Haunting Danielle 28 The Ghost and the Birthday Boy

by Bobbi Holmes

  “When my mommy was pregnant with me, she went into labor, and Daddy took her to a hospital. That’s where I was born, in a hospital. Before my parents took me home, a little boy died in the hospital. He was very sick, but he didn’t understand. Even his parents didn’t. They were all very shocked when he died suddenly. It was very sad.”

  “What little boy?” Rupert asked.

  “He was confused, because he didn’t expect to die. He found me in the nursery with the other newborns, and for some reason he decided to go home with me. I think because he couldn’t find his parents. Like you can see Marie, I could see him. And as I grew up, he stayed with me. He was my best friend. He was my special friend. We had so much fun together. I never got lonely because he was always there. And since he could not pick up toys like a living boy, he never stole my toys.” Lily chuckled at the memory while silent tears rolled down her face.

  “He taught me to build sandcastles at the beach. He couldn’t do it himself, but he told me how. My sister teased me. Said he wasn’t real. So did my parents. Sometimes they would pretend he was real, but to them, it was a game.”

  Rupert stood up, his eyes still on Lily.

  “One day, Rupert suggested I give my stuffed animals a bath. I got in trouble. And when I said it was Rupert’s idea, my mother got angry. She gathered up some of my toys, put them in a box, and said until I proved I could take care of them, she was putting them away. She ordered Rupert to get in the box with them. Mom didn’t think Rupert was real. She was just trying to get me to give up what she thought was my imaginary friend. But I think she scared Rupert, so he did as she told him. He got in the box. And I never saw my friend again.”

  Tears streamed down Lily’s face. She closed her eyes and lowered her head. “I’m so sorry, Rupert. I never meant to hurt you.”

  “Lily!” Rupert gasped. “It really is you, my Lily!”

  Gently, Marie lifted Connor out of Lily’s arms and carried him over to the crib. Lily remained sitting in the rocking chair, tears still sliding down her cheeks.

  Rupert moved closer, sitting by her side. He looked up at her. “It really is you?” he whispered.

  Marie set Connor on the mattress and turned to Rupert and Lily. “Remember, she can’t hear or see you.”

  “But she used to,” Rupert said.

  “Yes. When I was a baby, a spirit named Eva Thorndike used to visit my crib. I could see her. She would sing to me. But as I got older, I could no longer see her. But now that we are both spirits, we’re friends. And I can see her again. She, like me, decided not to move on yet.”

  Rupert looked at Marie. “I’m dead, aren’t I?”

  Marie nodded.

  “I’m the sick little boy who died in the hospital.”

  “I’m afraid so,” Marie whispered.

  Rupert let out a sigh. “I sort of always knew.” He looked toward the crib. “Does this mean someday Connor will stop seeing us?”

  Marie shrugged. “I’m not sure. I suspect I stopped seeing Eva because no one around me could see her. With Connor, there are several adults in his life—including his parents—who acknowledge I’m here. So it’s possible with them acknowledging my existence, he won’t stop seeing me. But I’m not sure.”

  “Will Lily let me stay with Connor?” Rupert asked.

  “I think Lily would rather you do what’s best for you,” Marie said.

  “What’s that?” Rupert asked.

  “Move on in your journey. I imagine there is someone waiting for you.”

  “Like my mom and dad?” he said hopefully.

  “It depends. Your parents might be around the same age as Lily’s parents, perhaps a little older. Lily’s parents are still alive. Do you remember your grandparents?”

  “Yeah. I loved my grandparents. I miss them.”

  “Were they still alive the last time you remember?” Marie asked.

  Rupert nodded.

  “Marie, is Rupert still here? If he is, will you move something,” Lily whispered.

  Marie looked at the box Rupert had been sitting in. It lifted into the air, then dropped back to the floor.

  “I need to know if Rupert is okay. If he understands. Can you lift the box if he does?” Lily asked.

  Marie looked at Rupert. “Are you okay?”

  Rupert nodded.

  Lily crawled into bed with Ian. When she did, he rolled over and took her in his arms.

  “Are you okay?” Ian asked in a whisper.

  “I think so. Drained. I have no idea what Rupert understood, or where we go from here. This has been the craziest day!”

  Just as Ian pulled her closer, the cellphone on the nightstand rang.

  “Who is calling this late?” Ian grumbled.

  Lily pulled away from Ian and picked up the phone. She looked at it. “It’s Dani.”

  Lily answered the phone. Ian watched as Lily listened to what Danielle was telling her. Finally, Lily hung up.

  “What was that about?” Ian asked.

  “Marie popped over to Walt and Danielle’s to convey a message to me.”

  “We lead the weirdest life,” Ian muttered and then asked, “What did Marie say?”

  “Rupert listened to what I said, and he accepted everything. He is ready to move on—”

  “Thank God,” Ian blurted.

  “But first he needs our help.”

  “Of course he does,” Ian groaned. Flopping his head back on his pillow, he stared up into the darkness. “What does he want?”

  “To find out where his parents are. If they’re still alive, he wants to find them before he moves on, to make sure they’re okay.”

  Ian let out a sigh. “I suppose I can help find them.”

  “Once we help Rupert, then we can focus on our other issue.”

  Ian drew Lily back into his arms. He held her for a few moments and then said, “You know what always drives me crazy?”

  “Yes. The best stories of your life are the ones you can never write.”

  Ian pulled away and looked at her. “How did you know I was going to say that?”

  “Because you basically say the same thing each time one of these things happens.” Lily snuggled closer.

  “Maybe I should start writing fiction,” Ian said after a few minutes.

  “Fiction?”

  “It wouldn’t really be fiction. But everyone would think it was.”

  Lily chuckled and gave Ian a quick kiss. “Go to sleep. I have a feeling this is going to be a long two weeks.”

  “I hate to remind you,” Ian said. “It’s going to be longer than two weeks. My parents aren’t leaving, remember?”

  Lily groaned and then rolled out of Ian’s arms, her back now to him as she hugged a pillow. “I love you, Ian, goodnight.”

  “Night, Lily. I love you too.” Ian rolled over, his back now touching Lily’s.

  Twenty-Nine

  Something licked his mouth. Chris opened his eyes and found his pit bull, Hunny, staring into his face. The next moment, the dog swiped her wet tongue over his nose. Pushing Hunny away, Chris grunted. “Really, Hunny?” Glancing over at the clock on his nightstand, he saw it was almost 7:30 a.m. Chris could normally sleep in on Sunday morning, but in that moment, he remembered the mediums were all meeting at his house in an hour and a half. Instead of jumping out of bed, he wiped the back of one hand over his mouth and nose to remove the dog slobber.

  Hunny remained by Chris’s side, sitting on the floor next to the bed, staring intently at him. The dog whimpered, never taking her eyes off her human.

  Reluctantly, Chris sat up in bed and looked down at the dog. “What is it, girl? You need to go out?” Hunny whimpered again.

  Letting out a sigh and about to climb out of bed, Chris paused when he heard it—the sound of running water. The next minute Chris was up, out of bed, and in his kitchen, cursing. A small river traveled through his kitchen and into the living room, its source a broken pipe under the sink. It took him a few minutes, but he finally got
the water turned off.

  “This isn’t supposed to happen with a new house,” Chris grumbled as he mopped up the mess while Hunny watched. He looked over at the dog and smiled. “Is this what you were trying to tell me?”

  After cleaning up the water, Chris got Bill Jones on the phone, who agreed to be at the house in half an hour. Once off the phone with Bill, Chris sent two text messages, one to Heather and one to Danielle. He considered calling, but he wasn’t sure they were up yet, and he saw no reason to wake them.

  The messages read: I had a water pipe break. Bill is coming over to fix it. We can’t talk while he’s here. Let’s meet at Heather’s instead, same time. See you at 9.

  Heather rolled over in bed and bumped into Brian. He stared into her face and smiled.

  “Good morning,” Heather greeted him. “What time is it?”

  “I think you’re going to be late for Chris’s. It’s almost nine.” Brian grinned.

  “Dang!” Heather jumped out of bed. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

  Brian chuckled. “I just woke up a couple of minutes ago. Did you know you snore?”

  “I do not!” She snatched her robe off the end of the bed and hastily put it on.

  “You do,” he teased, sitting up in bed.

  “Well, maybe I do.” She glanced around the room.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “My cellphone. I need to text Chris and let him know I’ll be a little late.” She glanced at the clock. It was just a few minutes until nine, and then she remembered. “It’s downstairs. I left it in the kitchen.”

  Brian started to get out of bed. “You get dressed, and I’ll run down and get it for you.”

  “No.” Heather pushed him back in bed. “You don’t have to get up. I’ll run down, send him a quick message, and then get dressed. You go back to sleep.”

  “Why would I do that?” He frowned.

  Heather shrugged. “It’s Sunday. Sundays are to sleep in. Anyway, I should be back in an hour, and you promised to make me breakfast.”

  Brian laughed. “Fine.” He leaned back on his pillow and watched as she dashed out of the room.

  While going to the kitchen, Heather heard someone knocking on her front door. She walked to the door and peeked out the side window. Chris, Walt, and Danielle stood on her porch. With a frown, she opened the door.

  “What are you guys doing here?” Heather asked.

  “Didn’t you get my message?” Chris asked, walking into her house without waiting for an invitation. Walt and Danielle followed him. Once inside, Chris paused a moment and looked Heather up and down, noting her messy just-out-of-bed hair and the way she clutched the belt of her robe tighter.

  “You aren’t even dressed yet,” Chris observed. “And your hair… didn’t you get my text?”

  “What text? I overslept and just came downstairs to send you a message to let you know I was running late. I left my phone in the kitchen last night. Why are you here?”

  “Chris woke up to a broken pipe,” Danielle explained. “Bill is over there working on it. And we really couldn’t do this at our house, with Ian’s and Lily’s parents there.”

  “I’ll go make coffee while you put something on,” Chris said, turning and heading for the kitchen. But when he did, the sound of someone on the stairs stopped him. He turned and looked up into the face of Brian Henderson—a startled Brian Henderson—wearing just boxers.

  “Oh crap,” Heather groaned.

  “Brian? Seriously?” Chris said for the third time.

  “I’m surprised it took you this long to figure out.” Walt chuckled. The four sat in Heather’s kitchen, drinking coffee.

  After Brian had barged in on Heather’s unexpected guests, Danielle ushered Walt and Chris in the kitchen, where she made coffee and left Heather to deal with Brian, who quickly dressed and made a hasty exit.

  “You knew?” Chris asked Walt.

  “Sure. I’m not stupid.” Walt took a sip of his coffee.

  Chris frowned at Walt, and Danielle chuckled. “Chris, you might say they bonded on their little adventure in the woods.”

  Chris looked from Danielle to Heather, who just shrugged and took another sip of coffee. After seeing Brian off, Heather hadn’t bothered changing out of her robe, but she had combed her hair.

  “He’s old enough to be your father,” Chris told her.

  “If he were my father, then it would be an issue,” Heather said.

  “But it’s Brian Henderson,” Chris said.

  Heather frowned. “You seriously don’t like Brian?”

  “He did try to arrest me—and Danielle,” Chris said.

  “That was, like, a million years ago,” Heather reminded him.

  Chris sighed. “True. And I must admit, he’s been an alright guy lately. And he handled the ghost thing impressively well. So that’s why he’s been around so much lately?”

  “You’re okay with me dating him, then?” Heather asked.

  “I guess when it comes right down to it, it really is not my business. As long as he’s good to you, and you’re happy, then I suppose I’ll have to get used to it.”

  “You do know, I don’t really care if it is none of my business, if you start dating someone I don’t approve of, I will say something,” Heather told Chris.

  “Yeah, I know.” Chris took a drink of coffee and then asked, “Joe doesn’t know, does he?”

  “Oh, gawd no.” Heather cringed.

  Chris frowned. “Why not? Why is Brian keeping it a secret from him?”

  “Brian’s not keeping it a secret. I am.”

  When the discussion of Brian and Heather ended, the four turned to the business at hand. Danielle started by filling Heather and Chris in on what had happened between Lily and Rupert the night before.

  “Wow, that is amazing,” Chris said.

  “Fortunately, I don’t think Rupert is going to be a problem. Ian is trying to see what he can track down on his parents, and then we can figure out what to do next. But the biggest issue we have right now is Marymoor,” Danielle said.

  “I might get some perverse pleasure thinking of Joe and Kelly visiting her parents after they build a house there, if it weren’t for Connor,” Heather said.

  “There is always a chance June and John will witness some of the things we have and not build on the site, but according to Adam, it’s going to be hard to resell that property,” Danielle said.

  “Do you have any ideas?” Heather asked.

  “We need to find some way to convince the spirits to move on,” Danielle said.

  “I know that. But according to Marie and Eva, they aren’t being very cooperative. Sounds to me like what we need is an old-fashioned exorcism,” Heather said.

  “We need to learn more about them. Find out why they haunt that place,” Chris said.

  “Because they’re ghosts of crazy people,” Heather suggested.

  “Eva thinks there’s something else,” Walt said. “Something that’s keeping them here.”

  “She also thinks there are more than three spirits over there. They’ve seen three so far, but they feel there’s more who refuse to show themselves,” Danielle said.

  “A couple of us need to go over there,” Chris suggested. “They are obviously not showing themselves to Eva and Marie, who tried talking to them. But I wonder, perhaps if a medium goes over there—doesn’t attempt to communicate with them, pretends not to see them. It’s possible others will show themselves.”

  “Kinda like eavesdropping?” Heather asked.

  “Something like that,” Chris said. “It may not work, but we could give it a shot.”

  “Walt and I could drive over there,” Danielle suggested.

  “No!” Heather blurted. “You can’t do it. Let me do it with Chris or Walt.”

  “Why can’t Danielle do it?” Chris asked.

  “Too much negative energy. It might not be good for you right now. There is no reason to take that chance,” Heather insisted.
r />   Chris frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m sure it will be okay,” Danielle said.

  “Hey, if you aren’t drinking caffeine just in case, I think you should avoid negative energy, too. You don’t know how that could affect the baby,” Heather said.

  “What baby?” Chris blurted.

  Danielle groaned. She looked at Chris. “We don’t know if there is a baby.”

  “But there might be,” Heather reminded her.

  Danielle glared at Heather. “It was supposed to be a secret.”

  Heather shrugged. “Chris knows about Brian, so why can’t he know about a maybe baby?”

  “What baby?” Chris snapped. He looked at Danielle. “You’re pregnant?”

  “Maybe,” Danielle said.

  “She needs to take a pregnancy test,” Heather said.

  “I agree with Heather,” Walt said. “One of us can do this, but not Danielle. Just in case.”

  Chris looked from Walt to Heather to Danielle. “Why am I the last to know everything around here?”

  “If it makes you feel any better, the only other one who knows I might be pregnant is Lily,” Danielle told him.

  “You seriously don’t think Lily told Ian?” Heather asked.

  Danielle shrugged. “Okay, then Lily and Ian.”

  “Does Lily know about Heather and Brian?” Chris asked.

  “I never told her, but I think she might have figured it out,” Danielle said.

  Heather arched a brow at Danielle. “Really?”

  “It’s possible.” Danielle shrugged.

  “Marie also knows about Heather and Brian,” Walt said.

  Chris considered all that he had just learned. Finally, he smiled and looked at Walt. “Wow, you might be a dad?”

  Walt grinned. “That’s what my mom tells me.”

  “Your mom?” Chris frowned.

  “Let’s talk about that later. First, we need to figure out who’s haunting Marymoor, and why,” Danielle said.

  Pearl Huckabee stood at her bedroom window, looking down at the sidewalk below. She watched as the Marlows and Chris Johnson walked down the street. The three had just left Heather Donovan’s house. Earlier that morning, as she was getting her newspaper, she’d caught Brian Henderson sneaking out from the back of Heather’s house. It was obvious he had spent the night—again.