Gateway for a Displaced People

Secret Cave

December 17, 1896

We got an early start today, since I intended to go to Crossroads that morning. Mellie made us some biscuits and we had them with butter and jam. She fixed us coffee as well. We loaded a picnic basket onto the carriage and drove off to Crossroads Hamlet. I sat in the back of the carriage while Anthony and Mellie sat in the front seat.

It turned out to be a lovely, sun shiny day. It was still December, and it was still cold, despite the warm sun. I had thought that Crossroads meant a crossing of two roads. The road that ran into the hamlet did connect to the main road, but that was not why they called it Crossroads. There was a cliff that overshadowed the hamlet, carved into the cliff was a giant cross nearly twenty feet tall.

As we road into the town we noted that it was rather orderly. The people were dressed in dark clothing. We road into a circular cul de sac which seemed to surround what was a town square which held a single gazebo. The people were not as sober as their dress. They cheerfully greeted us with waves and smiles.

I had Andrew stop at the general store. It was watched over by a middle-aged woman who was thin as a rail. Inside were tables and chairs set up at one side of the store. There a few customers were being served pastries and coffee. Naturally I had to partake of such a quaint scene. As Melody and Andrew sat down with me, a few of the customers stared at us.

"You got nothing to do, but stare at strangers. Go back to what you were doing." Said the proprietess as she came over. "My name is Madge, I haven't seen you here before. You have to forgive the other folks, they don't see Negroes about much."

"Especially sitting with a white woman." I commented. "My name is Nia Green, this is Andrew and Melody Spicer. You seem very accepting, compared to some people we've met."

"You are the woman living in Hattie Hatterley's Hilltop House." Madge laughed. "I've heard a lot about you. Heard you were responsible of disposing of that trouble they were having."

"You might say I had something to do with it." I sighed. The problem had been the local town sheriff.

Sheriff McCory had taken to murdering people and was knocked off the cliff by a mad woman. I had led him up to the cliff so that she could kill him. That was part of a rather ugly incident that happened in October of this year. I still don't care to think much about it. Because the mad woman who killed McCory may not of been of this Earth.

We were served our coffee and danishes. Conversations resumed. If I had cared to ease drop on those conversations I have no doubt they would range from next year's planting to where people were wintering their cattle. I heard enough about that in Lake Haven and had no plans on listening to it in Crossroads.

"So, where would this special cave be." Andrew said. "If the witches worship in one it could be anywhere in the hills around here."

"It would have to be stable. Solid. Aunt Hattie led these people a decade ago, possibly for a couple decades before that." I suggested. "If they used the same cave in all of that time it has to be a solid one."

"This area is a decaying mountain range." Andrew said. "That outcrop in front of the town with the large cross seems solid. Maybe we sould look there."

"We could just ask Mrs. Madge where Old Gwen might be, if she is in town." Mellie said. "If we find Old Gwen we find where the withes be."

Mellie was always the smartest of us.

"Old Gwen?" Madge said. "Well, Miss, I'll tell you that I don't know. I thought she was in Lake Haven."