Ghost Light (24 page)

For the longest time she couldn’t fix on what it might be, but then, like a stinging slap across the face, it hit her.

His voice!

There had been something disturbingly familiar about that man’s voice.

Cindy whimpered softly when she thought how—as crazy as it might seem—the man’s voice on the phone had reminded her of… of someone she knew.

But who?

The closest she could come up with was that he had sounded a little bit like the encyclopedia salesman, that young man working his way through college who had called her a few weeks ago.

Could it have been him, calling this late at night to harass her because she had turned down his prize and refused to give him her address? Had he somehow fixated on her and tonight, drunk on his ass, was calling just to get back at her?

“No,” Cindy whispered. “Why, that’s… that’s ridiculous.”

Sighing heavily, she rolled over onto her stomach and snuggled her face into her pillow. She tried her best to push the incident out of her mind, but as she drifted back off to sleep, the man and his throaty, suggestive voice teased and tantalized her.

Sometime before dawn, she had a frightening dream, but when she woke up the next morning, she couldn’t quite remember what it was.

3

“I
see the moon…”

The dark bedroom filled with the sound of a long, rasping exhalation.

“And the moon sees me…”

Again, the darkness seemed to sigh.

“I see its light…”

But before the next line was sung, Krissy’s eyes snapped open.

In the brief, flickering moment as her eyesight adjusted to her surroundings, she stared blankly up at the dull gray ceiling. She had the momentary sensation that she was lying at the bottom of a lake, looking up at the surface of the water. A current of panic raced through her, and her breath felt like fire in her chest.

Krissy shifted in bed and, in a fragile whisper that broke on nearly every syllable, sang, “Shin-ing… down … on… me…”

She shifted in her bed and tensed, waiting to hear—someone else sing the next line, but the darkness and silence remained unbroken.

Gradually, Krissy saw the details of her bedroom resolve out of the gloom. The streetlight outside her window was sliced into bright blue bars of light that angled across the floor. She sat up in bed and cocked her head back and forth, momentarily confused as to where she was. Her eyes were wide open, rounded so they could take in more light. She could see the stark texture of the floorboards and, against the far wall, the dark bulk of her dresser and closet door. Everything around her seemed suspended in a murky, dark whirlpool that was familiar and, at the same time, scary.

Turning her head slowly to the side and hardly daring to breathe, Krissy blinked and rubbed her eyes before surveying the room. Her throat felt dry and raw. A thin sheen of sweat covered her forehead and gave her a mild chill. She was positive that she hadn’t dreamed hearing the voice that had been singing that song to her, and she had no doubt who it was.

Almost every night since they had moved into this apartment, Krissy would wake up in the middle of the night and see the blue lady. More often than not, she would simply be sitting on the edge of Krissy’s bed with her face turned away from Krissy as she brushed her hair and sang “I See the Moon.” Krissy could never tell if the glow that surrounded the lady came from her face or from the streetlight that shined through her bedroom window. The first few times she had seen her Krissy had been scared to death, too scared even to cry out or scream. She knew enough to know that this must be some kind of ghost, but—somehow—she wasn’t as scared of her as she thought she should be. After a while, the nightly visitations became almost routine, and Krissy realized that the blue lady, no matter what she was, wasn’t here to hurt her or even to scare her. A couple of times, once she got up her courage, Krissy even tried to speak to her, but no matter what she said, the blue lady simply continued to brush her hair and sing, her voice no more than a feathery whisper in the dark.

“Are you… here?” Krissy said in a tiny, frightened whisper.

She shifted her feet out from under the covers and onto the floor, continuing all the while to scan the room as she waited and listened to the silence that fluttered like the muffled sound of birds’ wings. She told herself not to be so scared, that the blue lady was her friend. Why else would she have been outside her school the other day, pointing at the car that looked
exactly
like her daddy’s car, which was parked up on the Street? And why else would she have seen her again today, right when she had gotten home from school? Although it had been almost impossible to see her in the bright glare of sunlight, for just a second or two, she had seen the blue lady standing right there in the middle of the street, in front of the church parking lot. She had looked all hazy and transparent, like the ripples in the air over a hot road. The one car that had passed by seemed to drive right through her. She had been holding one arm up as if she were pointing to something, but Krissy was grateful that, at least this time, she hadn’t waved to her like she wanted her to follow her someplace!

Several times, Krissy had wanted to talk to Aunt Cindy or Billy about it, but she knew—somehow—that it would be best if she kept all of this to herself, no matter how scared she might get. She knew that Aunt Cindy was already worried enough about what was happening to them, and she certainly didn’t want Billy teasing her about being a cry-baby. But more than that, she sensed that the blue lady didn’t want anyone else to know about her… not yet, at least.

No, Krissy knew she had to deal with this all by herself, no matter how scary it got.

She had no idea if other people saw things the way she did, and she wondered if she was normal or not. She remembered her mother reading her different stories about fairies and elves and other magical things, but she was pretty sure this wasn’t the same thing. She often thought—or
hoped
—that her blue lady wasn’t a ghost, but that she was some kind of guardian angel or saint or something. In fact, Krissy thought she looked quite a bit like the woman in the stained glass window in the church across the street, the one with the halo who was wearing a bright blue robe. She had asked Aunt Cindy about that lady, and her aunt had told her that it was the Virgin Mary. From the Sunday School class she had gone to while her mother was in church, Krissy knew that Mary had something to do with Christmas and the baby Jesus. Although
her
blue lady’s face shined with the same sort of light, like the halo around Mary’s stained-glass head, Krissy sensed that she wasn’t the Virgin Mary.

No,
her
blue lady usually just sat there on the edge of her bed in the dark bedroom, brushing her hair, softly singing “I See the Moon.” Krissy was positive the mother of Jesus had better things to do than something as silly and plain-old ordinary as
that
.

“Somewhere I know in the deep, dark night—”

The words came to Krissy with a soft, brushing sound out of the embracing darkness. A tingling thrill raced through her limbs. Her stomach started to ache like she had to go pee
real
bad. Her eyes widened as she looked at the foot of her bed, but the blue lady wasn’t there. Krissy glanced all around the room but she still couldn’t see anyone.

After clearing her throat, Krissy started singing in a halting, raspy breath, “Someone watches me with a guiding light.”

Wondering, as she had so many times before, if she might still be asleep and dreaming all of this, she covered her mouth with both hands, too frightened to move. The throb of her pulse in her neck felt like tiny fingers were trying to squeeze her throat shut. Slowly, she turned her head toward the window and saw her.

“Yes, you
are
here!” was all Krissy managed to say before her throat closed off with a loud click.

The glow of light from outside cut vertical lines across the floor. Although she cast no shadow, Krissy could see the vague outline of the lady standing over by the window. She wasn’t much more than a subtle blue glow that stood out against the dark slats of the closed blinds. She was leaning forward, the profile of her face edged by the streetlight as she looked outside. The glowing traces of her lips were moving up and down as though she was saying something, but Krissy couldn’t hear what it was over the sound of her heartbeat. It might have just been a trick of the light, but it certainly looked as though a silvery line of tears was streaming down the lady’s face.

“I… I knew you were here,” Krissy said, surprised by the high, strangled sound of her own voice. Again, as she had so many other nights before, she wondered if this could be a dream. She pinched herself on the back of the hand, just to make sure she was awake. It felt like a bee sting and made her hand go numb.

“What… what do you want?” Krissy asked. Her body was alive with pins ’n needles. “What are you looking at?”

The blue lady slowly turned her head and regarded Krissy with a steady, unblinking stare. The lady’s face looked so familiar it sent a jolt of surprise racing through Krissy, but she was too frightened to register who it was. She watched as shimmering tears streamed down over the woman’s cheeks, and she felt the lady’s sadness as deeply as if it were her own. Then slowly, dreamily, the blue lady raised her right hand and, curling her fingers in upon themselves, beckoned to Krissy while her left hand gently extended and pointed downward. It seemed almost to pass straight through the closed blinds without disturbing them.

“Wha—what is it?” Krissy asked, gasping. Her voice shook horribly, and the pressure of having to go pee became almost intolerable. “Is there… is there something outside you want me to see?”

Very subtly, the luminous figure slowly rotated its head up and down, all the while continuing to point and beckon.

Krissy stood up on legs that didn’t feel at all strong enough to support her. As she took a few tentative steps forward, her feet dragged over the floor as though they were encased in cement. All the while, her gaze was fixed on the blue lady, who seemed to be melting from view, blending into the narrow bars of light that shined in through the blinds. All around her, the darkness seemed to be vibrating with swirls of energy. Pinpoints of pale light blossomed and faded in sporadic bursts. Krissy thought she detected faint motions of other, darker figures moving against the blackness, and she thought she could hear faint whisperings, but she was too scared to stop and listen carefully as she moved steadily forward, her breath panting rapidly in and out.

I’ll be okay… I’ll be okay… She doesn’t want to hurl me
, she kept telling herself, wishing she could cry out, so Aunt Cindy would come racing to her room.
She doesn’t want to hurt me! She’s just trying to help. I can tell… I’ll be okay
…
I’ll be okay!

It struck her as strange how, the closer she got to the blue lady, the less distinct she became. Once Krissy was within arm’s reach of the window, the figure shimmered and faded away, filling the air around her with a soft, crackling hiss. Krissy’s hands were clammy and trembling as she reached out and gripped the pullstring of the blinds.

“I… see… the… moon…”

The high, lilting voice sounded close to Krissy’s ear, seemingly surrounding her like a soft blanket in the dark.

Never in her life had she wanted to scream more than at that moment… not even on that night last spring when she had heard her mother and father arguing downstairs and had come down to the kitchen and, hiding in the darkened doorway, had seen what her father was doing to her mother.

Terror like a pure, blinding white light began to fill her now, erasing every other thought in her mind. It looked and felt to her like someone else’s hand was tugging down on the pullstring. And as the blinds ran up, the sudden intensity of the streetlight nearly blinded Krissy. She took an involuntary step backward and almost fell, but somehow her grip on the pullstring helped her keep her balance.

“And… the… moon… sees…me…”

Her eyes were drawn irresistibly to the view outside her bedroom window. After her eyesight had adjusted, she saw that the light from the streetlamp was soft and glowing, casting everything with a pale blue luster. It looked almost like a skimming of fresh snow had covered the world. Down the Street, a few lights were still on in some buildings, but for the most part, it looked like a sleepy little town. Only on the horizon, above the trees that bordered the church parking lot, could Krissy see the jagged canyon-edged skyline of the city. No cars were moving on the street except for down at the intersection, where a police car was waiting for the traffic light to change to green.

What were you looking at?
Krissy thought.

She desperately wanted to ask her question out loud, but the tightness hadn’t let go of her throat. She could hear herself gasping to take a deep breath. It sounded like the shuddering sobs she made after she had been crying a long time.

“I … see… its… light… shining… down…”

Krissy tensed, having no idea if she were hearing the words or if they were in her mind. Her gaze suddenly shifted upward to the wash of night sky, which had been turned a hazy charcoal gray by the distant city lights. High above the city, she could barely make out the faint sparkle of a few stars, but when she pressed her face against the glass and looked toward the front of the apartment building, she saw the thin crescent of moon, riding low in the sky above a drifting bank of clouds. It looked like a single, vicious horn. She felt her attention attracted to it, almost as if, were the window open, she would be able to spread her arms out wide and fly up into the sky.