Chapter 6

Alexander walked out of the courthouse and felt amazed, but some-thing bothered him and he didn't know what it was. He started back home and arrived to find, Marlowe playing with the children outside.

The children ran up and greeted their stepfather with open arms. Marlowe kissed him on the lips and welcomed him home.

"There is much to be done today," he said.

"I have to tend the fields and groom the horses and fix that shutter on the house. For some-reason that shutter doesn't stay latched. It looks like it might rain tonight. The weather is getting choppy, he said. I'm going to check on the horse."

Marlowe felt some pain in her stomach and wondered about if the baby was okay. She drank some goats' milk and rested awhile. She watched the children play from the porch of her home.

Alexander unsaddled the horse and led them to the field to graze.

He met up with a man riding a coach nearby his land. His wife Marlowe stood up and stared at them both.

"Are you Mr. Milestone," Harry asked. "The delivery man."

"Yes!

"I have a telegram for you from Atlanta. I need your signature here please!"

Alexander signed the letter.

"Is everything OK?" Marlowe shouted.

"Yes ma'am, I'm just delivering a telegram here for Mr. Milestone."

"Do you need anything else from me," Alexander asked.

"No sir, that's all I need from you. Nice place you got here!"

"Thank You," Alexander said.

"Well, I have to go I got another telegram to deliver in Statum Shores."

"You can get there quicker if you just cross my land down yonder and follow the trail and you're right there," Alexander said.

"Thank You," Harry said.

"Much obliged, afternoon ma'am, as he tipped his hat and rode off to Statum Shores."

Alexander opened the telegram. He received word that his mother was ill. The telegram read, 'urgent please come home. Mother has taken ill badly from small pox. The doctors say she might die. You must come home. Signed your cousin Jill.

"What is it Alex," Marlowe said.

"It's my mother, she is ill and they have requested me to come home quickly."

Alexander looked at Marlowe and gave her instructions on what to do while he is out of town. He gathered his belongings and prepared to move on.

"Give me a big kiss girls," he said.

Cathy, Serena, and Mary reached up and kissed their stepfather and wished him well on his trip.

Marlowe gave him a big hug.

"We will be waiting for you when you get back," she said.

The children watched as Alexander rode off for Atlanta.

The night fell quickly and rain began to fall. There was lightening and thunder. Marlowe kept the girls nestled tight and told them not to worry. Everything would be all right. The oil lamps burned slowly, she raised the wick to augment the light and illuminate their home much brighter.

Marlowe finally got the children to sleep. She looked out the window and saw a hazed figure just beyond the trees down by the river. She began to tremble. She closed the shutter and locked the windows. Quickly she ran downstairs. She threw logs on the fireplace, heated some hot tea on the wood stove to help her calm down and rest. She started to hallucinate and have cramps. She bent over and held her abdomen tightly. She stretched her legs and lay down then she curled up in a fetus position. Marlowe fell into a deep sleep! And she drempt

She's lain on a table getting ready to have her child. The pain grew worse and there was an apparition that approached her and its face was crawling with evil, and her hair was flaming-red. The skin was ripped and falling off drip by drip. The mouth showed enormous worms crawling out and she looked up and seen Rebecca ugly and horrible in the face like a decomposed corpse and the eyes glowed. Marlowe began to scream and the ghost hollered give me your baby, give it to me, the sound was ghostly and echoed.

Marlowe quickly jumped up and shrilled out loud a horrible scream. Loud and louder she screamed again and then fainted. The children were never awakened. In the morning she had awaken to find her children still sleeping in their beds. She began to hear drums beating, the walls began to turn she was incoherent as if she was hypnotized.

All of a sudden, children's voices started to chant take her down, take her down, take her down, Marlowe walked in her white satin sleep wear. Her body, visible through the gown. She gazed forward and grabbed a chair, and walked out side. The drums kept beating. Pound after pound in a rythmic beat. Marlowe walked to the huge oak tree that stood in the front yard. Hanging on the tree was a rope with a noose. She stared straight and never looked any direction. She climbed up on the chair and put the noose around her neck and then stepped off the chair, dangling and kicking. She had awaken from the trance, her eyes were blood shot red, then she died and the drums stopped beating.

Wilcox County would recover from the tragic death of, Mrs. Marlowe Milestone. Some say she committed suicide, other say she was promiscuous. Most of the southerners there believed it was The Ghost of Statum Shores that killed her. Only time would tell and for Cathy, Serena and Mary, all were returned to their biological father Mathew Parker in Atlanta. The Estate was no longer occupied. It was believed to be haunted and cursed. In 1892, the Estate of Alexander Milestone was tore down to the ground. The Ocmulgee River continues to flow and she has no mercy, she is defiant and prominent.

It is the year 1960. On the Ocmulgee River in Georgia, Statum Shores lays just above Queensland off 129 North coming from Benhill County. Many years have passed and there have been many deaths. Some from drowning and others from suicide and then those that remain a mystery. Love is a mystery and sometimes-ghostly love is amiable. Jackie and Jim lived near Statum Shores. As children they would play and swim in the river. Jackie lived next door to Jim. One day Jackie went over and knocked next door for Jim.

The door opened and there stood a young boy with brown-hair and blue- eyes.

"Hi," Jackie said.

"C'mon in," Jim replied.

"My mother said I have two-hours to swim and I thought you might want to go down to the river and swim with me?"

"Sure!"Jim said.

"Let me get my fishing pole and I can fish why we swim". Jackie and Jim walked from their homes and headed down to the river. Airboats with hooting and hollering people on board raised hell and enjoyed a sunny day on the Ocmulgee. Jim set up his pole and put a worm on the hook. Jackie sat down on the bank and watched him. She smiled and her blonde-hair and blue-eyes shined in the sun. She stayed seated with her knees up and her hands clasped together supporting her legs.

"Let me have that fork stick,"Jim asked.

Jackie got up and handed him the stick. Jim stuck it in the ground and places the pole between the forks in the stick. It was the common way to fish, Jim took his shirt off and jumped in the river by the bank. Jackie followed right behind him. She and Jim splashed and dove down underwater. Jackie dared not go out to far where the currents were stronger. Just by the bank and waist deep was good enough. Jim was raised on the river. Most of the boys called him a river rat. If there was a place to see on the river, Jim knew where it was. He would ride in Jon boats head up river putting out catfish trot lines and tie some lines to branches just hanging over the waters edge for some catfish.

Jackie loved the river. She also saw a light in Jim. She would dream about getting married one day and hoped it would be with him. There was no doubt in mind that Jackie was in love with Jim.