by Brian Corley
“You know, I’ve wanted to take on a project like this since my first trip to Disneyland,” Jeremy said, then told a long, boring story. He was doing me a huge favor though, so I endured it.
DeeDee explained that she left part of the house unfinished so that I could still communicate with Max and the team and have my old room to sleep in. She told Willard she would come by and finish things up after we moved out, and he agreed that was for the best.
We called it a night, and I blinked DeeDee and Jeremy back home and came back to find Willard on his new settee staring at the fire.
“Good night, Willard,” I said.
“Good night, Jonah,” he replied.
I floated off to my room and settled onto my bed. I found the remote in the same place I normally kept it and turned on the television to veg out on cartoons until the sun came up.
“You did good, Jonah,” I thought to myself. “You did well.”
“Can you turn that thing down? I’m trying to have a moment,” Willard called out from the other room.
“OK, buddy, OK.”
Chapter 39
Willard and I spent the next couple weeks scouring the neighborhood for spirits to help move on, and he even joined the Psy-kicks for a couple jobs. Seph was right. Willard’s bedside manner wasn’t for everyone, but there was at least one spirit we met that I couldn’t reach, and who wouldn’t have moved on if not for Willard.
Max and I moved up to the Zilker neighborhood and into a brand-new white Scandinavian farmhouse with a black roof. Maybe not the best choice of roof color for Texas, but the house was a stunner. Inside, the house was stark but well-appointed. Beautiful mesquite floors, white walls, concrete counters in the kitchen and bathrooms along with white subway tile. The toilets were a Japanese model with a heated seat and an auto-bidet system.
“I had those installed myself,” Max said, pointing at the toilet as though he’d just invented the breakthrough for faster-than-light travel through space.
“That’s amazing, Max,” my voice crackled through a softly buzzing speaker system that had been wired into every room in the house. “You’re going to have the cleanest butt in the neighborhood—maybe all of Austin.”
“Yep, that’s the idea,” he replied. “Alright then, I have a date. I’m heading out.”
“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you—who have you been seeing? I noticed you and Zoe seem to be getting pretty close.”
“Zoe? No. I don’t think I’m her type,” he said, taking a deep breath, visibly steeling himself for what he was about to say next. “I’ve been seeing Laura from marketing.”
“What?! Noooooooooo! Why? Of all the people in this town, whyyyyy?” I lamented.
“Because she’s hot. We talked outside after your funeral, but it took me weeks to track her down after that. Thanks, buddy.”
A blood-curdling howl screamed across the night sky outside, followed by an eerie cackle.
“Did you hear that?” I asked Max.
“No, hear what?” he said.
“Probably nothing,” I replied, “have fun tonight.”
So Max went out on a date with the girl of my dreams, and I went out to track down a nightmare. Not sure which
was scarier.
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Acknowledgements
I had a lot of fun writing this book, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of a lot of great people. Thanks to Jonathan Isaacs for encouraging me to write this story and being brave enough to read it before it ever saw an editor.
Thanks to Michael Rowley, Sharon Honeycutt, Emily Mullen, Crystal Watanabe and Jessica Reed for their guidance and support throughout the process. You were all amazing to work with.
Of course, special thanks to my family and friends for all their help along the way as well, I couldn’t have done it without you.