The Gemini Bridge

by Shea Meadows

  Max nodded. “As long as David is with you, I agree. Just let Moon in on anything you’d like to pursue.”

  Noise from downstairs heralded the return of Beth Ann, with her helpers Dylan and Jessica. In moments, Beth Ann, arms full of clothes on hangers, looked in the meditation room as she passed it on the way to her new room on the second floor. Surprise showed on her face at seeing David and Max there with Ricky, a camcorder sitting on the floor, and the Moon doll in a box near Ricky’s feet, as they conferred.

  “Ah, what’r you guys doing? New project?” Beth Ann asked in a confused voice, her nose twitching as it did when she was nervous.

  Ricky smiled. “Go ahead with your move. I’ll fill you in later.”

  “Do you need any help?” David asked.

  “That would be super. There are boxes in the car; if you help Dylan then Jessica can help me with the rest of the clothes.”

  David pulled up from the floor. “I’ll go right down.”

  Max and Ricky spoke when both were gone, and Ricky signed a form allowing him to take the doll to the crime lab for further evaluation. She agreed that she would come with him to Minneapolis General as soon as he had some pictures of hospital employees that might be the person she’d seen in the vision.

  The investigation was officially started. Ricky didn’t know whether to be invigorated or terrified.

  Chapter 13

  Ricky had been working on a flow chart spread out on the table in the office, her hair in a short ponytail, wearing a pair of cutoff blue jeans and a peasant blouse. A knock on the door pulled her from the project. Carefully, she checked the security system camera that David had installed the day after they had found the doll on the porch.

  It had been a very rough week that didn’t show any signs of becoming easier. Even though part of her knew that she had Moon and the guides watching out for her, she was as nervous as Pigeon around a bulldog. She sighed in relief; it was David, black curly hair damp with sweat, wearing a tattered white T-shirt and a pair of ancient black gym shorts, carrying another load of his things. She’d have to get him a key now that he was moving in.

  “Can I give you a hand?” She asked as she opened the door, the hot damp air of the day threatening to overcome the conditioned air of the house. Gym bags, a tennis racket, a pile of books all peeking out from various boxes that he had stacked on the porch, were waiting to be moved.

  “This is the last of it; the apartment is free of the last remnant of my belongings. I tend to pack pretty heavy so only grab what you can handle,” David said with a grin.

  Ricky grabbed a smaller box with fishing equipment in it and draped some clothes over her arm while David picked up the books. “We can bring most of this to the cellar with the other stuff I use now and then. You gave me a nice big room but I’m in danger of crowding myself out.”

  “There’s space on the book shelves in the classrooms if you want to store them on the third floor. Beth Ann tells me it gets damp in the cellar.” Ricky answered.

  David laughed. “Do you really want police procedural books in your teaching space?”

  Ricky made a face. “Maybe not. Beth Ann is starting Reiki Classes next week. She has twenty people signed up for Reiki Two. I’m not used to thinking of the house as a classroom.”

  “I can get some moisture-proof storage boxes for my books or maybe a metal book shelf that we can put near the furnace. Maybe we need a dehumidifier …..Yikes, I’m already acting like the man of the house. You’ll kick me out right away,” David said with a look of chagrin on his face.

  Ricky sat the clothes down in the kitchen and then followed David to the cellar with the box of fishing stuff. “Nope. Not going back on the invitation. We already set up the barter. You live here for free as part of your salary and in return you act as security and bodyguard, pick up your own messes so the cleaning lady likes you, do your own laundry and pitch in for food weekly. Good deal for all of us.”

  “I’ll try to keep my big-man-on-campus genes under control,” David answered.

  They put their loads down in a drier corner of the cellar and returned to pick up more of David’s belongings. Ricky grabbed the clothes to bring them upstairs.

  “I’m happy we decided on this. Beth Ann and I have been trying not to freak out but the constant prank calls and the banging on the doors in the middle of the night, and the graffiti on the walls has gotten a bit much. At least you’re already sorting out which of it is ghostly stuff and which is ghost-infested humans. The security system and the answering service have cut it in half. The guides and Moon are working on a solution for the rest,” Ricky said as she followed David into his new bedroom, three doors down from her room on second floor.

  David dropped a box of sweaters next to the chest of drawers with a thud. “And you’re sure none of it is Nellie?”

  “Nope, Nellie is no longer a permanent resident. Moon released her from her connection to the house, and she’s working with the team on the other side. In fact, she’s the lookout for Moon and the guides. They’ve been studying the culprits who have turned out to be envoys from the Stealer. That’s a progression that’s making our spirit-guide team a bit nervous,” Ricky replied.

  “So this hadn’t been happening before?”

  “The first layer of control was the ghosts attached to humans with similar tendencies, like the ones we read about in Moon’s ledgers. The second phase was people like Chester, where a strong former incarnation takes over. The newest ones are ghosts of recently departed people who don’t realize they’ve passed over, and have a great distrust for psychics and mediums and think they are part of a protest movement. They are so angry they’re able to move physical objects, bang doors, drop pans, and ring the doorbell.”

  Ricky sighed. “Believe me, until the guides get this under control there’s not much sleeping going on. Beth Ann is so freaked she sleeps in the meditation room with Pigeon because the ghosts don’t seem to be able to move anything in there.”

  David shook his head. “All we can really do is stop the ghosts with humans attached. Max has arrested four people since the security went in, but they’re getting cagey, wearing ski masks and padded clothing to change their appearance.”

  “Moon and the guides agree we must be getting closer to identifying the Stealer. He’s acting like someone whose been forced into a corner.”

  They started down the stairs for the last load to find Beth Ann had returned home and had the remaining box in her arms and was coming up. She was dressed in a bright yellow sweet shirt with “I love ghosts” printed on it and stretchy green Bermuda shorts. “David! You’re here. Is this the last load?” She asked.

  David took the box from her with a smile. “Housemate number three has arrived. Glad you’re okay with this.”

  “More than okay. At least you’ll be able to handle the human intruders. I’m ready to move out with all the commotion at night. I guess we can all huddle in the meditation room together,” Beth Ann answered, her nose twitching as she spoke and her less prominent double-chins wobbling not quite as much. Fear had decreased her appetite.

  Ricky patted Beth Ann on the shoulder. “Moon is working on it. She tells me it will get tons better when you start teaching Reiki here again. The positive energy configurations will make it more difficult for the disincarnates to hold their protest. Not a good time for spirit communication classes here, though. It would blow the students minds to open to such fierce energy.”

  Beth Ann nodded. “Shelia and Chris both lasted about an hour when they tried to talk those crazies out of their vendetta. The Stealer has drawn in some really ugly troops.”

  “At least Chester is out of action,” David said, as he started to unpack and put away his clothes.

  “Still catatonic?” Beth Ann asked with a concerned look on her face.

  Ricky nodded. “Max said Chester was wild and aggressive for about two hours after he was arrested, protesting that all he’d done was purchase the doll. He didn’t reme
mber stealing the blood and hair from the hospital, or delivering the doll package. Max said he stopped mid-scream, just like someone had turned him off.”

  “I saw the video of the interrogation. One of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. He was pounding his fist on the table in the interview room and stopped mid-pound, his arms going limp as spaghetti and his face suddenly slack. He collapsed in the chair and did nothing but breath. That was a week ago today, and he’s still not responding to anything. They’re tube feeding him,” David chimed in.

  “What does Moon say happened?” Beth Ann asked, turning to Ricky.

  “She thinks the Stealer pulled the plug, so to speak, on the Azer personality and the Chester persona was so traumatized by the realization of what someone made his body do that it crawled in a cave somewhere within his mind. She’s pretty sure Azer was the one who sent the blinding light that forced her off the road when she died.”

  Beth Ann’s eyes filled with tears. “He’s always been a pill but never vindictive and dangerous. Chester is as much a victim in this mess as Moon.”

  Ricky nodded. “That’s why no matter how many ghosts and ghost-infested humans the Stealer sends at us, we can’t back off. Moon and the guides think he’s bombarding us so we’ll give up, but we can’t. We have to identify the persona he’s hiding behind in the third dimensional reality so they can neutralize him. Otherwise it won’t be just us. He’s spreading like an infection.

  David opened the bottom drawer of the dresser to put the last of his clothes away. A loud screech reverberated throughout the room, making everyone jump. Pigeon had been sleeping in the drawer and was trapped inside. His caterwauling was accompanied by a leap onto David’s shirt where he attached his claws and hissed in David’s face. Ricky reached over and extracted Pigeon’s gripe and cuddled a shaking cat in her arms.

  “Poor Wingless Pigeon, you must have crawled in the drawer when Rita had it open this morning for cleaning. She must not have seen you.”

  “Wow,” Beth Ann said, as she tentatively stroked the trembling cat. “If I’d tried to peel him off I would have been the next victim. Moon was the only person who could calm him.”

  Ricky shrugged. “He’s lonely for Nellie, I think. They used to play together all the time.” She held the cat up and talked to him. “You be nice to David. He’s here to keep us safe. He didn’t shut you in the drawer. Behave, okay?”

  Pigeon stopped trembling and looked at David as if he was trying to make up his mind. He made a low growl, jumped from Ricky’s grasp and stalked off to his water dish in the bathroom, his tail twitching as much as Beth Ann’s nose.

  “Hum. Not sure if that was agreement,” David said with a chuckle.

  “I’d close your door when you’re not in the room,” Beth Ann advised. “He’s been known to take out his angst on people’s beds and possessions.”

  “Are you folks hungry? I think Rita left some lasagna in the fridge. I’ll go down and pop it in the oven. She said it will take about twenty minutes at 400,” Ricky reported.

  “Sounds good,” David answered. “I make a mean avocado salad.”

  “Ice cream for dessert,” Beth Ann said, as all three went down to prepare dinner.

  An hour and a half later, stomachs filled, they were in the downstairs office with the large flow chart that Ricky had put together and spread out on the work table.

  David and Beth Ann followed her logic as she went through the information she’d gleaned from studying Moon’s ledgers during the last week.

  “Okay, these five cases of ghosts being linked to humans all involved a so-called friend, family member or rival who had a connection to an as-yet-unnamed teacher in Chicago. In some cases, the person setting up the linkage had not studied with the teacher but had a friend who told them about the ‘service’ this teacher provided.

  “In another eight cases, the person, who used a linkage to get back at someone, worked with a teacher in St. Louis. The same connections to the teacher seemed to be present as the Chicago cases.”

  Beth Ann interrupted. “So there’s more than one teacher involved?”

  “Not necessarily, the teachers might know each other and one is referring the business to the other, perhaps for a cut of the profits,” Ricky answered.

  “Or maybe one of the teachers has been ghost-infested by the other, or has the same situation that Chester had,” David added. “Have you talked to Moon about this?”

  “Not yet. But there’s still more. The last four cases seem to be connected to a teacher in Athens, Georgia, about an hour from Atlanta. This is interesting because we know Chester was considering moving to Atlanta to work with a teacher by the name of Sam Reading who was here at the time Moon was dying. Did you know him, Beth Ann?” Ricky asked.

  “Chester used to talk about him, and I think Moon mentioned him as having been at meetings and classes through the years when she traveled for clients and trainings. I can’t remember her being alarmed by him. So is that the extent of the information in the ledgers?” Beth Ann responded.

  “She was on her way to talk to two teachers in Chicago that she felt might be involved when she had her fatal event. Now the next step is up to us,” Ricky concluded.

  David slumped in his chair. “Wow. A lot of information but not much is conclusive. Although we do have two teachers who seem connected to Chester. It shouldn’t be too difficult to trace the teacher in Chicago if we review Chester’s activities.

  “And of course a name: Sam Reading in Atlanta. The way Chester talked, Sam had a whole program set up and he wanted to recruit Chester. Maybe Sam thought Moon was out of the way, and he’d have more control over Chester if he was close by. Did Moon give you the name of the two possible teachers in Chicago?”

  “Yes, one was Avery Sweet who she thought of as a close friend. He’s just outside of the city. The other was Mel Shank who taught Moon about crystals years ago from what she told me; he’s in northern Illinois,” Ricky answered.

  “Avery Sweet! Mel Shank? You’ve got to be kidding! Avery wrote the forward for Moon’s first book on spirit communication. Mel co-authored the material in the second book about gemstone healing. I can’t imagine it was either of them,” Beth Ann said, a look of consternation on her face.

  Ricky shrugged. “She didn’t just tell me. She has their names in the ledgers. Chester worked with them as well as people connected to the ghost-linkage infestation that Moon discovered. She was going to consult with Avery and Mel, and was having a hard time believing they were guilty of anything. She suspected they might be unwilling participants like many others.”

  “Why couldn’t the guides tell her if one of them was guilty?” Beth Ann asked.

  “Megon, Moon’s personal spirit guide, explained to me that when a person is a powerful energy worker and able to influence material reality with non-material abilities, their energy field becomes super charged and distinctive from the other side. This is true if the energy involved is being used for self gain or for altruistic healing. Only someone who is currently in a body can tell the difference between benign and harmful when they are in close proximity.

  “In the case of the Soul Stealer, he changes the fields of those around him, so they too become difficult to read from the perspective of the guides. That’s why Moon recruited me. We signed on to this project before we were born. Moon remembered her commitment, but I didn’t remember mine,” Ricky could feel the tears streaming down her face as she explained.

  David pulled a tissue from the box on the table, reached across and patted the tears from Ricky’s face. “You’re not in this alone. She’s still helping you and you can count on us.” He held her hands between his. “This has got to be rough, so much to process all at once.”

  “Not a bed of roses, but I made promises. Giving up won’t get us anywhere. We don’t want to live in a world where everyone is ghost infested, and no one can use the challenges of the material reality to overcome fears. The Soul Stealer’s goal is to have humanity live
in constant turmoil-angry and despondent- throughout every life. Do we want that reality?”

  “No,” Beth Ann answered with a shudder. “I just wish I could do more.”

  They moved to the living room to discuss possible courses of action, and Ricky noticed the sunset changing the color of the sky. It was so relaxing to have David here. It gave her such a sense of security; she could almost enjoy the beauty of the evening without fearing the dark.

  She took a deep breath and went into the kitchen to put water on for tea, and reached into the fridge for grapes for a snack to share. Slam! A pot flew into the wall, making her drop the fruit and jump. With shaky hands she retrieved the food and picked up the pot noting the new dent in its side. “Wow, they’re getting nasty. A foot over and it would have conked me.”

  A voice floated into her mind “Next time we’ll aim better.”

  A crash sounded and David’s voice could be heard from the living room.

  “Are you kidding me?”

  Ricky staggered into the front room, pot still in hand. “What happened?”

  Beth Ann picked up a framed picture of a flower off the floor. “This pulled off the wall and sailed over and hit the coffee table. The glass shattered right in front of us.” Beth Ann went to the kitchen for a broom and dust tray just in time for the cookie jar to jump off the counter and break into a jumble of cookies and ceramic shards.

  Ricky slumped into a chair, shaking, as David went into the kitchen to help Beth Ann clean up the debris. When they returned, Ricky had already gathered the larger glass pieces into one place and Beth Ann took out the vacuum to suck up the smallest pieces.

  No one said a word as this task was completed, but all of them were nervous, waiting for the next act of ghostly vandalism.

  David sat down on the couch and picked up the dented pot from the coffee table. “They threw this with enough force to put this big a dent in it?”

  Beth Ann nodded. “That’s part of a new set that Moon bought for the house just before she died.”