Third Time's a Charm

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “I feel better. Moving around seems to help. Plus, a woman can only watch so much television and read so many books.” She made a point of leaning to the side and bending her knees. “My hip is still a little sore from where I landed on it, but I can tell it’s getting better.”

  It was good to see her friend on her feet. The demon had come after Lorna in two brutal attacks. The first had put her in the hospital. With the second, Lorna had refused to see a doctor for fear of more bills that she couldn’t afford.

  Before Lorna had been discharged from Freewild Cove Hospital, Vivien had written a check for the bulk of the outstanding balance and ordered Nancy in accounts receivable to hide the payment when it came time to send the billing statement. Lorna had a lot of pride, and she didn’t need to know what Vivien had done for her.

  Lorna could have healed herself by dispersing her pain over several people, but she refused to harm anyone else, and so she lived with her injuries. With her empathic gift, Vivien could sense how much pain her friend was in. She had tried to convince Lorna to transfer some of the pain to her, but Lorna had declined the offer.

  “You never answered about the cute neighbor.” Lorna lowered herself onto one of the cream-colored couches and angled her body to take the pressure off her hip. “How is it you’re driving around with him?”

  “I ran into him outside Rex’s office and saved him the cab fare home.” Vivien dismissed the teasing tone. “I hope you’re hungry. I bought tamales, tacos, taquitos, burritos, churros, street corn, all the food groups.”

  “Yes, that sounds—” Lorna lifted her hand, touching the large, black stone ring on her forefinger as if sensing the same thing Vivien did. “Heather’s here.”

  A few seconds later, the sound of Heather’s car pulled into the drive. Headlights flashed along the windowsill beneath the edge of the curtains even though it was still fairly light outside.

  Heather knocked even as she opened the door. Her gaze went to Lorna. “Am I late?”

  “Just on time. I went to Toco,” Vivien said.

  “How are you feeling?” Heather quietly shut the door, not taking her eyes off Lorna. She carried her purse and a messenger bag that appeared weighed down with supplies.

  “Much better, thank you,” Lorna said.

  Heather’s dark brown hair hung damp along her back, the weight of the locks only starting to curl. Her flannel shirt looked like what she wore almost every day to work and had probably come from the top of a clean, unfolded laundry basket.

  Heather worked harder than anyone Vivien had ever met. She owned properties all over town and was always acquiring more. It hadn’t always been like that, but Heather had suffered the kind of loss no person ever should. Working gave Heather a sense of purpose to her day.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Heather gave Vivien a quizzical smile and brushed her hair behind her ear.

  “All work and no play makes Heather a dull girl,” Vivien answered.

  “Gee, thanks?” Heather laughed. She dropped her purse in a corner on the floor and then sat next to Lorna on the couch. She placed the messenger bag between them. “You appear to be in a mood. I take it the meeting with Rex didn’t go well.”

  “Nothing surprising. He wants out of our alimony deal, but instead of asking like an adult, he tried to have his lawyer intimidate me.” Vivien shrugged. “I played the porn tape and threatened to have him audited. So you know, all in all, a very grown-up-mature day.”

  “She gave the neighbor hottie a ride home,” Lorna inserted. “But she doesn’t want to talk about that. She keeps changing the subject every time I ask her about it.”

  “You should let me set you up with Troy,” Vivien said. That would solve two problems. Heather might actually do something besides work, and Troy could turn his attentions to someone who could return his feelings. The part of her that was attracted to the hottie neighbor felt a pang of jealousy at the idea, but she would never begrudge Heather her happiness.

  “Troy?” Heather looked at Lorna.

  “Neighbor hottie,” Lorna clarified. She turned her attention to Heather as if the two of them were having a private conversation. “I’m not surprised she’s trying to set you up with him. She’s trying to pretend she’s indifferent, but I think otherwise. Her face was flushed when she came home, and you should have seen the way they were looking at each other when she dropped him off. If I didn’t know better, I would say Vivien has a crush.”

  “Yes, I think you might be right. I sense something is different about her.” Heather lifted her fist to show the ring on her forefinger as she pointed it toward Vivien like a magic talisman. “Something has her off-kilter, and I don’t believe it’s Rex being Rex.”

  Lorna balled her fist and pointed her ring at Vivien. “We command you to speak.”

  “I kind of hate both of you right now.” Vivien’s ring finger tingled as if energy vibrated from the jewelry. Thankfully, it wasn’t enough to make her follow the playful command. She ignored the sensation as she grabbed a cushioned chair and dragged it across the floor to sit beside the coffee table.

  “Well, that didn’t work,” Heather chuckled as if she hadn’t expected it to. “I was sure we were due to develop a new superpower. It’s not fair, Viv, that you can tell what’s going on with me by just looking at me, but we have to pry answers out of you.”

  “Yes, what are you hiding?” Heather asked. “Spill.”

  “Lorna exaggerates. If Troy was looking at me in any special way, it was in disgust. I pretended I was a dingbat so he wouldn’t ask me out. Are you happy? Now you know everything.”

  “So you—wait, what?” Heather frowned. “You pretended you were less intelligent to get a man not to ask you out?”

  “When you say it like that…” Vivien searched the bag for a beef taco. “Who wants a taco?”

  “Since when do you avoid speaking your mind? You are the most forthright person I know. You tell people things when they don’t want to hear those things all the time,” Heather insisted. “If he asked you out and you’re not interested, why wouldn’t you just tell him that? Why the game? That’s really not like you.”

  Vivien pulled out a burrito. “Burrito?”

  “Viv?” Heather crossed her arms over her chest and arched a brow.

  “Fine. I don’t know.” She waved the wrapped burrito to enunciate her frustration. “It’s like I can’t get the freaking words out of my freaking throat, and I just say stupid shit. Plus, he’s a likable guy, from what little I can pick up from him. I don’t want to hurt him.”

  “And you’re attracted to him,” Lorna added.

  “Fine. Yes.” Vivien dropped the burrito on the table and again looked in the bag. “He is an attractive man, but I’ve told attractive men no before.”

  “He’s not like most of the young men you date,” Lorna added.

  “Thank you, exactly.” Vivien nodded at Lorna.

  “I’m not saying that’s a good thing,” Lorna corrected with a small laugh.

  “I am,” Vivien quipped, pulling out a taco. She peeled back the wrapper and took a defiant bite.

  “I wasn’t saying that was a bad thing, either,” Lorna corrected. “What I meant was if you like him, maybe it’s time to try something different. You deserve to be happy.”

  “I am happy,” Vivien answered. “Men don’t define my happiness.”

  “I didn’t mean to imply—” Lorna began.

  “She’s messing with you,” Heather interrupted. “She’s not really annoyed. She knows exactly what you meant.”

  “It’s just too easy to tease you sometimes,” Vivien laughed.

  “Ha, ha,” Lorna grumbled, wrinkling her nose in Vivien’s direction.

  “So he shakes you up a bit, and you’re not used to it,” Heather said.

  “Can we please stop talking about this?” Vivien begged. “I want to know what you meant when you said you were sure we were due for more superpowers. Did you talk to Julia’s spirit? Did sh
e say something about our gifts?”

  “No. It was just a feeling, or maybe a worry.” Heather looked into the bag. “My goodness, Viv, seriously how much food did you order?”

  Vivien shrugged. “They reheat well and the fridge was empty.”

  “You eat like a frat boy,” Heather pulled food from the bag and laid the individually wrapped items on the table. Vivien ignored the remark.

  “A month ago, I would have been all for more superpowers, but right now I’m not sure I can handle anything else. My empathic abilities have flared up like a psychic rash. They’re all over the place. I’m sensing everything.” Vivien unwrapped the end of a taco and took a bite.

  The flour shell was lightly fried and the inside was filled with seasoned beef, peas, potatoes, cheese, and salsa. So simple, and so freaking good. She gave a light moan of appreciation.

  Good food. Great friends. What else was there in life? Vivien counted herself very blessed.

  “Lorna? Anything new happen to you?” Heather asked.

  “I haven’t used my healing power,” Lorna said. “It feels a little too much like playing God. I shouldn’t be the one to decide who deserves to be healed and who deserves to be injured.

  “I disagree,” Vivien said, not for the first time in counter to Lorna’s thinking. “I think you’re the perfect person. It’s why you have the gift. If there were an injured child and a serial killer, I think you’d know what to do.”

  “Life choices are rarely that black-and-white, but yes,” Lorna agreed, “if it comes down to a child and a serial killer, I’ll make a choice.”

  “What about your finding power?” Heather asked.

  “There has been little need for it,” Lorna admitted. “Though, I was able to find Vivien’s lost earring the other morning, so you know, I’m practically a private detective.”

  “There’s a cool job idea.” Vivien clapped her hands in excitement. “We can start a detective agency. Oh, or bounty hunters.”

  “I have a job,” Lorna denied, choosing a couple of the tamales. She leaned on her uninjured hip. “Managing the haunted theater is excitement enough. I don’t want to limp after some criminal.”

  “What did you mean by psychic rash?” Heather studied her as if she could see some manifestation on Vivien’s skin.

  “It’s nothing.” Vivien waved her hand in dismissal. “I’m being dramatic.”

  “It’s not nothing. Remember, we all agreed we have to talk about these things.” Heather touched the bag beside her on the couch and patted it. “Or else I will burn this so no one ever finds it again. If we’re going to meddle in the otherworldly, we need to talk to each other. Grandma Julia said we all came together to help each other heal. I think after what happened to Lorna, we all know that isn’t just some easy prospect. I’m willing to travel this path with you, but we have to be smart and open. No secrets.”

  “My senses are in overdrive,” Vivien explained. “I see a guy in a passing car, and I know he only dates redheads and hates the rain. I now know Mr. Pete down at the grocery store will only wear blue underwear because his wife said she liked the color once when they were dating. Melba likes to reenact scenes from paranormal romance novels at night when she closes up the bookstore in a one-woman show. She draws vampire bites on her neck with red lipstick. Ace the cat watches the performances.”

  “That’s oddly specific.” Heather appeared skeptical, which hurt a little since Heather was the only one who’d ever believed her about her gifts when they were younger. Vivien’s grandmother had raised her not to feel shame about her gifts. That hadn’t meant it was easy to be laughed at by the other children in school or treated like a kook as an adult.

  “It’s so random,” Vivien groaned. “And it’s blocking the things that I should see. I had no idea what was coming at the law office today, but I knew Mrs. Cameron planned on tuna noodle casserole for lunch and was rejected for a pet adoption some years back. In the elevator, I was so obsessed with telling some woman not to date a potential jerk that I walked right into…”

  “Into?” Lorna prompted.

  “Never mind,” Vivien dismissed.

  “Viv,” Heather demanded.

  “I walked right into giving Troy a ride home.” She rubbed her temples as frustration seeped through her. She couldn’t want Troy. He was all wrong for her. “Then, on the drive, I completely missed that he was about to ask me out and didn’t deflect the question in time. I said all the wrong things. He probably thinks I was flirting with him. Which I wasn’t. And I know he thinks I’m an imbecile. I just can’t… I can’t get… The words are just all jumbled when I am around him. It’s like some invisible force grabs my throat and messes with my brain.”

  “I think that means you like him,” Heather said.

  “I don’t want that kind of complication,” Vivien said, and she meant it. Her life was decent, and she was secure in her decisions. “I like one-night stands that mean nothing. I get sex, and they get to go home to Omaha or wherever.”

  Heather nodded. “So that’s what’s bothering you. A man asked you out and you didn’t see it coming in time to scare him away. Didn’t you mention to me when he moved in that the new neighbor was a professor of some sort? So he’s older, smart, has a job, and by all accounts is a hottie. This guy threw you for a loop.”

  “I should have bought more tacos,” Vivien muttered, grabbing another one before she’d even finished the one she was on. She stuffed her mouth to keep from answering Heather’s inquiry.

  “Yeah, because two-four-six,” Heather chuckled as she pretended to count, “forty isn’t enough.”

  “These are fantastic,” Lorna agreed with a nod.

  “Try this one.” Vivien lifted one of the beef tacos toward Lorna.

  “You’re avoiding the subject,” Heather said.

  “Yes, I am. I’m done talking about it,” Vivien said. “What about you? Anything new happen?”

  Heather sighed, and it was her turn to look dismissive of the conversation.

  “What?” Lorna and Vivien asked in unison.

  “The spirits are becoming clearer, and louder,” Heather answered. “Which means the headaches are getting worse.”

  “Can you ignore them?” Lorna asked.

  “If I ignore the active hauntings, I get a headache. If I try to listen, I get a headache. If they see me looking in their direction, they sometimes try to follow which means the headache won’t go away.” Heather shrugged. “That’s it. Nothing new. I’ve been dealing with ghosts my whole life.”

  “I can sense that there is more to it. The talking-about-it thing goes all ways. You need to tell us what you’re going through.” Lorna placed a hand on Heather’s arm. Her hair lifted off her shoulders at the contact. She took a deep breath and looked at Vivien.

  Vivien leaned forward to touch Heather. The mere brush of skin to skin caused a zap of static electricity and they were able to share each other’s emotions. This happened whenever they made physical contact. Their souls connected. She instantly felt the electrical charge flowing through her. Typically, with Heather, there was an underlying sadness she’d carried since losing her son. That emotion was still there, but with it came a feeling of dread.

  “You’re feeling the spirits more,” Vivien said, understanding where the emotion was coming from.

  Heather looked at Vivien’s hand on her arm. She arched a brow. “You’re terrified because you are attracted to Troy, much more than you let on.”

  Vivien snatched her hand back. For a moment, she’d forgotten that the emotional sharing went both ways.

  “It’s not true, you know,” Heather insisted. “You’re not betraying Sam by liking someone else. It’s been twenty years. I knew Sam. He loved you. He would want you to find happiness. He would have been pissed that you married Rex because he never made you happy.”

  “I’ll be watching you. Save your heart for me. It’s mine.”

  Vivien wasn’t so sure about that. Sam’s last words had no
t faded with time. He didn’t want her to find someone else, because he knew there could be no one else for her. She wasn’t one of the lucky women in her family.

  “I still feel him around me,” Vivien said. “I know you never see him, but I feel him sometimes. It’s like a presence watching me from the foot of my bed while I sleep. Or maybe it’s just a wish, not a haunting.”

  Vivien looked at the bag on the couch. Inside was her key to seeing Sam again. The book had belonged to Julia.

  What if their powers could do more than summon his spirit?

  What if they could bring him back?

  What if she didn’t have to be one of the unlucky ones?

  What if she could regain her true love?

  Vivien would never say those thoughts out loud, not even to the two people she trusted most in the world. Lorna had wanted to see her ex-husband to ask why he’d betrayed her. She had wanted to use the book of séances to find answers. They’d successfully contacted Glenn, and Lorna received the closure she needed. Heather was still trying to get the courage to talk to the spirit of her son, but when she was ready, they’d help her do whatever she needed to do.

  If they could bring Sam back, what was to say they couldn’t do the same for Heather’s son? Vivien would never mention such a thing for fear it would give Heather false hope, but if she proved it could be done then Heather would know it was possible.

  “If you’re not ready, we don’t have to do this,” Heather said.

  “No, I want to séance him tonight. If Sam has changed his mind and wants me to move on, then he can tell me that himself,” Vivien said.

  Lorna’s hand was still on Heather as if it was taking her longer to decipher what she was sensing. She slowly let go and reached to smooth down her statically charged hair. “Are you picking up the ghosts’ emotions? Is that what’s new? Is that where all that apprehension you’re feeling is coming from?”

  “Some. There are more of them, but many seem to be residual hauntings, unaware of anything around them. The residual spirits are easier to be around, but they’re sad to watch. They just loop short scenes from their lives. It’s either from something they often did, like one of my properties has a maid who hangs laundry on a clothesline for about a minute in the afternoons.” Heather busied herself pulling more food items from the bag and setting them on the coffee table.