by Isobel Bird
“That’s what teaching is,” Thatcher told her. “Showing people how to do something. Don’t sell yourself short.”
For the rest of dinner they talked about their paths and about what they’d done. Then a bell rang and they saw Bilbo standing at the front of the room.
“Hello again,” he said. “I hope you all had wonderful first days.”
There was a burst of applause and whistling as people indicated their satisfaction with the day’s activities. Bilbo waited for it to die away, then continued. “As we have every year, we’re going to use the evenings for informal classes and socializing. Anyone who wants to can offer a class, and this is the list.” He held up a piece of paper with some writing on it. “If you want to offer a class, just write your name on here along with what the class is, what time it’s meeting, and where,” Bilbo explained. “And if you want to take a class, just check out this list and see what interests you. It will be posted on the door to the dining room.”
He walked through the dining room and taped the list to the door. People got up from their tables and went to see what was on the paper. The girls, intrigued, joined the crowd around the list. When they got close enough to read it, they scanned the list.
“Ooh,” Sasha said. “Past life regression. That sounds like fun.”
“Not for me,” Cooper remarked. “I have enough problems with this life. I don’t want to know about the past ones.”
“What about palm reading?” Annie said. “Could be fun.”
“Or trance techniques,” Kate suggested.
“How about a ghost hunt?”
The girls turned around and saw Nora standing behind them. “Hey,” she said.
“A ghost hunt?” Annie asked her. “Are you serious?”
Nora nodded. “I told Cooper a little bit about it earlier today,” she said. “You guys interested?”
Annie looked at the others. “What do you guys think?”
“It’s better than this other stuff,” remarked Cooper.
“Can you guarantee a ghost?” asked Sasha doubtfully.
“Not definitely,” Nora admitted. “But I can try.”
The four girls looked at one another. “Okay,” Cooper said. “We’re in. What do we do?”
“Meet me at the east tower in an hour,” Nora told them. “That’s the one at that end of the hotel,” she added when they all looked at her blankly. “Go to the top floor and wait by the door at the end of the hall. I’ll meet you there. I just have to take care of some stuff first.”
She was looking at something behind them. When they turned to see what it was, they saw Lucy staring at them. She gave Nora a cold look and turned away.
“What’s with her?” Sasha asked.
“Nothing,” said Nora. “Just ignore her. Meet me in an hour, okay?”
“Sure,” Annie said. “We’ll be there.”
Nora left them, and the four girls went to the lobby to see what was going on. There they sat on one of the couches and talked.
“I’d really love to know why Nora and Lucy seem to hate each other,” Annie said. “That look Lucy gave us was really hostile.”
“Who knows why people do half the things they do?” Sasha said. “Maybe it’s one of those good twin, bad twin things like in the movies. You know, Lucy is the psychotic one who tries to poison people with arsenic, and Nora is the normal one.”
“You really watch way too much television,” Cooper teased. “Next thing you know, you’ll be telling us that Nora is trying to lure us to our deaths.”
“Oh, that’s good,” Sasha said thoughtfully. “Yes. She’s telling us we’re going on a ghost hunt, but really she’s going to take us to a deserted part of the hotel and lock us in. Perfect.”
Cooper threw a pillow at her, which Sasha caught and threw back. They were all laughing. Then Annie said softly, “Don’t look now, but the evil twin is watching us.”
They all looked. Lucy was standing in a doorway across the lobby from them, watching them intently. But when she saw them turn their gazes in her direction, she quickly turned and ran away.
“Good going,” said Annie. “I said not to look.”
“You can’t tell people not to look and expect them not to look,” Cooper said indignantly. “That’s like saying, ‘Here comes that cute guy you have the big crush on. Oh, by the way, pretend not to notice.’”
“Great,” Sasha said. “Now she knows we’re on to her and her wicked ways. I bet she tries to off us in our sleep now.”
The ridiculous comment drew another round of laughs, and pretty soon they forgot all about Lucy. Then Kate looked at her watch. “It’s time to meet Nora,” she said. “Let’s go.”
They got up and walked down the hallway. When they reached the stairs, they climbed to the fourth floor and then walked to the end of the hallway. Just as Nora had told them, it ended at a door, which was locked. A moment later Nora herself appeared. She produced a key from her pocket and held it up.
“If my father knew I had this he’d kill me,” she said as she fitted the key into the lock.
“Why?” Cooper asked her. “What’s the big deal about this door?”
“We just don’t use the room in the tower,” explained Nora. “He doesn’t like us to come up here.”
“But this is where the ghost is?” Kate said.
“Last time I saw her it was,” said Nora, pulling the door open.
“Her?” Annie repeated. “It’s a her?”
“Yes,” Nora said as she motioned for the others to go through the door.
Cooper went first. As she stepped through the door she flipped the electrical switch on the wall and a dim light went on somewhere above them, illuminating a staircase that spiraled up. Cooper began walking up the stairs.
“It looks like no one has been here in years,” she said, running her finger over the dust on the railing.
“They haven’t,” confirmed Nora, stepping in after Kate, Sasha, and Annie had passed through the door. She pulled the door shut carefully behind them.
“What were you doing up here, then?” Sasha asked. “I mean, if your parents declared it off-limits and all.”
“Isn’t that reason enough?” Nora asked, grinning.
“Yeah,” Sasha agreed. “But I bet there’s more to it than that.”
“There is,” said Nora. “I found a diary.”
“A diary?” said Annie.
“It belonged to a girl who used to live here,” Nora explained. “Her name was Mary O’Shea. She died here.”
“Died how?” asked Kate.
“That’s what I don’t really know,” Nora answered. “The diary only goes so far. Then it ends. But I did some research and found out that Mary died not long after she stopped writing the diary. She wrote a lot about coming up here, which is why I came here.”
They reached the top of the stairs, which opened up into a large room. It was big and empty, with a plain wooden floor and windows looking out in all directions.
“This doesn’t look like anything special,” Kate remarked as they gazed around at the barren space. “What did she do up here?”
“I think she just wanted to be alone,” Nora answered. She was walking around the big room, touching the walls gently and speaking in a soft voice. “I think she felt safe here.”
“When did her ghost appear to you?” asked Cooper.
“About a year ago,” Nora replied. “I was up here late one night. I think it may have even been a full moon. I’d brought the diary with me and was reading it. I heard a noise, and when I turned around she was standing there.” She pointed to a spot in front of one of the windows. “At first I was terrified, but there was something about her that made me not be afraid. So I talked to her.”
“She spoke?” said Annie. “What did she say?”
“She just told me that her name was Mary and that she had lived here,” said Nora. “It was like she couldn’t remember any more than that. After a while she just kind of faded out.”
>
“That sounds familiar,” Cooper said. “Elizabeth Sanger, the girl who haunted me, did the same thing at first.”
“But that was because she had died so violently and suddenly,” Annie reminded her. “When did this girl die, Nora?”
“In 1873,” Nora answered.
“And you said you don’t know how it happened?” asked Kate.
“No,” Nora said. “I found a newspaper clipping, but all it said was that she died.”
“It could have been anything,” Cooper said. “We should try to find out. That could be why she’s appearing to you.”
“This is so cool,” Sasha said. “I’ve never seen a ghost before.”
“It’s something else, all right,” Annie assured her, thinking of the few times it had happened to her.
“How many times have you seen her?” Cooper asked Nora.
“Maybe half a dozen,” she answered. “But never for very long. She just shows up sometimes.”
“Do you think we can make her appear?” Annie asked Cooper.
Cooper shrugged. “It’s worth a try,” she replied. “Are you guys up for it?”
“Count me in,” Sasha said instantly.
“Kate?” Cooper asked.
Kate nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Okay.”
“Let’s stand in a circle and hold hands,” suggested Cooper. “We can try to call to her.”
The five girls arranged themselves in a circle in the center of the room, holding hands. Cooper took a deep breath. “We should cast a circle,” she said.
“What for?” asked Nora.
“For protection,” Kate explained. “It keeps us surrounded by positive energy.”
“Oh, but Mary isn’t dangerous,” Nora said. “She’s a good ghost.”
“It’s not about her being good,” said Annie. “Whenever you invite another entity in you should set up a barrier in case it brings any kind of negative energy with it.”
Nora frowned. “Okay, I guess,” she said. “But I don’t think you need to do it.”
“Everyone imagine white light flowing out of our hands and forming a circle,” Cooper said.
They stood in silence for a minute as they created a circle with their energy. Then Cooper said, “The circle is cast. We are in sacred space. Nothing may enter uninvited, and all within the circle are safe from harm. Now let’s call to Mary. Nora, maybe you should do it since you’re the one who has seen her before.”
Nora nodded. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll try. But like I said, she doesn’t always show up.” She took a few deep breaths. Then she said, “Mary O’Shea, we call you. If your spirit is near, please show yourself.”
The five of them stood in the room in silence, waiting for something to happen. When the light suddenly went out, they let out little shrieks of surprise.
“We must have blown a fuse,” Cooper said.
The moon, only a few days past full, was shining brightly outside, so the room was still dimly lit by its light. It was enough to see in, so they remained in their circle, waiting for something else to happen. Minutes went by with nothing more occurring. Then a voice said, “I’m Mary O’Shea.”
The girls looked and saw a figure standing by one of the windows. It was a girl. She appeared to be around their age, but she was dressed in old-fashioned clothes. She wore a long white dress tied with a bow in back, and her long hair was tied back with a ribbon. Her face was pretty, and she looked at them with eyes that showed no fear.
“Mary!” Nora said. “You came.”
“Yes,” Mary said. “I came. I heard you calling me.”
“These are my friends,” Nora said excitedly.
“What do you want with me?” Mary asked, ignoring Nora.
“We want to help you,” Annie said as Mary turned to look at her. “We want to know how you died.”
Mary cocked her head, as if thinking. “I was killed,” she said.
“But how?” Cooper asked. “Who killed you?”
“Someone close to me,” said Mary sadly. “Someone very close to me.”
“Who was it?” Sasha asked anxiously.
Mary looked up again. This time she smiled sadly. “I must go,” she said. “Good-bye.”
“Wait,” called Cooper.
But Mary’s ghost was already fading away, and a moment later the place where she had stood was nothing but empty space with moonlight shining on the wall.
“She’s gone,” Nora said sadly.
“Yes,” Cooper said. “But she came, and she spoke to us. We can probably get her to come back again.”
“And we know a little bit more,” said Annie. “We know someone killed her.”
“But we don’t know who it was,” Sasha said.
“Maybe there’s a clue in the diary,” Kate suggested. “The one you found, Nora. Can we see it?”
Nora shook her head. “I don’t have it anymore,” she said. “I lost it.”
Kate sighed. “Too bad,” she said. “That would have been really helpful. Well, we’ll just have to wait until we can talk to her again.”
“Thanks for trying, anyway,” said Nora. “I appreciate it.”
“I don’t understand why Lucy doesn’t believe you about Mary’s ghost,” Cooper said. “Why don’t you just bring her up here and show her?”
Nora snorted. “Lucy only believes what she wants to believe,” she said.
“Well, we believe you,” Cooper said. “And we’ll do whatever we can to help you.”
Nora smiled. “Thanks,” she said. “I really appreciate that. I’m so glad you guys came.”
“We should probably get out of here now, though,” said Annie. “But we’ll be back.”
“Oh, yes,” Nora said. “I know we’ll be back.”
CHAPTER 7
“Yesterday you told someone your greatest fears,” Jackson said to his group on Monday morning. “But you didn’t know who that person was. Today we’re going to do something different. We’re going to work with partners again, but this time you’re going to know who your partner is because there will be no blindfolds.”
Kate felt a knot forming in her stomach. She really wasn’t big on partner exercises. The day before had been difficult enough, especially considering what her partner had told her. It still freaked her out a little bit, especially since she still had no idea who she had been paired with. But the idea of talking face-to-face to someone she didn’t know about personal things made her feel even more nervous.
“I know choosing partners can be awkward,” Jackson said. “So I’ve made it easy for you. I’ve written numbers on pieces of paper and put them into the cauldron.” He indicated the small cast-iron cauldron that sat in the center of the circle and had been the focus of a lot of attention since they’d gathered in the room that morning. “Each of you will choose a number. Then you just have to find the other person who has the same number. That person is your partner.”
“But you haven’t told us what we’re going to do,” a man said. Kate was secretly relieved to hear that he sounded almost as nervous about the exercise as she was.
“All in good time,” said Jackson. “Numbers first.”
Everyone stood up and walked to the cauldron. Kate hung back as other people selected their pieces of paper. Somehow she figured that would postpone the inevitable, although she knew that was ridiculous. Several other people were standing back from the main group as well, and Kate noted gloomily that one of them was Lucy. The girl seemed even more depressed than she had the day before, and Kate couldn’t help but remember how Lucy had been spying on her and the others after dinner. She was probably up all night thinking of ways to make us miserable, Kate thought.
Finally the crowd cleared away from the cauldron and Kate stepped forward to select a number. She snatched a piece of paper and stepped away. Opening it, she saw the number 13. How perfect, she thought, sighing.
“Okay,” Jackson said, looking into the cauldron. “You should all have your numbers now. Go find the pe
rson who has the same number.”
Kate looked around. People were busily comparing numbers or holding up their papers for everyone to see. One by one the matching numbers found one another and pairs formed. She was disheartened to see that no one was coming toward her or looking at her. She’d sort of been hoping that someone she knew would have her number. But the only person she knew was Star, and she was paired with a young man wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt.
Soon there appeared to be no one left. Kate looked around but didn’t see anyone else who appeared single. She walked up to Jackson. “I think maybe I’m the odd one out,” she said, more relieved than anything that perhaps she wouldn’t have to partner with someone.
“No,” Jackson said. “There are definitely an even number of people. Someone doesn’t have a partner.” He took Kate’s number and looked at it. “Number thirteen,” he called out. “Is there another number thirteen?”
“That would be me.”
Kate looked around and saw Lucy standing a few feet away, clutching a piece of paper in her hand and looking unhappy.
“I’m number thirteen,” she said.
“Great,” said Jackson jovially. “Then you girls are partners for today. Why don’t you go get settled.”
Kate looked at Lucy, who looked down at her feet. Of all the people, she thought as she walked toward the other girl. But there was nothing she could do about it.
Lucy didn’t look at Kate as they walked over to an empty area of the room and sat down. Kate ignored her, looking at Jackson as he gave them their next instructions.
“This morning’s exercise is about sharing yourself with others,” Jackson said. “It’s also about listening. What we’re going to do is play interview. Each of you will get ten minutes to find out as much as you can about the other person. Then you’ll switch roles and your partner will find out as much as she or he can about you. When both of you have had a chance to do the interviewing, we’ll come back in a circle and you’ll be asked to share a little of what you’ve learned. So decide which of you is going to ask questions first. We’ll begin in one minute.”
