Maybe This Time

  I wish all my students paid attention the way you do, Andie. That’s very astute.

  “But that means this is it.” Andie looked around wildly for him. “You’re going to . . . go toward the light or something. I mean, that’s good, you should do that, but we don’t have much time.”

  Well, the light is definitely here. Annoying, too. It’s really a blessing I don’t need sleep now, because that light would make it impossible.

  “So what have you come to tell me?” Andie said. “I mean, the message you have to deliver before you go. Was it to leave the house? Because I’m on it.”

  I’m not going. I’m not leaving you and May to deal with those mad discarnate entities.

  “That’s sweet, Dennis. But really—”

  May has a beautiful soul. You should see it.

  “I’ve seen it. It’s been in me. Not that beautiful.”

  No, no, she has a voluptuous soul.

  “Dennis, are you leering?”

  The ghostly laughter ended in asthmatic coughing, which was a comfort.

  “You okay there?”

  Yes. You’d think now that I don’t have lungs—

  “Dennis, if you’re a crisis apparition, we don’t have time for this. If you have any advice on how to get rid of those things, now’s the time to share.”

  Well, of course, they’d be weaker if everybody would just stay calm.

  “Crumb and Kelly and her cameraman are gone.”

  That’s a help, Dennis said.

  “Who are you talking to?” North said, and Andie turned to see him in the doorway.

  “Get in here and shut the door,” Andie said, standing up. “We have a new . . . wrinkle.”

  North came in and shut the door. “I don’t want a wrinkle.”

  Andie turned back to where she thought Dennis was. “Can he hear you?”

  I don’t know, Dennis said. You’re the only one who’s heard me so far. Besides May, of course. She has a—

  “Voluptuous soul, I know.” Andie looked at North. “Did you hear that?”

  “Voluptuous soul?” North said, looking confused.

  “Okay, here’s the short version. Dennis is here. I think he’s a crisis apparition, which means he can’t stay long and shouldn’t stay long because he’s got to go toward the light—”

  I really think that’s an option.

  “—because we don’t want him to miss the bus to Paradise. But he’s staying because he’s worried about the ghosts and because he’s attracted to May—”

  I wouldn’t say “attracted.” We have mutual interests.

  “—and so he’s dragging his feet,” Andie finished. She turned back in the direction of Dennis. “Maybe you could take the rest of the ghosts with you. Get them a seat on the bus, too—”

  I’m not going.

  “Dennis, this is the afterlife we’re talking about here.”

  Yes, and it’s my afterlife. I’m staying here. I’d like to go to Cincinnati and give that fraud Boston Ulrich the scare of his life, but I can’t seem to leave—

  “Andie?” North said, concern in his voice.

  Andie turned back to him. “I swear to God, he’s here, North. I am not crazy, Dennis is here.”

  “Well, this is where he died,” North said reasonably. “On the other hand, I would remind you that you’re grieving and he’s dead.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell him,” Andie said, exasperated. “Go toward the light. But now that he’s dating May—”

  Andie!

  “Andie, I know you liked Dennis a lot, but he’s dead.”

  You told him you liked me a lot?

  “Not now, Dennis. He’s here, North. I don’t care whether you believe me or not, he’s here. What are you doing?”

  He sat down next to her on the couch and put his arm around her. “I was thinking—”

  If you’re going to neck, you should probably do it somewhere else, Dennis said. I can’t seem to leave this couch.

  “The couch?” Andie said. “You’re tied to the couch?”

  North looked around. “Who’s tied to the couch?”

  “Dennis,” Andie said to him, exasperated.

  I can’t seem to move away from it, Dennis said. I’m hoping that’s temporary. I don’t want to be a supernatural couch potato. Heh heh heh. He coughed then, asthmatic wheezing from beyond the grave, and Andie gave up.

  “I have to take the kids lunch,” she said, standing up. “If I don’t see you again, it was a pleasure knowing you.”

  “Andie, Dennis is dead,” North said, gently but firmly.

  I’m not going anywhere, Dennis said, and Andie gave up on both of them and went to the kitchen.

  Andie carried the lunch tray up to the nursery. Both kids were in bed, Alice with her Walkman and Rose Bunny, and Carter with a comic book.

  “So,” Andie said. “About Dennis.”

  “He came back?” Carter said.

  “Yes. How’d you know?”

  “Did he say who’d killed him?”

  “No. He said it was just this thing that came out of the carpet.”

  “Black cloud,” Alice said, and picked up her sandwich.

  “Okay,” Carter said and went back to his comic book.

  “Can I go talk to him?” Alice said, and Andie was tempted to let her, but with any luck Dennis would have found his way to the light by now, and Alice would have one fewer person on her chatting-with-the-dead list.

  “Maybe later,” Andie said. “Eat your lunch.”

  She went out onto the gallery and heard voices below, so she looked over the railing to see North below, talking to Southie, and went around the corner of the gallery and through the stone archway to the stairs so she could join them.

  Something surged up out of the carpet, black and stinging, swirling into a solid mass of staring death’s-head, and she screamed and turned blindly to run only to see May rushing toward her, her face a skull as she screamed like a banshee, and Andie turned, screaming again, caught between the two horrors, and fell, hitting the rickety rail around the gallery with her shoulder, feeling it give way, reaching out and grasping only air, and then somebody caught her arm and dragged her back and the ghosts were gone and she was gasping on the carpet, looking at the gaping hole in the gallery railing, with Isolde bending over her, still holding on to her arm.

  “Bastards,” Isolde said calmly.

  “Yeah,” Andie said, shaking as she tried to sit up.

  “What stopped you from going over?”

  “You,” Andie said, thinking, JESUS CHRIST, WHAT WAS THAT??

  “Nope, I got here at the end and caught your arm, but before that you were headed straight for that railing and then you turned away.”

  “May.” Andie tried to calm down enough to think. “May was there.”

  “Who was the other one?”

  “I don’t know. This stuff just came out of the carpet. That’s what Dennis said. He said this thing came out of the carpet . . .”

  Isolde reached down and picked up some of the black particles. “It’s dirt. Whatever it was just pulled up all the dirt in the carpets and threw it at you.”

  “It was more than that, it was a shape, a skull,” Andie said, and then North ran through the arch and said, “What the hell?”

  “They tried to kill her,” Isolde said as North pulled Andie up into his arms.

  “What happened?” North said, looking into Andie’s eyes. “Are you all right?”

  “Isolde grabbed me before I went through the rail,” Andie said, trying to sound normal, but wanting to hold on to him, just the same. “It’s the way May died. The ghosts killed May and now they’re coming after us. We have to get rid of them, North.” She looked at Isolde. “I want another séance. I want to pull them in so we can look at them, find out—”

  “Harold’s gone,” Isolde said. “I can’t work without a spirit guide.”

  “Well, give it a shot,” Andie said. “We’ll put Flo in the nursery
with the kids—”

  “Lydia,” Isolde said. “I need Flo. I need believers.”

  “Okay, Lydia, and we’ll make it work this time.”

  It’s never worked before.

  Andie turned and saw May floating in front of the broken railing. “Thank you. I know you saved me.”

  If there’d been someone there for me, I wouldn’t have died.

  “I’m sorry, I really am, May, you got such a raw deal on this. But thank you for stopping me.”

  Yeah, you owe me, May said, and then smiled her beautiful smile. You’re welcome.

  “Can you be Isolde’s spirit guide at the séance?” Andie said.

  “Wait a minute,” Isolde said.

  You should ask Dennis, May said. He’d love that. He’s very career-minded.

  “Dennis,” Andie said to Isolde. “Unless he’s left us.”

  “I could do Dennis,” Isolde said, and Andie went downstairs to see if he’d gone toward the light yet.

  Half an hour later, Lydia was upstairs hearing the Princess Alice story, and Andie, Isolde, Flo, Southie, and a reluctant North were at the table they’d dragged in from the Great Hall and put in front of Dennis’s couch which Dennis was refusing to leave.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Isolde said as she sat down across from the couch, looking even paler than usual.

  It’s a little late for that, isn’t it? Dennis said.

  “What?” Isolde said, looking around.

  “That’s Dennis,” Andie said. “Are you sure you can do this?”

  “Yes?” Isolde pushed her narrow glasses up the narrow bridge of her nose.

  “Maybe they’ll be feeling guilty for killing Dennis,” Southie said.

  They don’t give a rat’s ass, Dennis said.

  “Watch the language,” Isolde said.

  “What language?” Southie said.

  “Dennis is grumpy,” Andie said.

  “Do you want a permanent job, Dennis?” Isolde said.

  No.

  “He’s going toward the light as soon as we’re done here,” Andie said firmly.

  No I’m not.

  “Don’t be hasty about turning me down,” Isolde said. “It’s interesting work.”

  I have a job. I’m researching ghosts.

  “Well, you’ll meet a lot more with me,” Isolde said. “Think about it.”

  It’s a moot point. I can’t leave this couch.

  “Oh, suck it up, Dennis,” Isolde said. “You’re too old for a security blanket.”

  I believe I would know if it were possible for me to establish a wider range.

  “You’ve been a ghost for six hours, but you’re an expert,” Isolde snorted.

  I was an expert before I was a ghost, Dennis snapped.

  “Not that I don’t find this fascinating,” Andie said, “but we need to find out what it is that the ghosts left behind that’s keeping them here. Since Dennis had dibs on the couch, it’s not that, so let’s just leave the furniture out of it for now. We have to be looking for something smaller, a lock of hair maybe, the Victorians did a lot of mourning jewelry. Or . . . a finger or something.”

  “A finger?” Southie said.

  “Probably not. We need to find out what’s holding them here so we can burn it and send them on to . . . wherever.”

  “Are they here?” Isolde said. “It doesn’t feel like they’re here.”

  No, Dennis said. I’m the only one here.

  “Then we’ll have to call them. Just remember, they’re killers. If things start getting dicey, I’m calling it quits for good on this one.”

  “Now that is a sane idea,” North said.

  “Sit down,” Isolde said, and he did. “Join hands. Breathe.”

  The thing about those long slow breaths was that they were very peaceful. Andie relaxed into her chair a little more, but she watched for any movement in the air, any clue that there might—

  This again? May said. You know, you could just ask me.

  “Not you,” Andie said. “Them.”

  What do you want?

  “Is there something tying them here, some souvenir with a lock of hair or something that would keep them from being evicted?”

  It would have had to have come with the house, May said. That was years and years ago. Something really old. Our family wouldn’t have anything that old.

  “Old,” Andie said. “Something from the early 1800s.”

  “Pocket watch,” North said.

  Andie jerked around, distracted. “What?”

  “We found a pocket watch when we searched the house. I’ll go get it.”

  North left the table, clearly glad to be able to do so.

  “Good,” Isolde said. “With him gone, I can see a lot clearer. What do you think, Dennis?”

  I think it’s all a crock.

  “My God,” Andie said. “You’re dead and you still don’t believe in ghosts?”

  I don’t believe in the burning of the pocket watch. Victorian mourning jewelry was rings and lockets.

  “Lockets,” Andie said. “The locket you drew on Miss J is around Alice’s neck. I’ll be right back.” She turned and ran for the stairs, double-timing it up to the nursery, only to see Lydia standing in front of Alice’s bed, snarling, “Get out” at North, and when Andie said, “What the hell?” he turned around.

  North’s eyes were empty and black, cruel and evil, and then she saw the pocket watch in his hand and realized she was looking into Peter’s white face of damnation. North was gone.

  Fifteen

  “Get out of him,” she said, as he advanced on her. “That’s not your body, give it back.”

  She took a step back, keeping her eyes on the watch in his hand. “We have to burn that watch, Lydia,” she called out as her back hit the door. “It’s—”

  He grabbed for her, and she ducked and tried to knock the watch from his hand, but he got her by the throat, lifting her up off her feet as she choked, her eyes level with his, staring into the empty evil horror that was there. “North,” she choked out, but the room began to spin, there was a rushing in her ears, and then suddenly he dropped to the floor and she went with him, and Carter was standing over them with the small fire extinguisher from the mantel.

  “I hit him,” Carter said, anguished, and North began to struggle to his feet, the back of his head bleeding, and then Miss J was there, too, and Andie felt ice in her veins.

  “No!” she screamed and grabbed the watch from the floor, triggering the catch so that it opened as she flung it into the fire. She heard Miss J shriek like nothing on God’s earth, and then the ice in her blood was gone, but North was reaching for Alice, and Carter and Lydia and Andie all dragged him back while he fought them, and Alice shrank back against the wall, terrified, screaming, “Bad!”, as her necklaces swung forward—

  Andie lunged over North, still struggling on the floor, and screamed, “Give me the locket!”, and Alice ripped it off without question and threw it to her.

  North surged up from the floor, Carter and Andie hanging on to him, and Andie flung the locket into the flames.

  The locket blackened in the fire, but Peter fought on in North’s body, rage distorting his face.

  “It didn’t work,” Andie yelled, grabbing North around the neck and holding on to him while the others fought to keep him down.

  “It didn’t open,” Carter yelled back, and reached into the flames and pulled it out, his face twisting as the fire burned him, and then he stamped on the locket and broke it open, exposing a brown curl of hair inside.

  Peter screamed, and Carter threw the curl into the fire where it crackled and then turned to ash, and North collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

  Lydia bent over him. “What the hell was that thing?”

  “A ghost.” Andie grabbed the pitcher of ice water from the lunch tray and plunged Carter’s hand into it. “That was incredibly brave,” she told him. “Keep your hand cold.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Ly
dia said. “That was evil.”

  Andie left Carter and bent over North, looking at the back of his head as he came to. Carter had really smacked him, there was blood back there, but with any luck he hadn’t cracked his skull.

  “North?” she said. “North? Honey?”

  His eyelids fluttered, and then he said, “Ouch,” his voice wobbly, and sat up, wincing, dizzy enough that he leaned on her. “What was that?”

  “You were possessed,” Andie said. “Didn’t you know? Didn’t you feel it?”

  North put his hand on the back of his head and then pulled it back to look at the blood on it. “I blacked out. What the hell happened?”

  “You were possessed and tried to choke me and Carter hit you with a fire extinguisher to save me.”

  North’s eyes widened, and Carter said, “Sorry.”

  “I’m not,” Andie said.

  May came to the door and stopped, barred by the fire. What happened?

  Then Southie was there, staring through May, saying, “What the hell?” and Flo looked at them all from behind him and said, “Oh, no,” and went to Carter, and Isolde stood in the doorway next to May and stared.

  “So,” Lydia said. “Ghosts are real and they can do that?”

  It was the pocket watch? May said. And the locket? Because Miss J and Peter are gone. Really, they’re gone. I felt them go. Ask Dennis if you don’t believe me. He’s down on the couch.

  “We burned the watch but he kept going,” Andie said to May.

  That makes sense. It was his watch, so he’d put a lock of her hair in there. And she’d put his in her locket.

  “They’re both gone,” Alice said, and sat back, an odd look on her face.

  Carter nodded, holding his hand in the ice water, and Flo said, “You’ve burned yourself, let me take care of that,” and Lydia and Southie helped North to his feet.

  North turned green and bolted for the bathroom.

  “What’s wrong?” Lydia said, starting to follow him, and Andie said, “You do that after you’ve been possessed,” and turned back to Alice.

  “Are you okay?” she said.

  “Yes,” Alice said. “You’re here.”