Ghost Story

by J G Jerome

  “Oh shush, you! Eat!” she orders as she smacks my hand.

  Rebecca murmurs, “I swear she’s like the slut reincarnation of my mother.”

  Josie says, “Think about that the next time you lick her pussy.”

  Rebecca cocks and eyebrow at her. “Don’t say anything against it until you try it.” Then she begins to ladle a rich beef stew into our bowls. It is thick and full of vegetables, too.

  Marissa says, “She may not be about to put her face in there, but she is getting good at tribbing.” She takes a bit. “Oh GOD! Rebecca, this is delicious! Great job, baby.”

  “Um hmm!” Josie adds as she chews on a piece of bread. I’m guessing that growing up in mines probably didn’t teach her table manners. Regardless, Rebecca blushes from the praise as I take my first bite.

  “Baby, this is wonderful. Thank you for putting in the work to make it,” I tell her.

  She shyly looks at her bowl. “Thank you, Master.” Then she scoops a spoon into her mouth and evaluates her efforts.

  I tell her, “Don’t even try, Rebecca. It’s delicious. If you want to improve it, we will all be happy to devour the cast-offs.”

  She smiles gloriously at me.

  Marissa shares the story of her day. “Apparently the hospital administrator and the head of surgery took a trip together on Saturday, and no one heard from them until yesterday evening. Apparently, they ran off for a romantic getaway, their car broke down, and so they decided to shack up until it was fixed. They called their admins late last night. Apparently their individual spouses are on a rampage. The admin for the Chief of Surgery called me just as I passed the last Sedona turn off. Fortunately, I was able to pull off at Munds Park. I stopped at the side of the road, called my Sedona customers and Cottonwood customers, and was able to salvage something from the trip. I handled a technical issue in Sedona and placed two orders that were not on my radar. Then I got a call from Rebecca as I popped over the mountain behind Jerome to pick them up at Mama’s house. We all got a workout in while dinner simmered.” She grins. “Enough about my day, I want to eat some of this, so one of you talk for a while.”

  We chuckle. I’m the only one without food in my mouth, so I start.

  “I think you were all surprised that I sold the house. Here’s why I chose to do so.” I pause for a moment to taste the stew. I swallow the tasty morsel as the ladies all wait attentively for my story.

  I look at the newest member of our family, “Josie. On Monday, Julius Lafayette showed up at my property demanding to halt the project in order for him to search for some property of his family that was supposed to be buried on the property.” Josie gets a fearful look on her face. I continue, “Based on what Zach told me, he was mesmerized by the chains. I deduce his ‘property’ was our friend, Gwen. I told him to bugger off.” Josie’s expression looks both thrilled and shocked - her hand is over her mouth.

  I wink at her. “He dragged the city building inspector into the middle of it by bringing him to the site. Zach had them both on a conference call with me. I just regurgitated the documented facts that Bruce Bennett, the inspector, agreed to before I got him to sign the permits. After much posturing and ambiguous threats, he offered to buy my property for one million dollars.”

  “Oh my goodness!” gasps Rebecca.

  I grin at her knowing how much difficulty she has grasping the scale of modern economics. Josie looks on with a similar expression. Marissa is also surprised because she has a pretty good idea that the property was worth about half that much or less.

  I continue, “But wait. It gets better. I told him I couldn’t sell for less than two million. He claimed it was too much, and he protested my greed. So, I raised the price by another million. He threatened me, I told him that I have killed better men than him and that the price was now five million. He sputtered and threatened, and I admitted that I couldn’t in good conscience go any higher despite it being warranted by his behavior. I gave Zach instructions to save all the rubble from the demolition, which was happily still on site. Eventually, Lafayette succumbed to the desire to get his hands on ‘his property.’ He agreed.”

  I take a sip of wine. “This afternoon I signed the final documents. The contract will close and be recorded tomorrow. If all goes as planned, I will have a little over four and a half million dollars of Mr. Lafayette’s money. I’ll owe Zach’s company roughly two hundred thousand in penalties. That will leave a little over four million to build our home.”

  Rebecca asks, “Do you think it’s Gwen he’s after?”

  “He just arrived a few weeks before he killed the Leuvenfelds. They built that house. The only other option is that he dropped something after he killed Josie and is looking for it in the rubble. Did he have any specific valuable possessions?”

  “He had a knife from his grandfather that was supposedly a ceremonial sacrificial knife from an old Jewish temple in Jerusalem. He also had a notebook that he always kept with him. He always said he didn’t need anything but his own power. Compared to you, he wasn’t very powerful. Compared to others in craft, he was pretty powerful. Charlene once told me that he had a nemesis from New Orleans. They dueled three times. Mr. Saint Jacques defeated him easily each time. He supposedly left Lafayette alive each time to watch him suffer.”

  I think to myself, ‘Five-times Great Grand-papa - what were you? I could really use your guidance about now.’

  I tell my ladies, “At Bernadette’s, I was counseled to learn to hide my power. How do I do that, Josie?”

  Josie looks at me wide-eyed. “I don’t know, William. I never was in a position to learn.”

  Rebecca says, “I know of potions, but they either permanently lock it away until an antidote is administered, or they are temporary and unreliable. Some of them just dampen it permanently.”

  I tap a tattoo on the table for a moment’s pause. “Hold on a minute. I’ll be right back.”

  I walk to the bathroom noting the bedroom door is standing open. I close the bathroom door and start focusing on the idea that ‘I’m not here.’ I focus on it with deep breathing, and then I try to keep the idea in mind as I walk into the bedroom and back out into the great room. The ladies are talking about home decorating. As I carefully walk around the loveseat to stand behind Rebecca. I figure doing this to Marissa might result in a bloody nose, so I stop here and place my hands on Rebecca’s shoulders. All three of them startle, and as I suspect, Marissa is on her feet ready to attack in an instant.

  “How did that work?” I ask.

  Josie looks at me consideringly as Marissa warily takes her seat. Marissa says, “I didn’t see you at all until you were standing with your hands on Rebecca’s shoulder.”

  Josie adds, “I could feel you nearby, but I didn’t notice you walking in.” I nod.

  Rebecca adds, “I always sense you when you’re near.”

  Josie nods, and Marissa interjects, “I envy you that.”

  Rebecca grabs Marissa’s hand and continues. “Despite knowing you were near, I thought you were still in the bath. I didn’t feel you behind me until your hands landed on my shoulders.”

  Josie is still analyzing as I kiss Rebecca’s lips and retake my seat. Finally she says, “It wasn’t that your power was hidden. You were. It’s like you were not here. What did you do?”

  “Something any prey knows to do,” I answer. “I had a Tac-Sergeant tell us in AIT, ‘when you are being hunted, find a defensible position and focus on the idea that “I’m not here.”’ I used it in combat a couple of times - it allowed me to hide a wounded buddy and get us both out alive.”

  Josie says, “I wonder if it would work if they knew you were there.”

  Rebecca says, “I heard about that happening in Apache skirmishes. Your power may actually make it more effective for you than others.”

  I shrug, “Maybe? After Clarice and Bernadette told me to hide my power, I thought about it the whole way home. I practiced focusing on it when there was no traffic near me. Then I saw
Lafayette coming into the Title Agency as I was leaving. I started focusing on it, walked past the receptionist, and sat in the lobby. Lafayette came in and asked for me, I slipped out the door he held open, and she directed him to the conference room I was in earlier. I maintained it until I was out of their lines of sight.”

  Josie continues to ponder. “Maybe if you concentrated on, ‘I have no power’ instead of ‘I’m not here?’ That would mean you would be focusing on only hiding what you want to. I wonder if maybe your power can help do that.”

  I purse my lips as I consider it. “It’s worth a try, Darlin’. Maybe you can help me practice. All of us probably should. Lafayette will be able to sense power. I felt his as he walked into the lobby. Also, Audrey’s biggest fear is the Catholic Church coming to find me. She said they enslave necromancers and kill witches outright.”

  “Definitely going to work on that,” Rebecca says emphatically.

  “Why would the Church do that?” Marissa asks.

  I hold her hand. “Apparently, they take the whole ‘suffer not a witch to live’ quite literally. They supposedly managed to kill most of them off in World War One - apparently they all volunteered to nurse on both sides of the conflict. Audrey said the Germans killed them all at the Church’s request - apparently their own as well as the allies. There might be some that survived, but the urban legend is they are all dead. Our Rebecca may be the only one in existence.” Josie and Marissa both get up and hug her, kneeling on either side of her.

  Marissa asks, “So what about necromancers? The idea is mind-boggling to me that you exist at all, but I think you are all pretty harmless to most folks.”

  Josie immediately starts shaking her head. I nod at her. “I see Josie disagrees with that statement.”

  She clarifies, “Most are power-hungry and not the least bit compassionate.” Then she gets all doe-eyed. “Unlike our William.” I scrape the dregs from my bowl and smile as I chew.

  I share what I know. “I don’t know exactly what all this means, but Audrey had a pretty comprehensive picture. Apparently the Church has a ‘ministry’ that hunts down rogue demons. They send out three-person teams of a necromancer, sorcerer, and a bad-ass normal they refer to as a ‘hunter.’ The hunter finds and kills while the sorcerer binds and expels demons from this plane. The necromancer is there to keep the other two alive, expel demons from hosts, and - this is just speculation - provide weapons of mass destruction. The hunters are generally scary dudes, but the sorcerers and necromancers are generally pretty bad-ass too.”

  “I saw you spar with Daddy,” Marissa says somberly. “You’re pretty bad-ass yourself, Will.” Josie nods as Rebecca’s gaze works it’s way around a couple of circuits around the table.

  “So,” I say. “That is why I need to figure out how to hide my power.” I look at my two crafter ladies. “Both of you, too.”

  “And I will defend you all,” Marissa murmurs fiercely. “I grew up in the Church, but I will let no one harm my family.”

  “I believe it,” I tell her. “Regardless, Audrey’s father and her ‘Uncle Jack’ are two of the few that the Church ever allowed to retire. I inferred from her words that most die on the job. Her dad has a lot of kills under his belt, and apparently ‘Uncle Jack’ was the Jack Reacher of the Hunter teams - they sent him after the difficult cases and even ‘rogue hunters,’ whatever those are. Part of the agreement with the Church that allowed them to retire is they are required to report demon activity and sightings of necromancers.” I ponder that for a moment, “I’m not sure how Bernadette has managed to avoid getting reported.”

  Josie moves to the bottom line. “So we have to all start training on this immediately.”

  “Yes,” the rest of us all agree in unison.

  “Also…” I add. “We need to find a place to live. This isn’t going to work for long. However, I do think that I will keep the two of you registered here for about a year, so you start to create roots for your legends.”

  “Legends?” Rebecca asks.

  “Your official identity,” Marissa says.

  “Oh! THAT’s why you said my name wrong when you introduced me to Audrey,” Rebecca says.

  I nod, “Exactly. Anytime we are communicating electronically, we need to maintain those legends.”

  “NO!” Josie exclaims adamantly. “I am not living apart from any of you.” She points a finger at me. “I felt adrift when you left, Will. Thank Heaven for my sisters keeping me grounded and distracted.”

  Rebecca purses her lips before agreeing. “What she said.”

  “Definitely been watching too much TV,” I say. They don’t even smile. “Okay, that idea goes in the reject bin. How do you feel about buying the old Prescott Hotel building and renovating it? We can live on the top floor.”

  They look at each other as I grab another piece of bread and slather butter on it.

  Marissa says, “That will take a while. I want to live with you all now. I suppose we could all live in the guest house until it’s ready, but I’m not sure my parents’ reaction will be very pleasant. I know you would try to avoid hurting Daddy, but he won’t be holding back if he thinks you’re not treating me properly.”

  I just look at her for a moment. She says, “I saw you Will. I saw you start to move, and then change tactics to something less devastating. Daddy caught a couple of them. You shook him with that combination of Krav Maga and Aiki techniques, but I think he missed most of your change ups.”

  “I’m not all that, Marissa.”

  “Yeah, Will. I think you are. I’m so convinced that I want to start training with you. I want you to train all of us. With the risk of the Church hunting you three, I want all of us to be as prepared as possible.”

  Josie nods, “I didn’t miss that you didn’t tell anyone that I’m an apprentice necromancer and thaumaturge.”

  I nod as I grasp her hand. “I’m afraid they would treat you like a bug under a looking glass.”

  Josie smiles widely as Rebecca giggles. Rebecca says, “Thank you for using an idiom from our time, Will.”

  Josie says, “Maria showed us a house today on Mount Vernon. She knows the owner, and they are going to put it - ‘up for sale?’ Is that the right term?”

  Marissa and I both confirm it is, and Josie continues. “It is a one story with a porch across the front. Maria called it a craftsman style house. She said it’s big enough for us all to live there, and that it has a full…” She thinks back to remember the right word. “...a full basement.”

  Rebecca says, “Her friend gave us a tour of the house. It’s gorgeous. It has a lovely modern kitchen. The…” She looks at Josie to confirm. “...Master Suite?” Josie nods. “The Master Suite was as big as this whole front area of the apartment. There are four more small bedrooms and two more bathrooms. The living and dining space is about three times this size.”

  Marissa says, “Oh! They’re finally selling?” She grabs my hand excitedly. “Will, that’s what we need to buy! It would be perfect for us! The basement is actually two stories deep. It would give us room to expand with the other ghosts in the bolts, Audrey, your boss, or whomever.”

  All three ladies are nodding excitedly. “Okay,” I say. “Let’s see if Maria will get us all in to see it tomorrow. I’ll also call Delores about seeing the hotel tomorrow.”

  Marissa says, “That might be a good business opportunity either way, and we can always keep the top floor for ourselves until we decide we are ready to expand for more rooms.”

  I sit back and sip my wine. “It sounds like we have a plan for tomorrow. I have a couple other things,” I tell them. “First of all, we’re supposed to FaceTime Audrey tonight.” I look at Marissa. “She met Josie and Rebecca this afternoon, but she wants to meet you, too.”

  Marissa cocks an eyebrow. Rebecca says, “Josie already threatened to kill her if she hurts William like that again.”

  Marissa smirks. “Good. So I probably only need to give her the hairy eyeball for about thirty secon
ds.” She smiles at me. “The girls told me about her. She sounds like fun.”

  I smile at her. “The other thing is that Bernadette has asked me to come help her with an issue using my craft. You are all invited. You will meet her entire staff, one of whom is Viktorija. Viktorija was new to Bernadette’s service when I met her a couple years back, and I’ve kept our relationship very platonic. She made it very clear that she hated the idea of giving her body to customers. I gave her hugs, cuddles and friendship. I introduced her to Audrey. Apparently, they are BFFs now, and Viktorija was instrumental in getting Audrey and I back together.”

  “Oh! How nice,” Rebecca says.

  “Viktorija made it very clear that she will be showing up at our door when her service to Bernadette is complete. I ask that you all get to know her. We may also get visits from Bernadette and some of her other staff for ‘vacations.’ One in particular, Candice, is struggling with a relationship. I know you all will welcome whoever shows up, but I want you to be prepared.”

  Josie looks at me for a moment, but she eventually shrugs and nods. Rebecca and Marissa nod after watching Josie’s reaction.

  I ask, “What was that about, Josie?”

  “That was me trying not to be a bitch,” she says shyly. “I wanted to scream ‘no more!’ Then I thought about what would have happened to me if Marissa, Rebecca, or Audrey had said that about me. I may still get jealous, but I’ll try not to. They don’t deserve my anger. Honestly, neither do you.”

  She raises her eyes to look at me with moist eyes. Rebecca grabs her hand and says, “Tell him, Josie.”

  Josie drops her eyes again before rolling her shoulders back and raising her gaze to mine. “Necromancers generally have many partners. It’s common to use the Arabian term - hareem. The more powerful they are, the larger the harem. Yours will likely be - huge.”

  I sigh before I put my napkin on the table and lift her to her feet. I wrap her in a hug. “You are still special, Josie. You are still unique. I could never replace you, even if you had no power at all.”