Gruberfest- Going My Way (618 hits)
Category: RomanceRating: 1.85 on 25 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by beeltea (View user info) at 2007-10-03 23:42:57 EDT
... Amalie is my true and only love, and I hope you can see why I must spend the rest of my life with her. As hard as it may be for you to understand, you must know that I shall never return to the University, and I have enclosed a letter to the administration announcing my resignation as well as another letter recommending you to the tenure board for assistant professorship as soon as you finish your dissertation. It is my sincere desire that you will eventually become my permanent replacement.
Brion, I will always treasure the relationship we've had, and of course the personal opportunity I've had to share in your academic growth. Please trust that you will always remain my favorite student and colleague; but my mind is now made up. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, academic or otherwise.
Yours in constant learning,
Dr. William H. Ambrose
.....
I couldn't believe what I had just read. It must be insanity; that was the only possible explanation. He was a husband of twenty-four years, a father of three children, not to mention a distinguished professor at a prestigious university; how could this man throw his entire life and career away? Dr. Ambrose was not exactly known for his impetuous behavior. In fact, spontaneous acts of any kind were an all-together rarity here in the department of classical architecture. This was just too unbelievable to be true.
My mentor had left town for two weeks to study the design of a famous resort in Vermont. I expected him back for Monday classes. Now he was throwing his entire life away for a woman he couldn't have known for much longer than a week. I had to talk to him.
"Thank you for calling the Lodge at Solstice, how may I direct your call?"
"I need the room of Dr. William Ambrose, please."
"Ambrose... one moment... I'm sorry sir, but Dr. Ambrose checked out over a week ago."
"Over a week ago?" The postmark on his letter was from only three days prior. Now there was no telling where he even was. His cell phone hadn't been in service since he left, but it's a pretty rural area, so that was to be expected...
"Thank you" I said, hanging up the phone. I had to go to that lodge and try to figure out what happened. I cancelled all of his classes I was covering for the next day (a Friday at least) and told the dean I had a family emergency. It really wasn't far from the truth. Through the years William had become almost a surrogate father to me... I simply had to know what happened to him, and at least try to get the story from his lips. He never showed any signs of unhappiness with his personal life, making this affair of his all the more unusual. His true and only love? How could that be?
The drive from Boston to Solstice is especially beautiful in October, and the forested hills along the way had already transformed into the brilliant colors of the season. However, I was certainly not in the frame of mind to enjoy a bunch of pretty leaves, and despite my field of study I all but ignored the lavish Victorian structure and delicate floral columns outside the entrance of Solstice's famous lodge. It really was an impressive building.
"Hi there" I said approaching the desk clerk, "I'm looking for a guest of yours. He's a colleague of mine and he hasn't been heard from in a couple of days. A Dr. Ambrose, William Ambrose?"
"Ah yes, I do remember him. The professor from Boston. Quite a character!" replied the cheerful young man behind the desk as he leafed through the guest book. "Hmm... he checked out over a week ago... he didn't leave behind any correspondence that I know of."
"You didn't happen to see him with a woman when he left, did you?"
"A woman? No, not that I can recall... but then I don't think I was here when he left..."
"Are you sure you didn't see him with anybody? Perhaps someone named Amalie?"
The clerk gave a muffled chuckle and pointed at the wall behind me. "You don't mean her, do you?"
I turned around to face an oversized portrait hanging on the wall. It was an oil painting depicting in breathtaking life-size detail an exquisitely beautiful young woman dressed in the manner of a nineteenth century servant girl. Her hair- soft, flowing, and fiery red- was complimented by magnetic green eyes and flawless porcelain skin. Her features were those of delicate beauty yet still spoke of strength; combining with one another to create a serene expression of confident dignity with a touch of youthful coquettishness. At the bottom of the artwork was a brass plate with "Amalie of Solstice" etched into it. If I could have taken the painting home with me to stare at every day I would have gladly spent a year of my salary on the spot.
"Who is she?" I asked, my gaze fixed solidly on the feminine perfection I beheld.
"She's just the product of an overactive imagination, I'm sorry to say. It's a great painting though, right?"
"Yeah..." I replied, unable to focus concentration on anything but the image.
"I'm not all that familiar with the story," he continued, "but supposedly she was a chambermaid who worked in this hotel. Way back. Like over a hundred years. The story goes that she disappeared one night and was never heard from again. There was some sort of lover's quarrel involved too, I think." He paused, and with a voice of genuine concern said, "Probably not a likely traveling companion for your missing professor, I'm afraid."
"No, probably not." I still had trouble turning away, but was eventually able to focus my attention back to the desk clerk. "Do you mind if I see the room he stayed in?"
"The room was cleaned after he checked out and nothing was turned in. I could normally let you see it but its being repainted right now. 101 is the Governor's Suite, and we're expecting a high profile guest next week. Can't even check it out tonight. Fumes, you know."
"Allright. Just let me have another room. I think I'm going to spend the night."
"Certainly, Sir." He handed me a key and I went down the hall to my room, passing 101 on my way. The Governor's suite, eh? Sparing no departmental expense I see, William. I continued on to my room, cleaned up, dropped off my bags, and made it over to the village's small library to see if Ambrose had been spotted by any of the locals. I knew William, and if there was a library in range (or an alehouse, for that matter) William had certainly been there.
As I expected with it now being twilight, the library was long closed. I made my way over to the Red Dog Tavern, right across the street. Vacant save the bartender and one other patron who was far too concerned with what the Red Sox were doing to pay any attention to me. I ordered a pint of stout and started talking to the bartender.
"At's a good decision. Guiness's all we got on draft 'ere."
"Thanks." I said, slapping a ten down on the bar. "I'm staying at the Lodge down the street. It's a pretty nice place."
"Oh yeah, the Solstice'll sets ya up real good. Those rooms are real nice. And I hear it's even famous for the architecture or sumthin'." I smiled. But I was here for answers.
"Have you ever heard of a girl named Amalie?" I asked.
"You mean the ghost?" he chortled. "Oh yeah, sure I heard of her. Supposedly she was some girl with no family or nothin', got herself killed or somthin'. Now they say she haunts the place, but I ain't never seen her."
"Has anybody?"
"I don't know. Some people claim to, but mainly it's just lights turning on and off, strange telephone calls, doors opening and closing without reason, that kind of thing. All a load of hooey if ya ask me."
"|HEY! You awl talkin' about Amalie?" The bar's only other patron chimed in. "I know awl 'bout 'er! I got friend who's seen 'er!" The man, who I can only imagine was the town drunk, sidled his way down to the stool next to me. My olfactory senses were instantly bombarded with a strong odor of whiskey. He leaned in uncomfortably close to tell me the rest of what he knew.
"You one of them ghost hunters?"
"uh, sort of I guess."
"Ya see, dis Amalie, and dis is what you ain't goin' ta 'ear 'bout 'er from nowhere else, dis bitch was a fuckin' tramp. She got caught with another man in 'er bed while 'er boyfriend was off workin'. Workin', son. A fuckin' bed he was payin' fo', no less. Fucker comes home from cuttin' down trees all day and finds his broad banging another guy what do you expect he gonna do? He put his axe right in the back of that bitches skull, dat's what he did. Serve's 'er right, if ya'ask me.
Obviously I needed more information. Both of them said they had seen William around recently, but never with a woman.
I returned to my room and tried to sleep, but I had a hard time doing so. My mind was full of questions. It didn't help matters that the painting of Amalie kept popping up in my dreams... and I think the light went on and off once. I'm not sure about that. I could have been dreaming.
The next morning I hoofed it over to the town library. The librarian had not seen William, but she was ever so helpful in giving me more material on the town's famous specter.
Here is a summary of the research I found from the library's various articles on the subject.
Amalie of Solstice was a young girl who immigrated to the region from country unknown. She had no known family (hence the lack of a surname) but eventually found work in Solstice as a maid in the nearby lodge, which was at that time set aside for loggers on rest. During her employment, Amalie became romantically entangled with a lumberjack who stayed at the lodge, though she was never technically betrothed to the man. One late night the logger came to the lodge after two weeks out in camp to find Amalie in bed with another man. The logger killed Amalie and the young man Amalie was with in the room that is now 101.
That much is fact, from the information I could find.
The young man found with Amalie was killed quickly and cause of death was attributed by an initial blow to the head, which as it turned out, was an act of mercy, because afterwards the jealous lumberjack chopped every limb off the man with (probably) his axe and staked the disembodied limbs to the floor. The body of Amalie, however, was never found. Most say the lumberjack must have killed her, but without a body it could never be proven. The lumberjack, who interestingly remains unnamed along with the young man he dismembered, fled the town and was never brought to justice for a crime that had no witnesses.
Afterwards I went back to the lodge, and for the night despite the upgrade in price, asked to stay in the Governors Suite. The paint smell had faded away and I must say it really was a fantastic room. Fireplace, plush armchairs, a king sized bed, lavish curtains; but the capper was the verandah that offered a stunning view of the valley in its full autumn glory. I closed the French doors that had been open since they painted and lit the fireplace to warm up the room. Of course this was all coming out of my pocket, instead of that nifty little expense account William had, but I couldn't think of anywhere else too look for a clue. One thing I did know was where I could find a drink.
The same bartender and the same drunk were both back at the Red Dog. They said hello but it was a busy Friday night and both were pretty occupied. I sat on my stool and drank in silence thinking about my trip thus far.
I hadn't accomplished anything. I couldn't find William, and there wasn't anything I could tell his family. There wasn't even anything to tell the staff back in Boston because I had no idea where he was! The only thing I had was a letter and a legend and a name; and the only theory I could come up with was that he had fallen in love with a ghost. Was I really going to tell his wife that her husband ran off with a ghost?
I entered the Governor's Suite of the lodge, dejected and drunk, and burned William's letter to me in the fireplace. I had no leads, no possible way of finding him. I didn't even know if he was still in town. Monday I would give the letters William wrote to the Dean and never tell anybody about this trip. I laid down on the bed and immediately passed out.
A cold draft ran through me and roused me some time in the night, and the dying fire was quickly snuffed out. I heard the unmistakable sound of a door opening and shutting. I shuddered as another extremely cold sensation waved up and through my body. Then I cleared my eyes and looked out through the moonlight to see a vision I can't truly describe.
Just exactly like the portrait. Rounded strong features. Rolling fiery hair. Brilliant green eyes. It was Amalie. My Amalie. I crouched up out of the bed as she approached, and I fully expected her ethereal body to pass directly through my hands...
But it didn't. Her form was as real and as warm and as sensual as any other woman I had encountered before.
"I've missed you, my dear" the apparition told me.
"How could you have missed me? You don't even know me..." I'm not exactly sure how the words were coming out of my mouth, but they sounded good enough.
The apparition's fingers pressed against my lips silencing any more.
"Brion, I've known you all your life. You are my one and only true love. Stay with me."
"Sure, why not?"
She kissed me. I still had Ambrose on my mind.
"What about William?" I asked the spirit. "He loves you..."
"William?" The apparition laughed. "He's too old, my love. I need someone with more life! Someone like you... Please... William is gone... let us not speak of him."
The angelic phantom nuzzled against me... and I was ridiculously unprepared for her charms.
I finally understood the letter William had written. I had never had an experience like this with any other woman. I heard popping from the fireplace; as if Amalie had re-started it through psychic sexual energy. The specter had such grace, such passion, such elegance...
Once again I heard the unmistakable sound of the door opening and shutting. This time it was with a bit more authority.
"Hello?" I shouted through the dank air of the lodge out from underneath the figure of Amalie. "Who's there?"
The apparition moved silently and quickly off the bed, expecting...
And there in the light of the doorway stood my mentor, Dr. William H. Ambrose. His eyes were devoid of the kindness they had shown me many times before. He was holding an axe.
He spoke coolly and quietly. "Brion, I told you not to come here."
"I know" I said. "But I wanted to find you!" It was still William, but there was something different now. I looked toward Amalie. She buried her face in her hands.
I suppose in retrospect I should have heeded the first part of William's letter to me. I had read it so many times during the trip that I knew it backwards and forwards...
Dear Brion,
You know that I care for you deeply as a friend, a student, and a colleague. That being said, I must start this letter by telling you it is of utmost importance that you do not EVER attempt to find me, and under no circumstances should you ever tell anybody (including my wife and family) the details of my separation from the current life I know in Boston...
Despondently Amalie peered at me through disappointed but knowing eyes. They were the most beautiful sad eyes I had ever seen. Dejectedly she slumped herself onto the foot of the bed.
"I'm terribly sorry, Brion. I didn't mean for you to go out the same way I did."
"go out?" I turned and faced the apparition. "What does that mean?"
"You'll be going my way." She said blankly.
With that I felt the axe cleave into the back of my head.
I don't know what happened after that.
User Reviews
Submitted by Paralyzed_By_Hope (user info) at 2007-10-09 16:49:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Automatic 2 because her name reminded me of the movie Amelie. But, of course, it was entertaining, as well.
Submitted by rob_berg (user info) at 2007-10-07 20:18:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
yay sammich!
Submitted by i_can_get_you_a_toe (user info) at 2007-10-07 19:57:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by beeltea (user info) at 2007-10-07 13:40:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
lung:
yes, hell yes, and no.
col and sccy:
yes and yes.
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2007-10-07 13:14:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked this. I do think you could have done with a little less setup and a bit more ghosty action at the end, but either way, good story.
Submitted by ColchesterDr (user info) at 2007-10-07 12:26:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Much better than the other one, but your ending really blew, big time.
Submitted by pshuu (user info) at 2007-10-07 12:20:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I enjoyed the delivery.
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2007-10-07 04:56:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
1) Dane Cook blows and you know it?
2) Are you really rooting for the Rockies?
3) You got any kin from Kentucky? Email me. I'll explain.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2007-10-06 11:37:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by beeltea (user info) at 2007-10-05 18:34:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
it was me forcing the title in somehow, really. It didn't flow quite as smoothly at the end as I would have liked.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2007-10-05 18:27:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Isn't he actually going out the way the first guy with Amalie did, not the way Amalie did since know one knows what really happened to her? I'm confused.
But you told the tale so well I don't care. +2.
Submitted by hour_man (user info) at 2007-10-05 03:08:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-10-04 18:47:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by FALLEN (user info) at 2007-10-04 17:01:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I kept reading the girl's name as Ameelius.
I was hoping for another post-it note picture at the bottom.
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2007-10-04 16:18:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2007-10-04 15:53:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-10-04 10:27:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I knew where this was going once he decided to stay in the suite, but it was still a good read and well written. Auto incubus +2
Submitted by Lib (user info) at 2007-10-04 12:49:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by forensicgirl3 (user info) at 2007-10-04 12:32:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent.
Submitted by orph (user info) at 2007-10-04 10:36:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
very well done
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-10-04 10:27:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I knew where this was going once he decided to stay in the suite, but it was still a good read and well written. Auto incubus +2
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-10-04 09:22:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
wonderful story.
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2007-10-04 05:04:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Creepy.
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2007-10-04 01:06:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
My favorite part: "Sure, why not?"
Really, a good read.
Oh yeah...+2 d'backs win.
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2007-10-04 01:05:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It digs me well.
Submitted by ilikesteak (user info) at 2007-10-04 00:01:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yet again, I'm listening to Tom Waits while I read these.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExyRMqX8eOA
was the one I listened to while I read this, and it's what I listened to while writing mine.
Once again, I'm not impressed, and Tom did his best to help.