Civil Rights Breakthrough

Author's Foreword: This is a story I originally wrote for a contest. The main rules of the contest were: (1) The story has to be no more than 600 words long, (2) it must begin with the sentence Some people swore that the house was haunted, and (3) it must end with the sentence Nothing was ever the same again after that. In writing the story I tried to answer the questions implicit in the opening and closing sentences in unexpected ways. I also tried to pack as much plot into 600 words as possible (most of the other entries were 600-word, largely plotless meditations leading up to a moment of interior self-discovery . . . or something). I wanted solid plot twists with major, real world consequences for my story. After the contest was over and the rights reverted to me, I did some minor editing (enlarging the word count slightly and eliminating the grating and redundant word again from the contest-mandated final sentence). So that's the background. Now, here's the tale of America's latest civil rights breakthrough . . .