A Ghost of a Chance (15 page)

“
I suppose,” he echoed.

“
So, you want to get rid of Samory? That’s your idea Jack?”

He sat beside her. Man, he didn’t want to get into this yet. “Well, that’s complicated.”

“
And this isn’t?” She smiled sadly, “This one may be tough to work out Jack. Are you sure though, are you positive you’re dead?”

He reached out and took her hand wanting desperately to hold onto a little of her warmth. “I’m afraid so. It was selfish of me to tell you. You could have gone on thinking I was just a dream.”

“
You are a dream,” she whispered. “You’re the man I’ve always looked for.”

“
Well I guess I’ve always been awkward with timing.”

She smiled bleakly, “Awkward? Your timing sucks. Couldn’t we have met before the heart attack?”

Ah, the truth, “You probably wouldn’t have liked me much then.”

She squeezed his hand. “And where you are now. Is it nice where you are Jack?”

He shook his head. He could actually feel her thoughts gravitating in a dangerous direction, “Don’t even think about it Hallie. There are rules and that would be breaking a big one.”

“
But you don’t understand Jack. I don’t want to be without you. I don’t want to go back to a life without you. I feel as though somehow I’ve been looking for you for a long time. And now . . .” She couldn’t finish.

He put his arm around her and pulled her snugly next to him. “We’ll fix this somehow Hallie.”

She laughed, “Maybe I could just go into a coma and spend all my time with you.”

“
Maybe we’ll find a miracle,” he whispered to her.

“
Are there such things still around?”

“
I found you and that’s been a miracle.”

“
Smooth talker.” She shook her head and leaned with despair against his shoulder. “What are we going to do Jack?”

And then she smiled grimly, “Maybe we could hang out here for a few thousand years.”

He nodded, on one level seriously contemplating the idea. He murmured, “I know some great take-out restaurants.”

“
Or I could cook. I like to cook but just not Mexican. I think we’ve worn that out.”

“
Yes, at least that much is certain.”

And then, there was a forceful knock at the door making Hallie perceptively jump in his arms. “Oh God, it’s the police.”

Jack said suspiciously, “No, they would probably say open up it’s the police.” How irritating! He was in no mood for any more surprises tonight.

“
But who could it be?” she whispered to him.

“
In this dream, I wouldn’t cross out anyone.”

Cautiously, they both walked over to the door and Jack bent to the peephole quickly and then straightened up. “Who is it?” Hallie whispered more loudly.

“
It’s your Aunt Marie.”

“
But she’s. . .”And he answered with a shrug.

A voice from the other side of the door shouted crankily, “Is anyone going to let me in?” Jack swung open the door and Aunt Marie smiled beaming at Hallie, looking just as she remembered her from her youth. “How’s my little green apple?”

Still looking shocked, Hallie bent forward and allowed the plump little woman to hug her.

“
Aunt Marie I’m so happy to see you, but what are you doing here?”

“
Oh didn’t Jack tell you? He and I have become good friends?”

She looked to Jack a little shakily, “No, he didn’t.”

“
There’s a lot I haven’t gotten to tell Hallie about yet.”

“
Well, why don’t you invite me in for a brandy, and we’ll all sit down and have a chat. You do have brandy, don’t you Jack?”

“
Yes,” and then he added, “At least, last time I checked.”

Hallie sat on Jack’s white-and-black checked sofa and watched as her Great Aunt Marie, sitting in a black leather lounge chair, sipped a glass of Napoleon Brandy. She did remember her Aunt having imbibed from time to time, but she also remembered being a teary-eyed teenager attending her funeral.

And then there was Jack – Jack sitting right next to her, holding her hand, squeezing it from time to time, sending pleasant shivers up her arm. Jack, whose blue eyes melted her to her very core, yet, did not possess a respectable gene in the decorating department. Even in her distracted state, his black and white motif truly made her want to puke. But that was okay. That was fixable. But the being dead thing, this was another matter.

For just a moment, Aunt Marie stopped sipping. “Yes Jack, I certainly have to say you’ve got good stuff.”

Hallie cleared her throat, determined in a fashion to make sense of the senseless. “Aunt Marie, as happy as I am to see you, I can’t help but wonder why you’re here. And well, how do you know Jack?”

“
Oh yes, Jack. Well Hallie, I met him at your house.”

“
My house? Oh you mean because you’re both.” And then she stopped, not wanting to utter the words.

“
Operating on a different spiritual plane.”

“
I see.” That must be the politically correct version. “Yes, but here the both of you are,” and then she added grimly, “in my dream.”

Jack squeezed her hand again. “I know this must all seem strange to you Hallie.”

“
Strange, I don’t know Jack,” a little disgruntled. “Does this seem strange to you?”

“
Well,” he paused “ yes,” evidently not wanting to elaborate. “Hallie dear, there is an important reason I’ve popped in here. Other than to visit.”

She took another sip of brandy then continued, “Dear, I know being here seems like a good thing, but it’s actually rather perilous.”

“
What do you mean?” Jack jumped in with concern.

“
Well, while you two are off gallivanting so to speak what’s left of Hallie is still back in her house, unprotected.”

“
What do you mean what’s left of me?”

“
Your body dear. It’s still in your bed, vulnerable, while your spirit. . .”

“
My spirit?”

“
Yes, that’s what’s traveling around in this dream state, creating alternate realities. Your spirit and well Jack’s too.”

“
So, what are you telling me?” She was putting the pieces together now, “that I need to go back?”

Her extraordinarily round, cherubic face looked very serious and very wise, an expression Hallie remembered well from her younger days. “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

Hallie turned to Jack, but he was silent. Whatever he was feeling just now, he didn’t seem to want to share. “But Aunt Marie, you don’t understand. There hasn’t been enough time. I’m happy here with Jack. I feel in a way like I’m home with him, like it’s where I belong. I don’t want to go back to the way things were.”

“
I’m sorry Hallie, but there are more things at stake than you know. Your spirit has a path that it’s chosen as has Jack’s. You can’t just circumvent that to, well. . .”

“
To be happy?”

“
I know it’s hard to understand.”

“
It’s impossible to understand.” She stood up. Suddenly she felt as though she couldn’t breathe. This was all too much. “Excuse me.” She left them and walked back out to the balcony.

She looked into the night sky, unwelcome tears dripping down her face. There weren’t nearly as many stars here as there were out in the country. At least she couldn’t see them. The lights of the skyscrapers blocked them. She didn’t really like the city, but she knew she would gladly stay here with him, anywhere to be with him. She felt his arms go around her waist and his head rest against the back of her shoulders.

“
I’m sorry,” he whispered to her,” I should have let you go on believing I didn’t exist. I was selfish.”

“
I’m selfish too. I don’t want to go back.”

She turned around. Those blue eyes that she so speedily had grown to adore weren’t sparkling now. They were steely and determined. “Hallie if there’s a way, I’ll find it. I promise.”

“
But I still have to leave?”

He nodded, reluctantly she thought. “For now.”

She stared at him, desperately trying to visually devour every nuance of him, memorizing every aspect of him so that she could bring him back to her mind whenever she wanted.

And then she kissed him with everything that was in her, trying hopelessly to stretch a moment into eternity.

CHAPTER TEN

She felt something wet and sticky on her face. Her eyes fluttered open, and then she felt something furry nuzzling her neck. Just for a second, her heart clutched in fear, and then she remembered it was Jack, or rather Jack the dog. She sat up in the bed. It was daylight outside. The clock on the night table reflected 7:30 a.m. Apparently, she had slept through the night.

Jack continued to try to lick her face, but she gently nudged him away. “It’s just you and me again boy.” Her eyes slowly canvassed the room looking for a trace, anything, but there was none. She pulled the puppy to her and held it against her heart.

It squirmed playfully, but it was the closest thing to Jack that was here right now. She whispered to him, “If you see him boy, tell him I said hi.” And she then wiped away some of the tears that seemed to want to become a fixture on her face.

Jack was frustrated, frustrated as hell. He had watched Hallie all morning moving through the house, attending to mundane activities like making coffee, feeding the dog, and doing the dishes with a lethargic, absent sort of quality. He could feel the heaviness in her heart, feel it acutely because it mirrored his own.

He was an idiot. How could he reach her, tell her all about himself and then leave her like this? It was absolutely maddening, and then there was the other matter.

When he had returned, it was like walking into an icebox, a spiritual icebox. While they were gone, something had permeated the walls of this place so much that he could barely breathe, or rather the impression of breathing that he’d been functioning with. Apparently, in spending the time away, they’d surrendered some ground and “it” had wasted no time in taking advantage of it. Even Jack Jr. was having trouble finding him in the midst of all this foggy, chilly muck that “it” had spread throughout the place.

He had to find a way to dispel it. But the gloominess of Hallie’s mood and his to match would make it doubly hard or so he felt.

“
I told you there was trouble.”

Aunt Marie was standing beside him. “It’s like a freezer in here. Does Hallie feel it?”

“
Not really the same. To her it just feels like a heaviness. And of course, she thinks it’s just because she misses you.”

He looked to her with concern. “Did I make a mistake? Letting her know who I really was?”

“
It doesn’t matter whether it was a mistake or not Jack. It was a choice. One you have to make the best of somehow.”

“
How do I do that?”

“
Well,” she paused reflectively, “I don’t know. I’ve never been in a situation like this before.” He waited for more, but there wasn’t.

“
That’s it?”

“
No, I’ve never been in love with someone who is not on the same plane of existence as myself. It’s a unique situation you’ve got here.”

“
But don’t you have some answers? You have been, well, on the other side for awhile.”

She nodded, now evidently following his thought train. “That’s true and I do know some things. But I’m still learning about others. Crossing over doesn’t make you all-knowing, as you can attest to my boy.”

Well, that much was true. He didn’t feel like he knew much more than that day in New York City when it had all ended for him. “This coldness, what is it?”

Her usually cheerful face was frowning now. “It’s energy, negative energy. Your shy friend was enraged when you ran off with Hallie and that it wasn’t strong enough to prevent it. So it spent some time brewing about the whole matter. And since no one was here to stop it, all of that soaked through everywhere.

Those of us in the spiritual state can release a lot of energy, good or bad.”

“
So, how do I dispel it?”