Windchimes

still on North Carolina and ghosts

I drove to Decatur and back this morning. That's about an hour and a half, one way. Got home around noon and just vegged out. No air conditioning in my car, "orange" smog alert temps by 11p.m., as I was driving back.

So, I just got here and caught up with the journals I like to read, tried to work on my slam poem. It's not going so well. 22 lines, and I only really like one or two of the ideas the words in those lines are taking me to.

Thus (I'm tired of typing "so") I'm here, to try to continue the rehash I started in the last entry. I started to retell some of the ghost stories we heard on our ghost tour of Beaufort. Blackbeard's 13th wife. He had fourteen, all about fourteen years old, and never divorced any of them. And never had more than one wife at a time.

Not that the ceremony was legal. Not that she agreed, without duress, to be his wife. He found her while taking a ship, killing the crew and passengers, and asked her if she'd rather marry him or join them. Duh. Someone appointed by him performed a wedding "ceremony" and he installed her in his house in Beaufort, and "suggested" she stay put. But he was often away on his raids and other pirate business, and she could hardly go grocery shopping if she couldn't leave the house. So he hired a young man to bring her food. She begged said young man to rescue her.

Beaufort being a small town, word got out. Our guide assured us that word of just about anything still gets out in much the same way. Blackbeard got wind of their plans and sailed up to the front porch as they were making their getaway. As the young man ran down the stairs, Blackbeard sliced him in two with his four and a half foot sword. Quite rudely, he bled all over the stairs. The story goes that all the house's owners since then have tried to remove the blood from those steps. Sanding, painting, one owner even tried carpeting. The latter stepped into something red and sticky as he came down the stairs one morning.

As for the unlucky young lady, Blackbeard hung her from a tree in the backyard. People say you can hear her crying sometimes. Our guide said she'd heard it, and doesn't care to hear it again.

Property values for every house in Beaufort have steadily risen, but this house has sold for a smaller price each time someone buys it. But the current owners, according to our guide, say they're comfortable with the bloody stairs and ghosts.

The dinner bell ringeth. Or it would if we had one. I'll write about the rum-soaked girl and the yankee soldiers later.

J.H. Larrew
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **