Play@YSDC

Boston 1920, November 23rd 9am

It's another busy day in Newspaper Row, the location of the Globe, Boston's premier newspaper. The weather is still gloomy, and the threat of rain is never far away. On a day like this, Boston can seem like an oppressive and claustrophic place.

Isadora arrives in a cab, clutching the letter of reference from Jordan's contact at the paper which will get them into the 'morgue', the file of old stories. They are to contact a Mrs. Michaels, who will provide assistance with their archival search.

"Good morning," greeted Owens. "Did you sleep well, Ms. Carmichael?" They went inside the Globe, walking up to the front desk.

"Norman Owens and Isadora Carmichael, appointment with Mrs. Michaels."

The receptionist fixes them with a beaming smile, and checks her appointment list “Certainly Sir. Please wait over there”. She indicates some comfortable-looking seats.

Shortly an attractive middle-aged woman appears, wearing a pale blue dress. She walks up to Norman and Isadora and introduces herself. “I’m Norma Michaels, assistant features editor.” She shakes hands. “I’ve been asked to help you with some enquiries you have. Can you tell me what you need from us?"

Even though the chairs are comfortable, Isadora doesn't feel comfortable at all. She couldn't get much sleep, her mind was reeling in one place, trying to deal with mere reality of such a force, as the one encountered at Corbitt House.

She is happy when they are approached by Norma Michaels.

"Thank you for receiving us!"

"We are researching the history of a house..."

She gives Michaels the address. The she provides a disclosure of sorts straight away:

"This house is believed to be haunted by many, it has a reputation. We would like to find reports or articles on past incidents connected with it, and this is what we need your help with."

Norma raises her eyebrows in surprise. “A haunted house? That’s not what I had expected. Well, it will be the morgue that you need. We can check to see if there are any stories associated with your address. Please follow me”.

She leads the way to the elevators. As they wait, she says, “You must have an influential backer to get this kind of access at short notice. I wonder, could there be a story for me to investigate in this?”

"Maybe there could be." He looked to Isadora, the unspoken sentence was "Only if you wish it too," and said: "We're working for Mr. Jordan, the property agent, do you know of him?"

"Here's some names to look out for: Macarios, Milligan and Corbitt, who I guess was the original house owner."

“Yes, Jordan has a lot of properties in Boston and Cambridge. He’s an old friend of my editor. Which is why I’m helping you of course!”

They enter the elevator and head down to the ‘morgue’. “The entries you’re looking for, if anything exists, should be filed under address. We generally use names for more famous people. So we’ll start by looking for Copp’s Hill.”

The elevator doors open on a lighted basement corridor. Norma leads them to a large filing room, full of folders and boxes – no doubt the ‘morgue’. After a short discussion with the clerk, she leads them to the section with file for the North End and Copp’s Hill.

After some rummaging, she produces a file. “Ah, we’re in luck!” She exclaims. “We have some articles”.

She hands a clipping to Norman, and the three of them crowd around to read.

Isadora is amazed by the Boston Globe archives. So much information in one place! At first she fears that they won't be able to find anything, but turns out there is a system, and a good one, because soon Norma fishes out a newspaper cutting. Isadora skims the article (not noticing the Macario / Marcario typo). She takes out her little notebook and writes down the date of the article.

"Yes, this is the latest incident... Can we, uh, 'go back in time' and look for any previous mentions of the address?"

"I wonder if Macario is still at Roxbury Sanitorium?"

Norma reaches into the file. “Here’s another one” she says, “although actually its more recent.”

"This explains why the windows are nailed shut," says Isadora and points to the third paragraph. A small, but important detail, she adds it to her notes.

"Here's the last one" says Norma, her curiosity aroused.

This is not an article, but a rough draft which never saw publication.

OOC:   Article follows:

"What haunts the house on Copp’s Hill Terrace?

Monday, October 28, 1918

Something sinister seems to haunt a local Boston house.

Whatever it is has destroyed three families in the last 40 years.

The two-story house at 20 Copp’s Hill Terrace has been the site of fear, madness, death, and
possibly murder since before the turn of the century. In 1880, a family of French immigrants
by the name of LeDeux rented the property and moved in. What horrors happened to those
people that year will never be known save that a series of violent attacks of some kind left
both parents dead and their three children crippled for life.

The house stood vacant for almost 20 years but in 1909, another family moved in. From the
time they moved into the house, Mr. and Mrs. Jones fell prey to illness and sickness, almost as
if the house itself were conspiring against them. Their children did not fare much better though
all of them lived in the house for several years.

The terror reached a head when, in 1914, the oldest of the Jones children went mad and killed
himself with a kitchen knife. The Jones family moved out after that, heartbroken at their loss.
A third family rented the house in 1917 but left after less than a month when all of them became
ill at the same time.

Is the house haunted? Perhaps there is something wrong with the water or some disease still
lingers there from when it was built. In any case, anyone who dares live there now had better
be brave and strong for they take their lives into their own hands."

A note is attached which reads:
"Do NOT print - The editor says we will end up with a damn lawsuit on our hands" - Copyed

Norma voices her disappointment. "They've already squashed this story! That's a damn shame".

"The house ought to be torn down. Ms. Carmichael, I don't know what I hoped to discover, but these articles simply confirm it's an objectionable place to live."

Owens noticed that Norma Michaels was attractive but he has a strict code when it comes to women: only unspoken for friends are worth pursuing, so flirting was out of the question.

"What next?" he said, his brow slightly furrowed with disappointment. "The library, the sanatorium, and those poor children? I'll telephone the sanatorium."

Tabs wrote:"The house ought to be torn down. Ms. Carmichael, I don't know what I hoped to discover, but these articles simply confirm it's an objectionable place to live."

"Yes, I agree... Yes..." Isadora is quite shocked by the amount of gruesome details.

"But don't you at least want to find out first what causes these inhumane conditions?"

OOC:   I will redistribute some point to reflect this, but overall Isadora is not likely to use influence in such cases.

"Let's try the sanatorium."

"Yes, I think I do, now. A mystery I want to solve."

"Thank you for you assistance," Isadora says to Norma.

"Do you think they will grant us access to Mr. Macario in the sanitarium? What can we say to them? We are not family."

He smiled, but it was mirthless. "Let's wait and see, I may think of something."

OOC:   Ring the sanatorium.

Norma raises her eyebrows in surprise. “You want to interview the Macarios? It says here they’re insane”.

She shrugs her elegant shoulders. “As a journalist, I think the main library might be a better bet. They might have records which predate ours.”

She glances at her watch. “I’ll need to get back to my desk. I’ll take you back to the lobby – you can use the phone there to call the sanatorium if you wish”.

She leads the way back to the elevator.