The Screaming Lady, A JEZ Ghost Negotiator Mystery

Chapter Three: THE START

Jessica came up and sat beside Elizabeth, and said, "I am sorry Remy, sometimes I get a little passionate about my work."

Remy said, "all forgiven, so what do we do now?"

Jessica said, "well we need to understand a few things about what you have been seeing, feeling, and hearing over the last few years. We need to try to figure out the intricacies of the Screaming Lady. "

With that they all got comfortable, Remy poured them cups of coffee and began. Remy explained that about five years ago, there was a water main that burst in one of the buildings across the street. Historically, when these buildings were first constructed, they did not make provisions for that sort of thing, so the road crew had to dig up the whole street in front of Remy's Diner to get to the busted pipe and replace it. After they pulled up all the asphalt and removed all the sub-terrain, they hit some hard-packed Alabama red clay. It was expected, of course, because we are in Alabama and red clay is the bedrock of Alabama as a whole. What was strange about this red clay though, is it looked as though it had been formed, or fired into some sort of protective barrier over the area where the pipe was supposed to be, per the waterworks map.

The road crew brought in jackhammers and heavy road digging equipment and they worked at the layer for a couple of days; they were having a really hard go of it, it seemed as though they were not going to breach it when they finally broke through. When they busted through the layer, they realized they were in a small cavern of sorts, it was crawling room only, but it was a cavern. It was only about three feet tall, but it was five feet by five feet or so. The walls and the ceiling of the cavern looked to have been dug out by fingers; it had imprints of what looked to be finger scrapes down the walls, all the walls, and the ceiling was the same way. It was as if someone was in the space and was digging the space around themselves to try to possibly dig out or widen the space.

Of course, everyone in town caught wind of the mysterious cavern in short time and flocked to see it, thinking there was buried treasure, or dead bodies, or dinosaur bones, or whatever. But from what the crew said, it was just an empty cavern. Strange imprints on the walls and ceilings, but that could just be the way the water drained into the space. Maybe it had been a washout from years prior that had been unseen and paved over? Maybe it was part of a drainage system that was not put correctly on any map? No one really knew what it was. So, the road crew resumed their project, after a three-month delay and much speculation as to what the mystery cavern was. They completed the job, replaced the pipe, which was south of the cavern. They did fill in the cavern with rock so that a sinkhole would not happen in the future. Then ultimately repaved the road.

Many months later it came out that they had indeed found some bones in the cavern, that looked to be small human remains in the cavernous space, but they could not be sure? The bones could have been human, or animal, they claimed. They were in a small pile in the corner of the space; the foreman on the job claimed that he did not mention the bones, because he knew it would delay the project for an untold amount of time and his time was money, plus he had lost so much time and money to that point. So, he instructed his men to keep quiet and just leave the remains where they were and fill the cavern in with rock, sand, and dirt.

After some research into that area of town, the county seat did not find any record of a burial ground or recognized graveyard; it was decided to leave the remains as they were, because they may have been an old grave, Indian grave or just animal remains, no proof it was anything other than that. If it was a human grave it was probably unrealized before the build-up of the city. Respect would dictate, not to disturb the remains (again).

Remy went on to explain the first time he saw the Screaming Lady was the day after they filled the cavern in with rock and fill dirt. He was at the Diner, and had shut down for the night, it must have been around 10 pm. As business goes, it was a good night, really busy, so the place was a supreme mess. Piles of dishes in the sink, dirty tables, full trash cans, etc. His part-time dishwasher had just quit and walked out, the current waitress said she had to rush out to go get her daughter from her dead beat ex-husband and Remy was frustrated with not being able to find good "help." So here he was, all alone to clean up a royal mess of a Diner. He was not happy, to say the least.

Remy was in the kitchen leaning over the sink washing dishes, grumbling about "no good young people walking out on a job," when he heard the scream for the first time; initially, he did not know what it was, what to think or how to react. He stood up straight, goosebumps spread down his spine; he knew enough that he should be really scared of whatever it was. He dried his hands and walked very slowly to the swinging door that separated the kitchen from the dining room making sure not to make any noise.

Through the round window in the door he looked into the dining room and saw her for the first time; she was sitting at the second booth to the right of the entrance door, she was staring right at him, with those black eyes; it was as if she knew he would be looking through the window of the door right at that time. When she saw him, she opened up her mouth and screamed again, it was so loud that Remy doubled over and had to cover his ears, he said it felt like his eardrums were going to bust. At that point he was so scared, that he just ran out the back door. He did not bother to close the door, he ran all the way home on foot that night, and he lives about two miles from the Diner, he did not stop to catch his breath until he opened his front door and was inside his house.

When he sat on his couch that night his wife asked him what had happened, he told her he did not know; and was afraid to tell her. The sight of her, and the sound of the scream had put such a fear into him, he was afraid that he was cursed, and did not want to carry it into his own house. Remy and his wife just sat on the couch holding each other all night, because Remy was afraid to close his eyes and go to sleep.

From that point forward Remy said that he saw the Screaming Lady regularly, always in the evening, she would show up around sundown, just appear, as if she belonged there. If there were patrons in the Diner, she would just stare at them for a bit and if they did not leave then she would let out that gut-wrenching scream. The word got around very quickly that Remy's place was haunted by a screaming ghost, and fewer and fewer of the regulars were coming in. If anyone came in, they would only come in for breakfast and lunch, during the day time hours. As time passed, even those that would come in for breakfast and lunch started to fade away, because they were too scared to even come in. Rumors of curses started to circulate, and many did not want to be associated with anywhere that would taint their mortal soul.

Occasionally, Remy will get curiosity seekers, and he does get the die-hard regulars that proclaim that no ghost is going to scare them off; but that will not pay the bills. At this point, if Remy does not clean up this ghost issue, he is going to lose his livelihood, his business, and the building that has been in his family for four generations.

Remy can no longer rent out the upstairs apartment, because the Screaming Lady took to flinging stuff of the shelves, and slamming doors in the upstairs apartment, in addition to her incessant screaming, so the young college students that he normally rented to; quickly caught wind, and will not come near the place. He never really charged much, just enough to cover the utilities and keep the place up. But now it just sits, empty; or maybe not so empty?