Muses

by Elizabeth Andre

  “We need you in good shape for our next encounter,” he said.

  When Eddie returned, he placed Madeleine’s hair that he had pulled from the hair brush and the lock of Allegra’s hair together in a small ceramic dish on top of the vanity. The hairs intertwined with each other, seemingly of their own accord.

  “Whoa! Eddie! Did you do that?” said Julie.

  He shook his head and lit two candles that stood as sentries at either side of the little dish. The wicks crackled and popped. Eddie and Maya started chanting. Julie assumed they were trying to soften the binding spell, make it easier for the two spirits to emerge. It worked.

  Two blurry figures began to appear in the room. One appeared close to the door. The other appeared on the opposite side of the room, seemingly sitting in a chair facing the wall. Julie felt the urgency of Eddie and Maya’s chanting. As she whipped her head back and forth to watch the figures form, she imagined how spectators looked at tennis matches as they tried to keep track of the ball. A couple of moments later, the figures solidified into something more recognizably human. The figure that appeared to be sitting became Madeleine. The other figure, which was slower to resolve, was a full-figured woman with auburn hair. Madeleine, apparently becoming accustomed to being summoned, didn’t flinch as she glanced around the room.

  “Hello again, my friends. What have you brought me back for this time?” she asked.

  Julie thought she detected a little irritation in Madeleine’s voice. Had they asked too much of her these past few days? Maybe but Julie hoped that this would be the last time they’d need to call on Madeleine.

  Lily, who’d been watching the figure at the door, said, “I think it’s her. She doesn’t look like one of Madeleine’s sisters.”

  “She’s lovely,” Penny said. She moved closer, training her video camera on the figure.

  Eddie and Maya stopped chanting. Maya looked around, first at Madeleine and then the figure by the door.

  Maya said, “Maddie. There’s someone here we want you to talk—”

  Before she could finish the sentence, Madeleine had stood. Her attention was focused on the auburn-haired figure at the door. The figure wore a long brown dress. A trail of freckles ran across her angular nose. Her skin was pale.

  “Is that—?” Madeleine asked.

  “What in heaven’s name is happening?” The woman looked around wildly.

  “Allegra?” Madeleine took a few steps toward her.

  For the first time since she had materialized into recognizably human form, Allegra looked at Madeleine. Her face softened. “Maddie? Is it really you? Where are we?”

  “We’re here. In my room. Do you remember?”

  Allegra looked around again. This time she seemed less alarmed, although she still appeared to be puzzled.

  “Who are these people? What are they?” Allegra asked.

  The lingering odor of burnt flowers was replaced with the distinct smell of fresh roses, but Allegra seemed like she was about to panic. Maya and Eddie looked concerned. Sweat beaded on Maya’s brow. Jason simply looked stunned. Steve and Penny were busy trying to get the best images and audio they could.

  Madeleine now stood in front of Allegra. “My darling, these people have helped me. They are … my friends. I think they want to help us. I think they’re like us.”

  Allegra laughed, a sharp, bitter laugh. “Help us? We are past help.”

  “This is our chance, a chance we didn’t have before.” Madeleine’s voice had taken on a pleading tone. She reached her hand out toward Allegra.

  “I wanted us to have a chance. Don’t you remember? I asked you, I begged you to come away with me. You refused.”

  Madeleine pulled back and looked downcast. She stopped moving toward Allegra.

  “I’m so sorry,” said Madeleine. “Back then, I gave you the best answer I could. I was shallow and too caught up in what I would lose by going away with you. I was convinced I wouldn’t have been any good to you.”

  Silence. The atmosphere was charged. A terrible thought occurred to Julie. What if they had done exactly the wrong thing? Allegra was still angry about Madeleine’s refusal to go live with her, that was obvious. What if death and time were not enough to get over that rejection?

  Maya leaned over to Julie and whispered. “It’s up to Madeleine now. She has to convince Allegra that she really wants to be with her.”

  The two ghosts faced each other, standing about foot apart, but the distance between them seemed enormous.

  “I’d heard that you’d gotten engaged to Clyde Atwell. Did you marry him?” Madeleine asked.

  “No. I broke off the engagement. I couldn’t do it. He was a good man. He was a good friend, but he deserved to be with someone who wanted more than friendship.” She smiled as if remembering something amusing. “He deserved someone who’d be flattered by his attempts at grand romantic gestures.”

  “Did he do that with you?” Madeleine sounded relieved and curious.

  “He tried. I can’t remember all the details, but he did try so hard. I just found it puzzling. That’s when I knew it wasn’t going to work, us getting married.” Allegra’s anger seemed to be losing its grip.

  “Why didn’t you come back?”

  “Come back?”

  “Yes. Come back here. You never came back home.”

  Allegra seemed surprised. “There was nothing to come back to. California had become my home. My mother came with me and loved it. It was so beautiful. Even my brother liked it. He joined us later. He was never the brother he’d been to me when we were children, but he was a bit better out there, a bit happier.”

  Madeleine appeared stung by Allegra’s response. “I thought of you often. There were some days when you were all I thought about. I had lots to do. You know how busy my sisters and I always were. It was all that activity that kept me from breaking down. It made me think of others. It was only at night when I was alone in this room when it was hardest to keep from succumbing entirely to self-pity and recriminations.”

  For the first time, Allegra looked sympathetic, empathetic even. The distance between the two women seemed to shrink.

  “I never stopped thinking about you,” Allegra said. “Of course, a lot of my thoughts about you were how angry I was at you and how much you disappointed me, at least initially.”

  “And then?”

  “As the years went by, my thoughts of you didn’t elicit anger. I loved you too much to hold on to the anger. I’m still disappointed, though. I don’t know if that will ever go away.” Allegra paused and looked around the room again. “What am I doing here?”

  “As I said, these people, my friends, brought you here so we could…”

  “When is this? This is wrong.” Allegra moved away from the door and through Julie.

  Julie shuddered. A sickening cold feeling filled her bones as Allegra passed through her. Her knees buckled. This time Jason propped her up. She turned to see Allegra standing near the spot where Maya had told Julie that a vanity table once stood.

  “You sat here in front of the mirror that first time you let me brush your hair.” Allegra turned to look at Madeleine. “Do you remember? You were so coy.”

  “I was not. I already knew how I felt about you. I wasn’t sure how you felt about me. I knew you cared for me as a friend, but I wondered if you, too, yearned for something more from our friendship.”

  “I was petrified to ask you if I could brush your hair. I was so relieved when you said yes after I asked you the first time,” Allegra said.

  The two ghostly women talked and even laughed for a couple more minutes about the hair brushing. Years of hurt and loss began to fade.

  “You did more than just brush each other’s hair, right?” said Maya.

  Julie had never seen a ghost blush before, but both Maddie and Allegra developed a reddish aura. At least she assumed that was the equivalent of blushing for ghosts.

  “Maya!” Lily said in a scandalized tone.

  “
What? You can’t tell me you don’t want to know,” Maya said.

  Lily didn’t reply and even looked a little sheepish.

  “I wanna know,” said Julie.

  Maya said that she felt Maddie and Allegra get warm. Then the room changed from the current one to the one Maddie had lived in long ago.

  “They’re going to show what they can’t tell,” said Maya.

  Julie looked out the window. It was no longer a dark winter night. The view outside the window had transformed into a sunny spring day with a dazzling blue sky. The street was gone, too. Julie looked out at a street that she was pretty sure was a couple of miles away from the house. It was as if the window had turned into a movie starring Maddie and Allegra.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  First kiss

  Maddie rode her bicycle alongside Allegra’s to a forest just outside town. She was so happy for a free afternoon to spend with her friend. They passed walkers and cyclists as they made their way to a grassy area near a small waterfall and a stream. The air smelled so fresh. The breeze was so gentle against her skin. They had a picnic with them of two roast beef sandwiches, a cream cheese and red pepper sandwich on brown bread, jarred pickles, two strawberry turnovers, and lemonade in a thermos. They sat on a blanket near the stream’s edge where others were also picnicking or fishing or playing games like baseball.

  At one point, Allegra joined a group of other young women playing baseball. They were an all-ladies club that played every weekend when weather permitted. Madeleine said she had never played so Allegra and a couple of the other young ladies took it upon themselves to teach her the basics. It took several tries, but once she got the hang of holding and swinging the bat, Madeleine found the sound the ball made when it came into contact with the bat so satisfying. She even played a couple of innings before bowing out to let the more experienced girls play.

  Maddie thought she knew everything about Allegra, but watching her hit, run, and field so enthusiastically and skillfully made her realize that there was still more to learn about her dearest friend. Allegra smiled in the sunshine. She cheered on her new acquaintances as they stole bases and hit the ball far and wide. Maddie couldn’t remember hearing her friend laugh so hard, but it was beautiful.

  In late afternoon, they said goodbye to the ladies of the baseball club, packed up Maddie’s picnic hamper, and started their ride back to her house on Grant Street. They left their bikes around the back and dropped off the hamper in the kitchen for the maid to unpack. They used the backstairs to get to Maddie’s room where Allegra flopped down onto the bed. Maddie eyed her critically.

  “Eleanor would say that that’s not very ladylike,” she said.

  Allegra made a face as though she’d just sucked on a lemon. “Oh, poo. She thinks most of my behavior is unladylike.” She sat up with a grin on her face. “Do you think she’ll be scandalized when you tell her about me teaching you to play baseball?”

  “What do you mean when I tell her? What makes you think I’ll tell her?” said Maddie, sounding alarmed.

  “You tell your sisters everything.” Allegra propped herself up on the pillows against the headboard. Her cheeks were ruddy from the day in the sun and running around.

  Maddie, who stood at the foot of the bed, let out a sigh of exasperation. “You didn’t take your shoes off. You are such a heathen.”

  Allegra began to lean forward to take off her white canvas Mary Janes, but Maddie batted her hands away.

  “No. Let me.” Maddie carefully unbuckled one shoe and then the other and went to place them by the door.

  “Well, I’m not such a heathen that I can’t do something about my hair. It must look dreadful.” Allegra scooted forward until she was sitting at the foot of the bed. She reached for her purse, opened it, and pulled out a green hairbrush. She set her purse on the vanity’s chair.

  When Maddie glanced toward the foot of the bed, she saw Allegra brushing her hair in long, languid strokes. Allegra’s skirt fanned out around her. Two strings at the back of her blouse hung loose. With one hand, Allegra gathered up her thick, auburn hair and began brushing it upward, starting at the nape of her neck. A few stray hairs escaped Allegra’s hand and lay at the nape, looking like fine down.

  Maddie wanted to touch Allegra, feel her skin, run her fingers through her hair. She’d felt a strong affection for her friend for a while now. She wondered if her feelings were wrong. At that moment she didn’t care, and that terrified her. She had a fluttery feeling in her belly. The area below her belly tingled. She thought of making some excuse to leave the room and collect herself.

  Allegra glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “What are you doing, silly? Come sit by me.”

  Maddie hesitated for a moment before making herself comfortable on her bed, close to Allegra but not too close. Her heart was thudding so hard she wondered if Allegra could hear it. They had been close before, but this time felt different.

  “Talk to me. Tell me a story,” Allegra said in that teasing, demanding way she sometimes spoke.

  Maddie smiled. “What kind of story would you like?”

  She stared into Allegra’s green eyes. She wondered what it would be like to get lost in them.

  “It doesn’t matter as long as it has a happy ending.” Allegra was now brushing her hair more slowly, as if savoring each stroke. “Anything. I just want to hear your voice.”

  At first, Maddie was at a loss, but then she remembered how much Allegra had enjoyed it when she had told her one of the stories from the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights collection. She was just about to start telling her the story of “The Three Apples” when she decided to strike a bargain.

  “How about an exchange?”

  Allegra paused in mid-brushstroke and regarded her with curiosity. She then finished the brush stroke slowly. “An exchange?”

  “Yes. I’ll tell you a story, if you … if you kiss me.” It suddenly felt as if time had stopped. A knot in Maddie’s stomach tightened, and she thought she might faint if she didn’t exhale, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t believe what she had just said.

  “A kiss? What story are you going to tell me?” Allegra asked. “What do I get out of this?”

  Maddie shook her head. “I won’t tell you until you kiss me.”

  “What kind of a kiss would you like?” She put her hair brush down on the vanity.

  Why doesn’t she just kiss me? thought Maddie.

  She couldn’t just say that any kiss would do because it wouldn’t. She wanted the sort of kiss she imagined that lovers shared—lingering, passionate, addictive, the kind of kiss she imagined Rosie had shared with Erich during their brief marriage. She didn’t know how to ask for that kind of kiss. The knot in her stomach tightened just a smidgen more.

  “Kiss me like you truly love me,” she finally said.

  The pause that followed seemed to stretch on for far too long. Then, Allegra cupped Maddie’s face in her hands. Maddie closed her eyes. The hair on her skin felt electrified. She inhaled and smelled the sunshine from Allegra’s body. She felt Allegra’s lips caress her own, as if her friend was hesitant in spite of her usual fearlessness. Allegra pressed her lips more forcefully. Maddie panicked momentarily, wondering what she was supposed to do, wondering if what she was doing was wrong. What do I do with my hands? She opened her lips. Allegra opened hers and tilted her head slightly to the right so their noses wouldn’t bump against each other. Maddie wrapped her arms around Allegra’s waist, pulling her friend into a tighter embrace. She felt Allegra’s tongue push into her mouth and touch her own tongue. The touch was tentative initially, but then became more urgent. Maddie pulled back. She was breathing heavily. She’d never kissed anyone like this before. She’d never been kissed, not really. She’d never felt like this. Maybe it wasn’t wrong, at least for her. It felt so right.

  Allegra looked panicked. “I’m sorry. Was that not what you wanted?”

  “Yes. Of course. It’s just… I never knew I could feel th
is way with anyone.” Maddie still held Allegra in her arms, although a bit more loosely than she was a few moments ago. An unusual peace washed over Maddie.

  Allegra smiled with relief. “Would you like me to kiss you again?”

  Maddie just smiled.

  Allegra kissed her again and again. When Rosie knocked on the door a bit later to let them know that supper was ready, they sprang apart. Allegra scooted off the bed. After saying they’d be right down, Maddie went over to the vanity table and gave her hair a quick brushing.

  They headed down without words and took seats next to each other opposite Rosie.

  Nelly, who sat at the head of the table, regarded them shrewdly. “Maddie, you look flushed. Are you all right?”

  Rosie snickered. “Of course, she’s all right.” She nodded at Allegra. “This one looks like the cat that got the canary. That must have been some picnic.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Almost married

  Maya was thrilled by the story of Madeleine and Allegra’s first kiss. The images had started initially through the window but then moved into the bedroom and the rest of the house as the story did, although Maya and the team never physically left the bedroom. Maya was sure that by getting the two women together in the afterlife, the house would become safe for Lily’s aunt to sell. It was all so romantic. Soon, though, the reminiscing took a serious turn.

  “Were there other men after Clyde Atwell?” Madeleine asked.

  Allegra nodded. “And we almost married.”

  “You almost married a man?” The dining room scene had faded away. Madeleine was once again sitting on the bed with Allegra.

  “He was nice enough, even smarter than most men I knew. He was a salesman at the insurance office I worked in.” Allegra smiled a little.

  To Maya, the smile seemed to be an indication of pride.

  “You worked in an insurance office?” Madeleine seemed awed and astonished, more interested in Allegra’s occupation than her romantic life in California. “You said you could get a job and you did. I’m really proud of you,” she said joyfully.