The Ghost Lights of Marfa Read online

  THE GHOST LIGHTS OF MARFA

  by Maeve Alpin

  The Ghost Lights of Marfa

  Copyright © 2013 Cornelia Amiri

  Smashwords Edition

  Edited by Michelle Levigne

  Cover design by Julie Darcy

  Interior design and formatting by Amy Eye

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Maeve Alpin c/o Cornelia Amiri.

  Maeve Alpin

  c/o Cornelia Amiri

  P. O. Box 740186

  Houston, TX 77274

  This is a revised edition of The Marfa Lights

  Previously published in 2010 by L & L Dreamspell in the anthology, Twisted Tales of Texas Landmarks

  This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Smashwords License agreement

  This ebook is for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase any additional copy for each reader. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  In acknowledgment of their dedication, hard work and talent, I want to thank some people that helped make this book happen. A big thanks to author, Michelle Levigne for the wonderful job she did in editing The Ghost Lights Of Marfa. I want to also thank authors, Patricia Layne and Lisa Carlisle for the critiques they did on The Ghost Lights Of Marfa, which were so helpful. Last but not least, I want to thank author, Pauline Baird Jones for her phenomenal help as a beta reader for The Ghost Lights of Marfa. Also, I wanted to thank, Julie Darcy for her graphic artwork, which rocks the cover of The Ghost Lights Of Marfa.

  A recorded sighting of the of ghost lights in Marfa, Texas was first published in 1957. Many claim observations of the lights go back at least to the 1800s. Ghost lights occur around the world, with orange the most common color. The Marfa lights are usually orange, red, white or yellow, but green and blue have been reported. In addition to numerous sightings, the lights have been documented many times in photographs and videos. Witnesses have posted homemade videos of the lights to YouTube. Every night, onlookers hoping to spot the lights stop by the circular viewing center, located about eight miles east of Marfa, which includes a picnic area, restrooms, and a parking lot.

  The Ghost Lights Of Marfa, Blurb:

  Taking off, with no money and no prospects, to a small town in the Texas desert may not be the smartest move. However, when Kristy, a down-on-her-luck single mom, loses her job and gets evicted, she follows her intuition and heads to Marfa Texas to show her five-year-old son the famous ghost lights.

  Kristy has no idea her new start on life will take her as far as an alternate universe, called In, courtesy of being beamed up by a Marfa ghost light. Is the wonderful world of In everything it seems to be? Or do the Inids have an ulterior motive for helping her and her son?

  Chapter One

  The car will die. And hungry . . . stranded . . . we’ll die.

  This thought blared in Kristy’s head during the endless stretch of road thorough the bare west Texas desert. Finally driving past the 'Welcome to Marfa' sign, she released a sigh of relief.

  “Are we there yet, Mommy?” Cody’s high-pitched voice pulsed with energy.

  “We sure are.” Kristy glanced in the rearview mirror at her six-year-old son. Framed by two dimples, the corners of his rosy mouth turned up into a bright smile. His brown eyes snapped with merriment and dark curls fell across his forehead and his plump cheeks as he banged his plastic sword against the car seat. Cody couldn’t have been happier and she wanted to keep it that way.

  As a golden oldies station played Bennie and the Jets, she turned onto South Dean Street. “This is Marfa. We’ll see the lights soon.” She glanced at the fuel gauge. After a six-hour drive from San Antonio, it pointed near empty. “We made it.”

  “How do those lights come on?” Cody squeaked from the back seat. “What time do they come on?”

  “Tonight, after it’s dark.”

  The town reminded her of a western movie set as she drove by rows of white wooden houses and one-story adobe buildings. The peach-toned courthouse towered above them. Its gray dome caught her eye, along with its blanket of green lawn, adorned with bushy crepe myrtles and old pecan trees with sprawling branches. Driving down the narrow road, she soon spotted the white, rectangular building and the prominent black sign with white script, El Paisano.

  “Cody, famous movie stars, James Dean, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Taylor slept in that hotel when they made Giant here, a real famous old movie.”

  “Who?” His brows arched over his wide brown eyes.

  “You’ll see it on TV one day, maybe on Turner Classic Movies. It doesn’t matter, we’re not staying there.” No money for that. “We’ll camp out tonight, sleep in the car. Won’t that be fun? I’ve got pillows in the trunk.”

  “I get to sleep in the car.” He jerked his head, ruffling his mop of black hair.

  “We’re going to have so much fun, Cody.”

  As Kristy peered in the rearview mirror, she found the wide smile on his face contagious and her mood grew buoyant. She would try to get a job as a desk clerk or a maid at the El Paisano. Kristy had come to see the dusty ranch town as her last hope. In the middle of the vast desert, under the big Texas sky, Marfa—a place of consistency and peace—remained untouched by the economic crisis.

  Just what she needed after discovering many family shelters only allowed a month before they kicked you out. You can’t keep your children, if you can’t feed them. Simple words, with less stuck on the end, like homeless, jobless, didn’t explain all that. All the languages in the world can’t explain that Mommy, the only person who takes care of you, can’t. Lost her job and no one wants her. At six, you’re on your own, in foster care. Kristy vowed that wouldn’t happen to her son.

  She glanced at a square, white building on West San Antonio Street with El Cheapa in large, red script letters. “The town is so cute.”

  When the constable tacked the eviction notice to her apartment door, the only idea she came up with was to take Cody on a vacation. Show him the ghost lights of Marfa, the giant horseshoe, and the place James Dean made his last movie.

  Like a rebel without a cause, she threw her kid and some clothes into the car and took off. She had nothing left but a few coins and dollar bills. What would it be, gas or food? Knowing eight dollars’ worth of gas wouldn’t get her far, she chose food.

  “I’m hungry, Mommy.” Cody opened his mouth wide, signaling he was ready to eat.

  She spotted the familiar white, red-roofed restaurant. “There’s the Dairy Queen.”

  After parking, she finger-combed her shoulder-length, auburn hair. She retrieved a kohl pencil from her purse and lined her pale blue eyes, then brushed a coat of thick mascara on her long, thin lashes. She had to look good just in case. Maybe they were hiring there. You never know.

  * * * * *

  Cody unbuckled his seatbelt and scurried into the Dairy Queen with Kristy at his heels. He plopped onto the seat of a bright orange booth, as she asked the cashier if they had any openings.

  She received the familiar reply. “Not at this time.”

  After ordering a junior hamburger
and a kid’s meal, Kristy gave into her cravings and ordered a watermelon slushy. The sweet, cool, refreshing treat was a favorite of hers since she was Cody’s age and it didn’t look like she’d be having another one any time soon. So she decided to splurge. She ordered Cody one, too.

  She sat in the booth and hungrily clutched her hamburger. The moment she bit into the soft bun, the combined flavors of beef patty, ripe tomato slices, and lettuce wrapped around her tongue. As Kristy munched her burger, she reflected on how she’d ended up here.

  When she found out she was pregnant with Cody, it was a shock. Though she took birth control pills, she’d missed a day. She never considered not keeping the baby, even when her boyfriend pulled the routine ‘I don’t want this, I don’t think it’s mine.’ But he manned-up, and at six months into her pregnancy, a justice of the peace married them. The judge wished her the best of luck, but even then, she wondered if she was making a mistake. A year later, after her husband hit her for a third time, she escaped to a shelter for battered women. The divorce took all her savings and her ex-husband disappeared. She never received a single child support payment.

  At school events or anywhere someone asked Cody to introduce his mother and father, he always said, “My mother and father is Kristy.” That never failed to bring a warm flutter to her heart.

  Then, she lost her job. She went to work on Friday, payday, and found the office locked. The owner skipped. Since it was a contract position, selling credit card machines to businesses, her boss didn’t take out taxes, so she wasn’t able to file for unemployment compensation.

  Kristy managed the rent that month and a United Way charity paid it for her the next. The third month, her luck ran out. She still hadn’t found a job.

  Now, she’d spent her last dollar on fast food. But in the back of her mind, she believed the ghost lights of Marfa would bring her luck. Something has to, she thought.

  As he finished the last of the slushy, Cody’s noisy slurping brought her back from her musings.

  “Mommy, is it time to see the lights?” He puckered his lips and strummed his finger across them, making a brrrrrr sound.

  “Don’t you want your treat?” She tore the coupon off the kiddy bag and used it to get the free chocolate-dipped ice cream cone. She handed it to Cody and piled a stack of napkins on the table. He grinned ear to ear, eagerly biting through the chocolate covering to the soft vanilla ice cream.

  “I finished, Mommy.” He popped the last piece of the kiddy cone into his chocolate-ringed mouth. “Are the lights ready to come on?”

  Kristy grabbed a napkin and wiped his face. “First, I’m going to take you to see the world’s biggest horseshoe. Would you like that?”

  “Yes, yes.” He climbed off the seat and jumped up and down. “Let’s go.”

  She stood and grabbed her purse. “What a lucky boy you are, Cody. You get to see the giant horseshoe now and the ghost lights tonight.” She spotted the toy on the table. “Don’t forget your sword.”

  He ran back, grabbed the pirate sword and darted to the car. Kristy buckled him in and slid behind the wheel. She fit the key into the ignition and took off down the quiet, traffic-free street.

  Chapter Two

  Kristy drove past a row of small adobe houses, and then spotted a looming wall with an old army barracks rising above it. “See that, Cody? Soldiers lived there a long time ago. Now they keep famous art in it.”

  “I want to go there.” Cody bounced on the backseat.

  She turned the corner and parked the car in the lot. They jumped out and rushed toward the twenty-foot-tall horseshoe.

  Her gaze scanned the rough, dark brown surface and locked on the huge, bent nail stuck through the shoe. Kristy understood how the nail felt.

  “It’s so big, Mommy.” Cody’s eyes grew wide and his face beamed. “What kind of horse would that fit?”

  She laughed aloud. It had been days since she’d done that. “A pretty big horse.” What would she do without Cody? He was the one bright light in her life. She had to find a way to support him.

  “I’ve never seen a giant horse.” Cody wobbled his head.

  “No, but you‘ve seen a giant horseshoe.”

  “Yeah, I have. Wait ‘til I tell the kids at school.” He reached his tiny hand out and touched the end of the horseshoe where it rested on its aluminum stand.

  “Come, let’s see the rest.” Kristy grabbed his hand and they skipped toward the field scattered with huge concrete cubes.

  She hadn’t explained that he couldn’t go back to his old school, that they couldn’t go back to their old house. She couldn’t bear for him to be afraid or worried. He didn’t know anything was wrong and she was going to do her best to keep it that way as long as she could. Though time was running out. Right now she only had the car and the belongings in the trunk, nothing else.

  “Mommy, they’re big boxes.”

  “Yes . . . art.”

  As Cody ran in and out of the square sculptures, brandishing his pirate sword, Kristy waded through knee-high grass, past a stand of green, prickly-pear cactus. Her eyes drank in the panorama of the mountains, sloping against ribbons of pink and amber, rippling across the vast sky. She tilted her head back, gazing at the sinking sun. As she breathed in the fresh desert air, the weight of a thousand tons pressed against the pit of her stomach, then vanished, leaving her refreshed and hopeful. Surely if there was any place where her luck could turn around, it was this tiny, enchanting town.

  She glanced at Cody, sword-fighting with a cluster of juniper trees. “Look at the sunset, punkin.”

  The glowing orb floated over the gentle curve of the distant tanzanite-tinted mountains. “I wish this day would last forever.” The clouds changed from white to bright pink, like clumps of cotton candy. “I love you, Cody.”

  “I love you too, Mommy.”

  “It's dark enough now. Let’s go see those lights. I’ll race you.”

  He reached the car first. She was still panting as she buckled him in, then she drove toward the observation deck.

  * * * * *

  On the way to the observation deck, her son sang an original Cody tune. “We’re going to the lights. We’re going to see the lights. We’re going to see the magic lights, the magic lights of Marfa.”

  She rubbed her teeth against her lower lip as she glanced at the gauge, so close to empty. Kristy hoped she’d make it to the observation deck and back into town. Getting stranded on Highway 90 could ruin this vacation or what she called a vacation. But as the road stretched out before her, the observation deck seemed farther away than she anticipated.

  “Mommy, where are the lights? I don’t see them. Are they coming? I want to see the lights.”

  “I promise you, Cody, you’ll see them. Bright, glowing lights in the sky. Like magic.”

  Kristy’s body hummed with excitement. An orange light, the size of a basketball, appeared out of the darkness, then as if animated, the sphere zipped and zagged across the sky. “Cody, look.” Suddenly, another light popped up. It blinked away as quickly as it appeared.

  "Mommy, the lights turned on!”

  "Yes they did, Cody. They sure did.” Out of nowhere, multi-colored flashes of red, white, green, and yellow rollicked in the sky. “I don’t have to drive to the observation deck. We can see them right here.”

  The glowing balls drew her like a lodestone. Kristy longed to be closer to them, to leap and dance in the night sky. She pulled the car to the side of the road. With her fingers flying against the buckle, she tore out of her seatbelt. Cody rushed out as well.

  “Stay on this side of the car, punkin. It’s dark and someone might run over you if you get out on that road.”

  “Mommy, look.” His eyes grew wide with wonder as he pointed at the glowing lights, changing color and size. “Hello light, hello.” Cody leapt up and down. “Look, Mommy, I can jump high enough to touch the lights.” He stretched his arms over his head, reaching up with his fingers splayed, and bounced like a yo-
yo.

  “This is weird.” Kristy watched the lights line up like a strand of beads and then scatter across the sky, as if they burst loose from a broken necklace. A beam of green popped off, then suddenly flashed back on. A blinking red orb whizzed back and forth across the fudge-colored sky.

  Cody spread his skinny arms and spun like an airplane propeller. “Look, Mommy, the lights and I are dancing together, them in the sky and me on the ground.”

  "Yes, I see. Look at you dance, just like the ghost lights.” Kristy twirled like Cody, until she grew dizzy and stumbled.

  “I used to do this as a little girl. I’d forgotten how much fun it is.” Bubbling warmth filed her as she bounced and whirled, playing with Cody, dancing with the lights. As she gazed at a red light, it grew brighter and changed to yellow. One of the green lights split into two. “How do they do that?”

  “Mommy, I don’t want to leave. Can’t we stay with the lights forever?”

  “They have to go back to where they came from. It’s late, it’ll be morning soon.”

  A brilliant orange light captured her gaze, expanding as it stalked toward them, looming closer and closer. She realized now, not a single car had driven past them.

  “We need to head back. I’ll let you leave the seatbelt off, just this once, so you can look out the rear window and watch the lights.”

  “No, I want to stay with the lights.”

  “You’re tired. It’s been a long day. You need to go to bed, punkin.” She held the door to the back seat open as he protested, scuffing his feet against the dirt.

  Finally, Cody climbed in. Kristy turned the key in the ignition, shifted the old clunker into drive. She originally planned to camp out in the car at the observation deck since they had restrooms there, but now she realized they’d never make it on the gas she had left, so she decided to go back to town and find a good place to park for the night. She made a U-turn, but the eerie, orange light shadowed them.