Time Well Spent as a Ghost

Chapter 11

Myles only had a few days off for the holidays. His family up north understood only too well how demanding it is to teach a full course load while working on a thesis. My brother was overseas collaborating on the latest video game his company was creating. So we went rustic, finding a tree on the property that fit the living room nicely, drinking spiked eggnog and enjoying a snowy Christmas morning with the fireplace blazing. After brunch, Cody fell asleep in a pile of wrapping paper.

I hadn't really talked with Myles about searching through the Crickler family history. I told him about the gravestones, in a conversational way, and how Mrs. Biddle confirmed that there was a fire, as a matter of fact there were many fires in those years. Structures built with unpressurized wood, bales of hay cram-packed to the rafters, lanterns hanging on every cross beam ...

And Myles was too distracted to notice what was going on around us. The picture frames tilted off center, cupboard doors silently opening or closing, objects moved from one place to another. It was almost comical when I heard the recliner slam closed for the second time as he got up to retrieve his reading glasses from across the room, swearing at himself. I was keeping a close eye on Cody as he was playing in the empty boxes his toys had been wrapped in.

The basket from the consignment shop was in the center of the kitchen table filled with evergreens and winter berries. I'd shown it to Mrs. Biddle and she agreed that it was an egg basket and that the smaller basket inside was for collecting small vegetables like green beans or plum tomatoes. Or blackberries, I thought to myself. She had a valuable suggestion, one that led to a goldmine of information. She explained that during those years the farming communities were organized around the church, and that older, established families often had a family bible which they'd read from and also use for record keeping of the births and deaths through the generations. Since she seemed to have the entire village wired I asked her if she could make some inquiries for me. Sure enough, the United Church of Christ on Old Quarry Road had many of them stored safely away and the pastor said she was welcome to take a look.