Oh Guano! — Ronnie G. Anderson

Based loosely upon a legend about lost gold taken from a Spanish Galleon that had sailed up the Mississippi River, this is the tale of La Celestas Madre, a black tax ship of the Queen of Spain. A ruthless man, Capitan Geraldo Mendoza, harshly raped the land of its wealth for the Queen's treasure including the alms chests of Father Joaquin Domingas. In a dream the Padre along with his five Patrician Nuns served the ship and its crew cursed bread during a special Mass. In the completion of this religious service taken to the black galleon itself God set a curse upon all involved with the gold. The Capitans of the Galleon were cursed to stay with the ship until it sank beneath the sea. The wife of Capitan Mendoza, Celestine Wendella, was cursed to remain with the gold wherever it went, including eventually a cave filled ever more with bats and their droppings. There was no escape until the gold was removed. The priest's spirits and the spirits of the five Patrician Nuns were no less cursed with their lot in death, for they were to regain life in the modern times only to discover and watch over the gold also. With the spirit of Celestine Wendalla in the cave with the bats, and the several successive captains of the Celestas Madre stuck on the deck of the ship in the woods beside the Mississippi River where a flood grounded the vessel, possession of the gold would not go without trouble. When the spirits of the local Indians became involved with the treasure matters only became more complicated. Thankfully this tale was only based up fact and was not fact itself