldn’t send Carter packing, she decided to employ the power of the press to drive the man out of town. She may have picked up a few tips from her husband, and she may have had some natural talent; whatever the source of her skills, Alice proved herself to be one of the best investigative reporters the state of Oregon has ever seen. She not only tracked Carter’s affairs, she dug into his finances and other history. It turned out that he had come from California flat broke. He’d had some money when he moved out from Kentucky (his actual home state, not New York), but lost half on a riverboat deal gone bad, and the rest of it to gambling. The investments he’d made in Catspaw were never funded by his own resources, but those of his ailing father-in-law, whose money he’d started spending even before the wedding. In short, Carter Barons was nothing but a small-time con man.
Alice spent a year gathering the information, and then published it all in the Catspaw Chronicle. The story appeared on the front page and continued across three editions. By the end of it, there wasn’t a man, woman, or child in Catspaw willing to do business with Carter Barons. He packed up and left in the middle of the night—didn’t even leave a note to his wife. Nobody in Catspaw ever heard from him again.
Madeline was heartbroken. After her father died in 1898, she continued to live alone in Spring House. She could have taken in boarders and lived a little more comfortably. She could have sold the house and moved in with her sister—certainly, Alice invited her. But Madeline stayed by herself for another eight years, never losing hope that Carter Barons might return. She passed away at the age of 29, and the cause of death was recorded as a broken heart.
The ghost of Madeline still lingers in Spring House. Her spirit is sometimes seen standing on the porch at dusk, looking out to town, possibly waiting for her errant husband to return home. She is also reported sitting in front of the fireplace, hands in her face. The sound of weeping has been heard in almost every room in the house.
Poltergeist activity has also been reported. Drawers are often found open, their contents moved as though someone had rummaged through them. This is not credited to Madeline, however. Some speculate it is the spirit of Alice, digging for evidence to use against her despicable brother-in-law. Others say it is Carter himself, stealing pocket-change, or getting ready to leave town. Watches and other small items of jewelry often vanish from their original location, and are found stashed behind books or other knickknacks. Whoever—or whatever—is responsible, Spring House remains the site of some of the most successful ghost hunts in Catspaw.
