A Ghostly Encounter on Rt 66 - pt 2

  The sky was beginning to show some light as the Jeep crept along the original twisty Route 66, while we looked for the turnoff that Dave thought would take us back behind what few ruins of Goldroad can be seen from the paved road. After a couple of false starts, we found a trail that at least headed in the right direction. I was getting hungry and about ready to call off the hunt, when we came upon what looked like a Reenactor from Oatman, dressed up like a prospector, and covered with dust. Having been involved with living history shows for years, I knew exactly what to expect. These folks really get into their parts and take it as a challenge not to slip out of character. Using period language, they’ll talk about President Lincoln like he’s still alive, and that sort of stuff. So, we stopped to ask directions before we lost any chance of a sunrise shot. "Howdy Old-timer," I ventured, "where’s your burro? In Oatman?" I figured that would open the door to the reenactor spiel, and he would start talking about the gunfights in the street next, but he ignored the Oatman reference and asked us our names. We told him, and ask him who he was. "Baldy Baldwin", he said, "but my friends call me Lloyd". "Well, Lloyd", I replied, "do you know if there’s an old graveyard around here?" Instead of answering, he demanded, "Where are you boys from?" I could have said Prescott or Jerome, but said, "Jerome", as a lead-in to asking about Jennie. As soon as I mentioned Jerome, Lloyd frowned, "If you’re lookin’ for Jennie, she ain‘t here. Took her to Kingman myself, to be buried." There was a convincing note of sadness in his voice, and Dave and I looked at each other as friends do when a situation takes a strange turn. "No one came to help her", he said, "and that son-of-a bitch went and reloaded and shot her again, then tried to kill himself. I guess she’d seen him comin’ from across the street and tried to lock the door, but didn’t get it done." Dave and I didn’t know what to make of all that. We hadn’t expected to meet anyone who knew much about Jennie Bauters, unless they were scriptwriters for the Kingman football team. Lloyd continued, "Ya know Jennie was a good hearted woman, look at all she done for your town when she was up there. Too bad she met up with that hop head Martin and took him in. Things shouldn’t end up that-a-way". I wanted to ask about Lloyd’s trip to Kingman with Jennie’s corpse, but before I could, he reached in his pocket and pulled out the skeleton key to a door. "Shouldn’t have to lock your house out here either, but Jennie had a lock put on her front door soon as that Martin fellow started threatenin’ her. This fell out of her hand when I was takin’ her to Kingman and I’ve kept it ever since. You know, sometimes it seems to move on it’s own, like she’s still tryin’ to lock that door". Just then a motorcycle going way too fast, roared by on the road behind us, and when Dave and I turned back from looking in that direction, Lloyd had begun to walk off. Not knowing what to say, but not wanting the encounter to end, I yelled at him, "Hey you, Old man, how should things end up?" He stopped, and slowly turned toward us, then in a ghostly whisper said, "You know, you don’t have to be dead to be buried". With that he threw Jennie’s key in our direction, and the rising sun flashed off it like the pop of a light bulb blowing out. Lloyd was gone.   To be continued ...