Written by William E. Spear
Published by The Three Fifty-seven
23 April 2024
His altar was the grave.
(Theme for THE GHOSTLY GROOM plays and goes under)
Hello . . . and welcome to the Three Fifty-seven.
My name is William Spear and this is our series titled THE GHOSTLY GROOM. It is inspired by, and interpreted from, Washington Irving’s THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. It was published in the same year as the Panic of 1819, the first major financial crisis in the United States.
Previously, Lenore Katzenellen and her family had left her seriously injured and heavily bandaged fiancé in an Odenwald, New Jersey hospital. Moments later they were told his body had been pulled from a crash site in Wurtzburg. They went back to his room and, except for a few bandages, it was empty. Her father and aunts were badly shaken and she took them home after.
Once home, an upsetting phone caller demanded from the aunts: “Is she there? I must talk to her.” Needing quiet to think, Lenore sent them to prepare a meal but they ran back when they saw the fiancé outside the window. She comforted them and walked to the kitchen. Much to their alarm.
And now Episode Four titled GONE.
(Theme for THE GHOSTLY GROOM plays and goes under)
Lenore’s father and two aunts were terrified. “Come back,” they insisted. “What are you doing?” “Lenore!” “Dear Heaven, above, protect her!”
Silence like a funeral fell on them. Deafening, dreadful quiet. Shattered only by the clock in the hallway: tick-tock . . . tick-tock . . . tick-
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”
The father and aunts screamed back, “Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” They grabbed each other and fearfully sideways-scuttled into the kitchen expecting the worst. And there, in anguish and misery, was Lenore writhing with arms upstretched in agony.
“LENORE!” they shouted.
She whirled about and casually said, “Oh, hello.”
Her father started: “You saw Geoffrey’s ghost!” “What did he say?” demanded one aunt. “Where did he go?” insisted the other. The three looked at each other then her and trembled: “Is he coming back?”
Lenore smiled and assured them she had not seen her fiancé’s ghost and was merely frustrated by not having milk in the house.
The other three looked at each other as if she had uttered in a language last spoken by Diedrich Knickerbocker of Upper Saxony in the mid-sixteen hundreds.
The father started: “You talked to your dead fiancé and the police found his body in a ravine.” An aunt added: “I answered a call from his ghost.” The other aunt finished: “And you are in here screaming over milk?!”
Lenore innocently added, “I want hot chocolate. How about you three?”
The “you three” grumbled “Sure”, “Why not”, and “Maybe it will take the jagged edge off our nerves”.
Lenore promised to be back in five minutes and the family settled in to wait for her return.
The three praised Lenore for holding up so well under the circumstances. One aunt gushed her niece’s bravery. Her father added if her mother was still alive she’d be so proud. The second aunt confidently boasted Lenore could withstand ten phantoms like the fiancé’s ghost. “Not that he’s still in the area,” she quickly added.
The others looked at her and speculated: “You don’t think . . .” “He must be gone by now . . .” “What if . . .?” “Shouldn’t Lenore be back by now?”
Three slow knocks rattled the front door. No one moved. Three more knocks intruded. Louder and with more urgency.
The father felt drawn to the door. In actuality, the two aunts pushed him.
He crept to the door and his trembling hand turned the knob. There stood the same uniformed police officer from Wurtzburg who came to house hour earlier.
“Good evening. baron. Ladies. Lenore’s car has been found abandoned on the side of the road.”
(Theme for THE GHOSTLY GROOM plays and goes under)
That was Episode Four titled GONE.
Theme music is through the courtesy of Nicky.
William Spear wrote and narrated the series and it was produced by The Three Fifty-seven.
Thank you for your attention.
(Theme for THE GHOSTLY GROOM fades out)
WESJr
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