The Ghost Next Door

by Ginny Baird

  “You didn’t.”

  “I did,” he proclaimed.

  “Oh Bernie!” She leaned across the counter to pull him close. After a pause, she whispered in his ear, “You’re not messing with me, are you?”

  “Never.”

  She studied him forever, her lips scrunched up in thought. Then, to Bernie’s surprise, she removed her glasses and shared a sultry gaze.

  “Then meet me at home at one.” Her voice was a low purr. “Darleen’s coming in, and I’ve got a lunch break.”

  Martha eyed Lex above the rim of her book with a suspicious air. He stood there with a box of chocolate caramels. Her favorites.

  “Brought you a little surprise to have with your afternoon coffee.”

  “Uh-oh. What did you do?” She set down her book and narrowed her gaze. “Better to tell me now than have me hanging in suspense till I get home.” The way he had when he blew up their dryer after rewiring the laundry room himself. Martha hadn’t even realized appliances could spit out clothes! Apparently they did when they were angry enough. “You haven’t been messing with that satellite dish on the roof again?”

  “Honey,” he said with a big, bold grin. “It’s fixed!”

  “What’s fixed?”

  “The town! Internet, broadband, Wi-Fi… Everything! Go on, check!”

  She picked up her cell and scanned it for bars, but her face hung in disappointment.

  “Okay,” he admitted. “So the cell towers still need work. But try your computer! Go ahead!”

  She surveyed him doubtfully but then swiveled her chair toward her desktop PC, which was situated to the side. She hit a couple of buttons and clicked the mouse.

  “Well…?” he asked with hopeful anticipation.

  The computer hummed, booting up, then whirred into action, message alerts sounding. She stared at the screen, her mouth fixed in a scowl. But her pout was pretend.

  “Now you’ve done it.”

  “Whaaat, sugar? What’s wrong?”

  “I’ve got over three hundred emails to answer.” She turned to him, her expression brightening. “Oh Lex, it’s true! The station’s back in business!”

  “Everything’s back in business. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I mean, I know it’s been a long haul, and folks were getting frustrated—”

  She leapt to her feet and wrapped him in a hug. “I never doubted you for a minute!”

  Joy walked in the door carrying her backpack. She generally caught the bus here after school to see her mom before stopping by the library to do homework. Now her eyes were on her parents, standing in an enraptured embrace. She noted the chocolates on the desk.

  “What’s going on?” She was obviously puzzled. “It’s not your anniversary?”

  Martha released Lex and smoothed out her sweater. “Your daddy fixed the Internet!”

  “Me and my friends,” he corrected. But he wore a proud mug.

  “Seriously?” Joy’s eyes lit up as she pumped the air with her fist. “Ye-es!”

  Chapter Twelve

  By Halloween, everyone in Blayton was in great spirits. Claire had been able to communicate with her old friends and now felt more at peace about her sudden good-bye. She told Elizabeth maybe it was good they’d been out of touch for a while. Gave her time to settle in and really feel a part of this new town so when she wrote to them she had something positive to say. Elizabeth had even gotten through to Jerry. She’d emailed him a draft of her first edition, and he’d loved every word.

  The evening temperatures had dropped into the thirties, and last night they got their first hard frost. Claire walked across the lawn to her bus stop by the road, and brittle grass crunched beneath her.

  “Have a great day!” Elizabeth said from the front porch. She was bundled in her work clothes and a throw blanket to ward off the cold. In one hand, she held a coffee mug. With the other, she motioned to the large orange pumpkin that perched on the porch step. “You going to carve that when you get home?”

  “You bet!” Claire called as the bus pulled up.

  When Elizabeth went back inside, the house phone was ringing. She picked it up and heard a familiar masculine voice. “I wanted to be the first… Well, maybe among the first. Claire may have said it already…to wish you a happy Halloween!”

  Elizabeth laughed merrily. “Good morning, Nathan. And happy Halloween to you!”

  “You gals all ready?”

  Her gaze fell to the stocked bowl of candy by the front door. “Well, we’ve got plenty of treats, that’s for sure.”

  “Just as long as there are no tricks tonight, we’ll be in business.”

  “I guess that’s what you’re helping to ensure.”

  “Bernie and I will be patrolling, but I don’t expect much trouble this go-round.”

  “Have you had any in the past?”

  There was a long pause on the line.

  “Nothing much to speak of,” he finally said. “Mostly kids playing pranks.”

  “Doesn’t sound like anything you and Bernie can’t handle.”

  “I think our having a presence is disincentive enough.”

  Elizabeth breathed easily knowing Blayton was a safer place just because Nathan was a part of it. He was a dynamite man and an excellent sheriff. “Any idea what time you’ll be stopping by?”

  “It will probably be around nine o’clock. Is that too late?”

  “No,” she said with a contented heart. For she always felt at peace when he was in the picture. “It’s perfect.”

  Nathan hung up the phone feeling disconcerted. He hadn’t precisely lied to Elizabeth, but he hadn’t exactly told her the truth either. The fact was, there had been a bit of trouble in Blayton a few years back: a mysterious disappearance that nobody could explain. An entire family had gone missing sometime late on Halloween night, and he and Bernie had never found the reason behind it. From all appearances, it seemed like they’d just suddenly packed up and gone. There were no signs of a struggle and no indications of foul play. The husband and wife had both been teachers at the high school. It was just the two of them and their small baby, a toddler, really, who went for daycare with some of the other children in town at Mrs. Robeson’s. She ran an at-home service that seemed to bring her great joy. She was a kindly older woman, and she and her elderly husband, the realtor, Bob, had never had kids of their own.

  The family mostly kept to themselves and didn’t connect too strongly to anyone else in town, not even any of the school personnel he and Bernie questioned later. The only person the wife seemed to have taken into her confidence was Mrs. Robeson. When they arrived here, their child was gravely ill, though none of the town’s folk knew it. He had a serious blood condition, something related to childhood leukemia. The parents were devastated and had pretty much given up on putting him through the grueling treatments. The doctors said they were futile at that point anyway, and they caused the child such misery he cried with a colicky air throughout the night. The family had come to Blayton to get away from the doctors and the limelight of a larger town and find a way to bring their family peace. The odd thing was, the day before they’d gone away, the mother told Mrs. Robeson the baby had spontaneously been getting better. Mrs. Robeson could attest to that fact too. After what seemed an eternity of pallor, there was finally color in his cheeks and his appetite was improving. He’d even said his first words and taken a few tentative toddler steps. As far as Mrs. Robeson could see, he was well on his way to becoming a normal child. But the next thing she knew, the Parker family was gone.

  Nathan sank heavily in his chair and gazed out the window, where the morning sun was just shedding light on the neighboring shops. Poof! Gone. Just like that. Just like Belle and Melody… And the Carletons last spring. Emma Gray and her mom, the season before. Nathan shook his head to clear it, thinking he was connecting dots where there was no logical connection. As old-fashioned as it seemed, in many ways Blayton was a modern town. And in modern towns, people came and went all
the time. Nothing so unusual about that. Perry’s Uncle Dan had arrived here four years ago. His nephew had joined him the following summer. And Elizabeth and Claire had gotten here just last month. There really wasn’t anything more constant in life than change. And Blayton wasn’t any exception. The only thing that made it exceptional now was the fact that the Jennings had moved in. Those were two people Nathan didn’t want leaving any time soon. Not if that meant they’d be leaving here without him. He wasn’t quite sure he could take that. Not with what his heart was starting to feel.

  Perry and Claire took their seats at their new lunch spot. It had been getting too cold to eat outdoors, so they’d moved inside. Joy and Lilly had surprised them by offering to share their table. While Claire never might have imagined it a few weeks ago, she and the other girls were becoming friends. She glanced across the crowded cafeteria and saw Penelope eating by herself. “I hate it that she sits there alone.”

  “I know,” Joy agreed. “But she did it to herself.”

  “Said she wouldn’t stay here if you two barged in,” Lilly blurted out.

  Joy elbowed her.

  “Ouch!” She glanced at Perry and Claire. “Sorry.”

  “Still,” Claire said. “It rots to be having such a great day when someone else looks so miserable.”

  “What’s so great about it?” Perry asked. “Other than it’s Halloween, and you know…” He wiggled his eyebrows, and the other girls laughed. “We all get to eat mega candy tonight.”

  “We’re supposed to be handing it out,” Lilly interjected. “Not eating it ourselves.”

  “I thought we were supposed to be dividing it?” Perry glanced around with mock innocence. “You know, one for you, you cute little goblin, and a great big handful for me?”

  Claire slapped him with a laugh. “Shut up. You’re not going to be stealing any kid’s candy.”

  “I didn’t say stealing, I said—”

  She met his eyes with a challenge. “Don’t you even want to hear why I’m having such a great day?”

  “Well, yeah, sure. Other than the part about you’re already sitting here with me.”

  He preened a bit, strumming his chest with his fingers.

  “He’s been impossible since I said I’d go out with him,” Claire told the other girls.

  They shook their heads, but neither one appeared as if she’d mind going out with Perry herself.

  “Anyway,” Claire continued, “here’s my big news.” When she shared it, she practically squealed. “I got a B+ on my algebra exam!”

  “Way…to…go!” Perry high-fived her, and the other two did as well.

  Claire was so pleased with herself she felt she was bursting. It was the best grade she’d gotten in math all year. Didn’t hurt that Nathan had been helping her with the homework. He had a simple way of explaining things that made them less complicated. Plus, he didn’t yell at her for asking questions, the way her uptight teacher Mrs. Peabody did.

  She surprised the rest of the table by getting to her feet.

  “Where are you going?” asked Joy.

  “I just had an idea about Penelope,” Claire said, glancing her way.

  She strode across the cafeteria and plopped down across from Penelope at her table. Rather than appearing welcoming, the other girl shot her an acrimonious look.

  “You don’t have to eat here all alone, you know.”

  “I’m my own best company,” Penelope replied with a smirk.

  Though Claire doubted that, she didn’t say so. She opted to take a different tact. “Rough test today, huh?”

  “It sucked.” Penelope’s expression was gloomy. “Mrs. Peabody sucks. She’s a horrible teacher.”

  “She’s not the most patient one at Blayton, that’s for sure.”

  “Probably means she’s working on it.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “My mom says that everyone in life is working on something.”

  Claire considered this a moment, secretly wondering what Penelope was working on. She hoped it wasn’t replacing Melody as prime school bully. “Well, maybe she is,” she finally answered.

  Penelope stopped chewing a moment to stare at her. “Are you here for something?”

  “I, uh… Yeah. Actually, I am.”

  Penelope waited.

  Claire had seen the way Penelope quickly folded over her paper after peeking at her grade. Mrs. Peabody had a really mean habit of handing back test grades in order—highest first. It was obvious to all Penelope had gotten the lowest mark in the class.

  “I was thinking that maybe I could help you with algebra?”

  “Help me? But aren’t you the one Mrs. Peabody’s always yelling at?”

  “I’m learning to ignore her.”

  Penelope scrutinized her a moment. She’d obviously noticed that Claire’s paper had been handed out early on. “How did that help you get a better grade?”

  “It wasn’t Mrs. Peabody that helped. It was Nathan.”

  “The sheriff?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But how…?” Her eyes registered understanding. “I get it. He’s dating your mom.”

  “Something like that.” Claire pursed her lips, thinking how fast news traveled in a small town. “Anyhow, the point is, he’s helped me understand it a lot better, so I was thinking…maybe I could help you?”

  Penelope eyed her suspiciously. “Why?”

  “Because I think you’re kind of like Melody.”

  Her face reddened. “Melody’s gone.”

  “Yeah, she is. She also wasn’t as mean as she wanted everybody to think.” Claire studied her. “Neither are you.”

  Penelope glanced at the table where Perry and the other two girls were eating and pretending not to watch. “Is this some kind of weird Halloween joke?”

  “Nope.”

  “Are you like…going out for sainthood or something?”

  Claire sighed with exasperation. “Penelope, why don’t you just say yes?”

  “Maybe I like things the way they are.” But Claire could tell that she didn’t.

  “You like failing math class? That’s crazy, because I didn’t.”

  “You were failing?”

  “Think about it. Whose paper always got handed out last?”

  Penelope studied her a beat, but Claire could tell her mood was softening. “I don’t know. I think maybe it’s too late.”

  “Too late for what?”

  “I don’t understand any of the questions I got wrong. I mean, I don’t even know why I got them wrong. They still look right to me.”

  Claire eyed her with sympathy. “I’ve got some time after school.”

  “I’ve got to watch my little sister.”

  “How about if I meet you both at the library?”

  “I don’t get it. Why would you do that for me?”

  Claire answered her truthfully. “I don’t know. It’s just something I think I should do.”

  “No tricks?”

  “No tricks.” She paused a moment, then whispered, “But you can bring some treats if you want.”

  “We’re not supposed to eat in the library,” Penelope whispered back.

  Claire lowered her voice further with a giggle. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

  To her utter amazement, Penelope smiled. And it wasn’t a little one either. It was one of those great big, blooming, knock-me-over-with-a-feather grins.

  “Okay, Claire,” Penelope said with a nod. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

  Later that afternoon, Elizabeth closed up her newspaper office, feeling contented. She’d gotten a call from Claire saying she was meeting a friend at the library so had stayed an extra hour to tidy up. She’d had interview notes and sample photographs strewn everywhere and piles of rough drafts sitting around. Elizabeth viewed the ancient typewriter she’d displayed in the front window with satisfaction. Even an old-school writer would have approved of the effort she’d turned out. The newspaper had hit the In
ternet, and she’d been flooded by emails and calls from appreciative residents. It was so nice she’d gotten the weekly paper running again. People especially favored the Swap, Bake, or Barter section, where residents could trade one set of skills or goods for another without having to lay out precious cash. Elizabeth was proud of the fact that this had been her idea. Somehow it seemed to fit a town like Blayton to a tee. Jerry found it very “down-home” and hoped his reporters might mimic the concept in other small towns.

  Not bad for a first month’s work, Elizabeth mused, locking up. The key in her hand reminded her of another accomplishment. She’d made friends with a handsome, single man. Okay, she’d admit it. More than friends. Elizabeth found herself falling desperately, head-over-heels in love with Nathan. How could she not? He was everything a woman like her could hope for. Not only that, he was extra kind to her daughter. Elizabeth could tell he wasn’t putting it on. Nathan’s interest in Claire was authentic. Elizabeth didn’t know how they’d been so lucky to have him come into their lives when he did. But his timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Elizabeth had spent a lifetime wondering if the kind of love she’d read about in books and had seen in movies truly existed. Now that she found herself falling for Nathan, she realized it actually did. Hers wasn’t some schoolgirl crush or nonsensical longing. Rather, it was a deep-seated feeling that Nathan was right for her. Right for them. She respected Nathan and admired him greatly. And when he took her in his arms, she melted—like snow beneath a warming sun. You couldn’t do better than that, Elizabeth thought as dusk closed in. I couldn’t do better than that.

  Chapter Thirteen

  A full moon rose in the night sky, and brisk winds whistled through the trees. They were bare now, having shed all their leaves. Their limbs stretched like craggy fingers up toward the clouds, shrouding the moon from time to time. Claire carried her carved jack-o’-lantern to the front porch and lit the candle she’d positioned inside it. It was only seven o’clock but pitch black with occasional moonlight casting a haunting glow. The little kids would have a blast tonight. And she and her mom were ready. They had enough candy to fortify a horde of trick-or-treaters. Hey, if enough kids didn’t come around, Claire had agreed in advance to share her spoils with Perry.