A Small Town

Chapter Twenty-one\ Ghost Story

Chapter Twenty-one\ Ghost Story

Bax listened as Pastor Black retold the story of the LeTourneau Witch. The real story this time. The man's voice was a high thin whisper full of pain. In his minds-eye, the sound conjured an image of a huge rusty chain, the kind of chain that came down from the deck of a cargo ship with a massive anchor at its end that plunged into the depths of the ocean.

The lies were there right from the start. Oh, the LeTourneau's came to Primacy as he had said they did, but Pastor Willam Black's father was never part of it. Samuel Black hadn't even been born then. Bax new from Lou Hennesseys roughly drawn LeTourneau family tree that Samuel was born... later.

When Joseph LeTourneau had died no one helped his wife or daughters. They had tried to keep things going by themselves and failed. This was the real reason that Felice had risked exposing herself as a witch by offering to douse a new well. She would never have otherwise, even in the 1880's people in small towns were suspicious of such 'talents' and she knew the risk. She also knew she had no choice. The town would pay her for her services as long as the well came in and they were desperate.

She knew there were already whispers about her family and their strange rituals in the forest. They had been careful not to arouse attention to their druid beliefs but not quite careful enough. All that being said, however, Felice believed that if the well came in it would fix everything. She, and by extension her family, would have saved the town and people would respect them, perhaps even honour them as heroes.

Of course, the well didn't come in and everything fell apart. Felice's died, Mariette and Gisele escaped but Agathe did not.

Why she stayed was obvious and Bax didn't need Pastor Black to tell him. She stayed because she was in love, and love conquers all right? Wrong.

Toby Warner was in love with Agathe, in fact, he had even proposed marriage and given her a ring. Agathe was bound and determined to stay no matter what anyone said about her family and Toby was just as set on marrying her. Nothing could stand in their way, except... Pastor Clifford Brown.

Through all of this Agathe LeTourneau continued her monthly visits to what she believed was the sacred woods. She held fast to the beliefs her druid parents had taught her and it never occurred to her to stay away from the beautiful clearing and the ancient trees. She prayed to the living breathing forest, she boiled the herbs and roots as her mother had shown her and drank deeply so that she could see the spirits of the earth and commune with them.

All the while Pastor Brown watched. He had followed her into the woods the first time, he told himself, to confirm she was not conducting satanic rites as the rumour mill supposed. He would confront her and lead her away from her pagan rituals and into the arms of Jesus. However, the sight of her dancing in all her nakedness with such glorious abandon had entranced him. He was overwhelmed with a desire greater than any he had ever known and it seemed no matter how much he prayed for the strength to stay away, each month he would find himself hiding in the trees at the edge of the clearing watching. Finally, his desire grew into a madness that he could not control and it was then that he revealed himself not to help Agathe but to have her.

As she lay exhausted on the green grass with the trees and the sky blue above her, breathing heavily, drunk on the hemlock infused tea and the voices of the spirits echoing in her mind a shadow fell upon her. She gazed lazily up into the red, panting face of Pastor Brown. Through a haze, she saw him stripping off his cassock and then he was upon her.

The act was over quickly and then he was gone. Agathe was not sure that it had even happened at all until the morning sickness and the swell of her belly began, and by then it was too late.

This pregnancy was the real reason for Toby's suicide. Agathe had gone to him and returned his ring. She told him of the rape but would not tell him the name of her attacker. He would not have believed her anyway. Pastor Brown was a holy man, and above suspicion.

Rumors of her pregnancy ran rampant through Primacy. Afer Toby's suicide, the consensus was that she was carrying the spawn of the devil himself as no man had come forward to claim parenthood.

Worst still, it was Agathe herself who had found Toby in the woods, he had hanged himself not far from her clearing and this was what had truly driven her insane.

On October 12th Pastor Brown followed Agathe into the woods for the last time. She drank her potion and danced around the fire, her belly huge now, the skin tight and covered in perspiration. Finally, she mounted the tree, that penis shaped branched plunging into her as she writhed and gyrated upon it in pain and ecstasy.

Pastor Brown stood staring in horror and then he heard the sounds of the mob coming. The entire town had come with torches and axes. Agathe was pulled from the tree and thrown to the ground. Men with axes chopped at the huge tree, scarring it and cutting off the offending member. Brown gathered up Agathe and carried her away with the mob close behind. He took her into the church and it was there that she had the baby. Screaming in pain and terror the baby came and Clifford Brown rushed forward to catch it and cut the umbilical cord.

Then the mob broke into the church, the pastor hid the baby as they dragged Agathe away. In a frenzy, they set her on fire and put her down the well.

It should have ended there but, of course, it did not. Pastor Brown kept Agathe LeTourneau's baby, his son, hidden for months and then proclaimed to the town that an orphan had been left at the church and he would raise it himself and named him Samuel. This was William Blacks father. The townspeople suspected where the baby had come from, but the child was not at fault and the Pastor would see that he was raised a devout Christian.

It was two weeks later that the deaths began. The first was Mrs. Lucy Weaver. She was an elderly widow who regularly took her preserves to market one town over in Spence Ontario, due to a long-running feud with the Munday family. On October 27th she loaded up her horse cart and headed out of town. Her body was found at the town line along with the body of her horse. Both had been crushed by some massive force, leaving little more than a fine spread of flattened bones and entrails. No one had ever seen anything like it.

Over the next two months, six more Primacy residents died trying to leave the town and a town meeting was called. Four men were selected to head out over the town line for help. They left on Jan 8th, which was by all accounts an unusually warm and sunny day. Within the hour of their departure, the weather over Primacy changed and a terrible blizzard rolled in forcing everyone inside. Three days later, one man returned. He was barely alive, both of his hands were gone and his feet were black with frostbite. He raved in the hours before his death of walking continually from the day they had left and never reaching the town line which should only have been a few hours away. He claimed to have been lost in the forest for most of the time but the forest did not extend as far as the main road.

Pastor Black's voice trailed off and Bax said nothing letting the silence settle over them. Outside a wind had risen and there was a chill in the room. Bax listened to the rattle of the glass panes and the low whistle of cool night air leaking in around the warped frame. Black's breathing was laboured and irregular on the bed beside him.

"So you believe it's her ghost?" Bax asked, dully.

Black twitched in the bed and slit open his eyes. "They killed her Jeffrey. My grandfather raped her and the people of this town murdered her..."

Bax nodded and closed his eyes. This was crazy, he didn't believe in ghosts, but what else could it be?

Black's eyes had closed again. He should let the old man sleep, but he had to know for sure...

"... and Lisa?" Bax asked softly.

Without opening his eyes, Pastor Black nodded sadly. "...my daughter."

Bax rose from the chair and left the room without another word. Behind him, William Black was weeping... and dying.

He left the rectory, stepping out into the first light of morning, and headed back to the bookstore in a daze.