Chapter One
A few days later...
Back in the swamp....
Mickey Hogan knelt beside a creek at Echo Holler while washing his hands when he got the feeling he wasn’t alone anymore.
He felt a certain itch in between his broad shoulders and that always told him to look out.
Since he and his brothers had come back to their home, he had been noticing this feeling, this itch before but he never felt it this strongly.
He’d been keeping his eyes peeled for a while now but he never caught whoever was watching him.
He got up slowly and wiped his wet hands on his britches before he looked around the area carefully.
He reached up, took off his hat and spoke, “Look I don’t know who you are but I know you've been watching us for a long time now. Maybe if you just came forward we could speak for a while and you could tell me why you've been watching us. No one here is gonna hurt you, that’s just not how we roll but maybe you could speak your mind. And we could even help if that’s what you need. ”
“What makes you think I need help?” A female voice came back at him in the distance.
Mickey couldn’t tell where the voice was coming from as it seemed to bounce from everywhere at once.
He shook his head as he remembered this area was known to Maudie as echo valley.
Maudie always said that the area was some kind of trick.
That the trees were placed just right, so any voice echoed and bounced from tree to tree.
He shrugged. “I don’t know if you need help or not. But you can come out and show yourself, can’t you?”
“Maybe I don’t want to. Maybe you don’t want to see me. I’m nobody special, no more than a ghost haunting this swamp. That’s all I’ve ever been.”
Mickey paused, then replied, “Everybody is someone.”
She released a harsh chuckle. “Not everyone, not me.”
“Tell me this then, why are you following me?” he asked her. His own voice echoed back at him for a long moment.
Then her voice came back again, “You know something? I don’t really know why I've been watching you. You intrigue me for some reason. I’ve been watching everyone in this swamp for a bit and all I can say is that you intrigue me.
You are a strong man but you never raise your hand in anger against anyone.
You got a fine body and that’s just a fact but I think you’re shy when there are women around.
I know you have brothers and cousins. And every time I see them they are always working or protecting Ms. Maudie and her home. ”
“You know Ms. Maudie?” he asked as he looked around while searching the trees.
“Hell yeah, everyone in this swamp knows Ms. Maudie,” she chided. “She’s a healer in dese parts.”
“Have you been safe all this time?” Mickey wanted to know. “There’s been some trouble in these parts for a while now.”
She let out a rude snort then said, “Yeah, but Dale Bailey and his boys were always good at causing trouble. Then you boys took down Leroy Matteo, didn’t you? ‘Bout time that man faced his own sins.”
Mickey felt confused. “You know Leroy? And what he’s been doing all this time?”
“Yeah, I do. Been living here in this swamp my whole life. I’ve also been watching the people that live here. I’ve seen things happen here and I’ve seen what you people have been doing. You all have been rounding up the bad seeds fo sure.”
“What’s your name, girl?” Mickey finally asked her. “I am Mickey Hogan. A cousin to Sonny, Leeza, Renee, Rhetta, Harry and Clive Hogan. If you know them, you know me and my brothers.”
A long stint of silence went by, then she asked, “I know of them. Anyone in da swamps would. Why do you need to know my name?” She paused, then said, “Nobody ever asked me my name before. They just call me a fant?me... a ghost.”
Pausing, Mickey heard someone running away from the spot as her footsteps echoed in the silence. He just stood there for a long time before he put his hat back on his head and walked slowly back through the swamp to Maudie’s house.
When he got back, Maudie was outside on the front steps just staring at the swamp around her. She raised her head and rubbed the back of her arms as if she saw something that disturbed her. She turned to him and shivered.
Mickey paused when he saw her and the look on her face troubled him some. “Are you okay, Ms. Maudie?”
Maudie shook her head. “Not sure, I had a dream last night but I’m not sure how to interpret it.”
Mickey looked around the area. “We got more trouble coming?”
Maudie shook her head. “I don’t know yet.
I can’t read this dream. Something's coming but I don’t know if it be trouble or not.
I just don’t know. I figured we were done with da bad stuff when Shay took da bad ones away.
Now I be hearing voices in my head that makes me feel there’s something more we need to clear up, but I don’t know what that could be. I don’t know, I just don’t know.”
Mickey stood there wondering too. Then he asked, “Ms. Maudie, have you ever heard of a fant?me here in the swamp?”
Maudie snapped her gaze over at him and asked, “A ghost? What kind of ghost?”
Mickey shrugged. “I ain’t sure but someone has been watching me, I mean all of us. She even knew about Dale and Leroy. When I asked for her name she said nobody ever asked her name before. That’s when she told me she was just a fant?me, um... a ghost here.”
Maudie rubbed her arms again and shivered.
She shook her head. “I ain’t never seen a ghost here before, but I think others have seen her and dey are a little leery of her.
There’s been talk for years about this ghost. But she doesn’t bother nobody, she doesn’t haunt anybody either.
” Maudie looked distracted as she remembered something.
She turned to look into the swamp. “In fact, ole Fred Wingman said something a few years ago about this ghost. He fell and hurt his leg one summer a few years back. He’d been tending his garden then his hoe missed and it clipped his foot.
His foot was bleeding bad and he passed out before he made it to his house.
Next thing he knew he woke up in his own bed.
Someone had wrapped his foot and left him water beside his bed.
He laid there healing for a couple of days before he got up and when he thought about his garden again he limped out to find someone had cleared the weeds for him.
" She shook her head. “He came to see me about his foot and when I looked I found his cut had been stitched properly and it was clean, healing already. He didn’t know who or what had done it for him but he said a day later he found a rabbit, cleaned and ready for cooking on his doorstep.” She looked out into the brush.
“He told me whoever cared for him must be a ghost or an angel.”
Mickey got a funny feeling in his chest. He wasn’t sure he believed in ghosts but he’d talked to her and she talked back to him. She was real enough. “But can ghosts talk?”
Maudie shook her head. “Maybe? But dey usually don’t talk a lot. Just a few words.”
“Then she isn’t a ghost at all,” Mickey stated gruffly. “We had a whole conversation.” He stomped away and headed toward the Hogan house. Since he and his brothers had come home they’d been staying with their cousins until they could clean up their own houses not far from their cousin’s place.