Ghost Writer (Raven Maxim Book 1) (32 page)

He wanted to scream and lunge out, stake claim to the woman and fight. The emotions were overwhelming, but he refused to yell out, to say anything silly just yet. After all, she was merely sitting there, reading. No harm, no foul.

The song ended, and then, just like that, the needle skated across the record and stopped. Seemingly awakened by the ending of the tune, she slowly looked up from her book. For an inkling, he didn’t know who she was. She had the same face, the same smile, but her eyes seemed much darker, filled with shadows.

“Oh, hi Sloan.” A strange grin stretched across her face. “How long have you been there?”

“Long enough. What are you doing?” He approached her, getting a better look at the woman as he leaned on the desk and glared down at her. The Emerald he knew, the one he’d shared his bed with, soon returned. The darkness in her eyes dissipated and she looked down at the book in her hands, seemingly a bit confused.

“Oh, I uh… I had come down for water a little while ago and saw the office doors open.” She scratched her head and looked about. “Sloan… I don’t remember everything. This is strange. I mean…” She sighed and looked about the room. “I remember coming down the steps, getting the water from the kitchen and then… oh yes!” She smiled as her memory seemed to return. “I heard music and the doors opened. Maybe they were already open,” she said, grimacing in confusion and bewilderment. “And then I came inside. It’s like… it’s like something took me by the hand and pulled me inside.”

The situation filled the room with a tangible bizarreness. She seemed fairly calm; in fact, she appeared to be in a rather good mood despite what she’d just relayed.

“That’s… that’s really strange, Emerald. Are you all right?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “I’m fine.” He grimaced, stood a bit straighter and slicked his hand in his robe pocket.

“Tell me what else happened.”

“Well, I felt around in the dark and found these lights on the desk, and then I heard something heavy fall. The music kept on playing, but I still heard the thud noise. I came in and turned on that lamp over there.” She pointed across the room. “And then I saw this book lying smack dab in the middle of the floor.” She raised it high in the air and waved it about like some flag. “I picked it up and then… well, then I sat down and read some of it.”

Sloan moved past her and pulled one of the curtains open, allowing in some natural light. When he returned to her, her face appeared ashen, as if she were in shock.

“What’s wrong?”

“The sun…what time is it, Sloan?”

“When I left the bedroom about ten minutes ago, it was 6:13.”

“Oh my God. I thought I’d only been down here twenty minutes… thirty, tops. I left to get some water at 2:43. I remember because I looked over at the clock on your nightstand before I’d headed out.”

They just looked at one another, both undoubtedly wanting answers to riddles that were impossible to solve.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Emerald?” He got on one knee beside her and ran his hand up and down her back.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m good, actually.”

He nodded and forced a smile as he looked about the office once again, then back at her. “So, what is that book about?” He pointed to it. “It’s definitely not one of mine. You think it fell off the shelf?”

She nodded, closed the thing and ran her hand protectively along the cover.

“It’s the story of a man who was in love with a dead woman and wanted to bring her back from the grave. Peter Jones is listed as the author.”

“I don’t recall a book by him with that subject matter, and I’ve read all of his work.” He opened his hand, an invitation for her to hand the thing over. She looked at his open palm as if she’d never seen such a thing in her life…and then, she placed the book there, hesitantly, but didn’t take her eye off it as he flipped through the pages, reading a few sentences here and there. “Yeah, I would’ve remembered this… This must be part of his unpublished work.”

“It is.”

The uncharacteristic warmth dissipated.

“How do you know that?”

She looked down into her lap, then back into his eyes.

“ ’Cause he told me…”

“Did I tell
you what happened to my cousin Vivian?”

“No, I don’t believe so; you don’t talk about her much… On second thought, yes you did; you told me everything.” Emerald tried to save herself from the agony of some sordid tale that Sugar was sure to spin in her own, notoriously twisted fashion, but it was far too late. The gate was open and out poured the beginning workings of something that she’d pay good money to miss.

“Listen up. Let me tell you what she’d gone and done; maybe it’ll knock some sense into you. That woman was in love wit’ some man in our town that didn’t want her. He was real handsome, tall like a tree, slept around a lot and had a little money he’d gotten from some little highfalutin’ apartment he owned and rented out. Problem was, he was married too, and had kids, a
whole
litter of ’em, but that didn’t stop my cousin from fawning all over him, throwin’ herself his way.”

“Sugar, I don’t have much time. I have to get out of the house and I’m already running late.” Emerald sighed.

“You had time to be over there at lovah man’s house so you got time to listen to
this
! Now be quiet. Anyway, he had a bunch of kids with a bunch of women, had populated practically the entire state of Texas on his own, but she had designs on him anyway. She even got into a scuffle with his wife one time. We all thought that was silly ’cause Vivian wasn’t none of his woman or as the kids nowadays say, side chick; but that wife shoulda been knockin’ on all the doors in every town instead and askin’ if any of the children inside were any kin to her no-good husband. Anyway, I guess Vivian wasn’t his type ’cause he didn’t pay her any mind.

“He wouldn’t sleep wit’ ’er, nothing. Now, Vivian wasn’t no looker—she was skinny as a dandelion stem and had buck teeth that reminded you of two white pieces of paper overlappin’ one another and flappin’ in the wind. They pushed out like windows. She wasn’t rich, either. She wasn’t that good of a cook, kinda like you—it was mediocre at best—and when she said certain words, she kinda slurred, like she had a heavy tongue.”

Emerald plopped down on her living room couch, her purse on her lap, and resolved herself to the fact this wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

“In an act of desperation, she ran off and got one of those devil people, like a witch or some sort of gypsy, to put a love spell on him.”

“What does all of this have to do with Sloan’s house being haunted? You called me and wanted to lecture me on going on over to my boyfriend’s house but somehow now the conversation has turned to your cousin and her insecurities. Love spells don’t work anyway, Sugar.” Emerald rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“I’m gettin’ to what it has to do with the house being haunted and you uh a damn lie about those spells not being worth a pot of beans, ’cause this worked all right… a little
too
good, actually.”

“Is this the part where you tell me he fell hopelessly in love with her, and they lived happily ever after in a haunted house filled with ugly, tall children that also spoke with a lisp?”

“Shush! This is serious. Now, that man left his wife three days after that love spell was done, Emerald. I swear on it, and you know I don’t swear! He marched right up to Vivian’s door, dressed in his finest suit, and knocked on it one rainy night.”

“Why does it always have to be a dark and rainy night, Sugar? Did lightning strike, too?”

The old woman ignored her and kept right on. “When she answered that there door, he had a red rose in his hand and he looked into her eyes and said he was in love with her, wanted her to be his woman—flat out. She was happy as a lark for about a month or two, but then thangs changed.”

“What? She was mad because he was still wearing the same suit day after day from the moment he’d first showed up?” Emerald snapped, sick and tired of Sugar’s madness.

“He got crazy, jealous and possessive. He ain’t want her to do anything or go nowhere without him. She said she’d go to the bathroom and he’d be right there sitting at her feet while she took a shit, even tried to wipe her ass for her from time to time.”

“I could have done without that information…”

“She couldn’t even go to church or to the sto’e by herself without him followin’ behind. The minister, Reverend Parker, may he rest in peace, told her she couldn’t come to church no more ’cause she was messin’ with a married man. That hurt her heart because Vivian loved church and she started to really resent the whole situation. She ain’t want him no more after a while, Emerald. It became too much. This man went and quit his job, abandoned his kids, and just wanted to stay all up under her all damn day, like he was some human mattress. She said he was always tryna get on top of her, wouldn’t give her no rest. She could barely walk when he’d finally turn ’er loose. When he wasn’t screwin’ her brains out, he was just lazin’ around and he barely washed his own ass for fear he’d miss her doing something. He’d accuse her of cheating and lookin’ at other men, threatened to kill her if she left him.”

“And just think? For one white rabbit foot and a drop of dragon blood all of this could have ceased…”

Emerald regretted the moment she’d told Sugar the details of her situation, but who was she kidding? Despite their bickering, she loved talking to Sugar, but this was just one of the consequences of spilling too much, too soon.

“You can keep sassin’ but Imma finish this story. So anyway, he’d call her job and almost got her fired, he was callin’ so much. She needed that job at the dry cleaners, ’specially since he wasn’t working, and then all them women came to her door asking for funds ’cause he ain’t have no job and they said they kids needed to eat. That rent money from the apartment just wasn’t enough.”

“Oh, hold on a minute now! She worked at the dry cleaners but he was wearing the same dirty ass suit every day? Well! This story is just chock full of irony!” Emerald chortled. “And why didn’t they just go to the devil witch magician Warlock Harry Potter Wiccan Priestess I Dream of Jeannie and ask her to cast a spell for child support received and paid in full?”

“Emerald,” the old lady said, her voice shaking, “I don’t know where you got this sassiness from, certainly wasn’t from me, but if I was over there yonder I’d pop you right in your smart-alecky mouth! You think this is funny, huh?!”

“Why yes… yes I do.”

“Well, Vivian sho’ didn’t. She regretted what she’d gone and done, which was the Devil’s work. Let this be a lesson to you! You see what happens when you play with fire?”

“You roast marshmallows…”

“When you know better but go on ahead stirrin’ up trouble, the punishment is swift! Yo’ boyfriend done mixed up a big ass pot of problems, and now he is reapin’ what he sowed. You went over there and got seduced by an invisible man! Lost track of time, now you done gone and got wrapped up in this bullshit when that ghost wasn’t studdin’ you at first. You see how this works? I warned you, Emerald! My cousin Vivian went racin’ back to the demon worker in a panic, talking about take the spell off Bert, that she was done with him forever.”

“Well, Sugar, we finally agree on something. Anyone who puts a love spell on someone named Bert had it coming. Did he have a unibrow and live on a street called Sesame? Wasn’t that the same place you said my mother taught the children about the letter ‘V’?”

“This ain’t funny, Emerald! The demon worker said she couldn’t lift it, that she’d warned her in advance and it was a done deal. The only way it could be broken was if
he
wanted it to be broken, and that meant she’d have to do two things…”

“Tell Ernie she been sleeping with his man and find out how it is possible to get pregnant by a puppet.”

“First thing she had to do was confess, tell him what she’d gone and done, and then find a way to make him not want her anymore, which would be damn near impossible.”

“Sugar, I can’t believe I just lost several minutes of my life listening to this. Now you know I’m open minded, but I just don’t believe in love spells. If it worked, everyone would be doing it! And anyway, it defies logic, regardless of how open-minded I am. It requires controlling a live person, making them do things they don’t want to do.”

“But you can’t say for certain, because the mind and spirit are mysterious things, Emerald.”

She drew quiet and reflected on Aunt Sugar’s words. The crazy lady was right.

“Anyway, Bert got told what she’d gone and done. He ain’t believe her though and didn’t seem to care either way. She kicked him out of her house and do you know that man moved two doors down? He tried to bust in her house several times and she had to get a restraining order, but it didn’t matter. She’d come home and he’d be propped up on her couch watchin’ TV like he was ’sposed to be there. He’d send her flowers all the time, write nasty love letters and send her gifts, too. She’d try to get in other relationships but he’d jump on the guys, threaten ’em, beat ’em up.”

“Bert done gone and went gangsta! Poor Elmo and Big Bird don’t even come out after dark anymore. The block is hot on those Sesame Street Streets!”