The haunted glass house

an excerpt from one of my published novels

(This is an excerpt from my carnival ghost story novel BY THE LIGHT OF THE CARNIVAL)

 

Miss Toulon reminded her, “Your family has been in this business for generations.”

“I can do the best tarot card reading in all the land and I don’t even know if I believe it anymore. I might be a joke. Look at you. You’ve got class. You’re a bearded lady. You’re such an icon. A total fabulous cliché that can’t be faked. Most fortune-tellers are as fake as can be and I have to prove myself every single day. I should be jealous of you. I am! I’m completely jealous!”

“Thank you.” Miss Toulon chuckled as she tipped her wide hat a bit to the side. “When I was a little girl I did not have a beard. I was not an icon of the carnival, nor did my mother live in one. I certainly wasn’t normal, though. I had the sight. That was far grander than a beard. A sight to see ghosts. It left me when I started my menses. You just can’t have a beard and the sight at the very same time, it seems. Have you ever seen a ghost?”

“Not really. Not with my eyes.”

“But you’re the fortune-teller lady.”

“My eyes only see what they see. I won’t say I see things I don’t. Why for heaven’s sake, I don’t even understand half of anything anyway without my adding made up stuff to that.”

“Well I lost my gift when I got the beard. Then very recently it sort of came back.”

Lady Fortuna asked, “What happened?”

“I’ve always used my intuition to set up the carnival, but this time, for this week, it was stronger than ever. It was like the sight had come back to do something very important. A strong voice, very masculine, it just yelled at me.”

“Yelling? So this time, you didn’t have the sight, you had the sound?”

“Yeah. Crap. The very loud sound. And it just yelled at me. It said I had to put the glass house right where I did, and at all costs. It shook me. I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know where to put the glass house. It was the most horrible thing. I’ve never had something so strong happen to my intuition. It always felt positive before. Not bossy. This time I was bossed.”

Lady Fortuna’s eyes grew wide. “You? Bossed?”

“I had a very strong sense of purpose concerning a ghost. Or ghosts. Or other types of spirits. I don’t know. A demon? Oh! Crap! I hope not! Why do I feel like I’ve been tricked somehow? It’s such a sinking feeling. A crushing feeling of awful dread! Like a ton of bricks!”

Lady Fortuna asked, “How do you mean?”

“I had one moment of fright that was also like my intuition. It told me I shouldn’t be tricked by every voice that pops into my head. I had a warning deep in my gut about putting the glass house there, and I ignored it. But I went ahead and listened to the man yelling in my head. I don’t know if that was me. I doubt it now. I doubt I was listening to myself if I sounded like a man.”

“Why didn’t you listen to the voice in your gut instead of the voice in your head?”

Miss Toulon looked sad. “I was tricked, now I know. I’d thought that since I had a beard, it could have a man’s voice in me. That’s stupid. My beard is all woman. My beard has nothing to do with anything manly. It’s my beard!” She grabbed her own breasts and made herself laugh.

“Then it was the glass house speaking to you. It’s haunted. We’re sure of that. But what does it mean?”

 

 

 

See all my novels at my website:

http://peterjosephswanson.weebly.com/

Reviews

[Dr. Kittin]

Very good and very interesting! It wasn't very descriptive, however, as far as out of dialogue context goes, but it was mostly dialogue, so that makes sense. Very good job. This has truly captivated my interest. Now I must go read the rest!