The Screaming Lady, A JEZ Ghost Negotiator Mystery

Chapter Four: TWINS

Zakary sat down and got comfortable across from Ms. Rosie Blanchard and asked, "do you mind if I record our conversation, I find that it helps me to listen to conversations once more after they are had; because it is amazing what you can miss the first go around."

Ms. Blanchard nodded, and said, "go-ahead young man, do what you have to do."

Zakary proceeded with setting up the digital recorder, once all the equipment was set up, tested and he was convinced it was ready, he looked at Ms. Blanchard, and said, "Ready when you are Ms. Blanchard."

She smiled then said, "please, call me Rosie. Ok, well, my family is one of the oldest families in Prairie Bluff, and I am proud to say that my Great Grandfather was one of the founding members of the Southern Railroad in Wilcox county."

She paused for effect and shifted in her seat, "back in the late 1800s and early 1900's it was still a pretty 'wild' time. There were outlaws, murders in the street and lawmen were mostly powerless to stop the criminals."

She explained that at that time there were no real elected officials to make any decisions, just a sheriff and his deputy. Once the railroad was established, Prairie Bluff started growing by leaps and bounds, it was growing so fast that modernization could not keep up with it. The railroad was a blessing and a curse; it brought many people to the town that did not otherwise normally come into town; good and bad. Additionally, homes and shanties were popping up everywhere, and for those that did not have much, there were not enough jobs and housing to employ or house all the people that were coming in and wanting to be near the rail stop. With the population boom, storefronts began to pop up, general stores, bars, clothing stores, etc. and being that main street ran right parallel to the train depot in the north of town, it grew the fastest and merchants scrambled to get a foot in there.

With commercial growth must come infrastructural growth and that did not come fast enough. The roads were not being maintained, there was no running water, no electricity to speak of, just gas lamps, and of course, everyone was traveling by horse or horse and buggy. Now I am sure you know how much of a mess a horse can make, and if you have dirt roads, combined with crowds of people and rain and livestock being herded down the street to the rails, it can be quite a stinky, icky, slimy mess, especially in the rainy season. In the heat of the dry summer it was just as bad, yet it was dusty, and the smell would carry for miles.

Eventually, the storefronts did build walkway porches on the front of their buildings, which assisted shoppers and pedestrians, especially ladies when they were out shopping, so they did not have to walk in the muck or dust of the roads. But the roads were still a mess, occasionally a farmer would drag them, to even them out a little, but Alabama red clay is unforgiving and can change in an instant in the rain or the heat.

Over time the town did catch up with itself and once it did, it did so rapidly; a Mayor was finally elected, which was Rosie's Grandfather Gerald Blanchard. The first thing he did when he came into office was to work on a budget for infrastructure by applying taxes to residents and merchants. These taxes made Gerald an unpopular person in town originally until the people started seeing changes.

Gerald set a budget to hire contractors to first put in reasonable roads throughout the town. At this time they had figured out how to also pump and harness usable water, thus he granted stipends to business owners that installed indoor plumbing and had contractors run pipes in the downtown area, in addition to erecting a water tank on the south side of town to catch rainwater to provide water to the town in case of a drought. He researched into water purification and sewage processing and had one of the first cutting edge sewage plants put in to handle the outgoing sewage and process it for reusable water. Electricity was the next big hurdle, and he conquered that as well, bringing light to the town like magic. Complete with a working generating station and lines stretching all over town.

All of this came at a cost though. Gerald Blanchard had a beautiful wife named Suzanne and she bore him seven children; three sons and four daughters. The three sons were born one right after the other, one year apart. All the boys were strong, healthy strapping young men, one of them was Rosie's father Benjamin Blanchard, third born and youngest of the sons. Then of the four daughters, there was a gap of ten years after the last boy was born and Suzanne's age was up in years by this time, the first daughter was stillborn at birth, then two were born healthy one right after the other, two years apart, then the last, Betsie, she lived a week, and passed. This last child's death destroyed Suzanne, and with Betsie's passing, she went into a deep depression and did not leave her room or her bed until her death a year later. Some say that Gerald smothered his wife just to put her out of her misery because she would wail and cry all the time, and he could not stand it after a year of hearing it every night. But that was just rumor, and nothing ever came of it, Suzanne was peacefully laid to rest beside her two daughters in the early 1930s.

Gerald was so dedicated to his work, and bettering the town, that he spent very little time at home with his children. And now that Suzanne had passed, he felt he truly had no reason to go home. Thus, he spent more and more time at the office, pouring himself into the projects to better the town. The three boys were sent off to a boarding school, and the two remaining girls were raised by a nanny until they got old enough, then they too went off to a boarding school. Gerald Blanchard did not know his children, nor did his children really know him. A high price to pay for progress.

Gerald Blanchard was not an imposing man, but he was highly respected in town, and feared by some. He owned both banks in town, a good portion of the railroad and held notes on many of the town people's lands. He was a fair man, but he did not take issue with foreclosing and forcing a family off their land if they could not pay their notes.

At this point, Zakary interrupted Rosie and said, "Thank you, ma'am, for all the information, this is wonderful, but most of what you have provided here I was able to obtain from the archives in this very building." He glanced around at all the books," I was hoping you could provide me with information that may not be in the history books of the town of Prairie Bluff?"

With that, Rosie, shifted once more, directed her glance toward Zakary, and said, "Well, young man, I do apologize for being repetitive, but sometimes important information takes a building up to."

She sighed, and said, "I now see that you have done your research, so did your research tell you that Mr. Gerald Blanchard was the only son of the towns founder, but a little-known fact was that Gerald had a twin sister that died when she was quite young."