I shrugged and looked at each of them. “Look, I really don't care what you all believe. But we can take this money and not feel guilty.”
They all looked at each other. Cindy kept her eyes on me. I could tell by looking at her that unlike the others, she didn't doubt me. She believed me.
She took a step back toward the truck and looked at Dave. “How much is there?”
“One hundred five thousand, but that last stack looks a little light.”
“What's that six ways?” I asked.
Cindy didn't blink. “Seventeen thousand five hundred.”
Gotta love accounting majors.
“Wait a minute. Why six ways? There's five of us here.”
“For Alicia. She's part of the group.”
I looked around, waiting for someone to argue. We were all friends, but money does strange things to people. I was waiting for a fight. I was surprised when I didn't get one.
Dave shrugged. “Shit. Seventeen thousand dollars is about seventeen thousand more than I have right now.”
“Alright, it's all good. Let's get out of here.”
We did just that. As we drove back everyone talked about what they were gonna do with their new-found treasure. I was thankful for that, as I thought everyone would ask me ghost questions. I guess money is more important than ghosts. Cindy didn't say much. I knew she probably still had mixed feelings about keeping such a large amount of money. Normally I'd feel the same way. Hell, when I was in fifth grade I found a hundred dollars on the playground, and gave it to a teacher so she could found out who it belonged to.
But this was different. George said we could have it.
How many times does that happen?
I was lost in my own thoughts as we drove back to Cindy's apartment. One hundred thousand dollars. Is that what cost George and his family their lives? Is that what a family's lives were worth? If I had five more minutes with George McEllen I would have asked him if they found his killers.
We divided up the money in Cindy's apartment. For some reason I kept thinking of all the crazy movies I'd seen. All of a sudden, during the money counting scene, everyone would turn on one another. Someone would fight over five dollars, and bad things happened. That didn't happen. We just split up the money, no drama involved. I kept Alicia's share. Cindy gave everyone plastic bags to carry it in. Then Dave, Tina, and Jenny left. Cindy and I were alone in her apartment.
We didn't talk for a minute. She collapsed on the couch. I took a soda from her fridge, even though I wasn't really thirsty. I just needed to do something normal, anything at all. Drinking a soda was a good place to start.
I sat on the other end of the couch. Cindy took a deep breath.
“What happened?”
“I met the guy who lived there. He was a ghost. He somehow sensed we were there.”
“You disappeared right in front of me,” she said. “You were right here, a foot away, and you disappeared.”
I smirked and nodded. “Believe me, I'm freaked out too. Even George was. I put my hand through that dining room table, Cindy. Then he told me to look in the cabin and take what we found.” I paused for a second. I was strangely calm up to that point. But talking to more ghosts, and putting my hands through tables, was starting to get to me. “What the hell is happening to me?”
She scooted closer. “Hey, listen. Nothing changes, okay? Whatever is going on, it doesn't change who you are. You still have me. You still have Alicia.”
“Come in the bathroom with me for a minute.”
She smiled. “You'd better keep your sex fantasies to yourself.”
I laughed. I needed that. I needed Cindy to be herself and make jokes.
“I just want to see if I can make it happen again.”
“Again, keep that sex stuff to yourself.”
We walked down the hall to her bathroom. I leaned on her sink while she stood behind me.
“Okay. What are we doing?”
“If I disappear, let me know. Okay?”
She shrugged. “Sure.”
I stood there trying to make it happen. I know George grabbed me, then that's when I vanished. But I thought I could make it happen myself. If I just concentrated hard enough on becoming invisible.
“Uh, I can still see you.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“You're still ugly, too.”
“Thanks again.”
I stood there staring at myself for another two minutes. I wasn't sure what was supposed to happen, even if it worked. Would I still see my own reflection? I was resting my hands on her sink. Would they sink right through the porcelain?
“Do you want me to turn on the fan?”
I turned around to look at her. “What?”
“Well, you know. When people hang out in the toilet, it's usually doing something else. And the fan's usually on. I figure having the fan on might help you concentrate.”
I laughed hard. “You are the craziest woman I've ever known.”
She laughed too. “My best friend since birth is standing in my bathroom trying to turn invisible. And I'm the crazy one.”
“This isn't gonna happen tonight. I'm just too freaked out. I'm gonna go to bed.”
“You wanna stay here?”
Nothing unusual or sexual about that. We stayed with each other all the time. Usually it was just a matter of falling asleep on the couch while we were watching TV.
“Nah. Thanks, though.”
“Sure. Just come on over if you need me. I'll be up a little while.”
I nodded. She reached forward and gave me a quick surprise hug.
“I know I give you a hard time a lot. But I thought I lost you tonight. Don't know what I'd do without you.”
I gave her a squeeze and let go. “Don't worry, Cindy. I'm not going anywhere.”
She smiled and nodded.
I remember my next actions clearly. I picked up my plastic bag with thirty-four thousand dollars in it. I gave Cindy a wave. I walked from her apartment to mine. The first thing I did was slide the plastic bag under my bed. Then I remembered I didn't lock the door behind me. I usually didn't, Cindy always came over unexpectedly, and I didn't want her fumbling with her key. But that night, I felt weird enough to want to lock the door. A lot of money in a plastic bag will do that.
I reached for the deadbolt knob.
My hand passed right through it.
I pulled my hand back like I touched a razor knife. I stared at the door a moment longer. Then I placed my hand on it. The sensation was still like running my hand through water.
“Amazing,” I said out loud.
I knew what I wanted to do. I took a deep breath.
I walked through the door.
There was a quick flash of darkness as my head passed through. I was standing outside my front door. I was breathing hard and didn't even know it. Hell, was I actually breathing? Did people who could walk through walls breathe?
I turned toward Cindy's apartment. I had to see her, share this with her.
I walked through her front door too. A part of me was still afraid of the unknown, of what the hell was happening to me. But the excitement of the experience was finally starting to win me over.
I couldn't see inside Cindy's kitchen from the front door, but I could see a shadow moving in there.
“Cindy! Can you hear me? This is incredible.”
She stepped out of the kitchen carrying a cup of pudding. She still had on her jeans, but had took off her shirt moments ago. She only had on a black bra, which she filled out very well.
“Whoa.”
She walked right toward me, then turned and sat on the couch. She put the TV on and did that sexy leg curl thing she did.
“You can't hear me, can you?”
She didn't budge.
I ran my hand through the back of the couch a few times. I was already getting used to the feeling.
Cindy grabbed her phone and hit a speed-dial number.
“Hey, Leese. It's me. What's
going on?”
I could only hear her end of the conversation.
“Yeah, I know it's late. But don't act like you were sleeping. Some crazy crap is going on. I'll let Alex fill you in on most of it. But I will say you're seventeen thousand dollars richer. Alex really looks after you. Yeah, you heard me. Seventeen thousand dollars.”
I smiled. I admit, I was half tempted to walk through the couch and just watch Cindy talk in her bra. How many chances would I get to do that in a lifetime? But it felt weird, basically spying on my best friend. I turned to the door.
“Nah. It didn't come up.”
I stopped. So much for feeling weird.
“Leese, believe me, that's the last thing I was thinking about tonight. And look, it's never gonna happen. And I'm cool with that. So forget it. Okay?”
What the hell are they talking about?
“Alright, look. I'm tired. I'm gonna go to bed. Stop over tomorrow if you get some time.”
Cindy hung up. She looked frustrated. I was curious. What was that about?
She stretched out on the couch. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Then guilt finally settled in once again and I looked away. I stepped through the two doors back into my apartment.
I looked at the front door and pushed a few fingers into it.
“Okay. Turn off now,” I said.
It didn't work.
I started to panic. What if I couldn't turn it off? What if I was stuck this way forever?
Then I calmed down when I touched the door a sixth time and my hand felt solid wood.
I took a deep breath.
It was definitely a crazy night.
Chapter 8
In that one night, I found over one hundred thousand dollars, and also learned that I could walk through walls and turn invisible, as well as still talk to ghosts. You think that would turn a life upside-down, but the day to day stuff didn't change. The money just sat there in my savings account. Cindy didn't bring that night up. Neither did Alicia. She knew about it, and asked a few questions. But after that, it was pretty much business as usual.
But I did answer, and ask, a lot of questions about myself.
A month passed. Everyday after work I spent a few hours trying different things. I even borrowed Cindy's video camera so I could study what was happening. I found out a lot. But for every question I answered, it seemed another popped up.
In that month, I learned to control what I could do. I could go invisible and walk through walls just as easily as flexing a finger. But I could only do both at the same time, not one or the other. If I was walking through things, that meant no one could see me. I didn't know why. I also couldn't see my own reflection when I vanished. But yet if I looked at my hands, I could see them. Gravity also seemed to have some weird effect. If I walked to the third floor of my apartment building, I could will myself to float down through the floor to the second. But I couldn't float up.
I didn't do anything else besides those experiments. I didn't go spying into the women's locker room or rob any banks. In fact, I never vanished outside my own apartment. I tried to keep everything as normal as I could. Cindy was stressed out more than usual. Work was rough for her. But besides that everything was the same. Alicia must have thanked me a thousand times for her gift of seventeen grand. I'd stayed in the past few weekends with Cindy and Alicia. Julie was becoming a memory.
I'd just put a pot of spaghetti on the stove when the front door opened. Cindy skulked her way inside. She threw a newspaper on the coffee table, kicked her heels off, and laid down on the couch. She wore a nice blouse and a skirt. When she plopped on the couch her skirt rode up just a few inches, showing off those shapely legs. I tried hard to keep my eyes off of her. She looked really good.
“Get comfortable,” I said sarcastically. “I might have had a woman in here, you know.”
Some time had passed since Julie, so she had no problem going back to the woman jokes.
“Please. You've got as much luck finding a woman as I do a man.”
I smiled. Cindy had been single since her senior year in college. She always kept saying it was because she wanted to focus on school. Well, she was done school, and still single. Something else must have been going on. She could get any guy she wanted. I never brought it up.
I grabbed a soda from the fridge and tossed it to her. She caught it neatly.
“Read the paper.”
“I will as soon as you pull your skirt down a little.”
She looked down at herself. “You okay?”
“Yeah. To be honest, your legs are distracting.”
She smiled, and looked pleased. She stood up, her thighs once again hidden. “Better?”
“Yup, thanks. What am I looking at here?”
“The article on the bottom right.”
It didn't take me long to read it. It was about Cindy and the accounting firm her father co-owned. Apparently Cindy donated her share of the money we found to charity. Or rather, her firm did.
I looked at her. “You gave away your money?”
“I couldn't keep it,” she said. “I just, uh, couldn't keep it. Christ, I had trouble sleeping. So I talked about it with my parents. And they said if I decided to donate it, to give it to the firm first so they could get a write off and a little publicity. But my name wasn't supposed to come up.”
I looked through the article again. Her name was mentioned a few times. But Taylor Madison, her father's partner, was mentioned everywhere. Looks like their plan worked.
“How did this even get written?”
I could see her getting angry. “Taylor. He had a reporter come to the firm for a tour and everything. I donated money for autism so he could talk about how wonderful the firm is. They used me. My father didn't know it would go that far. I'm so pissed off.”
I put the paper down. I gestured for her to sit while I went back into the kitchen.
“I can't sit now. I'm too mad.”
“I can't believe you gave away your share.”
“Yeah, well, I didn't have a ghost telling me it was okay.”
I couldn't see her face from the kitchen. I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not.
“Well, if you want, I'll split my share with you.”
There was silence. After pouring some sauce into a pot I poked my head out of the kitchen.
“Cindy?”
Her eyes were locked on me. “You would do that, wouldn't you?”
“Do what?”
“Give me eight thousand seven hundred fifty dollars.”
I smiled. “You better stop with that human calculator crap. But yeah. What's mine is yours. You want half?”
She didn't say anything. Just continued to stare at me. Finally she sat on the couch and reached for the remote. “No, thanks. But I will take some spaghetti.”
“Coming right up.”
There was a knock at the door, followed by it cracking open a few inches. I recognized a blond head.
“Hey,” Alicia said. “Is it safe to come in?”
“Quick, Cindy. Get your clothes on. Hide the blow-up doll. Put the goat away. Mop up the floor. Untie me.”
Alicia stepped inside. “Thanks, big brother. You just gave me enough nightmares to last a few months.”
“That's what big brothers are for. Have a seat. The chef is at work.”
Alicia rolled her eyes and sat next to Cindy. “Spaghetti again?”
Cindy winked at me. “Yeah, but no one boils noodles like Alex.”
I pointed at her. “Thank you. You get a bigger plate.”
“Lucky me.”
I went back to the kitchen to finish up. I listened to Alicia and Cindy talk while they flipped through the channels. It was fun when I didn't get involved and they both went into girl mode.
“So Leese, how are you and Shawn doing?” Shawn was her current boyfriend.
“We're okay. But he says he doesn't want me to get my hair cut.”
“Hey. Screw him. It's your hair, you do what
you want with it.”
“Do you like it like this?”
“Yeah. You kind of look like Reese Witherspoon.”
“Except uglier,” I called out.
“Hey. I don't care if you gave me a lot of money or not. You'd better shut up and make my food in there.”
“Cindy, smack her for me.”
“Hell no. Don't get me involved. Then you'll both be hitting me.”
There was silence for a second. Then I heard some whispering. Back and forth, hushed tones. Weird. They never whispered around me. We didn't keep anything from each other.
“What are you two whispering about out there?”
I tried to step out to see what was going on. I bumped the handle on the spaghetti pot and knocked it from the stove. I didn't think, just reacted. I reached out and grabbed the pot with both hands before it hit the floor. Boiling water splashed all over the stove, the floor, and me. I set it back on the burner and took a step back.
“Alex? You alright?”
Alicia and Cindy both rushed to me. Alicia gasped and hurried to the hall closet to grab the mop. Cindy grabbed some paper towels to try to soak up some water.
“Damn, Alex. You okay? What happened?”
“Just me being clumsy.”
“You're soaked. Does it hurt?”
“Nah. It only got the clothes. Be right back.”
I went to the bathroom and pulled my shirt off. I studied every inch of me, turned my hands over a few times. I grabbed a scalding hot pot with my bare hands and got boiling water all over me.
I didn't feel any pain. I didn't even have a mark on me.
I looked in the mirror and shook my head. It was getting to the point that nothing surprised me.
Invisibility.
Walk through solid objects.
And now, burn-proof. It was why my kindergarten nurse didn't find any burn marks on me after a lighter was put to my arm.
“You okay in there, clumsy?”
I'd tell them later. “Yeah, I'm fine.”
I went searching for a clean shirt in the bedroom with my back to the door. When I finally found one I turned to see Cindy leaning in the doorway. I had no idea how long she was there, but I realized she was just watching me. She had a smirk on her face.
“Get a shirt on, Alex.”
“That's what I'm trying to do.”
Demonspawn Page 9
