Kate's Place

I am heading for a new job and a new life across the continent and I am in no hurry so I am taking the drive nice and slow.

My wife chose to stay behind.

"I will follow you later." she said but I suspect she won't. Our marriage has been in trouble for some time now so this may be the start of a trial separation and somehow I am not heartbroken about the fracture.

Four hundred kilometres a day is my aim and so I am sleeping over tonight in a small rural town.

The instruction from the guest house owner were

"Come to 49 Church St and pick up the keys."

Ms Maria Loubscher is a cheerful, rotund woman who hands over the keys and takes my money.

"Cash is king." she says cheerfully.

"Is there a restaurant in town that you can recommend?" I ask.

"Yes! Kate's Place is great. It opens at six. Been operating for years. Everyone goes there. Especially on weekends."

The guest house is high up on a rise on the edge of the town so I can see the town spread out below me as I sit on the veranda allowing myself to de-stress.

It is late afternoon so the world is slowly turning orange as the sun sets across a very distant range of mountains. Mountains that I had crossed earlier today.

The sunlight seems to pick out a huge, white rose bloom. The vine is probably an old rose as the flowers only have five petals and the vine seems to be quite prepared to take over the entire garden given half a chance.

The gentle movement of the leaves moved by a lazy warm breeze distorts the rose bloom, seeming to elongate it, stretch it and make it appear to be a pale face staring out of the foliage. I find myself tracing branches and shadows to try create a human body.

I shake my head and try to restore the flower to its normal shape and size but the face remains, taunting me, testing my spatial concepts.

And then in one flicker the entire illusion is gone and there is nothing but a climbing rose entangled in a tree. I put the illusion down to tiredness, the approaching dark and my vivid imagination.

I glance at my watch, note that it is nearly six PM and Kate's Place will be opening soon.

Reluctantly I get to my feet and slowly walk down through the quiet town to the restaurant where a small, energetic woman is laying tables on the wide, deep veranda.

"Good evening." I say.

The woman looks me up and down as if expecting me to have an extra head or something equally remarkable.

"Good evening. I heard that someone was staying at the Loubschers place tonight. That you?"

"That's me."

"Welcome. Take that table, left of the door. It is the visitors table. People are a bit territorial hereabouts."

I head towards the indicated table.

"Beer, wine or cooldrink? We do have bottled water as well but take my advice and stay away from the tap water because Joey, the water fiscal has been messing with the pump station again. The station is old and cranky, much like Joey and it often defeats him and so we get some very interesting mud out of the taps."

She bustles away and returns with a tatty menu.

"The menu is almost as old as the restaurant but all the locals know it by heart so it is only strangers who need the thing."

I scan the menu and it is a cardiologists nightmare. The only thing they don't have on the menu is a cholesterol burger. Away from the basilisk stare of my wife I order steak, egg and chips and remind myself not to send a photo of my dinner.

The dinner is remarkably good and the locals are friendly so I have a fairly sociable, pleasant evening and, after consuming an entire bottle of Shiraz I weave my way back to my lodgings.

I like seeing the stars away from the light pollution that cities generate so I settle down on the veranda and treat myself to a cosmic light show. The Southern Cross wheels across the sky entangled in the Milky Way which is bright and easily visible.

It is mid summer so Orion can be seen rising in the east but no planets to add to the light show. A pity, but not a tragedy.

I am slowly drifting off to sleep when a faint noise rouses me and then a fast movement down where I saw the rose change shape earlier in the afternoon grabs my attention. The rose is still there just faintly visible in the star light and it is still moving as if nudged by an unseen hand. I watch the area more in curiosity than anything else. Nothing happens for a while, then the rose moves again, completely out of sync with the evening breeze which is, I must add almost as supine as I am.

I keep watching and then suddenly the rose disappears as if plucked. I am left with a dark hole where there had been a pale ghost of a white rose.

Curious, I get up and walk slowly towards the place where the rose had been and stop a pace away from the rose bush, listening. I hear nothing. The garden is silent.

Deciding that I had been imagining the whole event I start to walk back to the house, but suddenly I hear stealthy movement behind me.

I swing around. Fast. The sound of movement ceases immediately but the rose is back and moving. I stand still, watching and slowly the rose returns to its stillness.

Just then a shaft of moonlight illuminates the front of the house. The house is now a structure of deep black and bright white which makes the house a disturbing sight, almost ghost like. I decide that maybe it is time to retreat to the house and bed.

"Too much Shiraz." I mutter to myself. As I mount the veranda steps the front door of the house slams shut. It seems to have moved by itself as I hadn't felt a wind that could have closed it so firmly. It is at this moment that I will admit to being spooked by the whole episode.

Of course it just gets worse. I try to open the door of the house and find that the door is suddenly locked. I feel for the keys to the house in my pockets. Nothing, then I remember putting the keys onto the hall table inside the house.

"It doesn't want you in there." says a soft female voice behind me.

I swing around like a prize fighter, waiting for an attack and find myself facing a tall, slim woman in a long white dress with raven's wing black hair. The black and white contrast is amplified by the moonlight and makes her look like a supernatural being.

"Relax." she says "I heard you were staying up here and decided that you needed to be warned."

"Warned?" I ask cautiously. "About what?"

She steps past me, places a hand on the door that has just slammed shut and softly whispers. "Open!" and the door opens, slowly, reluctantly but none the less it opens.

She gestures for me to enter the house, follows me in and closes the door behind us.

"They didn't warn you did they?"

"Who didn't warn me?"

"The Loubschers, the owners of this place." she says.

"Warn me about what?" I ask irritably.

"The house and garden. It has a bad habit of chasing people away."

"It certainly had me spooked." I say "What did I do to grab its interest?"

She shrugs. "Nothing probably. It just doesn't like people."

"Then why do the Loubschers rent the place out? Or if they are hard up and must hire the place out, why don't they at least warn people."

"Then they wouldn't get any guests then would they? But, yes, strange people, they are."

"The woman at the restaurant. She knew I was staying here. Why did she not say anything?" I ask irritated.

"Elsie? Elsie is a good Christian woman and to admit that there are such things as ghosts and evil spirits would call her faith into question. And faith in this town is a very important social lubricant. And what is worse, she would lose custom at the restaurant."

"And you? Are you not going to be isolated for talking to me about the ghosts and evil spirits."

"Oh. I am already isolated. I am not a good Christian, I am the local witch. Don't I look all witchy? Long black hair and long white dress."

"I never thought about that. Witches in the pictures I have seen wear pointy hats and black robes. They ride broom sticks."

She laughs at this.

"Did you see or hear me arrive?"

"No. I suppose not. Where did you park your broom?"

"Sorry. I was terribly boring and arrived on foot." she says with a smile.

"Why did you come up to warn me?"

She looks at me for a while.

"For a number of reasons. I thought you needed warning. I needed to stretch my legs and;" she pauses and looks me up and down like a one would asses a prize horse. "And Elsie said you were 'fokken sexy'."

"Elsie? The good Christian? Said I was 'fucking sexy'?"

"No! No. Not just 'fucking sexy' but 'fokken sexy' which is her highest accolade. She is a big city woman, isolated here by her very rich husband because she has difficulty in keeping her hands off other men."

"Maybe I should go and persuade her to give me lodgings for tonight."

"Nope. Not a chance. Mangus her husband is here tonight and busy ploughing her fields. And anyway you would not be welcome down there because her reputation as a good Christian must not be blemished otherwise her rich husband will divorce her. She sneaks away here to entertain men other than her husband."

"So." I say, "Am I safe to stay here tonight?"

"Safe is a relative word. You won't be comfortable, but you will still be alive tomorrow morning. The upside of all this is that if you do stay you will have a wonderful scary story to tell at next Halloween."

"Next Halloween?" I ask.

"Tonight is Halloween. Didn't you know? And it being Halloween today is possibly one of the reasons that the ghosts and spirits gave you such a warm welcome. The veil between the Shadow Lands and this world thins at Halloween."

She looks out the window and over her shoulder I can see that the moon has risen higher and is illuminating the whole front yard. It paints everything out there in stark black and white complimenting her colouration and accentuating her rather lovely body.

"What did you see that made you walk across the grass to the Dog Rose?"

"I saw a big rose flower this afternoon and then it disappeared while I watched. It reappeared this evening. There were other things moving in the rose bush too. And then you arrived."

"Ah. The locals were just warming up for the night." she says.

"OK witchy woman. What do you suggest I do? Sleep inside here and fight off the creatures of the night? Or drive away and sleep on the highway?"

"Stay here. Nice big double bed and a warm, willing woman to keep you company."

I look around the house. I wonder if this is an invitation but I play it diplomatically.

"You may or may not have noticed but I am alone here. No warm, willing woman."

"And?" she says pouting "What about me? Am I not a warm, willing woman?"

"Warm you may be, but willing? I am not sure. Are you willing?"

She smiles at the question and her dress drops to the floor leaving her naked before me.

"What do you think?" she asks twirling slowly, seductively.

I look at her curvaceous body silhouetted against the moonlit yard. The harsh black and white of the yard makes her look mysterious and unbelievably enticing. The thought of spending the night with this witchy woman overwhelms me and I walk across to her.

When I get close enough to smell her musky scent and see her arousal traced on her body, nipples engorged, eyes wide and mouth open as if inviting me into her, I reach out and trace a finger down her side, feeling her warm, silky, soft skin.

"You are certainly beautiful, arousing and beddable but you need to say whether you are willing."

"A cautious man!" she says and wraps her arms around my neck pressing firm naked breasts into my chest.

"Kiss me!" she says "Kiss pretty Kate! She needs your lust so she can brag to Elsie that she tasted the lust of the 'fokken sexy' man."

So what can I do but kiss her and run my hands over her beautiful, naked body?

"You are still dressed!" she whispers coquettishly. "Get undressed!"

She doesn't wait for me to react, just starts to strip me till I am as naked as she is.

"Better! Much better! Now let's go and put that bed to its intended use."

We use the bed all through the night and keep the restless spirits at bay with our cries of ecstasy and the slapping of skin against skin.

When the birds announce that dawn is imminent she kisses me softly.

"I must leave you now before the sun betrays me." she says.

"Can I see you again before I leave?" I ask as she leaves.

"No! Best not. It would only destroy the memory."

At the door she blows a kiss at me.

"And ruin my reputation."

Then she is gone, leaving me alone and strangely lonely. Reluctantly I prepare for my days journey.

Wanting to retain the feeling of my night with the black headed woman I go to restaurant for breakfast.

The woman who served my last night greets me like a long lost friend and wanting to reciprocate I greet her by name.

"Hello Elsie!" I say.

She looks shocked.

"Elsie is dead! I am Anna. Where did you get the name?" she asks looking worried.

"Kate said you had told her about me."

"Oh!" she says "Are you sure she called herself Kate?".

"Yes. Pretty Kate she said."

"And you slept with her?"

This question stops me dead in my tracks. What to say?

Anna shakes her head.

"Come on inside so we can talk privately."

We go inside to the office.

"Please sit down."

She sighs softly.

"Elsie was such a beautiful woman! She had long black hair and always wore long white dresses."

"Her rich husband sent her here to stop her having an affair someone in the big city and paid for this restaurant to give her something to do."

"She made a huge success of it and it was fabulously popular. She served wonderful meals, not like now and people came from all over to eat here but I don't think it ever made a profit. And now? Now we only serve basic meals."

"She used to meet men up at the Loubschers place and there she called herself Kate to make a show of discretion, but every one in the town knew about her activities up there."

"And then one day someone told her husband she had a gone to the Loubschers place to meet a lover."

"Her husband raced through from the big city and found her in bed with a man. He chased the man away and then shot her! A terrible tragedy."

She looks at me for a long while.

"She came to you last night didn't she?" Anna asks

I just nod.

I do not stay for breakfast but before leaving town I book the Loubscher house for Halloween next year.