Free Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite Page A

Asheville? They could never be the social birds Mother would insist upon. They are my life.
    So my mother-in-law was kept from her mother. I turned to the last page of the next book.
August 14, 1930
Today I go to Mother’s for a tea. Finally I am allowed to leave this mountain. So it’s terrible that I will be attending this hateful affair. Mother’s teas remind me of what could have been. But I’m visiting Mother, and AzLeigh is coming. Yesterday I had a frightful encounter. I was out walking when I ran into a man along the path in the woods. He was one of the government men here to collect tax information. He told me that he found a moonshine still on our property and would have to let the proper authorities know. I explained to him that we didn’t make moonshine, but it didn’t seem to matter. He was so intent on serving justice. His name was Merlin Hocket. The insistent fool wore his three-piece suit and driving hat while trekking around the woods. I didn’t bother telling Henry James. He would only become angry. The whole mountain is in an uproar over the tax people. I do worry Hobbs has something to do with the still. He’s getting way too big for his britches.
    So there was the story written in my mother-in-law’s own hand.
    “You can’t run far enough to outrun Hobbs.” The man’s voice was as clear as it could be. I looked around but no one was there. Now I had a name. Merlin Hocket was the man I saw in the woods and who knocked on my door. A ghost. I held the book up to the light. A newspaper clipping fluttered down into my lap.
    AzLeigh Renee Pritchard Dead from Fall. The paper was dated August 15, 1930. My gosh, she had died the next day after her writing.
    “When the time is right, you’ll know what to do.” This time the voice sat right next to my ear and I jumped.
    “Why are you bothering me?”
    The silence was thick. I looked at the clipping.
    “What are you doing up here?”
    I nearly jumped out of my skin. “You done stopped my heart, Jack Allen. I thought you was some spirit come to get me.” My laugh sounded tight.
    “Sorry.”
    “This weather is making me crazy, so I came up here to look around.” I put the book back in the trunk.
    “Find anything?”
    For a minute I thought of telling him about the diaries, about the necklace and the hair, but it seemed wrong. “Naw, just a bunch of old clothes and a few old photos. I can’t believe how they dressed.”
    He watched me a minute too long. “Come on down before it gets dark. I thought I heard you talking to someone.”
    “You did. Myself. Who else do I have to talk to?”
    The sun was sinking into the trees. My bones ached with cold. Still I thought about Merlin Hocket. What did he want from me?
    “Have you eaten today?”
    “Not yet.” All of a sudden I was starving. “But I’m hungry now. I’m going to cook me some eggs and biscuits.”
    “Sounds pretty good.”
    “You can stay if you want.”
    “I might just do that.”
    “How did Hobbs’s mama die?”
    Jack turned to lead the way out. “How come we’re always talking about Hobbs and his family?” But I could tell from the sound of his voice he was smiling.
    “Nothing else to talk about. So, why don’t we talk about you. What made you stay on the mountain after your mama died?”
    “Nowhere to go, and Mrs. Pritchard died from a fall that gave her a nasty blow to the head.”
    “All this time I’ve been thinking she got sick.”
    “There’s a lot you don’t know, Nellie.”
    We were quiet as we walked down to the kitchen.
    He sat at the table while I cooked the eggs. Somewhere close by we heard the cry of a hawk. Mama always said hawks were good luck. They represented strength, and the good Lord knew I had to have some to get through this winter alone.
    “I’m going to have me a big garden out in the front. You know, where the view of the valley is so good.”
    “You like to garden?” He smiled.
    “I don’t think I’ve ever thought about liking it,