Inseparable Strangers (13 page)

Aaron
shook his head, “I’m sorry, Lennox, but I can’t place her. There are just too
many people wandering around out there. Some are even faceless. I think those
are the ones who’ve been stuck here the longest,” he said, referring to his
world.
Oh god, what if she’s one of them? What if she’s no longer
recognizable?

“Can
you try, though? Can you please help me find her?” I pleaded. “I don’t remember
her. I’ve gone twenty two years without a mother and I just want to see her,
touch her, tell her how much I love her and miss her. I never got the chance to
tell her those things.” My chest hurt. There was an unfamiliar ache deep
within. I hadn’t felt this type of pain for so long, and I didn’t want it
slivering back into my life.
Turn the feels off, Lennox. Push it back into
the black hole residing in your mind.

He
gently took the photo out from my grasp. “I can’t make you any promises, but
I’ll see what I can do.” He watched me intently a few seconds before walking
back to his bedroom. He glanced at me once more as he shut me off from the
world he’d just introduced me to.

I
didn’t want any crazy sex dreams tonight or a maniacal killer threatening my
life. All I wanted was my mother. To see her face to face. To hear her voice in
person. To tell her how much I loved her and missed her. All my life, I had
more than all the girls in town, but the one thing I wanted most, I didn’t have
— my mom. My father did everything possible to make up for my loss, including
marrying a bitch, and I loved him for all his efforts, but it never filled that
void in my heart.

Tired
of tossing and turning, I got out of bed, opened the bottom cabinet to my TV
stand, and plucked out a random DVD from my “Mom” stash. I sat back on my bed
with my back resting against the headboard and watched my mother as she gave me
my first bath. The only memories I have of her are from the videos my father
made. It was strange how even though my mother wasn’t here, her presence
surrounded me when I watched her on TV. A feeling of contentment always came
over me.

I
watched a variety of home videos before falling asleep. There were no dreams
about my mom or of anything else. I’d preferred my mother to join me in my
sleep, but I shouldn’t expect it. She’d never visited me in my dreams before.
It was nice waking up from a dreamless night. It seemed like anymore, those
were few and far in between.

After
placing all the DVDs back in their righteous place, I meandered downstairs in
search of Aaron. I had an agenda for the day, and he was my number one partner
in crime. When I didn’t find him in the kitchen like I usually did every
morning, I opened the door to his bedroom.

He
was lying on the bed with his eyes closed. “You don’t have to feign sleep
anymore now that I know you’re dead.” Well, that came out a little harsher than
I’d intended.

His
eyes flashed open and I was met with a deep pool of green. “I’m not pretending,
I’m just thinking. Besides, if I laid here with my eyes wide open without
moving it would freak you out. Then I really would look dead.” He sat up and
spun around so his legs hung off the side of the bed.

I
huffed. “Yeah, please, never do that.”

Aaron
wasn’t acting his usual self this morning. He was still in bed past eight
o’clock. Our morning routine I’d started to enjoy was off-kilter, and I wasn’t
sure what had Aaron in an odd mood. The knowledge of me knowing his secrets
should relieve him, not make him uptight.

He
was leaning over with his elbows propped on his knees and his face resting in
the palms of his hands. He rubbed over the daily scruff he hadn’t yet shaved
before turning to look at me. “So, what plans do you have for me today?”
Okay,
that was creepy. How does he know I need his ghostly magic for the day?

Feigning
innocence, I replied, “What makes you think I have something planned for you?”

He
cocked his head to the side and stared at me from the corner of his eye. “Umm,
maybe because I’m dead, and I have telepathic abilities,” he said wincing.

My
eyes widened. “Are you shitting me?” From the huge smile on his face he seemed
to sense my fear.
Or, maybe he knows what I’m thinking as I’m talking to
myself now. Shit. Nothing is private around here anymore.

He
laughed, clearly amused by my panic. “If you’re worried about me reading your
mind since the day I arrived, then rest your soul, because I don’t pick up on
the brainwaves all the time. It’s sporadic.” He shrugged as if it were just an
ordinary topic we were discussing over morning coffee. He continued explaining
before I could bombard him with questions. “If I’m in a relaxed atmosphere, the
thoughts come to me clearly. But most of the time I just pick up an occasional
word here and there. Sometimes, I hear nothing at all.”

I
stood there with my mouth agape. Could he floor me any more than he already
had? I swear from the day I found him, nothing in my life seemed real any
longer. It was almost as if I’d had some horrific accident, fell into a coma,
and existed in a world that really didn’t exist. Perhaps, this was how Alice
felt when she fell into that black hole. “Are there any other
magical powers
of yours I should be aware of?”

He
watched me for a few seconds as if he was contemplating on how to answer, and
then smiled broadly. “No,” he said, shaking his head, “I think that pretty much
covers it. It’s enough don’t you think?”

I
blew a quick breath through my nose. “Uh… it’s more than enough. I am curious
though, if you’re dead, how have you been able to eat? And you don’t need
oxygen so why do you breathe?”

He
pinched his lips between his thumb and forefinger and paused a moment before
replying. “I made you believe I ate. I would hide or toss out the food without
you knowing.”

Was
it possible? I guess I never really paid attention when we ate together. “But
what about the soup I fed you? I watched you eat it. I’ve seen you drink coffee
almost every morning.”

He
shook his head. “I actually ate the soup because I was in the twenty-four hour
period of my death. I’m alive during that time. As for the rest of the times,
that’s what I wanted you to think. I made out like I was swallowing but I never
really did. You didn’t know to pick up on the minor details so it was easy for
me to fool you.” He shrugged.  “Just like with breathing. I fake it.”

I
inhaled deeply as if I was trying to breathe for us both. This was so
unbelievable. There were so many other things I wanted to ask him about, but my
mind was so jumbled up with absorbing what I did know, I couldn’t conjure
another question.

After
a moment of awkward silence, Aaron caused me to slightly jump when he started
to speak. “Since I know you have plans for me today, how about you tell me
exactly what it is you want me to do.”

My
butt hit the hardwood floor a little too hard when I slid down the wall to sit
on the floor. “Well, I was sort of hoping we could spend the day shopping in
town, and maybe you would spot my mom out somewhere,” I said wincing,
anticipating him to shoot my proposal down.

He
stared me in the eyes, but I wasn’t sure if he was actually looking at me. He
chewed on the inside of his lip, and his glare seemed distant as if he was
rolling my idea around in his head. “Yeah. Sure. We can spend the day out,” he
said, standing up from the bed. He walked over to the drawer and pulled out a
pair of sweats and a t-shirt. Still, he refused to wear any of the clothes I’d
bought him at JC Penney. He grabbed the back of his white wife beater and
pulled it over his head. The taut muscles along his abs flexed with each
movement he made. I counted each section of his defined six-pack before my eyes
wandered to the light trail of dark brown hair extending from his navel
to…something a little more luscious. A round of butterflies swept through my
belly as I thought of what hid beneath the basketball shorts he was wearing.
Great.
I’m getting turned on by a dead guy.
Unable to look away, my eyes made a
beeline to the minor bump in the front of his shorts. In my dreams, I
remembered his bulge being much larger.

Quickly,
I averted my eyes toward the TV when Aaron caught me gawking at him. Shaking
his head, he didn’t say anything, but the smirk tugging at the corners of his
mouth was enough for me to know he found it amusing.

Ah,
shit! He can read my thoughts. Damn! Damn! Damn!

Next
thing I knew, I spotted Aaron from the corner of my eye pulling his shorts
down.

“Whoa!
What are you doing?” I exclaimed, holding my hand out in a stop motion.

“What?
I’m changing into my sweats. It’s not like I’m naked,” he said, continuing to
take the shorts off.

“But…
but… still…” I was lost for words. My mouth suddenly became parched, and all
the liquid in my body surged to my nether regions.

By
this point, he’d already had the sweat pants pulled up and was now tying the
drawstring. “Relax. No harm, no foul. Nobody was hurt in the process other than
your modesty.” He smiled broadly then turned around to make up his bed.

He
was cute, I’d give him that. He was a little too cute, and I wondered what kind
of person he had been when he was alive. Being subjected to tragedies changes a
person and I’d say Aaron had been through some tough shit. From the time I’d
spent with him he seemed genuine. So far, his motives never left me feeling
uneasy of what his intentions were.

We
headed to town in search of my mother. Since Aaron was able to hear most of my
plans, I didn’t have to clue him in on much more. Thankfully he chose not to
mention anything else he’d heard me think earlier. “So what exactly happened to
your mother? How did she die?” he asked after turning the volume down to my
favorite song.

It
was a cool, colorful autumn day. The beautiful weather brought positive vibes
down to my bones. Almost as if it were a sign from my mother telling me she was
here waiting for me. The toasty sun shone brightly, causing me to squint behind
my Ray Bans.

“It
was a brain injury. One of those crazy freak accidents. She and my father were
attending one of his many fundraisers. They were leaving when she tripped on
her evening gown and took a tumble down the concrete steps outside the venue.
She fell into a coma from the head trauma. The swelling on her brain caused
permanent damage. After a week, my father made the crucial decision to remove
her from life support.” I flipped the visor down to help block the sun from my
watery eyes.

“I’m
sorry,” Aaron said lowly, touching my shoulder with a comforting hand. “It
must’ve been hard growing up without a mother.”

I
nodded. My words were tangled up in the somber emotions building inside my
heart. I could’ve told him I had a stepmother, but I loathed her so much I
didn’t consider her a part of my family.

“You
look like her, you know?” His thumb caressed my shoulder.

A
thousand needles threatened the back of my eyes. “Why didn’t she come looking
for me? You know, like you kind of did?” I asked, wiping the moisture from my
nose. No matter how disgusting it was, I couldn’t help it.

He
reached over and swiped a tear I didn’t know had fallen. “She probably didn’t
know she was able to, or maybe she’s crossed over already. It’s hard to say.
It’s so different on the other side.” He took out a tissue from my console and
handed it to me. “If she’s still here, she could have kept to herself. Some
spirits prefer to be loners.”

He
took my hand and laced his fingers through mine. It was the first time he was
openly affectionate toward me. He eyed me warily, probably expecting me to pull
away, but I didn’t. I realized at that moment that I needed him in my life.
“Just because you haven’t seen her doesn’t mean she’s not looking for you. I
know that’s what you’re thinking, and I’m not even listening in. She might not
know she should be looking for you.” He brought my hand up to his mouth and
placed a kindhearted kiss on the back of my hand. “Try to stop worrying.”

 “Look
can we talk about something else. I know we’re looking for my mom but I don’t
like talking about it. It’s too painful.”

He
nodded, “Just know I’m here for you, Lennox.”

The
rest of our drive was silent. Aaron left me alone in my thoughts and I left him
to wonder about my mother’s death. I didn’t want to think about that day
anymore, or the days that followed. Not a day went by without me wanting to
know what my life would’ve been like if I’d had her with me
. Gah! Stop,
Lennox. Stop thinking about it. Find your mother and don’t think about all the
grief you harbored growing up.
I’ve worked too hard over the years building
a steel wall around my empty heart, he wasn’t about to crack it open.

We
pulled into a parking lot across from Thorne Convention Center. It was the
place where my mother lost her life.

“Why
are we here?” Aaron asked.

“This
is the place my mother breathed her last breath on her own. I figured if we
began where it all started, we might have a chance of finding her. I’ve read
before where spirits linger where their death took place.” I grabbed my purse
from the back seat. “Or maybe that was a show.” I added with a shrug.

Aaron
placed his hand on my arm, stopping me from getting out of the car. “Lennox,
some spirits don’t know to look for people. They don’t know how to show
themselves to mediums or they don’t want to be seen. Others are a little
bolder, and some are blatantly evil. I’m telling you this because I don’t want
you to get frustrated if we don’t find her, but I also want you to be aware of
what is out there.”

I
nodded as if I understood. “Are the evil ones dangerous?”

“Yes,
they can be, and that’s why it’s important for you to never make eye contact
with them.” Going out in public was such a different experience for me. The old
days of being oblivious and carefree were over.

“The
evil ones have bloodshot eyes. Avoid them,” he demanded, his hard stare
reaffirming his seriousness. Nodding, I agreed. “I’m scared,” I admitted.

“Good,”
he said blatantly. “You need the fear of God in you for once in your life,” he
said followed with smirky smile.

I
whipped my head in his direction and glared at him. All he could do was laugh
at me.
Jerk.
He started laughing harder.