Martin Scarsbrook was descended from Benjamin Scarsbrook, Jr. by many generations. He was brought up at Scarsbrook Manor, to which he was the heir.

            As a young man, Martin discovered a ghost in the olive grove. He figured out that the ghost was quite old, and that he was a trickster and a devil. He learned that the ghost couldn’t do any harm to him if he didn’t want him to; that his only power was the power he gave him; that his only possessions were the objects he gave him. Looking at it that way, Martin decided the ghost was completely harmless, aside from the way he spoke. The ghost just wanted “in,” though Martin never figured out just what that meant. He did learn that the ghost would deceive him like the devil himself to get it, making the ghost’s talk potentially as deadly as a dagger.

Eventually, Martin inherited Scarsbrook Manor. He also married a woman named Mae Betters, and they had a daughter named Willamina.

When Willamina was old enough, she married a Mormon named Stone Smith and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Martin didn’t agree with her choice in religions.

In 1969, Stone and Willamina had a daughter named Amy. When Amy was a child, Martin would tell her tales of his own childhood beneath the shade of the trees in the olive grove. He would put flowers in her hair from the olive trees, and she would laugh. Martin felt that, in spite of their religious beliefs, Willamina and Stone were raising Amy right, teaching her to think pure thoughts and keep civil company. He also knew that, in response to the topic inevitably coming up at Scarsbrook Manor, they had told her that there were no ghosts.

In 1987, sometime after Amy’s twelfth birthday, Martin decided it was time to tell her about the ghost in the olive grove. He told her all he had learned about the ghost’s nature and how to defend herself against it. He warned her never to go out to the olive grove at night alone. He felt guilty for the fear he’d obviously put into his granddaughter’s heart. It had been so out of character for him to tell that story. Willamina and Stone had been furious with him for weeks after that, but it all finally blew away  with the sands of time, as Amy got older and forgot all about that strange “fib” about the ghost in the olive grove that her grandfather had told her.

            In 1989, just shy of one month after Amy’s twentieth birthday, she married a church member named Joshua Bolton. Martin couldn’t attend the actual wedding, since he wasn’t a Mormon, but he did attend the fabulous reception, and was able to see her off on her two-week honeymoon in the Hawaiian islands.

            Martin died in 1992, leaving Scarsbrook Manor to his family. He had been preceded in death by his wife.

Martin’s spirit did not linger.