GHOST BOAT
“Mom, I told you. I like puzzles with a lot of colors.”
Angie sighed. She knew her daughter, recovering from leg surgery, was bored and cranky. There just wasn't much money.
Probably not many people in Mason county, where the old plantation homes were newly renovated, considered jigsaw puzzles expensive. Of course, most of the women worked no jobs, not two and a half like Angie did.
“Baby, it's brand new, with the plastic still on the box. The muted colors make it more challenging.” Angie had been delighted to find the puzzle at a garage sale for three dollars, although she wasn't going to tell her daughter that. Let her think it came from Barnes and Noble.
Jana, seated with her leg propped up, frowned. “You know, Mom, that ship is haunted.”
“Looks that way.” Oh good, Angie thought to herself. Maybe she’s getting interested in it.
“No, I mean it really is. Don't you recognize it? Shasta told us about this boat. It was used to move slaves up the Mississippi. Some of them died, and their spirits never left.”
Angie’s forehead wrinkled. Shasta was Jana’s friend from next door, a scrawny boy, mixed race. Green eyes like a jungle cat. Unsettling.
“Honey, how would Shasta know that?”
“Because he was there.” Jana fiddled with her phone. “Look, there he is.”
Angie walked over. Her daughter showed her an old photograph. It certainly did look like Shasta standing next to the paddle boat in the puzzle.
“It’s from the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana. Shasta said the owner hired him out to work along the riverside, loading and unloading cargo. He hated that particular boat because there were always slaves being shipped north, to Greenville and Memphis. There was a market nearby, and half of them, newly sold, would be wailing like banshees.” Jana frowned. “What are banshees, anyway?”
“Female spirits in Irish mythology. Something to do with death.” Angie sat at the table. “Say, honey, Shasta's pulling your leg. He saw the photo online and made up the story.”
Jana gave her a funny look. “No, he didn't. He was there. He’s been alive for 160 years. Well, I guess more like 172. He looks about twelve in the photo, and he was still able to be out in the daylight.”
“Jana, what on earth are you talking about?”
“I told you, Mom. He's a vampire. His whole family is.”
Jana cleared the picture off the phone. “I'm going to text him to come over tonight to work.on this puzzle. Boy, will he get a kick out of it.”
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