Chapter 1 & 2 (Working on Title)

The squeak of an old rotting door fills the ancient southern Louisiana mansion; the sound doesn’t bother Melinda Walden, she already feels at home in the rundown old house; as she stares into the dusty entry hall, she thinks of the strange way she came to be here.

Melinda had just inherited the old mansion from her grandmother Lucy Walden. When Mr. William Forster her grandmother’s lawyer had called to notify her of her grandmother passing and that she had left a Will, Melinda thought what could she possibly have left me? She had never seen nor ever even talked to her grandmother. All Melinda knew of her grandmother was that she grew up in Louisiana in the very mansion she was standing in, at the age of 17, Lucy Walden moved to upstate New York with her Aunt after her parents died in a tragic accident. Mr. Forster informed Melinda that when her grandmother’s parents died they left the house to their only daughter and when Lucy moved to New York she left the mansion behind, never knowing she even owned it. Lucy had left all her assets to her family, and Melinda being the only living blood relative, the house and a ruby necklace would go to Melinda.

At first Melinda thought of selling the house, Lord knows she could have used the money, but something inside her told her not to. She had just graduated college as a psychology major and had just gotten out of a long term relationship so she had no ties. It would be a nice change from the cramped quarters of her little New York City apartment. She knew her little corgi Bailey would love the wide open spaces to romp around free from leashes and sidewalks. Besides she was thinking of taking a year off before she decided to take a job. She wanted something new, an adventure; she had never been to Louisiana or even out of New York for that matter. Mom would love to see me break out of my shell she thought. Melinda’s mom Iris had passed away from breast cancer at the age of 42. Melinda was only 15 years old and had to be put into foster care, she never knew her father; tragedy seemed to haunt the Walden family, Brian Walden, Melinda’s father died on the job as a construction worker. Brian Walden was the only son of Melinda’s grandmother Lucy but by the time Melinda was born, Lucy was already suffering from Alzheimer’s. As Melinda looked in the mirror she decided to put on the ruby necklace, as she stared at the necklace she wondered what’s your story, do you have hidden secrets or do you just look pretty?

Melinda packed up her things in a small U-pullit and with Bailey at her side in the passenger seat, she bid, a final farewell to the apartment building she had spent the last 6 years in. She knew they were ready for anything, welcoming anything that would come into their path.

Melinda could never have possibly imagined what was in store for her once she reached the destination….she never would be leaving again.

Melinda walks into the dusty entry hall, with Bailey right at her heels, it’s obvious the rotting door and windows haven’t been opened it quite some time, the whole house is stale and immediately Melinda starts to cough. “Well, I guess it’s just you and I, Bailey Boy.” Bailey sneezes and decides it’s not the right time to explore the inside of the house, “Oh, you’re going to wimp out on me are you? Fine, fine leave me to do all the dirty work, Bailey you better not wonder off, I don’t want some weird bug getting you. You know they have roaches the size of peaches here.”
Melinda looks around at the broken windows, cobwebs and, pieces of wood floor paneling coming up and thinks out loud “What did I get myself into?”

“HUFGAFU” Melinda sets down the heavy box she is attempting to bring up the outside stairs “Bailey, Why can’t you have hands? It’s hotter than white on rice, hey don’t look at me that way, I’m getting into the spirit of the south.” Bailey gets up from his spot of grass and wags himself all the way to Melinda’s lap. Melinda lies down on her back taking Bailey with her. She rustles with his ears “You’re just an old love bug aren’t you?”

The dark gray-green colored moss hung lazily over the giant trees, the trees stretching their limbs like arms awaiting an embrace. Melinda laid there on the mansion’s old weathering steps with a snoring Bailey on her stomach, the air had never smelled so fresh and clean to her, she was just dozing off when she heard a man’s voice

“Hello there Miss, I’d seen a moving truck pull into this here drive way, had to come see for myself if it was true, someone moving into this old gal”
Melinda lifted herself half heartedly off the ground, Bailey just went right back to the spot of grass he had occupied earlier. Melinda shook the mans hand, He was a tall man about 6’2, he looked to be around 60 years old, his silver hair was glistening in the southern sun.
“Yes, it’s true. Melinda Walden, and that over there is Mr. Bailey, it’s nice to meet you. Sorry I didn’t catch your name”
“Henry Harris, live right down the street in that old yellow house., My son looks to be about your age he runs the hardware store in Bouyo, it’s the nearest town, a good 20 miles or so.”
“Yes we passed Bouyo on our down up here, beautiful drive.”
“It sure is, if you don’t mind me asking what brings you to the swamps of Louisiana especially up to this is old hunk of wood, no one’s lived in it for more that 50 years.
“My grandmother recently passed away and I’ve just inherited the place.”
The look on the old man’s face changed, his eyes turned cold and his face seemed gray.
“Hmm well I better be getting back, Suzie will be wonderin’ where I ran off to, nice to meet you miss.”
“Well, That was strange now wasn’t it Bail?”

It was a rough couple of days for Melinda, the mansion needed a lot of work, work required money, and that was something Melinda didn’t have, the thought crossed her mind to pawn the ruby necklace, but just as before she got that gut feeling that she shouldn’t, Melinda knew the mansion and necklace meant something and she was determined to find out what that something was.

Melinda decided to take a trip to the hardware store in Bouyo, she’d been working for four days straight and was already out of supplies, plus she was curious about Henry Harris’s son.

Bouyo is a small town, so small it doesn’t even have a grocery store, oh sure, there is the little café run by 80 year old Ms. Monde, but other than that there’s no where to go in Bouyo. The Miller hardware store is centered right in the middle of the post office and old man Willie’s gas station, whose gas makes your car, make a funny rattling sound. Bouyo is a sleepy town, one of those forgotten towns no one even cares to mention on a map.

Bailey jumped out of the old blue car Melinda had bought before she left New York, he
was eager to sniff his way around.
“Bailey stay here, I’ll just be a minute.”
The hardware store smelled of fresh sawdust, normally it would have bothered Melinda but she had already gotten used to the smell of dust from the mansion. A tall tan man with a red employee’s vest on, approached Melinda with a friendly smile.
“Hi, may I help you find something?”
Melinda notices the manager tag on his shirt this must be Mr. Harris’s son she thought.
“Um, yes how about I give you a little bit of money and you give me everything I need?”
Melinda adds a small laugh at the end of her sentence.
“Well, I’ll see what I can do; do you know exactly what you need?”
“Uh, yes I have a list with me, you see I’ve just moved here, and I think I’ve met your father Henry Harris?”
“That’d be him, and I’d be his son Joelden Harris”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Joelden Harris.” Using his choice of words she replied
“I’d be Melinda Walden”
“Nice to meet you Melinda Walden, now let’s see what we can do about that list.”

Melinda walked out of the Miller hardware store with a beaming smile on her face she wasn’t quite sure about Henry Harris but she had a good feeling about Joelden
“Come on Bail, we have some more work to do.”
As they were driving home she couldn’t get the smile off of her face, “Bail, why am I smiling? I barely talked to him and even if I did kind of like him, I don’t have time, look at me talking about I don’t have time, he was just doing his job.”
Bailey just scooted over to Melinda and nudged her free hand with his nose.
“I don’t need any one but you, now do I love bug?”

Over the next few days Melinda worked and worked, she was disappointed that it wasn’t going as fast as she had thought it would, but she was happy to have something of her own, the thought of fixing up an old mansion that had been in her family for over a 100 years excited her, she missed her mom more than ever, this would be the type of thing mom would have loved to do, she thought one morning when she was painting the shutters.
“How’s it coming along?”
Melinda recognized the voice, it was Joelden
“Hey, it’s going good, tiring but it’s going good.”
“I was over visiting Mom and Pop and since I was all the way here, I thought I’d drop by and see how it was going.”
“Are you sure you didn’t come up here just to see me?” oh my god, I can’t believe I just said that. Can I be any more of a dweeb? She thought as she stepped off of the ladder
“Well, maybe half and half” Joelden said with a coy smile.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“Um, sure.”
“Watch your step there, some of the floor is coming up.”
“So, we have water, water and let’s see water, sorry I haven’t had a chance to buy groceries.”
“Water’s fine, yeah you have to go to Mosswood about 30 miles away to find a grocery store.”
When Melinda was just about to hand Joelden a glass of water she tripped on a piece of wood flooring and twisted her ankle
“Are you ok Melinda?”
”Oh ouch, yes I’m ok I think I twisted my ankle.”
“Here let me help you up.”
“Crap I really don’t need a hurt ankle right now.”
“Um, I’m off on Saturday I could come over and help.”
“Oh, no it’s ok Joelden; I’ll be fine I don’t want you to have to work on your day off.”
“Oh, no it’s fine I don’t have anything else to do”
“Well ok, say about noon?”
”Ok, see you then, I’ll see myself out, you stay off that foot for a while”
“I’ll see you Saturday.” Melinda replied with a painful sigh.
As Joelden was walking out the front door he yelled back to Melinda “Hey call me Joel.”
Melinda whispered under her breath. “Joel.”

The next night while Melinda was sleeping she awoke to what she thought was someone whispering. “Bailey? Bailey where are you?” Bailey poked his head out from underneath the bed. “Bailey was that you snoring?” Bailey just poked his head back under the bed.
“Yeah, it was you snoring.”
A couple of hours later she awoke to the same whispering sound.
“Bailey, with you snoring I’m never going to get any sleep.”
Even though she knew it was nothing, she pulled Bailey out from under the bed and put him in bed with her.
“Now, I can just nudge you when you start up again.”

At noon the next morning Melinda was still asleep she had, had a hard time getting back to sleep with Bailey waking her up every couple of hours. Thoughts kept going through her head that it wasn’t Bailey snoring; he hadn’t snored since he was a baby. A knock on the door woke Melinda up out of the half sleep she had been in. She had forgotten to set her alarm the night before, she had planed to fix her self up a little, she didn’t want her hair to look like a tornado went through it the next time she saw Joelden. Melinda threw her hair up in a half bun, pulled on yesterday’s jeans and a white t-shirt. Even though she thought she looked like crap when she answered the door Joelden’s face showed different.

“Hey Joelden, when you set a time you mean it, it’s 12:00 on the dot.”
“Yeah I’ve been up for a while now, Mom needed some help with breakfast, and she’s not doing so well these days.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that, you let her know that when ever she needs something I’m right down the road.”
“Yeah, she’ll love that, she loves to chatter up anyone, she’s been driving poor old pop crazy.”
Melinda laughed “Yeah, your father came over last week, he couldn’t believe someone was moving into the mansion.”
“It’s looking great when it’s all finished you’ll be able to make a pretty penny for it.”
“Oh, I could never sell it, it’s our home.”
“Our home?”
“Oh, you haven’t met Bailey yet have you?”
“Oh, I thought you moved here alone.”
“Ha, just a sec it’s not what you think. BAILEY!”
Bailey came running from around from the left side of the house. He jumped on Joelden’s leg.
“Oh, ha, ha, hey little guy” Joelden kneeled down to rustle around with Bailey.
“Hey, I think you two are going to get along just fine” Melinda laughed.
“Bailey’s a one cool cat … oops I mean dog.”
“So … I don’t mean to be a party pooper but you want to help me with that floor paneling that did this to my ankle?”
“Ha, ha Bailey is your Mom being a party pooper?” Joelden took Bailey’s face in his hands and shook back and forth as if Bailey were shaking his head yes.
“Ok very funny you two.”

The whole after noon Melinda and Joelden worked on the mansion, the wood flooring was first to get a facelift, then the hot water heater was fixed. You name it they worked on it. Joelden put up a satellite dish on the roof. Melinda told him that’s just what she needed, she missed watching the news, and she felt like she was almost in a time-warp.
Later in the evening they went up to the attic, Melinda hadn’t been able to get into it, it was locked and she didn’t have a key, Joelden used a pick and got the door open, the attic was in the worst shape the wood beams were rotting and needed to be replaced. At the very end of the attic there was something that looked to be a board sticking out of the wall, when Melinda and Joelden tried to pull the board it creaked open revealing a small passage way into a small room. Inside the room there was a small red box with a letter, yellowed in color from time. The letter read:

To my dearest Lucy,
May this necklace remind you of me when ever your beautiful eyes look upon it; you are as beautiful as the morning sky. The rubies in this necklace will never be as precious as you.
All my love,
M.

“Oh my gosh!” Melinda was shocked.
“What is it Melinda?”
“Lucy was my grandmother; she’s the one who left me the mansion along with a ruby necklace.”
“So, who is this M?”
“I don’t know, I never knew my grandmother, maybe the nursing home she was living in will know something about it, and I’ll have to call Mr. Forster.”
Joelden looked at his watch.
“Well, I better go check on Mom and Pop, I’ll see you tomorrow same time?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Uh, yeah it’s Sunday and plus there’s a lot more work to do.”
“Well, it’s your choice I’m sure Bailey will love to have you back.”
“Yes, we’ve bonded pretty soon were going to be playing poker together.”
“Ok see you tomorrow Joelden.”
“I thought I said call me Joel.”
“Since were going all short name I’ll go by Mel.”
“Bye Mel.”
“Bye Joel.”

Melinda awoke in the middle of the night to the same whispering sounds she had been hearing the past couple of nights. Bailey was still sleeping in her bed, but he wasn’t snoring. It must be the draft in the attic, with that little room and so much open space there’s bound to be some kind of noise. As she drifted back to sleep.

In the morning Melinda called Mr. Forster’s office in New York. His was on vacation until Monday, and the secretary couldn’t give out the name of the nursing home without Mr. Forster’s permission.
“All right, will you please tell him Melinda Walden called?”
“Do you have a phone number you can be reached at?” the secretary asked.
“He has my cell phone number.”
“I’ll tell him you called Ms. Walden.”

It was only 10:00 o-clock and two hours before Joelden would be getting there so she decided to take advantage of that new satellite dish, but she couldn’t concentrate, she was much to excited about finding the letter, so she went up to the secret room in the attic to look around a little bit more, even though no one had lived in the house in over 50 years you could still see where there used to be a bed, there were four indention marks in the floor board. Melinda felt very happy, getting the house and finding the letter made her feel like she was closer to her family, she had a strange feeling that she was meant to be here, like she was brought to the mansion to find out what had happened to her grandmother and M so very long ago.


To be continued...