title: Mariah of the Spirits: And Other Southern Ghost Stories
author:  Sherry Austin 
description: Sherry Austin puts her fascination with the afterlife to effective fictional use in her debut collection, Mariah of the Spirits and Other Southern Ghost Stories. An Artist Fellowship for Literature from the North Carolina Arts Council helped fund the book. Author tour. <br />Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Dancing With a Ghost
  
  
  
  
  
  Restless Spirits of the Southwest
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Angela Pepper  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  | FIRST EDITION |
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter 1
  
  
  
  
  
  Katie Mills kept looking over her shoulder as she stepped off the plane in
  Santa Fe, New Mexico.
  
  
  
  
  
  She'd heard a superstitious tale that ghosts could only move at walking speed.
  Traveling by plane or even by vehicle could shake one for a few days.
  
  
  
  
  
  Katie unzipped her jacket in anticipation of the warm southwestern sunshine.
  She touched the cross at her neck and prayed the flight had bought her a few
  days' relief. A few days without her ghostly companion.
  
  
  
  
  
  Outside, the late November air was warmer than the plane but still cooler than
  she'd expected. Whenever she thought of New Mexico, Katie imagined scorching
  sands, long dirt roads, and carrion birds perched on weathered bones. She
  pictured the desert, as painted by Tilda Onassis, the artist whose retreat she
  was heading toward. The great woman's 