The Soul Thief (5 page)

The church itself was at the edge of town. It was a modern building. White stone went up to a tall arched roof, with plain glass in most of the windows, the fundraiser to replace them with stained glass ongoing. On the side were the classrooms, and back behind was the communal hall, where the youth ministry was serving donuts, cookies, homemade coffee cake, coffee, and sweet tea.

Franklin locked his bike to a bike stand on the side of the building, then decided to just go in the front. Miss Karen and Miss Kay stood outside, greeting everyone, a pair of spinster aunts who Franklin had thought were ancient when he’d been a boy.

They hadn’t gotten any younger, but they hadn’t gotten much older either. They’d both reached that ageless time, when they could be sixty or eighty, with as many smile-wrinkles as age-wrinkles around their eyes, their dark skin not showing any age spots.

They both had white hair, neatly trimmed, that had been allowed to kink naturally. Miss Karen had a small pink hat pinned carefully to her hair, while Miss Kay wore a bright yellow sun hat. They were smartly dressed in their Sunday best with matching gloves, of course.

“Good morning, Franklin,” said Miss Karen.

“Nice to see you, young man,” said Miss Kay, not to be outdone.

“Morning, ladies,” Franklin said, nodding to them. He didn’t usually wear a hat, but he’d been thinking that maybe he needed a church-going hat. Not his Stetson, but something similar.

“It’s gonna be a hot one, today,” Miss Karen told him.

“Though it’s supposed to rain tomorrow,” Miss Kay added.

“Thank you,” Franklin said gravely. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

He stepped into the cool nave. Red tile made up the floor. The door to the sanctuary arched up, made from a pale wood. The greeters—Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a younger couple, just recently joined the church—handed him a program.

Quiet organ music filled the sanctuary, something soothing. Light-colored wooden beams lifted the peaked roof, as if raising it closer to God. Franklin had always liked the openness of the sanctuary, how the aisle running down the center was wide enough for three lines of folks. The cross at the front was carved out of dark wood, and the same dark wood made up the pulpit.

Franklin spotted his cousin Jason sitting toward the back, where he generally sat, with his two girls, Lisa and Karen.

Jason’s wife Elise wasn’t there again.

The girls’ dresses were clean and pressed, but it looked as though Lisa, the youngest, had done her own hair, the ends all pulled up into an uneven ponytail, though someone had tried to pretty it up with a bright red bow.

He couldn’t imagine Elise letting the girls go to church like that. What was going on with her?

But Jason wouldn’t say, had even gotten huffy and left the one time Darryl had asked outright.

No one in the family could help Jason until he asked for help. They’d all offered, only to be told there weren’t no problem, and to leave him alone. He’d even threatened to stop coming to Sunday dinners.

Then again, Franklin understood where Jason was coming from. He hated asking for help from anyone as well.

Particularly with ghosts and things that no one in his family really understood.

“Howdy,” Franklin said, coming up and sitting behind his cousin. Jason wore a good Sunday suit as well, light brown with a white shirt.

“Morning, Cuz,” Jason said, turning around in his seat and shaking Franklin’s hand. He held on for a moment, really looking at Franklin. “You okay?” he asked quietly.

“Just tired,” Franklin assured him. And really. There weren’t anything Jason could do. Franklin was just going to have to talk with Darryl.

“You seen Darryl?” Franklin asked as he got settled in.

“They won’t be here this morning,” Lisa said breathlessly. “They had to go to the hospital!”

“What happened?” Franklin asked, frowning.

Jason chuckled. “Fool went out hot rodding on his new bike, showing it off for the kids.”

“Who, Tom?” Darryl’s eldest had recently turned twelve and felt as though he no longer had to listen to any of the adults.

“Nope. Darryl,” Jason said, still chuckling. “Broke his arm.”

Franklin gave his own chuckle. “Really?” he asked. Seemed like something his cousin would do, though. He was the oldest of them, six years older than Franklin, who was the youngest.

“Yeah. We’ll be going over there for Sunday dinner,” Jason said. “Didn’t May call you?”

Franklin sheepishly shrugged. “Didn’t check my phone for messages,” he admitted. Had he been so tired that he hadn’t heard it? What if Julie had left him a message? When he pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open, he saw he had both a voicemail as well as a text message.

“Why you got such an old phone, Uncle Franklin?” Lisa asked.

“’Cause I don’t barely use it,” Franklin said. He didn’t need something fancy that could take pictures and play music and connect to the internet. He could send text messages on his little phone, but it was hard, having to press through all the keys to get to the right letter.

The text message from May was typically brief:
Sunday dinner at Darryls.
He assumed the voicemail would say the same, though maybe offering him a ride, too.

He’d have to remember to send a note to Julie, later.

“There you are,” May said from behind Franklin.

She whapped him on the shoulder.

“Ow,” Franklin said, turning to see her.

She looked good, though that yellow dress she was wearing was too tight, and the length was barely appropriate for church. She wore her hair short on the sides and tall on top. Franklin recognized the style as something Mama would do for short women like May.

May got her three kids settled, Franklin shaking hands with Henry, her husband, just as the prelude music came to an end. As Franklin was about to stand up with the congregation and sing the first hymn, May gripped his shoulder hard.

“We gotta talk,” she whispered urgently into his ear.

Franklin cast a worried look over his shoulder. Was there something going on with his cousin? She looked fine, though, her broad eyes clear, her brown skin healthy. She was the only one of them to have his mama’s nose, flat and wide, with an equally wide mouth.

May, however, just made a shooing motion with her hand, getting him to turn back around and face the front.

What did she want? There weren’t ghosts haunting her too, were there?

Franklin would just have to wait until the end of the service to find out.

Ξ

Franklin spent most of the sermon disagreeing in his head with Preacher Sinclair. It weren’t that the preacher were a bad man. He’d even tried to help the one time Franklin and Darryl had gone out after the creature the year before.

But the preacher didn’t always see things like Franklin did, and not just ghosts. Where he’d come up with the notion that folks was frail, Franklin didn’t know. Even the most timid of folks would turn and stand up and fight if they was pushed too far.

The preacher had his own demons, his own depression to battle. Maybe that was why he felt that only God could help him.

While Franklin believed in the power of prayer, and knew that God worked miracles, folks also needed to help themselves.

The phrase that caught Franklin this time was “how death comes for us all.”

But what if it don’t? Or what if death weren’t the final end? What if there was more?

Franklin just didn’t know, and it hurt his head going round and round about such things.

At the end of the sermon, though, Franklin still shook the preacher’s hand and told him it was good.

It had made Franklin think, and he figured that was the point, even if he weren’t thinking along the same lines that the preacher wanted him to.

Jason offered to put Franklin’s bike in the back of his Suburban and to give Franklin a ride to Darryl’s. Aunt Jasmine was already there, helping Georgia, Darryl’s wife, with the boys.

Franklin accepted, particularly when he saw May making a beeline toward him.

It weren’t that he was avoiding his cousin. He knew that was impossible. He still wanted to put off the inevitable.

Franklin played “I spy” with the girls on the drive out to Darryl’s. They both knew their letters real good, but Franklin was better at “spying” things.

Darryl’s brand new black pickup sat in the driveway, Aunt Jasmine’s old green Ford beside it. Franklin knew that when Lexine had died, she’d left a will, and Aunt Jasmine had inherited a bunch of money. He’d thought she’d be the one buying a new car.

Jason pulled up behind the truck, then waited while Franklin pulled his bike out of the back.

“I’d be happy to give you a ride home,” Jason told Franklin quietly as he walked his bike up the driveway.

“Naw, I’m probably going to hang out for a while tonight,” Franklin said.

Jason nodded. “You and Darryl aren’t getting into trouble again, are you? Like last year?”

Franklin opened his mouth, then closed it again. “I sure hope not,” he said fervently.

“You ever need anything, you let me know,” Jason told Franklin. “I mean it.”

Franklin turned to face Jason. “I could say the same thing to you, Jason,” he said quietly. “If you need help with the girls…”

Jason sighed. “Maybe…Maybe next week. You should come by. With that girlfriend of yours,” he added with a sly grin.

“I’ll find out what her work schedule will be next week and give you a call,” Franklin promised.

And he would.

It was nice to know that his family was worried about him, and would support him as well, even if they didn’t quite know what it was that he did with the ghosts.

It was also nice to be able to support them in return.

Ξ

May didn’t corner Franklin until after supper, when he was fetching Darryl another sweet tea from the kitchen.

“Okay,” May said, stepping into the doorway leading to the living room. “Spill.”

“What do you mean?” Franklin asked, taking a step back.

He’d taken off his suit jacket, but he was still in his good green shirt and dress slacks. May had changed completely, wearing a black-and-white striped top that would have looked better on a teenager, as well as tight jeans that looked sprayed on.

“You look as pale as those ghosts you see,” May told him. “Now, don’t try to lie to me. I know you better. I seen you last year, when you been injured. And I know you ain’t sick. You ain’t never been sick a day in your life. So what gives?”

Franklin took a step back at her onslaught, but smiled. May was pure fierceness, as much a force of nature as Mama had been.

“It’s nothing,” Franklin said with a casual shrug.

“You don’t have girl troubles or something, do you?” May asked. “You and Julie still doing all right?”

“We’re fine,” Franklin assured her, though they wouldn’t be if he didn’t take care of this ghost problem.

“You sure?” May asked, peering closely. “’Cause something’s going on with you. Oh lord. You haven’t made her pregnant or something, have you?”

“No, ma’am,” Franklin said, horrified. He wouldn’t just get Julie pregnant, then leave her. She’d assured him that she was on birth control and they didn’t have anything to worry about.

“Kids ain’t the end of the world, you know,” May said, her tone softening. “Your whole life changes, but that’s just part of the fun.” She looked Franklin up and down critically. “You ever gonna have any kids of your own?”

Franklin shrugged. He’d been thinking more about that since he got himself a serious girlfriend. But it was too soon for that kind of thing.

“All right. I know something’s up. And you’re as stubborn as a pregnant ass when it comes to talking about these things. Worse than Jason. I swear. Men.”

May turned to go, then turned back. “But honey, if you need anything, or you need to talk with someone, you know your family’s here, right?”

“I do,” Franklin said fervently. “And thank you.”

May gave him a soft smile before she marched back out to the living room to make sure that her own three hellions continued to play nice.

Franklin wondered how he’d got so lucky to have such a good family. That was something that he was thankful for, and he didn’t need no preacher to tell him that.

Ξ

After Jason and May had left with their respective broods in tow, Franklin asked Darryl, “Can I talk with you for a minute?”

Darryl nodded warily. His arm was in a white cast, held in place by a black sling across his chest. The kids had all signed it. Little Shanna had even put a pink sparkly-heart sticker on it. “Let’s go out to the garage,” he suggested.

He stood up slowly from the couch, obviously in pain. He’d dislocated his shoulder and fractured his forearm, putting his hand out to stop himself from falling at high speed. He’d joked weakly about the other guy, but Franklin could tell his heart wasn’t in it.

The garage was cool, filled with the chill of the night. It smelled like fresh car oil and shaved metal. Darryl flipped a light on over his workbench. He had more tools than Franklin could name, all neatly arranged, hanging on the wall. Beside the workbench stood a metal blue-and-gray toolbox that was almost as big as Franklin’s dresser.

Darryl walked directly to the small refrigerator under the bench, pulling out a beer, then offering one to Franklin.

“Ain’t you supposed to only be drinking tea while you’re on the pain meds?” Franklin asked, shaking his head.

Darryl grinned at him. “Little beer ain’t gonna hurt. So what’s up? You been sitting there long-faced all night. Got girl trouble?”

“No, I ain’t got girl trouble. Why does everyone assume that’s what’s wrong?” Franklin asked, exasperated.

“’Cause it’s fun to get you riled up,” Darryl said. He leaned his butt against the workbench. “So what’s up?”

Franklin took a deep breath. “You remember that knife I asked you to hold for me?”

Darryl straightened up. “Yes, I do.”

What had Darryl all serious all of a sudden?

“I need it back,” Franklin said plainly.

Darryl shook his head. “No, you don’t. Not until you explain why.” He took a long drink from his beer, looking away into the shadows. “It ain’t a good thing. That blade’s haunted or something. I ain’t saying it’s evil, but it ain’t good.”