Sam nodded and gave me an awkward thumbs up.
Quickly grabbing the key, I stayed low and made my way around the house. My heart was beating so loud I was sure it would wake up the dead.
Shaking my head, I grinned. I’d already woken up the dead—a whole hell of a lot of them.
“Sam, do you have a dog?” I asked, stopping my forward motion and regretting I hadn’t put a few dog treats into the pocket of my all-black break-in attire.
“Naawwwooo,” he grunted softly.
Heaving a sigh of relief, I bellycrawled the rest of the way to the back door. I would be filthy when I got home, but I figured this was the way to do it. Of course, I had no clue how to do it, but I planned to fake it till I made it on this one.
“Is the cookie jar in the kitchen?” I asked, slowly rising and peeking through the windowpane on the back door. Thankfully the light over the sink was on and illuminated the countertop. “Is that it on the counter?”
Sam nodded. Maybe this would be easier than I’d originally thought. Open the door. Grab the glasses. Put them on the counter by the teapot and haul ass out. What could go wrong?
So much. So much could go wrong.
“Let’s do this,” I whispered to Sam—and then froze.
My dear dead buddy was crying… or trying to. It was heartbreaking and my stomach clenched. Had I done the right thing? Was this too painful for Sam?
Shit.
“Sam,” I said, reaching out to touch his withered, semi-transparent cheek. “If you don’t want to go through with this, we can leave now.”
“Waauufff lassssh gaussaus,” he said through his anguish. “Fiiauxxx.”
Breathing in and exhaling slowly, I nodded. “I’ll fix this for you. I promise. Stay here.”
Sam nodded and blew me a kiss. It made an unappealing squishy sound and I almost gagged. However, it was the thought and the love behind the gesture that enabled me to smile at him.
My hands fumbled clumsily as I pushed the key into the lock and prayed hard that there wasn’t an alarm about to go off. I had no clue who I was praying to since I didn’t really believe, but it felt like a good thing to do. My head felt woozy and my mouth went dry. While everything around me seemed like real time, my movements felt like I was under water.
I was not cut out for a life of crime. If I wasn’t doing something good, I’d be out of here so fast Sam’s barely attached head would spin. Anxiety gripped me and my feet turned into lead weights. If Sam wasn’t smiling at me so hopefully, I would have turned and ran.
“Here goes nothing,” I whispered as I tiptoed across the kitchen.
The kitchen was warm and inviting—all done in blue and white and immaculate. It smelled like lemon cleaner and cookies. I felt immediate comfort and terror at the same time. Breaking and entering didn’t include admiring décor. I was sure of that.
The glasses were right where I’d seen them in Sam’s head earlier and, thankfully, so was the teapot. Quickly and silently, I put the glasses with the chain holding the wedding ring next to the teapot. Not hard at all. However, I almost puked when I replaced the cookie jar lid and made a loud noise. I wasn’t very good at this. I was far more skilled at gluing dead people’s appendages back on. I knew I couldn’t be good at everything, but a little stealth would have come in handy right now.
“Crap,” I hissed as I heard a movement from upstairs.
Swiftly looking around to make sure I had completed the bizarre mission, I hightailed it back out of the door and locked it with the key.
“Come on, Sam,” I said as I hit the ground and began to bellycrawl back around the house.
Sam didn’t move. His partial nose was pressed to the glass and he waited.
Damn it, what was I supposed to do now? Did I leave him? Would he be able to find his way back to my house? Was I being ridiculous? Yes. He’d found my house once. He could find it again. However, his sense of direction sucked and it could take him days to find me.
I did the only thing I could do. I did the crazy-stupid thing. Why? Because Sam meant something to me. I loved him and I was batshit nuts. I bellycrawled back to where he stood… or floated, to be more accurate.
“We have to leave,” I whispered as I peeked into the kitchen.
Sam said nothing. He placed his decomposing hand in mine and gently squeezed.
He wanted to see his wife find her glasses. I understood. However, there was a slight problem here. She couldn’t see him, but she could definitely see me.
Moving my head to the right of the door, I peeked into the bottom corner of the glass with one eye. It was still dark out. I had dark hair and was dressed all in black. Plus, she wouldn’t be wearing her glasses. It was risky, but if I was being honest, I would love to see her find her ring and glasses too. If I was going to partake in illegal activities, I should get to reap the reward of a misdemeanor well done… or something like that.
The little old woman entered the kitchen and turned on the overhead light. She was in her bathrobe and slippers. She was positively adorable. Sam sighed next to me in happiness and anticipation.
She glanced around the kitchen in confusion. I ducked down so she wouldn’t see me and then curiosity got the best of me. Slowly I rose up and peeked again.
She gasped and placed both of her hands over her heart. Her body began to shake with sobs as she carefully walked to the teapot and touched her wedding ring with such reverence that my eyes filled with tears. Sam’s body trembled beside me. I couldn’t look at him or I would truly lose it. I just held tight to his hand and watched.
Taking the glasses with the ring attached into her gnarled hands, she kissed her ring and began to laugh.
I couldn’t hear a word she said, but her intention was as clear as my new 20/20 vision. Pointing at the ceiling, she shook her finger and laughed through her tears. As her lips continued to move, I could make out the words Sam and I love you.
Glancing over at Sam, I gasped and almost cried out. My chest felt tight and my head began to throb.
Gently pulling me to the side of the house, Sam smiled and touched my cheek.
He was no longer a decaying corpse of a man. However, he was still dead. An ethereal and somewhat blinding golden glow surrounded my friend, and his body was restored to what it must have been before he’d passed. He was beautiful. Sam’s eyes twinkled and his smile would stay etched in my memories always.
“Sam?” I whispered in a panic, not understanding what was happening.
“Thank you, Daisy,” he said in the voice that was the same one I recognized from being inside his mind earlier. “I can go now.”
As he began to fade away, my tears came quickly. I knew this was the last time I would ever see Sam. He’d stayed to make sure his beloved found what she treasured the most. He was moving on. Selfishly, I didn’t want him to go. In the short time I’d had the privilege of knowing him, I’d grown to love him. This was the suckiest, most beautiful experience I’d ever had.
“Bye, Sam,” I whispered, reaching out to touch the golden glow surrounding his diminishing body.
It was warm and inviting—felt like silky liquid. I waited for Sam to completely disappear before I got back on my stomach and began to crawl. My heart was shattered, but it also felt strangely full. I’d just helped my friend move on. It was clear to me he was going somewhere lovely. The golden glow was a sure sign.
At the edge of the house, I paused and scanned the area for people or lights in houses. The coast looked clear. As soon as I got to the sidewalk, I would stand up and start jogging. I was already sweating from the stress of what I’d just done. It would simply look like I’d been on a long run… or that I’d just broken into a house.
I still felt gutted about Sam leaving, but the more I thought about it, the happier I became. I briefly wondered if Donna would be confused that Sam wasn’t with me. And then I froze—partially because a sprinkler system came on and I was now soaked from head to toe, and partially because I got hit with a horr
ifyingly disturbing possibility.
Oh my God. Was I supposed to break and enter for all the freaking dead people in my house? The chances of incarceration were high if I had to do this fifty to a hundred times.
There was no way I was cut out for the criminal lifestyle. The caring about people—dead or alive—was a no-brainer. However, performing illegal activities for all of them wasn’t going to work for me.
Hopping to my feet, I put the key back under the front door mat, sprinted to my car and got the heck out of dodge.
“Mission accomplished. I’m pretty sure I just lost ten pounds due to stress,” I told Donna as she hopped onto my lap and licked my face. “I’ll miss Sam, but it was perfect. It was right.”
And I would miss him. Sam was special.
If this was the beginning of a new side job that paid absolutely nothing but satisfaction of a job well done, then so be it. I still wasn’t a hundred percent sure I’d just done and seen what I’d just done and seen… but most of me knew that I had.
Just like the ground rules I’d laid about the bathroom I was going to have to make some more rules for my dead guests. Hoping desperately that not everyone needed illegal help, I’d make a signup sheet of sorts. I still had a job and bills to pay. I could not let dead squatters take over my life. There was also Gram to think about.
“One a week,” I told Donna. “I will help one person a week.”
Donna barked and wagged her tail. It was a good plan, or at least I thought it was. There was still a possibility that I was coo-coo and would end up in a psych ward or worse… jail. However, something felt impossibly right.
And my vision clearing up? Fantastic. Maybe it was a reward. Maybe it was simply my body changing because I’d turned forty. If all the changes were this good, I was in.
However, the best laid plans often go awry…
Chapter Eleven
“Heather, what are you doing here?” I asked, balancing a tray of ham sandwiches in one hand and my purse and a pecan pie in the other.
Heather glanced up with an uncharacteristically jerky movement. Her body was slouched, leaning against the wall in the hallway of the nursing home. I could swear she looked guilty about something. But what I thought was guilt turned into a wide Heather smile. Shaking my head to empty it of ridiculous thoughts, I grinned right back.
“I brought Gram some of the leftover pot-stickers from the party,” she told me.
I felt like an idiot. I was hanging out with dead folks too much. My judgment was getting as cloudy as my glasses that I didn’t need anymore. Not to mention, I’d been up since four AM and I’d started the morning off committing a crime. I wasn’t exactly on top of my game today.
“Thank you,” I said with a laugh, nodding at the food in my hands. “I had the same idea. She hasn’t been eating enough lately. Wait. Why aren’t you at work?”
Maybe I hadn’t misinterpreted her guilt. Was my buddy playing hooky? Was Clarissa still not back at the office? There was no way I would bust Heather in a million years. She should know that.
“I’m taking the bar today,” she said casually. “At noon. Needed to do something nice for someone for good luck. Gram was an easy and pleasurable target. Watched a full hour of The Price is Right with her. I do believe I might have saved you from a special kind of hell.”
I laughed and let my head fall back onto my shoulders. How did I not know today was the day of the bar exam? “I owe you, my friend. And I’ll send you a ton of good thoughts and energy this afternoon.”
“I’m going to need it,” Heather said as she gave me a quick hug and began to walk down the long, sterile hallway.
“Doubtful,” I called after her. “You’re the smartest person I know.”
“Remains to be seen,” she said cryptically as she left.
I stood still for a moment and mulled over the odd exchange. Heather never doubted herself. Maybe she was nervous. I’d been so lost in my own mourning for the last year, I’d not paid enough attention to the needs of the people that I loved. There was one way to solve that. Tonight, I would stop by Heather’s with the leftover ham salad and drag the rest of the gals with me. I’d bring champagne, but I was pretty sure it was a two-day test. We could share the bottle this weekend. This was a huge week for one of the women I adored most and I hadn’t even known. I sucked as a friend.
Shaking my head, I sighed. No dwelling on the past. Fix the future. Period.
“God, it smells good here,” I announced to the empty hallway as I made my way toward Gram’s room.
What was that smell? It was so familiar. A clean, soapy smell mixed with some kind of fresh woodsy scent. Maybe the nursing home had changed their cleaning products. I needed to find out what the heck they’d used. I could die happy with this scent wrapped around me.
Wait.
Crap.
No.
It belonged to Gideon. It was his scent that lingered in the air.
What the hell was he doing at the nursing home? Did he visit Gram too? No. That was silly. He didn’t know Gram. Was it possible he’d transferred to the law firm here because he had an ailing parent at the same home Gram was in? I mean, I didn’t know much about him other than that he was stupidly gorgeous, not hairy, not teeny-weeny and also not quite right in the head.
Now I felt even more sorry for Gideon. Next time I saw him, I wouldn’t be quite as rude—unless he was. It was difficult and sad to have someone you loved living in a place like this with very little hope of returning home. As far as nursing homes went, it was really good. But as wonderful as the doctors, nurses and staff were, it wasn’t home in a real sense of the word. If I could take care of Gram at my house I would do it in a heartbeat. I’d offered the suggestion up so many times I knew I sounded like a broken record.
Gram had raised me at a time when her life should have been a whole lot easier. When I was five and my mom died in a freak accident at work, Gram had stepped up—not one question or doubt in her mind about taking me in and raising me as her own. She loved me something fierce and I loved her right back. Every time I’d insisted that she live with me, she’d refused. I knew she didn’t want to be a burden. She would never be a burden to me. There wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t do for the woman who’d made me feel safe and loved my entire life.
“Hi there,” I said to Gloria, the nurse who was Gram’s favorite. “How’s she doing today?”
“Feisty as ever,” Gloria said with a chuckle. “But she hasn’t been eating well. Guess you have that covered.” She pointed at my load and laughed. “If you have an extra ham salad sandwich, I’d be happy to take it off your hands.”
“I believe I do,” I said. “Take a bunch. I brought about ten. I’ll be lucky if Gram finishes one.”
“Why thank you,” Gloria said, lightening my load by five sandwiches. “I love your ham salad.”
“Gram’s secret recipe,” I told her as I got to the door of Gram’s room and smiled. “No one makes them like she does, but mine aren’t too bad.”
“Make that sweet gal eat one,” Gloria called out as she went into the staff lounge. “She needs to keep up her strength.
I didn’t like the sound of that. Gram was going to get an earful from me today.
“I’m sorry. What the hell did you just say?” I asked, feeling nauseous, furious and seriously confused. My knees weakened and buckled. Luckily, I was standing in front of a chair that cushioned my fall. The second fortuitous thing was that I’d already put the food on the table in her room. Otherwise, ham salad and pecan pie would be splattered everywhere. “Repeat yourself, Gram. I need to make sure I heard you correctly.”
Gram let her chin fall to her chest and she sighed guiltily. “Daisy, I don’t want you to pitch a hissy. I’m mighty aware that what I’m telling you makes me sound like I don’t know whether to check my ass or scratch my watch, but you need to know… Baby, you’re a Death Counselor. You come from a long line of Death Counselors. I was sure the gift had skipped you—prayed
to God every night on my knees that it would skip you. But clearly, it didn’t,” she said in a whisper. “I was certain another line would take over. I was wrong.”
“I’m not insane?” I demanded, wondering why she hadn’t ever mentioned this little family quirk before now. Not that I would have believed her, but it would have been nice to know. “I’ve been seeing dead people for over a month and now you feel like explaining?”
“Well, you didn’t exactly tell me you were hanging out with ghosts,” Gram pointed out logically.
“Wasn’t exactly something I thought I could share,” I shot back, wanting to shake her. My eyes filled with tears—tears of relief that I wasn’t losing my mind and tears of anger at Gram for not filling me in.
“Oh, Daisy girl,” Gram said, holding her thin arms out to me. “Come to Gram, baby.”
“I can’t,” I whispered, wiping my nose with my sleeve and feeling like a child. “Not yet.”
Gram nodded and pressed the off button on her TV remote. She never turned off the TV. Never. Shit had gotten serious fast. Was there another shoe about to drop? I was sure if I learned much more today, my brain would pop.
“I’m sorry,” Gram said, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose. “Me and your mamma both thought it had passed you. I feel so dumb right now I could throw myself on the dang ground and miss.”
“Why would you think it passed me?” I asked, walking over to the door and locking it. As liberating as it felt to figure out I wasn’t batshit crazy, I didn’t need anyone walking in on this particular conversation.
Especially Gideon if he was somewhere in the building. That man had enough issues without hearing this. Plus, I needed my job. The conversation I was having didn’t bode well for gainful employment if word got out.
“Your mamma saw the dead by the time she was four,” Gram said, sounding far older than she was. Her skin paled and her voice cracked. “You could have buttered my butt and called me a biscuit, I was so surprised. I didn’t see ’em till I was ten. It usually manifests itself early.”
It's A Wonderful Midlife Crisis : A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel: Good To The Last Death Book One Page 10
