Ghosts on the Levee

My mother is one of these people who believe there is a logical explanation for everything. No supernatural tales for her thank you. Consequently, I rarely discuss ghosts and hauntings with her. But once in a while she surprises me with a story from her youth. Such is the tale of the levee ghosts.

Nina's family was one of the wealthiest in town. They lived near the levee in one of the beautiful old antebellum mansions that had been handed down from generation to generation. Unfortunately they found very little joy in their fine home because the home's original owner, a distant ancestor, haunted it.

In life he was a man with a short temper and a long memory. In death, his and his wife's ghosts played out a terrible macabre scene of murder and madness on the mansion's staircase night after night.

One evening he returned home earlier than expected from a trip up river. Whistling happily to himself he raced up the wide staircase to awaken his wife only to find her in the arms of another man. Enraged, he ran down the stairs and grabbed a dagger from the wall case. His wife's lover was overpowered and killed almost instantly. Screaming in terror, she ran down the stairs trying to escape the dagger's thrusts. But she was not quick enough. His eyes filled with cold hatred as he caught up with her at the foot of the stairs and killed her just as he'd killed her lover.

When he calmed down and realized what he'd done to his beloved wife, the man hanged himself in the home's library.

The house stood empty for nearly a year, till a nephew from the West Coast came and claimed it. He didn't stay long. His son was the mansion's next occupant. Apparently he wasn't bothered by the rumors and the ghosts. He married a local girl and the two of them happily raised their only child in the home. If they encountered the ghosts they never said.

Nina's father inherited the home as a young man and brought his bride to live there. The first night in her new home the young woman woke to a loud commotion on the staircase. Waking her husband, she whispered, "Someone's broken in."

"It's only the ghosts." He told calmly. "They won't hurt you."

The young woman eased out of bed and crept to the stairs. She was startled to see the specters of the home's original owners locked in their battle of life and death.

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