by Kevin Guest
The next day, a young brunette walked into the office. Mary recognized her. “I was curious if you were going to be chosen for this investigation. I am sure Dr. Anderson will be pleased to see you again!”
Amy walked over and handed her a yellow envelope, just as Dr. Fletcher had. Mary opened it as Amy gave her a warning. “Dr. Anderson does not remember me. After his concussion during the Bowser Street Haunting, I am once again a stranger to him. For his mental safety, you are not to tell him about my prior involvement with his life’s work. Do you understand?”
Mary knew that a warning coming from Amy was a serious as a nail in a coffin. “I understand.”
Amy looked at her with a blank expression. “I don’t think your romance is going to work out.”
Mary was stunned at Amy’s cold words, but that was exactly what she had been thinking all morning. For so long she had desired to be married to the professor. She stumbled out of her chair, “I’ll…I’ll…s…see if Dr. Anderson’s available.”
Amy stopped her. “Yes, he is. He is doing something right now that he would give anything to put aside.”
Mary watched Amy walk straight to his office, “You know you cannot just—”
Amy ignored her and entered.
Inside, Dr. Anderson was grading project papers from his advanced class. He looked up and saw the woman. “My secretary will help you, Miss, please close the door.”
She shook her head. “You don’t like doing that, do you?”
Anderson set his pen down, she was right. He detested grading papers. One of the chief complaints from his students was his turn-around time on assignments.
Mary rushed in. “I’m sorry. This is Amy; she’s the medium chosen for the project.”
Anderson smiled. “So I gathered. Well, young lady, you sure know how to make an entrance, please come in. I would ask you—”
“Coke, diet.”
He laughed. This is going to be fun, he thought. “Mary, if you would.”
Mary shut the door as Amy took a seat. Anderson folded his hands. “So, what do you think of this project?”
Without missing a beat, Amy replied, “We’re going to Reindeer Manor.”
Anderson smiled faded quickly as anger set in. “Ok, who told you that?”
“No one, I knew it before I applied. I knew I would get the job before I applied, otherwise, why waste my time?”
As Mary put her hand on the door handle, Amy turned. Before Mary could say anything, Amy said, “Bottled water will be fine.”
Mary did not even get the chance to tell her the machine was out of diet. She closed the door and went to retrieve the water.
Anderson sat back in his seat. “Wow, that’s quite a gift you have. If you can maintain it, you will have quite a career.”
Amy looked off to the side. “It’s not a gift; it’s a curse, one I would give up in a heartbeat.”
“Why do you say so?”
She looked at him. “Do you like presents? Christmas presents, birthday presents?”
Anderson folded his hands. “Of course, who doesn’t?”
“I don’t. I stopped asking for things when I was five years old. Even then, I knew what I was getting. I’ve never been surprised about anything, except by the people around me.”
“How so?”
“I cannot maintain friendships, certainly cannot keep a boyfriend. I already know what they want and though I have seen many of my peers in good relationships, I cannot do that. I cannot let a person make natural mistakes with me, because I already know they’re going to do it, so I shut them out. I once met a boy, obsessed with my body. I knew he would make a wonderful father if I allowed him into my life, and we would have several children.”
“Then why did you stop him?”
Amy tilted her head. “Because I already knew how he was going to die. I cannot live that way.”
Anderson sat up. “Do you sense those things in everyone?”
“No, it’s usually random, but when a person gets closer to me, or the issue is about me, things become much clearer.”
He looked at her grades; she was barely passing her subjects. “If this gift is so powerful, how do you explain your GPA?”
“If I got every question right, on every test, in every subject, on every grade level, do you think I would be free?”
“I suppose not.”
“That’s why, Dr. Anderson.”
Anderson sighed. This was not the conversation he wanted to have. “Ok, back to the matter at hand--why this project?”
“Because I want to know about the afterlife; that’s the one thing that eludes me. Hopefully this is one more step toward an answer I don’t know, and a question I cannot ask.”
He looked baffled. “Why can you not ask the question?”
“Because I don’t know it, but I can sense its presence.”
Anderson was beside himself with this girl. She was perfect. The committee probably had no doubt about her. He thought about her answer, then asked, “Could that be God?”
She thought about it for a moment; then answered in a slow, broken fashion. “I…don’t know how to answer that; the words…don’t seem…to exist in our language… that’s…about the best way I can put it.”
Anderson nodded. “Ok, so what can you tell me about Reindeer Manor?”
She sat up with a cold threatening stare. “It’s not the same as the show, not in any way. Those who go for the wrong reason never come back the same, if they come back at all.”
He smiled. “No one’s ever spent the night there; we will be the first.”
Amy shook her head. “I’m not talking about investigators. I’m talking about those who lived there, however briefly, decades before the house became an attraction.”
He sat forward. “Is this going to be a waste of time? Should I look for something else?”
She looked off to the side. “Yes, but for a very different reason.”
“And that is…”
“This will be unlike any haunting in your book. You’re dancing with the devil on this one.”
Anderson smiled. “Ok, so what’s going to happen?”
“I cannot tell you that, because I don’t know. What I do know is that your life has already changed; whatever it was before has ended. You’ve already been there, it’s already seen you and you have no choice. Either you go for it, or it will come for you.”
Anderson liked that; he liked assurances. “That will not be a problem, as we are going for it.”
She looked at him in the most serious way. “It’s going to attack you in a way you will not see coming, and when the final act comes, it will be a surprise. Nothing you do, nothing you say, nothing you take with you, can change that fact.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “That’s all I have to say about that.” She stood and walked to the door. Before exiting, she turned. “Monday, 9 a.m., first week in March, downstairs.” She then exited his office.
Anderson jumped up; a last minute thought hit him. He hurried out of his office and saw Amy standing by the front door. She looked at Anderson. “Because it’s what you needed, to meet me.”
Amy turned and left the office. Mary looked at him. “What were you going to ask?”
He was shocked. “I was going to ask if she already knew what our conversation was going to entail, then why have it?”
Mary was tempted to tell him that this was not his first encounter with Amy, but all she could muster was a whimpering, “Wow.”
Anderson returned to his office and sat back in his chair. What an amazing person, he thought.
~Jessie~
