“Did he say anything? He might could tell you what happened to him.”
“That’s a no go. Tried before, but he’s not talking, at least not about Acel’s death or the church fire. He just wanted me to leave Alice Mae alone.”
Del hung the cloth over my sink. “You really feel like facials? I’ve had this face a long time. It’s done me good. I don’t think some moisturizer is going to make it any better than it already is. Too late for that.”
Oliva walked into the kitchen. “I don’t think the facials are a good idea.”
She held up her hands, and I gasped when I saw red bumps spread all over them. “Oh, my goodness, are you allergic?”
“I think so. I’m def not going to put this stuff or my hands on your faces now, that’s for sure. I think I chose the wrong company to rep for.”
“Well you’ve got good timing, ‘cause I didn’t want no heavy cream on my face tonight anyway. Besides, we got something else more important to do.”
“Like what?”
Thelma shuffled in, yawning when she saw us. “I’m give slap out. You taking me home Olivia?”
“Not yet,” Del said. “We’re going to church.”
“But it’s almost eight o’clock.”
“Which is the perfect time to go. Nobody’ll be there.”
I held up my hand mimicking Olivia and what she always did when she felt uncomfortable interrupting someone. “Why exactly are we going to church?”
Del smiled. “We got some ghosts to conjure.”
Thelma fell into a chair. “Bless her heart, she’s done lost her mind. I knew it was coming. I could feel it months ago.”
“Oh, hush, you old coot. You know my mind’s good as gold. But our Chantilly here needs some help, and she’s our friend, so we ought to help her.”
“I don’t…I didn’t…I never said that.”
Del waved her hand to dismiss me. “You didn’t have to say it. It’s what friends do.”
Olivia raised her hand. “Excuse me, but I don’t think I can right now. I think I need to get something for my hands.” She rubbed them down the sides of her jeans. “They’re really starting to itch.”
“Oh, sweetie.” I went to touch her, but she backed away.
“I don’t think you should touch me. I’m not sure what will happen if you do.”
I nodded. “Yes, yes, you’re right. Let’s get you home.” I smiled at Del. “I don’t need to go to the church tonight. Really, what purpose would it serve?”
“Ghosts like to come out at night. Might could get the pastor to talk. Maybe even Acel.”
Thelma glanced at her floral printed pajamas. “Look at me. My momma always you’d go straight down into the pit of flames if you wore your pajamas to church.”
I cringed. “I don’t think she meant it literally.”
“Thelma, you’re not going to service, you’re going to the church. There’s a difference,” Del said.
“Excuse me, but Thelma, you’re just the sweetest thing. There’s no way God would send you,” Olivia pointed to the ground, “to the bad place.”
Bless her heart, Olivia meant every word she said, and it was sweet as sweet potato pie. I filled the dishwasher with detergent, pressed the on button, and locked it shut. “We’re not going. There’s no reason to, really. It wouldn’t serve any purpose.”
“There’s all kinds of reasons, Acel and Pastor Jeremiah for starters,” Del said.
“Oh, maybe my Charlie will be there. He always did like going to church with me.”
I sighed. I needed to tell Thelma, but it wasn’t the right time.
“Good, then it’s settled,” Del said. She poked Olivia on the shoulder. “You go home, take some of that allergy medicine I see advertised on the TV all the time, and get some rest. If you get itchy, take a cold shower, not hot. Never hot when you’ve got a rash like that.”
Olivia blew us all kisses, scratched her arm, and used a paper towel to open my front door. “Just in case,” she said.
I checked on Austin who was still wrapped up in his video game, explained that I was going to help Del with something, and would be back in a bit. He barely acknowledged me with a nod before going back to his team and rushing a something or other with a thingamajig.
I was too old to understand those games.
I drove us all to the church, promising to bring Thelma straight home after. I’d offered to take Del also, but she’d left her car at my house and needed it for the morning.
We drove to the church arguing about how to do something we’d also yet to figure out. I wasn’t sure what would happen, but I hoped, if a spirit did make an appearance, it would be one willing to talk. I had a limited amount of time to come up with a reason to save the church, a reason other than its history, or the mayor would find a way to tear it down and start over.
I couldn’t let that happen.
9
I parked in the church lot, shut off my lights, and helped Thelma out of the car. Her sciatica was bothering her, she’d said, and my hard leather car seats made it worse.
“I’m fine honey,” she said as I helped her toward the church. “I’m not so old I can’t walk for myself. You go on up ahead and see if the door’s open.”
“The door’s always open,” Del said. “It’s a church in a small town. I’m not even sure the thing has a lock on it.”
They followed behind as I headed to the main entrance. Before I got there, I glanced at the Alabaster home and noticed a light on in a small window on the side of the house. I hoped whoever it was didn’t see us.
A woman slowly appeared before me, a glow of light at first, twinkling like a star lit sky until she formed into a human shape. I recognized her, but I couldn’t place a name to the face.
“You’ll figure it out sugar pie, don’t you worry yourself none, ya hear?” Her accent, thick and slow, reminded me of my mother.
“Do I know you?” I asked.
“What’d you say sweetie?” Thelma hollered from behind me. “We can’t hear you back here.”
“Oh, nothing. Just talking to myself is all.” I smiled at the ghost.
“You do sugar, but it’s been a long time.” She glanced behind her, and when she moved, sparkles flew from her body. “You come back sometime when you’re alone, and we’ll catch up, ya hear?”
I nodded. I recognized the voice and the woman, but I just couldn’t recall who she was.
She shimmied over to the church door, flicked her finger in a circle, and the door opened. “There ya go sugar. Just make sure to lock it on your way out. Contrary to what those old gals think, churches in small towns do lock their doors.” She smiled one last time and disappeared.
“Woah, how’d you do that?” Thelma asked.
“I didn’t.”
“Don’t tell me, the pastor’s here?”
“Nope, a woman, but I couldn’t recognize her.”
“What’d she look like?” Del asked.
“Glowing and surrounded in light.”
“That don’t help.”
Thelma rubbed her arms and shivered. “Sometimes when I’m thinking about my Charlie, I get a chill like I got just now.”
“That’s what happens when ghosts appear,” I said. “Not all the time, but a lot of the time I get a chill.”
“A woman like me, we don’t get cold often, so I like it when Charlie comes around. For a lot of reasons, not just ‘cause I need to cool off.”
We stepped into the church and the door closed behind us. Thelma grabbed a hold of my arm. “Oh, my.”
“Who did that?” Del asked, her voice trembling.
“I’m not sure,” I said, my voice trembling too. “But I’m sure it’s fine.”
The chapel was dark, only a small back light glowing dimly from behind the altar. I took out my phone and lit up a small space in front of us with its flashlight.
“Ain’t that handy?” Del said.
“Not really. It doesn’t light up much.”
&n
bsp; “We could get us some of the candles from behind the altar. There’s always a few extra there.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Del asked.
Thelma angled her head. “Why would I be kidding?”
“Because that’s how the fire here started. You want to relive history?”
“We aren’t relivin’ history. We’re not the pastor, and none of us are dead.”
Before Del could argue further, a loud boom came from below us. The two women grabbed onto my arms and yelped.
“Oh, that’s it. We’re going to hell in a handbasket. It’s my pajamas. Momma was right.”
“We ain’t going nowhere in no basket, Thelma, now hush yourself before you have an accident.”
“It might be too late for that.”
Del let go of my arm and groaned. “Now that’s just—”
Thelma giggled. “I got her good, didn’t I?”
Del said a word unbecoming of a Southern woman.
Thelma gasped. “Delphina Beauregard, you should not take the Lord’s name in vain, especially in his house. What are you thinking? Repent now so you don’t burn up in a pit of flames.”
Del gave her a cold, hard stare, and Thelma blushed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Another loud boom sent us all hugging again.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
“What’s that?” Thelma asked.
“Whatever it is, make it stop or someone’s really going to have an accident.”
“Not me. I went before we left,” Thelma said.
I smiled. How could I not? “Ladies, we’re okay. That’s just someone telling us we need to go to the basement. That’s where I saw Pastor Alabaster, and where he led me to Acel’s remains, remember?” I had no idea if what I’d said was true, but I hoped it was. The booms had to mean something good, I told myself.
Del held onto me tighter. “Oh no. No, no, no. I ain’t going in that basement. I know there’s rats and snakes down there, and those? Those I can handle, but a couple dead men, no thanks. I’ll stay up here and keep my eyes on the door.”
“Delphina, this was your idea. What did you expect would happen?”
“I expected I wouldn’t be such a chicken. That’s what I expected.”
“Well, you were wrong,” Thelma said. She let go of my arm and waddled toward the hallway to the offices and basement door. “You aren’t going to let me show you up by going down there with Chantilly, are you?”
Del loosened her grip on my arm.
Thelma crossed her arms tightly around her chest. “When I was a kid, my daddy told me people that hadn’t crossed over liked to hang out in churches, and if you weren’t careful, they’d snatch you up and make you wait with them so they didn’t have to be alone.”
I removed Del’s hand from my arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. “I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that at this moment, there are no ghosts up here, but I can’t guarantee one won’t make an appearance.” I put the pressure on her, but not because I wanted her to come with me to the basement, because I didn’t want her alone and scared to death. Being afraid while in a dark, unfamiliar place at night even though it was a church was scary, and with a shady history, it couldn’t be good for anyone’s heart. “And like I said, this was your idea. You’re the one that wanted to help, so help.”
She groaned, and I knew I had her. “When you put it that way.”
We moved cautiously, each of them with an arm linked through mine.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Thelma’s arm stiffened. “Did you hear that?”
“Sure did,” Del said.
“It’s okay. We’re going to be fine. It’s probably the air conditioner or something. Happens all the time at my house. We can turn a light on in the basement. It’s underground, and I don’t think there are any windows down there, so no one will see it.”
Just as we approached the basement door, Charlie Sayers appeared in a wisp of light our side. Thelma rubbed her arms, and Delphina shivered.
“Did you feel that?” Thelma asked.
“Yes. We’ve got someone with us now.”
“Is it Acel or Jeremiah?” Del wanted to know.
I shook my head.
“Don’t tell her it’s me. Not now,” Charlie said. “You have a job to do.”
“It’s no one I know,” I lied. I hated doing that, but when I eventually told Thelma about seeing Charlie, I’d feel better.
“It’s okay to go down there now, but hurry. There are unsettled spirits here, and if they catch you, I don’t know how they’ll behave.”
Great. Just what I needed to hear to push my fear up a notch and knock my bravery to my toes. I reached for the door handle anyway.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
And yanked it away.
“You’ve got this, Chantilly,” Del said.
How did she suddenly get all brave like that?
“Yes, but if the handle is hot, that’s not a good sign. That’s what I learned in elementary school. If it’s hot, don’t touch it,” Thelma said.
“That’s for a fire,” Del said.
“And what happened here fifty years ago?”
My hand shook as I reached for the doorknob again. When I touched it, it twisted open on its own.
“That wasn’t me,” Charlie said.
“Did you hear that?” Thelma asked.
“What?” Del asked.
“I thought I heard a man’s voice whispering something.”
Charlie and I caught each other’s eye.
“Must be the wind,” I lied. I hoped my dishonesty in a church didn’t set me on the wrong eternal path, even if it was for a good cause.
The door slowly opened, and we crept down the stairs single file with me first, Thelma in the middle, and Del bringing up the rear. At first, I was worried she’d take off, but she was the most scared of all of us, and she’d stay close.
I flipped on the light at the bottom of the stairs. I’d tried the one at the door, but it didn’t work. Which was odd since it had worked just fine for Alice Mae the day I’d discovered Acel’s body in the closet. The darkened stairs almost sent the two of them running, but they both were long past the running stage of life and said so.
The room was much like I’d left it. Damp, dusty, and old. It smelled of mold and ick, an ick that resembled rotting wood and dirt. I didn’t like the smell, but it was still better than Austin’s lacrosse bag, so I could at least tolerate it.
Del held her nose. “Heavens, what died down here?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Do you really think that’s an appropriate question right now?”
She shrugged. “Forgot about that.”
I laughed in spite of the situation. I walked toward the closet where I’d found Acel’s remains. “The closet’s over there.”
Del grabbed my arm, pulling me back. “Not yet. First, try talking to Acel. Maybe he’ll show himself.”
“Okay.” I steadied my feet onto the dirty cement floor. “Acel Grimes. I’m Chantilly Adair. I’m the one that found your remains. If you’re here, I’d like to help.”
We stood silent for a full minute, but nothing happened.
“Try again,” Thelma said.
I took a deep breath in and exhaled it slowly. “If you tell me what happened, maybe I can get justice for you.”
A chill rushed over me.
“Oh, boy,” Del said. “It got mighty cold all of a sudden.”
“It sure did,” Thelma said. She rubbed her arms again.
I checked the area, thinking it was probably Charlie. He’d flown down the stairs before me but wasn’t anywhere in sight any longer. “Hello? Who’s here?”
The cold air swirled around in a circle in front of me.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Del ducked, and Thelma grabbed my shoulders and hid behind me.
The swirl of air burst into a bright light, sending me back a step or two. I covered my eyes while they adjusted.
“Wha
t? What do you see?” Del asked.
“A light. I see a light.”
“Don’t go into the light, Chantilly. We still need you here,” Thelma yelled. “Stay away from the light.”
My mind went straight to that movie with the little blonde girl seeing the crazy lights in her TV. I shook my head to focus my attention on the pastor in the light in front of me.
“Pastor Alabaster, please. Can you help us?”
He raised his hands and shook them like he was preaching to a congregation. The booming sounded with every shake of his hands. “Now is the time to forget the past and move forward. God does not want us struggling with the why of the past, but instead, working on the now.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do, work on the now.” I shrugged. “And yes, figure out what happened in the fire too, but it’s for the church. You want the church to survive, don’t you? Then I have to convince the mayor. And I need your help with that.”
The light surround Pastor Alabaster’s spirit fizzled. “This church saves souls. It can’t be destroyed. Please, pray for peace. You should be praying for peace.”
“We talked about this, and I am praying. That’s why I’m here. I’m trying to find peace in what happened. But the mayor, he thinks it’s cursed.”
He stared at me, a confused look taking over his clouded face.
“Yes, cursed, and destroying the church? I can’t bear to see that. I need to know what happened here. What happened to Acel and to you. I need to know if the two deaths are related. Can you help me?”
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Thelma yelped.
Del all but jumped out of her pants.
Woah. Wait a minute. He didn’t make those noises that time. But if he didn’t where were they coming from? “Who’s doing that?” I asked the spirit.
“You need to leave this alone. Let it rest.”
“But the church. You don’t want to see it destroyed, do you?”
He lifted his arms toward the ceiling. “It will be as God wishes,” he said, and then shot up into the ceiling in a flash of light.
“Son of a gun.” I stomped my foot on the ground.
“What happened?” Del asked.
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