Shadow of a Life (34 page)

Crap. I’d forgotten he was still
there. I looked in the mirror hanging over the dresser. My hair
looked like a rat had made a nest in it. The curls Sophia had so
carefully created the day before didn’t look so good on day two. I
grabbed a hoodie, pulled the hood over my head, and sat back on the
bed to wait.

“
How was your night?” It was
an awkward question to ask someone that was technically on their
honeymoon and it slipped out before I could stop it.

She laughed. “It was nice. We talked
all night and we’re definitely on the same page about finishing our
business. I know you were worried about that.”

“
Good. I wouldn’t want to
waste a perfectly good trip to find a mysterious missing
map.”

I heard the bathroom door squeak
outside the bedroom door and footsteps retreat towards the living
area of our suite. I waited a moment longer and, not hearing
anything, opened the door a crack. I didn’t see anyone so I quickly
ran across the hall to the bathroom, pushed the door open, and then
slammed it shut behind me.

“
Uhh . . . good
morning.”

I looked up to see Peter still
standing in the bathroom in front of the mirror.

“
Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry. I
thought you’d left.” Mortified, I kept my head down and pulled the
strings of my hoodie even tighter.

Peter laughed. “I did leave, but then
I came back. I forgot something and had to go get it out of my
suitcase.” He stepped toward me with his hand out and I jumped
back.

“
Calm down—I’m just reaching
for the doorknob. The bathroom’s all yours now.”

I locked the door behind Peter and sat
on the floor with my back to the door, the hood of my jacket still
covering my head. I wished I could crawl down the shower drain and
never come out. I guess I had a new “most embarrassing moment” to
share the next time the subject came up. I took a long shower
letting the warm water wash away the sleepiness I still felt. It
wasn’t until the water started to turn cold and I realized Camille
would kill me that I shut it off. I dressed quickly, ran a comb
through my hair, and then darted back across the hall. I could
finish my morning primping in the bedroom and let Cam have a turn
in the bathroom—if she was even awake.

“
Is there any water left?”
She was sitting cross-legged on her bed staring at the
wall.

“
There’s definitely water
left, I just can’t guarantee it will be the temperature you’re used
to.”

She rolled her eyes and crawled off
the front of her bed to rummage through her suitcase for
clothes.

“
Where’d Sophia go?” I
asked.

“
I dunno.”

“
She didn’t say where she
was going?”

“
I haven’t even seen her yet
this morning. I think I heard voices in the living room a minute
ago, but it might just be Peter watching TV.”

“
Oh.”

She continued to sit on the floor in
front of the suitcase, staring at me while I applied my
makeup.

“
What?” I snapped without
thinking.

“
Nothing,” she said
defensively. “I just find it amusing that you’re suddenly so
interested in your appearance. I’ve been trying for years to get
you to care. Sophia comes along and all of a sudden you look like a
prom queen.”

“
What are you saying? You
don’t think I look better?” I frowned into the mirror.

“
That’s not it. You look
great. I’m just surprised, that’s all. Was it Sophia that made you
change, or Peter?”

I looked at her behind me through the
mirror, but didn’t answer.

She smiled. “Are you guys together,
then?”

“
No. I mean, I don’t know.
We haven’t talked about it.” It was hard to explain something that
I didn’t completely know the answer to.

“
I think you guys would make
a cute couple if that helps.”

I turned and smiled at her. “Thanks.
That means a lot coming from someone who can always find a
date.”

She shrugged and left the
room.

“
I agree. You guys
are
really cute
together.”

“
Sophia
. Stop doing that. I’m not going to be much help as a soul
saver if you give me a heart attack before I can finish the job.” I
looked in the mirror as Sophia reappeared. She was still lounging
on my bed, right where she’d been when I’d first left for the
bathroom.

“
Have you been in here the
whole time?” I asked.

“
Yeah, pretty
much.”

“
Why didn’t you talk to
Cam?”

“
She looked like a zombie
sitting on her bed and staring at the wall. I didn’t know if she
was really awake or just on the verge of sleep walking so I decided
to ignore her. Did you walk in on Peter a little while
ago?”

“
Maybe.”

She started laughing. “I thought I
heard his voice in there after you slammed the door shut. You need
to loosen up, sister. I’m going to go see if Nick’s back.” She left
the room and I was finally alone.

Loosen up?
What is that supposed to mean?
I finished getting ready and opened the bedroom
door. I would have to face Peter at some point and I figured I
should just get it over with.

The three of them—two ghosts and one
living soul—were sitting in the living area looking totally
relaxed. Sophia and Nick were next to each other on the couch and
Peter was in a chair. Thankfully, he just smiled and nodded when I
came out. I was grateful that he wasn’t going to make me relive my
embarrassment.

Nick had bought a variety of doughnuts
and juices. I grabbed a maple bar and an orange juice.

“
I only had doughnuts a
couple of times before I died, but I really miss them. I keep
eating them, hoping I can remember the taste, but they just taste
like everything else,” Nick commented as he took another bite of a
chocolate and sprinkle covered doughnut.

“
I’ll just have to eat them
for you then, bro,” Peter said as he grabbed another one from the
box and took a bite. Mmm . . . that’s good.”

Nick threw his half-eaten doughnut at
Peter who stuck his arm out to deflect it. It ended up hitting me
in the cheek.

I rolled my eyes and reached for a
napkin. “What are we doing today?” I felt like I’d been asking that
question a lot.

“
Well, we thought we should
try to find my old home and see if any of it still remains. Chances
are it doesn’t, but we should check. I’m hoping that even if the
structure of the old barn is gone we can still dig around in the
dirt and see if anything is buried out there,” Sophia
responded.

“
What if something is built
on top of the old site?” I asked.

“
That’s a real possibility,
but I’ve got to check. I can’t just wonder forever.”

“
Does the city look anything
like it did when you were here before?” Peter asked.

“
Only geographically,” Nick
answered. “We should be able to navigate fairly well just because
the landmarks have stayed the same. It’s a good thing Jeremiah and
Elsa lived so close to the waterfront. That will make it easier,
too.”

“
There are a lot of nice
homes built near the water now. I hope you guys can get close
enough to see anything without getting caught trespassing,” Sophia
added.

“
What do you mean by ‘you
guys’? Won’t you be there?”

Nick and Sophia exchanged looks. They
did that a lot.

“
Umm,” Sophia began, “we
think it would probably be best if you three did the actual
searching—after it gets dark tonight. Nick and I can watch from the
edges of the property for anything—or anyone—that appears out of
place.”

“
That makes sense,” Peter
said.

“
Maybe I should watch from
the shadows, too. I don’t have an aura like you two. Or maybe I
should wait with the car. Someone should definitely wait with the
car,” Camille said as she came into the room with a towel wrapped
around her hair. She plopped onto the couch with Nick and
Sophia.

“
If
we find a place to search, we’ll park the car far away, Cam. I
don’t think you’d want to sit in it. If you’re nervous, you can
always stay back here at the hotel. We’re fine with
that.”

Camille crossed her arms over her
chest and stuck out her chin. “I’m not nervous. I just don’t think
three of us should be poking around someone’s property at
night.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “We can’t
exactly poke around someone’s property during the day,
Camille.”

“
Let’s just check everything
out before we decide what we’re doing. For all we know there’s a
prison or a school or a grocery store built where the barn used to
be. We can’t make any definite plans until we see what’s out
there,” Nick said.

We continued eating the doughnuts and
juice while waiting for Camille to finish getting ready. By the
time we left the hotel it wasn’t even morning anymore. We climbed
into the car with a map of the city we’d gotten from the concierge
at the hotel. Sophia and Nick stared at it for a while, pointing
and talking quietly. Finally, Sophia turned to the three of us in
the backseat.

“
Okay. We can tell on the
map where the main part of Newport News is. I assume that’s the
part of town that was just starting to boom when I was alive. I
lived south of the town so we’re going to take a road down that
way. Hopefully we can see the water from this road,” she said,
pointing to a squiggly black line on the map.

“
Sounds good. We have no
idea what to watch for so we’ll just be along for the ride. I trust
you to navigate,” I said.

Nick pulled out of the hotel’s parking
garage and into a bright June afternoon. The sky was blue except
for a few gathering clouds off in the distance. He navigated
through town by listening to Sophia’s instructions and within a few
minutes we were on the road they hoped would take us to Sophia’s
former home. We were all pretty quiet on the drive. Sometimes
someone would make a comment about this or that, but for the most
part, conversation didn’t exist. We drove around for half an
hour—turning onto side roads, making U-turns on roads that ended in
nothing, and basically not finding much.

“
Wait,” Sophia suddenly
yelled as Nick was about to turn off a road he’d been on. “Drive to
that ridge over there. I know where we are.”

CHAPTER 23

“
Y
ou know where we are?” Camille asked excitedly.

“
Yeah. There’s a cemetery on
that rise. That’s where I’m buried.”

We were all silent as Nick followed a
winding road that took us to the top of the ridge. Sure enough,
amongst the tall old trees was a scattering of headstones. A
weathered wooden sign that looked as if it had been broken for many
years leaned against a tree: Old Plantation Cemetery.

“
I never did like hanging
around here much. I guess I’m an odd ghost in that way. Maybe it
was because there weren’t any other ghosts around to talk to,”
Sophia thought out loud. “In the years I hung around Newport News,
I only saw one up here. It was an old lady and she was only here
for a few days before she finished her business and was gone. I
haven’t been back here since I learned how to make myself look
human.”

Nick shifted the car into park and
Sophia opened the door. She didn’t turn around or look as if she
were waiting for us to follow so we all stayed in the car. Nick
eventually got out and stood next to his door, but didn’t go after
her. We watched as she shuffled through piles of dead leaves and
knee-high weeds to where she knelt in front of a small stone that
had been knocked over. She picked the stone up and brushed it off,
carefully placing it back on its base. She sat there for a few more
minutes, with her back to us, and then got up and came back to the
car. Nobody said anything until we’d driven back down the hill and
reached the main road again.

“
The cemetery was just off
the main road into the village when I was alive. If you keep
following this road, I think it will come to my old home.” Sophia
finally broke the silence.

“
That’s how I remember it.”
Nick reached over and held Sophia’s hand.

We drove about a mile further until
the road suddenly forked.

“
I don’t remember the road
being like this, honey,” Nick said.

“
It wasn’t, but that’s the
old Mason farm over there,” Sophia pointed to the land just beyond
the fork on the left. “The home isn’t the same one that was there,
but it’s in the same spot and that grove of trees is the same—only
the trees are a whole lot bigger.”

The reality of our situation started
to sink in. We’d gone there hoping to find something, but the
pessimist in me had assumed we were on a wild goose chase. As I
watched Sophia point at the farm where she’d died, I realized just
how deep into the situation we were.

“
If the Mason’s farm is over
there, we need to take the fork on the right, correct?” Nick
asked.