October was supposed to consist of fall leaves, pumpkin donuts, and apple cider. Instead, Maya looked out the window of her apartment and saw nothing but the green grass and sunshine of Savannah's most famous park. Heavy oak trees dotted the landscape surrounded by happy people and wandering children, but not one of them demonstrated a homesickness for a true fall experience.
Despite a lack of seasons, Georgia was her personal choice. Tired of the harsh northeastern winters, the Peach State was supposed to inspire the grownup world of responsibility and a primary commitment to her happiness, but ten months of never ending green landscape exhausted her patience. She sighed heavily and turned her attention to Facebook pictures of her parent's crisp Massachusetts backyard.
A heavy southern accent broke into her thoughts, "Look at all those damn leaves! How long does it take to clean that mess up?"
Maya shot a scowl toward her stunning roommate. "It's not a mess. You have no idea how much fun a pile of leaves are. You can jump in them and play in them and throw them at people. It's a blast."
The sculpted mass of human was probably the best looking guy she ever met, but his girlfriend thought so too and Maya's relationship with Jared was strictly courtesy of Craig's List and shared expenses for the two bedroom, 19th century rental. The premier location across from Forsyth Park was ideal for a young professional even if her personal life was as dismal as the mucky backwaters on the edge of town.
Jared shrugged, "Looks like a mess to me. I'll take the beach in October any day"
He headed out the door with a shout, "See you in a week, Maya. Cindy and I are staying at my parents to watch the dog while they are in Europe."
The slightest part of her heart followed Jared out the door. She wasn't infatuated or anything stalker related, but he clearly represented her closest relationship since she moved to Savannah. The fact he didn't remember her birthday last August was an accurate summary of her dismal new life.
Finding the job was easy. Her credentials were excellent, and the purchasing job at a mid-sized manufacturing plant paid well. She could have afforded her own place in a more traditional location, but the original wood floors, intricate trim, and classic hardware located in the heart of the historical district was different from anything back home. Her history major heart had to have it.
When the well-built Jared answered her advertisement to share expenses, she couldn't refuse. He would be the perfect man to disprove all the skeptics in her life, and validate her decision to move a thousand miles away from everything familiar. Instead of a hot lover, or even a simple friend, however, she received an absentee roommate who paid rent to convince his girlfriend's conservative family they weren't really living together.
Friendships were hard to find when most of the people she worked with were either married or as old as her parents. Neither characteristic appealed to her, even if her aching sexual needs were filled with the simple plastic of her electric fuck toy. Miserable experiences followed social media sites, bars, and the worst of all, a class she took at a local community college where the middle aged, female professor tried to take her home. Telling her she didn't play that way was a tremendous embarrassment for both of them.
With no other options, the next two days would follow all the other weekends of her new world; hunkered down with a sleazy romance novel and half a bottle of wine. Her new habit of long conversations with herself would categorize as creepy on anybody's list, and she briefly considered calling her professor friend for a drink before the ludicrous idea was discarded for a large pour of merlot.
Her computer was still opened to the crisp colors of a New England autumn, and Maya thought about connecting to her friends and family back home before she took a deep breath. She poke sternly to herself. "Get a grip, girlfriend. You chose this whole new life, now go out and live it.".
Before she could move, the eerie sounds of silence in the small apartment began to dominate her thoughts. Silence was a noise all in itself, and her brain struggled to interpret the lack of stimulus. Seconds turned into minutes as her mind grew mellow, and she focused on her surroundings with an intensity that was almost painful. The nicks and scratches of the hardwood floors, the worn spots on the ornate trim and even the brass door knobs drew closer to her reality until she was part of the house itself. The feeling was frightening, but a small hint of security began to twist into her thoughts when a bang at the window erased her daydream.
A large orange cat sat on her sill, and she smirked at her own jumpy reaction. She loved cats, but the owner of the building lived on the second floor, and her no pet clause was firm. Maya moved to the kitchen to gather the ingredients for her dinner, but the cat remained persistent. He howled and threw his huge body against her screen until she was forced to admit he could no longer be ignored.
"Fine, you can come in for a minute, but if the landlord catches you, you are on your own buddy.
The huge cat wandered the room happily. He purred and rubbed against her legs until Maya caressed his soft side. He expressed his gratitude with copious purring, and her lonely heart was quickly lost. "I bet I can find some chicken or something. Are you hungry?"
The cat shot her a haughty look and wandered to her roommate's bed where he sprawled out with full authority. Moving her hand over his warm smoothness, she left large amounts of cat hair behind and made a mental note to shake out Jared's bedspread before he returned.
He was clearly too comfortable to rouse, so she left him to continue her quest for dinner. A few bits of lettuce and the chicken she had promised the cat made a decent meal, and she topped off her wine glass. Cuddled in her flannel pjs and pink slipper socks, she turned on a game show when the reality of her thirty-one-year-old life hit her. My God, she had turned into her grandmother.
Muttering to herself, she googled a site on weekend events and settled on Halloween in Savannah. With no small children and no social life, she had forgotten the next day was Halloween, and a city as old as Savannah had their share of spooky fun for people willing to leave their house and go look for it. A guided tour of Colonial Park Cemetery started at dusk. Under the right tour guide, the history of the city could come alive on a spooky Halloween Eve. If she added make-up and decent clothes, she might even meet a friend. If not, she would at least have a fun story to tell her parents during their weekly phone call.
First, she had to lose her new cat. She couldn't leave her window open and there was no litter box, so Mr. Kitty clearly had to go. She walked to the bedroom calling his fictitious name, but the damn cat had mysteriously disappeared. Twenty five minutes later, he still hadn't been located. Most of the doors were shut, and there were very few places he could hide. A last minute look at her watch, and she knew she had to leave. Hopefully, he wouldn't pee in her house because she had no idea how to explain it to her roommate or her landlord.
Colonial Park Cemetery offered a beautiful parallel to the history of Savannah. The massive stone arch transported her to a different era, and dusk arrived that much faster under the twisting and winding of the heavy trees. Eerie landscaping brought images of spooky finality as the souls of thousands of Savannah's early citizens rested beneath her feet.
She left her car to join the small tour, but within a few seconds the second strange trance in as many hours tied her mind into the very soul of the Spanish moss that hung from the branches. Her body became one with the coolness of the marble and granite tombstones, and the sounds of the people around her became distant. A cherubic angel stood in the shadows, and her eyes worked to take in every detail as her fingertips registered the touch of the marble and the small pits where wind and rain had worn the inscriptions to a faded memory.
She worked to pull herself out of her reverie, but this time focus and reality were even harder to find, and it wasn't until a warm hand touched her shoulder that she jumped. An elderly man in a suit looked at her suspiciously. "Are you okay, miss? If you are here for the tour, he has already started."
Everyone stared at her with judgmental intensity, and she turned briefly away from their thoughts. The realization she was the youngest person by two or three decades made her question the decision to leave the comfort of her fuzzy slippers, but with all eyes on her, she had no choice but to smile weakly and say, "I'm fine."
The tour guide was a geeky looking thirty something with thick glasses and hay fever to accompany his southern accent. With a clearly skeptical glance at her pale insecurity, he began to share his wealth of knowledge. "Most of our citizens in Savannah were buried here in the first half of the 19th century. Over seven hundred yellow fever victims rest in a mass grave from the 1820 epidemic. The cemetery was also the location for many duels, and all are said to be resting poorly. The Yankees desecrated and looted many of the graves during the war, causing more souls to wander. They earn us the distinction of being one of the most haunted places in America."
As the man continued his tour, Maya's mind wandered for the third time. Embarrassment threatened to consume her before she lost her focus, but nothing could stop the path to a different plane. Her mind returned to the angelic monument, and the elderly population of her tour group was replaced by a crowd who wore clothing from a different era. The trees were smaller, and the sky was brighter as a result, and there were fewer tombstones dotting her horizon.
