A Haunting In Dixie

This story is a work in progress.....


No one had ever told Malory Rogers that she was unusual, or that her "abilities" were viewed a bit freakish to those who did not also possess them. Then again, maybe no one ever told her simply due to the fact that she never mentioned her gift. Why would she? Didn't everyone see and hear the same things she did? It never crossed her mind that she was special, or different from the masses. She was a simple small town girl from Alabama, hardly the type to draw any attention when skipping down the street. It would take 14 years before Malory realized she wasn't like the others girls in school, and when this revelation emerged she quickly learned that it was something to keep secret.
Her first encounter with a spirit was at the tender age of 6, and the occurance left her confused and bewildered. Her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Ketchum, had "went to heaven" a couple of weeks before, and the girl along with her parents and older sister had dressed in their best clothes to attend something called a funeral. She was sure that it was a type of going away party. Judging from the rows of beautiful flowers and fancy dresses, it was an important event. The only problem was that the gathering just made no sense to her. While the party was clearly for Mrs. Ketchum, the lady slept the entire time in an odd wooden bed and no one ever tried to wake her up. Perhaps, the lady was resting up for the trip. It confused her, but she simply summed it up to being one of those “adult things” she was too young to understand.
Another thing that left her confused was the fact that everyone was extremely emotional. Though everyone was dressed in their best and parties were supposed to be fun, everyone would burst out in tears for no reason. Which seemed rather foolish to display such emotion for a woman who was just going on vacation. She, too, would miss the old lady while she was gone. She would miss helping her in the flower garden and gobbling down the warm, creamy peanut butter cookies the woman would make for reimbursement of her work. She would miss her terribly but not enough to make her cry, she would just wait patiently for her to come back home. Sometimes adults just seemed silly.
She had been playing in the backyard, the day Mrs. Ketchum returned from her trip to "Heaven". Malory was excited to see her fiddling around in the flower garden just as the woman had always done. She had not wasted a moment in racing to the house next door to help. She helped pull out stray weeds as she spoke about the beautiful party and the rows of flowers that had been all around the room. Mrs. Ketchum had smiled and nodded assuring her that "she had seen." The only difference was that there was no longer peanut butter cookies, but Malory didn't mind, she just enjoyed spending time with the woman.
After awhile, a new family moved in to the house next door. She assumed they were relatives of Mrs. Ketchum who had come to take care of the feeble lady. She knew instantly that she did not like them very much. They yelled at her and Mrs. Ketchum to get out of the garden, whenever they planted and pruned. Even complaining to her parents that she was messing up their garden. It wasn't until they completely pulled up the garden and paved it over that Mrs. Ketchum stopped coming outside. She soon became worried, asking where the woman had gone. Her mother informed her she had “gone to Heaven”, Malory guessed this time she wouldn't come back since the new people had destroyed her garden. She never did see Mrs. Ketchum again, but the woman would later prove to be the first of a long line of "people" she was not supposed to be seeing.