The Ghosts of Mertland (An Angel Hill novel)

by C. Dennis Moore

  “You’re Lynn?” Mandy asked, holding out her hand.

  “Yes, hi,” Lynn said, transferring a clipboard to her left hand and shaking.

  “I’m Mandy. I’m going to be working with you for a couple weeks?” Mandy asked.

  “Yep,” she said. “I’m your Mr. Miyagi.”

  “Am I going to have to wash your car?”

  “Yes,” Lynn said, “every other Saturday. I like a nice high polish to my dull grey Horizon.” She laughed and Mandy chuckled along with her. She liked Lynn already.

  “So, do I just haul this stuff around with me, or is there like a locker room or something?”

  “Down here,” Lynn said, and Mandy followed her down the hall. It wasn’t a locker room, but there was a lounge for the employees where Mandy hung her purse on a hook and a fridge where she stashed her lunch--she’d brought a miniature microwave pizza--before she asked, “So what’s first?”

  “Our shift starts in a few minutes,” Lynn said. “State regulations say one caregiver for every sixteen girls. Well, we’ve got seventeen. We’ll split them up as you get used to the job, but for now you and I are in charge of seventeen. First thing we do is take roll. We don’t have to line them up and count them off, and we don’t take roll of everyone, just ours. And after a week or two, that’ll be a snap. The kids here, they’re really good kids. They know the drill, and when they see you first thing with your clipboard,” she held up her clipboard, “they’ll say hi and you can check ‘em off.”

  No sooner had she said this than two girls turned a corner and waved and said, “Here, Miss Lynn.” Lynn checked their names off her list, waved back and said, “Hi, girls. This is Mandy. She’s new, so be nice to her.”

  They nodded and continued on their way.

  “That was Toby and Heather. Toby’s parents just dropped her off one day, then took off. We went to their house to find out what was going on and they just weren’t there. Most of the stuff still was, but Toby said some clothes were missing and a few other things, she could tell. No relatives, parents who knows where. It’s really sad; she’s a great girl and doesn’t deserve to have parents like that. Heather was in a lot of trouble in and out of school. Too young for jail, so here she is. But she’s really come a long way, too, and it’s good those two’ve become so close. They’re good for each other.”

  They entered another hallway and Mandy stopped when she felt a cold . . . force, for lack of a better word, rush through her.

  “Whoa!” she said.

  Lynn nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s a tricky one. Not sure what its name is, and it doesn’t always do that, but you have to watch that corner.”

  “I’ll try to remember that,” Mandy said. “Hey, does it ever get creepy? I mean, you’d think, right? Don’t you ever feel like they’re maybe watching you?”

  Lynn shook her head.

  “What’s there to watch you? They’re not people, they can’t communicate or think. When you’ve seen them enough, their repetition, you’ll understand how harmless they are. They’ll be like flies, I promise. Mildly annoying at times, but otherwise you just shrug them off and go on your way.”

  “Are there any gross ones? Like any who died really violently, like with bloody limbs or anything? I heard there was a kid who killed himself upstairs? I think I’d probably crap my pants if I saw some headless thing walking toward me.”

  Lynn shook her head again, saying, “No, nothing like that at all. A lot of them, you don’t even see. You’ll sense a presence here and there throughout the building, but I promise, there are no guts dragging across the floor or bloody-faced ghouls moaning and stumbling toward you trying to eat your soul.”

  “That is a relief,” Mandy said.

  She followed Lynn up to the second floor and they knocked on a door. Grace was a fifteen-year-old whose parents had been killed in a car wreck two years earlier. With no other relatives, she had been here ever since, and would be here until she graduated high school. She seemed happy enough.

  Grace was half American, half Asian with long black hair and a thin frame. She needed braces like nobody’s business, Mandy saw, with a mouth full of more teeth than she could handle, but she seemed like a very cheerful girl and when she smiled it lit up her entire face. When they walked into the room, she had been lying in bed with a sketch pad in front of her, which she flipped closed as soon as the women entered.

  Grace shared a room with Helena who, by the looks of it, could stand to skip a meal or two. Helena had thick black hair and bad skin and when Mandy shook her hand, she detected an aura of BO. All of which was unfortunate, Mandy thought, because the few minutes she spent talking to her revealed a very funny and interesting girl. Mandy thought if Helena showered a little more frequently and brushed her hair, maybe put on some clothes that weren’t a size too small, she’d be doing herself a huge favor.

  If the rest of the girls were even half as pleasant to be around as these two were, Mandy thought--barring Helena’s BO problem--she could see herself enjoying her time here a lot, even with the occasional creep-out, which she assumed would get less creepy as she got used to them and learned to avoid the problem areas.

  Olivia and Stephanie were in the next room. Olivia had her face in a book the whole time they were in there, seeming not the least bit interested in meeting Mandy. When her indifference had been made obvious, Lynn explained that, “Olivia’s mad at the universe for being so damned unfair. Is that about right?” She waited for the girl to reply. After a few seconds, the girl turned over on her bed, book still open, and mumbled, “Whatever.”

  “Yeah,” Lynn told Mandy, “she’s a ball of joy, this one. Once you get to know her, though . . . or, once she lets you get to know her, she really is a good kid. She just has a huge attitude problem. Stephanie, on the other hand, is annoyingly energetic.”

  Mandy and Stephanie shook and the girl, eighteen and a senior, smiled wide to show her braces and immediately launched into a monologue about how great it was to meet Mandy and Mandy seemed like a really nice person, too, she was sure she would fit in perfectly here, don’t mind Olivia, though, she hates everything and everyone anyway, so don’t take it personal, that’s just how she is with everyone, and finally Lynn had to step in and say, “Okay, okay, Steph, take a breath.”

  The three of them smiled and Mandy could tell Stephanie wanted to reply to Lynn, but it would probably result in another ten minutes of hyperactivity.

  Instead the girl nodded, smiled again, then went into the bathroom.

  Lynn motioned for Mandy to follow her and she started to, then stopped next to Olivia’s bed and said, “It’s okay that you don’t like me. We’ll take it easy, there’s no rush.”

  “I won’t be here long enough for it to matter,” the girl said, never turning away from her book.

  Hmph, Mandy thought, okay then. Nice to meet you. Have a nice life on the outside.

  Theresa sat at her desk doing homework when they entered the next room. Denise lay in bed with her eyes closed, listening to music in her headphones. They both seemed nice enough, but that didn’t exactly equal friendly.

  They ran into Erika and Alison as the girls were coming out of their room. They were both older. Mandy thought surely they must be on their way out of this place. She would have guessed Alison to be in her mid-20s if she hadn’t known better. They both shared short brown hair, but Erika wore glasses. They said hello and shook Mandy’s hand, then disappeared down the hall and the sound of their doubled footsteps going down the stairs echoed back to Mandy and Lynn, sounding like half a dozen girls instead of just two.

  As she met the last seven girls, she wondered how she was ever going to handle sixteen all by herself. She was already beginning to forget the names of the ones she’d met in order to make room for the ones she was still meeting.

  Fiona and Ophelia shared the next room. Fiona was seven while her sister Ophelia was fourteen. They both shared the same long, straight black hair, but Fiona had the brightest blue eyes
Mandy had ever seen and when she smiled, she was missing her left front tooth.

  Rebecca and Elizabeth were arguing when Mandy and Lynn walked into their room and Lynn told them, “Girls, whatever it is, it’s not important enough to get this worked up over it. Calm down. Take a few minutes to say hello to Mandy. She’s going to be working here.”

  The girls said hello, but as soon as they were out the door, Mandy heard the argument start up again. Whatever it was, it wasn’t too serious; they were talking over each other, but it wasn’t heated.

  Victoria shared a room with Emma, but they might as well have been on different planes. Victoria sat on the floor with her back to the wall, knees up and heels against her butt, a book open in front of her and Lynn had to call her name a few times to get her to look up and acknowledge them. She had long strawberry blonde hair and glasses with purple frames. Emma, on the other hand, was napping. She jumped when Lynn nudged her to wake up and say hello. She had light blonde hair that rode that line between blonde and white, much like Mandy’s own hair.

  Finally, there was Rose who had a room to herself.

  “For now,” Lynn said. “There’s been a pretty steady stream of girls in here the past few months--hence the need for additional help--so Rose is enjoying the room to herself while she’s got it.”

  “Ms. Lynn already said it won’t last,” Rose said. “But I’ve been here two weeks, all by myself, so…” she knocked on the wood of her windowsill. She sported long curly red hair and pale skin and Mandy’s first thought, which she quickly chided herself for, was “Damn, a soulless ginger!”

  That’s no way to think about the kids you’re taking care of, she told herself and immediately tried to think of something nice.

  “Your hair is beautiful,” she told her.

  A deep red blush rose in her cheeks and the girl smiled and nodded and said, “Thanks. I like yours, too.”

  “I hope you have a steel heart,” Lynn told her as they sat in the lounge after taking roll. Lynn had a cup of coffee while Mandy sipped a Coke she’d brought from home. “There are some heartbreaking stories in here. A lot of the kids don’t belong here at all, for any reason, but for some of them, there’s no place else to go. Some have parents in jail and no one at home to take care of them. Some get in a little trouble at school one time and their parents decide they’re a problem child and ship them off here. Let someone else deal with them. I swear, if I could, I’d line up each and every deadbeat parent out there and get a firing squad to keep them from taking up any more room on the planet than they already have.”

  “I’ll take care of them.”

  “Thanks,” Lynn said. “That means a lot.”

  Mandy took a sip of her Coke. It was 5:30 in the evening and she had a long night ahead of her.

  “What’s after roll?” she asked.

  “Dinner,” Lynn said. “That’s at 6:00. It’s just like a school cafeteria. They’ve got assigned tables, no popular table or nerd table here, each group of kids eats with each other, so our girls sit at a table together. We’re trying to build a sense of companionship between them. Can you imagine how it must feel to come into a place like this, with the home lives some of these kids have, scared, alone, you just want to go home? We bring them in and immediately they’ve got a group of friends to hang out with.”

  Mandy understood the thinking and liked the idea. She could certainly sympathize; if not for Lynn, she’d have been thrown into this situation all by herself and that thought scared her.

  “What do the kids think of the ghosts?” she asked.

  “Depends on the kid. Some hate them. Some won’t go anywhere in the building by themselves, no matter how many times you assure them the ghosts can’t hurt them. Some don’t care, they’ve seen much worse in their home lives, and they just shrug it off and pretend it’s not there.”

  “Is that easy to do?” Mandy asked. “Pretend it’s not there?

  “I can’t do it,” Lynn said, almost chuckling. “But I’ve been here a while, and I’ve seen them all enough times, I’m used to them. Like I said, they’re like flies now.”

  She looked at the clock hanging over the door and said, “Okay, time to get the girls lined up for dinner.”

  She dumped the remains of her coffee in the sink and tossed the paper cup in the trash. Mandy left her can on the table, meaning to come back to it later.

  Much like roll, the girls knew the routine and were already on their way to the cafeteria as Lynn and Mandy were coming for them. Lynn met the other workers. There were forty-nine girls in the Mertland Childrens' Home, which meant two other workers besides herself and Lynn.

  Bea was an older woman who looked like she was behind the times only by a decade or six in a plain cream-colored dress that gave no indication of personality whatsoever. Mandy didn’t care for the tone she used when trying to usher her girls through the line. She was glad she wasn’t stuck working with Bea for the next two weeks. But on the other hand, judging by the few minutes she’d observed her, she wouldn’t mind too much if the old broad were gone in two weeks.

  The other woman was Jane, who looked just as plain as her name sounded, if you didn’t count the bright red Chiefs jersey tucked into her jeans. She greeted Mandy with a warm smile and a handshake and said, “We’re going to make you very comfortable here. And you just ignore Bea, she’s a real bitch.”

  Mandy laughed, then slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle it. Bea glanced over and frowned, then went back to harassing her girls.

  A line of boys joined them, along with three male workers who introduced themselves as Ryan, Chuck and Daniel. Ryan was slim and tall with dark buzzed hair while Chuck was his opposite: fat and sloppy with curly red hair and a thick mustache. Daniel was tall, muscular and black His hair was cut close to the scalp and it offset the goatee. The men seemed to dress from the same closet with plain colored polo shirts and jeans. They were in charge of thirteen boys each.

  The girls were hungry. They kept their voices low, kept the line moving, and soon everyone was seated and eating their dinner. The girls were gathered at three tables on one side of the cafeteria while the boys took up another three tables at the opposite end.

  “If you want,” Lynn said, “you can bring your lunch in here and eat with them, or you can just wait a while and eat while they’re busy with their chores.”

  “Oh,” Mandy said, grabbing a plate with Lynn and Jane who had opted to share in the dinner the girls were having: pot roast with potatoes and carrots, and a piece of cornbread and if it tasted half as good as it smelled, Mandy was in for a treat, “what kind of chores do they have?”

  “Just regular stuff,” Lynn said. “They have to keep their rooms clean. They pitch in and help keep the common areas clean, too. They sweep, dust, change out the trash bags. Just little stuff, but it all helps keep the place running smoothly. It makes them feel productive and it gives them a sense of ownership, so that when they get out of here--and, unfortunately for some of them that won’t be until they’re eighteen--they’ve got that foundation in place when they get their own apartment or whatever.”

  “That’s good thinking,” Mandy said.

  “So you gonna make it here?” Jane asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “This job’s tough,” she said. “It can burn you out, plus it gets pretty tough seeing the kids come and go. You try not to get attached, but you will anyway, and then they start leaving on you and it gets really hard to watch them walk out the door knowing they won’t be back.”

  “I’m here as long as--” Mandy started, but a noise across the room caught their attention and they all looked up and over. Two of the older girls were going at each other. One had her hand around the other’s neck while the one being choked pulled the other girl’s hair in two big fistfuls.

  They went to the floor, the choker on top, hair puller on bottom. The girl on top looked like she was ready to bite the other girl’s face off. The girl being choked just looked pissed, n
othing compared to the other girl’s expression.

  “What the crap?” Lynn asked and got up from the table, but Bea strode over and yelled at the girl on top.

  “June, what do you think you’re doing? Let go of her right this second!”

  June snarled at Bea and let go of the other girl’s throat just long enough to shove the old woman away. Bea stumbled, then fell on her back with a loud slap that made Mandy wince and tense up.

  “That’s enough!” Lynn yelled and she and Jane were at the two, pulling them apart, trying to wrench the girl’s hands from June’s hair, trying to pry June’s hands off the other girl’s throat.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jane yelled.

  “She started it!” June yelled, snarling again, this time right into the other girl’s face. The girl’s eyes opened wide and Mandy thought she looked scared for her life. Mandy didn’t blame her, but with Lynn and Jane working to break them up, she shouldn’t be that worried.

  “I didn’t start shit!” the other girl yelled. “I didn’t even do anything, you jumped me, bitch!”

  “Watch the mouths,” Lynn said, still fighting to get June’s hair free from the other girl’s clutches. Both girls’ faces were deep red. June had large, thick veins pulsing in her forehead.

  She looked over at Lynn and said, “You’re just a cunt. That’s why your baby never left the hospital,” and she shoved Lynn backwards by the stomach. Lynn stumbled but caught herself on a table and stayed upright, then went back to the fight.

  The rest of the kids sat at their tables, shocked, but Mandy could see glee in a few of the faces. Probably, she thought, they’re just glad they’re not the ones in the middle of it.