by Kim Hornsby
“Bear lights,” Carlos whispered.
Boo Bear’s tummy would be flashing red and blue, something that meant there was activity close by, the meter inside the bear measuring electromagnetic activity. The bear laughed in its preprogrammed voice. “Are you tickling me,” it said. I’d never heard him say this before and wondered what this particular response meant. Carlos had sprung for the expensive bear that talked in response to levels.
I felt a definite drop in temperature around me. The bear did too. “It’s chilly in here!” his animated voice said. “Hello. My name is Boo Bear and I’d like to be your friend.” I wondered if Carlos and Eve saw anything. Not wanting to scare the ghost of the child, I sat still, with eyes closed and waited.
“Bear lights,” Carlos said again.
“I want to be your friend,” Boo said. Behind that cute little voice some sophisticated equipment was monitoring and recording.
Then, the hall returned to a normal temperature.
“That’s it for now,” I said.
“Bear lights off,” Eve said.
“She’s gone,” Carlos added.
“Did you see anything? I felt her,” I said.
Carlos would still be filming. “Boo Bear got all the action. I barely got a reading over here behind the camera.” Carlos sounded disappointed. “No laser crossover either.”
We waited silently for another few minutes, then I called it. “Let’s change locations,” I suggested. We went into room 714, set up the bear on the bed and tried again. Nothing. Then, we put Boo on the chair, the table, but got nothing. I made the call to take a break and review what we had.
While Carlos and Eve reviewed our data and taped footage, I sat in the chair listening to them. I was kind of useless without vision. I chewed the inside of my cheek then realized I needed more to do than just listen. I moved to Hodor, now lying at the bottom of the bed and scratched his tummy while I waited for my friends’ eyes to tell me what they saw.
“What the frick?” Carlos said. “Eve, do you see what I see?”
“What?” I hated when they said this without giving me a clue. “Tell me.”
Eve always responded to my desperation. “There’s something in the mirror at the end of the hall, but nothing in front of the mirror to warrant the darkness.”
“I’m zooming in,” Carlos whispered.
I heard clicking and whirring.
Eve was the first to speak. “It looks like the form of a person, but not small enough to be a child. Zoom in over here. It’s super-fuzzy, Bryn.”
“I’m trying to sharpen it,” Carlos said. “I’ll be damned.”
I knew before they said his name. “It’s Caspian, isn’t it?”
“Sure looks like him but the form is so distorted,” Eve said cautiously. She and Carlos couldn’t see Caspian, only Rachel and I could. “It would be my guess that it’s the man I saw when Jacqueline inhabited me.”
My heart was in my mouth. “Is he distressed or smiling, or what?” I had to know.
Carlos took this one. “We can’t see his face but he has his hands up like he’s trying to reach through the mirror.”
My taped voice filled the room. “My teddy bear wants to know why you are so sad… My bear wants to know what’s wrong.” Little did I know while I was reaching out to the ghost of a child, fifty feet away, Caspian appeared in the mirror, attempting to get my attention, and was completely ignored.
I hadn’t seen him. I hadn’t seen anything. The presence of Caspian in the mirror, if it was him, did not afford me vision. I’d remained blind as a newborn sloth. Although I was overjoyed to finally have verification that he wasn’t gone forever, I was also distressed that if he was close and I couldn’t see, it might mean I might never see again through my psychic abilities.
Had our connection been destroyed?
Chapter 7
Back in the hall at one a.m., we tried again. I’d floated the theory that there was too much activity in the hotel for the girl to break through and a summoning in the middle of the night might work better. I almost wished I’d hired a child actor to try to lure the ghost to our hall posting and said this to Eve.
“That would be an interesting acting gig for a kid to have on their resume,” she joked. “Role: Ghost bait.”
I laughed and clutched the bear to my chest. Tonight, the bear would have to do. Or maybe Hodor, but he’d been sawing logs on the bed when we left the room and I hated to disturb his beauty sleep.
Almost as much as finding this little girl, I hoped Caspian might appear again as I got ready to film. Carlos had set up a camera at the end of the hall, directed at the mirror and I’d asked Eve to keep an eye on the thing, just in case. If Caspian was trapped somewhere, unable to break through but desperate to reach me, I wanted to know if there was anything I could do to facilitate that.
This time, I sat inside the elevator that now smelled faintly of garlic. I was hungry and as I sank to the floor to sit crisscross applesauce, I wondered what time room service opened. I had the bear in front of my boots again, perched and ready to earn back the two hundred dollars he cost us.
Eve had redone my swooping blue hair and now adjusted my collar, fussing and fidgeting to make sure nothing unusual distracted from my weird look, like a button not done up, a hair out of place, a smidge of red lipstick on my front teeth. Those things drove viewers crazy, I knew firsthand. Now, Eve was our fastidious quality control freak to make sure I looked perfectly bizarre.
“I’m good to go when you are Carlos,” I said.
“4, 3, 2…”
“It’s just after one a.m. in the Grand Hotel in Portland and we’re trying to contact the ghost of the little girl again.” I was half-whispering, not because of the ghost, but because it gave the scene tension. “Hours ago, we had very good indication that she was close and interested in our Boo Bear that measures electromagnetic levels in the atmosphere, and temperature. We also had other equipment going like the Ghost Box which did not pick up on any EVP, but Carlos is tuning it to a slightly different frequency this time and hoping for communication. Mood Peeps, let’s try to find this sad, little girl, shall we?”
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and began to speak. “Little girl, I brought back the bear. Do you like animals?”
Right away, I heard clicking from Carlos’s monitor and the air around me grew frigid. I assumed the bear’s lights were going off too. “I’m happy to meet you,” the bear said. “Let’s play something. Can you tell me your name?”
Carlos had programmed the bear to say this if the measurement reached a certain level. He also had the voice box turned up so loud, it almost drowned out the bear’s voice.
“If you want to come to me,” I said, “we can play with the bear.” I put my arms out and sensed something closing in. My heart rate sped up. I was asking the girl to inhabit me and was hoping it would work. “Come sit in my lap and we can hold the bear.” I reached for the teddy and felt something creep into my body, like a cold wave slowly washing over me. I hugged the bear to my chest and involuntarily swiveled from side to side.
Although the child was working my arms, I had no clue as to who she was. She hadn’t taken over my mind at all. This was highly unusual for inhabitations.
“I’m cold,” Boo Bear said. “Let’s play a game. Tell me your name.” The bear felt warm in my arms as the entity settled into me.
Then, it happened.
I spoke but it wasn’t my voice. “Amanda,” she said. “I’m lost.”
I heard Eve’s steps move closer and she slumped down to the floor nearby. “Amanda, we’re sorry you’re lost. Are you staying in this hotel?”
I shook my head, unable to do anything else. She’d taken over now. “My daddy is here but I can’t find him,” I said.
Eve reached to turn off the bear who was going on and on about being cold and wanting to play a game. We didn’t need him anymore, except to hold. With Amanda inside me, I was powerless to speak or act until she left,
a mere observer on the sidelines.
“Do you think he’s behind a door down there, Amanda?” Eve asked. “Should we go inside a room?” Eve sounded much nicer than she usually was to children.
“He’s not there,” I said in Amanda’s voice, a profound loneliness overtaking me. I felt like I was alone in the world, no one to help me or care for me and I didn’t know what to do.
“Where is your Mommy?” Eve asked.
I clutched the bear to my face, feeling his soft fur against my cold cheek. “She went to heaven. I have a nanny.”
“Where is your nanny?”
“I ran away from her when I saw Daddy come here.”
I wanted Eve to ask her what her daddy’s name was.
“Did you die in this hotel, Amanda?” Eve whispered.
I started to cry. “I fell out the window.”
“That must have been very scary,” Eve said, resting her hand on my arm.
Eve was rockstar of the hour.
“Where was your Daddy when you fell?”
I was just thinking that her father committed suicide after his daughter’s death, when I had my answer. “Daddy had a gun and I was trying to throw it out the window.”
“And now you’re back to look for your Daddy, aren’t you?”
I wished I could talk to Amanda but all I could do was let her talk through me and clutch the bear. Eve had the reins on this one.
“Your Daddy isn’t here anymore, Sweetie. He’s gone to heaven with your Mommy and they’re waiting for you.” Eve said this with such lovely excitement, I felt joy to hear her words. “It’s time to leave here and go to them.” Eve let go of my hand. “They love you very much and are waiting for you.”
I felt a release from the little girl, like she had somewhere else to go now. The wave of her presence flowed out of my body swiftly until I was left with just me inside my body. I switched the bear back on, but nothing changed.
“She’s gone,” Eve said. “I feel it.”
“Holy cow on a stick.” I said, taking a deep breath.
“Are you OK, Moody?” Eve asked. “That, that was radical.”
“I’m fine.” I assumed the camera was still rolling and Eve wasn’t blocking the elevator doorway, so I continued. “Amanda was just a lost little soul who died trying to keep the gun away from her Daddy. She never knew that her father must’ve gained control of the gun and shot himself after she fell out the window.” Tears came to my eyes. I didn’t often cry after a summoning, but this one hit me where I lived. I liked children and when you get that close to one, like having it actually inside your body and mind, you couldn’t not be affected. I continued to talk, my head down, dabbing at my eyes. “I have to assume it was her father who shot himself in 714. Why didn’t we hear about a little girl who fell out of the window? Stay tuned, Mood Peeps for more information after I research this.” I didn’t even try to look at the camera. “That’s it for now everyone. Moody out.” I tipped my head back and heard it thump on the elevator wall.
As is always the case when a ghost inhabits me, I was left exhausted, spent, empty and somewhat melancholy. In the excitement of contact, I’d completely forgotten about the camera in front of the mirror until Carlos reminded me.
“Our work here is done unless you want to leave the mirror cam up, Bryn.”
Eve’s hand in mine, I stood and wobbled a bit, partly from sitting so long, partly from being inhabited. “Eve, take me to the mirror.”
Eve took my arm under the elbow and as I passed Carlos, I felt a tug on the teddy bear from him. I let go and continued down the hall. “You did a great job with the questions, Evie. I think she’s gone now, having been tied to this life for decades, looking for her Daddy.”
“You’re probably right. Did you feel her leave?”
“I did. What held her here, was addressed.” We stopped just off to the side of the mirror. I knew this because I put my hands out to feel the cold smooth surface of the mirror, my fingers investigating the size of the thing. It was framed ornately, and I imagined the frame to be gold. After telling Eve what I was going to do, I followed the Shamanic custom of cleansing the mirror by passing my palms over the mirror’s entire surface, then stood off to one side so my reflection wasn’t in the mirror from where we stood. “Caspian? Can you come through this way?”
Eve was appropriately silent, watching from the other side of the framed mirror.
“Caspian, we saw you earlier. Was that you? I have to think you’re having trouble coming back to this world.” I sighed and touched the mirror. “I wish I could help you come through.”
“Nothing,” Eve whispered.
“Can you speak to him, just try a bit,” I implored. “Maybe it’s me.” I stepped aside.
“Captain Cortez, you are needed here. Please come back. Show yourself.” Eve would be positioned so she couldn’t see either of us in the mirror. “Where are you?”
I listened to the faint sound of traffic in the street below. I wondered if Eve saw anything. I’d never had any luck with scrying but now hoped something would come through. After a few minutes, Eve touched my arm, gently.
“How long should we wait?” she whispered.
“We’re done. Let’s review the tapes now.” I knew Carlos was in the hotel room rewinding and reviewing at command central. “We got amazing footage, of you and I, I’m pretty sure.”
“Maybe even Caspian,” Eve said. “I’ll make sure to examine the mirror footage uber carefully.” Eve led me to our room.
“We didn’t get anything in the mirror just now,” Eve called to Carlos.
“Bummer,” Carlos countered. “Maybe the camera did.”
Hodor would be waiting on his bed. “Here Boy.” I patted my thigh and felt for my dog as he crashed into me and almost knocked me over. “Good wait.” I said patting his side. I reached inside my backpack beside the bed and gave Hodor a dental bone from the Ziploc bag of yummies I carried around. “Did we get some good stuff?” I asked Carlos as Hodor leapt to the bed to eat his treat. I crawled up to the pillows and sat with my back against the headboard.
“Getting an inhabitation on tape is up there with catching a ghost on camera. You look like a little girl took over your body.” Carlos said with enough wonder to make me believe the show would be an instant hit.
“How so?” I wanted to see what I looked like with an eight-year-old inside me. If Caspian ever showed up again, I intended to watch the tape.
“The expression on your face,” Eve said, sounding like she was hovering behind Carlos looking over his shoulder. “You look child-like. Pouting and smiling sadly. Definitely not like the hardened Moody.”
Hodor crunched his dental bone. “Is the blanket down, Eve?”
She assured me that my dog was not on the bedspread.
“Can you review the mirror when you have time? See if something is in there while we were busy with Amanda.” My mind was half on our job and half with Caspian. Until Eve thought the dark apparition in the mirror might be Caspian, I was all in for Amanda. Now, I was desperate to know if Caspian had been trying to find me. I slinked down the bed and landed beside Hodor, curling in and spooning him from behind, wrapping my top arm across him. “Where is he, Boy?” I whispered this into Hodor’s fur, low enough that Eve and Carlos wouldn’t hear how desperate I was. “Is he cognizant that I’m looking?” I knew Hodor didn’t know the word cognizant but his wagging tail thumping the bed told me he got the general impression. Mom was talking to him, including him in my emotions.
I listened to Eve and Carlos review the tapes for another few minutes. Then, I felt around on the bedside table for TapTap, flicked the cane open and started for the door. “I’m going to hang out in the hall for a while. Can you give Hodor a treat when the door closes, Eve?”
The door hit me on the backside on the way out, something I was pretty sure hotel doors were not supposed to do. The hall was silent, not even the sound of an elevator dinged. I assumed it was lit as I walked the length o
f the hall, tapping my cane in an arc in front of me.
No song came to mind. Even if it had, I was too upset to sing. The melancholy that had led me to walk the hall had now turned to frustration. If that was Caspian in the mirror, why hadn’t he said something? Or why couldn’t I see in his presence? Twenty minutes of walking the hall and I realized that Caspian was not going to come to me tonight. He’d done all he could.
I retired to the room and inquired about the mirror.
“Nada,” Carlos said. “Eve’s going over it in slow-mo again, just in case we missed something.”
I got ready for bed, then slid between the crisp hotel sheets. We weren’t sure we’d use the beds, but I was beyond exhausted and had to lose consciousness. “I’m getting some zzz’s now!” I called to Carlos and Eve who were in the next room working. I left the connecting door open, just in case they got something I needed to hear about.
I usually dreamed as if I was sighted, but I soon fell into a dream where I woke in the darkness and heard Eve talking to me from the foot of my bed. “Turn on the light, if you need it,” I said to her.
“It’s on.”
“I didn’t hear what you said,” I murmured into my pillow.
“I said I’m sleeping in Carlos’s room in the other bed. He’s editing the awesome footage of the kid and I’m trying to help him.”
“And you’re telling me this because…?”
“Because if you need me, I’ll be in the next room. I’m just being a considerate roommate.”
“Wake me at seven, please.”
“If I can break through all your snoring,” Eve joked.
In the dream Hodor rolled over on top of my legs and for a moment I thought it was Harry. “I don’t snore,” I whispered and pushed Hodor off one leg with the other leg.
“Tell that to the people on the sixth floor who just complained,” Eve countered. This was a standing joke with us. I actually had no idea if I snored. Harry had never said anything when we slept together. I grabbed a pillow from beside me and whipped it in the direction of Eve.
