Chapter One
Miranda James knelt on the damp grass, excitement bubbling up. She’d found her. The tombstone read ‘Susan Comeaux Deveron. 1830 – 1846’. Although not a relative, this woman and Clarice, her great grandmother six or seven times removed, had been friends since childhood.
When Susan’s grandfather died, the only living heir to his plantation in Louisiana was her mother. The move devastated the two young girls, but they promised to write. And until Susan turned 16, they did. Then, according to Grandma Clarice’s diary, Susan’s letters just stopped coming.
Miranda was a ‘time traveler’ and it was this last entry regarding Susan which sparked Miranda’s curiosity and awarded this young woman a place on her Time Traveling Agenda. Why did she stop writing when she had been so faithful with her letters?
Miranda, or as her friends and family called her, Randi, wasn’t a real time traveler. Instead, it was a term of humorous endearment given to her by one of her brothers. Randi had recently graduated college, with degrees in her three favorite subjects – History, Fine Arts with an emphasis on photography, and Music. Her parents had often wondered if she would become a ‘professional student’ but were mercifully understanding about her lack of direction. They simply encouraged her to follow her heart.
Once she finished her undergraduate studies, she considered getting her master’s in history, but what she would do with that, she had no idea. What she did know was she was tired of being cooped up in a classroom or sitting at a table studying. She would probably never have even gone to college if her parents hadn’t been so adamant. Instead of going further in her studies, she decided to take a break before making a final decision or trying to find a job which would fit with both her and her education.
One of her hobbies was exploring the history of her family. She read all of the diaries her mom, aunt, and other relatives had kept. She had traced the family tree, done a deep dive into genealogy sites, and gone as far as she could. The idea of stopping was disappointing, so she decided to take her hobby on the road.
When Chase, her oldest brother, heard about the plans she had, he dubbed her ‘the Time Traveler’. It began as a joke, but one that seemed to stick. Her goal was to ‘go back in time’ and retrace as many of the footsteps of her ancestors as possible. Which led her to this old, isolated graveyard. It was about twelve miles outside of Rivers Bend, a charming small town in Louisiana. Randi knew she was trespassing, but no one appeared to be around.
She reached for her backpack and pulled out a small piece of butcher paper and her charcoal stick. Carefully taping the paper to the stone, she rubbed it with the stick until the words were ‘etched’ onto the paper. Once she finished, she rolled the paper up and stuck it in her pack, until she could get back to her small SUV and store it properly in a cardboard tube.
As she zipped her pack, she heard rumbling. Looking up, she caught dark clouds sliding across the northern sky. She scanned the area, and her eyes landed on the rundown two story plantation home in the distance. That must be the original homestead for this cemetery, she thought.
Her artistic eye saw an amazing contrast between the ancient majesty the house must have held back in its day, and the swirling masses of gray clouds behind it. Reaching into her pack, she grabbed her camera and began taking photos. Just as she depressed the shutter release, a bright stripe of lightning broke open and stretched across the sky from the east to the west.
What a photo! She checked the window and saw the lightning was captured, and the image was even better than she suspected. She then looked around the cemetery and began taking even more shots. The ancient and crumbling tombstones. Susan’s grave. Then she moved to the smaller buildings around the main house, and to the trees along the back. The vague outline of ruts spanning from the cemetery to the old house offered another perfect shot. Click. Click. Click. She couldn’t wait to get back to her computer to see what these would look like.
She knelt down and had just taken a shot of the edge of the tree line when another flash of lightning and a too close crack of thunder echoed around her. The first drop of rain tapped her on top of her head in warning. As she began to stand, a sudden burst of pain exploded on the back of her head.
The next thing she saw wasn’t an image, but total black.
Book 3 is the final book in the Strangers series!