Excerpt from The Perfect Spook House, now available @ Clock Tower Books in Georgetown or where books are sold on line:

I hung up the phone, relieved to know the Calvary was on the way, even if I had five hours to fend off the onslaught, before he arrived. I returned to the closet. I dragged out the box marked High School Stuff. Apparently I had slipped firmly into the grasp of a nostalgic Sunday afternoon, ready or not.

     I normally don’t spend Sunday afternoons at home alone or even at home at all, if I can find something better to do. Today, the past had a strangle hold on me, so abnormal conditions ran rampant. A sunny October afternoon in my little hometown of Abbeville gave way to brewing storm clouds, the kind that don’t register on the Weather Man’s radar screen.

     I picked through the half dozen high school annuals until I eyed the one that interested me, 1968, my junior year. That year so happened to coincide with the year it happened, the year my life came unraveled. I flipped through the pages, reliving the scenes as if they were just yesterday. They would have been joyous care free times, if not had it been for that day, Thursday, October 31st.

     I had very few signings in the year book. Hardly anyone had wished me luck or told me what a joy I had been to know, except for my very closest friends. Real friends were few and far between, after the incident that night. Most gave me wide berth. I would have probably been a social outcast at a Leper colony. My senior year had so sucked. The class nerds had gotten more attention than me.

     Flipping the pages, I gazed on pictures of happy students walking the hallways, cheering at various sports events, crowned kings and queens, mostly likely to be or do this and that. The photos looked nothing like the year I remembered. I appeared in none of them. My fellow classmates had scorned me, banished me to a desert island, all because of what had happened, and what couldn’t have been prevented. Maybe it could have, if we would have stayed away from that damned old house.

     I would have loved to have seen any one of them do any better, considering the circumstances. I needed a drink. After all, it was past noon. I checked the pantry and spotted a pint of rum, not my preferred drink, but what the hell. I poured an ample amount in a mug, added a couple of ice cubes, some Pepsi and a splattering of lime juice. I was off and running. After a couple of long swigs, all was good, or at least getting better. That catchy 1970’s tune leaped into my head. I began singing while I danced around the room. It just seemed the right thing to do.

She put the lime in the coconut, and drank them both up
She put the lime in the coconut, and drank them both up
She put the lime in the coconut,
Called the doctor, woke him up, and said,
"Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say, Doctor, to relieve this belly ache?
I say, Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say, Doctor, to relieve this belly ache?"
She put the lime in the coconut, and drank them both up
She put the lime in the coconut, and drank them both up