Apparition (The Hungry Ghosts) (7 page)

“Are Tess and Ian okay?”

“Shaken, but they’re fine. They’re with Wayra and Illary. Maddie and Sanchez are, too.”

“Why is Tess always where she shouldn’t be?”

“Because she’s your kid.”

Charlie gave her the
you’re being bitchy
look, his dark eyes narrowed, eyebrows forming sharp little peaks. “Oh, so she doesn’t have any of your DNA? Hey, I didn’t wander around with Kesey and his Pranksters.”

“Have you met Kesey yet? Or Garcia? And what about McKenna? I’d love to know what they’re doing these days. You told me you’d check on them, remember that, Charlie? I’m the Prankster Forrest Gump. Still here, saw it all, but they’re gone.”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“Damn right. Who’s behind what happened at the Taquina?”

He kicked at a dust bunny, plunged his hands in the pockets of his trousers. “An emergency chaser council meeting has been called; I hope I’ll find out more then. I just wanted you to know that I’m on it. Tess will probably think that’s bullshit, but it isn’t. As soon as I have some answers, I’ll be in touch.”

“But—”

“But nothing, Lore. It is what it is, okay?”

“No, Charlie. It’s not
fucking okay.
” She felt like punching him. “You jerk us around without intending to do so. I get that. But you can’t jerk us around for your own pleasure or illumination or whatever.”

Charlie looked hurt. “You think that’s what I’m doing?”

“I don’t have any idea what you’re doing. I don’t know how you can appear to be so real and solid and then fade away like last summer’s tan, Charlie. I don’t know
shit,
okay? It’s not like you’ve ever explained a whole lot. I couldn’t read your mind when you were alive and I definitely can’t read it now. Just
talk
to me,
explain
.”

He flipped his hat off his head and slapped it against the side of his leg, like a cowboy getting rid of prairie dust. “Christ, Lore. You never said any of this before. You never told me how you felt.”

“You never
asked,
Charlie, and you never stuck around long enough for me to get a word in edgewise.”

“Really?” He looked horrified, his bushy brows pushing together just as they had when he was alive, his mouth twitching, his thumb working that Zippo lighter. “Shit. Okay. Okay, let’s see. Where to start? I’m the youngest member of the chaser council and the only one of us who still has loved ones who are physical, alive. That makes me the oddball. I have allies on the council—several men, a couple of women, but the two most powerful members of the council can easily sway the others.”

“You make the chaser council sound like the board members of some corporation.”

“You think politics disappears when you die?”

He lit his cigar and blew a cloud of smoke into the air above them. The smoke, like everything else about Charlie, seemed real. She could smell it. “I always hoped that in death there would be
some
wisdom.”

“Well, okay, after I died I knew more than I did when I was alive, but hey, not by much. And it’s all politics. Everything is politics. Especially in Esperanza. The council is about spiritual politics—
my beliefs are truer than your beliefs.
Like that.”

It was the most Charlie had ever said to her about his situation. Lauren didn’t know what to make of it, couldn’t connect a whole bunch of dots, like, well, how a hillside and part of a restaurant could just
disappear.

“So what happened at the café is about spiritual beliefs? Spiritual politics? And why would a stone cause Sanchez to go into convulsions? Is that about spiritual politics, too?”

“Stone? What stone?”

She explained what she knew.

“Is he … all right?”

“Apparently.”

“I’d like to see this stone.”

“Talk to Wayra.”

“I intend to. As soon as I find out anything, I’ll let you know.” Charlie squeezed her hand, a touch that felt real, solid, warm. “How does Tess know this Ricardo is Dominica’s brother?”

“I don’t know, she didn’t say.”

“She’s with Wayra, so he must’ve told her.”

“Is it true?”

“It’s the first I’ve ever heard of it. But Wayra is the expert on
brujos
and on Dominica, so if he said it’s true, then it probably is.”

“Then why haven’t they seized anyone? How could they be here without any of the chasers knowing about it? Without Wayra and Illary knowing it?”

“Maybe because we’ve all gotten lax.”

“We don’t stand a chance against three million
brujos,
Charlie.”

“I’ll find out what I can, Lore. Just keep in mind that
brujos
lie.”

And he faded away. The clicking of his Zippo echoed in the basement. Lauren stood there, anxiety eating a hole through her stomach.

2.

These days, Lauren thought, Esperanza was a city that rocked from dusk to dawn. As she and Leo walked through old town, everything lit up and decorated for the Christmas holidays, pedestrians crowded the sidewalks, couples zipped around on scooters, laughter and music drifted from open doorways, the bars and cafés were jammed with people.

“I guess no one is worried about what happened at Café Taquina,” she remarked.

Leo took her hand. “Maybe they don’t know about it.”

“C’mon. The Internet is free here and everyone older than six has a cell phone.”

He flashed a quick smile. “Yeah, I know. I’m just trying to provide a measure of comfort. For you, for myself.” He paused and she felt him mulling, turning something over and over again in his head.

“What?” she asked.

“Tell me again what Charlie said.”

She’d already related the conversation, but did so again, certain that Leo was now picking apart the details, just as he did when he was with a patient. His diagnostic skills were impeccable.

“The only way no one would realize
brujos
are here is if they’ve been seizing hosts elsewhere,” he said. “There are stories all over the Internet about possessions—but in other countries, not in Ecuador. So if Esperanza is their home base, then their leader isn’t going to screw that up by seizing locals. This Ricardo isn’t going to repeat Dominica’s mistakes. The ancient
brujos
have a strong grasp of history.” He glanced at her. “So what else did Charlie have to say?”

More than he has ever said, she thought, but not stuff that Leo needed to hear. “Not much. I hadn’t seen him for a while.”

“Do you ever wonder what chasers do? I mean, in their daily existence? Do they have routines? Do they have basketball teams? Schools? Libraries? I asked Charlie that once and he said he belonged to a chess club, had joined an acting group, worked in a bookstore, went skiing, coached other attorneys, had fifteen girlfriends…”

Lauren started laughing. “Yeah. And he spends his free time watching us.”

“I hope you’re joking.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

“Suppose the
brujos
are back, Lauren? Would you leave?”

“You forget, I arrived with the solstice battle. My existence here has been
brujo
-free. But yours hasn’t. Would
you
leave?”

He didn’t reply immediately. She already knew what his answer would be; they had talked about this when they’d first started seeing each other. “I’ve loved this city since I first arrived. My life here, even during the dark years of the
brujos,
surpassed anything I thought was possible when I left Argentina. I’ve been cancer-free for twenty-two years. This city cured me. But if you left, I would have to leave. I can’t imagine living here without you.”

A lump of emotion lodged in her throat and she raised his hand to her mouth and kissed each of the knuckles. “I’m not going anywhere. If I weren’t starving, I’d say let’s go home, build a fire, and get naked.”

She knew his neck wouldn’t turn red now. They were alone, just the two of them out here on the sidewalk. His low, husky laugh told her he’d been thinking the same thing. As he slipped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, their stomachs growled simultaneously. “Okay, food first,” he said, and steered her into Los Gatos, a vegetarian restaurant named after the two orange-striped cats, Simba and Cobre, who strolled about freely.

The cats were identical, except that Simba had celery-green eyes, rather like Maddie’s, and Cobre had eyes the color of the metal after which he’d been named—Copper. Lauren always wondered if they were spirit cats. And that was the thing, really, about Esperanza. You never knew for sure if what you were seeing was alive and real—or an apparition.

Both cats came up to them as they waited for the hostess to seat them and threaded through their legs, purring. Lauren leaned over and stroked her fingers across Cobre’s back. His fur was deliciously soft and felt ever so real. Then again, the smell of Charlie’s cigar had been real, too.

Los Gatos was crowded and the only free seats were near the bar. She had a full view of the TV from here and wished she were sitting with her back to it. But she faced the damn television, where Raúl’s video was now streaming across the screen. She forced herself to look away, to look at Leo, who held out a glass of wine.

“
Salud,
Prankster.”

“Where’d this come from? We haven’t ordered yet.”

“Special order.”

“Really.” She clicked her glass against his. “
Salud,
Leo.” She sipped and the wine tasted divine. “What’s the occasion?”

He reached into his jacket pocket, withdrew a small square box, and opened it. Inside was a gold ring shaped like a peace symbol, with a star sapphire gleaming in the center of it. Beautiful didn’t quite cover it. The ring was the most spectacular piece of jewelry she’d ever seen. “We just traded in the rest of our stock for precious stones?”

“For this precious stone,” he said. “I’m old-fashioned, what can I say? Let’s make it legal.” He removed the ring from the box, held it out. His brows lifted, forming peaks above his beautiful eyes.

Lauren didn’t hesitate. She held up her left hand and Leo slipped the beautiful ring on her fourth finger. It fit perfectly. “Okay, I’m speechless.”

“Never. Just say yes.”

As she turned the ring, she caught a whiff of Charlie’s cigar, heard the
click, click
of his Zippo lighter, and knew he was here, watching.

Go away, Charlie. Please. This is private.

After a moment, the scent of cigar smoke dissipated and she no longer heard the click of the lighter. Had Leo smelled the smoke, heard the clicking? She didn’t know, had never asked. And she didn’t ask now. She felt that Charlie had left, departed, gone on to his chess club, his acting group, his fifteen girlfriends. She brought her focus back to the ring.

Peace symbol. My God. Leo understood that, understood her stance against Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, all wars, anywhere, for any reason. And for the sapphire to be in the juncture where the lower part of the symbol, the
V,
melded into the
Y
(why??) spoke tomes about how closely Leo had listened when she talked about her experiences of the sixties, about the Pranksters and that very special and psychedelic summer in Northern California.

The sapphire fractured the overhead light, and Lauren suddenly felt like crying. She knew if she gave in, the crying would collapse into sobs, then hysteria. So she leaned across the table and cupped Leo’s face in her hands and kissed him. “Yes,” she whispered. “Of course. Yes, yes.”

Four

Charlie

DECEMBER 15–16

1.

Charlie moved swiftly across the city, putting distance between himself and Lauren. And Leo and that ring.
They’re going to get married.
He didn’t want to dwell on that, his Lore married to another man. Even though Lauren and Leo had been living together for three years, it wasn’t the same thing as marriage.

So he thought himself along the old railroad tracks that ran through the city and wished he could see the legendary ghost train chugging along these tracks. Supposedly the train appeared once a year, the ghost of Esperanza 14. But he, a ghost himself, had never seen it.

Charlie thought himself forward faster and faster, traveling in the same way that
brujos
did when they were in their natural forms. Since both chasers and
brujos
were physically dead and existed as consciousness in a place that enabled them to interact with the living, they shared more than just the way they moved from one place to another. The similarities had always troubled Charlie. It was as if chasers and
brujos
were simply different sides of the same coin.

In Esperanza,
brujos
and chasers could assume virtual forms that looked as real and solid as the living. They could fade in and out of view as he had just done with Lauren and as this Ricardo had done with Tess. They could both draw on the power of the dead—and on the residual power of Esperanza from when it had been a nonphysical place.

Tried to choke her …
Could a
brujo
in a virtual form kill the living? He didn’t know. He’d never heard of such a thing happening but that didn’t mean it was impossible. With a little practice and effort,
brujos
and chasers could create anything from thought—the clothes they wore, their homes, backyards, a courtroom, booze, food, animals. So he supposed a
brujo
could create the sensations of choking and maybe the person would simply die from fear.

The animal that followed him now, an Amazonian parrot, wasn’t a mental construct. It kept circling just above him, squawking,
“Hola, amigo, hola. ¿Cómo andas?”

Literally,
andas,
from the verb
andar,
to walk, meant
How’re you walking?
But in the vernacular, it meant,
How’s it going?
So Charlie answered in the literal sense, that he was walking with both feet. The parrot made a noise that sounded so much like laughter it prompted Charlie to stop and peer upward at it.