Goodnight, Louise, Goodnight

 

Sometimes all you need is a song

Mama Rose’s Coffee and Pie Emporium was known for more than its delectable pie and savory brew. It was also the workplace of the beautiful Lucille Louise Langtry, who blew into town one blistering afternoon and never blew back out again. Louise had skin smooth as Kentucky Whiskey, blue-black hair plaited to her waist, and sea-green eyes that pulled you in so deep, you never wanted to get free. I remain their humble prisoner. She’d assumed the surname of Langtry, after a beautiful actress she’d read about in a dime store novel. She said, “Miss Lilly knew how to get by.”

Lucille steered me kindly through an awkward youth, gently rebuffing my clumsy advances behind stacked dishes while hustling orders from impatient patrons. I can still picture the graceful arc of her back, as she swayed dreamily to the sorrowful refrain of a plaintive ballad issuing forth from Rose’s old Wurlitzer Jukebox in the glare of a setting sun.

She was all of twenty-four back then, and there wasn’t a man alive who didn’t try to woo her, offering trinkets from Schroeder’s Five & Dime, while begging for a moonlit rendezvous.  When they got too serious, she’d fawn that little-girl-innocence she played so well, and send them on their way. Some didn’t take kindly to that, but most were just passing through.

I never could figure what tied Lucille to our dried-up old town with the whole wide world hers for the taking. “Maybe the wide world is not for those who know about beginnings and endings,” she once told me, slipping another dime into the ancient Wurlitzer before losing herself to the familiar concord. I wondered why she chose such a mournful melody. “It’s the only song I know that has my name on it,” she said.

“Your middle name,” I corrected.

“Sometimes you just know when a thing is yours,” she replied.

There was nothing remotely remarkable about our town, except maybe the remarkable beauty of Lucille who grew lovelier each year. Mama Rose’s was sold to a chain who served frozen pies and tepid coffee. They replaced the old jukebox fare with a “contemporary mix” and promoted me to assistant manager.

The first day Lucille failed to show for work, Boss gave her the benefit of the doubt, joking that the busload of conventioneers broken down outside of town yesterday had given her a run for her money. Soon, those stranded businessmen wanted breakfast and we got real busy. When Lucille didn’t show up the second day, Boss sent Ruby around to her room, but nobody answered.

Lucille had been dead three days when Boss busted in her door. Blame it on the times, or the moon, but the sheriff said he’d never seen anybody messed up so bad in all his years behind the badge.

Watching through the windows as the ambulance carried her away, we were quietly speculating on who could have perpetrated this heinous crime, when a conventioneer fed a fistful of quarters into the Wurlitzer and punched in some raucous heavy metal anthems.

“You got no respect for the dead?” boss growled.

“It’s a damn wake in here. Who cares about some old whore anyway,” the man snarled back.

Boss was advancing with his fist drawn when a high-voltage “SCREEEEEEEEEEE” pierced the night, like a needle dragged across an old 33rpm. Rose’s Emporium plunged into darkness, except for a tiny red light bulb on the Wurlitzer’s face which began to blink. The disc changer swung into motion, replacing the gnashing guitar with the forlorn sound of a woman’s woeful lament…

 “Well they alllll said Loueeeze was not half baaaad,
 It was written on the walls…on the walls…on the walls…on the walls…on the walls…”

“What the Hell?” someone whispered as the lyric repeated…

Ruby looked at me wide-eyed, “You recognize it? That song hasn’t been on the box for over ten years!” I nodded nonchalantly, but for sure, I was spooked when the incident ended as spontaneously as it had begun.

Someone joked about Lucille serenading from beyond the veil, but I was left wondering, was there a message there?

I figured it was crazy, but asked the sheriff if he’d found anything on the walls of Lucille’s room.  “Nothing,” he replied, but admitted he’d gone back to take a second look after the event at the Emporium.

The conventioneers were stuck waiting for parts to arrive, and the sheriff questioned them hard. Each had, by turns, taunted Lucille to hoots and catcalls by their peers. The sheriff applied plenty of pressure, but nobody broke.

The next night, the Emporium was in full swing, when the lights doused again, the blinking red of the jukebox a prelude to the same haunting melody,

“Men bought Loueeeze ten-cent trinkets, their intentions were easily traced….on the walls…on the walls…on the walls…”

The room fell silent.

The lyric nagged me. What came next?

I raced to the computer and searched “Louise”/lyrics.

 “It was written on the walls and window shades.” The hair on my arms prickled as I dialed the sheriff. “Did anyone check the shades?” I shouted. 

“What?”

“THE WINDOW SHADES. Did anyone check them?”

 We charged through the yellow tape. Above her blood-soaked bed, two shades were rolled up. I approached grimly and tugged. Damn. The sheriff pulled the second one, and out trickled a pendant on a delicate silver chain. “I’ll be damned,” he said. “Atta’girl, Lucille.”

The sheriff arrested the anthem-playing conventioneer minutes after Mr. Shroeder identified him as having purchased the silver pendant.  Alone, in the emporium late that night, I had just finished stacking the last coffee cups when the red light blinked on...

“Too bad it ended so ugly…too bad she had to go this waaaay….”

The jukebox glowed eerily. Clutching my coat tight to my chest, I crossed the threshold and was turning my key in the outside lock as the final verse poured out into the street:

“Ah, but the wind is blowing cold tonight
 Well, goodnight, Louise, goodnight.”



-by
taree Belardes 7/21/13

NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Competition 2013
Genre; Ghost Story
Location; Coffee Shop
Object; Light bulb
Time limit; 48 hrs.
Word limit; 1,000
(First place Winner- grp ? round 1)

Louise's Song; 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ1ynrFzbyY