"Holy Mother Mary! Ed, come in here and look at this!" Lorraine Clearwater yelled from the living room of their tiny ranch house in Saint Bernard parish.
"What is it dear?"
"Only the best spirit photo I have ever seen! You must come see this. Someone uploaded it to our website early this morning."
Ed slowly rose from his brown vinyl lounge chair in their wood paneled den and began shuffling towards the living room. His pace was slow as he walked through stacks of collectibles over the thick orange shag carpet that had remained in their home since the Ford administration. He and his wife Lorraine were the sole proprietors of the Southern Louisiana Occult Paranormal Psychical Investigations company and he knew from the tone in his wife's voice that something big had caught her eye so he should get up from watching the game. He and Lorraine had been at this business for decades and for something to incite his wife to this level of excitement was unusual.
Their house was a virtual museum to the paranormal and it was stuffed to the rafters with hundreds of the items they had collected from the numerous cases they had worked on over the years. Now both in their eighties they were just as active now as they had been fifty years earlier although they were a bit slower than they used to be. Back when they started their operation they were alone in the field, but now, to Ed's disgust and horror, the television was jammed with countless inaccurate shows on the subject. Suspicious of anything submitted to their website as being fake he groaned as he walked into the living room to see his wife.
Lorraine was definitely more technically savvy of the two of them but the bar was set low. "So dear" Ed croaked as he cleared his throat and entered the room. "What new fakery are you going to show me today."
"I don't think this is fake dear. Quite the contrary, of all of the photos of spirits I have seen over the years this is without a doubt the best one yet."
Seeing his tiny wife hunched over her computer he smiled. The blue light from the screen flickered through her equally blue hair piled high on her head in the same beehive hairdo she had had since they were dating. He certainly admired her willingness to try new things. He was very old school and had just warmed up to faxes when email came and then was surpassed by texting and instant messenger and a whole alphabet soup of technological advances he could barely comprehend. Even his field had become overrun by high tech gadgetry, with evp records and electromagnetic field detectors. In his day he still preferred the old ways, his tape recorder, his old Kodak camera and his instincts.
Reaching her desk, he sighed "Let me be the judge of..." Seeing the image on the screen he had to pause as it was phenomenal, a true fully formed apparition caught on film. Continuing he could only add "WOW! Darling, can you make that image bigger on the machine?"
"You mean the computer dear?" she said with a smirk, always chiding her technophobic husband and trying to gently nudge him into the twenty first century.
"Yes the COMPUTER!" he snapped. Seeing the image enlarged he moved in closely to inspect the pixels bit by bit. He was an expert at spotting forgeries and fakes and this had none of the tell-tale characteristics. Looking back at his wife who was smiling broadly and nodding, he asked "Where was this taken? We simply have to get over there and do a full scale investigation."
"That dear is the best part. Now sit down as I do not want this to come as too much of a shock. You know, your ticker is not what it used to be."
"Very funny Lorraine" he protested but did sit. "Ok, I give. Where is it?"
"This my dear is Magnolia Grove!"
"WHAT!!! Not the..."
"The very one, he stated it in his submission."
"But, but, oh my... We, how..." Ed stuttered, his hands shaking at the prospects of finally being able to investigate the infamous plantation house Magnolia Grove. For longtime residents of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes Magnolia Grove was legendary. Having been in the same family for over two hundred years all sorts of legends had built up like the silt constantly adding to the bayou. For their purposes, whispers and dark rumors had swirled around the enormous mansion for decades that whet their paranormal appetites.
"Yes, and we are going to meet him for lunch down in Quarter this afternoon. Once I saw the picture I knew we would have to investigate so I went ahead and asked to take him to lunch. He was thrilled, and as it turns out, he has actually read several of our books. Crazy isn't it, he turns out to be a total fan! We are as good as in."
Meanwhile down in the quarter Zeke was just opening up the bar. Flipping on the neon OPEN sign in the window he smiled as he turned on the lights inside and the new glowing poinsettia he had just received started to twinkle. "Perfect! Just PERFECT!" he said out loud as the new decorations melted into the Hodgepodge of the rest of the décor. Looking down at his watch he saw that it was eleven thirty and was surprised that Jasmine had not come in yet. She was never late and if she ever was sick, which was rare, she always called.
Back at Jasmine's apartment she just started to wake up. Her back hurting from the fall to the hard tile floor, her thoughts were racing a mile a minute as the memory of what had just happened rushed in. Sitting up straight she held her head as she stood and glanced at the mirror. Her whole body was covered in chills as she looked at her own reflection in the glass.
She could not help but tremble as she carefully studied her reflection as she brushed her teeth, watching every movement carefully to make sure it mirrored her own. Her rational brain could not comprehend what she thought she had witnessed but her instincts were on high alert. Afraid that her own reflection would transform and threaten her again she quickly brushed her teeth and took the fastest shower in her life. Still not sure if what had happened was a dream or real, she was still petrified, either at some entity attacking her in her own home or a growing fear she was losing her mind. Literally running into her bedroom from the shower she got dressed in record time and ran out the door to work.
Hearing Jasmine rush in the front door Zeke called out from the kitchen. "Morning Sleepy head! Big night last night?"
Jasmine said nothing as she quietly started setting up chairs around the tables and generally straightening up. Coming out to investigate Zeke could tell from Jasmine's posture that something was terribly wrong. Her hair was a mess and still wet. Her clothes were wrinkled and she did not have on any jewelry, which was a first. Normally she always was perfectly put together but today she had the look of a person who had just escaped a burning building.
"You OK girl?" he called out as he came out of the kitchen. Hearing his voice Jasmine dropped the metal napkin holder in her hand and jumped.
"Jesus, Zeke, you scared me!"
Walking out into the dining room he frowned. "Really Jasmine, are you OK? You do not seem right today."
"I am not right Zeke. I am definitely not right I, I think I might be losing my mind."
"What happened?"
"I had another incident in my apartment. Either I have a ghost stalker or I need to go to the loony bin, but either way, I am definitely not right. I am scared to go home now!"
"Look Jasmine, there must be a logical explanation for this. You don't really believe in ghosts now do you?"
