Haunting Helen (Book One in the Love Life Series)

by Anne Seaworthy

  “I’m so sorry, Helen,” he says, holding a handkerchief up to his bleeding nose. “I wasn’t there for you at the right moment.”

  I spend the rest of the night moving aimlessly from unit to unit, taking dreams without looking, thinking about what I just saw. It’s kind of creepy – okay, it’s really creepy that they both had basically the same dream. That probably shows it’s true love or some crap like that. One thing is clear – Robert isn’t a monster.

  I’m the monster, I realize suddenly. I’m the pterodactyls that want to rip Helen to bits. And it’s all because of some selfish crush I had that could never become anything more due to my condition. Life isn’t fair. Death is less fair. But it’s only fair that I work to fix what I broke, or started to bend. After all, I have nothing else to do during the day, do I? And frankly, I wouldn’t mind being Helen’s fiancé awhile longer.

  Chapter Six

  I let my crew take the ship back to headquarters again. I need to get Robert up by four fifteen am if he’s going to make muffins and take over Dr. Robinson’s shift.

  I make some banana muffins. Then I add a peanut butter-cream cheese icing for good measure. Helen is being treated to cupcakes for breakfast! But I won’t get to see the look on her face – I need to get to work on time.

  Robert’s car is a practical blue sedan. I easily track down the work route in his brain. Luckily, there’s not much traffic, and it’s precisely five am when I pull up in front of the hospital.

  Using the information in Robert’s brain, I greet Elise, the secretary, and hurry to Robert’s office. Soon, I’m summoned to help sew up a gash on some gal’s knee. I make my way to the room, and I’m shocked to see Raygin lying on the operating table, blood flowing out of a wound on her right knee.

  She manages a bright smile through the pain when she sees me. “Hey, Doc,” she croaks, wincing.

  “What happened?” I ask.

  She shrugs. “I was partying late last night. I guess I had too much to drink, ‘cause I didn’t feel too good this morning. I tripped over my date. He was lying on the floor next to my bed. But really, how was I supposed to know that?”

  “I’m hurt that you didn’t invite me to this party,” I say, only half-joking. “Now, let’s get you fixed up.” I rummage around the brain’s control room until I find a bottle on a shelf. Inside is a scroll with instructions for doing stitches. I try to follow them exactly. We end up with a bit of a Frankenstein knee.

  “I’m sure it will get better,” I assure her.

  She nods bravely. “Thanks, Doc. Hey, are you free today? I’m not going to work.”

  “I’m free after one.”

  “See you then.” She grins and limps out of the room.

  The rest of my shift is pretty uneventful. As soon as it’s over, I text Raygin asking where she is. She’s at the pier, waiting in line for ice cream. I jog the few blocks to join her in line.

  “Hey.” She’s wearing sunglasses, so I can’t see her eyes, but her mouth is smiling. Her short shorts display her poorly sewn wound to the world.

  “What flavor are you getting?” I ask.

  “Which is your favorite?” she counters.

  We end up with Neopolitan, since I can’t decide between chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. We just get one cone and take turns licking it.

  A pang of guilt racks my body when I remember doing something similar with Helen and the muffin. Helen. I was supposed to be helping her and Robert make up, and instead here I am making Robert cheat on Helen.

  Oh, well. She’s probably at the school, so she won’t see us.

  Raygin and I play a few arcade games together. Then she wants to go on the roller coaster. It jerks up the first mountain accompanied by a lot of clattering and squealing of the chains.

  “Oooh, I hope it falls and we all die,” Raygin giggles. Behind us, a child bursts into tears.

  “Why would you say that?” I demand. “Do you hate everyone on this roller coaster?”

  “I’m a pretty hateful person.”

  “But you don’t want to die yourself.”

  “Who says?” She grins at me like a skull on a pirate flag. When we whoosh down the hill and around the loop, she raises her hands, smiling, not even screaming.

  I’m already dead, but I can’t help gripping the safety bar and hunching forward. I wish I could fold myself up into the car so I didn’t have to see the pier and the ocean and the sky turning over and whizzing by. So I didn’t have to lay eyes on the girl who wants to die.

  When the ride shrieks to a halt, I hop out, ready to get as far away from Raygin as possible. She speed-walks beside me through the crowd. I ignore her and start down the sidewalk towards home.

  She follows me.

  I spin around to face her. “What are you doing?”

  “You make me feel good about myself. When I’m with you, I want to live. I want to be with you, so I guess I must want to live.” She steps closer. “You have my boyfriend’s old phone number. It must be a sign that we were meant to be together.”

  “I’m engaged,” I say. “I’m sorry you’re so codependent, but I’m not the kind of doctor who can fix that.”

  “You can fix me,” she insists. She’s inches from me now, her eyes wide with hunger. She reaches up to wrap her arms around my neck. As she does so, she drops her purse. A small kitchen knife stained with dried blood falls out, clattering across the sidewalk. She stares at me like a gazelle that’s just spotted a lion. Then she quickly bends down to shove the knife back into her purse.

  “Don’t tell me you cut yourself, Raygin,” I say seriously. I’m biting the inside of Robert’s cheek so hard I taste blood.

  “I did earlier. But I won’t do it tonight if you kiss me now.”

  This is blackmail, and I know it. We’re right in front of the middle school, too. But before I can suggest we move to a different location to execute the kissing, she’s all over me, her lips on mine. It feels almost like she’s sucking my blood. She backs me into a tree, trapping me in her desperate embrace.

  The bell rings. We’re still making out. I don’t really want to participate, but I feel like it’s my duty to protect her from herself, and if that requires a little physical contact, then so be it. So I kiss her back, stroking her windblown hair.

  A hand on my shoulder makes me jump. I pull away from Raygin to see Helen standing right next to me.

  Great. I’ve blown it.

  “Honey, I thought you said this young lady was just a friend. But I think you need to explain your intentions, both to her and to me.”

  Raygin places her hand on my shoulder protectively. “Oh, lay off him, you witch. Doc Robbie just saved my life. He also paid for my ice cream.”

  “Really?”

  Suddenly a stinging blow hits me hard on the cheek. My hand flies to the spot. I look at Helen, who steps back, staring at her right hand as if she can’t believe what it just did.

  “Are you gonna apologize?” I ask her.

  Her shocked expression turns to one of distaste, disappointment. “Please don’t come back to the apartment tonight.” She turns to go. Then she whirls and tosses something at me. It rolls on the ground.

  I bend down to pick it up. It’s her engagement ring.

  “Helen!” I cry. I chase after her, saying sorry a million different ways, but she slams the door to Apartment 338 in my face. I turn around on the outdoor walkway and look down into the street.

  Raygin waves up at me from the middle of the road, grinning.

  Well, I really screwed this up. It was Raygin’s fault too, though. Maybe some Dreamcatching with my friends will cheer me up. I begin to seep out of Robert’s body. Then, in front of the setting sun, I catch sight of the Lady Kate, cruising in the sky without me. India is at the helm. Tony’s ordering people around; I can tell by the way he’s pointing and shouting. He also seems to have purchased a black tricorne at the Ecto-Store. It appears I have been replaced.

  Chapter Seven

&n
bsp; Clearly, I’m doing more harm than good by possessing Robert. I should just let him do his sensible thing and get Helen back on his own. So I leave his brain and hover over the walkway. Then I follow him inside the apartment.

  “Helen?” His voice wavers.

  “You can’t give me at least a twenty-four hour grace period to get the locks changed?”

  “Helen, we need to talk.”

  “I think you need to talk to a shrink!”

  “Maybe. Darling, I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately, but I assure you, it won’t happen again.” He rubs his cheek.

  Helen strides over to him. For a moment, I think she’s going to kiss him. Instead, she passionately reaches up and slaps the red spot. This time, she doesn’t look shocked. “Get out. Now.”

  Robert packs a suitcase and heads out the door.

  Helen collapses into a kitchen chair and her head flops onto the table. Her shoulders are shaking – she’s sobbing.

  In that moment, I want nothing more than to put my hands on her shoulders until they stop trembling. But my entire ectoplasm still feels soiled by the girl who wants to die.

  I stay with Helen, though she doesn’t know it, watching her cry and thinking comforting thoughts. It would be cool if ghosts were telepathic.

  Helen doesn’t eat dinner. She throws herself on the bed with her work clothes on and cries herself to sleep.

  Without a moment’s hesitation, I enter her ear and slip into her brain. I crawl inside her Dream.

  In the Dream, Helen is in a windowless tower with no exit. Her hair is super long and braided. This reminds me of a fairytale…isn’t she supposed to pull her prince into the tower using that hair? But she can’t if there’s no window.

  I float over to Helen, who is whimpering with her head in her hands. “Hey, why don’t you apologize to Robert for hurting him?” I suggest. “Then he’ll be sure to apologize to you, and you can forgive each other.”

  She looks up at me. Her face is distorted to look like that of an angry pterodactyl. Before she can eat my hat, I leave her brain. The prophetic Dream tactic is not going to work. She’s become a mindless monster in her own Dreams, her own visions of herself.

  I spend the night searching apartments and motels until I find Robert sitting on the steps leading down to the beach, his suitcase next to him. I drift in front of his face, preparing to enter his ear.

  His expression morphs from dully depressed to terrified. “What are you?” he whispers.

  I look behind me. No one’s there. He must be a Ghost-Seer. Maybe we can use this to our advantage.

  “I’m a ghost,” I explain. “Don’t be scared. I was sent from Heaven to reunite you with your fiancée.” It’s hard to resist chuckling when I imagine myself in Heaven.

  “I’d do anything to fix what happened between Helen and me.” He’s trying to look strong, but I can tell he’s close to tears. “What must I do?”

  ~~~

  Helen’s eyes widen as she watches wine magically get poured into two glasses on the kitchen table. She can’t see me as I float over to the door and make it creak open. She gasps as Robert enters, looking suave in the suit I stole him.

  “Hi, honey,” he says casually.

  I put my hand on Helen’s back, nudging her towards him.

  “Robert? What’s going on?” She looks around as if expecting pterodactyls to emerge from the walls around her.

  “I was so desperate to get you back, baby doll, that I trained myself in the art of magic. Won’t you drink some of this love potion and love me again?”

  On cue, I hold one of the wine glasses up to Helen’s lips.

  She pushes it back towards me and I go intangible just in time.

  It spills right through my face and shatters on the floor behind me. Robert and I seem equally shocked.

  “Robert, I know you’re using some smoke and mirrors to freak me out. And it’s not working. I’m a science teacher, for heaven’s sake. I know about magnetism…”

  “Magnetism. That’s what attracts me so strongly to you, darling.”

  She sighs. “Robert, you don’t have to pretend to be some kind of magician for me. I just want you back the way you were before.”

  “If I went back to my old ways, exactly, would you forgive me for all the weirdness lately?”

  She blinks. I think she’s going to let him sleep here tonight. Then she says, “I can’t forget what I saw. You were kissing another woman. We made a sacred pact when we got engaged, and we were planning to sign a marriage contract. And you broke it. You clearly aren’t ready to commit to me. If I can’t have all of you, I don’t want any of you.”

  He comes toward her.

  She holds up her hand. “Stop before you make me change my mind,” she whispers brokenly.

  They’re standing pretty close together now. On a whim, I take Helen’s arms and wrap them around Robert.

  She cries out in fear and confusion and slaps him again. How many times have I caused this man to be unfairly abused?

  “Leave my apartment this instant. And don’t come back.”

  He sighs and backs away, nearly tripping over the coffee table.

  I follow him out the door.

  “I guess it’s hopeless,” he says to me when we get to the ground floor. “I really thought heavenly intervention would help.”

  “We’ll try again in a few days,” I suggest. “Let’s give her some time to cool off.”

  “Okay,” he says, but I can tell he’s thinking her anger is an eternal flame. After what I saw today, I think he may be right.

  Chapter Eight

  I’ve given up my place on the Lady Kate for a living couple I barely know. Now I have to solve their problem, or I’ll be a total failure. Just when things are looking pretty bleak, I come up with one last idea. It might be stupid and corny, but it might also be the brilliant plan that saves the marriage between Robert and Helen.

  The morning after Helen kicked Robert out twice, I seep in through her ear and enter her brain. I can’t help but watch as my own girlish arms pull a pair of flare pants up my curvy legs, and then throw on a turquoise blouse. I’m not going to work today, so I call in Helen’s good friend Mrs. McCarthy to sub.

  I text Robert to meet me in the park. I slap together some turkey sandwiches, toss up a Mediterranean salad, dump it all in a picnic basket I dig out of the closet, and head for Helen and Robert’s favorite grassy spot under a shady tree.

  Robert is already there, looking anxious and confused. When he sees me, his eyes light up, but at the same time his body looks like it’s ready to scamper away. I can’t blame him, considering his fiancée’s physical nature.

  He cringes as I walk up to him, my arms outstretched. When I hug him gently, he relaxes in my arms. This is so weird. But it has to be done.

  “Robert,” I say as sincerely as possible. “I am so sorry about yesterday. I know you just made a mistake, and I’m willing to forgive you now.” I hope, by hearing these words come out of her own mouth, Helen will start to believe them.

  “But you said yesterday you couldn’t forget what you saw.”

  “I can’t forget – I don’t have Alzheimer’s, for heaven’s sake! But I can forgive. Now let’s have lunch.” I spread out the blanket I brought on the grass, then take out a turkey sandwich and hand it to him. I take out the other one and take a big bite.

  Robert is staring at me. Do I look unladylike? I take a smaller nibble.

  “Helen, are you eating meat?” A smile plays on his face.

  Crap. How could I have forgotten? I wipe my mouth with a napkin and grin seductively. “I decided to try something different today. Today I’m taking a break from my usual.”

  Robert stares at me for a second. Then he shrugs and bites into his sandwich.

  We watch kids play with kites and Frisbees, talk a little about our honeymoon, then we get into some deep conversation about the recent funeral of Robert’s grandfather.

  “It felt wrong t
o lay him in the ground, you know?” Robert gazes into my eyes. “I mean, I know he’s – not alive anymore, but he was always so lively and free. I feel like we trapped him in that coffin.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I say. “Ghosts can leave their dead bodies and fly around, free as a bird. In some ways, it’s more fun being dead. At least, that’s what I believe.”

  Robert smiles, his eyes shining with tears he’s holding back.

  When we finish our lunch, we walk back to the Beachside Apartments holding hands. He lets me go ahead of him on the stairs, and I can feel him staring at my behind as I climb up. I guess that’s a good thing…

  When we get to the apartment, Robert takes my hand and leads me ever so delicately to his bedroom. He grins and pulls me to sit down on his bed. He takes off his shirt.

  I can’t do this. I exit Helen’s body as quickly as possible and hover by the bedroom door, ready to leave. But first, I have to see if my tactic worked. Helen stares at Robert, confounded. He tries to embrace her. She squirms away and runs out of the apartment.

  “Helen! I thought we made up,” he calls after her.

  No answer.

  Looks like I have more work to do.

  Chapter Nine

  I’m Helen again, and evidently I was so desperate to get away from Robert that I wrecked my car. So I’m waiting at the train station, thinking Robert-related thoughts. I bring out the best memories and play them like an indoctrination video to try to get Helen to snap out of it. “I love Robert,” I say out loud, ignoring the strange looks from other people waiting for the train. I don’t know if telling Helen this will make her believe it, but it’s worth a shot.

  The train appears in the distance. It gets closer. Suddenly, I see a figure lying on the tracks. It’s a petite woman with blond hair.

  I run down the tracks. “Stop!” I scream, waving at the train. There’s no driver – it must be remotely operated. I kneel and heave Raygin out of the train’s path. I’m about to skedaddle myself when immense pain racks the whole body I’m in, scraping the skin and crushing the bones. I shoot out of Helen’s ear and relief washes over me as I am again free of pain. But my heart is not relieved. I watch the stupid train pass over her, then screech to a halt. People crowd around the corpse on the tracks. Blood is everywhere.