The Empty Desk (13 page)

Dana was still there at the end of the day when Melinda went to pick up Aiden. He was still talking outside with a couple of his friends who were waiting for their rides home. He was happy enough to hang around with them for a few minutes while she slipped inside. Dana was clearing up the debris from the day's classes when she found her.

“Oh, hi, Melinda, I wasn't expecting to see you today. Everything okay?”

“Everything's fine. I was hoping to have another talk with Alice, if she was still here.”

“Is she?”

Melinda didn't need to look to know that she wasn't there. She had glanced across the room the moment she had reached the doorway and found the desk empty once more.

“I'm afraid not,” she said.

“Have you managed to find anything out that might help?”

“I spoke with her mother last night,” she said.

“You've found her?”

“She still lives in town, but she's gone back to her maiden name. That's what made her harder to find.”

“Do you think that Alice wants to see her? Is that what's keeping her here?”

“No, she said it's her sister she wants to see. Her name's Chrissie. She lives out of town, but she'll be coming back tomorrow.”

“You've managed to speak to her too? You really have been busy. How on earth have you managed to do all this? I thought you just talked to ghosts?”

“It's far more than that, and I have plenty of help,” Melinda said. “But once I start picking at a thread, it doesn't take long before I've unraveled the whole thing. It doesn't mean that it will be enough to help Alice pass over, unless she turns up at the right time.”

“Shame you can't just leave a message for her,” Dana laughed. “Like an afterlife answering machine. That would make life a lot easier for you, wouldn't it?”

“Undoubtedly,” Melinda said, then realized that was exactly what she needed to do. “Do you have a piece of paper and a roll of tape?”

A few minutes later they were admiring their ingenuity. Taped to the desk was a piece of paper with a simple message that read, “Your sister is coming today. Please wait here.”

“That should do the trick,” Melinda said. “As long as the cleaners don't try to take it off.”

“Don't worry about that. They won't do any more than run a vacuum cleaner tonight and maybe empty the wastepaper basket if I'm lucky. But I'll make sure that it's still there in the morning.”

“Thanks. Let's just hope that Alice is back here in the morning, or Chrissie might have a wasted journey,” Melinda said, though she was already thinking that perhaps this might be a turning point for the relationship between mother and daughter as well as the two sisters. She certainly hoped that some good would come out of this.

“Are you ready?” Aiden said from the doorway. Clearly his friends had all been picked up and he was ready to go home.

“No rest for the wicked,” Dana suggested.

“You wouldn't believe the half of it,” Melinda replied and picked up her bag. “I'll let you know how it goes.”

Melinda saw the girl in the distance walking away from her.

“Alice,” she called, quickening her stride to catch up with her, but she couldn't get any closer. She felt her heartbeat start to increase, her breathing get a little faster as her brisk walk turned into a jog, but still she couldn't catch up with her. The girl didn't seem to be walking any quicker than she had been at the start, but she was moving too fast for the gap to be closed, no matter how fast Melinda tried to run.

“Alice! Please wait for me.” She thought the little girl would pause and turn to face her, but it was as if she couldn't hear. She was sure that the little girl could hear every word, but there was no reaction.

“Alice!”

Melinda woke with a start, sitting up in bed and struggling to catch her breath.

“You okay, honey?” Jim said, sitting up beside her and offering a comforting arm. “Bad dream?”

She tried to hold on to the details of the dream that had been so real, and yet there seemed to be none. She had been trying to catch Alice but couldn't do it no matter how hard she tried, and even now that she was wide awake she struggled to catch her breath, her heart still racing. Did that mean anything? Was her dream trying to tell her that she was chasing a shadow that would always be out of her reach? She wanted to help the girl, but she had been lucky to spend even a couple of minutes with her before she had disappeared.

“Something like that,” she said.

“Was it the girl you're trying to help?” he asked, pulling her close to him.

Jim always seemed to know what was troubling her, even though she did not have the same kind of connection with him that she had with Aiden. He knew when to hold her to make her feel better, but he also knew when to give her space to work things out for herself. This time she didn't really know what she wanted, or what she needed. She kept telling herself that it would be better when this was all over, but she had no idea of when that might be if the meeting tomorrow failed to provide a solution.

“Her sister's coming tomorrow,” she said, realizing that she hadn't told him everything that had happened the night before. After Ned had left she had come upstairs to find him stretched out next to Aiden with a book flat on his chest, both of them fast asleep. She had covered him up, and at some point in the night he had made it back to their bed.

“Today, you mean,” he said, sinking back into the bed, his voice sleepy. He must have been exhausted after working such a long shift.

She glanced at the digital alarm clock at the side of the bed and saw the red glow of the numbers in the dark. It was almost three o'clock. She had felt Jim crawl into bed a little after midnight, but by then she had been gripped in the arms of a sleep that did not want to release her. She had felt the soft kiss on the top of her head, but her body had been unable to respond. Now she just wanted to curl up with him again and hope that a dream-free sleep would return.

She rested her head on his chest and listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, felt the rise and fall of his breathing against her cheek. Having Jim in her life made everything else possible somehow. The moment she closed her eyes, though, the girl was there again, but this time she knew it was only in her mind. This time she wouldn't run after her.

Instead she watched. Alice seemed to be walking, but she did not move any farther away from her. She heard the girl's name being called, but the sound had not come from her lips. In the background she could still hear the sound of Jim drifting back to sleep, a comforting sound that helped her see what was real and what was happening inside her mind. But if this was not a dream, what was it? Was it some kind of message that the girl was trying to send to her, some memory that she needed to share? Tiredness overcame her as she tried to hang on to reality, and when she woke again it was with the feeling that she was falling to the sound of a distant beep, beep, beep, which she realized was her alarm clock telling her that it was time to start a new day.

She left Jim in bed, still fast asleep. Today was a day off that sadly she would be unable to share. He had wanted to take Aiden to school, but Melinda had insisted that it would be better for him to try to get some extra sleep while the house was quiet. It was a luxury that he rarely enjoyed, and she was not about to deny it to him. She knew that she might have to return to the school in the afternoon to try to talk to Alice again and would bring Aiden home then. Instead she left Jim a list of odd jobs that needed to be done around the house if he had the time but that he could easily fit in later in the absence of any other plans.

“I had a funny dream last night,” Aiden said as he struggled to pour cereal into his bowl, the box too large for him to handle easily.

“What was that, honey?” Melinda asked as she helped him with the milk. At five, independence was important, but so was avoiding spending time cleaning up spills.

“Alice was walking away from me and I couldn't catch up. I ran faster, but she kept getting away from me. It didn't matter how fast I ran—I couldn't get any closer.”

Melinda almost spilled the milk herself. Had they shared the same dream? Had Alice projected it into both of them somehow? Or was it simply a dream Aiden had been so strongly caught up in that it had filtered along their psychic link, causing her to experience the same dream? It was impossible to tell, and there was no way of knowing if it was important anyway. But had his dream continued for him after it had ended for her?

“So what happened then?” she asked.

“We kept running through a field. It was like a game. She kept laughing. I don't think she wanted to be caught, but then she just disappeared. I've no idea where she went. Do you think she'll be back at school today?”

“I hope so,” Melinda said. “I've got someone coming for her to see.”

“Who's that?”

Melinda explained about her sister coming from out of town, for the first time in a long time.

“I think she'll like that,” he said.

“Do you?”

“Sure. I'd feel happy if I hadn't seen you for a long time and you came to school. Even if I was a ghost.”

“Well, don't you worry about that, honey. I'm not going anywhere.”

“That's good,” he said and pushed a spoon overloaded with cereal into his mouth with a smile.

It was almost lunchtime by the time she received the call. It had been a cold, gray morning but at least it had been dry, and a steady stream of customers had been into the store. Some were familiar faces, while others looked as if they had never set foot inside before and were a little overwhelmed by the range of things she had for sale.

“My GPS tells me I'm about half an hour away from the school, but there's somewhere I wouldn't mind going first, if you don't mind.”

“Sure,” Melinda said, half expecting her to suggest somewhere where they could grab a bite to eat.

“Do you know a place called Parker's Gorge?”

“Of course. My husband took me out there for a picnic once, before we were married. Very romantic. I have a feeling that it will have changed quite a bit since you were last here. Would you like me to meet you there?”

“Do you mind? It's somewhere that Alice and I used to play. I'll meet you near the bridge.”

“No problem,” Melinda said. “I'll close the shop and be there as quickly as I can.”

“Thanks,” the other woman said, then hung up. The only customer in the shop flashed her a smile but made no sign of hurrying to make a purchase. Melinda hoped that he would take the hint when she started to clear some things away. There was the chance that she might not make it back this afternoon, and she hated the idea of leaving it in a mess for the morning. Eventually the man left without a word, and without buying anything. She was later setting off than she had hoped and was sure that Chrissie was going to get to the gorge before her. She tried calling but there was no reply. At least by the time she climbed into her car, the cloud cover had broken and the sun peered through, bringing with it some welcome warmth.

She picked up the road out of town heading to what had once been farmland but was now gradually being developed as more and more houses were added to the town. Soon they would reach their limit as they grew closer and closer to the river and the land became no longer suitable for building on. As far as Melinda knew the bridge across the gorge was still there, even though it had been some time since she had last been there.

Without too much trouble, she found her way to the parking area near the sign that pointed in the direction of the footbridge. The air was gray with the dust of heavy machinery and building work, and had deposited a film of grime on most of the cars, which no doubt belonged to the building workers. She parked the car and took a look around for Chrissie. Even though she had no idea what she looked like, there was unlikely to be more than one other woman there on a day like that, unless she was wearing a hard hat.

Melinda grabbed her purse from the car and locked the doors behind her. The noise was overwhelming and she knew that there was no point in trying to call Chrissie again. Even if she answered there was no way that Melinda would be able to hear a word she said, thanks to the rumble of heavy machinery. Instead she followed the path that led to the footbridge and hoped that she was already there. As it turned out, she needn't have worried.

At first she thought that she must have been mistaken. For an instant it looked like Alice was there too, a girl standing beside the woman, who was pointing things out to her. She looked so like the ghost she was trying to help, but as Melinda drew closer she realized that although they were similar, this was not Alice. The woman turned to face her and smiled. There was a sadness in her face that reminded Melinda of the mother she had met in the tired-looking house only the day before. She had no doubt that this was Chrissie.

“You must be Melinda,” Chrissie said. “I was expecting someone . . . older.”

“Thanks, I think,” Melinda said, offering a hand. “And you must be Chrissie.”

“This is Alicia,” Chrissie said. “My daughter.”

“Alicia,” she said. “That's a lovely name.” She made the connection with the dead sister but said nothing about it. “Your mother didn't say anything about you having a daughter.”

“Sometimes I think she forgets. Or maybe she just doesn't want to know. But I thought it was about time they met.”

Melinda wanted to say that the little girl looked so much like Alice, but thought better of it. For all she knew Alicia might not have known about her mother's sister.

“That would be nice,” Melinda said, but Chrissie's smile revealed that she was not so sure.

“I take it she's told you that we haven't had a lot to do with each other pretty much since Alice died,” she said. Her daughter seemed more interested in something she had spotted in the grass than in their conversation, but Melinda assumed that she had at least heard something of Alice for Chrissie to speak freely about her in front of the girl.

“I suspect that she gave me an abbreviated version. She said that you and your dad moved away but that she couldn't leave while there was a chance that Alice might come home.”

“We waited five years. Five wasted years.”

“Why do you say that?” Melinda asked.

“Because she was dead, wasn't she? She died the day she went missing. We weren't waiting for her to come home. We were waiting for her body to be found, that was all, and none of us could stand it.”

“You couldn't have thought that at the time,” Melinda said. “You must have been too young to understand.”

Alicia chose that moment to move away from them, slipping her grip from her mother's hand to get a closer look at whatever was fascinating her.

“This was all so different then,” Chrissie said. “This was just open fields for as far as the eye could see. Even if you looked back toward town, it must have been more than half a mile to the closest house. Now the backyards of houses are going to be only a stone's throw away. We weren't supposed to come up here, of course. Dad said it was too dangerous, but Mom didn't notice if we slipped out of the house. We used to live over there.” She pointed in the direction of a large oak tree which had survived the developers' attentions. The land dipped away to a cluster of houses that must have marked the edge of the town at some time in the past.

As she turned back she saw that her daughter had moved away from them, hopping in the grass like a frog. The little girl laughed, a giggle that was almost infectious. Melinda could not stop herself from smiling, but Chrissie's reaction caught her by surprise.

“No!” she snapped, holding out a hand for the little girl to return, but she was having too much fun. She hopped again and again, getting another stern rebuke from her mother. “Come back here this instant,” Chrissie said.

The girl looked back at her mother but then turned and started to run away from them, ignoring her mother's call. Chrissie started to run after her, but after only a few strides caught her feet in the grass and stumbled, sending her sprawling to the ground.

“Please, stop her,” she cried.

Melinda started after her but found it difficult to run in the heels she had foolishly chosen to wear that day. She paused for a moment to take off one shoe, then the other, abandoning them in her wake to collect them when she returned in the hope that she would be able to run just a little faster.

“Alicia!” she called, but the girl kept running, giggling all the time without turning back once. Melinda knew that the path led to the footbridge over the gorge and she remembered how precarious it had seemed when she had crossed it with Jim all those years ago. Maybe it was in a better state of repair now, but it had not been the kind of place she would have wanted Aiden to cross without someone to hold his hand and keep him safe.

“Alicia!” she called again, still trying to catch up, but it only made the girl run faster. Melinda could not understand how she couldn't run fast enough to catch her, and she remembered the dream that she had shared with Aiden. The dream where she was chasing Alice, but she wouldn't stop. Had that been a premonition? Had she really been chasing after Alicia?

She stumbled, almost losing her footing as she caught the sharp edge of a stone and hopped in pain. Despite it all, she kept after the girl until the bridge came in sight and just beyond it the land fell away to the gorge and the river that ran below. She had to stop her before she got that far. She had to run fast, faster. She risked a glance behind at the sound of Chrissie's cries, but she was not getting any closer.

The girl was almost at the bridge when suddenly she stopped, turned around for a moment, and then started back again. Seconds later Melinda snatched the girl up off the ground only a matter of yards from the bridge. She would not have reached her in time if she hadn't stopped because of the figure standing on the bridge.

Alice.