by Bobbi Holmes
“This is some trick,” Cheryl muttered.
“Try something else,” Danielle suggested.
“What do you mean?”
“Try picking up something else.”
Flashing Danielle a dirty look she reached for the handle of the dresser. Once again her hand moved through the piece. A look of confusion on her face, she snatched at the lamp—the door knob—the light switch—a pillow from the bed. After numerous unsuccessful tries she let out a high pitched scream and crumbled into a ball on the floor, sobbing inconsolably.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Danielle sat on the third step leading from the first to the second floor of Marlow House. She seriously considered running down to the drug store and purchasing a pair of ear plugs to block out Cheryl’s insistent wailing. Leaning to one side she reached back and tugged her cell phone from the back pocket of her shorts and looked at the time. It had been over three hours since she gave her cousin the bad news. Cheryl hadn’t stopped carrying on since that time.
The front door opened. Danielle looked up as she tucked her cell phone back into her pocket. Lily was back from Ian’s.
“How was dinner?” Danielle asked.
“Good. Wish you would have come with us. Did you get something to eat?”
“I ate one of the sandwiches you made.”
“Oh yeah, we didn’t quite make it to the beach, did we?” Lily sat on the step next to Danielle.
“So where’s Ian?” Danielle asked
“I told him I was getting a headache.”
“Are you?”
“Nah, but I wanted to see how you and Cheryl were doing, and I didn’t think I could do it with Ian hanging around. Anyway, I couldn’t stop thinking of Cheryl—wondering what happened to her. So how’s it going?”
“I think I got your headache.” Danielle rubbed her temples and cringed. “She hasn’t stopped crying and carrying on since I told her.”
Lily cocked her head and listened for any unusual sounds. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Be grateful. Grateful you don’t have this damn gift.”
Walt suddenly appeared before Lily and Danielle. Standing on the first floor landing he faced the two women. “You have to make her stop!”
“Maybe I could have handled the situation differently if you hadn’t decided to play haunt the ghost,” Danielle snapped.
“Ah, Walt is here. Hi Walt,” Lily said cheerfully.
“I’m sorry but she’s the first one I’ve seen—apart from you—who could actually see or hear me.”
“I’ve gone up there a half a dozen times already. I can only take her howling for a few minutes before I have to leave. She is so damn loud,” Danielle said.
“Hi Walt,” Lily said again.
“Tell Lily I say hello.”
“Walt says hello. Seems my cousin’s racket is getting on his nerves too.”
“Walt, would you do me a favor?” Lily asked.
Upstairs Cheryl’s sobs and screams continued yet they didn’t seem as loud as they had moments before. Danielle wondered if she was finally winding down.
“Ask her what she wants,” Walt said.
“He wants to know what you want.”
“This whole thing…well…it is a little overwhelming. Especially now with Cheryl. I need to be reminded this is all for real, that I’m not just being sucked into someone’s delusion.” Lily looked to Danielle and said apologetically, “I’m sorry Dani. I hope you understand.”
“Believe me, I do. Trust me. I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to call in the men in white coats,” Danielle said.
“Walt, the other day you picked the croquet ball up off the kitchen floor and put it back in the bag for me. I need to know that I didn’t imagine that. That you are real. Is there anything you can do to convince me I haven’t been making things up in my mind?”
Danielle glanced at Walt. “How about it?”
Lily turned to Danielle, hoping she really did understand. Danielle wasn’t looking at Lily. Instead she was looking down the entry hall toward the front door. The corners of her mouth curled into a slow smile.
“Nice touch, Walt.” Danielle said.
Lily looked to where Danielle was staring. She appeared to be looking at the floral arrangement Marie had sent over before the open house. Lily had faithfully watered the arrangement since its arrival. Most of the roses had since wilted and been discarded, yet a few remained.
Something caught Lily’s eye—something floating between the table and where they sat on the steps. Her eyes widened at the sight. A single rose floated slowly in her direction.
Danielle couldn’t help but grin as she watched Walt carry the red rose from the arrangement to where they sat. When he reached the steps he knelt down on one knee and offered the flower to Lily.
Lily couldn’t see Walt, only the red rose floating several inches from her. Grinning, she reached out and accepted the flower. “Thanks Walt. This is really sweet.”
From upstairs Cheryl began wailing again in earnest.
Walt’s smile faded. He looked up the staircase and said, “Now can we please do something about that?”
“Damn,” Danielle cursed, glancing behind her up the stairs.
“What is it?” Lily twirled the rose in her hand. Bringing the blossom to her nose, she took a sniff.
“It’s Cheryl again. I thought she was winding down, but apparently she got a fresh burst. I need to talk to her, but it kills my ears being in the same room with her,” Danielle explained.
“Let me do it.” Lily stood up.
“You? You can’t see her,” Danielle said.
“I know. I can’t hear her either. But she can hear me, right?”
“Lily has a point. Cheryl will be able to hear her, so Lily can say whatever she wants without having to listen to her racket,” Walt said.
“I guess it is worth a try,” Danielle said, cringing again from the caterwauling.
“There is one problem,” Walt said with hesitation.
“What?” Danielle asked.
“Cheryl is unstable; I don’t want her to throw something at Lily and hurt her. Maybe I should just go in.”
“I suppose that is a possibility,” Danielle murmured.
“Sure it’s possible, I can talk to her!” Lily declared.
“Although, I’m pretty sure she’s hasn’t figured it out yet. Remember, I told her to pick up the vase in the bedroom and she wasn’t able to harness any of her energy.”
“Umm…what are you talking about?” Lily asked.
“I don’t think Cheryl could do anything to hurt you—at least not yet,” Danielle explained.
“Hurt me? Oh, you mean like when Walt threw the croquet set at Bill and Adam?”
“Yes. She hasn’t figured any of that out yet. Heck, she just learned she’s dead.”
“Dead…yeah…” Lily shuddered. “Just where is her body? What happened to her? Did someone kill her or what?”
“I’ve been wondering all those things myself,” Danielle said. “But Cheryl won’t calm down long enough for me to talk to her, so we can figure all this out. I’m sure she’s here because she needs to come to terms with what happened to her and I certainly want to know where…where…”
“Where her body is?” Lily asked.
“Yes. You know, it is one thing to see her up there, but quite another for me to come to the realization that she is really gone—I mean gone from this world. I don’t think I’ve quite wrapped my head around that.”
“Let me talk to her. Okay?” Lily said.
“Tell Lily if Cheryl starts throwing things to get out of that room and call for me, immediately.”
Danielle looked at Lily. “Try to talk to her, get her to understand we need to figure out what happened to her. She needs to come to terms with all this. But if she figures out how to start throwing furniture, get out of the room and call for Walt, immediately. Deal?”
“Deal.” Lily took a deep breath. “Will yo
u make me one promise?”
“Sure, anything,” Danielle said.
“If Cheryl leaves the room, please tell me. I don’t want to be in there talking to an empty room. As it is, I am going to feel silly enough.”
“Deal.”
Lily took another deep breath. She handed Danielle the rose and then clutched the handrail and made her way upstairs to the second floor. It seemed so quiet she found it hard to believe Cheryl was in the Red Room screaming her head off.
“Is she still howling?” Lily called down to Dani when she reached the second floor landing.
“Yes!” Danielle said.
“Umm….where was she the last time you were in the room? I don’t want to sit on her or anything.”
“She was sitting in the corner next to the nightstand.”
“Okay, I’m doing this!” Lily sounded more confident than she felt.
Lily walked to the Red Room’s door and clutched its doorknob. “Cheryl, this is Lily, I am coming in!” Lily threw the door open and peeked inside. It didn’t look like anyone was there. It was so quiet she could hear the antique clock in the hall ticking.
“Hello Cheryl, I’m really sorry about all this. Honest.” Lily walked into the room and looked in the corner where she believed Cheryl was huddled.
Cheryl stood on the other side of the room looking into the mirror. There was no reflection. That’s what had started her recent crying bout. She stopped sobbing and looked at Lily. “I thought you couldn’t see or hear me?”
“I really wish you would stop crying so we can help you. Danielle and Walt want to help you.” Lily continued to look into the corner, away from where Cheryl stood by the mirror.
“I am over here!” Cheryl stomped her foot in frustration. For a brief moment, when Lily had entered the room and started talking, Cheryl thought perhaps it had all been some joke. If Lily could see her then maybe she really wasn’t dead.
“Walt wasn’t thrilled to find out he was dead either. But it eventually happens to all of us,” Lily said, still looking into the empty corner.
Cheryl glared at Lily and screamed at the top of her lungs—that was, had she actually had lungs. Downstairs Walt and Danielle cringed and looked up the stairs.
The scream did not faze Lily, who, oblivious to the high pitched howl, prattled on endlessly. Initially Lily had been a little worried that she’d feel ridiculous talking to a seemingly empty room, yet once she got rolling she couldn’t stop.
Cheryl continued to wail about the injustice of it all, but after almost ten minutes of howling while watching Lily calmly babbled away, Cheryl grew quiet.
“…after all eternity is going to be a very long time and you really don’t want to spend it throwing a tantrum, do you? Don’t you want to know what happened to you? I mean you obviously don’t know because if you knew you would know you were dead and if you knew you were dead you would not have been so surprised when Dani told you, and then you wouldn’t be screaming and throwing a fit and if you would just calm down and talk to Dani she could help you. Did you know she has been really worried about you, and did you notice she never asked you about the necklace because she doesn’t care about the necklace she cares about you and…”
Cheryl walked to the doorway and into the hall, leaving Lily alone in the room, still prattling on, yet now there was no one to hear her. She walked to the top of the stairs and looked down. Walt and Danielle sat on the steps below her.
“Can you make her stop?” Cheryl asked.
Danielle and Walt both turned around and looked up the stairs. Cheryl was standing on the second floor landing looking down at them. She seemed much calmer than before, and was no longer crying.
“Make who stop?” Danielle asked as she stood up and started walking up the stairs.
“Lily, of course. Lord, that girl can talk!”
“Yes she can,” Walt said with a chuckle as he followed Danielle up the stairs.
“Can we talk now?” Danielle asked.
“Yes, I’d like that. But first, please tell Lily to stop. Or I swear I just may start screaming again.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Cheryl stood before the massive paintings in the library and studied Walt’s portrait. Tilting her head from side to side she said, “It really is you, isn’t it?”
“Did you doubt it?” Walt asked.
“What is going on?” Lily asked in a whisper. She sat with Danielle on the small couch wishing she could hear everything that was going on. In response Danielle reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. Lily took the gesture to mean, not now Lily, I will tell you later. Letting out a sigh, Lily leaned back and resigned herself to the fact she’d have to wait until later to get Danielle’s account on whatever was said.
“Cheryl, why don’t you come over here and sit down in the chair next to Walt so we can talk.” Danielle suggested.
Cheryl turned from the portrait and walked toward Walt. “I hadn’t really noticed, but you are rather good looking.” She sat on the chair next to him. “I suppose if I’m destined to be trapped for eternity with someone I’d rather it be a handsome man rather than someone I can’t bear looking at.”
Danielle glanced from Cheryl to Walt and noticed his expression of horror at Cheryl’s misguided conclusion. She wouldn’t have been surprised had he taken this moment to pull one of his disappearing acts.
“You are not trapped for eternity with Walt,” Danielle explained.
“Really?” Cheryl looked from Walt to Danielle. “Is there something between you two?”
“Excuse me?” Danielle asked with a frown.
“You do seem rather fond of each other. I just wondered if…”
“Cheryl, it’s not really possible for the type of relationship you suggest. Can we please get back to your situation?”
“But it is possible for one between let’s say….Walt and me?” Cheryl smiled at Walt.
“No,” Walt snapped.
Dejected, Cheryl slumped down in her chair and looked over at Danielle. “I don’t want to be dead.”
“Do you have any idea what happened?” Danielle asked. “Do you know where…where your body is?”
“My body?” Cheryl began to tear up again.
“Please, Cheryl, try to stay calm. We need to sort this all out,” Danielle urged.
“Is she screaming again?” Lily whispered. Danielle shook her head no.
“It is all sort of….well foggy feeling,” Cheryl said after reigning in her emotions.
“It’s like that at first,” Walt explained. “But once you understand why things are so different, why the world as you know it is off kilter, everything will eventually come into focus. You won’t remember all of it at once. But just try—what can you remember?”
“I remember wanting to go home,” Cheryl said.
“Home here or California?” Danielle asked.
“My home in California. This isn’t my home. It wasn’t fun anymore here. Something…something scared me. I can’t remember how I got back to my room here. I just wanted to get my things and leave, but everything was gone—my clothes, my suitcase—everything.”
“Try to remember where you were before you returned to Marlow House,” Danielle urged.
Cheryl closed her eyes, her expression somber. She let out a little gasp and said, “I was in a dark shed. I could hear the waves breaking on the beach. I was close to the ocean. But I couldn’t see anything.” She opened her eyes and looked at her cousin. “I remember now. I was afraid; I didn’t know where I was. I could see a little bit of light coming in through the wall boards, so I ran toward the light hoping to find a door, but then…then…”
“Then what?” Danielle asked.
“Then I was outside the shed, standing on the beach. How did I do that? I don’t remember finding a door.”
“You walked through the wall,” Walt explained.
“I did?” Cheryl’s eyes widened at the thought.
“So it was daytime?” Danielle asked.
“No, it was nighttime.” Cheryl said.
“But you said you saw light coming through the wallboards,” Danielle reminded.
“It was night, but there was a little bit of light from the moon and the nearby houses.”
“I bet your body is in that shed,” Danielle said.
“Her body is in a shed?” Lily gasped.
“That really creeps me out when you talk about my body,” Cheryl shuddered.
“I understand,” Walt agreed. “Danielle just doesn’t get that.”
“Hey! How else am I supposed to say it?”
“Not suggesting you can phrase it differently. But I do think you are sometimes a bit insensitive.” Walt said.
“I agree she can be,” Cheryl nodded.
“Oh brother,” Danielle muttered under her breath.
“What’s going on?” Lily asked in a whisper.
“Ghost divas,” Danielle quipped.
“Can you describe where the shed was?” Walt asked, ignoring Danielle’s comment. “You say it was on the beach?”
“Yes. There was a row of sheds, about six of them I think. Not on the beach exactly, but under a rocky cliff overhang. It wasn’t all sand underfoot—wild grass—about five feet from the beach. Each shed had a large number painted on its door. The one I came out of had the number three.”
“Does that place sound familiar?” Danielle asked Walt.
“No. But I doubt the sheds were around back then.”
“What place?” Lily asked.
“Cheryl remembers being at a beach shack. She said there was a row of six them, with numbers painted on their doors.”
“Red numbers?” Lily asked.
Cheryl jumped up and shouted, “Yes, red numbers!”
“Yes. Cheryl said they were red numbers,” Danielle confirmed.
“I think I know where that is.” Lily said. “Ian and I walked Sadie down there a few times. It’s on the south side of town.”
“Okay, so now we have a good idea where…where we might find…you know…” Danielle said. “Now Cheryl, do you remember how you got to that shed?”
