End of the Road (Ghost Stories Trilogy #1) (38 page)

Chapter Eighty-Two

ELENA

By the time Adele and
Gavin had arrived, we were all in shock. Frank was gone, we assumed he had
crossed over, but it was so different from the others. One moment he was
standing with us reading his son’s note and the next minute he disappeared.
When Peggy left, even Eric caught a glimpse of her, but not this time with
Frank.

Georgia was sobbing and
Lawrence was doing laps around the perimeter in hopes of locating his friend.
Within minutes of her arrival, Adele confirmed Frank was no longer earthbound.

“Please everyone, calm
down, as unexpected as it was, Frank is at peace and this is cause for
celebration. Now, let’s get started and maybe you can meet up with your friend
on the other side.”

Adele didn’t waste any
time. Gavin, weighed down with equipment, and Eric carrying the cooler full of
bottled water, followed us to where we gathered by Juanita’s memorial.
Carefully watching where we stepped so we didn’t disturb the mosaic. There
Gavin set up three tri-pods with cameras. I directed Eric and Gavin where to
stand since they couldn’t see the ghosts. When we were done arranging
ourselves, there was ghost next to a human. We couldn’t hold hands, but Adele
said the circle helped to contain energy.

She instructed us to
close our eyes and take deep breaths. We followed her breathing pattern and
soon the background roar of interstate traffic faded away. After a few minutes
of this, Adele told us we could open our eyes.

Eric inhaled sharply and
I glanced across the circle. His eyes were first fixed on Lawrence then
Georgia.

“Eric and Gavin, can you
see everyone?” Adele asked.

They both nodded, unable
to look away from the formerly invisible members of our group and seemingly
rendered speechless.

“Excellent, we’ll begin.”

While Adele was speaking,
Georgia had moved to the center to stand next to Amelia.

With their long blond
hair and slight builds, they could have passed as sisters too and I remembered
they were both nineteen when they died.

****

GEORGIA

“Are you ready?” Amelia
asked me.

“Is this it, am I really
leaving…for good?”

“Yes.”

I almost took Amelia’s
outreached hand, but hesitated. Despite the overwhelming desire to leave, there
was something I was forgetting. I felt disoriented and it seemed as though the
air around me was moving, jostling me like I was in a crowd. A fog surrounded
us and just as I was reaching for Amelia’s hand, the fog parted and I saw
Lawrence. That’s when I remembered – I forgot to say goodbye.

“Wait!” The moment I
thought it, I was standing in front of Lawrence. Whatever power the circle had
manifested enabled us to hug. It was awkward at first as it had been so long
since either of us had hugged anyone; it was almost like we forgot how. We
managed to get our arms wrapped around each other and he held me tight.
“Godspeed Georgia, I hope you find peace waiting for you,” he whispered in my
ear.

“You too, Lawrence. Maybe
I’ll see you on the other side.” I pulled away and gave him one last smile
before turning to Bob who seemed a little too eager for a hug. Fortunately he
behaved himself, keeping his hands above my waist.

“Take care, Bob.”

“You too, kiddo.”

We parted and with a
final wave to everyone, I stepped back into the center and took Amelia’s hand.

With a loud pop and
sudden pressure change, we were gone.

I didn’t know what to
expect: The Pearly Gates? My parents? I certainly wasn’t expecting to see
Johnny, but there he was leaning against a tree. I stood there, confused and in
shock. The tree was in front of the bus station in Taylorsville, which hadn’t
changed since the day we left for Las Vegas together.

Johnny pushed off the
tree and walked over to me. “Here, let me take that.” I watched in a daze as he
reached for my shoulder and pulled my backpack off. Where did that come from?

“Come on, the bus is
leaving.” He started to walk away. I turned to see where he was going and was
stunned to see a bus idling in the street, blocking the view of the tree and the
front of the station. It certainly wasn’t there before and I didn’t hear it
approach.

I looked over at Amelia,
who was still standing next to me. “I don’t understand.”

“I think you need to go
with him.”

It felt like I was
walking through pudding as I followed Johnny onto the bus. Holding onto to the
railing, I climbed the first step. The bus driver smiled at me and waved me
through even though I didn’t have a ticket. Johnny and I were the only
passengers and he sat at the very back, patting the seat next to him.

“You still want to get
out of here?”

Was he asking me about
leaving Taylorsville or crossing over? Like a light in the fog, through my
confusion it became clear the invisible tether was loosening. I felt the
familiar thrill of an adventure stretching out ahead of me. Smiling, I plopped
down next to Johnny and grabbed his hand. It didn’t really matter where we were
going. I was free to roam.  

Chapter Eighty-Three

LAWRENCE

Amelia returned alone and
she was smiling. She went over to her sister and whispered something in her
ear.

“Lawrence, there is
someone just on the other side who wants to communicate with you. I’m sending
Amelia over to get this person. Okay?”  

“Yes, please,” I said
without hesitation.

 “Be right back!” Amelia disappeared
again. A few minutes later there was a loud pop and Amelia returned to the
center of the circle. This time she wasn’t alone.

A woman with brown hair
stood next to her and I gasped. “Helen?”

“Lawrence, dear,” she
said with a smile, “we’ve been waiting for you.”

I was too overcome with
emotion to respond, but moved into the center of the circle where Helen reached
for me. With my free hand, I traced the outline of her cheek and she leaned
into my touch. I actually felt warmth and her soft skin against my palm.

“I’ve missed you so
much!”

“Oh Lawrence, all this
time you’ve blamed yourself. You did everything you could to save the children.
Remember, I pulled the trigger myself, not you.”

“I know, but I should
have listened to you and taken the longer, more traveled route.”

“It’s done Lawrence; you
had no way of knowing. You’ve suffered enough, come with me,” Helen said and tugged
on my hand. I didn’t resist and let her lead.

I didn’t look back.

Chapter Eighty-Four

ELENA

Lawrence and Helen
blinked out of existence. One moment they were there, holding hands and the
next moment they were gone. I was beyond exhausted, but only Bob was left. I
needed to power through for him. The energy required for the others had taken
its toll on me physically and mentally. My body, especially my lower back ached
and I was nauseated. Strands of hair stuck to my sweaty skin and clung to my
face. I brushed these aside in case I puked.

There was a metallic
taste in my mouth, like I was sucking on a penny. I turned to ask Eric to hand
me a bottle of water when a massive cramp sent me doubling over. Gasping, I
hugged my midsection with one arm and clawed at Eric with the other.

“Elena, are you okay?”
Eric rushed to my side and I dug my fingers into his arm, hoping to stay
upright because my legs were no longer able to support me.

Spots danced in front of
my eyes as another cramp gripped me and this time I folded to my knees.

“Lena!”  Eric cried, sounding
really far way even though he was bent over me. I felt his hands touch my
pants, which were wet and warm. Before I lost consciousness, I glanced down and
saw blood. My lap was soaked red.

When I came to, I was
strapped to a stretcher being loaded into an ambulance. Eric’s face hovered
above me. “Oh thank God! Lena, I’m going to be right behind the ambulance. I
love you and will see you at the hospital.”

I didn’t know what was
going on, just that I was so tired and my body hurt. Then I remembered I had
experienced this before.

“Hey,” I said to the EMT
who was adjusting the IV hooked to the stretcher.

“Yes?” She looked down at
me and I recognized her from work.

“I’m miscarrying aren’t
I?”

“Are you pregnant?”

“Yes, and I’ve miscarried
before.” I started to cry, hot tears flooded my cheeks as the old pain and
fears, so carefully buried, rushed forth.

“You might not have lost
your baby, yet. You hold tight.” She squeezed my hand and instructed the driver
to step on it.

With my hands wrapped protectively
around my abdomen, I whispered silent prayers.  Eric didn’t even know. I should
have told him the night before.

I was rushed to the
neonatal care unit. Unfamiliar faces hovered above as I was transferred from
the stretcher to a hospital bed. An ultrasound machine, fetal heart monitor and
other equipment was wheeled in to my room. My IV bag of saline was switched
over to a stand and a team of people dressed in scrubs and lab coats rushed in.

Time stretched out as I
waited to hear, preparing for the worst, but hoping for a miracle. Eric flew
into the room and I held my hand out for him. He jostled his way through the
medical staff and knelt by my side, taking my hand in his. I kept my eyes on
his face since it was the only familiar one in the room.

“Lena, did you know?”

I nodded and more tears
came. “I was going to tell you last night.”

“We’ll be all right this
time,” he said and kissed the tip of my nose, my forehead, my tearstained
cheeks and lastly my lips. I fell asleep with his hand secure in mine.

When I woke, my parents
were in the room. Eric was asleep in the chair next to my bed. His long legs
stretched out front and his head tipped back, mouth slightly open. The
attending nurse must have draped a blanket over him.

My mom saw me stir and
quickly moved to my side. She smoothed my hair back and I caught the familiar light
floral scent of her perfume. “You stay still Elena and take it easy. You and
the baby had quite the exciting night.”

“The baby? Does that
mean…” My mom nodded and smiled. I sank back into the pillow as relief swept
over me.

Eric yawned and
stretched, the blanket sliding off of him, landing on the floor with a soft
whisper.

“We’ll leave you alone.
I’ll come back with some ginger ale,” my mom said. She touched the top of my
head and we regarded each other. Not as mother and daughter, but as women who
have shared the same experiences.

After my parents left,
Eric pulled the chair closer and asked if I needed anything. I shook my head.
With one hand on Eric and the other resting on my abdomen, I said “I have
everything.”

“I was so worried,” he
admitted. “Adele wasn’t though. She tried to assure me that you and the baby
were going to be fine.”

“Adele was here?”

Eric nodded. “She still
is – has been waiting in the hall.”

“She can come in – can’t
she?”

“I didn’t know if you
wanted any visitors…” Eric trailed off and went to get Adele.

Seconds later she breezed
into the room with Amelia right behind her. Amelia waved at me and stopped to
examine the machines I was still hooked up to. Adele smiled serenely at me and
said to Eric, “I told you she’d be fine.”

Eric shrugged his
shoulders and resumed his perch at my bedside.

“I don’t think I’ll be up
to helping Bob crossover. I can’t take the risk.”

“He doesn’t really want
to crossover, you know. He’s happy being earthbound.”

“He is?”

“Some spirits are,” she
said with a shrug.

True, Bob had been the
least concerned about me finding out about his family and he wasn’t jumping in
line with the others to cross over.

“There is a ghost on the
fourth floor though that does want to leave. He’s been bothering Milly and I
ever since we got here.”

I shook my head. There
was no way – I almost lost the baby this last time. At the thought of that, I
instinctively covered my belly with my hands. Adele watched me and sighed.

“You need normal right
now, don’t you?”

“I could do without
seeing dead people for a while.”

“You can’t get rid of
your sight, but I can give you some tips on how to dial it down. Milly and I
accidentally discovered how after an incident where we were expelled from high
school, but we’ll save that story for another day.” Amelia snickered in the
background.

***

While I didn’t want “the
sight”, whatever the reason was for suddenly acquiring it profoundly changed my
life and for that, I will be forever grateful. I wanted to focus on being a
mother and building my life with Eric.

Thank God for Adele. She
worked with me throughout the pregnancy and showed me how to put up mental
blocks. It got to the point where whenever I drove past the clearing on I-17, I
couldn’t see Bob. If there were ghosts around me in other places, I never knew.

Epilogue

BOB

In the end, I decided I
wasn’t done and opted to stay. What happened if another spirit got stuck in the
desert? I’d be the greeter, the new Larry. Besides, I liked playing in
traffic. 

For the first time in a
long time, I was truly alone. Whatever Elena and Adele did had even made the
two random ghosties crossover too. While it was peaceful at first, I did start
to get lonely so I was pretty excited when less than a month after the others
crossed over there was a four car pile-up. A tractor trailer jack knifed at the
curve right past the clearing where I had been unceremoniously dumped.

 Three cars collided, one
right after the other. The first one to crash exploded into a spectacular fireball,
which was quite the sight. There were two fatalities from that car, but the
spirits crossed right away. The middle vehicle had air bags, even on the doors,
and these saved all four passengers. The last car to collide was a convertible
and it flipped over, decapitating the driver. I was standing on the side of the
road when a head rolled to a stop at my feet. Despite the blood and exposed
tendons, I could tell the owner had been a good looking woman and a redhead to
boot.

God, I do love those
reds.

Anyway, this spirit
stayed behind. I noticed her, staring down at her body that was pinned beneath
the convertible. I watched her desperate attempts to free herself then as she
stood helplessly by, still unaware of my presence, when the emergency crews
arrived.

Once we were finally
alone, I went through the motions of smoothing my non-existent hair back from
my balding scalp and made my move.

THE END