“Okay, let’s go try on some dresses,” I said, breaking the awkward silence.
“That a girl,” Mom said as she patted my back.
The shop was quaint but clean and classy. The two shop girls were almost identical with their bleach blonde hair cut into bobs. The only difference was their height. One was insanely tall and the other was so short she could pass as a child. They greeted us with smiles and Lyn talked first, “We need dresses for our dance this weekend.”
“Oh, this weekend huh?” said the tall blonde, whose name was Alexis. “Well we don’t have a lot in stock right now. Most of our designer dresses are special order and we won’t get them until next week at the soonest.”
“Well what do you have?” I spoke up.
The short blonde, Mari, said, “We don’t have name brands, but we do have some ‘off brand’ dresses.”
“We don’t need designer, we just need dresses.” I was shocked at how they spoke, as if we would only go for the name brand dresses. I noticed the designer name dress catalogues on the table. They must be swamped with snobby beach girls who only wanted mommy and daddy to buy them the best dresses. I used to be that girl, but not anymore. Now any dress would do. It was only for one night, what did I care whose name was on the dress? As long as I got to spend the night with Ephraim I would be pleased.
“Terrific, follow me,” Mari said, as she took us to the dressing rooms. Mom sat outside my dressing room and played with her cell. Probably checking her email.
Once I was inside the room Mari helped get my measurements and told me to undress. As I did I was forced to look at myself in the trifold of mirrors surrounding me. I looked skinny, like I had lost some serious weight. I had not been eating properly lately. Too much stress had me neglecting myself.
She came back with four incredible blue dresses, the very color I asked her for. They ranged in shades of blue, from baby to dark blue. I tried dress one and didn’t like it instantly. Dress two was so-so, and three sucked badly. It was dress four, the cerulean blue, the same color as Ephraim’s eyes, which had my attention. Mari came back to check on me and I could tell she liked it on me. “Do you model?” she asked as she checked the fit of the dress.
I laughed, “No I don’t.”
“Well you should, you have the right body, height, and face for it. You’re beautiful. But you know that, don’t you?” She chuckled. I stared at myself in the mirror ignoring Mari altogether as she went on and on about how much money models made. I loved the fit of the dress; it was like it was made just for me. The strapless gown was almost goddess like, with jewels on the bodice. The skirt was flowing with a handkerchief hem. I swayed side to side making the dress swirl. It was perfect and as I looked at the price tag I was even happier. I stepped out of the room to show it off and Lyn was standing in her dress. Her dress was a one shoulder aqua green cocktail dress, as it was shorter than my full-length gown. It accented her shape, and showed off a body that no one quite knew she had.
“Wow Lyn, you have a great body,” I blurted. She turned red and I felt bad, but it was the truth.
“Thanks, your dress is striking Brylee. You look like a Greek goddess.”
Mom cried at the sight of both of us in our gowns and we immediately went in and changed out of them. I felt an excitement that I hadn’t felt in such a long time. I was ready to have fun with Ephraim and Lyn this weekend.
Chapter Twenty-One
The rest of the week flew by with school being a major pain in the ass. The only good thing about it was seeing Ephraim and Lyn every day. There wasn’t any more trouble with the Mayhew Mayhem. Ephraim still didn’t eat with us at lunch, just in case it caused issues. I hated that he was separated from us but he said he didn’t mind it. Lyn and Miles played kissy face at the lunch table every day, but I thought it was cute. I was pulling good grades as usual and Mr. Coombs, my art teacher, was pleased with my help. He told me he would be helping me advance in art so that I could be challenged. It was something that I had wanted for a long time.
My house was quiet for now, no visits from anyone. Even I knew that would be short lived. I let Ephraim keep the key for now and I even let him hold onto the family tree. We made a plan that after the dance we would visit the lady in town who did the genealogy and ask her if she drew them. I was in no rush to find out right now. I just wanted to have fun at the dance this Saturday night; I didn’t want to think about anything else. So when Mom asked me Friday after school why I hid all the smoke detectors in the freezer, I was a bit bummed.
“Mom, why in the world would I put them in there?” She tapped her foot as she showed me all ten of the frozen smoke detectors that lay upon the table.
“I don’t know Bry, who else would do it? Maybe you were trying to be funny.”
“Mom I swear on my life it wasn’t me.” She looked stern but realized I was telling the truth. I went upstairs and fell on my bed since my head was now pounding. They were still playing games with us. They thought maybe it was funny to put them in the freezer, or maybe they thought that’s where they belonged. I had no clue. I didn’t want to know.
I rolled over and pulled out my sketchpad. Drawing for a while might help me forget about it all. I had just started drawing Kayla’s choppy hair when I felt the mist on the back of my neck. Chills took over and I closed my eyes.
“Go away! Go away!” I shrieked. I didn’t want to be messed with right now. I didn’t want to talk to anyone.
“Brylee,” Pearl’s little voice sounded sad. “What’s wrong? Are you upset with me?” Now I felt horrible for hurting the ghost girl’s feeling.
“No, I’m not mad at you I just want to be alone. I’m sorry I didn’t know it would be you.” I rolled over and found her wide eyed at my admission.
“Who else would be coming to talk to you? I told you not to talk to the others. Please tell me you didn’t talk to them.” For a little girl she sure bossed me around.
I had no choice but to tell her about her mom’s little visit to me. In which she promptly responded, that I shouldn’t worry about her.
“She’s harmless, my mother just wants to help me.”
“I know that now but she was awfully scary. I mean, you never looked like that or tried to scare me.” She nodded and played with her hair.
“Mother has good intentions, I am sure she didn’t mean to alarm you.”
“Pearl, she wanted me to be scared, trust me.” I told her about Kayla and how she had died trying to help her get the key. To which curly had no response. She just sat on my bed and stared at the wall.
“Do you see what I mean now, Pearl? She wanted to help you and in turn she got a girl killed. She doesn’t want me to talk to you and to become close to you. She doesn’t understand that what happened to Kayla won’t happen to me. I have the key, I found it.” I was pondering on telling her, but it felt right. She looked frightened once I did. It was odd to see a scared ghost.
“No, you mustn’t open the door, no matter what mother wants for me. It must stay locked. You don’t understand Brylee; there are things in there that will hurt you. Promise me you will throw that key away and never look back. Promise!”
“Okay I promise.” I don’t know why I promised, because I had full intentions on helping her move on. What is the worst that can happen? What could be so dangerous behind that door? I had faced ghosts. I could handle one room, it wasn’t any different than the other rooms in this house. “I must go now; did you find the family tree?” I shook my head ‘no’ lying to her again. “Oh, well please keep looking. For some reason the others are desperate to find it.”
“Why do they want it so badly?” I asked her before she left.
“They didn’t say, but I think it’s because they are searching for the rest of our family. It seems the family tree was created after our curse, so we have no idea who has survived. We do know that no one has claimed their life in this house for many, many years.”
So some of the Brown’s did escape the curse. That
was a good thing, that no one else took their life due to the curse.
“Do they want to harm them?” I asked.
“Of course not.” Then she faded.
The night of the dance I could feel the temperature drop about ten degrees. Of course on the night I was wearing a sleeveless gown it would be freezing out. I stood at my bathroom mirror and painted my lips a glossy pink. When my mom came in she handed me an off white shawl.
“My grandmother crocheted that for my wedding. I think it will help keep you warm tonight.” I eyed the detail of the shawl and wrapped it around my arms. I had no idea crochet was so beautiful, but it was.
“Thanks Mom, it will be perfect.” She looked at me with glossy eyes and I looked away. “I will be downstairs in a few minutes.”
“You look so beautiful honey. I am so happy that you have made friends, good friends too. You deserve to be happy. When you’re ready head down, Ephraim is here.”
I dropped my mascara suddenly nervous. “Already? He’s early.”
“Yes, well early is better than late.”
I put the finishing touches on my hair, which I left down. It cascaded around my shoulders in big curls, and my make-up was simple. I gave myself one last look before I was ready to see Ephraim. As I cleaned up the sink from my products I heard a sound. I stopped and strained to listen. It was almost like singing and it was coming from behind the bathroom door. I didn’t want to deal with this now, but I had to see what it was. I opened the door carefully; the dark rooms were quiet now. I listened again and heard it, it was music, I was certain of that. Where it came from, I didn’t know. I walked into the fireplace room and it wasn’t in there. I went back into the hallway; I knew where it was coming from. The corner room was the source of the sound, but Pearl had warned me to stay away. I didn’t listen; instead I crept closer to the door. I put my ear up to it. I heard the music; it wasn’t from this era that was for sure. It was a bluesy song, with trumpet and piano. Then I heard laughter, I pressed my ear closer to hear well. It was children laughing. My heart beat so loudly that I had a hard time making out whether it was one child or two. As I pressed my body against the door, someone pushed against it from the other side. I jumped away, but could now hear the screams of someone inside. I would have run, but my legs didn’t work. The screams were so real that I considered calling for my dad, until I saw Violet in the stairwell below me. I jumped back and crawled away from her as she walked up to meet me. Her face wasn’t dark like before but she didn’t look happy.
“What are you doing here?” she asked me. I tried to answer, to tell her I heard music and children, but my voice didn’t work either. My body had ceased to exist for the present moment. “You mustn’t get involved, young girl. You have to leave this alone.”
“I... I know what happened to Kayla. I know you were just trying to help your daughter.” I stumbled across my words. I was able to talk now but it was hard.
“You know about Kayla? Well, then you know that my actions got her killed. My actions got my whole family killed. Including all three of my children. That is something I must bear every day of my existence now.” She looked so drained and sad. I couldn’t imagine an after-life full of sadness.
“I can help you,” I whispered. “I have the key, I can open the door.”
“You have it? How did you find it?” She walked toward me now as I started to stand. “If you could open it, my youngest daughter would go free.”
“What is in there that holds her here?”
“I am not sure what it is, but the sisters told me the only way for Pearl to move on is to show her the secrets of her past.” She looked away from me as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I know the secrets of course, but the sisters told me I cannot be the one to tell her. I must show her. The proof is in that room, whatever it is. What I did to my daughter, bringing her back like that, was so wrong of me.”
“How did you know the sister’s would curse you? You were only trying to bring her back, you were desperate for help,” I offered.
“Yes, so desperate that I made a pact with them, one that killed so many. Do you know of the curse then?” I nodded and she went on. “Not only did I curse them, but they keep us here in this house for our entire after-life. We aren’t allowed to move on. But Pearl, she can, only if I show her the secrets. Young girl, if you could open the door, she could move on. But it must be you that opens the door and no one else.” I have to admit, I wished I had that key, I would have done it right then, but Ephraim had it and we had a dance to attend.
“I can get it, it’s not here, but I will get it. Tonight I will open the door for you.” She beamed, so happy that I was going to help Pearl. “What can I do to help the rest of you move on?”
“Nothing, we are locked here forever. Unless you find the sisters, but that’s impossible.” I had learned the past few weeks that nothing was impossible. Talking to Violet was possible for me and I could find the Barclay sisters. I didn’t know where to start, but I would find them.
“Brylee, are you coming downstairs or what?” My dad was coming up the stairs. I shuffled into the bathroom, wiped the tears from my face, I hadn’t even realized I was crying. As I put on my shawl Dad reached the top of the steps. I put a smile on my face, hoping it didn’t look too fake. Dad smiled back and took my hands in his.
“You look beautiful, but too grown up. Did your mother approve this dress?” I smacked his chest lightly.
“Dad stop, it’s not that revealing. Have you seen how some of these Jersey girls dress, I mean look at Jersey Shore.”
“Well, you have a point there. You just look so…” he didn’t finish. I knew where it was going. My dad didn’t like to see his little girl growing up. I hugged him and it felt nice after what I just went through with Violet. At least this time she didn’t go all scary psycho ghost on me.
Dad and I went down the steps to reach Ephraim, who was probably wondering what was taking me so darn long. Butterflies filled my stomach as we reached the landing. I tried to focus on not falling down in these heels. I hadn’t been wearing heels like I had back home and my feet were protesting these shoes tonight.
We rounded the corner of the living room and there he stood looking like a model in a magazine. Ephraim’s cream tux made me think of vanilla ice cream, and other terrible thoughts. He looked good enough to eat. I swallowed the naughty thoughts and focused on his blue eyes, which were eyeing me up and down, his thoughts were probably on the same thing.
“Oh you two are going to look so stunning together,” Mom said, as she pulled me next to him. “Okay some photo’s now squeeze together.”
“They’re standing pretty close honey,” Dad growled. Ephraim and I laughed at my dad’s nervous humor and posed for our pictures. After taking what seemed like a hundred-million of them, I put a stop to the photo session. We were running late as it was due to my visit with Violet. I said goodbye to my parents, with Dad mumbling under his breath about not being late. Ephraim held the truck door for me and I got into an already warmed up cab. He joined me and we headed to the dance. Once we were alone I wasn’t as nervous as before, but the nerves were still there. I decided to not talk about Violet until later, I didn’t want to ruin the moment.
“Where’s Lynley?” I asked him, wondering if she got a ride with Miles.
“Miles’ parents are driving them,” he replied hiding a smirk. I had him all to myself right now. I checked out his suit. It was so crisp and classy, there was something about seeing him all dressed up that had my heart hammering in my chest. He looked especially hot and I felt like I didn’t deserve him. He was too perfect for someone like me. He adjusted his baby blue tie and cleared his throat.
“Why are you staring at me?” He tilted his head and met my eyes.
“Uh, just checking out your tux.” I blushed and focused on the road. I noticed him passing the school. “Why are you driving past the school? Shouldn’t we be driving into the parking lot?” I noticed all the lights off.
I took his arm as he helped me out, noticing right away Marcy and her pack of rabid mean girls. They instantly drooled over my date and then checked out my dress. I clung to Ephraim’s arm tightly.
“You okay?” he asked as I cut off his arms circulation. I nodded my head and shot the girls another wicked glance. “Oh them, they’re just jealous. I have the hottest date in the state.”
The Brown House Page 18
