This Time Around

by Walker, Aimee Nicole

  “Continue, Andy,” Ollie encouraged. This time his smile was the genuine one I’d come to associate with him.

  “I assume there’s a point to this,” Keeton prompted.

  “There is a point to this story,” I confirmed. “I didn’t realize until much later that Coach’s sage advice was really a form of bullying. He was telling me that it wasn’t okay to be me and love who I love. He was telling me in a soft voice with a compassionate expression that my new team wouldn’t accept me. He didn’t beat me over the head with it, but he said it often enough that I started to believe it. Then I acted on it, and it sent me into a downward spiral.”

  “So, your high school baseball coach is to blame for your drug addiction?” Keeton asked.

  “That’s not what I was saying at all. The story was to show you that not all bullying is physical, as you suggested. My coach didn’t have to beat me or verbally abuse me to cause emotional harm. My drug addiction is all on me. I accept full responsibility, and part of that is acknowledging the events that got me to the dark place in my life to avoid putting myself in that situation again.”

  Keeton nodded in response, which I accepted as a big victory.

  “Anyway, we got off course from my original plan when I volunteered to speak first.” I shot a teasing glance at Keeton, who flipped me off. I saw the faintest hint of a crooked smile, so I shook off Ollie before he could admonish him. “I had just wanted to say thank you, Ollie. These meetings with your leadership have made a huge difference in my life.”

  Ollie’s cheeks turned pink like the praise embarrassed him, but then a different expression washed over his face. I thought it might be shame, but it disappeared so fast that I doubted myself.

  The meeting went on for another ninety minutes while people shared stories of their past or what was happening in their lives. Neither Rebecca nor Keeton seemed ready to share, and Ollie never forced the issue. He wanted to build a foundation of trust, and my respect for him grew when he softly spoke to them individually after the meeting ended.

  “I know you’re eager to get back to Milo,” Adam said, “but how about you join us for burgers and fries like old times.”

  “We miss hanging out with our friend,” Brent said.

  “Pretty please,” Tyler said then playfully pouted and batted his eyelashes.

  “Sure,” I said. I missed hanging out with them too. I texted Milo to let him know I’d be home later than normal. I was half expecting a pithy remark, but instead he offered sexual favors for a burger, fries, and milkshake. Oh, how I loved him.

  Ollie seemed surprised when I turned up at our favorite burger joint. Instead of commenting on my absence, he smiled and scooted over so I could sit next to him. We didn’t talk about addictions and recovery over juicy burgers and crispy fries; we talked about our jobs and the people in our lives that made sobriety so important. I didn’t linger as long as I normally would have prior to reconnecting with Milo, but I did stay to enjoy the amazing bond we’d formed.

  Once Milo’s to-go order was ready, I told the crew I was heading out. Adam, Brent, and Tyler made kissy faces and lewd gestures, not giving a damn that a pastor was among us. Silence descended on the table when the pastor in question said he wanted to have a private word with me. Like me, the frat boys didn’t know what to make of it, so they just kept shoveling French fries in their mouths as Ollie followed me outside to my truck.

  “Are you about to tell me what’s been bothering you this past month?” I asked.

  “You noticed, huh?”

  “Of course. Do I make you uncomfortable? Would you like me to find another sponsor, Ollie?”

  “Heavens, no.” He shook his head as a pink flush crept up his neck. “I take it that Milo never shared the details of our conversation with you.”

  “No,” I said slowly. “I knew something occurred between you, but I wasn’t sure what. I thought maybe you recognized him as Madame O-Feel-Ya Peach or something.”

  “Shut up!” Ollie exclaimed. “No way!”

  “Oh, yeah. He confessed to me that night, so that was the connection I made. I thought maybe you were sorry my boyfriend gave you a boner, even if he wasn’t my boyfriend at the time. I also worried that maybe seeing me with Milo was just too awkward for you. I wasn’t sure what to think of the sudden change.”

  “Oh my God!” Ollie said, and I could tell he was reliving Milo’s lap dance.

  “Hey!” I said. “Let’s get back to the reason you followed me out here.”

  “Oh yeah,” Ollie said, but it looked like he struggled to remember what he had planned to say. He grinned after I snapped my fingers when he started to zone out again. “Oh, um, I wanted to apologize to you for the way I behaved at the bowling alley.”

  “I don’t understand, Ollie. You didn’t act weird, and we didn’t exchange harsh words. I assume this is about Milo.”

  “I said some foolish things to Milo out of jealousy. I realized how wrong I was, and that’s why I’ve been so distant lately.”

  “What kind of foolish things?”

  “Um, I implied that maybe your relationship wasn’t healthy for you.”

  “Ollie!” I couldn’t hide the shock I felt. “Why would you say that?”

  “It just happened so fast, and it was obvious how much Milo had hurt you with his rejection after you returned home. I was worried that a breakup would cause big setbacks for you.” Ollie swallowed hard. “That was a conversation I should’ve had with you, not Milo. Can you forgive me?”

  I suspected this all came from a place of jealousy. It’s easy to forget that Ollie was a man beneath the collar he wore, which meant he made mistakes. “Yeah, Ollie, I can forgive you.” He released a huge sigh of relief. “But it’s really not me you should be apologizing to.”

  “I was afraid you were going to say that,” Ollie said. “Can I get Milo’s number from you?”

  “Yeah, as long as you don’t try to steal him from me.”

  “That could never happen. Start paying attention to the way he looks at you, Andy.”

  I thought about what Ollie said on the way home. When I walked into the house, I paid attention to the smile that spread across Milo’s face and the way his eyes lit up.

  “You must be awfully hungry,” I teased when he leaped over the back of the couch to get to me.

  “Ravenous,” he replied, but made no attempt to take the food from my hands. He stood on his tiptoes and kissed me long and sweet. “Welcome home, Slugger.”

  I decided to let Milo tell me about the conversation he had with Ollie, if he chose to divulge it. I would only worry if Milo thought for a second that he was bad for me. So far, he gave me no indication that was the issue. I watched Milo devour his treat with a huge smile on his face. After he was done, he set the empty bag on the coffee table and turned to me.

  Milo whipped his shirt over his head and tossed it to the ground. “About those sexual favors…”

  “How in the hell did we get talked into coming back down here?” I asked out loud.

  “Maegan must’ve put a spell in the coffees she brought us from Books and Brew,” Memphis said.

  “Oh hush,” Mae said. “You love it down here and you know it.”

  Memphis snorted. “That’s a stretch. At least Milo’s boyfriend made sure the lighting is much improved from the last time we were in the dungeon of death.”

  “Well, it was actually Mike the electrician who made it happen, but it was Andy’s suggestion.” I looked around at the stacks of boxes all around the cellar. “I expected it to smell mustier.”

  “This house was built exceptionally well,” Memphis said. “They don’t make them like this anymore.”

  “I can’t believe it’s mine,” my sister said dreamily.

  “What exactly are we looking for?” Memphis asked. “It’s doubtful I’ll find comic books or vinyl records down here to sell in Vinyl and Villains.”

  “You never know,” Mae said, pulling down one box and looking inside it.
“It’s doubtful that all of these boxes belonged to the Bliss family.”

  “Some guidance though, Sis?” I asked.

  “Okay, well, I’m looking for unique things to set out as decorations.” She pulled out an old candelabra from the box. “Like this! All it needs is some polish and TLC to restore it to its former glory.” Maegan went back to looking in her box. “It’s doubtful this is the only candelabra down here.”

  “Why couldn’t they have boxed the sets together?” I asked. “Why put one candelabra in one box and another in a different box?”

  “Maybe they didn’t pack things in a rational fashion,” Maegan said. “How familiar are you with the history of Blissville, the founder Anthony Bliss in particular?”

  “Admittedly, not very,” Memphis said absently. “Anything juicy?”

  “Oh, just family curses, a sudden disappearance, and his widow’s complete isolation afterward.”

  Of course, I’d heard this story numerous times over the years. One of the things I admired about Maegan was that she never embellished the story with each new telling like a lot of people would. She took the mysterious disappearance seriously and had wanted to solve it the first time we rode our bikes past this house as kids. She’d felt an immediate connection to the spooky-looking house while I couldn’t pedal away from it fast enough. In school, the Bliss House had been a subject in her history projects and papers, as well as some fan fiction stories for English. This house was destined to belong to her.

  I stood and watched her weave a tale that completely ensnared Memphis. “It was originally built by Anthony Bliss who founded this town in eighteen thirty. Anthony was a progressive railroad tycoon who believed that Blissville could be a thriving depot because of its central location to bigger cities like Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus. He believed railroads were the key for both shipping and traveling. People thought he was crazy when he laid out this tract of land and named it after himself. He built the home here and moved his family from New York City. His vision came true, and this tiny little community became a bustling trading town. At first, the railroads were used strictly for travel in Ohio, but eventually, they expanded to include national railways.”

  “Huh, that’s cool,” Memphis said.

  “Rumor has it that Anthony Bliss had ulterior motives for relocating his family.” Maegan leaned closer and dropped her voice. “It’s believed that he was trying to outrun a curse.”

  “A curse?” Memphis sounded as skeptical as everyone else when they heard this part.

  “There are different versions of who placed the curse on the family from gypsies to Native Americans, but it seems to have started with Anthony’s father, John. He was reported to be a ruthless businessman who lied and manipulated to get his way. The curse was placed on him and his heirs because the sins of the father are passed along to their offspring and all that jazz.”

  “That seems to be the way it goes,” Memphis said.

  “Anyway, John Bliss died of a heart attack in his mistress’s bed in upstate New York supposedly a week after he was cursed. He left behind a wife and four sons. Anthony was the youngest.”

  “Did his three older brothers die from mysterious causes?”

  “One of them died in war, one of them died after falling from a horse and breaking his neck, and the third brother drowned in a river. Anthony was the last Bliss standing and decided to try and outrun the curse.”

  “I don’t think that’s how it works, but you can’t blame a guy for trying,” Memphis told her. “Then what?”

  “Anthony Bliss disappeared without a trace in 1850.”

  “Huh.”

  “He went for a horse ride, like he normally did every day, regardless of the weather, and never returned.”

  “What happened to his family? Is that when they just got up and left without taking their things?”

  “Well, Melanie Bliss was distraught and was never seen in public again. Too many years had passed since his last brother died for her to believe that he was a victim of the curse. She was convinced he left her to start a new life, so she was too ashamed to show her face in town. Her sister came to live with them and assumed care for the children until Melanie died of a broken heart.”

  “That’s really sad.”

  Maegan nodded. “Melanie’s sister packed up the children, sold the house to a prominent doctor in town, and moved back to New York. She shipped what she wanted to keep and left everything else behind. From what I’ve heard, Melanie held onto all of Anthony’s things in case he returned, but her sister had no desire to drag his stuff back to New York after he left his family high and dry. Dr. Martin’s family moved in and reported that inexplicable things kept happening. Doors slamming in parts of the house where no one was or the smell of pipe tobacco floating through the air when no one in the family smoked.”

  “Why are Bliss’s things still here after all this time?” Memphis asked.

  “The house remained in the doctor’s family for many decades until the kids sold it to the Renzos after both their parents died. The caveat was that the Renzos took possession of the contents as well as the house. Which meant that they possibly inherited some of Anthony Bliss’s possessions as well as the doctor’s.

  “I hired a cleaning company to haul away all of Renzo’s stuff and anything that looked to belong to the doctor’s family too,” Maegan told us. “I recently found an old pipe carved out of ivory upstairs that I think belonged to Anthony Bliss. I’m pretty sure it’s the source of the tobacco smell that floats randomly through the house.”

  “We,” I gestured between Memphis and me, “smelled it the night the ghost locked me in the attic with Andy.”

  “Have you asked Emory to do a reading?”

  “Not yet,” Maegan said. “If it is Anthony Bliss, does that mean he never left the property and was killed here, or did his spirit return here after dying. Is Bliss House his purgatory?”

  “I guess either could be true. I’m not an expert, but we know someone who is,” Memphis told her. “What have you heard from Lyric?”

  A month had passed since his visit. He’d sent one email to Maegan to let her know he was interested in touring the house once she purchased it. She’d contacted him after the sale went through but hadn’t heard from him since. “I don’t want to be a pest. He’s either interested or he’s not.” Maegan shrugged, went back to digging through boxes, and we followed her lead. “I also found a pearl necklace I believe belonged to Melanie Bliss. She definitely died in the house, so she could be the entity we feel.”

  “I don’t think so,” I told my sister. “I’m not getting a scorned woman vibe from our friend. Besides, the pipe tobacco makes me think it’s a male presence.”

  “Don’t be sexist,” Maegan said. “Plenty of women smoked tobacco back then. They were just discreet about it.”

  “Let me call Emory and see what he’s doing. He can touch those items and see what he thinks.” Memphis pulled his cell phone out of his pocket but didn’t get service beneath the house. “I’ll be right back.”

  I continued sorting through boxes with Maegan while Memphis went upstairs to call Emory. I hadn’t found anything of interest in the stack of boxes I looked through. I was sure the historical society might like some of the clothes in the boxes, but I didn’t think it was what Maegan was looking for. When I opened the final box on the bottom of the stack, I knew I’d found something special.

  “Jackpot!” I said.

  “Oh, you found another candelabra?” she asked.

  “Better. Come check this out.”

  Maegan set down whatever was in her hands and walked over to me. “Oh my God!” she said when she saw what was in the box. “Leather-bound journals that appear to be as old as the Bliss era. Look at the engravings on the covers,” she said in awe. “Only the wealthiest men would’ve owned something like these.”

  “Let’s take it upstairs and look through them,” I said excitedly.

  “Ha! The thrill of the hunt
has finally caught you too.”

  It was true. I was ready to drink some sweet tea and look through these journals with Maegan until Andy was ready to go home. I should’ve felt guilty about not helping him, but I was more of a hindrance than a help when it came to that type of thing. I was great with a paint brush and roller and would gladly volunteer once we reached that phase of the project.

  We met Memphis on the way up the stairs. “Oh,” he said, coming to a halt. “Done already.”

  “Milo found something way cooler than candelabras,” Maegan said excitedly.

  “Old journals,” I told him. “Really old. I bet there’s all kinds of details in them.”

  Memphis pivoted on the steps and said, “Emory will be over in a few minutes. He was surprised that you hadn’t heard from Lyric, Mae. He has talked to Lyric a few times after he visited, and each time he mentioned how interesting he found Anthony Bliss’s story.”

  “Maybe there’s something juicy we can use to lure him to town,” I suggested.

  “I only want him to visit this house if he truly wants to help me solve the mystery and send Anthony wherever it is he wants to go,” Maegan told him. “I’m not about to nag or pressure him in any way.”

  “I’m going to order pizza,” I said when we reached the first floor. “I know that Andy must be starved by now.”

  “Fine, but nobody touches these journals with greasy fingers.”

  I placed the order for pizza and went upstairs to check on Andy while Emory did his thing with the pearl necklace and pipe that Maegan found. It wasn’t that I didn’t find Emory’s psychic ability fascinating, I just felt Andy’s pull stronger. I found Andy upstairs in the largest of the extra bedrooms. He was sanding the window seat that was built in to the turret.

  “What an amazing place to read a book,” I said when I entered the room. “Any child of Maegan’s will love that window.” Built on both sides of the bay window were shelves for books, toys, dolls, or anything else a kid would want to place there. I knew that Maegan would make this a magical space.