SEEING DEAD THINGS: A Paranormal Women’s Fiction Novel (Roxie’s Midlife Adventures Book 1)

by Leigh Raventhorne

  “Good morning Roxanne. I’ve been waiting for you. I’m afraid that my mind hasn’t given me a moment’s rest since my revelation at the park yesterday while talking with Rand. And, before you say anything—yes, I knew you could hear me. I just didn’t want to give anything away to Rand, just yet. That’s your decision to make, but I’d like to talk to you about my idea.”

  He paused, before continuing slowly, “Roxanne, what if I could have it both ways? What if I crossed over, but could be called back to visit with Jake from time to time? Ever since Rosemary told me what she did about Birdie missing me so, and wondering why I haven’t joined her, it’s really been haunting me. I don’t want her thinking that I no longer love her or anything, you know?”

  This was exactly the opening I had been waiting for. To say I had mixed feelings was an understatement but I knew this was the right thing to do. Time to suck it up and just rip the band-aid off.

  “About that Elmer. We need to talk.” I said, taking a seat next to him.

  “Okay. Is everything alright?” he asked, instantly concerned.

  “It's fine. Or it’s going to be anyway. Just hear me out until the end. This is going to take me a little while to tell you everything.” And it did. I started at the point where I found my ring and ended at Rosemary and his grandmother leaving two days ago. I tried to make sure I left nothing out, especially the fact that I was able to bring both women over at once. Oh, and that his job here was done and he would feel the pull to cross even more strongly. It hadn’t occurred to me then but, as I was telling him about it now, I realized there hadn’t been any energy drain to me that day. At all. Looking down at the ring, I suspected it had something to do with that.

  When I was done, there was silence. Elmer slumped back in his chair, staring at the space in front of him, just processing it all. I waited, trying not to fidget, then decided I really needed coffee for the rest of the conversation I knew was coming.

  “I don’t know what to say, Roxanne,” he said finally.

  I huffed out a breath as I sat down again, closing my eyes for a second as I took my first sip of coffee before looking back at him. “About which part?”

  He looked over at me with both eyebrows raised. “Any of it. I’ve never heard of any of what you did that day being done before. Granted, none of the men ever got the training that our women did with the Items, but we still knew about them. We heard the stories, read the journals, and so forth. Sometimes we’d even see a bit of it firsthand, but—nothing like this.”

  That reminded me. “I have a question about that, Elmer. About the men and the women thing. If it’s only the women who used the Items, recorded everything, trained or passed down the knowledge—what exactly did the men do?”

  He cackled at that. “Well, besides the obvious? We were the muscle in many cases. We’d watch over the women, when needed. We were the primary breadwinners, just like in normal, non-Seeing families.”

  “Not to be dense here, but what do you mean by ‘the obvious’?” I wondered.

  “Aren’t you a little old for me to be telling you about the birds and the bees, Roxanne? We helped to keep the bloodlines going,” he said, with a mischievous glint in his eye.

  “Okay, mister, first off, you never call any woman old unless you are trying to insult her and you’re at a safe enough distance to dodge things being thrown at you. Or you want to eat shoe leather for dinner for a week or three.” I ignored the idea of old people sex. Even though technically I was old people, too.

  He chuckled. “I think I’m safe on both those counts. But, this? Roxanne, this is—amazing!” He shook his head in awe. “How was Grandmam? Did she say anything about Birdie?”

  The hope in his eyes was nearly too much for me. “Just that she’s waiting for you, Elmer. That it’s time for you to seriously start thinking about crossing over to be with her.”

  “But there’s Jake, I have to think about him. And what about Toby? Something needs to be done about that woman. That dog needs a real home, with someone who will take proper care of him. Do you think—” he paused. I could almost see his thoughts racing. “Do you think you could bring Toby here? Would Sam be okay with that? If you could convince that woman to do the right thing and think about what’s best for him?”

  “Let me worry about Toby. I’ll work it all out, Elmer. Somehow. Jake is comfortable enough with me that he’ll be just fine. I promise you don’t have to worry about either of them. It’s time to think about yourself now.”

  If I could somehow convince Cruella to give Toby up, would Sam be okay with the big German Shepherd staying here? Years ago she talked about getting a dog but eventually decided her schedule kept her away too much. Come to think of it, I realized that I hadn’t even seen her much in the last two days. She was gone before I came down and had some big case or something she was working on that was keeping her at the office later than usual. The brief moments I did see her, she seemed somewhat distracted.

  Elmer's next comment snapped me back to the present. His voice was shaking with excitement. “I can’t believe I can finally go to be with her. When do you think I should go? I want to talk to that Rand fellow again first, for sure.”

  “Rand? Why? What’s he got to do with any of this?” I could feel the heat in my cheeks rising, so I ducked my head and took another drink of my coffee.

  Elmer wasn’t fooled in the least. “Someone needs to watch over you. You’re still new enough to all of this that having someone like him around could make a difference for you.” He put a hand up to halt my attempted objections. “I know you said Rosemary and Grandmam told you to call on them whenever you need, but what if you’re in a position where you can’t? This town may not be the biggest draw for Others, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Plus, if you have Toby, he’s going to want to be around anyway. I’m thinking he would be a gentleman about certain matters but I’m still going to have a discussion with him. Just because I’m a ghost, doesn’t mean I can’t give a young buck like him what for.”

  I didn’t even know what to say to that. On the one hand, I was deeply touched. Barely remembering either of my grandfathers, Elmer was the closest thing I would probably ever have to that experience. But, on the other hand? “Elmer, seriously? I’m forty years old, almost forty-one! And I’m not even his type, I’m sure, even with the whole still-having-a-heartbeat thing notwithstanding.” Those objections sounded weak, even to me. “And Toby, well, if he’s taken care of, Rand may just choose to cross, too.”

  At that, I stopped to wonder. Would he feel he could cross over if Toby was taken care of? Even though I had only just met Rand, the thought of him crossing over made my heart hurt a little. I did feel safe when I was near him but I didn’t want him to feel obligated to stay on this side because Elmer guilted him into it. And really, how much protection could a ghost actually be?

  As if sensing my thoughts, Jake looked up at me and woofed. Well, he did have a point. “Yes, Jake, you’re the best. Did I ever thank you, big guy?” He woofed again more softly and lay his head back down.

  Elmer looked at me questioningly. I shrugged sheepishly. Jake was probably just excited about hearing Toby’s name mentioned several times.

  “Be that as it may, I still want to talk to him. I’ll cross as soon as I know everything is as it should be.” He stopped as another thought occurred to him. “Will you be able to call me back to see Jake every once in a while? I don’t want him to forget about me. I’ll be able to tell Birdie all about him. She’s been wondering, surely.”

  “I think so, but I’m still learning about how all this works. Do you think there’s any reason it wouldn’t work?”

  “I don’t really know. You’ve been able to do things that aren’t supposed to be possible. Or at the very least, have never been done before.” He laughed ruefully. “Those old hens are probably still clucking about it over there, trying to figure out what’s different about you.”

  “Elmer, didn’t we just go over wha
t can happen when you call a woman old? Adding hen won’t earn you any points with any woman, relative or not.” I joked, but his comment worried me. I was different, not to mention I wasn’t family. They had already warned me that might mean everything could react unpredictably.

  “Grandmam always could find a mean switch,” he shot back. Then he went on more soberly, “But I don’t know anything about how all that stuff works with the Items, for sure. When I showed signs of having the Sight, my mother took me to spend time learning with her older sister, Mary, and her niece—my cousin, Rosemary. They lived with my Grandmam and Grandpappy.” I could tell he was going to head down memory lane for a little stroll, but I let him. I didn’t know how much more time I would have with him and I did enjoy listening to his history. “Aunt Mary, she had the Sight, too. Rosemary was the last woman in the family to have the Sight that I know of. She took over after Grandmam and Aunt Mary were gone. She had a daughter, Rosemary did. She was the spitting image of her mama, too. But our little Rosie died too young in a car accident, in her senior year of high school. Rosemary was never the same after that. We had been close before, you know, Rosemary and I. She was right there as a witness when Birdie and I were married.” He sighed heavily. “Anyway, even though I was sent to learn, the women were taught a lot more than the men were. We weren’t allowed to use the Items—we rarely even handled them. That Rose Quartz ring was only spoken of and, as far as I know, only female ancestors were called on with it.”

  He seemed to be talked out for the moment. “Elmer, what’s the worst that could happen if I did call you? Is there any chance you could get stuck over here? I don’t want to do anything that would hurt you.” Another thought occurred to me. “ You know, I could always send updates back with Rosemary about how Jake is doing. I'm sure she wouldn’t mind relaying messages from you, either.”

  I wanted to reach out and rub his back soothingly, but I knew how that would end up for me, so I wrapped my hands firmly around my still-warm coffee cup.

  He gave Jake a long look. “I suppose that will have to do. But, you will at least try, won’t you?”

  “How about this—I’m going to ask Rosemary about it first and see what she thinks. If she thinks it’s safe, I’ll try.” I promised him.

  He nodded, looking depressed again. I leaned toward him. “Elmer. Birdie is waiting for you over there. I know you want to see her again. Jake is going to be just fine. Really.”

  Chapter 18

  The next morning, I waited until Sam left for her office before coming downstairs. I tried to be a considerate houseguest and stay out of her way during her morning routine. Plus, I really didn’t want her trying to talk me into going running with her before the sun was even up. In the kitchen, I felt the side of the insulated coffee carafe, then peeked inside. Awesome! She left a half pot of coffee for me and it’s still warm.

  “Elmer? Are you here? Can you hear me?” I asked the empty house. Nothing. I looked around, starting to get used to him just showing up behind me when I called him and scaring the crap out of me. Still no answer.

  Jake came bounding into the room at the sound of my voice. Over the last couple days, he seemed to have transformed into a much younger dog. He looked so happy to have a dog friend to play with who could also see him. When they were together, the two of them looked just like two regular dogs, rather than one real and one ghost dog. Today I was going to have to pay attention more closely whenever they were side-by-side. I thought I had noticed slight differences the last time they played. I had focused on those differences, knowing I needed to be able to tell the difference between the living and ghosts more quickly, rather than just waiting to see if someone or something passed through them or not. Those two were perfect guinea pigs.

  The only way I could think of to describe it was to compare the difference between a good quality high resolution digital picture and a low resolution one after they’ve been blown up larger. They’re a little grainy, the colors are less distinct, and less solid looking. That’s kind of what Jake looked like compared to Toby. I guess if that was the most obvious difference between the two dogs then maybe it would be true for other ghost situations, too.

  “What are you doing?” came from right behind me.

  I jumped and whirled around to face him. “Seriously Elmer?”

  “What?”

  “Do all ghosts get some kind of obscene pleasure from making the living nearly wet themselves, or am I just lucky that the first two I’ve met are into it?”

  “Oh. Sorry. No. I’ll try to be more aware of that.”

  “Thank you!”

  “But again . . . what are you doing?” he asked.

  “I was comparing the differences between Toby and Jake’s appearances when they were playing. Today I want to see if I can figure those differences out and how I can work with them. So I can hopefully avoid unpleasant surprises in the future.”

  “Oh, okay. You appeared frozen. You didn’t move a muscle for the entire three minutes I’ve been standing here. I was afraid something was wrong.”

  “Can any ghost see any other ghost? Is it easy for you to tell the difference?” I asked curiously.

  “Yes, as far as I know. It should get easier for you to tell the difference with time, too.”

  I explained what I had noticed so far to him. “Will you call Jake to you for a sec?”

  Before he had a chance to do so, Jake jumped up and put his front feet on Elmer. I eyed him suspiciously. I still believed he could understand me.

  I turned my attention back to Elmer. “So, ghosts can touch ghosts as if they’re both solid then?”

  “Well, sort of, but not exactly,” he answered. “We’re both at the same—density level, I guess you might call it—right now, so he can do that. If I went in either other direction, he wouldn’t be able to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Elmer looked up at the ceiling, thinking. “I should have known you would ask that, curious girl! Let’s see. How about I start with when I disappear? I’m not always gone. Sometimes I’m ‘gray’. My natural state as a ghost, spirit, or whatever, is a really small speck of dim gray light. You probably can’t even see me with your naked eyes, and by you, I mean someone with the Sight. That takes the least amount of effort and drains the least amount of my energy to maintain, so unless I want you to be able to see me, that’s how I stay. Doing this, being visible for you, isn’t too bad. To increase my density enough so I can touch you, though, is very draining.”

  “Rand mentioned that. Which reminds me—when your energy gets drained—how do you get it back?” Something else he said hit me. “Wait. So all those times I called for you, you were just ignoring me?”

  “No, not always,” he hedged, before continuing. “Sometimes if our energy drops too low, we kind of go into a hibernation mode. But our energy, it just—gradually comes back. I’m not sure how else to explain it. Like osmosis or something? Everything is made of energy, and occupies space. If any one thing has less energy than everything around it, it kind of absorbs energy from everything else until they’re all even. Does that make sense?”

  “I think so.” I decided to ignore that ‘not always’. For now.

  “Say, for instance, I had run over to your house that day instead of sending Jake. I may not have even had the energy left to make myself visible for you afterwards. Possibly not even the next day. It took me a while to learn to balance all that,” he explained.

  “Okay, I get it. Is that where you were when I called you a few minutes ago?”

  “Yes and no. I was in that gray space, but I was upstairs in the attic again.”

  That immediately worried me. “What? Why?”

  “I was just looking at some old pictures of Birdie and I,” he said sadly.

  Oh. Not sure how to respond to the sudden change in his mood, I hoped maybe a trip to the park would cheer him back up again.

  “I’m going down to the park to see Rand. Would you like to come? I thought Jake a
nd Toby could play again. It’s a really nice day out,” I coaxed.

  I had to get up. Sitting on these bar stools for very long tended to make my legs fall asleep. I took my coffee cup over to the sink, rinsed it, and put it in the dishwasher.

  “I don’t think I will today, Roxie. You and Jake go ahead. I’d make for poor company I’m afraid.”

  “You want me to stay home instead? I can go another time—”

  “No, no. You run along now. It’s okay. I’ll be here when you get back.”

  “Okay then . . . if you’re sure.”

  “I am. Now go take Jake to see Toby. He’ll enjoy the time with his friend!”

  ***

  I felt kind of guilty, but Jake was eager to go, so we walked down to the park together to meet Rand and Toby. They were already there when we got there. As soon as the two dogs got near one another, it was easy to confirm my earlier thoughts. I found that I could easily tell the difference now between a spirit and a living creature.

  After giving Toby an ear rub and greeting Rand, I got right down to business. “What do you know about magical rings and jewelry?” I asked him, trying to sound casual.

  “What kind of rings?”

  “Magical rings, possibly spelled. You know—ones with spells cast on them?”

  “Nothing, sorry. Why do you ask?” he wanted to know, curious now.

  It dawned on me that Rand had not been a ghost for a long time, but he still knew more about the paranormal world than me. Maybe he would be helpful when I got a chance to start reading the books and journals Elmer gave me. I knew I needed to spend more time learning about this world that hadn’t even existed for me two months ago.

  Should I tell Rand about the journals and stuff? Should I wait until I know him a little better? I can trust him by now, right?

  “Oh, I ran across something about magical rings and some other, um, stuff, that mentioned those of us with the Sight being able to See into the shadow world. I wondered if you would be interested in researching that with me some time?” I asked.