Me and My Ghoulfriends (11 page)

Her expression turned to disdain as she looked at me, before gently lowering her gaze.

“I’m the lady of the house.” That’s all she said, but her words were clear.

“Hello, my name is Larue.”

Surely, this couldn’t be the spirit everyone had been afraid of? She looked like an angel. Then it hit me, maybe the vision in front of me was just a façade and what I was really witnessing was pure evil, a demon in disguise.

A demon could take on the appearance of what it thinks you will respond positively to. This lady was definitely someone I would respond positively to, she looked so innocent. The woman was still standing and staring at me from the same spot. Under my breath I recited the Lord’s Prayer. Better safe than sorry, I figured.

“I’m here to help you.” I paused. “What’s your name?”

“What are you doing in my house? My husband will be here soon. If he finds you here, he will be furious,” she said as she looked around frantically. She continued. “I was sick, and he went for the doctor, and that was the last time I saw him. It has been a long time, so I know he will be home rather soon now.” She peered around as if hoping to catch sight of him.

Definitely the hardest part of my job was explaining the situation to the spirits. How did I make clear to her that her husband was not coming back for her? I imagined she must have died before her husband had come back with the doctor, and she’d never realized what had really happened to her. My heart hurt for her.

My job never got any easier, no matter how many times I did it. Luckily, so far, I was safe from demons. I held my breath that the situation wouldn’t soon turn violent and she was who she said she was.

“When did you last see your husband?”

She frowned and gave me a confused look. She didn’t answer the question.

I asked again, “When did you last see your husband? Can you remember the date?”

She lowered her gaze.

“Your husband is in another place now. He won’t be coming back here. I know he’s sad without you and wants to see you. Don’t you want to go where he is and finally see him again?” Her answer I knew depended on what type of husband he was. Had he left his dirty clothes on the floor? Had he been a slob? Lucky for her, I was pretty sure he hadn’t spent all of his Saturday mornings back then at the golf course.

“No!”

I was shocked she could raise her voice that loudly.

“I don’t want to leave my home; I know he will come back for me. I will stay here until he returns.”

I nodded my head at her, letting her know I understood. But I couldn’t let her continue to believe that.

“I’m sorry, but he really won’t be back, he can’t come back here. He is in another place now.” I shifted my feet. “Do remember seeing a very bright light? Maybe you felt drawn to the light?”

She remained quiet.

“He is in that light you saw. You can find him there. I promise you’ll be all right.”

She walked away from me. Effortlessly, she glided into the room from where she’d peered out at me a few minutes earlier.

Carefully, I moved toward the room, still praying she wasn’t some violent demonic force waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack me. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my rosary beads and held them tightly in my hand.

The door was closed. The ghost had slid through, no need for her to open it. I’d often wondered why ghosts didn’t know they were dead, but accepted their ability to pass through walls, doors, and other things. I’d never gotten an answer. Even Abe was tight-lipped on that one. I figured they’d been sworn to secrecy.

As I twisted the knob, I held my breath and waited for what was to come. I opened the door slowly, and so far so good, no pushes or punches came at me. My eyes scanning around the room, I saw her sitting on the bed.

Her head was in her hands and she appeared to be weeping. It was extremely difficult to console a distressed ghost, as I’m sure anyone could imagine. I couldn’t exactly embrace her in a comforting hug.

“Can you tell me your name?”

She snapped her head up quickly to look at me as if she was angered by my presence. I was there in
her
home, invading
her
space and privacy. She gave me an angry glare; she didn’t look so innocent at that point.

“I’m sorry. I’m only here to help you. Please can’t you tell me your name? I told you mine.”

Her expression eased somewhat, then she turned her head away and looked at the wall.

I continued talking to her. I wasn’t leaving without exhausting every attempt I could to help her move on.

“I’ve heard you have been upset with the people who are in your home. Have you been pushing people? You don’t seem like the type of person who would be that aggressive.”

“They don’t belong here and I want them to leave. This is my home and my husband will be very angry with them!” she shouted.

It was going to be very hard, if not impossible for me to convince her. If I couldn’t get rid of her, at least maybe I could get her to be nice to the people in the home. And tell her not to bother Monica anymore.

“You know your husband is very sad you’re not with him, and that he hasn’t seen you in such a long time.”

That brought more weeping from her, and she held her head in her hands once again. Ugh. It seemed like I just couldn’t say the right thing.

What I did next was the craziest thing I had ever attempted. It was the first time I ever volunteered to have a ghost come home with me. I guess I was just a big pushover. But I felt bad for her, plus I didn’t want Monica to be upset any longer. At least that way, I could take my time and work on convincing her to go into the light to join her husband.

She had been reluctant, of course, but I convinced her I was the key to finding her husband. I promised if I didn’t help her, she could come back to her home. To my surprise, she actually said she was happy to have someone to talk to about her predicament.

I was sure her husband was wondering if she would ever arrive there. No doubt he was sad. It was a good thing none of the spirits needed their own room or I’d have to open my own hotel to accommodate them.
Hotel de la Larue
.

I trudged back downstairs, still uncertain of what I’d just gotten myself into, but I had to ask myself, could she possibly be any worse than the others I was already sharing my home and business with? I pulled the cellphone from the bottom of my bag and hit redial, since Monica was the last person I had called. She picked up after three rings.

“Hi Monica, it’s Larue.”

“Is everything all right?” she asked with worry in her voice.

“Yes, everything is fine. I’m all done here.”

“You’re all done? Already? That was fast.”

I knew she would be shocked. Everyone always was. They expected a long drawn-out process.

“Yes, it wasn’t easy, but I think I’ve solved your problem.”

I didn’t want to go into specifics with her. In no way did I want to confide that I was taking her ghost home with me. I could just imagine how insane that would sound to the average person, to someone that hadn’t been seeing spirits their entire life.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m somewhat ashamed to admit I was skeptical of you at first. But then again, I was skeptical of ghosts and hauntings at first, too. Then I started working at Manchester. That all changed quickly, as you can see.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m used to people being highly skeptical of me and what I do.”

“Is there anything thing else we need to do after you leave? Any special instructions?”

Normally I would tell her to burn sage around the place for cleansing, but in her case, there wasn’t anything to cleanse. I was taking what needed cleansing with me.

“No, nothing at all. Would you like for me to drop the keys off for you? I think I’m going to start my way back home, although I probably will stop for the night at a hotel.”

“Please be careful out there, it can be so dangerous on the road, especially since you are all alone.”

Little did she know I wasn’t exactly ‘all alone’ on my ride home.

“You can leave the keys with the security guard at the front gate, if you’d like. Larue, I don’t know how to thank you. I’ll be forever grateful.”

“It’s what I enjoy doing. You don’t have to thank me. Remember, if you need anything just call me. Any time.”

“And you’re sure it will be safe to go back in? I’m just so nervous. I mean I thought I was going to die the other day. I can’t work in those conditions, where I fear for my life.”

“I promise you, it is safe for you to go back in. I wouldn’t tell you to do that if I didn’t think it were safe. If you still have reservations about the stairs maybe you could do all of your work on the first floor for a while? Just until you feel safe. But I feel confident you won’t be having any more problems. And remember if you need me, I’m only a phone call away.”

Monica seemed hesitant and I could understand her apprehension. If I didn’t see the ghosts and couldn’t communicate with them, I would feel the same way.

As I headed back onto the interstate with my ghost in the passenger seat—her name was Vivian, I’d discovered—my cellphone rang.

“When are you coming home?” Mindy asked, slightly panicked.

“Actually, I’m headed back right now, although I’ll probably stop soon for the night. I’m so tired and I don’t want to drive like this. You sound upset, is there something wrong?”

She paused and I instantly became concerned.

“Did you breakup with Robert?” My voice was higher pitched than I’d meant for it to be.

“No, no. It’s nothing like that.”

She paused again.

“Well get on with it, Mindy. You’re driving me crazy here. I may wreck my car if you don’t tell me soon.”

“It’s Brianna.”

“Yes… What about her? Let me guess, she’s dating one of the men from the Assisted Living facility?” I snickered at my own joke.

“It’s Callahan,” she muttered.

249

             
Me and My Ghoulfriends

Chapter 9

It felt good to be home. I collapsed onto my sofa; I was exhausted after my long trip. Not only did I have a woman who’d died in 1881 with me, but I’d also picked up a Native American chief along the way.

Do not ask.

Luckily, I did manage to get him to cross over, just after I crossed the Kentucky state line.

I now sat nestled in my favorite spot, going over the past few days in my mind. I’d called Mindy back when I was almost home and she’d finally told me she’d spotted Callahan and Brianna all over town together.

Some people in town had said they’d seen the couple and that they’d looked rather cozy together. With a small town like Magnolia, it was hard to hide, and word spread like wildfire. Needless to say, that information was not exactly what I’d been expecting to hear.

After a short while, a sharp rap at my door startled me back to reality. I’d never gotten over the mysterious sounds of knocking on doors, whispers and footsteps. Occupational hazard, I guess. I shuffled over to the door and swung it open to see Mindy standing huddled under the little porch awning, impatiently tapping her toe.

“What took you so long?”

“Sorry. I was daydreaming on the sofa.”

“What the hell have you been doing? You look beat,” Mindy said gliding in my front door.

“I am. It was a long drive and I’m starving.”

“Well, that’s what this is for.” Mindy held up a white sack.

My mouth instantly watered. I knew exactly what was inside. The best hamburgers and fries I’d ever tasted. The little hole-in-the-wall diner the sack came from didn’t look like much, but their food was heavenly.

“Bless you,” I said, grabbing the bag like I’d been stranded on a deserted island for years.

“I’ll grab us a couple of diet cokes from the fridge,” Mindy offered as she bounced to the kitchen.

I curled back onto the sofa, into my favorite spot, with my bag of treasures. Opening it carefully to enjoy the whiff of aromatic cuisine, I stuck my nose into it.

I pulled the napkins out and made an impromptu tablecloth with them on my coffee table. Times like this called for the comfy dining atmosphere that only my sofa could provide.

I placed the food on the napkins and popped a fry from Mindy’s stack into my mouth. I needed all the extra energy I could get, and she wouldn’t miss one fry.

“Hey. Hands off my fries,” she shrieked.

I swallowed the fry quickly and gave her a sheepish smile. Maybe she
would
miss a single fry.

“Something just doesn’t seem right to me about the whole situation.” Mindy handed me the can of soda.

“No, I’ll tell you what the situation is. Obviously, the guy is a jerk like every other guy I’ve ever met.” I heard a cough from the other room.

“Except for you guys,” I yelled to Mr. Haynes and President Lincoln.

Mindy glanced over her shoulder into the kitchen.

“It’s so sad,” I said, popping open the can. “I just got a different vibe from this one. I thought he was different from all the rest. I’m usually such a good judge of character, you know?”

“Well, the sooner you learn that all men are alike, the better off you’ll be.”

“What about Robert? Do you feel that way about him?” I dipped a fry in my mound of ketchup.

“Absolutely. He’s just like all the rest.”

“That’s not healthy. How can you be in a relationship with someone when you feel like that?”

“Look, you just pick the one that’s least like a jerk. But, to some extent, they’re all like that.” Mindy took a huge bite of her burger.

I took a bite of my burger, ketchup oozing out the sides, and contemplated her words. Wiping my mouth with my tiny sliver of napkin, I said, “I don’t think I agree with you. Sorry.”

She just shrugged her shoulders.

Obviously, I’d never change her mind. I wasn’t sure at what point Mindy had become so jaded about men. I did know that she’d always felt that way to some extent, though it had gotten progressively worse over the years. She’d had her share of bad dates too, so I guessed it had eventually gotten to her.

“Maybe we should be more worried about Brianna. I mean, the way she acts, she’s vicious. She probably only wants him because you were interested in him,” Mindy said, shooting me a glance as she shoved a French fry in her mouth.

Mindy was probably right.

“No, I’m telling you, I have a strange feeling about her.” Mindy reiterated.

I crumbled up my used napkin and threw it in the empty bag. I wished I had another fry.

“I know what we should do! We should go spy on her. Let’s go see if he’s at her house,” Mindy said, polishing off her food with a strange twinkle in her eye.

“What? Spy on her? No way! I’m just going to let it go,” I said with a wave of my hand. “I mean, yes, he is gorgeous. The most gorgeous guy I’ve ever seen, actually, but I’m not even going to get involved with a two-timer. A snake in the grass.”

Mindy sank down on the sofa just a little more. “I don’t know. The scene the other day I saw in her shop was weird. Just kind of creepy. It gave me chills, and it still does.” Mindy said, brushing a dirty blond curl away from her eyes.

I nodded. “Yeah she is kind of creepy. Did you ever notice that weird look she gets in her eyes?”

Mindy laughed. “Yes! I’ve noticed that, and it is so weird. So, what do you say? Let’s go see what she’s up to. She won’t see us, I promise.”

A few minutes later we were in my car, driving in the direction of Brianna’s home. I was navigating a curve while Mindy was digging around in the bottomless pit she called a purse.

“Ah ha!”

I glanced over to see what she’d pulled out of the cavern.

“You brought your binoculars? Why am I not surprised?”

“I come prepared for everything. I have anything you could possibly ever need in this baby.” She gave her bag a pat.

“We’re going to get caught snooping around, you know that, right? Brianna will call the police, we’ll be arrested, booked, and our mug shots taken. I’ll have to call my mother to bail me out of jail. If that’s not bad enough, then I’ll get a year in prison and lose the bookstore. Then, when I finally get out of prison, I’ll be homeless. All because you wanted to spy on Brianna.”

Mindy rolled her eyes at me.

“What?” I said.

“Are you finished being a drama queen?”

“No, not quite. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

She glared at me and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You know you want to.”

“You are a bad influence.”

“What’s your point?”

“All right, we have to be quiet, though, or we really will be caught, and my prediction will come eerily true. We’ll both be wearing orange for a very long time. And you know how bad I look in orange.”

Mindy nodded. “You do look bad in orange.”

Zipping my car
o
nto Brianna’s street, I pulled up to the curb about a block from Brianna’s home. Her house sat in Magnolia’s most luxurious neighborhood; huge homes, swimming pools and lots of gated entries. Luckily, Brianna’s wasn’t one of the secured ones.

As I turned off the ignition, I was sure someone was going to notice us sneaking around. They probably had one of those neighborhood watch things.

Mindy especially stuck out like a sore thumb. She’d never been one for subtlety. I loved her dearly, but she had a penchant for loud clothing. Today she wore a skin-tight black sweater, which would be fine if paired with, say, a pair of jeans? But Mindy preferred bright yellow pants, giving her a not-so-discreet bumblebee effect.

It was not exactly subtle attire for spying on someone.
Maybe we should have worn camouflage.
Nonetheless, Mindy was confident in her skin, so that’s all that mattered. Quickly, we dashed over and hid behind some tall shrubbery. For the most part it was silent, except for the cute little birds chirping on a tree branch across the way. Looking around to see if the coast was clear, we then snuck around to a line of trees near her house. We were close enough that, with the binoculars, we’d have a good view, but far enough away we felt safe that we wouldn’t be caught. Or, should I say, Mindy felt safe enough that we wouldn’t be caught?

Mindy pulled the binoculars up to her eyes and began feverishly tweaking the dial.

“I can’t get the damn things to focus. That’s what I get for buying the cheap ones,” she mumbled.

Finally, after a few seconds passed, she began spanning the length of Brianna’s house.

“This is so wrong. You do realize that, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s wrong, blah blah blah.” She gestured with one hand at me, all the while looking at Brianna’s window.

“Why do I listen to you?” I whispered. “You always talk me into something crazy like this. Yet I continue to listen to you.”

“You love it.”

“Ugh. I do not love
it
. What would Callahan think? I’ll tell you what he’d think,” I said before she had time to answer. “I’m some deranged stalker is what he would think.”

“Trust me, he’d probably thank you if he knew what an evil woman Brianna really was.”

“Do you see anything? Because if not, I think we should just go. We need to get the heck out of here while we still can.” I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching us.

“I don’t see her. She’s probably getting her beauty sleep. That, or sacrificing small animals, or whatever she does in her spare time.”

“That’s it. I’m leaving. Come on,” I whispered sternly as I grabbed her arm.

“Wait, there she is.” Mindy pointed with one hand, while holding the binoculars steady with the other. She really knew how to use those things.

I wondered how many others she had spied on in the past.

My shoulders tensed up and my pulse increased. Now we really were spying. Before, we actually hadn’t seen Brianna, and I figured that made it not technically a crime. But eyeing her in her home? That was definitely illegal.