* * * *
The storm arrived about six-thirty with a torrential downpour and claps of thunder that fairly shook the manor. For more than two hours, rain pelted McCann's Manor and no more guests arrived. The deluge claimed the electricity and telephone services early on, rendering them inoperable for the rest of the evening. Liz and Kim lit candles and visited with John, Mark and Sondra while they dined on the meal John had catered.
At eight-forty-five, John's cell phone rang. “Hello?” he said. “Joel! What? Why didn't you come in a boat? Oh. No kidding? Well, it's too dark to see the river. Yeah, phones and electricity went about six-forty here, I guess. I see ... Well, I suppose no one else will be showing up, then. Thanks for calling. Yeah, why don't you call if they get the road opened—I'm sure our caterers would like to go home. Bye."
"What is it?” Kim asked.
"Flooding. The river jumped its banks. The road between here and town washed out about six o'clock,” John announced.
"Six? Wow!” Liz said. “I guess the storm had been carrying on for a while before it got here, huh?"
"I guess,” John affirmed. “Joel said almost everyone between here and Austin is without power. Phone lines are down; everything's at a standstill. That little rain storm was fizzling out by the time it got here, but before it got here, it dumped a lot of rain and hail all over everything."
"Should we be climbing into the hills or something?” Kim asked.
Mark laughed. “This house is built on the highest hill around. We'll be safe enough here. John's house may be flooded, though,” he said.
Everyone looked at John, who calmly shrugged, sat down on the sofa. “Could be, I suppose. It's come pretty close several times before,” he said. “Thing is, whether my house is flooded or not, that dip in the road between here and there will be, and no one will be able to get out of here by car until it drains off some."
"Oh, my!” Sondra exclaimed. “Every time I come see you, there's a flood."
"You should come more often, sweetie,” John said with a smile.
"Why?” she asked. “Do you like floods?"
"No, but if you came every few weeks, it couldn't possibly flood every time you came,” he said. “As it is, you're getting a bad impression of our little Texas home."
Sondra giggled, sat beside her father. “At least you don't have the mud slides we have in California,” she said.
"Not too often, anyway,” Mark said. “There are places around here that tend to slip and slide when it rains long enough and hard enough."
"Now, that's a pleasant thought,” Liz said. “There are quite a lot of mud and rocks right out there on our own cliff that could go slipping and sliding, for example."
"Oh, don't worry about it, Liz,” John said. “This cliff has been just like it is now for centuries. I do regret, though, that all your friends couldn't make it to see all the decorating and preparations you made for them."
"Well, you know my heart never was in this party in the first place,” Liz said. “It's probably just as well."
"But you went to so much trouble,” Mark said.
"Oh, well, we'll just put everything away and use it again next Halloween,” Kim said.
"That's the spirit!” John said. “You'll still be here next Halloween and we can just do it again."
"That would probably be better anyway,” Liz agreed. “I wasn't really looking forward to having all those spook-mongers out here competing to be the one to solve all the mysteries of McCann Manor. You don't know them."
"That bad, huh?” John asked.
"Well, there's quite a lot of competition between psychics, at least around here. Probably a lot like many actors; always harping about how they're better than anyone else,” Kim said.
"Oh,” John said. “Yes, I do know actors like that. But I thought psychics were supposed to be above that sort of thing; you know, doing things for the higher good and all that?"
"Supposed to be, yes. But in actuality when it comes to competition, most of them are no different from the rest of the world,” Liz said. “After a while it becomes all about how, ‘I'm more psychic than you and blah-blah-blah.’ The ones who sign up to assist in police cases get jealous if someone else gets called in on more cases than they do."
"Gee, and all this time I thought psychics were different.” Mark said.
"Oh, we are different, all right; but not that different,” Kim said with a laugh. “Or maybe we aren't different in that way!"
"I'll bet you two have a lot of incredible stories to tell, being called out to help solve crimes and all,” Sondra said.
"We do have a lot of stories, but we are not supposed to discuss the ones involving crimes,” Liz said. “Most of those stories are not too much fun to relive anyway. The things you get called in on as a psychic can be pretty gory."
"I never thought of that, but I'm sure they would be. Are crimes around here all that nasty?” Sondra asked.
"Yes, they can be, Sondra,” Kim said. “New York and L.A. don't have the patent on grisly crimes."
"Of course not; how silly of me,” Sondra said. Then she smiled, an impish twinkle in her eyes. “But it's Halloween. Do you have any spooky stories you can tell us?"
"Sondra!” John chided.
Liz smiled. “It's all right, John,” she said. “Sondra's right. This is the perfect time and place for a few spooky tales. What do you think, Kim?"
"Well, you have to understand that, excluding the police investigations and the stories about this house, most of our ghost stories are really quite tame,” Kim said. “We could share a few little tidbits with you, if you like."
John cleared his throat, stretched and headed for the kitchen. “I think I'll go see if our caterers are all right. I may need to make some kind of arrangements to get them home."
"Dad?” Sondra called after him. He didn't respond. “What's that all about?"
"The house still feels a little creepy to him, Sondra,” Liz explained. “I think he may be thinking you might wind up having to stay here tonight and he doesn't want to spook himself on ghost stories if he has to hang out here with no lights and no dependable contact with the outside world."
"He has his cell phone,” Sondra said.
"But if another bad storm were to come, he might not be able to get any reception and if we needed anything, it may all be just imagined perils, but something could happen, you know,” Kim said.
"Thanks!” Mark said. “I was all up for a few ghost tales and now I'm not so sure."
Liz and Kim laughed.
"Have you really seen ghosts?” Sondra asked.
"Yes, we have,” Liz said.
"What's it like?"
"Sometimes it can be scary, but mostly it isn't,” Kim said.
"How can you tell if it's a ghost? I mean, is all that stuff true about the chill in the air and all?” Sondra asked.
"One thing you have to understand about ghosts, Sondra,” Liz began in a grave tone, “each ghost is as individual as each person is. A person who dies with unresolved life issues doesn't simply become a part of some great gray characterless blob. He or she retains the same personality as in life. True, when some ghosts are present there's a chill in the air, but this isn't a characteristic that occurs across the board with every ghost. With some, you might smell a distinguishing odor; with others, the air could be warm, damp or even sticky."
"That makes sense,” Sondra said. “So each ghost you've encountered had a unique quality or air that marked its identity?"
"In almost every case, yes,” Kim said.
"Almost?” Mark asked.
"Yes, almost,” Liz said. “The ghosts we have encountered here don't always represent themselves in a unique way, but because matters are still unsettled here, we aren't going to talk about them tonight."
"I'm not sure I understand your reluctance to talk about the ghosts here in this house,” Sondra said.
"We're still working on this case and because of that, we aren't really at lib
erty to talk about it with people who aren't familiar with the case,” Kim said. “It's like any other investigation in that you can't throw anything you do know out there until you're sure about most of the facts. It will cloud and prejudice your investigation and could actually doom the examination to failure. So if you only wanted to talk about the ghosts here, I'm afraid we can't."
"Oh, well, I can understand that, I suppose. I just always wondered what it was about this house that Dad found so perplexing. I thought if we could talk about it a little, then maybe I would understand better,” Sondra said.
"Another time we'll be happy to discuss this house with you,” Liz promised. “This time, we can't. Do you still want to hear about ghosts?"
"Well, yes, I do!” Sondra said excitedly.
"The last house we lived in was haunted, too,” Liz said.
"Really?” Mark asked. “You two only live in haunted houses?"
Kim laughed. “Sometimes it almost seems that way,” she said, “but I think it's more that spirits gravitate toward us because we can see and hear them. We wind up having spirits around us wherever we go."
"But the last house was different,” Liz added. “The day we moved in, I sat down and looked around after the last box had been stacked up in the front room. The place just had a feel to it. I leaned back and said, ‘This place has ghosts.’”
"Yes, I remember,” Kim said. “I agreed with Liz's assessment and no sooner had I said it than the back door, which was closed and locked, opened and the light came on in the kitchen. Then, as though the spirit suddenly realized we weren't whoever he thought we were, the light went back out and the back door closed."
"You're kidding!” Mark said.
"No, not at all,” Liz said. “And what's even funnier, that light in the kitchen had something wrong with it and didn't even work. The incidence of it coming on that first night then going back off was the only time it burned during the entire three years we lived there."
"Were you ghost-busting there, too?” Sondra asked.
"No, although I think we did do quite a bit of ghost busting while we were there,” Kim said. “There was one of the bedrooms we used for an office and you could routinely hear sounds in there."
"What kind of sounds?” Sondra asked.
"For one, you know how it sounds when someone lifts a slat on the Venetian blinds to peer out?” Kim asked.
"Yes?"
"I was sitting up late working on a pair of earrings one night,” Liz said. “I kept hearing the sound of a slat on the blind being lifted, but every time I would look, the blinds would all be in place. Finally, I pretended to be working and just cut my eyes over and there was the slat, slowly sliding back into place."
"Ooh, that's way weird!” Sondra said.
"I'll say,” Mark chimed in. “What did you do?"
"Well, the spirits in that house were mostly just playing with us,” Liz said. “I said something like, ‘caught you,’ and it didn't happen again. The specter seemed to be testing me to see if I would be easy to frighten. When I didn't lose my cool, it seemed content I knew how to handle myself when faced with the presence of spirits."
"Is that normal? I mean, do ghosts test you a lot?” Mark asked.
"Yes, in a way they do. See, a spirit is used to being undetected by most people most of the time,” Kim said. “When someone new arrives in their domain, they do little things to see if the person is sensitive to their presence."
"In a manner of speaking, they want to know what they can get by with,” Liz added. “In the majority of instances, most of the little things they do would go unnoticed by anyone who wasn't sensitive to the spirit world. I might have just assumed I was hearing things, for example and never paid any attention to the sound of the slat being moved, had I been the average person. By responding to the sound and actually reacting to it, I let the spirit know I was aware of its presence."
"Sometimes all they want is to know someone out there can still respond to them.” Kim said.
"And sometimes, they have something they want to tell you, but first they have to know you can hear them, should they try to communicate with you,” Liz added. “Most ghosts don't actually appear to you, but they can still communicate with you."
"For the most part, they only put in an appearance when they have a very strong need to know beyond any doubt you understand what they're saying to you,” Kim said. “But sometimes they materialize to frighten you, or as a show of power, because it does take a great deal of supernatural strength to materialize."
"Either that, or a great deal of practice on the part of the spirit,” Liz said.
"So, what's the scariest thing that ever happened between you and a ghost, before you came here, that is?” Mark asked.
Liz smiled, “You don't really want to know that, do you? I mean, if I tell you something really scary and you do have to spend the night here, are you sure you could handle it?"
He frowned, shrugged. “I don't know. I just thought it might prove to be interesting conversation."
Kim grinned mischievously, cocked her head to the side. “Have you ever had any experiences with ghosts?"
"No,” he said flatly.
"No? What about spooky things you couldn't explain?” Liz pushed.
Mark thought a minute, then shook his head blankly. “I can't think of anything at all."
"There must be something. Doctors have occasion to see a lot of potentially spooky things. Are you sure there's nothing that comes to mind?” Liz prodded.
Mark fidgeted in his pockets a minute, looked at the floor. “Well, I have seen some spooky things, but I don't think they had anything to do with ghosts."
"Tell us!” Sondra encouraged.
He rubbed his neck, paced uneasily from one end of the sofa to the other. “Well, I saw a UFO once, but that doesn't have anything to do with ghosts."
"Are you sure? Maybe it does. Tell us what you saw,” Kim said.
He sighed heavily, dropped into a chair by the sofa. “I was driving home late from a class I had been teaching in San Antonio. Some of us went out to eat after the class and lingered on to visit, It was probably almost two in the morning by the time I headed out. I should have stayed over, I guess, but I had an appointment early the next morning and I would rather stay up late driving home than have to rush to make sure I was there in time the next day."
"Yeah, that makes sense to me,” Liz said. “Please, go on."
"The road was absolutely deserted and I was just driving along listening to a CD and feeling like I must be the only person awake on this side of the planet. Everything was very peaceful,” he stopped, sighed, then continued. “I love it when it's quiet like that. Anyway, I was driving along and all of a sudden there was this big orange light in the sky, coming right at me!"
"Ooh!” Sondra said, shivering. “That is scary! What happened then?"
Mark shook himself back to the present, took another deep breath and continued, “I pulled over. I thought I was imagining things or that someone had slipped something into my drink. When I stopped, the light stopped as well and just sat there hovering in front of me."
"Is that all you saw, just a light?” Liz asked.
Mark nodded, “It was about as big as the full moon that night, only it was closer—it was a lot closer and it just stayed there, hovering about 100 yards in front of the car, like it was sizing me up or just waiting to see what I was going to do."
"And what did you do?” Kim asked.
Mark shrugged, said, “Nothing. I just sat there staring back at it. I don't know exactly how much time passed, but the next thing I knew the sun was coming up and I was still sitting there, like I was tethered to the spot or something. I was still staring at the sky, but nothing was there. I was so shaken by the whole thing I couldn't bring myself to start the car. I just sat there, trembling like a scared rabbit or something. It was totally humiliating. I couldn't bring myself to drive the car or anything. I had to call a buddy of mine to come out and dr
ive me home. Then I couldn't go to work for almost a week because I got this gosh-awful flu; had to cancel all my appointments."
"You're right,” Liz said at length, “that experience probably didn't have anything to do with ghosts, although it might."
"Have you ever seen a UFO?” Mark asked her.
Liz nodded. “I've seen several, though I've never seen one of those orange-lighted ones. I have wondered, though, if maybe they don't change the color of their lights depending on whom they're contacting and what the purpose of the contact is."
He studied her face for some time before commenting. “Damn, Lady! Do extraterrestrials gravitate to you, like the ghosts do? You have seen several UFOs? Didn't it scare you?"
Liz smiled, shook her head, patting him on the shoulder. “Don't take it so hard. I began seeing weird things when I was just a child. I got used to it to the point if I was ever scared by it, I simply don't remember."
"That's reassuring, isn't it? What about you, Kim? Do you just expect to see strange things everywhere you go?” he asked.
Kim nodded. “Something like that, I suppose. It does take a bit of getting used to, but once you do get used to it, it's not so bad."
Mark stood, headed for the kitchen. “I see. Well, I think I will go see what's up with John and the caterers. Please excuse me!"
Sondra watched Mark stomp from the room, then turned her wide eyes on Kim and Liz. “Wow! He really freaked himself out, didn't he?"
"Hmm,” Liz said. “Who would have ever thought it?"
"I know,” Sondra agreed. “He just doesn't seem the type, does he?"
"So what about you, young lady?” Liz asked at last, “seen any ghosts or other weird things?"
Sondra grinned, ducked her head and replied, “No, the scariest thing I've ever seen is rush hour on the L.A. freeway."
Kim laughed heartily, “that's probably scarier than most of the ghost stories we could tell you."
"I'll say,” Liz agreed. “Have you lived in Los Angeles all your life?"
"Mother is an actress and never leaves the city unless she's filming on location, so I grew up near there, most of the time, anyway,” Sondra answered.
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