Chapter Four
The group took a pickup truck and Maudie gave them directions. When they got as far as they could by truck, Maudie motioned for King to pull over.
He did so, then he looked around the area with wary eyes. “No one ever comes this way Maudie. Why are we here?”
Maudie lifted her chin. ‘We never come this way because everyone thinks it’s haunted.
But it ain’t.” Shaking her head she admitted, “It ain’t haunted at all.
All this land be Hogan land. Grace made sure of that and she’s probably the first one that said it was haunted too but it ain’t.
This be where Jed built Sharon’s cabin and Grace led people away from here to hide what she wanted hidden.
” Maudie got out of the truck and began walking into the trees.
Everyone else followed.
Then suddenly, she stopped and stared ahead of her.
King was the first to see a small cabin sitting there. It had a garden area that looked clean and half-grown vegetables were poking up through the dirt.
Renee caught her breath and just stared at the small cabin. “Oh, my heavens...” She whispered as she stumbled forward and then caught herself.
Leeza looked to her left and found a headstone surrounded by a rock border.
She went closer and read the epitaph aloud, “Sharon Langley, no birth date but there’s another date on the wooden maker, ten years ago.
” The rest of the words on the slab were Daughter, Mother and Grandmother.
Each word looked like it had been etched deep into the wood by a blade.
The words were beginning to fade as weather had marred the wood wearing it down with time.
King moved forward with Maudie.
When they got closer they could see someone had been living here long after Sharon died. The place was neat, painted and the glass on the windows were shiny. Flowers grew by the porch. The trees looked clipped and were thriving.
King just shook his head. “I never knew about this place.”
Rhetta snorted. “No one else did either. I have to wonder how she ever survived out here alone.”
Leeza stepped up and said, “She died ten years back but I don’t think she was alone. Her headstone says... Daughter, mother and grandmother.”
Maudie snapped her gaze over to the headstone and asked, “Grandmother? Are you sure?”
Leeza nodded. “Sure enough. It is odd though.
Maudie shrugged. “Don’t know about the grandmother part but I think we should look around and ask some questions.”
“You think we should search the cabin?” Renee wanted to know.
Maudie shook her head. “That cabin isn’t ours to look around in.
We can’t just barge in and have a looksee.
” She backed up a step and said, “We have ta go home now. We found what we were looking for.” She walked slowly over to the headstone and bowed her head to whisper, “I be sorry Ms. Sharon. I left you all alone out here and didn’t come back to check on you like I should have.
I be real sorry about dat. You never deserved what Ms. Grace did to you and now it’s too late to make any difference.
I let you down and I’m real sorry. Please forgive me? ” Sniffling, she wiped her tears away.
King joined her. He waited until she seemed ready then he silently led her away.
They all got back into the truck and King drove back to their house.
When they got home there were the Hogans, waiting for them. The Hogan cousins had arrived too. Tiege, Jordy, Tannin, Mickey, Colt and Ragan.
Renee got out and shook her head. “I said after supper, you guys.”
Harry, Sonny and Clive glared at her.
“We ain’t waitin’ for after supper. You got something to tell us, you can say it right now.” Clive growled.
Renee shook her head. “Ya’ll need to calm down, Clive. It ain’t nothing bad, fool. But it ain’t really so good either. It happened long before any of us were even thought of, or any of our dad’s either.”
Maudie joined Renee and looked around at them all. “Maybe everyone should come into the house. I think it has come time you were told of the Hogan family secret.” She moved into the house and she went to the kitchen.
Leeza, Rhetta and Reecie joined her then they set up drinks for everyone.
When they came back into the living room Renee set her tray down and started the explanation, “You boys all knew our grandmother Grace and while we always thought she was strict, she was also cruel. You see, I learned this from Grandpa Jed. The day he died, he asked for me to come see him. He had something to tell me but he made me swear to keep it a secret. He told me he was in love with our grandmother Grace and he did things for her that he didn’t like.
But because she was his wife, he did them.
The week they got married she asked him to build a smaller cabin on some land the Hogan’s owned for a cousin of hers.
The cousin was Sharon Langley. The whole Langley family had hidden her away all her life.
Why? I asked grandpa. He told me there was nothing wrong with Sharon but she was different, not bad, just different.
He told me she was albino and the family couldn’t have that known.
When I asked him why he told me that our grandma reasoned it would be, that people thought being that white was something that people would talk about, maybe even think she was a freak of nature.
Then grandpa told me that Sharon wasn’t a freak, that she was a woman of great learning and she had always thought she was just different than most people but he said grandma didn’t want anyone to know about her and her defects.
” Renee wiped her tears away and went on, “Grandpa told me Sharon was a very kind woman and she told him Grace’s rejection had hurt but that was just the way her family treated her all her life. They all thought she was a freak.”
Teige and Ragan frowned.
Then Jordy added, “But she couldn’t help it. That’s just cruel.”
Renee nodded. “It’s more than that. Our grandma treated her own cousin like she was less than a real person.
It doesn’t seem like much but being treated like that really messes with a person’s wellbeing.
Grandpa said he would bring her food supplies once a week and show her how to live in the swamp when he visited.
But after a while he didn’t have to tell her much.
Sharon had figured out how to live here all on her own.
Then one day Grandma came along with him and that’s when she found out that Sharon had a boyfriend and that she was pregnant with his child.
Grandpa told me she was angry right from the start.
She told Sharon and her boyfriend that they should never have got together and that her child would bring down the whole family.
She had to get rid of both the boyfriend and her child.
Sharon fought with her over the baby but grandma had it so hard for the boyfriend that soon after the baby was born, she forced him out.
Called the constable at the time said he was trespassing.
So he took his daughter and moved away.”
“Was her daughter an albino too?” Ragan asked.
Maudie stood and shook her head. “No sirree, dat baby was natural. She had a good strong cry and got all pink right away. I know because I helped deliver dat baby. But Ms. Grace wasn’t happy and she wouldn’t let them stay. She never wanted anyone to know about her cousin, you see.”
At this, Sonny growled.
Looking angry, Clive nodded in agreement.
Harry just sat there staring at Renee.
“Sharon lived a good long life,” Renee finally said.
“Grandpa Jed told me that Grandma was a good woman but because she had a cousin with albinism she would never talk about her, she never hardly went to see her. Then after she made the boyfriend take the baby and move away she never went to see her cousin again. He told me that when she passed away she begged him to forgive her for what she’d done to Sharon but grandpa told her that he didn’t know if he could.
He would try but he’d seen her cruelty over the years and he just didn’t know if he could ever forgive her for what she’d done.
He told her if they met in the afterlife she could ask him again and then he could give his answer.
So when she died, he could see the heartbreak in her eyes. ”
The room went silent for a long time.