Lover's Leap Mountain (The Staples-Kurtrail Fairytale)

In 1902, Lucious Staples and Helen Kurtrail were in love.  Lucious was an African-American and Helen was an Anglo-American. The two met one day when Helen and her family were looking over a company that her family had purchased.  Lucious was one of the workers there. Helen and Lucious began to meet secretly in the mountains. (The place now called Lover's Leap).  Helen's family did not approve of inter-racial mingling.

After a month of being in Precious Mountain, Helen's family decided it was time for them to go back to their home in Haran. Helen tried to convince her family to let her stay in Precious Mountain to oversee the business without success.  Helen left the house to meet Lucious. She told him that she was leaving. They decided to write each other regularly and they would visit each other as well. Lucious was to use a phony name when he wrote Helen.  He was to use the name Tom Lou'vor. They choose that name because Mount Lou'vor was near the mountain where they had secretly met.

They wrote each other for some time without being detected until one day when Lucious had taken ill and his aunt picked up his mail for him. She noticed that several letters addressed to Tom Lou'vor were in Lucious' mail.  Lucious' aunt took the letters to the postmaster and told him that the letters had been put with the wrong person's mail. The postmaster waited to see if anyone would claim the letters.  After no one claimed them, he returned them to Helen Kurtrail.

When Helen received the letters back, she thought that Lucious had been found out.  She became scared and planned a trip to Precious Mountain to see what was going on. She told her family that she was going to visit a friend in Precious Mountain.  She had become friends with an elderly woman while her family was visiting in Precious Mountain.  Helen left Haran for Precious Mountain. Her friend met her. As they journeyed to her friend's house, Helen's friend observed that something was wrong with Helen. After some coaxing, Helen finally confided the truth to her friend.  Helen's friend was very understanding and decided to help Helen find out what had happened to Lucious.  Helen's friend sent a young African-American boy that worked for her to Lucious' house.

Lucious had taken a turn for the worse since he had not been receiving any letters from Helen.  He thought that Helen had forgotten about him and no longer loved him. He had given up on like and decided to die. No one in his family could figure out what was wrong with him.

His family called the area witch doctor to see if she could find out what was wrong with Lucious.  After some conjuring and chanting, she told his family that he was suffering from a broken heart.

Lucious' family was perplexed. They did not have any idea who Lucious might be in love with. Lucious would not tell anyone about Helen.

The young boy that Helen's friend had sent reached Lucious' house. He went into the house and saw Lucious lying on his sick bed.  The boy gave Lucious a message that Helen had given the boy. Upon hearing the message, Lucious immediately perked up and began to feel better. He told the boy to take a message back to Helen. Helen was to come to Lucious' house in the wee hours of the morning when everyone was sleeping.

Helen left her friend's house to go see Lucious. Neither Lucious nor Helen knew that the witch doctor had stationed one of her people outside of Lucious' house to watch him.  When Helen got to Lucious' house, she went in the house to find Lucious sick and bedridden.

When Lucious saw Helen's face, his face lit up and he began to talk to her. He could only speak above a whisper because he had lost his voice. They continued talking until the morning.

The person that the witchdoctor had placed outside of Lucious' house ran to tell the witchdoctor what had happened. When the witch doctor learned that the woman who had come to see Lucious was a white woman, she became furious. That night, she cast a spell on Helen. Helen continued to come and visit Lucious late a night, often staying over until the morning talking to him. Lucious was making a fast recovery.

Helen's friend noticed that Helen had begun to lose weight.  Helen's friend was concerned for her, but Helen paid her no attention. Helen began to get sick while Lucious was getting better.  Helen took to her bed, too weak to move. Helen's friend sent the boy that work for her to Lucious' house to give him the message that Helen was sick.  Lucious quickly rushed over to see about Helen.

Helen was so sick that she had lost weight and did not look like herself.  She knew she was dying.  She made last request of Lucious. She asked him to take her to the mountain where they had their secret meetings.  Lucious reluctantly agree.

The night that Lucious took Helen to the mountain was darker than usual. There was a thick fog overlooking the river just below the mountain.  The moon beamed softly through the dense fog. Helen just stared into space with tears running down her cheeks.

Helen stood up with her last remaining strength and walked over to the edge of the mountain peak. Lucious tried to stop her, but she would not stop.  As Helen stood close to the edge of the mountain, the witch doctor appeared through the trees. The witch doctor came of out the trees spouting gibberish and waving around a doll that looked like Helen. The witch doctor jumped the doll up then down. After the witch doctor did that, Helen jumped over the edge of the mountain. Lucious ran to grab Helen, but he was not fast enough to catch her.  As he tried to stop running, he lost his footing and fell over the side of the mountain.  The witch doctor vanished back in to the trees on the mountain.  Lucious and Helen lay dead at the base of the mountain holding hands.

Lucious' family was told that the witch doctor had something to do with Lucious' death. They did not do anything to the witch doctor for fear of retribution. Helen's friend was found in her house dead.  The young boy that worked for her was found hanged in a tree outside the house. Both of the acts were rumored to be the handy work of the witch doctor.

When news of Helen's death reached her family, her father was enraged. He quickly traveled to Precious Mountain to find out who had caused his daughter's death. He was told that the area witch doctor was responsible for Helen's death.  He quickly rounded up a lynch mob and went to look for the witch doctor. The mob killed the witch doctor and most of her followers that night.

Helen's father stopped by the plant that he owned in Precious Mountain.  While he was there, the plant blew up, killing him and two of the men that were part of the mob the night that the witch doctor was killed.  The plant was reopened, but the plant was closed a year after it reopened because the most of the workers quit because it was believed that the ghosts of Mr. Kurtrail and the two men haunted the plant.

If you stand close the edge of Lover's Leap Mountain, you can hear both Helen Kurtrail and Lucious saying, "I Love You", when the wind blows.

Site provided by the Daughters of Maddocha.
Copyright 2007
For information regarding this site,
Contact the webmaster.

View the WebRings Page.