The Boy on the Other Side
Page 4
Why Should I Trust You?
“I just want to know how you’re doing. How’s the new school? Have you made any new friends?”
“Yes, I have.”
Keith didn’t tell her his friend was a ghost stuck in his new house.
“That’s great.” She sounded clearly relieved. “And… are you still seeing them?”
“No. Everything is alright.”
Talking on the phone made it a lot easier to lie. Had he sat before her right now, she would have known at once that he was not being honest.
“Can you sleep well? Do you still have a nightmare?”
“Doc, I will definitely call you if I have a problem. You don’t have to worry.”
“I get it. Still, I insist you take the meds as prescribed.”
He didn’t tell her that he had stopped taking it since he moved into this house. It had pros and cons. And he didn’t want to rely on it for the rest of his life. Not taking the med posed no negative impact on him so far, except for the nightmare part and that he could see spirits. But, well, he couldn’t do anything about the latter anyway.
“I can take care of myself. Really. Please don’t worry,” Keith assured. They said goodbye before hanging up.
This was the first time the psychiatrist called him. Perhaps Diane told her something. He tried to avoid talking to Sam in other’s presence. They didn’t quite believe that there was someone else he was talking to, that he was not talking to himself. He tried to explain it to them. John didn’t buy it. Alice believed him completely. Diane and Hector said that they understood him but were still concerned about it. Fair enough, contacting spirits once led him to hurt himself. So, if possible, he wouldn’t want to worry them any more than this.
“Are we friends yet?”
The blonde suddenly asked him. Keith was focusing on his homework, so he didn’t reply.
“Hey,” Sam said again, walking to his side and intently staring at him.
“I’m doing my homework. It must be nice for a spirit not having any.”
Keith picked up a grumble. Sam sat on the desk without saying anything. And Keith felt uneasy with just that.
“Fine. Yeah, we’re friends. Are you satisfied now?”
“Why do you have to be upset about it?”
Keith sighed. He couldn’t really tell who was the more persistent one now. This was a tacit matter; nobody asked if they were friends nowadays.
“Do you trust me?”
Keith took his eyes off his homework and looked up at the ghost. “Why so many questions?”
“Well, you are the first one I can talk to.”
Hearing that, Keith went speechless. Many questions came to his mind but none of them he dare ask. Perhaps that was why Sam put so much effort into getting Keith to talk to him. Talking to a ghost was not his intention at first, not that it was a bad thing. Still, what Sam said struck him deep. It went both ways, he thought. It was not just that he was the first one Sam could talk to, but Sam was that to him as well. It was much easier to talk to a spirit, like Sam, than to a living person. He did not become as afraid or nervous.
“Why should I trust you?”
Keith expected this response of his might offend the ghost. However, he was replied with a wide smile instead.
“That’s true. It’s good you’re not too trusting of other people.”
“You’re not one.”
“Not this again.”
Keith’s head was pushed with force to the side, his body almost falling off the chair. He didn’t understand how Sam could touch him, but, when he touched Sam, he could feel nothing but chilling presence.
“Why wouldn’t you talk to me at first?” His tone turned serious, which made Keith start to feel anxious. “You weren’t shocked when you first saw me. I guessed it wasn’t your first time. But why didn’t you talk to me? Are you afraid of other people knowing?”
“Were you this curious too when you were alive?”
Sam said nothing.
Keith realized at once that was inconsiderate. “You have something you don’t want to talk about. So do I.”
“It’s not like I don’t want to talk about it, but you didn’t ask.” A pair of blue eyes frankly stared at him. Keith took a nervous gulp. “Do you want to know?”
I do…
“No.” Keith’s word was decisive, as if trying to convince himself. “I’m not that curious about you.”
“But I am,” Sam replied instantly. Keith blinked with disbelief; nobody ever showed interest in him before, not the way Sam did. “So, I really want to know what made you become like this?”
“Like what? Someone who can see ghosts? Well, me too.”
“No. What made you lose trust in people.”
He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t. He remained still for quite a time until Sam stood up and was about to walk away.
“It’s not that I don’t trust people.” The spirit stopped and looked back. Keith continued without turning to face his roommate. “Before I moved here, I lived with Aunt Diane…”
Keith recalled his past. He was discharged from the hospital after a one-month stay. Hector and Diane were the ones who came to pick him up while John and Alice were at school. He took the meds as prescribed by Doc Anderson. It didn’t help him with ghost-seeing issue at all, but at least it put Diane and Doc at ease.
He was afraid of moving into the new house, afraid that there was something lying in wait there. His hospital days weren’t pleasant either. His body recovered fast, but his mind still needed great care. Of course, it was due to the greatest loss of his life, inflicting him with grief and confining him in solitude. The doctors and the nurses understood it that way. But it wasn’t the sole reason. Spirits played a major part, too. They were everywhere: in the room, in the hall, down the aisle. He was once woken up by a mournful howl. He told the nurses, but nobody could hear it. Consequently, he was put to sleep by a tranquilizer.
He understood from that moment that nobody would believe him. Even when talking to Doc Anderson, his psychiatrist, he tried to speak of spirits less and less.
He felt safe when he found out that Diane’s house held no otherworldly presence. He believed he could again live a normal life. John and he rode the same bus to school. John were with his friends and didn’t introduce him to any of them. They had just met and so were yet to be close. Back then, nobody knew about his newly gained ability, and he himself wasn’t cautious.
In the first week of school, Keith needed to adapt to the new environment. Classes were the same, but he couldn’t get to know his classmates. Conversations were off, as if they spoke different tongues. During the lunch break when everyone left the class, Keith noticed a boy sitting alone in the corner. So, Keith gathered up his courage and decided to go up and talk to him. He found out though that the boy was no longer a living. But he didn’t care. He was more comfortable talking to this guy than humans. They got so close that the boy followed him back to his house.
Moving to the new school was no longer a scary thing for Keith. Being an orphan was not a thing to be ashamed of. His new friend taught him those. He talked to the spirit boy all the time even in front of other family members. They started to suspect something strange about him.
Diane was first to inquire. After hearing his explanation, Diane’s expression changed. Her eyes brimmed with pity, concern, and worry. He didn’t like it but could no nothing. She said she would try to understand him. He knew better though he would soon become their problem.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
He didn’t expect it from the blonde. He was impressed by Sam’s compassion and deeply appreciated it.
But he guessed he was wrong on that. A moment later Sam asked him what happened next. It seemed like the blonde was simply curious about his past friendship.
“We stopped being friends,” he said. There was more than that, of course, but Sam didn’t need to know.
“You are afraid that other people wil
l think you are…” The blonde didn’t finish the sentence. Keith could complete it nonetheless.
“So that’s why I intend not to talk to any of your kind.”
“You don’t have to worry,” Sam said with a smile, “I won’t fail you.”
Keith still doubted the other boy. He could not say those same words back to Sam, not yet. But his guts told him that Sam was not like other spirits he’d met, that he could trust him even though they’d just got to know each other.
Chapter Six
Let’s Play the Spirit Board
On weekends, the Underwoods went outside, except for John who decided to stay and now was playing video games in his room. Keith was with his new friend in his room, tossing a ball back and forth to each other.
“You should go outside too. Lots of delicious stuff in the city,” Sam suggested, his expression nostalgic.
“I don’t want to.”
Hearing that, the blonde stopped catching the ball and walked towards Keith who was sitting cross-legged on the bed. Hands on hips, the spirit shook his head in disagreement.
“You can’t just stay here. You need to go outside and see the world.”
Keith rolled his eyes. He never thought a day would come when he would be lectured by a ghost.
“But can you leave this house?”
“Why?”
“I want to go outside. With you.”
Sam went still. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly; he didn’t know what to say.
“I’m glad you want me to. But I guess I can’t”
“But that spirit I told you about could even follow me back to my home.”
Keith’s eyes followed Sam to the desk. The spirit sat on it and said nothing more. He didn’t want to press on. It was true that they had known each other for a month and Sam was always a good listener. But it was not like they were close enough to talk about everything.
When Keith went downstairs, the others were already back at home. Diane was preparing dinner in the kitchen while Hector was relaxing on his favorite sofa watching TV. Their two children were looking down at something.
“Keith, come take a look,” Alice called him, patting the seat next to her.
Keith saw that it was a photo album. He sat beside Alice and eyed it with curiosity.
“John found it in the attic.”
“Lots of toys there. Most of them were broken though,” John said, not specifying whom he talked to. The album held not many photos. Many pages were empty. If there were some photos to be found, most of them were scenery ones. There were photos of this house, the road nearby, the city, the park, and some more. There was also a photo of two people, a man and a woman, sitting in a room which appeared to be the living room the three of them were in now. The woman had long, curly, golden brown hair with greenish grey eyes and a smile on her face. The man wore glasses and had hair of slightly weaker color. His eyes were blue. He, too, was smiling. The three of them assumed that this couple were the house’s ex-owners.
“Did you get to meet the house’s ex-owner, Dad?” John asked. He pulled the photo from the album and showed it to his father. “Was it these two?”
“I have never met the Gibs. But that might be them.”
Keith looked at the photo again. The family name reminded Keith of the article headline he saw several weeks ago. The Gibs’ tragedy, it read. But however curious he got he wouldn’t want to find out about it. Not unless Sam told him himself.
Alice turned the pages until she reached the last. Only one photo was there. A photo of a boy of curly, blonde hair, holding a camera in front of a full-length mirror, the same one standing in the bedroom. Keith knew immediately that the boy was Sam, and he must be the one who took all these pictures. Every photo in the album was lively, apart from Sam’s, which to Keith looked rather gloomy. Sam in the photo did not smile, those two blue eyes only gazing into the mirror, expressionless and indifferent.
“Can I have it, the album?” The words escaped his mouth before he knew it.
“Go on. It seems pretty useless to me,” John said without care. Then, his face turned serious as he leaned to whisper to him, “I found other things in the attic, too. Real good stuff. My room, tonight. And you too, Alice.”
“What?”
“Just come.”
He was about to ask him more, but Diane called them to dinner. John was still glaring at him: it was a threat. He didn’t have a choice but to say yes. A part of him was also curious of what the other boy had found and why this also involved Alice.
The secret was revealed to Alice and him as they walked into John’s room after dinner. The room had changed. With only a month, a once spacious, tidy bedroom was turned into a messy one with sports posters hanging everywhere. On the floor lay a rectangular box. John got out of his bed and walked towards it.
“Come here,” he urged. They all sat down around the box.
“This is…” Alice read the name on it and immediately turned to Keith.
“A spirit board, yes.” John gave her a smug grin before unpacking the container. The board and its heart-shaped planchette inside seemed totally new, as if they had never been touched.
“I don’t think this will work,” Keith said, but John’s glare told him otherwise. He unwillingly put his finger on the wooden piece on the board.
“If there is any spirit residing in this house, I call upon you to appear before us,” John said, focusing on the board.
Keith knew very well that, if there was any spirit in the room, he must have seen it. But Sam wasn’t here. Still, the planchette moved. It stopped at the word ‘YES’. John smiled victoriously and continued his attempt to communicate with the spirit. He asked the spirit’s name, the cause of death, and many more; and the spirit seemed to comply as the planchette kept moving. When John asked what the spirit wanted, the planchette quickly moved to spell the word ‘KILL’.
“You are the one moving it, right?” Alice looked John in the face, her voice upset.
“No, I’m not,” John denied. He then asked whom the spirit wanted to kill.
The planchette stopped at ‘K’, not a surprise to Keith at all. He knew full well that John was the one controlling it. It was possible there were other spirits apart from Sam in the house. Possible, but not probable. If spirits had known that there was someone who could see them, they would be desperate to come to talk to that one.
“You have to take good care of yourself,” John said with fake concern, “I think that’s all for tonight.”
As the planchette was moving towards ‘FAREWELL’, Keith saw another finger placed on it. That finger dragged the wooden piece to the word ‘NO’. John’s face went pale.
Keith turned to see the finger’s owner and found Sam sitting beside him. He was smiling, eyes full of mischief. He quickly moved the piece to spell a sentence: ‘I DON’T WANT TO GO YET’.
“You! You are moving it, right?!” John yelled at him.
“Not me,” he quickly said, “perhaps you have upset the spirit.”
Sam laughed, moving the piece to ‘YES’.
“Stop your bullshit.” John quickly drew his hand back, face red with anger.