by Zizi Cole
“Just like the good ole’ days, right darlin’?” He smiled.
I couldn’t help but smile back. He’d always had that effect on me. I doubted that would ever change. I had missed him over the years. I still did miss him in every sense of the word. Having him around made my heart full and hurt at the same time. I was sure it was too late now, but I wished we could make up for all that lost time. I wanted to take back all my stupid actions. Moving away had been a big mistake and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to fix it. That was a problem for another day.
Jake arched an eyebrow at me. “Darlin’, where did you go just then? You got a faraway look on your face, then you looked sad.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I lied. “I was just thinking about things I need to do on top of the police coming to invade my space, again. I know it’s necessary, but I don’t want them in my room.”
Jake’s phone went off. He pulled it out of his pocket, glanced at it, and then gave me a hooded look.
“I gotta take this in the other room.” He walked away as he answered. “Yeah, give me a second.”
Puzzled, I watched him walk out of the room. He’d pretty much told me that he was single, but then he got a phone call he didn’t want me to hear. Maybe he had lied to me. Maybe he had changed more than I thought. It had been ten years and we were almost thirty now. I took a deep breath. Maybe I was just reading too much into it. I sighed. I was so confused. I sat there tapping the counter with my nails. I knew that he would tell me if he wanted to, and it wasn’t like we were a couple or anything anymore. We were practically strangers these days.
While listening to the murmur of his voice from the other room, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see an outline of a person standing near the pantry. I stopped mid-tap and just stared at the figure. While I watched, the image seemed to come into focus. The figure’s shape was very familiar to me. I felt my heart stop and jump to my throat. As the figure came into focus I realized I was staring at my mother’s corporeal form. OH MY GOD! My mother was now a ghost. It wasn’t bad enough that my mother had been brutally murdered? She wasn’t getting any peace, either?
My eyes welled with tears as I whispered, “Momma?”
The ghost smiled and nodded at me. The tears started to trail down my cheeks. Before I could stop myself, I was apologizing to her. “Momma, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I know what Mia told me, but I’m still so sorry. Please forgive me. I’m sorry.”
She started to fade away and as she did, I heard her sweet voice in my ear, “Oh, sweetie, you didn’t do anything.”
Before I could get myself under control, Jake spoke from the doorway where he was standing with his phone forgotten in his hand. “Darlin’, what exactly are you sorry for? What didn’t you mean to do? And who were you talkin’ to?”
The color drained from my face as I looked at him. He had a look that was a mix of concern and confusion on his face. I wasn’t sure what all he heard or saw, but I could tell that he’d heard enough. What was I supposed to tell him? That I thought I murdered my parents and my mother was haunting me now? Was I supposed to tell him that my cousin claimed she was psychic and she ‘saw’ my parents being murdered?
“Um, I didn’t mean to… uh…” I stammered. Then I got an idea. “I didn’t mean to forget I was supposed to meet Mia for some shopping today. She got someone to cover her shift and we were gonna drive into the city, but with the vases, and everything going on, I forgot. I was talking to her on my Bluetooth.”
He leaned on the doorframe, clearly not believing a word I said. He looked down like he just remembered he had his phone in his hand still. It had started ringing again. He looked back at me and sighed.
“One of these days Alexandrea, you’ll start to trust me again. I know you went through some awful shit, but damn it. I-” he cut himself off. He obviously wasn’t going to finish his thought. He answered the phone instead. “Morris. Yeah, I can do that. Okay, I’ll see you in a bit.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Well, that was quite the conversation. Jacob Lee Morris, when did you start being so short with people on the phone?”
Instead of answering me he shrugged. “You have your secrets, I have mine.”
He continued to look at me. He looked like he was trying to find the answers in my face. He gently reached out and wiped a tear that was still on my cheek off of my face with his thumb. He looked at the tear drying on his thumb. He looked back at my face. He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead.
“After the sheriff gets here, I gotta go for a while, darlin’. You gotta go meet Mia anyway, so remember, don’t look so panicked. I’ll come back tonight and sleep on the couch so you can rest easy. I’m here for you.”
The sheriff and deputy chose that moment to come knock on the door. Jake got up and let them in. They followed him into the kitchen. Sheriff Garrett Jones was an older, stocky man that had been sheriff since I was a kid. I remembered he used to come to the house frequently with his wife and kids when my parents had cook outs and dinners. Sheriff Jones was a close family friend and I had graduated with his son Bradley. He had a gentle smile on his face when he walked into the room.
“Alexandrea, it’s good to see you again, even under the circumstances.” He shook my hand.
“Hello, Sheriff Jones. It’s good to see you again, too.” I answered automatically. Being polite had been ingrained in my person. My parents had been big on manners.
“So, tell me what happened.” Sheriff Jones said.
Jake grabbed my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I smiled gratefully and told the sheriff everything I knew about the roses and the events of the night before.
“Well, I came home last night from having dinner with Mia, probably around nine or so. I was sitting in the chair watching TV when I heard a crash. I texted Jake and he came over and checked it out for me. The crystal vase Momma kept on the table had fallen off the table and broken. Anyway, we continued watching TV and I fell asleep. I woke up around seven this morning and went upstairs to get freshened up for the day. My bedroom door was slightly ajar and I knew I had shut it all the way when I left yesterday. I found a rose on my pillow and a vase of roses on my vanity. I came down and told Jake about it, and he called you.”
“Who has keys to the house?” He asked taking notes in a little notebook.
“My parents and I do. I don’t think anyone else does. They used to keep a spare key hidden outside but only Jake, Mia, and I know where the key is kept. But I think Daddy took the key from the hiding place after I came home from New York.”
“Okay, Deputy Price is going to go upstairs and fingerprint the room. I’ll be honest with you, Alexandrea, it is going to make quite the mess. You’re going to need to deep clean your room after all prints have been lifted. We’re also going to take the vase of roses in for evidence,” he explained.
“Keep the damn flowers,” I told him wholeheartedly. “I never want to see them again.”
Deputy Ethan Price nodded at me. Jake stood up and showed him to my room. I stayed in the kitchen with Sheriff Jones. The sheriff leaned on the counter and watched me as I sat down on a barstool. I wanted to squirm under his intense look. When my parents had died, the state police had been called in because Sheriff Jones couldn’t be completely unbiased and objective. He reached across the counter and held my hand. I smiled at him and squeezed his hand.
“Alexandrea, I’m so sorry about your folks. I’m also sorry I haven’t been by to check on you. You know you’re like part of my family, and you always will be. Don’t hesitate to call me or Joanna if you need anything. Hell, you know that Bradley will come help with anything you need too. He is only an hour away,” he consoled.
“Thanks, Garrett. I’ll keep that in mind.” I leaned across the counter and kissed him on the cheek.
“Do you know where your parents’ keys are? It might be a good idea to get them together so you know exactly where they are. I know it gets really dark out here and
to be a beautiful, young woman alone in a big house can be frightening,” he told me.
“I think Momma’s keys are in her purse in the coat closet and Daddy kept his keys in his desk. There’s a lock smith and a security company coming this afternoon to change the locks and install a security system. I’ve never been scared to be here before.” I admitted.
He nodded his approval. Before he could say anything else, Jake and Deputy Price came downstairs. The deputy took the vase of flowers out to the car while Jake made his way to the kitchen. He rubbed my back and looked between me and Sheriff Jones.
“Everything okay?” he asked, smiling.
Sheriff Jones straightened and shook hands with Jake. “Everything’s fine, Jake. Just keep an eye on our girl.”
“I intend to,” Jake answered.
Deputy Price came back into the kitchen. He looked at the sheriff and said, “Sir, we found something odd upstairs.”
“What’s wrong, Ethan?” Jones asked.
“There were no fingerprints in her room. Anywhere. The only finger prints we found were on the card. I’m assuming that they were hers where she read it,” Ethan explained, nodding in my direction.
Sheriff Jones looked sharply at the deputy. “Show me.”
While the sheriff and his deputy were upstairs looking over my room, Jake and I sat in comfortable silence. I leaned against his side for a minute. I was enjoying the reassuring presence that was Jake. I heard the men coming back down the stairs, talking. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but their voices got louder as they came closer. They came back into the kitchen.
“Okay, Alexandrea, I think we got everything we can get. I’ll let you know what we find out. Oh, and I forgot to ask you earlier, do you know anyone at all that would do this?” Sheriff Jones asked as he pulled his notebook back out of his pocket.
“The only person I can think of lives all the way in New York. His name is Michael Wallace. He’s a financial analyst at some company in New York City. I haven’t seen or heard from him since I came back home,” I told them. I caught a glance between Jake and the sheriff. It was an odd glance. It made me uneasy.
“Okay, I’ll check him out just to be sure and get back to you. I’ll see you two later.” Sheriff Jones tipped his hat in a way that reminded me of cowboys in old westerns that would tip their hat in a sign of respect. I grinned. That was Garrett Jones for you. Old fashioned to the core.
Sheriff Jones and Deputy Price left as quietly as they came. Jake looked at me and smiled again. He seemed to smile a lot. He squeezed my hand similarly to the way that the sheriff had. “Darlin’, I’m sorry, but I gotta run. I’ll be back tonight like I said earlier. Make sure those security people change the locks and show you how to work the security system.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later then.” I watched him walk to the front door. After he shut the door, I picked up my phone and made a call. “Hey, I know you’re working, but do you think you can get someone to cover for you and come over to the house? See you soon.”
I set the phone down. If Michael had anything to do with what was going on now I was going to be prepared.
6
Twenty minutes after I made the phone call, there was a knock at my door. I ran over to answer it. Mia stood on the other side with a duffle bag in her hand. I smiled and moved so she could come in.
“I wondered if you would call me after what I told you last night,” Mia started. “I’ve also been having a feeling you needed me today, but I knew Jake was coming by last night. Or at least planning on it.”
“How did you know he came by last night?” I asked. She never ceased to amaze me. She always seemed to know things about me before I did.
She smiled brightly. “Where do you think he got your number? He told me he wanted to get ahold of you to see how you were and I knew you wouldn’t object to him having your number.”
It never occurred to me that she would give Jake my number. I also didn’t think twice last night about how he knew my number. I had his because Momma had given it to me when he moved home. I had just never used it. I assumed he had my cell phone number the whole time.
“Now, let’s get to the reason you called me. I know you wanna know more about my visions, and I’ll explain, I promise, but for now we need to work on toughening you up.” Mia interrupted my musings. “Go change into something more comfortable and I’ll meet you in the workout room.”
I ran up to my room and walked in. There was black powder all over the room. Sheriff Jones wasn’t kidding when he said that I needed to deep clean after they were done with it. I put on a pair of black yoga pants, a black sports bra, and a black tank top. I pulled my hair up into a high pony tail. I looked at myself in the mirror. This felt like a monumental moment for me. It was a time of change. I could feel it. I was going to be ready for anything.
When I made my way into the workout room, I found Mia there. She was dressed in tight short shorts, that her ass would have hung out if they were any shorter, and a sports bra. She was sitting on the mats on the floor. She had also put boxer tape on the floor by the mat. She turned and looked at me. She studied my outfit for a moment before seeming to approve of how I was dressed.
“Okay, do you want to work out first or try hand-to-hand combat and self-defense first?” Mia gave me a wicked smile. She had been wanting me to learn the fighting techniques for years and now here I was, actually doing it. She knew several forms of martial arts including Krav Maga and Jui-Jitsu.
Mia had always believed that she needed to protect herself and know how to fight if it was necessary. While the other girls and I were in dance classes, Mia was in self-defense classes. Now that we were grown, she spent a couple nights a week teaching self-defense to women at a local community center. We hadn’t discussed how much it would have helped while I was in New York, but I think she knew.
“Let’s do a workout first,” I decided.
Mia sat on the mat and started stretching. I followed her lead. She had always been the strong one and it was now time for me to get some strength of my own. We stretched all of our muscles before we got on the treadmills and started our run. She started out at a slow pace, then gradually sped up. Within minutes we were running at a pretty good clip. This continued for several minutes. After running, we worked with weights and other various muscle building machines.
It felt like my muscles were on fire and I wanted to drop dead and sleep for a month, but Mia wasn’t done with me yet. When we finished with the weight machines, we did a cool -down jog. At the end of the run, Mia looked at me and smiled brightly.
“Okay, now let’s go to self-defense,” she laughed at the expression on my face.
We worked on self-defense for over an hour. When she felt like I could remember the maneuvers she let us stop for the day. I felt bruised and didn’t think I was going to be able to move a muscle in the morning. I also had to clean my room before I could sleep in it. I quickly decided that the cleaning could wait until the next morning, I could sleep in the guest bed.
Mia was standing over me on the mat laughing at me. She put her hands on her hips and said, “Get your lazy ass up. We have more to do.”
I groaned. I could only imagine what she had in store for me now. I slowly got to my feet and followed her out the door on the opposite side of the room. When we walked in, the smell of chlorine assaulted my nostrils. We were in the pool room off the side of the house. My parents had added the pool room when I was younger. The pool had originally been outside, but my parents had been afraid that something would happen and I would fall in and drown. They had decided to expand the house so that the pool could be inside. To the left of the pool was the hot tub. Mia locked the pool room door behind us and took off her top and shorts. I looked at her in shock.
“What the hell are you doing?!?” I exclaimed.
“We are going to relax our muscles in the hot tub and I don’t want to get my outfit wet. So either strip or get in like that. I don’t care but you are ge
tting your ass in the hot tub.” She led by example, climbing into the hot tub naked. She looked at me and laughed, “C’mon, it’s not like anyone’s going to walk in. And if ‘anyone’ does come in, it’s not like he hasn’t seen it before.”
I took my clothes off and joined her in the hot tub. I could feel my muscles relaxing from the intense workout we just had. I sighed. Mia laughed.
“See, I told you that you could do it. While we’re relaxing, I can answer your questions.” Mia said. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “I might as well start at the beginning. I already told you that I’ve been having visions pretty much all my life, but it’s more than that. So much more. Yes, I have visions. They are so intense I feel like I’m there. I can feel the floor beneath my feet, I can hear the white noise of the room. It’s like a dream, but so much more than that. Then there’s the empathy. I feel what others are feeling. That’s why I’m such a moody bitch. I can’t handle extreme emotions. When I had the vision of your parents last month, it was the worst I had ever had. I was getting feelings from your parents and the murderer. And I’m telling you this for the last time, it wasn’t you. I know it wasn’t. We will find out who it was and they will pay dearly for it.”
Mia opened her eyes and sat upright. “I’m still having a bad feeling. That’s why I was so relieved that you called. It’s like a cloud of darkness and evil is trying to surround you. I will be damned if I let it consume you, Alexandrea. I also know that Jake won’t let it consume you either. Now, if you have any questions, ask away.”
“Can you see ghosts?” I asked. Mia’s eyes got huge. She looked as surprised as I was that I had asked that. It wasn’t even a question I’d figured I would ask her.
“No….” Mia trailed off. “Why? I do know they exist, but I can’t hear or see them.”
“Oh, I’ve seen my mother twice now,” I admitted quietly.
“What did she say? When was this? Where were you?” Mia bombarded me with questions. I could see the excitement in her eyes.
