by Kim Hornsby
“I have no idea. The door is locked but maybe there’s an open window. I’ll check sometime.”
“I’m sure the cats can protect themselves from Hodor who can’t open a locked door.”
Eve took my right arm and helped me down the stairs. I’d counted and memorized how many stairs were all over the house but Eve wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
“Four more,” she said.
I did not want to slip on these stairs and was thinking a ramp would be so much easier for a blind person, when Eve stiffened on the bottom step.
“Last step,” she said.
“What did you see?” I asked. Eve was a bit of an alarmist, so I usually tried to not ask about everything that concerned her in case it was a fly buzzing too close, dropping a Kleenex, or simply a thought that she left her clothes unfolded in her bedroom.
“Just a second,” she said, letting go of my arm. “Try to not look blind. We might have a drone on property, filming.”
I turned to her and nodded like I could see her face. “Let’s pretend to talk. Am I facing you and looking in your face?”
“Perfect. If it’s a drone taking pictures of us, isn’t that illegal?”
I nodded, hoping I was right. “I’m sure it is. Trespassing is illegal, at the very least.”
“Good thing you left TapTap inside if it’s Bane Jackson spying on us.”
“Do you still see it?” I pulled a paper from my coat pocket and pretended to read it in my hand.
“I saw something. If it was a drone, it’s gone now. I saw movement off in the trees, something with a tiny green light. And, by the way, you’re reading a candy wrapper.”
I put the paper back in my pocket. “A camera? Shoot. Let’s go back in,” I said, trying to think of the best thing to do to not look like my peepers were useless. “I wish I could mount these stairs without taking your arm.” I wondered if I could do it or if I’d kill myself trying.
“Or let’s just walk arm in arm, around the yard, talking and laughing. It isn’t so unusual for women friends to join arms, certainly not in Asia.”
She had a point. If someone was watching us, I had to make this look good. Eve took my arm like I was leading her, and we took off walking confidently around, what I believed to be the side of the house, talking the whole time. “Do drones make a buzzing noises because I don’t hear anything except the waves crashing on the rocks below the cliff?”
“I doubt if a drone meant to spy on people has a big buzzing noise,” Eve said. “I’m calling Carlos to get eyes on the yard.” She let go of my arm.
While she contacted Carlos and talked, I took out my phone and pretended to punch in numbers, then held it to my ear, hoping I hadn’t really called anyone. Just as Eve finished talking to Carlos, I heard something whir off to my left and Eve yelped.
“Drone to the left, over the ocean. Turn around a hundred and eighty and start walking. I’ll grab your arm after a few steps,” she said.
I turned and took several steps, trying to look confident. Eve hooked us together and we picked up speed to head around the house where I felt her turn us. I heard Hodor bark over by the Coach House. “Hodor, come!”
“The intruding drone didn’t follow us,” Eve said as we mounted the eight stairs and crossed the porch.
“Shit,” I said. That was the word that explained perfectly how I felt.
Once inside, I heard Carlos running down the stairs, talking excitedly. “Did you see it out there? That thing was filming you two.”
Hodor swooshed in through the door and Eve closed it, a little too forcefully, and the window rattled.
“What’s going on?” my mother said from the doorway to the salon, or the piano room as she called it.
“There was a drone filming us out there. I tried to not look blind,” I said. “Shit, my fans are bound to find out now, especially if that was Bane Jackson.”
“He’s got to be close by,” Carlos said, running by us. “I’m going to confront him.”
The front door opened and closed.
“Isn’t that sort of thing illegal?” my mother said, coming closer.
I was breathing hard from the exertion, my heart beating like we’d been chased by a bear. “I hope so. Especially if Carlos finds Bane Jackson and takes a photo of him with the drone.” I shoved my hands into my coat pockets and thought about what the drone might have filmed.
“It looked like some frigging Star Wars robot up there in the sky just off the cliff edge,” Eve said. Why wasn’t she out of breath like me? Maybe because she hadn’t an ounce of fat on her and I had a big tooshie where I carried all my extra weight that I’d just toted around the house in double time.
“Drone legalities in Oregon State,” Eve said, probably to her phone.
My mother took my coat off, something I hadn’t yet decided to do. “Bryndle, you have to be careful, wandering around outside as long as you plan to fool your public into thinking you’re not blind as a bat.”
I bristled at her choice of words but actually agreed with my mother on this one. Either I had to tell people I was blind and suffer the consequences or continue the deception and hope someone like Bane never found out. The problem with coming clean was that I’d been lying on my show for a month about how I could see this and that, so telling the public that I’d lost my sight in the accident that took Harry, probably wasn’t an option anymore. I’d been a fool to start down this path of lies. All I could do now was keep pretending or make up a new lie.
Within minutes, Carlos swung open the front door and announced his conquest with bravado. “I got photos of his car driving off. I’m sure it was Bane Jackson.
“Call Jimmy, Eve. Find out what kind of vehicle Bane drives. What was it, Carlos?”
“A black SUV,” my mother said, presumably looking at Carlos’s phone.
“I’m going to download these, blow them up big, and expose this fucker,” Carlos said walking by us to the library, a room that had become his office.
“No laws in Oregon for drones,” Eve said. “California has them, probably to keep paparazzi from photographing celebrities, but not Oregon, or Washington.”
“I’m thinking of calling the police to report this,” I said. “Carlos!”
“Yes,” his steps came to the library doorway.
“Was his car on our property?”
“No. It was parked on the main road and I’m willing to guess he knows that Oregon hasn’t got drone laws yet.”
Where the hell had Caspian been when I needed him? Had he been around, I could have shown this skeptic that I could actually see.
All evening, we waited for footage to air on Bane’s blog about how I had to be helped down the stairs by my assistant. How my eyes looked useless as I walked along with Eve towards the edge of the Cove House cliff. I’d called the police to report a drone over my property and the nice man who took my call explained that unfortunately it wasn’t illegal to fly drones in free airspace.
“We just need to catch up with some of the other states,” he explained.
Eve spoke with Jimmy Big Ears to tell him we’d had a drone incident and according to my assistant, Jimmy was extremely interested that the person he was researching was in Oregon. When Eve got off the phone, she announced that Jimmy was coming to Cove House.
“I told him Bane drove off and probably wouldn’t be back, but he insisted on coming down here,” she said sounding more excited than I’d heard her in a long while. The silver lining to all this might have just presented itself. At least for Eve.
We went to bed just after ten. At least my mother and I went to bed. While brushing my teeth, I kept thinking I might start to see the mirror, the sink, the toilet, but then thought maybe Caspian was still horrified at the toilet sighting. Or embarrassed. He seemed all swaggerly and piratey but he also had pretty good manners.
If he was gone forever, I had to think positively. I’d had bonus moments of sight, and couldn’t mourn the moments I still hoped to have. At least, that’s what
I told myself.
When I slipped into bed, I had no idea if the light was on or off but guessed that my mother was again reading her horror book. Her breathing hitched every few paragraphs, to suggest new surprises. “If you’re still reading to scare yourself, I’m going to have Eve hide that book tomorrow. Sharing a room in an eight-bedroom mansion isn’t exactly my idea of fun when my roommate snores.”
“I do not snore, Missy!”
This claim always made my mother angry probably because her many boyfriends, including her present one, the cop, had probably told her she was a snorer. “If you’re bunking in with me and Hodor because you are scared of the ghosts in the house, I want to be the first to suggest you read something more family-friendly at bedtime.”
“I’m sharing your room because it’s fun,” she said.
“To who?” I pushed Hodor off my legs with great effort.
“Bryndle, it’s nice to spend time with you. Just like the old days when we always shared a bed.” Rachel sounded much happier than I felt about my roomie.
“I feel like we’ve done enough bed-sharing for a lifetime.” I turned from her, pounded my pillows to perfection and closed my eyes. Hodor moved back over to slump down against my legs, pressing into me, probably afraid to share the bed with Rachel too.
“Wake me when you get up at midnight. I’m not staying alone in the room,” Rachel said.
Shit. My mother was coming to the summoning.
Chapter 8
My mother woke me by shaking my shoulder, her loud voice a new intrusion in my bedroom. “Time to wake up, Bryndle.”
My alarm was increasing in volume, the tinkling music quite pleasant. “Did you get a cookie?” I asked, having just been in a dream where I was passing cookies to a group of old men at a lawn bowling event.
“No cookie, but it’s showtime,” my mother said. “I can’t wait to see how you film your show.” I felt her bounce out of the bed, something that made Hodor jump off in alarm.
“It’s OK, boy,” I said as my mother headed into the bathroom. I slid out of bed and slipped into my Frye boots and fuzzy bathrobe. Grabbing my phone, I headed for the door. “Let’s go to Eve’s room. Maybe Mother will go back to sleep when she returns, and we’re gone,” I said to Hodor, slapping my thigh to make him follow me.
I opened the door and flicked open TapTap. I’d just started singing “Just another panic Monday,” when I heard footsteps coming my way. They weren’t squishy like Caspian’s damp boot sound but suggested a much lighter person, like my cousin.
“I was coming to wake you,” Eve whispered, then touched my arm.
“The witch is awake,” I said delivering the news. “She can’t wait to see how we film the show.”
“Oh joy,” Eve said.
Hodor’s tail slapped against the wall making a loud middle-of-the-night thumping sound. If anyone had still been asleep, they’d be awake now. Eve took my arm and we walked to her room two doors down. “I’m hoping Rachel falls asleep on the toilet and misses the whole thing.”
“I’ll try to keep her out of the way, but…” Eve’s voice was apologetic.
I knew what came after the but. My mother would talk all through our process, offering suggestions and talking about herself. She’d probably ask to get on camera, but we’d have to hold firm and not allow Rachel to get to us. Or allow her on camera.
With my makeup done, I slipped into tonight’s costume that Eve had chosen of black leather pants with studs, a teal top with flowy sleeves and my trademark jewelry. Just as Eve was spiking my blue-tipped hair, footsteps sounded at the open door.
“There you are,” my mother said. “I thought you were in here dressing with Evelyn’s help, so I got ready in our bathroom.”
“We’re hiding from you,” I offered. “What are you getting ready for?” I gulped to realize my mother hoped she’d be on camera.
“Evelyn, that hairstyle makes her look crazy, not credible at all, and with Bane Jackson telling the internet that she’s a liar, shouldn’t we try a more conservative hairstyle?”
I had to say something to tell my mother just how much we wanted her input. “If you are going to watch this, you’re going to have to keep your opinions to yourself. When you get your own hit show, we won’t tell you how to wear your hair.”
“It’s just that you can’t see how inept that hair makes you look.”
Hodor whined, probably sensing what was about to come out of my mouth. I held back, knowing a fight before filming would not be good for any of us.
“Do you need to go to your room for a time out, Rachel?”
Eve giggled. “Voila. Finished. You look very Moody.”
I stood, walked forward and bumping into my mother, didn’t even say sorry, instead pushing past her to the door. “Gracias, Eve. You’ve outdone yourself again and I know I look amazing because my mother doesn’t agree.”
“Oh, you,” Rachel said. “Always doing the opposite to my suggestions. One day I’ll use reverse psychology on you and see if you end up doing exactly what I want.” My mother had been saying this for decades and it took all I had to not repeat it word for word, along with her.
As we walked to the Bloody Bedroom, I wondered if Caspian was AWOL because of Rachel. Was he avoiding her? If so, that was another reason to send her back to Seattle as soon as possible. I hadn’t even felt Moonraker rub up against my legs in the days since Rachel told the story of how she met Caspian. I hoped my sea captain appeared tonight, even though Rachel was apparently going to be in attendance. If he didn’t appear, I might have Carlos drive her home tomorrow to Seattle.
Carlos was waiting in the Bloody Bedroom when we arrived. “Should we do night vision?” he asked.
“Yes, but we don’t have enough sets of goggles for my mother,” I lied. “So, Rachel, here’s the deal. You can be in the same room with us in the pitch dark where a woman was allegedly killed, or you can wait outside the door, or go back to bed.”
I heard my mother gulp.
I continued. “I’m going to film the intro in the half light, then we turn all lights off.” I was hoping this approach would have my mother running back to the room. I didn’t want to be unnecessarily mean, but I also did not want my meddling mother behind the camera.
“Where will Hodor be?” she asked.
I hadn’t thought of that. We had Hodor with us all the time now. In the past, he’d waited in The Marshmallow while we worked, or he was with Harry if my husband wasn’t helping with the show. My dog’s head gently rested on my foot as I thought about what to do.
“Let’s leash him and I’ll hold him next to me.” It might be interesting to have a dog in the show as long as he didn’t look like a guide dog.
“Oh sure, you let the dog stay but banish me to my room,” Rachel argued.
“My room,” I corrected. “Hodor doesn’t talk back or tell me how to wear my hair.”
“I’ll sit on this bed in the dark, then.” Rachel sounded sulky and I almost felt sorry for her, but not quite.
I heard my mother move away from me and when bed springs creaked, I knew she’d found her spot to watch the intro.
“Carlos? Are we ready?”
Eve moved me, presumably so I was facing the camera, then leashed Hodor and handed me the connection to my dog. “You are all set. Find a spot to speak to and Carlos will adjust the camera.”
“Speaking of adjusting, fix her collar, Eve,” my mother said from the cheap seats across the room.
I almost told Rachel to shut up, but instead tried to concentrate on what I would say when the film started rolling. Once Eve fixed my collar and Carlos had the camera set to where I was looking, I waited for the countdown.
“4, 3, 2, …”
“Cove House, April 22nd, 1 a.m.” I said. “Investigation number 68.”
My mother coughed across the room and I waited.
“Sorry,” she said. “Tickle.”
“Good evening, Mood Peeps. We are in Cove House in Oregon whe
re we’ve discovered ghostly blood on a wall that shows up indiscriminately. We believe a woman was murdered in this room and we believe her name might be Jacqueline. Tonight, we will try to summon her to find out more of how she died and why she lingers. I’m hoping my new spirit guide, the sea captain from the 1850s, a man named Caspian, will join us and help with our investigation. So far, I haven’t sensed him, but he’s been known to show up when I most need him. Are you ready to get freaky scared, Mood Peeps? Carlos, turn out the lights and let’s begin.”
“And, cut,” Carlos said.
“Hodor, you were such a good boy,” Eve said approaching us.
“You should have said something about the dog at your side not being a guide dog,” my mother whispered, almost to herself from the bed across the room.
“My fans know Hodor,” I countered. “I post pics of him all the time. And mother, if you’re going to remain in the room, you’ll have to zip your lips. Imagine I’ve crazy glued them shut, will you?” The thought wasn’t unappealing.
Eve handed me a pair of night vision goggles and I put them on.
“Why can’t I have your goggles, Bryndle? You don’t need them to see anything.” My mother did not know the meaning of crazy glue, obviously.
“Fans would wonder why she didn’t have them on,” Carlos said, emphasizing the last word to tell my mother to shut up.
“I’ll take Hodor, if you want,” Eve said.
I was planning to walk around the wide-open part of the room where I wouldn’t trip over anything, so I gave the leash to Eve. “Count me in when you’re ready,” I said.
“4, 3, 2…”
“Caspian?” I said, probably with more need in my voice than I intended. “Are you with me tonight? I want to contact Jacqueline, the woman who died in this room. Is anyone with us,” I asked, already knowing the answer to the question because the green tinge of night vision was beginning to creep into my range of sight. “Caspian, I sense you close by.” I whispered this last part for effect. I was a bit of a sham. Acting was indeed part of it.
The room was presumably pitch black. My mother would not be able to see Caspian, sitting in the dark across the room. I turned around trying to get a glimpse of him and found my ghostly guide standing behind Eve, just off camera. Hodor stood next to Caspian but I was sure my dog couldn’t see him. “Hello, Caspian,” I said.
