Echoes in the Bayou (23 page)

"Le
t's
go to bed," he whispered.

By
the time the weekend had arrived, Ava was more than excited to head into New
Orleans, they were to be visiting Steve and Kelly. The plan was for them to
spend an evening of fun on a riverboat casino. Ava had never been and the idea
of getting all dressed up for a night out on a floating casino made her quite
cheerful.

"Magnus
smiled as he watched her pack, he got even more excited when he saw that
  she  was packing a sexy red dress that she
had ordered online as few days ago. He remembered that she was worried that it
wouldn’t arrive in time for the weekend but it had and the shoes that she had
to go with it made him ask her to model them for him.

 
"Ava, how about a sneak peek?" He pleaded.

"Pati
ence my dear," she teased him with a kiss.
"You'll get to see what I look like tomorrow night, she winked at him and
finished packing.

"I
don’t think I can wait that long," he said and wrapped his hands around
her waist.

"I
want you now, later, tomorrow a
nd ever after."

"Well
when you put it that way," she said and kissed him as he laid her down on
the bed and made love to her
.

"I'm
so glad you could come," Kelly said and welcomed her guests into their
 home. The remodeled Victorian home stood only
minutes away from Bourbon St. The moment they walked in, the designer in Ava
came out and she marveled at the wonderfully renovated classic creole cottage.
And this cottage boosted a two story guest house which was to be their
accommodations for the weekend.

"Kelly
this place is great," she smiled at her new friend
.

"Just
how many clients do you have Steve?" Magnus teased.
  "Places like this don't come cheap," he looked around
at the open layout and designer furniture. The place had an overall feel of
comfort and class.

"I
tell you buddy, moving from New York to New Orleans was the
best thing we could have done right Kel?" He
asked his wife.

"It's
slowly growing on me," she replied and smiled at Ava
.

"And
it only took four years," he smirked. "Now, who's ready to start the
weekend?" He said, while making his way behind the custom built bar and
handing out glasses
.

 Ava
and Kelly stood giggling in the kitchen like a couple of school girls as they
drank wine and prepared dinner. They had all agreed to save the night out at
the casino for tomorrow, tonight they were going to enjoy a nice home cooked
meal and get to know one another. 

"So…
how is it living with Magnus?" Kelly asked. She was standing at the counter
chopping vegetables and getting ready to sauté them.

Ava
couldn’t hide the mischievous grin. "So far, so good
," she smiled broadly and took another sip of
wine.

"Okay,
I'm dying to tell somebody," she beamed. "He told me that he loves me.
"

Kelly
stopped chopping vegetables and looked up at her new friend, she knew how hard
things had been for Magnus when he was dating Jeanette.  She remembered
one evening when after a night out, Jeanette who had a bit too much to drink,
took it upon herself to embarrass Magnus. She told Kelly and her husband that
Magnus was incapable of thinking those words, let alone say them, she even went
so far as to reenact his proposal. Kelly remembered feeling sorry for her
friend, "he didn’t deserve that," she went on to tell Ava.

She
couldn’t believe that Magnus would allow himself to be humiliated like that and
in front of his dear friends as well.  What Kelly had just told her did
not sound like the man whom she had been spending countless hours with. All the
times they had spent reading, laughing, going for long walks, making love, oh
the making love part was the best. 

"It's
so strange that he would all
ow her to talk to
him like that, but what's done is done and I think it made him all the
stronger," Ava reassured her.

"Ava,
I think meeting you however odd the circumstances were, was the best thing that
Magnus could have done and if he told you that he loves you then know that he
truly and undeniably does. I am so happy for the both of you, not only does
Magnus get to finally find love, but I finally get the kind of friend that I've
been waiting for," she grinned and winked at her. "And maybe Magnus
could give my husband some pointers on how to treat his lady," she sighed.

 
"What's wrong with Steve? He seems like a pretty
good guy," Ava said.

"You're
right, he is but he's like a gremlin, give him too much to drink and turns into
a bastard."

"Wow,
I'm sorry Kelly. I had no idea. Is there anything I can do? Maybe get Magnus to
really talk to him?
" Kelly shook her head;
she knew that if her husband got wind that she'd confided in Ava about their
troubled marriage. There would be hell
to pay.

"No,
I should have never brought it up. I'm sure he'll be fine you and Magnus are
here and it's going to be a great weekend," she smiled
.

"My sentiments exactly,"
Ava grinned back
.

 
 "Are
you having a good time so far?" Magnus asked.  It was well after
midnight and the two were in the guest house in bed.

"I
am having a wonderful time," she said and moved in closer towards him. He
had cranked the air conditioner up as high as it would go for this very reason.

Staring
into the darkness s
he let out a heavy sigh. "Magnus,
how could you let Jeanette embarrass you by telling Steve and Kelly that you
were incapable of loving her?"

"Kelly
told you about that huh?
"

"Well
we were just having a conversation and it came out, she meant no disrespec
t."

"No,
I know she didn’t. And I don’t know why I
allowed Jeanette to treat me the way that she did. I guess I was so worried
about finding love that I didn’t worry or care about the person that it was
coming from, or should I say that it wasn’t coming from. Ava you have to keep in
mind that I had no idea about the so called curse so when I met Jeanette, after
being with her for so many years, it seemed like the right thing to do."

"I
know Magnus and I'm sorry, but you know what I'm not sorry about?" She a
sked.

"I'm
not sorry that she broke it off with you and I'm definitely not sorry that you
made that call to Gavin," she chuckled in the night. "Now I want to
feel you inside of me," she purred and kissed him as she got on top, her
mouth never leaving his
.

The
Boomtown Riverboat Casino was bustling with action, tourists and locals alike
funneled through its large doors in anticipation of hitting the jackpot. 
By the time their small group had found space enough for all of them to sit
together, it was late.

"How
about there?" Steve pointed to four empty seats in the video slots area.

"Anywhere
is fine, both women chimed in. "My feet are killing me," Ava said as
she plopped down in the chair. The red Valentino heels that she was wearing l
ooked fantastic, but wearing them for hours on end was
starting to get painful.

 
"Here, let me," Magnus said and playfully
raised her legs just enough so that her feet were resting on his lap.

"Careful,
my dress," she lightly scolded him. "I
don’t want everybody taking a sneak peek at my business," she smirked.
They had all been drinking and the later the evening, the more drinks they were
consuming.  Several hours and several drinks later, they called it a night
and continued talking and laughing during the taxi ride home.

"I've
got ghosts." Ava thought she'd whispered to Kelly. Magnus and Steve had
been having a conversation of their own when they heard her.  Magnus
smiled and shook his head at her but it was too late. Kelly was already
intrigued and listened intently as Ava began to recount the events of what's
been happening at the plantation.

The ride
was over before she could finish, even the driver had to fight to keep his
attention on the road, and the story was just too in
credible not to be believed.

 
She was still talking when they stumbled in the door.
As both women removed their heels, Kelly was well absorbed in what Ava was
telling her. But she had questions, lots of questions.

"Well
what are you going to d
o to get those two
together?" She asked them.

"We're
working on that," Ava sighed
.

"And
what about those evil spirits, what were their names? Oh yes, John and Amelia.
How are you going to send them back to wherever it is that they came from?
Wait, there
weren't any spirits around when
Steve and I came for dinner the other night was there? To think, we might have
shared a meal with ghosts," she sounded excited and intrigued. Magnus
looked at Steve in disbelief.

 
"Don’t look at me pal; I thought she'd be freaked
out too. Guess we underestimated her," he grinned at his friend.

Kelly
took no notice of the conversation that the two men were having, she continued
bombarding Ava with questions. Ava thought it a relief to be able to share her
thoughts
and feelings with someone other than
Magnus or Sinta
.  Sinta
, she thought to herself,
there's no need to tell them about Sinta.
She wasn’t sure that they would understand. Hell,
there was times when she herself couldn’t believe that Sinta found her way back
to the big house after living so many other lives. And to come back as a solid
human being was even more implausible yet there she was back at the plantation,
living and breathing at least she'd be until the end of summer. Who knows where
she'd go at summer's end.

 
"And I suppose that Sinta is from another time
and place, sent here to help you remove the curse?" Kelly said sounding
pragmatic.

Ava
almost choked on the bottle of water she'd just taken a sip out of.

"Kelly
how in the hell…?"
  She didn’t need to
finish her sentence.

"Oh
come on Ava, I mean the other night when you introduced her I thought that she
was maybe from some kind of dinner theatre performance
  or something but the minute you started telling me that you had
ghosts, well I simply put two and two together. I mean geez you guys, well
don’t look at me like that," she said her eyes rolling. What did you all
think? That I wouldn’t believe in this kind of stuff or that I'd get too
freaked out? Nope as a matter of fact, I absolutely love the paranormal."

She went on
to tell them that before she met Steve, she and her friends would go ghost
hunting. Their particular places of interests were old abandoned homes and
deserted buildings. They'd even traveled into Connecticut, to visit Dudley
Town. Dudley Town, or its remains she told them, is located in northwestern
Connecticut within the town of Cornwall. The small village holds
interpretations of supernatural tales, unexplained events, and curses coupled
with over 400 years of British and American history -- including ties to King
Henry VIII, and General George Washington. She told them that there was a curse
which stated that all Dudley's from Edmund Dudley’s lineage would find one
another surrounded by horrible, evil things.

 
Her husband sat dumfounded at his wife's overabundance
of information about the old town. "I had no idea that you knew anything
about old legends and curses," he told her. "Let alone that you went
so far as to go out and investigate them. I just always assumed that you would
find it silly and frivolous," he put his arms around his wife. "But
let's not overdue it," he whispered so that only she could hear and
squeezed her arm a little too tight.

"
I won't," she faked a smile. "And Ava,
Magnus, if you guys need help with anything you let me know, I've done research
for my own recreational purposes and I'd be more than happy to help. It's all
so very interesting, I love it!" She squealed and looked at them. Magnus
and Ava could only manage to nod in agreement as they sat with their mouths
agape, amazed at what Kelly had just told them.

"I
don’t suppose that you brought the diaries with you?"

Ava
winked at her and grabbed her hand as the two took off up the stairs and into
the guest room. Once inside Kelly let out an excited gasp as she watched Ava
pull out and gently uncover the two diaries. She had taken care not to damage
them by wrapping th
em in several layers of
tissue paper.