October 6 Plot Beginning

One of the stories about Longfellow, this is the trigger!

Longfellow Darke sat in his library, in the dark, trying to make heads or tails out of the dreams he’d had for the past week. Dreams, more memories from his teenage days. Of her, not Vanessa but of his first love. He should feel guilty, but he doesn’t. No, it’s as if something or someone is pushing her back into his life.

Melissa Thayer, or Tish Francis in the country music scene. Tish, he called her, once he learned that she had titian colored hair, not simply red. He shook his head and chuckled remembering how her parents loved that new nickname.

He didn’t know why Vanessa or some other spirit or ghost or whatever caused these dreams to come. He had been sitting, staring at the opened composition book, with pen in hand, for the last hour, not knowing what to write notes about. Was it a new Ambrose Vaugh ghost tale? Was it a Sheridan Lockwood mystery? God knows it’s been years since the last one was published. Was it something new, a western perhaps. He shrugged, placed the pen on the notebook, and pushed away from his desk, the same old oak bank executive desk that his father brought to him when he first moved into the inherited brownstone, two months into his college life.

Walking down the stairs, thoughts swirled in his mind, debating with himself as to the reason why Tish was the center of his dreams. A week ago, he remembered he was in a café, downing a raspberry croissant and Dr. Pepper, reading a book. A book? No, the newspaper. He remembered it was a newspaper!

“That’s it,” he said to no one, or to the ghosts that inhabited the five-story home that once was owned by his great-aunt. He rushed down the remaining stairs, ran to the kitchen, and went through the week’s newspapers he had not yet put out for the garbage collection or the wandering recycling people, which ever came first. Near the bottom, he found the page open for him to read.

“Local Country Star Returns”, the banner headline read. He slumped onto the floor and tried to feel guilt, forgetting that he had been married, and was left widowed by a senseless action.