The Erotic Haunting of Miriam

The engine hummed along under the bright red hood of Miriam\'s convertible. It was a beautiful day, the sun shining and hardly a cloud in the sky as Miriam roared along the back roads. She was feeling excited and glamorous in her dark sunglasses with a white scarf holding cinnamon curls in check. Her pulse quickened as she picked up the pace, a swirl of dust kicking up behind her car as she drove down the tree lined country road. It was still early in the year, late march and the weather was still mild. So different from where she left where there was still snow on the ground.

The breeze was warm and soft, and lightly scented with the smell of wild flowers. She passed pastures of newly turned earth, and orchards fields in full bloom. Horses and cows dotted the landscape, grazing on the first tender shoots of new grass. A flash of scarlet zoomed by as a cardinal landed on the wire fence running along side the road. With an angry squawk a mockingbird dropped from the tree to chase off the cardinal. Miriam smiled as she passed by; it will be nice to see birds other than the pigeons and drab seagulls that populated the city, she thought.

It felt right to her that she began this new chapter of her life when spring was in the air. She was happy to be back here, and was going to enjoy watching the earth wake up from its long winter nap. She wanted to watch the gradual way the spring melted into summer with its long, hot, dusty days and the lingering twilight. Her pulse quickened at the thought of painting under those ruby-gold sunsets; capturing that perfect light when all seems right with the world. No, she was not at all sad to leave the city behind her.

Here and there, old, dilapidated shotgun houses peeked out from under low hanging branches. Their thick shade was not enough to obscure the broken windows and sagging porches. She wondered briefly if any one actually lived in those old places, but couldn\'t imagine anyone staying there since the days of the share-croppers.

A sudden movement caught her eye, was that a face at the window? Miriam turned her head for a better look, but was already past the run down house. Maybe someone was still there after all; or maybe it was just the shadows, a trick of the light. A chill crept up her spine. \"Best not to think about it,\" she told herself; anyways, the turn off the main road was coming up soon; she wouldn\'t want to miss it.

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The house had sat quiet for days; the work was finished. Dave roamed the rooms empty except for a piece of furniture here and there. Most of it he knew had been stored in the attic for decades and someone had cleaned them up and added a new coat of varnish. He almost didn\'t recognize the butcher-block kitchen table; the grime that had discolored the wood had been sanded away to reveal the original blond colored wood. It had been lovingly polished until it shined in the morning sun.

An old four-poster rice bed had been put into one of the second floor bedrooms, complete with a new matters and fresh linens. He drifted over to the bed, and stretching out his ghostly arm he stroked the thick quilt. He imagined he could feel the soft texture, but such things were beyond him now. He had known that, but still could not resist wanting to touch it, such human like habits still carried over in death and were hard to resist. But it was not a totally futile action. He may not have been able to feel the texture of material but he could sense the terrain of the object he touched. He could feel where the little dips and valleys were in the mattress, where the batting in the quilt was uneven. And of course his sense of sight was unchanged. He could appreciate the old fashion design of the wedding ring pattern, the interlocking loops and circles done in soft blues and greens. He wondered if the new owners were newly weds. For such a bedspread was the traditional gift for a young, newly married man and wife.

But things have changed in the 140 years since he last walked the earth as a living man. How much it changed, he did not know. His spirit form could not move more than a few hundred feet beyond the house. The further he moved from the house the weaker his form became. He had no explanation for this; he only knew that he could not push beyond these boundaries. He had always been saddened by this. For he dearly wanted too see what the world was like beyond these strict limitations. His only peek on the outside world was when it was brought into the house. He had been able to keep up with many of these changes via the Television shows that the last family living here had watched. He wondered if they had known that he had watched along side with them the various shows and programs they enjoyed.

He watched mesmerized for hours. He was confused at first by what was real and what was fiction, what was possible and what was impossible. He was endlessly amazed at this feat of moving lights and pictures. He had no idea of how this miracle worked; and at first had briefly wondered if there were indeed tiny little people living inside the large box with the picture window. But that was silly and he had known that there was no entity living inside the old tube radios. But still he could not fathom how the TV worked until he by chance overheard the father explaining to his children about how the TV antennas \"caught\" broadcasted signals and then transfo tho those signals into pictures on the screen. He wasn\'t quite sure how these broadcast signals worked; but it seemed logical enough satisfy his curiosity.

The news, of course, was his favorite. Through this medium he was able to follow the current events of the passing decades. From this he watched the McCarthy Era unfold along with the cold war and the threat of the H-Bombs and world wide destruction at the hands of the communist. And then came the Korean War, the rise of rock and roll, the election and assignation of JFK, the Vietnam War, and most intriguing of all, NASA landing a man on the moon. Dave wasn\'t quite sure if he believed that or Had Had he not seen Lost In Space? How did he know for sure if this NASA actually put a man on the moon or was it all just filmed in some secret location? It just seemed all too impossible for him. If someone had told him when he was still a living breathing young man that in just over a 100 years people would be going to the moon he would have laugh it off and thought the person the worlds biggest liar. But then again he never believed in ghosts until he found himself trapped here on earth for 140 years. So maybe it was true.

Not long after the moonwalk the mother, who had been living alone for several years, had passed away. Her kids came back to pack up the last of the belonging and clean out the old place. And that was the last Dave had seen or heard of the modern world. He could watch pro progress of cars from the windows; even watch the neighborhood grow up around him. But the house sat empty for nearly 3 decades. For thirty years he had rattled around in the house like a dried up old bean left in a forgotten can. Out of touch with what was going on, he hoped the new owners would be here soon. He felt like his curiosity was about to burst at the seams. From the little he could gather from the radio programming the workers list too too the world had changed a great deal and he was eager to see what new changes had taken place.

With a sigh, Dave drifted out of the bedroom. The house had been quite for days now. He missed the sound of the workers; miss the raucous noise their radios made. He had come to enjoy hearing the new music and was surprised to hear some of the songs he had heard when the house was last inhabited. These where heard on an \"oldies\" station, which made Dave chuckle to himself since he could still clearly recall humming along to Dixie while on long march to Shiloh. Old indeed!

Presently there came a rumbling along the gravel driveway, peeking out a window Dave noticed g blg blue pick up truck come to stop in front of the house. He recognized it as belonging to the head contractor who was in charge of the restorations of the farm house, the one everyone referred to as \"Boss man.\" What ever his real name was, Dave had not heard it spoken. He wasn\'t a tall man, but carried himself with the self assured ease of one who knows his authority isn\'t questioned. But he was a fair man, none the less, never asking from his employees what he himself wouldn\'t do. Well liked by most who knew him, he projected a charismatic presence and the ladies found he had an irresistible smile.

He watched as the man got out of the truck, walked up to the porch and lowered himself down into the porch swing. He stretched out his legs and eased the swing into its easy rhythm. Dave was curious as to why he was here. With the equalvent of a ghostly sigh he closed his vision off and concentrate on stretching out his form. He let his energy flow along the wall leading out to the porch and slowly slid himself through the wood and brick until he was through the wall itself. It had taken him a while to master that particular trick and he never did feel comfortable doing it. It was such an old vaudevillian thing, really, driving home to him the fact that he was no longer human. But in all honesty it was not all that hard. It was mainly stretching out his energy and finding all the tiny holes and pores in the wood and mortar, then it was just a matter of flowing and pulling himself through. Like steam escaping through a net. Collecting himself on the other side he settled down to wait for what ever it was the contractor was expecting.

The sun was terribly bright that afternoon, making the day feel still and listless. Nothing moved, not a blade of grass twitched, no bird darted about or rustled in the bushes. Dave began to look over this \"boss man\" standing on what he still considered his porch. What was he waiting for? Surely there wasn\'t anymore work to be done on the property or him and his crew would have been out here early in the morning. So why was he here now, was he expecting the new owners to arrive today? Dave hoped that surely was the case. He was anxious to see how would be living here.

As Dave was contemplating this, the contractor began to feel a sense of unease overtake him. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he has the strange feeling that someone was watching him. He ran his hand up along the back of his neck trying to rid himself of that prickly feeling. He looked around to make that he was indeed alone here. But still the feeling of some unseen person watching him did not disperse. Nervously he shifted in his seat, his ears straining to pick out any sign that maybe there was some logical explanation for his disquiet. Feeling restless about the whole matter he stood up and walked the length of the porch, peeking into the windows to see if there was some sort of intruder.

Dave watched him, amused, in spite of himself. Though out the years he had became aware of the fact that some people were more attuned to him. His presence alone would be enough to make them edgy and uncomfortable. As much as he liked being near the living he didn\'t like to make people feel this way, though, didn\'t like to toy with their senses.

The feeling of unease didn\'t let up. The contractor toyed with the house keys in his pocket, he considered weather or not he should let himself in and make sure every thing was ok in there. But he didn\'t think the woman who hired him would appreciate finding him in her house now that the work was done and he didn\'t have an excuse to be in there. He was about to turn around and wait for her in his truck when the crunch of tires on the drive way caused him to look up.

Dave looked up to see Miriam stepping out of her vehicle. At first glance he is instantly curious about her. She is quite pretty he thinks, as she takes the white scarf off shinshinny curls. Red, he grins to himself, wonder if it\'s true what they say about red-heads having fiery tempters? She looks a bit tall for a woman he thinks, maybe 5\"6\' but it was hard to tell. What he could tell was that she was quite curvy, her modern clothes hiding nothing. He would have blushed to see a woman dressed in such a way in the days when as aas a living man. Her britches were tight and ended just blow the knee, showing to all who would wish too see a pair a nicely turned claves. He wasn\'t quite sure he approved of the way women dressed in this century. No mattered how many times he saw women in trousers he couldn\'t get over it; it was positively indecent.

A sleeveless blouse completed her out fit, leaving her arms bare. Dave could just about make out a smattering of freckles on her shoulders and arms. Haistaist was small, not quite as small as the old southern bells, but then again women had stop wearing corsets sometime after that first World War. He can\'t say he blamed them for that. They sure didn\'t look very comfortable. Not that he knew much about a woman\'s under-things while he was alive. But he had gotten quite an education about women after his death. It seemed women never thought that there could be a ghost watching them while they disrobed. Dave\'s natural chivalry carried over into after life and he always tried to exit a room when he came unexpectly upon a woman in a state of undress-but not before he had gotten more than an eyeful.

All in all she was quite beautiful. She would have been breath taking if he was still human. As it was though, Dave could still remember how such a woman could affect a man. The contractor ambles down the porch steps to greet her. Dave didn\'t like the gleam in the man\'s eyes as he sized up Miriam.

\"You must be Miriam\" the man says.

\"And you must be the man I\'ve been looking for,\" she says.

\"That I am, Paul Hewson, at your service Ma\'am\" He extends his hand in greeting. And surprisingly enough to Dave, She accepts his hand and returns the handshake. It seemed such a masculine gesture to him, he couldn\'t recall ever seeing a woman shake hand with a befobefore. He wondered if this Miriam was alone in the world, not having a man to take care of her business for her. He glanced at her hand and noticed that no rings graced her hands. And they where such lovely hands, long fingers tapering to almond shaped fingernails. Before the house had sat empty he had known women were becoming more and more independent, but had they came this far? Transacting such things at the purchase and remolding of a home. He was impressed and at the same time a bit unnerved at the thought of a woman handling such things on her own.

As Paul comes down the steps to her, Miriam is surprised to find him so short, from his voice over the phone he sounded so masculine, and she had pictured him to be a tall broad shouldered stocky man. But now that she was face to face with him she is amused to find that she is almost the same height as him, even in her flat sandals she was eye level with him. And such eyes he had, bright blue, bedroom eyes her momma would call them. Miriam admits to her self that she wouldn\'t mind waking up to a pair of eyes like that; and was a bit shocked to find her self so instantly attracted to a man. Did this mean she was getting over Greg? Walking up to the door she quickly puts Greg out of her mind; she will not let thoughts of him overshadow her excitement this day.

\"May I have the pleasure of showing you in?\" Paul asks as they make their way back up to the porch.

Miriam nods, \"I can hardly wait, I\'ve been dying of curiosity the whole way down\"

Taking the key from his pockets Paul slides it into the lock. Unconsciously Miriam holds breath; the seconds seemed to drag into minutes. Miriam was not exaggerating, she felt like she was burning alive with anticipation. She was taking such a risk by buying this house and moving down here. But she had trusted her instincts and followed her heart in this matter. 10 years previously she had done the same and let her heart lead her away from friends, family and all that was familiar and guide her to New York to pursue her art career. That move had paid off nicely and with in a few years she had found herself as one of the most sought after artists, her works selling for prices she found unbelievable, In a few short years she discovered herself in the center of the art world\'s limelight.

So much of that had been due to Greg\'s guidance of her, and handling of her career. At 18 years of age she wasn\'t much more than a gauche young girl fresh from the local community college when he found her living with several other artist type friends in a dirty cramped apartment in Sho-ho, practically selling their paintings on the streets. He had seen something different in her work that set her apart form all the others. And she in turn had been impressed with his knowledge of the art world, his business sense, and his suave good looks. He took her under hing, ng, introduced her to all the right people, arranging to have her nudes seen by rich art patrons who wouldn\'t blink twice about spending thousands for a painting as long as they thought they were buying what would be the next rage in art. Yes, she owed a great deal to Greg, he had put her on the map, but it was her own talent that furthered her career past that of just a flash in the pan. Soon highly respectable art galleries were wanting to know about this up and coming painter, and found in her something more than just a fad. They saw in her work something that was timeless, the rich detail of her landscapes captivating and dream-like, her nudes beautiful, more than just steamy erotic paintings, but somehow capturing the human form in its beauty and frailty. Greg had put her on the map, but it was her own talent that had kept her there.

Greg had wanted to keep her forever under his wing. Felt like it was his due. He didn\'t want to see that it was more than his guidance of her that had made her who she was today. She was capable of furthering her career with out him. He wanted her to be nothing without him; he couldn\'t see that she had out grown her need of him. And in doing so she had felt that she out grew her love of him too. As she matured not only as a painter but as a woman she had discovered that a lot of his wealth had been made in shady business deals and what she had fallen in love with was no more than a mask, and what lay behind the mask frightened her.

The audible click of the key in the lock brought her back to the present. She mentally chided herself for allowing her mind to drift back to the past again. But as Paul held open the door for her, she found herself speechless. It was beautiful, even more than what she had pictured it. As she stepped into her new home she felt a brush of cool air, as Dave silently brush past them. He was not going to slide through the wall again if he could help it. But Miriam believed it was the cool air form the AC and thought nothing of the strange breeze.

Miriam was in love with it at first site. She felt instantly at home. The large open rooms with their picture windows filled the room with the warm afternoon light. She walked slowly from one room to another, enjoying the way one room simply flowed into another. It was so much nicer than her flat in New York. The flat was nice, but she never felt at htherthere, it seeming more like a temporary place. Here with these great welcoming rooms, this felt like home. Here she felt like she had room to breath.

\"What do you think of it\" Paul asked as she came around the corner into the spacious modern kitchen.

\"It\'s marvelous, I can not believe this was once the same old rickety place I bought 6 months ago.\" She told him, \"You truly are an artist, Paul, this place is wonderful\"

He gave a small shrug, and flashed her a pleased smile. \"Aaww, I wouldn\'t go so far as to say that.\"

\"Don\'t sell yourself short Paul,\" she told him, \"this place is remarkable, you\'ve completely out did yourself, I could never have thought it would turn out this well\"

\"Well,\" he said a bit sheepishly \"I kind of enjoy remodeling these old places, they don\'t make them like they use to, it\'s a shame when they\'ve been left to rot and then get bull dozed because no one wants to take the time to restore them. I was happy you gave me the chance to save this place.\"

\"Save?\" she asked.

\"Yeah, some of the town leaders were wanting to bull doze this place under. If you hadn\'t of bought it when you did, it might not have been here today. Which would have been such a shame, it\'s such an old house, nearly 200 years old! Could you imagine what these walls could say, if they could talk, the stories they could tell&ldots;..\" Paul said, a bit embarrassed by his enthusiasm over the house.

Dave was rather alarmed to know how close he had come to losing his home. He wondered briefly what would have become of him if the place was torn down. Would he have been reduced to haunting a vacant lot? Would his soul have been set free? Was it the house its self that kept him chained here on earth? He wasn\'t sure he wanted to find out the answers to those questions just yet.

\"Come on,\" Paul said, \"let me show you the upstairs\" Miriam nodded as he leae wae way. Reaching the second floor Paul showed her around pointing out what was part of the original house, which walls they left and where they had taken down walls to give rooms more space. Miriam was as pleases with the rest of the house as she was with the down stairs.

\"I have to ask something, Paul\" she said.

\"Yes?\"

\"Where did all this furniture come from? The table and desk down stairs, that four poster bed?\"

\"Oh,\" he said, \"That was suppose to be a surprise from your mom.\"

\"My mom!\" Miriam said in surprise.

\"Yeah, your mom and my mom were sorority sisters years ago in college. When they found out I was the one handling the restorations they came out and looked the place over and found the furniture up in the attic, so they took it upon themselves to have the restored, said they were valuable antiques.\" He gave another little shrug as if to say, go figure.

Miriam had mixed feeling about hearing of her mom. It was so like her to come barging into her life like that with out asking, treating her like a child, and not even telling her that she had already been over to her house with out asking. Miriam was surprised that her mom had stopped at just a few pieces that were already in the house. It would not have been unlike her to have completely decorated the house with out telling her. But then again, she had not decorated the house and it was only 3 pieces and they were truly beautiful. She decided not get upset over it and see it merely as her mom\'s way of sending an early house warming gift. And she grudgingly admitted her mom did have impeccable taste. At least this way she could spend the night here and not have to stay at a hotel for the night.

Dave watched the play of emotions on her heart-shaped face. She had an expressive face. She would never make a good poker player, he thought, her emotions and feeling jumped to face and showed in her eyes. He watched the happiness at exploring her new home change to dismay over hearing of her mom. He wondered if there was bad blood between the two, as he trailed along behind them.

Soon the odd trio was making their way up the stairs, Paul and Miriam unawares of their ghostly companion. As they emerge into the 3rd floor studio, Miriam drew a deep sigh of pleasure. The room was bathed with the soft warm light-an apricot glow reflecting off the polished wood floors. This was the light Miriam remembered from childhood, the light that illuminated memories of her grandmother working in her garden; lazy afternoons spent watching the dust motes dance in the air; the warm glow of a time when things were slower, safer. The empty studios felt like an empty canvas its self and Miriam could hardly wait to fill it up with colors.

With Unseen eyes Dave watched Miriam as she walked through what was once the old attic space. The bright sun made a hazy glow around her and a smile of pure delight on her bow shaped mouth, her green eyes sparkling. Dave felt almost dizzy looking at her, he couldn\'t remember the last time he had seen such a vision of loveliness.

Miriam turned to Paul her soft with awe \"This is heaven\" she whispered.

Dave was in hell.