Elizabeth Basque - Medium Mysteries 01 - Echo Park (17 page)

“
No, I don’t guess you can,” Snake agreed.

“
Well, then, what’s the point?” He asked. “I mean, you ladies come here, with three ghosts. I can’t even believe those words just came out of my mouth, this is so crazy. But you come in here, with Snake, and make me listen to these sad lives. That’s the way things are sometimes. What can I do to change that? What can
anyone
do?”

That was my cue. I gave him a wry smile and answered, “JJ, I’m so glad you asked.”

Chapter Twenty-eight

The garage became quiet. Snake and JJ looked at me for an explanation, but I looked to Michael.

“
Well?” Snake finally asked. “Anyone want to tell us how we can go back to living a normal life?”

I nodded to Michael. “You’re on, son,” I told him.

Now that it came down to it, he didn’t know what to say. All eyes were on him, and I kind of felt sorry for him. I was about to take over when he finally spoke.

“
Okay,” Michael began as he moved toward the two men. “Now that you know about me, and about Carla, there’s a little more to this.”

“
Go on,” JJ said, impatient.

“
When Carla…when I killed Carla, she saw the opening to Heaven. Her mother went, but Carla stayed behind.”

“
Really?” Snake asked. He turned his attention to Carla. “You really saw it? It’s real?”

Carla smiled a little. “Yeah. It’s real.”

“Why didn’t you go?” JJ asked.

Carla glanced at Julie, but remained silent. Their relationship was special, truly. But these guys probably wouldn’t understand.

“She had her reasons,” Michael intervened.

“
What, to help you haunt us?”

“
Not everything is about
you
.” I couldn’t help it.
These two idiots,
I thought to myself. I tried not to judge others, but they were testing my patience. “And the girl’s reasons are none of your business. Michael, continue, please.”

“
Carla saw an opening to the afterlife, or whatever you want to call it,” Michael said to them. “But when I died,
I
didn’t see it.”

Snake and JJ looked at him, dumbfounded. “Did you see a stairway
down
, man? I mean, like to, you know, Hell?”

“
No. I didn’t see anything. I just saw my body below me.”

Snake and JJ both frowned. “Well, what does that mean?” JJ asked. “You’re gonna just…just be a ghost? For how long?”

I could see that both dealers were worrying about their own fates, whenever their time came. Again, I had to stop myself from slapping them upside their self-absorbed heads.

“
I don’t know,” Michael responded. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” He leveled his eyes to their questioning faces. “I thought I would be stuck here, forever,” he explained, “but then I met Carla, and Mack, and Pauline here. And we came up with an idea that might get me into Heaven.”

“
I hope so,” Snake told him. “Then maybe the three of you will leave us alone.”

“
I hope so, too. And that’s where you come in.”

I couldn’t stand it anymore. Their quizzical faces were just too much. “Michael thinks he’s done more harm than good in this world,” I intervened. “I’m not sure if this is true, or why he didn’t have a chance to go ‘Home,’ as I call it. I’ve been doing this work for a long time, and his is the first spirit I’ve come across who hasn’t had that opportunity.
Yet
.”

I paused, waiting for their hazy minds to absorb this information. “What we think is that Michael needs to set some things right with the world, and then, he’ll be offered his chance to leave this realm. And go
up
stairs.”

JJ scratched his head. Snake didn’t seem to like what he was hearing.

“If I can stop others from becoming like Carla’s mom,” Michael told them with more patience than I could have given, “and if I can stop at least one other person from feeling like he, or she, has no other option than to kill themselves, then I think I might be offered my shot at Heaven.”

“
What does that have to do with us?” JJ asked.

Mack even chuckled. These guys were absolutely clueless.

“Like I said, this is where you two come in. You can help me. I want you two to stop dealing drugs. If I can get you to do that, I will have played a hand in stopping just a few people from going down the wrong path.”

Their jaws dropped open at the same time. Then, in stereo, they both said,
“What??”

We couldn’t help it, we started laughing at them.

Snake and JJ looked around at us. Snake was again dumbfounded, but JJ was obviously pissed off.

“
Well, think again, pal,” JJ smirked. “I’ve got a sweet deal here. And
I
didn’t get you into this mess. You did what
you
did. It’s not my fault.”

“
Yeah,” was all Snake could come up with.

“
But you were involved,” Carla told them. “All of us were. We make our own choices, but we’re all connected here. All of us.”

I nodded. I tried to be kind. “All of our lives are connected, in some way,” I told them. “No, JJ, you didn’t physically force Michael to do what he did, but can’t you understand that he felt he had no choice?”

JJ didn’t answer.

“
And,” I went on, “can’t you see that if Michael hadn’t known you, then, quite probably, three lives could be completely different? That no one might have died? And that goes for you, too, Snake. How can I make you understand?” I threw up my hands.

“
I can make ’em undahstand,” Mack bellowed. He’d had enough of these two. He started toward them.

“
Wait,” I told him. “You can’t really do it that way, Mack.”

“
Why not?” he asked.

“
You know as well as I do. You’ll just have to keep coming back here, to JJ’s and to Snake’s, for as long as they live, if they don’t agree of their own free will.”

This reasoning caught both the men’s attention.

But Mack didn’t care. “I’ve got nothing bettah to do with my time,” he countered, glaring down at them.

But Michael was pensive. He really wanted them to get it. “What if helping you guys change is part of my goal? I’m thinking that’s a good reason I’m still here.”

“And don’t you guys remember anything?” Carla suddenly spoke up. “Just a few minutes ago, you experienced my life and Michael’s. And you felt something, something like compassion. I know you did. It’s gone already? What are you going to do? Just make addicts out of more and more people? Do you want to go to Hell?
Do
you?”

Snake got up and started pacing. “You guys don’t understand,” he said. “What am I going to do? I don’t know how to do anything else. I grew up in this life.” He stopped and faced me and I could see real panic in him now.

“Surely you can do something,” I offered. “Can’t you fix cars or sweep floors?”

“
No, no, I can’t do anything.”

“
Everyone is good at something,” I said.

“
No. I’m worthless. Worthless.” He turned his back, but not before I caught a glimpse of a tear spilling down his cheek.

Chapter Twenty-nine

While Snake was in the corner of the garage now, trying to deal with the ultimatum just given, JJ looked up at Michael and Carla. “You really think we can change the world, just so you two can go to Heaven? Or Home? Or whatever you call it. Man, we’re not the only ones. Why don’t you pick on someone bigger than us? Like the ones who
make
this shit, or bring it to the States?”

“
Because I don’t
know
them,” Michael answered. “And it doesn’t matter, I don’t think. If you choose, you can change the way you affect people. That would be good. And if I’m the one to get you to do it, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

Snake’s single tear hadn’t been lost on Julie, either. However, what she did next surprised me.

Julie got up, and pulled a small paper out of her purse. She crossed the room to Snake. She spoke quietly, but the place was so quiet we could all hear.

“
Look, I can help you,” she said as she put a hand on Snake’s shoulder. “Here’s the name and number of a guy. He’s looking for people who want to change their lives. Like you, I hope, and like JJ.”

She held the paper out to him. “I didn’t know your real names, and I don’t want to. But I told him that, if all goes well, two guys who knew what it was like to be…like you are…would call him. He promised me he’d find you good work.”

Snake glanced down at the slip of paper, then back up at Julie. “He could really help you,” she persisted, “and you, too, JJ. Just think what it would be like to not have to hide anymore. To be proud of what you’re doing, for once. I promise you, that could happen.”

“
But why would he help us?” JJ asked.

“
There are people like that in this city,” I commented. Julie caught my gaze and I gave her a wink; she was apparently one of those people. “You could at least try.”

“
Or, you could deal with us,” Mack added. “Of course, your ‘clientele’ might be followed home. We could make sure you lose your business and end up homeless.”

“
Please, mister,” JJ pleaded.

“
Either way, you’d stop dealing drugs.” Mack inspected his ghost fingernails as if he had just remarked on the weather.

Snake and JJ didn’t know what to say. I knew it was time to let them think things over. I rose from my seat, thinking that I hadn’t had a drink all night. And, I felt okay. How had that happened? Was this whole thing also supposed to be a “scared straight” life lesson for me? It had crossed my mind.

“Let’s give them a little time,” I told Julie and the three spirits, who were fading. “They’ve been given a gift, Michael, whether they know it or not. A second chance, if they will take it.”

We all gathered at the side door. The two dealers were too shocked, I guess, to move. I turned once again to them. “I’ll be back,” I told them. “I want to know what your choices are.”

“Sure you will,” JJ said sourly. “All of you will, I bet.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, but I let it go. Instead, I told him, “Believe it or not, I’d be willing to help you, too. All you have to do is ask.”

I slipped out the door.

Soon, we were back at my apartment, a few miles and a world away from the one we had just visited. Mack, Michael and Carla had faded, and Julie couldn’t see them, although she could feel Carla’s presence and the girl’s hand on her own.

“
I wonder if that will do it,” Michael said. “I mean, do you think it’s enough?”

I smiled at him. “Time will tell, I suppose. But I think you’ve done what you can, Michael. For now.”

Mack, who had become something like a father figure to the young man’s spirit, nodded agreement. “We’ll get ’em, one way uh the other, don’t you worry. And if they try to leave, we can find them.”

“
But give them at least a day to decide on their own,” I told them. “They may surprise you. People often do, you know.”

With this last sentence, I looked over at Julie. The fact that she had gone to such lengths to help those two, as well as Michael, impressed me.

But Julie was nodding out. Carla stayed with her, of course. I smiled at the pair. I wondered what kind of adventures they would have had if Carla’s life hadn’t been cut short so suddenly.

I was about to comment to Mack and Michael about this, but when I looked back, they were gone. I was alone, left to myself to reflect on the evening’s strange events.

Chapter Thirty

The next morning, I snapped my kitchen window closed in an effort to shut out the noise of the gas lawnmower down the street.
Can’t they make those things quieter?
I asked myself as I poured myself a cup of coffee with a little Captain Morgan added to it.

I picked up my cup, along with plain coffee for Julie, and headed for the back patio.

Outside the sliding glass door, the high clouds scattered the sky; a possible indication that it might not be too hot later in the day. It was more peaceful out here, the gardener’s noise now just a distant buzz as he moved away from us. We sipped our coffees and watched the traffic below. It was Monday, and drivers were in a rush to get back into their busy workweek schedule. I relaxed, grateful for my refuge up here, and grateful to be away from all that chaos of last night.