The Ferryman (14 page)

She thought about turning the car towards the cemetery, but she headed to the grocery store to do her shopping. Karen was in the canned vegetable aisle when Fate appeared strolling beside her and browsing the rows of tin cans along the aisle. In their neat lines, the cans looked like an army of soldiers ready for battle.

Fate’s entrance had been nearly silent. She had simply faded in alongside Karen so gradually that Karen didn’t immediately notice. Fate picked up a can of peas with her well-manicured hands. She studied the label in a distracted manner, her deep red nails appearing more vivid against the green backdrop of the can’s label. She exuded elegance even while grocery shopping, wearing a lightweight silk cream-colored blouse and dark brown slacks. Business casual for a woman whose business was anything but casual. Karen was already drained, but she mustered up enough energy to sigh loudly and scrunch up her face.

“You really shouldn’t eat these,” Fate announced. “The heating process ruins the flavor, and they’re so much better fresh.” She glanced over at Karen and smiled.

“What are you doing here?” Karen asked as she stopped pushing her cart. She leaned back on one heel and scowled at Fate. She had hoped for more time to research before encountering Fate again. It wasn’t fair that she showed up when Karen was completely unprepared to deal with her.

“I have a job for you, of course,” Fate replied as she placed the can of peas back on the shelf. She paused to swipe her index finger across the top surface and examine it for dirt. “I’m not sure you should be shopping here,” she added. “It isn’t sanitary.”

Karen looked at the dust and thought of the graveyard filled with dirt and musty smells. She could almost feel the clumps of damp soil in her hands. It was always damp if you dug deep enough into the earth. In this area of the country it wasn’t too dry, and most of the graves were in slightly moist soil. Water always gave the soil more substance and a stronger scent. Karen associated the smell with victory - whenever the earth became heavier she knew was getting closer to the corpse’s treasure.

“I just did a job for you yesterday,” Karen said as she shook the thoughts of the graveyard from her mind and began pushing the cart forward. Her fingers tightened around the handle. A chip in the hard plastic handle cut into her palm, but Karen ignored the discomfort.

“No, you didn’t.” Fate pinched her nose ever so slightly as she kept pace with Karen.

“Yes. The job was done.” Karen reached into her pocket and fondled the two silver coins she carried. They were a reminder that she would find a way to be free again. These weren’t the ones she had taken from the corpse the night she met Fate. Those were sold almost immediately in order to pay bills. These were the newer and less expensive coins she had recently bought in a pawn shop to place over her eyes as she lay in the park. Karen still had hopes that they would somehow provide her freedom. She felt the tension in her muscles drifting away as she turned the coins over in her pocket, enjoying the slight vibration of the two pieces scraping against one another.

“The job was done, but you didn’t do it,” Fate insisted. “You still owe me.”

Karen rolled her eyes as she placed her hands back on the shopping cart handle and continued moving forward. She was too tired to think about so much at once, so she stopped searching for the items on her shopping list. There was no point to shopping now, anyway. She was likely to be occupied all day with whatever Fate had planned for her.

“I don’t suppose I have a choice,” Karen sighed, “but —”

“There’s my girl!” Fate exclaimed with the friendliest smile Karen had ever seen on the woman’s face. “Let’s not get distracted by any handsome men now, okay? We have work to do.”

Karen opened her mouth to speak as Fate grabbed her hand, and Karen felt the abrupt sensation of floating. At first she thought she might vomit, recalling her last experience traveling like this, and then she felt the sharp pull forward in her midsection. It was like a bizarre roller coaster jerking her ahead from the center of her body. She felt her arms and legs fold behind her and her entire body compress, as if she were passing through a drinking straw. Her neck and head throbbed as if someone had pumped them full of air. It was like the most intense hangover she’d ever experienced.

“I don’t know how you made that experience worse than the last time. It was terrible …” Karen rubbed the side of her neck as her voice trailed off.

“Really, it’s a gift,” Fate replied. She nodded a few times, satisfied. Karen stopped rubbing her neck and folded her arms. She was fully clothed, but she suddenly felt as naked as she did wearing the skimpy red nightgown she’d purchased. She glanced around to get her bearings and assess her location.

They were standing inside the main courthouse lobby, just on the other side of the security station. Two guards stood in front of a monitor looking at mug shots of wanted individuals and making snide comments. Other than the guards, the place was deserted.

“Why are we here? They’re both still alive,” Karen whispered as she pointed to the guards’ backs. She could still feel the pain of the journey, and her words felt like they were hammering their way out of her head.

“Clearly,” Fate agreed stoically. She turned around and began walking down the long marble hallway. Karen followed quietly as she continued to massage her neck. She searched her purse for a few aspirin and stopped at a water fountain to swallow the pills.

She shuffled her feet quickly along the smooth flooring to catch up with Fate, and as they moved down the corridor Karen noticed that Fate had a delicate sound to her walk. It was more like soft tapping. Karen listened to her own shoes slapping against the marble floor and felt as if she were walking with two dead fish strapped to her feet. The more she listened to her own steps the more her gait became less rhythmic. She didn’t want to compare herself with Fate, but they were in love with the same man and Karen viewed Fate as competition. As much as she didn’t want to feel insecure, it was difficult when the man she was in love with was already married to someone who knew the future. So why would Fortune choose her over Fate? Karen pushed the thoughts aside in order to concentrate on the job.

“Where are we going?” Karen whispered.

“Shhh!”

Fate continued walking until they reached a door halfway down the hall. “In there.” Fate pointed. Karen squinted but couldn’t see anything through the frosted glass.

“Is it a man or a woman? What’s her name? Is anyone in there with her?”

“I think you’ve had enough help in the past few days,” Fate said flatly. She took a step away and vanished. Karen jumped when she heard the slight popping noise of Fate’s departure in the otherwise silent hallway. She glanced up and down the corridor to ensure that no one saw her, and then she opened the door a crack to peer inside.

The specter was a thin older man with white hair. He was standing next to a row of filing cabinets, sifting through the contents of one of them, and laughing quietly. It was more like giggling. He reminded Karen of a child stealing candy from the pantry while the adults were out of the room.

Karen looked over his clothing, hoping to gain some insight into his background, but the clothes didn’t tell her much. He was dressed very casually, wearing a polo shirt, cardigan, jeans, and sneakers. Karen studied his childlike demeanor as he chuckled at whatever he was reading. His eyes were bright and gave off an impression of intelligence. If it weren’t for the white hair and heavily wrinkled skin Karen would have taken him for being quite young.

“Something must be very interesting,” Karen remarked out loud as she leaned halfway in the door. She tried not to wince at the sound of her own voice.

“What?” he asked. His expression changed from delight to caution. He looked up at her and studied her face. When he didn’t recognize her, he waited for her to speak again.

“Whatever you’re reading must be very entertaining,” Karen said with a smile.

“You can see me?” he asked. He had a curt tone that wasn’t impolite, but also wasn’t far from it.

“Yes,” Karen replied. “What are you reading?”

“Courtroom transcripts. People say the most extraordinary things when they’re under oath.”

“Really?” Karen was surprised anyone would find the transcripts interesting.

“Oh, yes.” He quickly shoved the papers he had been reading back into the file cabinets, and then moved to the other side of the closet. “Can you still see me?” he asked.

“Of course. You’ve only moved to the other side. The room isn’t very big.” As she spoke she could feel the pain in her head easing. The size of the hammer was definitely smaller than it had been a few minutes earlier.

“Interesting,” he said to himself as he briefly scratched the back of his neck. Karen waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t.

“Is that case of particular interest to you? Are you an attorney?” Karen asked as she stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind her. “Or do you simply enjoy legal proceedings?”

“These are old cases. I knew the parties involved, which makes the whole thing funnier to me,” he said with a slight chuckle. He looked at Karen, but when she didn’t respond he continued. “It was a divorce case and there are details here I didn’t know about until I read them just now. There’s no way this could be true, but people say all kinds of things when they’re in court.”

“I could see that,” Karen leaned against one of the cabinets. “What’s your name?”

“Will. As in Will Shakespeare, but without the Shakespeare,” he replied. The smile on his face widened.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Will. My name is Karen.”

Will bowed with a comical flourish, and Karen laughed. He had a lot of energy.

“Do you see all ghosts? Or just some?” he asked when she had stopped giggling.

“I — I don’t know,” Karen replied as she thought about it. “I see other ghosts, but I don’t know if I see all of them. How about you? Have you seen other ghosts?”

“Sure. But I prefer the living. The dead are boring. Most of them just stick around where they died, like they’ve nowhere better to go.”

“So you didn’t die here?” Karen asked.

“Hell, no. I came here for fun.”

“To read the transcripts.”

“Yes. I didn’t have the time for this stuff when I was alive, but now I’ve got all the time I need.”

“Is this what you do every day?”

“Of course not!”

“How do you usually spend your time?”

“You’re awfully nosy,” he said as he turned his face slightly away from her.

“I’m sorry,” Karen said. She looked him over and saw that he was unlike any of the other ghosts she’d had to deal with up until this point, and she wondered if Fate was handing her a challenge. She had to be, Karen decided. Whether or not this assignment had been given out of vengeance, Karen was not going to let Fate win. She felt her palms become clammy, but she inhaled deeply and tried to appear confident. “It’s not every day that I meet a ghost like you. You’re confident. You knew just what to do when you died.” Karen smiled as warmly as she was able. “I can’t help being interested.”

The man stood up straighter and took a step forward, his hand outstretched.

“It’s been a long time since anyone saw me or spoke with me. What was your name again?”

“I’m Karen.” They shook hands briefly.

“So, Karen, how is it that you can see me when I’m invisible to everyone else?”

She looked away from him and studied the dark wood panels on the wall above the filing cabinets. She couldn’t exactly tell him the truth. Or could she?

“Fate gave me this ability,” she blurted.

“I don’t believe in fate.” He waved the notion away with a flick of his hand.

“You don’t?”

“No.”

“Do you believe in Fortune?”

“Sure. Fortune is easy to believe in. The evidence is everywhere.”

“But there’s no evidence of Fate?”

“You tell me. Everyone says that when you die you get punished or rewarded for your sins, but I haven’t gotten either. Am I the only person who’s never sinned? Or could it be that fate doesn’t exist and we all get to choose where we go when we die?”

“It could be more complicated,” Karen insisted.

“It’s as complicated as we make it. I’m an easy going guy, always have been.”

“I see that,” Karen nodded. “You don’t seem to have the issues that a lot of ghosts have.”

“They complicate their own existence. Probably did it in life and will continue to do it in death.”

“What about karma?” Karen asked. “Do you believe in that?”

“Karma?” he asked as he turned his head sideways. “Is that a sauce? Or a fashionable drink?”

“No,” Karen replied. She watched him for a moment. Was he joking? When she realized that he really didn’t know, she continued. “It’s the idea that what you put out into the world is what will come back to you.”

“No, that’s not right. If you put something out into the world someone else is going to take it. That’s how people are, and stuff doesn’t just come crawling home all on its own.”

“I see.” Karen tapped her fingers on the edge of one of the cabinets as she thought. Her headache was nearly gone already and she wanted to get out of the building. The room was cramped, and there was nowhere else to talk indoors. “Perhaps we should take a walk in the sunshine? The weather is beautiful.”

“The weather doesn’t matter when you’re dead. I don’t get wet anymore,” he said. “It’s a lot more fun, actually, because I can go running through an electrical storm and not have to worry about getting killed or catching a cold.”

“That must be an incredible feeling.”

“I’m not sure that there’s feeling involved, but it is fun.”

“Would you mind going outside with me?” she asked. “I’d just like the company and this place is a little dark.” He took a moment to look her over one more time and shrugged.

“I’ve got the time,” he said with a laugh as they slipped out the door and headed for the exit.

“What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I came here with a friend, but she’s already left.”

“Sounds rude.”

“Yes, she is,” Karen said with a vigorous nod of her head. “I’m thinking I don’t need to spend time with a friend like that.”