Page 60 of This Time Around
“Oh, just family curses, a sudden disappearance, and his widow’s complete isolation afterward.”
Of course, I’d heard this story numerous times over the years. One of the things I admired about Maegan was that she never embellished the story with each new telling like a lot of people would. She took the mysterious disappearance seriously and had wanted to solve it the first time we rode our bikes past this house as kids. She’d felt an immediate connection to the spooky-looking house while I couldn’t pedal away from it fast enough. In school, the Bliss House had been a subject in her history projects and papers, as well as some fan fiction stories for English. This house was destined to belong to her.
I stood and watched her weave a tale that completely ensnared Memphis. “It was originally built by Anthony Bliss who founded this town in eighteen thirty. Anthony was a progressive railroad tycoon who believed that Blissville could be a thriving depot because of its central location to bigger cities like Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus. He believed railroads were the key for both shipping and traveling. People thought he was crazy when he laid out this tract of land and named it after himself. He built the home here and moved his family from New York City. His vision came true, and this tiny little community became a bustling trading town. At first, the railroads were used strictly for travel in Ohio, but eventually, they expanded to include national railways.”
“Huh, that’s cool,” Memphis said.
“Rumor has it that Anthony Bliss had ulterior motives for relocating his family.” Maegan leaned closer and dropped her voice. “It’s believed that he was trying to outrun a curse.”
“A curse?” Memphis sounded as skeptical as everyone else when they heard this part.
“There are different versions of who placed the curse on the family from gypsies to Native Americans, but it seems to have started with Anthony’s father, John. He was reported to be a ruthless businessman who lied and manipulated to get his way. The curse was placed on him and his heirs because the sins of the father are passed along to their offspring and all that jazz.”
“That seems to be the way it goes,” Memphis said.
“Anyway, John Bliss died of a heart attack in his mistress’s bed in upstate New York supposedly a week after he was cursed. He left behind a wife and four sons. Anthony was the youngest.”
“Did his three older brothers die from mysterious causes?”
“One of them died in war, one of them died after falling from a horse and breaking his neck, and the third brother drowned in a river. Anthony was the last Bliss standing and decided to try and outrun the curse.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works, but you can’t blame a guy for trying,” Memphis told her. “Then what?”
“Anthony Bliss disappeared without a trace in 1850.”
“Huh.”
“He went for a horse ride, like he normally did every day, regardless of the weather, and never returned.”
“What happened to his family? Is that when they just got up and left without taking their things?”
“Well, Melanie Bliss was distraught and was never seen in public again. Too many years had passed since his last brother died for her to believe that he was a victim of the curse. She was convinced he left her to start a new life, so she was too ashamed to show her face in town. Her sister came to live with them and assumed care for the children until Melanie died of a broken heart.”
“That’s really sad.”
Maegan nodded. “Melanie’s sister packed up the children, sold the house to a prominent doctor in town, and moved back to New York. She shipped what she wanted to keep and left everything else behind. From what I’ve heard, Melanie held onto all of Anthony’s things in case he returned, but her sister had no desire to drag his stuff back to New York after he left his family high and dry. Dr. Martin’s family moved in and reported that inexplicable things kept happening. Doors slamming in parts of the house where no one was or the smell of pipe tobacco floating through the air when no one in the family smoked.”
“Why are Bliss’s things still here after all this time?” Memphis asked.
“The house remained in the doctor’s family for many decades until the kids sold it to the Renzos after both their parents died. The caveat was that the Renzos took possession of the contents as well as the house. Which meant that they possibly inherited some of Anthony Bliss’s possessions as well as the doctor’s.
“I hired a cleaning company to haul away all of Renzo’s stuff and anything that looked to belong to the doctor’s family too,” Maegan told us. “I recently found an old pipe carved out of ivory upstairs that I think belonged to Anthony Bliss. I’m pretty sure it’s the source of the tobacco smell that floats randomly through the house.”
“We,” I gestured between Memphis and me, “smelled it the night the ghost locked me in the attic with Andy.”
“Have you asked Emory to do a reading?”
“Not yet,” Maegan said. “If it is Anthony Bliss, does that mean he never left the property and was killed here, or did his spirit return here after dying. Is Bliss House his purgatory?”
“I guess either could be true. I’m not an expert, but we know someone who is,” Memphis told her. “What have you heard from Lyric?”
A month had passed since his visit. He’d sent one email to Maegan to let her know he was interested in touring the house once she purchased it. She’d contacted him after the sale went through but hadn’t heard from him since. “I don’t want to be a pest. He’s either interested or he’s not.” Maegan shrugged, went back to digging through boxes, and we followed her lead. “I also found a pearl necklace I believe belonged to Melanie Bliss. She definitely died in the house, so she could be the entity we feel.”
“I don’t think so,” I told my sister. “I’m not getting a scorned woman vibe from our friend. Besides, the pipe tobacco makes me think it’s a male presence.”
“Don’t be sexist,” Maegan said. “Plenty of women smoked tobacco back then. They were just discreet about it.”
“Let me call Emory and see what he’s doing. He can touch those items and see what he thinks.” Memphis pulled his cell phone out of his pocket but didn’t get service beneath the house. “I’ll be right back.”