CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

May 23 Free Read-18+ Word Count 2195

Found it intriguing this morning in the LATimes.com to learn that methane gas, the bugabear and major danger in coal mining, is also linked to the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, the ever-spreading, seemingly unstoppable oil spill.





http://www.latimes.com/la-na-oil-spill-nature-20100524,0,1088579.story





Since we've now finished the free reads from my April Stage Play for Script Frenzy: Obax and the Night-Riders, I guess we will now return to the alternate probability of The Testament Logging Corporation.


As I've mentioned previously, I've written two complete novels-a set-in this series:


The Phantom Logging Operation


and


The Haunted Greenhouse


both set in 1957, in an alternate probability called The Northern Woods, in which the United States developed a little differently in the area we knew in the 18th and 19th century as the Northwest Territories, immediately South of Canada, which became our Upper Midwest.





I've posted both of those two novels. The third is in the setting, but not a sequel. I've written 20 chapters of it, from March 23-31, then stopped to write the Stage Play.

Child-Puppets of the Testament Logging Corporation

Child-Puppets of


The Testament Logging Corporation:


Children Who Kill





by





Archie Standwood





The Testament Logging Corporation Chronicles Book Three





(Because it's not JUST about Logging, After All)





Puppets in the Control of the evil Testament Logging Corporation and the Evil Entity buried deep in the heart of


The Big Forest, these children burn down their homes, killing parents, grandparents, and siblings. Others shoot, stab, axe, etc., use screwdrivers

Series Prologue:





The Phantom Northern Woods Tales are set in an alternate historical probability, in which The Northwest Territories were divided differently than in our own “consensus reality.” History in this alternate probability, although sometimes similar, does not always adhere to the same timeline as the one that historians in our consensus reality record. In this reality, The Northwest Territories became Wisconsin and Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio.





In The Phantom Northern Woods, each existing state is called by its full name: “State of-” as in State of Wisconsin, State of Michigan, State of Illinois. There are three states where today only Michigan and Wisconsin stand: one state between them, like an inverted triangle, heavily forested, bordering Canada to the North-the State of Algonquin. It is this state which harbors the infamous “Big Forest.”


The topography of this “probablility” differs from our own also. In it, Lake Michigan does not divide Wisconsin and Michigan. From West to East are:


State of Westerly (similar to our Wisconsin), State of Algonquin, State of Minnetonka (similar to our Michigan), Lake Algonquin (at the eastern border of State of Minnetonka}. All of State of Algonquin North and East of Knox (which is approximately 1/3 into the State South from the Canadian border) is The Big Forest, which also extends into the entire northern half of State of Minnetonka. South of State of Westerley and the left side of State of Algonquin is State of Illustrian, comprised of our Illinois and Indiana from its west border to central, if a line were drawn North to South.

         





Epigraph: “Even the Dead have issues too.”





Chapter One





         Lisabeth Hudson admired the ice cream cone Danny Wilber had just handed her, and tasted the vanilla drip on the sides while she waited for Danny to finish up the root beer float her best friend Alice had ordered.





“Want some ice cream, Alice?”





The other girl shook her head and turned back to watching the young man prepare two scrumptious floats. Lisabeth loved vanilla ice cream, but hated root beer, while Alice Cavendish only ate ice cream in a float: plain ice cream always seemed too cold and made her sensitive teeth ache for hours. Alice was a pale child, pale of hair and complexion, not quite albino in tint but very similar. Her eyes were a clear pale grey, like a late afternoon sky after a destructive storm has passed. Tall  for her age of seven years and slender, Alice's hair fell to past her waist (Lisabeth's mother clucked her teeth every time she saw Alice) and vas very fine-textured, straight, and often wispy, as if the air immediately surrounding Alice contained more static electricity than the atmosphere elsewhere.


         As Alice waited patiently for her float, Lisabeth applied her attention to the cone, twirling in place and enjoying the warm summer day. In The Northern Woods Territories, summers were vague and of brief duration, and the populace quickly learned to enjoy what moments they could. Today was a glorious example: the sky was a bright cloudless blue, the color of the Aegean Ocean in a photograph Alice had seen in a geography book of her dad's; the air was temperate and without even a breeze to stir little girls' hems and hair.





         Danny Wilber turned from the fountain in the back of the small H&K Root Beer & Sundries stand, holding a delicious root beer float, the specialty of H&K's outdoor vending concessions stands, in each hand. He handed one to Alice and took her change, ringing it up on the register with a big smile of thanks.





“Who's the other one for, Mr. Danny?” Alice asked.





“That one's for me, Little Alice,” he answered with a big toothy smile, much like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. His slicked black hair and black eyes over a long straight narrow nose and very thin lips certainly made Danny Wilber resemble that Wolf. A young man of twenty-seven, he lived at home with his mother Monica in a white-painted clapboard Cape Cod on the outskirts of Madison Mills. Although his lips curved upward in what purported to be a smile as he eyed the little girl almost greedily, his eyes were dead-only when he looked straight at Alice did a glint show deep in their core.





         Wilber, the proprietor of one of the H&K Root Beer franchises in Madison Mills, did not see Alice Cavendish very often. Her best friend Lisabeth Hudson, a curly redhead with a halo-like frizz, came in frequently, as she lived in the neighborhood. But Alice's family lived in the country some miles away, and as she was  home schooled, she didn't often come in to the city. When she did, she was usually accompanied by her Daddy, Jed Cavendish, who had an important job at The Testament Logging Corporation. Alice didn't know it-and neither did her father-but Danny Wilber worked for Testament too-under cover.





On this lovely and eventful day, a Friday in early June, Danny had prepared a VERY special root beer float, just for Alice. He had been given advance notice that Alice would be in town today: Lisabeth had invited Alice to spend a four-day weekend with her, since Lisabeth's birthday party would be held tomorrow, Saturday. So Alice had ridden into the City with her Daddy on his way to work, very early this morning, and he took her on to the Hudson home. Mr. Hudson also worked at The Testament Logging Corporation, although Alice was certain his job could not be as important as her Daddy's. On Monday evening, after the work day, Daddy would come to drive Alice home, so she would get to spend four days and three nights in the company of her best friend, plus be part of tomorrow's birthday party-and Mrs. Hudson, unbeknownst to Alice, had made certain to firmly suggest to the mothers of the other little girls attending that Alice should be given some small present from each as well.





         It was not that Alice Cavendish was looked down on-she was accepted well and her social skills were fine, although she did often seem reserved. In this she took after her father, Jerralld Cavendish, whom many of The Testament employees considered fair but aloof. [EDITING: NO-Jerralld Cavendish needs to be Vice President of Finances-a less important Division in the opinion of The Testament Logging Corporation than was The Logging Division, which is why Lisabeth Hudson telekinetically kills the Cavendishes first rather than her own parents] Mr. Cavendish managed the Logging Division, which meant that he had charge of the far-flung logging operations of The Testament Corporation. Since 1932 when the Logging Boom in The Big Forest had collapsed, Testament had had no close local operations. Occasionally Jed was required to travel but for the most part he worked out of an office in The Testament Tower. He worked long hours, increased by the drive to and from his isolated rural home.





         H&K Root Beer Concessions Inc. was a popular destination in The Northern Woods Territories. Headquartered in Madison Mills, State of Algonquin, H&K had opened for business in 1927, a short nineteen years ago, and in the intervening time had expanded throughout the State, and also West into State of Westerley, East into State of Menominee, and Southwest into State of Illustrian. Although the company operated one main restaurant in downtown Madison Mills, located on the ground floor of The Testament Tower, for the most part the operation worked by franchises, leased from the parent corporation and operated by independent proprietor using the H&K Corporation name and logo and H&K provided merchandise product.





         Danny Wilber was one such independent operator, running a small stand in the busy neighborhood where the Hudson family lived. In the days before ice-cream trucks travelling neighborhoods all summer long and after school, a businessman like Danny did very well with even a tiny building, selling fountain root beer, bottled RC Colas for those who lacked the root beer taste, ice creams, and sometimes banana splits. Some even expanded to hot dogs and chili dogs, and one enterprising H&K franchisee on the South side of town offered barbecue plates.

















home had ceased to be with the fire that destroyed her family's two-story house the night she had her first ever sleep-over, with a courtesy-cousin from Madison Mills, the youngest daughter of a man with whom Alice's daddy worked at Testametn Corporation. Alice's family lived near Madison Mills, too, but farther away, out in the country, on an isolated plot of land of about six hundred acres. Both Alice's daddy and her friend Lisabeth's daddy, Mr. Hudson, worked in Testament's big Maintenance Division, but Mr. Hudson worked on the big machines that kept Testament powered up, and Alice's father, Jerralld Cavendish, worked on the diesel logging trucks and pulpwood cutting machines that Testament Tow Division hauled into his shop whenever they needed repair.





         Alice had been invited by Lisabeth, through the intercedence of Lisabeth's Daddy to Alice's daddy, to come and stay for a weekend with Lisabeth in Madison Mills. Mr. Cavendish, who made the long trip from his farm into the city every weekday, would bring Alice along with him on Friday, a little early for work, and drop her off at the Hudson home. There she would stay and enjoy four days and three nights with Lisabeth, and her daddy would pick her up after he finished work on the Monday. This had been decided on as preferable to the first plan, which had been for Mr. Cavendish to drive Alice into the city to the Hudson home on Saturday morning and then to pick her up again on Saturday afternoon. But since Lisabeth's birthday fell on the Saturday, and her mother had allowed her to invite seven other girls from school for a birthday party, it was decided among the four parents that Alice could have the extra days of Friday and Sunday to play alone with Lisabeth, just the two girls.





         Alice and Lisabeth had a lovely Friday together and Saturday had been a special day for the birthday, for Alice as well as Lisabeth, for Mrs. Hudson had kindly made sure that Alice received a gift from each of the attending girls, just as much as Lisabeth. Alice's birthday had been in February, and this was April, but Mrs. Hudson was a kind-hearted lady who demurred Alice's status as an only child and one who lived in rural isolation without a school, a church family, or near neighbors. The weekend had been lovely, but that Saturday night following the birthday party, as Alice and Lisabeth sat up late eating popcorn and giggling at radio serials, had been the last happy times of Alice's life. That April Saturday night while she slept peacefully and prettily, her family's home burned down, from a spark of hay blown from the open window in the barn loft that somehow ignited, fell onto the attic roof, and set the roof afire. A spark from the roof fire was swept down the chimney, igniting the living room carpet, then drapes. Mr. and Mrs. Cavendish slept soundly in the back room on the second floor, directly below the attic fire, and between the roof's burning and the living room fire, the smoke inhalation killed them quickly. Despite their painless deaths, however, or because of them, the fires continued to rage rampant and unchecked, and in less than two hours, the house and barn had been completely destroyed, and there was no longer any point for caskets at the funeral.


/justify}