DEMENT: A Texas Ghost Story

Chapter X (Epilogue)

Author's Note: If you have come this far in the story of Cotton Copse, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for going on this bittersweet journey with Lu, Dottie, Amy, and the rest, and supporting this story and my writing. Again, if you liked what you saw, upvote this story and leave a comment to help increase the odds that someone else might discover this tale, too.

Ellarie slides the tray of cookies into the cramped old kitchen's state-of-the-art new oven. The Villanueva family will arrive in ten minutes, and by then Ellarie wants the place smelling like real down-home comfort. She pulls out all the stops.

Miss Steger, one of the more senior members of the Smith County Historical Society, finally retired two months ago at the ripe old age of eighty-seven. Ellarie Schmalz, the society's youngest member, thus inherited the not altogether desirable job of finding a renter for the "Piney Woods Historical Ranch House," as the place had been tactfully renamed. For some thirty-odd years it had been Miss Steger's solemn duty to flap the great useless old property in front of every new potential renter to make their way into the area, and for some thirty-odd years Miss Steger had failed. Ellarie Schmalz, though, is a go-getter, a mover and shaker. She took the assignment as a challenge, an opportunity to prove her mettle and accomplish what Miss Steger could not.

Still, a new roof, a fresh coat of paint, and a more PC name for the property was not enough to disguise the place's reputation as one of the most haunted houses in the state, no matter how many cease-and-desists the Historical Society issued to local ghost tourism businesses and amateur spook hunters. Even without the reputation, the house used to be the figurehead of a massive and notorious plantation, and plantation homes are falling out of vogue this day and age. It seemed every potential renter could smell the centuries-old stink on the property from miles away. Ellarie could not help but give credence to the oft-whispered rumor that the house was cursed.

But then came the Villanuevas. There's one born every minute, Ellarie's car salesman father used to say. The Villanuevas are not stupid, but they are desperate, and that is perhaps an even easier advantage to push. The family itches for a fresh start, seemingly fleeing some trauma back home that Ellarie has never asked about. She is not one to pry, at least so long as the prying does not do her any service. In truth, she really does not care. They are eager enough to move upstate that they failed to do their due research into the house's history, and that is all the edge Ellarie needs to snare them.

The doorbell rings. The Society replaced the old, over-long 1970s door chime with something new and modern at the same that they killed the rudimentary security system. The new doorbell has a camera that connects wirelessly via app to one's phone. Ellarie glances down at hers, and sure enough the Villanuevas are standing patiently at the door. Ellarie bustles out of the kitchen (the tall black door has been removed, leaving the room open), down the hall (the ancient wallpaper had to go, replaced with a fresh coat of crisp eggshell paint), through the front room (which has been re-carpeted and fitted with a faux fireplace) and to the front door (painted an eye-catching baby blue), straightening the show furniture as she goes.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite family!" Ellarie says in her best REALTOR® voice as she throws the door open.

Mr. Villanueva smiles. He is a tall, handsome man with caramel skin and an effortless pleasantness in his demeanor. Ellarie really does find him a pleasure to be around. He steps in, pushing a wheelchair occupied by Mrs. Villanueva's father, a grizzled little man with a thick white moustache and a wide, floppy hat who seemingly lost most of his faculties to some form of dementia. His face is interwoven with more lines than a DMV. Mrs. Villanueva herself takes up the rear, a smallish woman with bulgy eyes and a shock of premature grey in her hair.