CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Six Months Later
Landry and Cate met Jack and his girlfriend, Caryn White, at the new Cajun Pride Brewery on the ground floor of the Toulouse Street building. They asked for a table on the patio, and as the server brought two beers and two sodas, they talked about how nice the building looked with its new wrought-iron staircase and balcony. The tall windows still opened onto the balcony just as they had long ago..
The pitiful wails and moans from the attic had disappeared. After the restoration, it appeared the spirits rested. The house of horrors was in friendly hands at last.
As they talked, a small group of tourists entered the courtyard and listened as a guide told the story of Madam LaPiere’s misdeeds. Landry watched them climb the wrought-iron stairs and stand on the balcony, their eyes wide in astonishment as they learned about the murders committed right where they stood.
The newest addition to their group, Caryn was the ticket agent Jack had met at the airport what seemed now like ages ago. He hadn’t called her for weeks, wanting to ensure his recovery was solid before he did. He relapsed a few times, but each time Cate and Landry were there to help. Today he felt better about himself and his situation than he had in years. He had friends, an apartment, a girl in whom he was interested, and a job.
Jack had been invaluable throughout the production process for the Bayou Hauntings episode. It had been Channel Nine’s most-watched show, and now Triboro Media was airing it on a dozen other company-owned stations. After consulting with Landry, Ted offered him s permanent position. He’d take Landry’s title of investigative reporter and Landry became senior investigator.
Landry heard his name called, and he looked up to see Henri Duchamp wave from the balcony. His personal office was in the sitting room next to Lucas’s bedroom, and he always greeted the groups as they strolled through his office and up the narrow staircase to the attic.
Doc hired another office manager for his psychiatric practice in Galveston after Cate found a new job. Now she was property manager for the building, an assistant to Henri Duchamp, and for the first time, a permanent resident of Landry Drake’s apartment on St. Philip Street.
A month back, Jack had a call from the parish clerk in Edgard. Empyrion Richard had vanished. He took a pirogue out on Bayou Lasseigne one day and never returned. They found the boat tangled in some trees along the shoreline, but no one ever saw the man again.
“Most people in town figure a gator got him,” the clerk said. “There are some out there in the swamp as big as cars.”
Landry wondered if Empyrion had at last found peace in death, or if he was still out there somewhere. Either way, he’d keep his promise. The murders Madam LaPiere committed would remain hidden beneath the flagstones of a brewpub’s courtyard. Perhaps the tortured souls now could rest in peace.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
The underlying theme of this book is the concept of past life regression, an actual technique employed by a handful of therapists. Although similar in name, it is nothing like the more accepted therapy of age regression, which involves hypnotizing a patient and taking them back in their pasts to determine where problems originated and deal with them.
In 1952 a businessman named Morey Bernstein hypnotized young Ruth Simmons to take her as far back in her life as possible — perhaps even into the womb. What happened that night in front of several witnesses was something remarkable. A reel-to-reel tape recorder captured every word as Bernstein took his subject back to age seven, then age five, three and one.
In his best-selling book The Search for Bridey Murphy, Bernstein explains how he decided to push further. With no idea what might happen, he told Ruth to "keep going back in space and time, and you will find that there are other scenes in your memory...in some other place, in some other time."
To everyone’s surprise, the subject began to speak in a distinct Irish lilt. Over a series of sessions, Bernstein learned she was Bridey Murphy, a resident of Cork, Ireland, who was born in 1798 and died sixty-six years later. As the author describes it, her life was "neither dramatic nor eventful but so filled with the wonderful details of living that as you read it, you know Bridey Murphy must really have lived."
How did a girl from Colorado who had never traveled outside the United States know minute details about an Irish girl who lived one hundred and fifty years earlier? Many people tried to debunk it as a hoax, but Bernstein had no apparent desire to profit from an experiment he couldn't have imagined turning out as it did. Today it remains as enigmatic as it was sixty years ago. His book became a movie, and the home recordings of some of Bernstein's sessions are available on audiobook.
I also recommend the 1988 book Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian L. Weiss, MD, which considers past life regression in a much different way than Bernstein's book.
I personally believe past life regression is possible, as are many other things in this world that cannot be explained by traditional means. I urge my readers to explore this fascinating subject. Only by expanding your mind can you decide for yourself whether you believe the concept is truth or fiction.
Thank you!
Thanks for reading Die Again.
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