Finding the Way Back (8 page)

“Laney, it’s okay, I don’t think you are
imagining this. It has to be a ghost,” Connie stated calmly coming
up to put an arm around my shoulders.

“Don’t patronize me. It’s not a ghost!” I
yelled at her, shrugging off her arm.

The room got silent as a tomb. Then I started
laughing. “Okay, you got me, how did you set this up?” I asked,
starting to calm down.

“She’s not joking, Laney. We didn’t set
anything up,” Emmett responded. “I think, perhaps, Connie might be
right. I think it could be a haunting.”

Suddenly I started to feel dizzy, the room
turned ice cold and started to reel then everything went dark.

Chapter
Eight

The next thing I knew I was looking up at the
ceiling and Connie and Emmett were crouching down looking at me.
“What happened?” I asked, sitting up so quickly I almost smacked
heads with Emmett. Feeling dizzy again, I thought I might vomit.
That would teach me not to drink red wine anymore.

“Hold on, wait a minute, get your bearings,”
Emmett said calmly while putting his hand behind my shoulders
holding me up. “You don’t want to faint again.”

“Faint? I didn’t faint. This isn’t the
nineteenth century, you know. Women don’t just faint anymore,” I
huffed. “I’m probably getting a migraine. There are all these
vision things that happen before you get one.”

“Okay, Laney, you didn’t faint, you just
wanted to pick something up from the floor very quickly. Whatever,”
Connie soothed.

“Don’t condescend to me,” I complained,
starting to feel even more foolish. “I’m just getting a migraine.
Maybe you’re
giving
me a migraine.”

“Fine. I’m sure you’re just fine,” Connie
said.

“Fine,” I retorted, mimicking her, then
paused. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment,
thinking about all that had happened—the music, the footsteps, the
bathroom door. “You might be right,” I mumbled.

“What?” Connie and Emmett asked together.

“Okay, okay, okay. You might be right about
something weird going on here. Let’s go down to the living room.
It’s freaking me out just sitting on the floor,” I answered,
pushing myself back on my feet.

They let me walk on my own down the stairs
but I noticed Emmett went first, walking down more slowly than
normal. He kept looking back at me, probably to make sure I didn’t
faint again.

“Something happened last night,” I finally
said, sinking into the couch in the living room.

“Something else ghostly? And you didn’t tell
us?” Connie asked as she sat down next to me.

“No, not ghostly—well, maybe unexplained
would be a better word,” I answered. I was having a hard time
grasping this ghost stuff but then it did make some sense, the more
I thought about it. After all, burglars don’t really play music
when breaking in, do they? “Last night after I went to bed I was
awakened by music playing in the living room. I think it was the
living room. I never found out where it came from.”

Emmett leaned forward on the edge of the
recliner. “What did it sound like?”

“I don’t know. Music. An old recording, World
War Two era maybe, orchestra type for sure. I’m sure I’ve heard it
before, like on the edge of my memory. It was a song I know.”

“How did it go?”

“Da da dee, da da dum.” I tried to hum it,
but I was horrible at that sort of thing and it came out as an
unrecognizable tune. “Oh, I don’t remember.”

“So it was more than just a brief hint of
music? It was long enough to be recognized as a song you know?
That’s interesting—you seldom hear something that persists that
long. It could be outside noise or a timed radio,” Emmett said.

“It played for several minutes, I think.
Maybe shorter, you know how time seems to drag when you’re
scared.”

Connie just sat in silence staring at me.
“And when were you going to tell me this?” she finally asked.

“I kind of forgot about it. After a while it
seemed more like a dream and in the light of day I figured you’d
think I was crazy. Like Emmett said, I thought maybe there was a
radio buried somewhere in this mess and it went off with an
automatic timer.”

“That is a reasonable supposition, really.
Something we should check out first. We can’t be totally sure all
these things don’t have another explanation,” Emmett stated.

“Well, from now on if anything else happens
we all need to know right away,” Connie emphasized.

“I think me and the guys ought to come over
tomorrow night and check it out,” Emmett said slowly.

“What are you and your friends going to do
about it?” I asked, laughing lightly.

Emmett and Connie exchanged glances. “I
wondered if that’s why Connie called me,” Emmett replied. “Now you
might think
I’m
crazy, but I do some ghost hunting on the
side. Kind of like a hobby,” he said and shrugged, looking at me
with half a grin.

I felt my blood begin to boil as I glared at
Connie. “You called a ghost hunter?” I demanded, bolting upright.
“Are you kidding me? What were you thinking? Everyone in this town
has always thought our family was nuts, now we’re going to hand
them proof.”

“Laney, he’s my friend. It’s not like I
Googled ‘Ghostbusters’ and called the first name that came up.
Besides, what’s wrong with calling a ghost hunter? We heard all
those weird sounds in the house and then we saw that black shape in
the window just disappear into nothing. Why shouldn’t we call a
ghost hunter?” Connie challenged.

“He probably set up the whole thing. Connie,
you are so gullible.”

“Oh come on! That is the most ridiculous
thing I ever heard. How could he possibly have—,” Connie began to
interject then was cut off by Emmett.

“Hey, wait a minute there, Laney. Number one,
I’m still right here. Number two, I am not a charlatan. I don’t
‘set things up’. I study things that are happening that no one else
can explain,” Emmett retorted.

“He’s not even the only ghost hunter I know,”
Connie said, partly to herself. Emmett glanced at her sideways in
mild surprise.

“There is nothing to explain if it’s just a
door closing because a window is open, or if it’s an animal living
in the walls, or it’s just an old house that makes noises,” I said,
ignoring Connie’s other comment.

“You know, that’s fine, I can just leave.
Sorry, Connie,” Emmett said and headed for the door.

But Connie put her foot down, both
figuratively and literally. “You, stay put,” she said to Emmett who
stopped at the front door. Then, turning to me she continued, “You,
listen. Laney, can you just open your mind for one minute? Have you
forgotten that our grandmother died in this house? She fell down
the stairs. That could give her unresolved issues,” Connie said,
exasperated.

I took a deep breath, why was I fighting
this? I actually had always wanted to believe in ghosts. Our family
had many tales of paranormal experiences. My grandmother on my
father’s side swore that her father sat on her bed and spoke to her
the night he died. He said goodbye in the same room with her when
his body lay fifty miles away.

“Laney, just give me a chance,” Emmett said.
“I take the approach that part of our objective is to expose as
much as we can with logical explanations. In reality, we debunk way
more than we ever find that’s paranormal. We look for the slanted
floors, the breeze coming through, animals in the walls, you name
it,” Emmett quietly spoke, walking back into the living room. “It’s
totally up to you. If you’re not interested, we won’t do it, and no
hard feelings.”

I looked at Connie who was standing behind
Emmett nodding. Emmett said nothing more but waited patiently for
my decision. I could actually see him becoming a friend. I took a
large breath and let it out slowly. “One night, that’s all. If you
find nothing, I don’t want to hear any more talk about it. And I
want to be here. I’m not leaving and coming back to your evidence
like they do on TV. I want to be here to help debunk these things.”
I was adamant on this point. I wasn’t about to turn my house over
to strangers who could then make up whatever they wanted in order
to make it look like they found something.

Emmett smiled. “No problem.” Then looking at
Connie, said, “Would you be more comfortable if I stayed tonight? I
could sleep on the couch here in the living room.”

“No, we’re fine,” I answered for her. “I
think the witching hour has come and gone. Besides it’s only some
footsteps and noises. It’s late and I just want to go to
sleep.”

Connie nodded at Emmett who accepted her
confirmation. “You have my cell number. Call if you need me.
Tomorrow I’ll get a hold of my guys and let you know when we’ll be
here.”

Connie saw Emmett to the door and thanked him
for his help. We decided to sleep with lights on in the bathroom
and in the kitchen so if we had to get up we wouldn’t trip in the
dark. I didn’t think there would be any more ghostly occurrences,
but if anything more did happen we were tired enough to sleep
through it.

Chapter
Nine

The next day I awoke to the early morning sun
starting to shine into my room. I rolled over to hear Connie’s cell
phone ringing in the next room. “I should probably start carrying
my cell,” I spoke out loud to myself. I just hated being so
accessible, I rarely had my phone near me. I guess I was an anomaly
of the times.

I could hear Connie talking quietly on her
phone as I plodded down to the kitchen. Coffee. Before everything
else. Coffee. We hadn’t washed dishes the night before, so I just
rinsed my cup from yesterday and popped a K-cup into my machine. I
put more water in the reservoir, then watched the machine as it
warmed up and pushed the button that made the magic happen. It was
gratifying to have coffee made that quickly, but even so, more
quickly would be even better.

When my cup was done, I added my sugar and
cream, and heard a chair being pulled out from under the table. I
turned around expecting to see Connie but she wasn’t there. I
blinked a few times, puzzled. Did I just see the chair move that
last inch away from the table?

At that moment I heard Connie come down the
steps and she appeared around the corner. “I’m ready for coffee,”
she said.

“Did you just pull the chair away from the
table?”

“What? No, I just walked in.”

“Connie, I heard that chair being pulled out
while my back was turned. Are you sure it wasn’t you?”

“Of course, I’m sure. Are you saying it
happened by itself?”

I didn’t know what to think. “Maybe it was
like that and I just thought I heard something. The coffee machine
makes a lot of noise.” We both gazed at the chair then I moved
forward and pushed it back in. I would have been sure it was
nothing if I hadn’t seen that last bit of movement out of the
corner of my eye when I turned around. Unless my eyes were playing
tricks with me. After all, I was moving at the time.

“I’ve heard about things like this, but I’ve
never actually seen it myself. Good thing Emmett and the guys are
coming over tonight,” Connie said, passing me on the way to the
coffee machine.

“I was rethinking that a few minutes ago, but
now I think it might be a good idea,” I said, still questioning
what had actually happened.

Connie turned with a steaming cup in her
hand. “By the way, that was my mom on the phone. She and your mom
are coming over here later to talk about the house.”

I looked at Connie and envisioned my mother’s
reaction to our new ghost hunter friend. “Did you tell her about
last night?”

“Am I that crazy? No, but I do think we need
to discuss it with them, don’t you? You don’t want them to hear it
from someone else. They grew up here. If it were haunted don’t you
think they would have noticed? Maybe they’ve seen some of these
things too. If they never had experiences like these before, then
it’s a new haunt. Then that would mean it’s our grandfather,
right?”

“I’m not sure it really works that way.” I
shivered at the thought of that conversation. “So when are they
coming?”

“I told them nine o’clock. So theoretically
we have about an hour until they descend, but knowing them it
wouldn’t surprise me if they show up any minute.”

“Right. I’d better get a shower. I suppose I
have to go take my life in my hands and battle the spiders
defending their homes in the shower stall in the basement,” I
replied, running upstairs for my toiletries. My mother could detect
anyone’s weakness like blood in the water. I had to be prepared for
the coming assault. Those two little women were like army generals
and I would have to be strong unless I wanted them moving in and
taking over.

Trudging to the basement, I grabbed the bug
spray and shower curtain I had picked up the day before. I had no
intention of going unarmed. I turned every light on I could find,
and made a mental note that more lights were needed. You can’t see
spiders in the dark. I approached the shower stall and sprayed the
entire area around it—the floor and walls outside, the area above
the inside walls where the enemy could crouch, waiting to pounce on
me. I hoped there would be time for the repellent to work before I
got in. I waited as long as I dared, then turned on the water,
hoping it would wash down any creatures hiding in the half light. I
couldn’t believe how much I hated this creepy basement. Toward the
top of my renovation list was going to be an upstairs shower.

I removed my faded flannel pajamas quickly
and jumped into the stream of hot water. If I could immerse myself
fast I wouldn’t give the arachnids a firm footing to grab onto me
should they be in a jumping mood. After I was wet, I realized I
didn’t bring any of my own shampoo, conditioner or soap. I looked
around and found half a bottle of shampoo, which was better than
nothing. But there was no way I was using the bar of soap that
looked like it had a full head of hair.