The Guidance (25 page)

"He's here," Loreen whispers from behind me.

"I know."

Courtney works up a good spit and propels it onto Miss Evelyn's expensive Chinese rug. "Wha'd'ya want?"

Stephanie grimaces and moves forward at the action, but Taylor holds her back.

"We'd like to talk to you, Major," I say as calmly as possible, even though I pretty much want to throw up Mom's famed chicken and rice casserole. "We haven't been formally introduced, even though we've run into each other a lot. I'm Kendall Moorehead."

"I know who you are."

"Yes, sir," I say, trying to be polite to him in spite of his hostility. "These are my friends."

Courtney's face seems aged and weathered. "How do you know me?"

"I've read all about you, Major. Major Nathan Fair from Columbus, Ohio, assigned to the Seventeenth Corps of General Sherman's army. We're here to help you, Major."

"You're not here to do anything of the sort," Courtney growls in a deep voice. Then she coughs and sputters out, "Help me!" in her own cheerleader falsetto. She falls to her knees and begins to cry.

Father Mass doesn't hesitate. He steps forward and holds out a cross. "God of gods and Lord of lords, Creator of the fiery ranks, and Fashioner of the fleshless powers, the Artisan of heavenly things and those under the heavens, whom no man has seen, nor is able to see, whom all creation fears: Into the dark depths of hell you hurled the commander who had become proud, and who, because of his disobedient service, was cast down from the height to earth, as well as the angels that fell away with him, all having become evil demons. Grant that this my exorcism being performed in your awesome name be terrible to the master of evil and to all his minions who had fallen with him from the height of brightness. Drive him into banishment, commanding him to depart hence, so that no harm might be worked against your sealed image. And as you have commanded, let those who are sealed receive the strength to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all power of the enemy. For manifested, hymned, and glorified with fear, by everything that has breath is your most holy name: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and into ages of ages. Amen."

"Amen," we all repeat. Wow—he
did
come prepared.

This prayer only serves to anger Fair even more; Courtney begins pounding her fists on the carpet. "You don't understand! You'll never understand!"

I drop to my knees as well. "Then
make
me understand!"

I toss holy water around Courtney until she starts screaming. The piercing sound stabs at my chest, breaking my heart in two. Is this Courtney yelling out in pain, or Fair unleashing his rage?

I try to comfort the girl who dislikes me so. "Courtney, can you hear me? You've got to help me help you."

Totally ignoring me, Courtney/Fair knock me backward as she gets up and paces around the room like a caged animal. Jason's lips flatten and his eyes darken. Now's not the time for him to get all alpha male on my ass. Sometimes dealing with spirits can be a little rough. I'm okay.

I put my hand to his chest, feeling his uneven breathing underneath my fingers. "It wasn't Courtney. It was Fair."

"Either way, I'll rip his throat out."

"He's dead," I note.

"That's right. So I'll have to hit him harder."

Ahh, my alpha wolf.
Tres
cute.

Meanwhile, Courtney's screaming continues at decibel levels that would make a dog's ears bleed. Loreen can't take it anymore; she crosses the room and puts herself in Courtney's/ Fair's face.

"Get out of the girl, you monster, and enter me," she nearly commands. "She's not strong enough. I am. You can speak through me and we'll do whatever we can to assist you."

The laugh—that nasty dark one—reverbs off the walls of the near-empty ballroom. Courtney's lips lift in the corners and she says in a deep growl, "You aren't strong enough for me, Loreen Woods."

Loreen and I make eye contact. Behind us, Father Mass is still reading from the
Book of Occasional Services
. Something's got to get through to this ghost.

A soft hand is on my shoulder, and I look up to see Loreen's concerned expression. Her eyes plead with me. "You've got to talk to him, Kendall. Make Fair listen."

"I don't know what to say."

"Just try," Loreen says. "You're the one he approached first. If anyone can convince him to move on, it's you."

I wheel around in time to see massive tears gushing out of Courtney's eyes. No longer do I see the cocky bitch who terrorized me with pomegranate applesauce or the cheerleader who mockingly called me Ghost Girl. I see the good inside Courtney that's crying out for help. I concentrate on her soul and the peace it's seeking. As I try to connect with her on a spiritual level, her face becomes blurred in my sight. Her image shifts into that of a man in a blue uniform. Tall, too thin, and terribly hurt and confused. He steps forward, away from Courtney, but not totally out of her, and she slumps to the floor.

"What do you want, girlie?"

I'm standing face to face with Major Nathan Fair.

And, boy, is he pissed.

"What happened, Major?"

"Can you see him, Kendall?" Taylor asks softly.

I nod. So does Loreen. I don't know if she can see him as plainly as I can, but I know she senses his presence.

Nathan Fair growls in my direction. He's taller than I am, but the hazards and wear of war have made him hunch over slightly. He seems dirty and sad and ... lost. Does he even know he's dead? That the war was finished a century and a half ago? How do you convey that to a spirit stuck in time?

"What do you mean, what happened?" he snarls beneath his mustache. "
War's
been happening, child! Death and starvation and weeklong marches. Pestilence and dysentery and blood and dismemberment. Men killing men without a thought about what the other may have left behind. Armies rising and falling. Women with no husbands returning. Babies with no fathers. Losing years of youthful days and love in your life."

Fury emanates from him toward me, and I feel each surge of his wrath hit me like a radioactive wave. I've encountered several spirits these past couple of months and none has had this amount of resentment and negative energy.

I close my eyes and try to breathe out love and understanding to him. "What can we do to ease this anger inside you? The turmoil that you've been taking out on Courtney."

He glances over his shoulder at where she sits, huddled on the ground, whimpering.

"She opened herself up to me."

"I understand that," I say, trying to be diplomatic. "But oppressing her like you've been doing isn't right. She's just a teenager and you're making her act the fool in front of the whole school."

"That was her choice."

"She didn't know any better," I plead. "She was jealous of me for a really stupid reason."

"I saw an opening and I took it."

Loreen steps up next to me. "Ask him about Ada."

Fair lurches forward, suddenly on my left, then my right, then straight on. "What
about
Ada? What do you know? Nothing!"

I take one of those long yoga breaths Mom's always telling about and I center my energies so I can focus solely on Nathan Fair. I've got to remain calm—and not freakin' pee my pants like I pretty much want to do. "We—my friends and I—we read Ada's diaries. They just ... end ... as if you ... just ended."

Furiously, Fair pulls his cap off and throws it to the ground. "Oh? Is that what her diary implies? Does it also say that Ada didn't wait for me?"

"Huh?"

His voice roars like the engine of a 747 whooshing away from Chicago's O'Hare. "She got married!"

I spin to face Becca and Jason. "Ada got married?"

Jason shakes his head. "I didn't read that."

"Neither did I," Becca adds.

Miss Evelyn speaks up. "Why, yes, she married. I could have told you that. The family Bible has her name as Ada Parry Kenney."

"Kenney!" Fair screams out so powerfully that I jump.

"That struck a nerve," I say as my pulse strums under my skin. "Who is Kenney, Major Fair? Did you know him?"

Becca moves her digital voice recorder in the direction of where I'm speaking. I hope she gets some of this! Taylor's taking pictures left and right. I have to ignore their investigative work and give my full attention to the spirit before me and the electrifying connection flowing between the two of us.

"Yes, I knew the bastard. His rank was colonel, but his status was weasel."

Now we're getting somewhere. "Was Kenney in your unit?"

"Aye. Colonel James Kenney from Connecticut," Major Fair explains as he strokes his beard. "At one time, I considered him a friend—before I left Radisson, that is."

While they're working, the rest of my team is on pins and needles listening to the one-sided conversation. I fill them in the best I can. I soften my voice and meet Fair's eyes with mine. "See my friend over here? That's Stephanie. She's Ada's great-great-great-granddaughter."

"Lovely child," he comments after a moment.

"What did he say?" asks Stephanie.

"He said you're pretty."

Her face reddens. "Oh. Thanks."

I face him again. "Tell me about Ada, Major. We all want to know."

This request seems to soothe him some. He takes three paces to the left and stares out of the lace-curtained window like he's reliving a precious memory. "Ada was a strong woman on the outside, but I saw into her soul, to the fragile and frightened girl. It was wartime. What do women know of war?"

I decide not to tell him that our armed forces have been letting women in since the mid-1960s and women are now going to war just like men. Not information he necessarily needs to know.

"But you were there for her. You showed her great kindness," I tell him.

"I tried." Fair's eyes are distant as he remembers the woman he loved. "Her hair was so thick and soft. Delicate ladylike hands that could dance over the piano keyboard with such care. Those hands became rough as she constantly waited on us and worked to grow any food she could in the garden for her father and sister."

I smile at him. "She mentions in her diary that you brought vegetables to her."

"That I did."

I hate to rile him up when he seems unruffled right now. However, I've got to piece this puzzle together and get Fair to move along. "Sir? Without getting too upset, can you please tell me about this Kenney guy?"

Loreen puts her hand on my arm. "The energy in the room just shifted. I feel something dark and brooding again."

"I heard a growl," Becca says.

Celia agrees. "Was that someone's stomach?"

No one fesses up.

I watch Fair fist his hands at his sides, the knuckles losing all color.

"Kenney was my friend. We fought side by side. We drank whiskey together. We celebrated the fall of Atlanta together. And we both ended up here in Radisson. Kenney knew I was in love with Ada. Hell, everyone knew. I couldn't keep it to myself. The morning that I was instructed to head east to Savannah, well, it damn near broke my heart. Hers too. She wanted to come with me. Of course, that was impossible. Kenney promised me he'd watch out for Ada until I returned. He watched out for her, all right," he says through his clenched teeth, seething.

I relay this to my team. Taylor sniffles at the sadness of the tale. Celia steps forward. "How long was he in Savannah?"

Fair hears her. "I had no sense of time without Ada. It was days, weeks, months—who knows? I wrote her constantly. Every night, in fact."

"Did you hear back from her?" I ask, careful where I'm treading.

"No. My heart was broken, thinking something had happened to her because I was gone. I trusted my fellow soldiers, but they're only men in a desperate time. I feared for her sanctity and her virtue although Kenney assured me he'd watch out for her. Had something become of him that he could no longer protect my Ada?"

My chest aches at the colossal pressure and loss of love Nathan Fair is experiencing. It's hard even to catch a good strong breath for fear the searing air won't properly fill my lungs. This is such total sadness. There really isn't a bigger word for it. Like a death ... sorrow, misery, grief ... any of these words will do.

Loreen moves her hand over her chest and doubles over with a groan. Next thing I know, Father Mass is at her side. Her face is contorted in pain and tears stream from her eyes.

"I've never felt such despair," she says between quick breaths.

"Loreen, what can I do to help?" Father Mass asks.

She doesn't answer; she grabs his hand and holds on tightly. "It'll pass. He knows I'm stronger than Kendall and he's testing me. Testing all of us."

"Come on, Major. Leave Loreen alone!" I shout out. "We're here to get to the bottom of everything."

At that, Loreen's knees collapse and she falls into Father Massimo's arms. She continues to hold his hand as her breathing returns to normal. "He showed me everything," she manages to get out. "He went crazy with worry for Ada, to the point that he went AWOL from the army."

"Holy crap," Celia exclaims.

I notice Loreen lean into Father Mass and put her head on his chest. He shushes into her hair, pushing it away from her face. She continues though. "H-h-he stole a fellow officer's horse and rode for a week to Radisson with hardly any food or water. By the time he got here, he was completely mad. H-h-he saw that Ada was married ... to Kenney. Fair took his pistol and was going to shoot Kenney, but it backfired in Fair's face and killed him instantly."

I slink away, my own knees wobbly, and sit on a nearby chair to collect myself. The team is taking in this information as Loreen regains her composure. Fair has faded away, but he's not gone. I still sense his essence plainly. I guess we all need a break.

Taylor reaches into the hip pocket of her jeans and pulls out a small pack of Kleenex. She dabs her eyes with one and then passes them to Becca.

"Are you kidding me?" Becca shakes her off and puts the headphones on. "I don't know what exactly the two of you were talking to, but the recording software is picking up shit left and right. We've probably got a ton of EVPs on here."