Third Time's a Charm

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “So, you didn’t see his face,” Heather concluded. “Just light. You can’t say for sure that it was Sam.”

  “Who else could it have been?” Vivien asked. “Does it make sense that we called Sam, but another ghost just suddenly showed up and wanted to take me for a romantic stroll by the water?”

  “Into the water,” William muttered.

  Vivien ignored William’s comment. “We all saw Sam in the living room, so we know he’s here. It had to be him leading me to the water.”

  “We called Glenn and got Glenn and a demon,” Lorna said.

  “This ghost didn’t attack me,” Vivien insisted. “I didn’t feel scared.”

  “But he did try to lure you to your death,” William reasoned. “What if it’s another kind of demon? Lorna and I went up against a devil dog-man. Maybe this one is more like a pied piper.”

  “I never said he tried to lure me to my death. I said he led me to the water.” Vivien frowned.

  Sam had urged her to go into the water, even forced her to walk into the depths. She remembered feeling like he wanted her to see something. As a psychic, she had to trust her feelings and instincts on this. It wasn’t what it looked like from the outside. Sam wasn’t trying to kill her. He’d tried to communicate with her. She was sure of it.

  “I think I would know if someone meant me harm.” Vivien had squished the glazed donut into a flat, uneven ring. She set it on the countertop. “I mean, this is me we’re talking about. If there is one thing I know, it’s to trust my instincts when it comes to people.”

  Heather pressed her lips tightly together and stared at the floor.

  “Like now. I know you want to say something, so just say it.” Vivien gestured at Heather, urging her to speak.

  “We need to talk to Julia,” Heather said.

  “That is not what you wanted to say,” Vivien said in exasperation. Sure, now her gift decided to give her perfect clarity into what her friends were thinking. Where was that clarity when she was following a spirit, or when she was talking to Troy? “You want to tell me that my reading ghosts might not be the same as my reading humans. You want to tell me I’m naïve if I don’t believe that walking into the ocean in the middle of the night is ill-conceived at best, and at worst, the ghost was trying to kill me.”

  “Well…” Heather gave a small nod.

  “You don’t think I know that?” Vivien exclaimed. “You think I don’t know I sound like a crazy person? I know there is a chance it’s not Sam, but what if it is? What if he is trying to tell me something? What if he—?”

  She shut her mouth.

  “What if he what?” Lorna prompted.

  Vivien shook her head. “Nothing. I don’t know what I was going to say.”

  Lorna and Heather reached forward at the same time, each woman grabbing one of Vivien’s arms. They held tight as the transfer of emotions began to flow. Vivien felt a shiver as the static charge lifted her hair. She felt Heather and Lorna’s concern for her. No, it was more than that. They were concerned about her.

  Lorna gave a small gasp and whispered, “Oh, no.”

  Heather was a little more vocal. “Dammit, Viv.”

  “What?” William reached for his sister’s shoulder. A loud snap sounded as the contact shocked him. He jerked his hand back in surprise. “Whoa.”

  Lorna let go of Vivien. “William?”

  “I felt…” He looked around at the women and waved his hands to encompass them. “You all have a lot of feelings going on in there.”

  “It’s intensified because we’re touching and—” Lorna began.

  “Like you’re not full of feelings?” Heather interrupted. “You think I want to sense what you think about Lorna?” She gave a small shiver. “I need brain bleach and a lobotomy.”

  “Vivien?” Lorna asked, keeping them on topic. “Did you think you could bring Sam back from the dead?”

  “You séanced Glenn,” Vivien said.

  “We séanced Glenn.” Heather didn’t take her eyes from her. “We didn’t bring him back for good.”

  “Wait, you’re trying to make a Sam zombie?” William inquired. “No offense, but won’t that be gross? Why? Have you thought this through?”

  “Ew, no.” Vivien curled her lip in disgust.

  “Viv, tell me bringing him back from the dead wasn’t our intent when we were doing the séance,” Heather stated.

  Vivien bit her lip.

  “Vivien!” Heather insisted.

  “I can’t tell you that. I mean, yeah, maybe that was my intent. I miss him so much, and you said it yourself, Julia told you that we were meant to use our new magic to help each other get over our pain. So why can’t that mean we get to bring Sam back? Can you imagine if it works? If we can do that?” Vivien stopped short of mentioning Heather’s son, but she could see her friend was thinking of the possibility.

  “I think we need to summon Julia,” Lorna said. “We’re basing a lot of our decisions on what she said about helping each other. If you think about it, that’s a vague directive.”

  “I’m not sure you should use grandma as your guru,” William said. “She was pretty out there in life. I don’t think that would have changed much.”

  “If you intended for Sam to come back from the dead, that would explain how the séance went wrong, why he broke free from the circle,” Heather said.

  Vivien knew her friends were frustrated with her. Heather had been adamant about focusing their intentions, and Vivien had used their combined power to try to do more. “I’m sorry. There should have been no risk to any of us. Sam was all about love. I didn’t think it would go badly.”

  Her heart belonged to Sam. It always had. She closed her eyes briefly, seeing his chapped lips move. She’d tried to keep moisture on them, but nothing had seemed strong enough to help.

  “There is only us. I’ll be watching you. Save your heart for me. It’s mine.”

  “I will be there this time when you talk to Julia.” William moved closer to Lorna and slipped an arm around her waist as if unconsciously trying to protect her from the unknown.

  “I don’t think—” Heather began to deny her brother’s request.

  “She’s my grandmother too,” William interrupted.

  Heather looked at Lorna and then Vivien.

  “I don’t see why he can’t be there,” Vivien said.

  “Damn straight I can be there. I need to protect my girls.” William pulled Lorna closer to his chest and tried to look stern.

  Vivien arched a brow. “I changed my mind. I know you did not just say that.”

  William’s mouth twitched a little to show he’d been teasing to lighten the mood. “Protect my women?”

  “Somehow that sounds so much worse.” Vivien gave a slight laugh. “Speaking of protectors, I should probably thank Troy for fishing me out of the water. The man undoubtedly thinks I’m a lunatic.”

  “You’re lucky he was there,” Heather said.

  “Maybe you should take him a muffin and thank him,” Lorna suggested. “It’s the neighborly thing to do.”

  “All right.” Vivien automatically reached for a muffin. She stopped mid-action and frowned. “Why do I feel like you’re both scheming?”

  “We can tell you like him,” Lorna said. “You just need a small push.”

  “Yes, I do like him. He’s attractive and smart. He’s a nice guy,” Vivien said, with a shake of her head, “but he’s not Sam. I don’t see any reason to lead him on when I can’t be serious about him. It would be mean to pursue him.”

  Especially when she couldn’t rid herself of the hope that she could magically bring Sam back to her, somehow, someway.

  “Honey, listen to me.” Heather grabbed Vivien’s hand and held it tight so she couldn’t pull away. She felt her friend’s emotions coming at her through the connection as if trying to convince her of Heather’s sincerity. “Sam is gone. I wish he weren’t, but he is. The dead don’t come back to life. Not in any way that’s permanent.
Not in any way that you need. And definitely not in any way that you want.”

  All of Heather’s concerns rushed into her. Desperation tinged all of the emotions.

  “You don’t have to be so worried about me,” Vivien said, trying to pull her hand away.

  Heather refused to let go. “You were young when you were with him. I don’t think you’ve considered what that means for you now. You’ve grown so much. He hasn’t.”

  “Are you saying I’m too old?” Vivien demanded.

  “Be mad at me if you want, but you know better than that.” Heather dismissed the question. “If a young man were going to stimulate you and give you what you need intellectually, you would have kept one of them around longer than a night. I’m not judging. I’m glad you have fun. But, at this point, can you say you want a twenty-something hanging on your couch playing video games all day? You are not that person anymore.”

  “Wait, I don’t—” Vivien began, not liking where this lecture was heading. She hated that her friend had valid points.

  “Can you say with certainty that this is what Sam would want?” Heather didn’t let up. “It’s been so long, maybe where he’s at is a better place.”

  Vivien couldn’t accept that Sam wouldn’t want to live if given a chance. He’d been so full of life.

  “No one is saying you can’t still love him, but you are allowed to love more than one person in your life. You can have two great loves. You can have three, or four, or a dozen. And in doing so, you’re not betraying those who came before. Love isn’t like that. You don’t get a finite amount of it.”

  “Heather, you’re hurting me.” Vivien again tried to pull her hand away.

  “Good. Then maybe you’ll hear me this time. I’ve told you before that Sam would want you to be happy. He wouldn’t want this. He wouldn’t want you drowning yourself in the ocean trying to find him.” Still she held on tight. A tear slid down her cheek. “And so help me, Viv, I need you to feel this. I can’t lose anyone else I love. I don’t have the capacity to survive more heartache. It would break me. I’m barely holding on by a thread as it is some days. So call it selfish. Call me codependent or needy. I don’t care.”

  A dam broke loose inside of Heather, flooding Vivien with emotion, even more than before. She gasped at the onslaught.

  “I love you, Viv. You’re like a sister to me.” Heather finally released her hand and swiped at her tears. “But so help me, I sometimes want to throttle you until you stop being stupid.”

  “Heather, I…” Vivien looked at her hand and stretched her fingers. The flood of emotions had stopped, but the aftermath remained. What could she say? In those few moments, Heather had dropped part of the wall around her heart. She let Vivien peek into the depths of her pain, not just the hard shell she kept around it.

  “Just…” Heather sighed. “Be smarter.”

  Vivien nodded.

  Lorna gave Heather a sad smile and lightly patted her shoulder.

  William put his arm around his sister and pulled her against his side in a hug. “We will not let anything happen to her.”

  “And you,” Heather said, nudging him in the gut with her elbow. She looked at Lorna. “Or you. Like it or not, you’re part of this family now too. There’s no getting rid of us.”

  “Like I’d want to.” Lorna tried to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Heather’s mini-breakdown had affected her as well.

  “Okay.” Vivien nodded. “I hear you, Heather. I promise all of you that I’ll be more careful.”

  Chapter Eight

  Vivien knew her friends wanted her to thank Troy for his middle-of-the-night rescue, and if things had been different, she probably would have. If someone did something nice for you, you said thank you. That was just good manners. But something stopped her.

  The idea of going over there made her feel like she was betraying Sam. Not just his memory, but Sam himself. It was different when he existed on a separate plane, but now he was here. Logically, she knew Sam wouldn’t be mad about her talking to another man. He had never been possessive or jealous. The betrayal came with how she felt when she was with Troy.

  Feelings didn’t have to make sense. She’d divorced Rex. It had been a conscious decision, a severing. So, of course, she couldn’t cheat on Rex.

  But Sam had died. Her feelings for him didn’t end. If anything, she’d carried them like a torch for the last twenty years. Had things been different, they would still be married. So, if he were undead, did that mean that they picked up where they left off? The vows said til death do us part, but there wasn’t guidance for til undeath do us rejoin.

  She’d seen Sam’s face during the séance. If he were here, how could she show interest in another guy? That didn’t seem right.

  What was that clever saying? What separated humans from beasts was that they weren’t slaves to their impulses? People had the choice to act or not? People weren’t animals?

  She couldn’t remember the exact words, but the sentiment was there.

  Vivien had never cheated in her life, and she would not break that streak now. If Sam were back, she owed it to both of them to focus on those feelings.

  Plus, there was the fact her claircognizant gifts weren’t working all that well. She touched the ring on her forefinger, feeling the smooth stone. Things she should know where cloudy when she was around Troy. Her brain hyper-focused on everything around her, and she kept missing what was right in front of her. Troy confused things at a time when she needed to be clearheaded.

  However, that didn’t explain last night. No one else had been around, and she’d still been fuzzy after Troy pulled her out of the water. Blaming him wasn’t fair. It might not be his influence at all.

  Vivien hated this confusion. Her gifts hadn’t been this erratic since she was younger, and never this powerful. She felt like a hormonal teenager with her thought and feelings all over the place. She was one angsty, impulsive decision away from doing something she’d regret.

  Her mind mocked as the overly placid sound of her childhood sex education teacher filled her thoughts. “Your body is changing. New and wondrous things are happening inside you. It’s natural to notice boys, but you must never act on those impulses until after marriage. Vivien, are you paying attention?”

  Mrs. Roberts preached abstinence, but that was not what she practiced every Thursday afternoon in the football coach’s office.

  Vivien tried to focus her wayward thoughts as she glanced out of the passenger side window. She held her new cell phone, absently bouncing the device with her fingers. Lorna and William sat in the back seat. After taking her by the cellular store for the replacement, Heather drove the four of them to the theater to talk to Julia.

  Vivien saw an adolescent girl on her bicycle and knew she had a crush on an older boy. The woman in the front yard of a house secretly hated daisies because her husband had dated a woman named Daisy in college. The man on a riding lawn mower purposefully cut his grass too long so he’d have an excuse to mow again sooner. He also crooned show tunes in his underwear when his wife wasn’t home.

  All this useless information found its way into her brain like a personal reality TV show. Before they’d put on the rings, Vivien would have been able to see Troy’s intent to ask her. That trick was easy. It was also how she knew which guys in a bar would be up for some fun, and not possessive. Before Troy tried to ask her, she would have artfully dodged the question and moved him firmly in the friend zone. The thoughts of more would never have been considered a possibility—by either of them.

  “Vivien? You okay?” Lorna asked, leaning forward between the seats.

  “I’m getting a little bit of a headache from all the impressions I’m picking up. Also, no one eat at that fancy Italian restaurant. We just passed one of the cooks and, well, just don’t.”

  “All right then. So, pizza date instead?” William asked Lorna.

  “Yeah. Maybe that would be best,” Lorna agreed, as they instantly took Vivien’s word fo
r it.

  “And I’ve been thinking about what you were saying,” Vivien continued. “I know Troy is a nice guy, and I am attracted to him, but it’s not going to work. I can’t trust my instincts right now, and I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m an idiot. I said all kinds of stupid things when I gave him a ride home, and then he had to fish me out of the water. Trust me, no guy in their right mind would still want to ask me out after that. So I think we should just mark that off as not happening.”

  “So what I hear you saying is, you’re hoping that lame excuse will convince us not to pressure you to see him again,” William said. “As my buddy Will wrote, ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks.’”

  “I didn’t know you were friends with Shakespeare,” Lorna joked.

  “I’m a man of mystery,” William answered.

  Vivien turned around in her seat and arched a brow to get William to shut up. It didn’t work. He kept talking.

  “I mean, speaking from a completely male perspective here, we’re not so easily turned off when it comes to someone we like,” William continued. “You will have to try harder than saying something stupid.”

  “Wait. Are you saying I say stupid things and you still like me?” Lorna asked.

  “That’s what I heard,” Vivien said, eager to turn the conversation away from her.

  “Of course not. You are the most beautiful, brilliant, sweet, giving, smart, lovely person I have ever met,” William said.

  “Nice save,” Heather said.

  “My point is, if Troy likes you, your late-night swim probably activated his male-driven hero complex. Face it, you’re his damsel in distress now, and he’s your knight in shining armor.” William smirked, his tone light. “It’s all marriage and babies from here.”

  “Heather, I’m going to need you to pull over so I can beat up your brother,” Vivien said, keeping her eyes forward. Under her breath, she muttered, “Damsel in distress who needs saving, my ass.”

  “I didn’t make the rules,” William continued to tease. “It’s biological.”