"Probably Historically Accurate"
Oden overheard the pair talking about the "famous cemetery" and picked up his beer. He drained it almost empty on the way over and sat it down morosely on the bar near them. Casey knew better than to refill it right away and busied himself with an imaginary spill.
Sure enough, the taller one hailed him. "Buy you a drink, man?"
"Hey, sure! That's nice of you." Oden took liberties then, moved his ass onto a bar stool next to them as Casey poured his beer. "Heard you two talking about the cemetery. You been there before?"
"Nah, but we were thinking about going out there. There's all sorts of stories about it. You live around here - any of them true?"
Oden nodded. "I've never seen a ghost, don't think it's haunted. But there's a lot of history out there." He nodded to Casey when he brought his beer and took a long drink. He waited.
Right on cue, the other one spoke up. "Would you mind coming out with us to tell us what's what? There's no tour guide there." His friend found the remark inordinately funny, and Oden laughed too.
By the time they'd finished a few more beers, paid for by the strangers, they were all best friends. Kyle and Justin declared they were ready to see the graves and the three trooped out to the street.
"Should we drive? It's not that far."
"It's close enough we can walk. See that church there? Graveyard's behind it."
"Gotta love small towns. Church a block from the bar." Justin was still trying to be funny and Kyle still thought he was. Oden laughed too, even though he heard the same thing at least twice a week.
The group stumbled between twin pines guarding the churchyard and for the next hour Oden regaled them with whatever local history came to mind, inserting the names on the tombstones randomly as he saw fit. They came to the back corner of the park.
"These stones are tiny. The Poster family, huh? Not very impressive." Kyle turned to Oden. "Were they poor?"
"Not at all. But look at the dates."
The guys looked at one, then the next, then with dawning realization scanned all nine graves. "Ohhhh..."
"Yeah. You noticed the twins, I'm sure?"
Justin looked back at the stones, puzzled, but Kyle said, "They were the only two who died in a different year. What happened to all of them?"
"Murdered."
They gaped. "What, ALL of them?"
"Well, not the twins. I'll get to that. See, Dr. Poster was the county doctor. Everyone knew him, his kids, his dogs, everything. And they all knew the twins. Those two were different, had their own language and didn't really like to talk to anybody except each other. They weren't identical - you can see the stones say Virginia and Darwin - but they acted that way, and looked alike too. People didn't understand. It was just how people were back then, I guess, but nobody made a big deal of it because Dr. Poster was so respected. By all accounts he was a good doctor, everyone loved him. So they knit hats for the twins same as for the other kids and brought them candy and everyone was happy.
"The kids got married and moved out, of course, except for the twins. They stayed on and took care of the place and helped with the business. Still kept to themselves.
"One holiday soon after the last son moved away, Dr. Poster threw a big party for Thanksgiving. Every girl in the whole town was babysitting for someone's kids that night so the adults could cut loose, and all the doctor's kids came back and then stayed on after the party to have some family time and help clean up the mess.
"Nobody knows exactly what happened, really. The next morning one of the babysitter's fathers came to find out why he still had Dr. Poster's grandchildren sleeping in his guest room and found them. All of them, blood everywhere. Seven bodies, all of them except for the twins.
"Well, you can imagine. Everyone was sure the twins had done away with the whole damn family, they'd never been right, everyone had always said they'd snap someday and no good would ever come of them even though nobody had ever said any such thing.
"Then, about dark, someone - one of the deputies or something, I guess - found the twins. They were huddled together in a corner of the carriage house. They'd always been quiet, but after that they never said another word. People still suspected them, but there was no evidence and they wouldn't say what they'd seen. There was no choice but to let them live in the house and carry on.
"About a year and a half later -" Oden nodded at the two markers on the end of the row "- someone noticed they hadn't seen them in the store or around town for a while, and they found them both sitting at the kitchen table, one across from the other, dead as stones. No blood, nothing. Looked like they'd both just died sitting up. There were all sorts of rumors, but nobody ever did find out why they died or for that matter what really happened to the rest of the family.
"All the ghost stories are about the twins. I've never seen them myself, but you hear of strange lights and sounds and all of that. I don't believe it."
At that moment, Kyle started. "Did you see that?"
"See what? Oh, shit!" Justin yelped as he caught sight of the light, skimming the base of the trees behind the twins' headstones. "I hear something, too!"
When they looked around, Oden was already running. "Come on, guys!" They flailed out of the graveyard, around the church, down the street, back to the safety of the bar.
After several more beers, paid for by Kyle and Justin, Oden stretched. "Well, I ought to be getting home. Had more than enough excitement for the night."
"Best tour guide ever, dude. You should get paid for that!" Oden shook his head when Kyle offered him a ten, wished them a good night and waved on his way out.
~~~~~~
Casey gestured to Oden when he came in the next afternoon. "They upped it to thirty bucks after you left," he said. "Not bad. Took my cut already."
"Thanks. Damn, that was a good one. I thought for a minute they weren't gonna see you. Pour me one?"
He put some change in the jukebox, picked up his beer, and sat down at his table just as a young couple entered. Casey winked at Oden and set two glasses on the bar. "What'll it be, folks?"