She opened the Pearly Gates and I peered down at the lights twinkling in the smoky city, far below. I hesitated. It seemed such a long way down.
“Jump! You won’t hit the ground and, even if you did, you wouldn’t get hurt. Have a lovely time and give my love to John, Paul, George and Ringo.”
“I thought John and George were dead,” I said, startled.
“They are now, in 2012, not in 1967. The best thing about going back is you know what happens. You can enjoy it all without worrying. Go on, you’re wasting time - jump!”
I’ve always been terrified at the thought of jumping out of an aeroplane. Now I didn’t even have a parachute! My heart thumped and I shook with fright. I shut my eyes tightly; I couldn’t look at what lay before me. I might be dead, but it didn’t feel like that. Then I heard Ramona’s footsteps behind me and knew she was going to push me!
I jumped and, willy-nilly, I fell. The wind rushed past my ears. It sounded like fairy music, playing a tune I knew, once, a long time ago, in childhood. Now, as I listened, I remembered the melody. Startled, I opened my eyes. The Earth did not rush up, as I had imagined. The pearly gates glittered behind me and I floated in a star-spangled darkness. Spread out below me like a velvet map, were all the spires and cities and the mighty oceans.
As I came closer, I saw a dark river, winding below. The Tower of London shone white through the darkness. I passed St Pancras and Euston, busy with trains pulling out on their gleaming silver tracks. I veered sharply to the right and caught my breath as I flew straight into a brick wall. Instinctively I put out my hands to protect my face. As I did so, the brickwork peeled back before me and I was inside a building, with voices and people and music. I had arrived.
7th September 1967, Thursday evening, London.
I landed with a plop in the middle of an unmade bed. Several voices called out. The first one sounded American.
“Oh here she is.”
“At last!” The second was unmistakably Aussie.
“Get off my foot!” the American exclaimed.
“Hi, I’m Paco. You must be Ariane,” said a young man with long floppy hair. He had a strong Spanish accent, although his English was perfect.
The room was dark and packed with people. The only light came from a couple of candles, jammed into straw-covered wine bottles. They were all the rage in the Sixties. Three young girls, wearing baby doll pyjamas, sat close together, balancing an Ouija board precariously on their knees. The pointer whizzed round at a great rate. They looked pale and their fingers shook as they held onto it. I recognised Gigi by her short, frizzy blond hair and coffee-coloured skin.
The Guardians perched around them, leaning over at times to make the pointer move even faster. The girls gasped with fright every time they did so. The Guardians seemed a strange lot.
Paco looked like the picture on the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts’ Club Band. He had a beard and wore a sailor’s uniform, complete with epaulettes. The women’s micro-dresses were so psychedelic they made me dizzy when they moved. One was dark-skinned and exotic, with a yellow flower tucked behind her ear. The other had bright red hair and startling green eyes. Both of them were drop-dead gorgeous and would stand out in any crowd. Talk about being inconspicuous! My dress seemed too long and my make-up was faint by comparison. The dark woman leaned over and rubbed noses with me. I didn’t expect it, so I jumped and everyone laughed.
“Aloha, I’m Leilani,” she said. “Jane’s my client. That one.” She pointed to the girl with a brown ponytail.
“Leilani’s Hawaiian, in case you haven’t guessed,” the other woman explained. “She says she’s the one they wrote the song about. If so, the composer must have been having a bad day, she’s far from being ‘Sweet’ is Leilani.”
The Hawaiian lobbed a pillow at her. “She’s jealous because no one ever wrote anything about her. Can you imagine a song called ‘Sweet Maude’? She was a real old crone.”
“I had my moments.”
“When? On the prison ship, with all those captive men?” Leilani teased her.
“Sounds like an interesting experience.”
“Hectic doesn’t begin to describe it, mate. They put me on the wrong boat when I was transported. Not a trip I’d care to repeat, but we had some fun. They were real men in those days. I’ll tell you all about it later. Don’t mind Leilani - she likes her jokes. My client’s Adele, by the way, the tall blond.”
Paco had been fidgeting while we introduced ourselves. Now he jumped down from his perch and grabbed my arm.
“When you two have quite finished chattering, I’d like to brief Ariane and take off. I do have a country to save, you know.”
Maude raised her eyes to the ceiling and nudged Leilani. “Get him. If his head gets any bigger his hat won’t fit.”
“Some of us have specialist skills.” He glared at her. “You lot keep the séance going while I talk to Ariane!” Paco tapped me on the shoulder to get my full attention.
“Yes?”
“Gigi’s the one with the dark skin and blond hair, okay?”
“She looks just like her picture.”
“Ah, you read the briefing notes.” He smiled at me. “Good girl! Most people don’t bother. They’re so sloppy, these days. A couple of centuries ago, you’d get beaten if you didn’t do as you were told. Not a bad thing flogging, keeps everyone on their toes.”
“That’s not what you said when Captain de Silva thrashed you for insubordination.” Maude laughed.
“Mind your own business. They’re such busybodies round here.” Paco turned his back on the others, who giggled.
“Right, I’ll recap, sometimes the notes don’t tell the story simply enough. The task gets buried in the detail. In the next few months, Gigi is going to get pregnant. Not a problem you might say, but there are some inherent difficulties. Number one – which of her boyfriends is the father? One of them is in love with her and the other isn’t. Unfortunately, she loves the one who isn’t. Number two – her mother's going to come over from Antigua to sort things out. Oh boy, will she make a mess! Number three – well, you’ve read about that. Her baby has to be brought up by Finn. Otherwise there’ll be all sorts of nasty consequences for a lot of innocent people. Nice little problem for you. I was quite looking forward to it, but Alaska needs me more. Any questions?”
“Loads.”
“Ask them,” he sighed and looked at the watch symbol on his bracelet.
“How do I stop her? With free will, she can do as she likes. She’s going to sleep with two people almost at the same time and she’s got a bad memory. She won’t be as careful with contraception as she should be.”
“Read the Action Pack.”
“There’s nothing about preventing someone making love.”
“You can’t stop them having it off,” Paco said firmly.
“Isn’t sex before marriage supposed to be a sin?”
“In the Nineteen Sixties? You’re joking! People were like rabbits.”
“Don’t you know the Pill started the Sexual Revolution?” Maude asked me. The others were both eavesdropping.
“Yes, but...”
“In this decade they didn’t need to worry about AIDS and they’d just escaped from the Fifties, which were such boring straight-laced years. They’re enjoying themselves. Gigi’s quite tame compared to most. You can’t prevent her having sex with anyone she wants to. Your job is to stop the consequences.”
“How on Earth do I do that?”
“Use your imagination.”
“Set off the fire alarm at a crucial moment,” Maude said.
“Hide her contraception, when she’s with the right guy,” suggested Paco.
“Cut holes in her condoms,” murmured Leilani.
Paco became even crueller. “Ring 999 as they’re about to make love and shop them for smoking pot.”
“That’s mean!” I cried.
“Effective though. We could go on with this all night and I’ve reall
y got to go. Okay?”
“I suppose.”
“Right, one more thing to do before I vanish.” Paco leaned forward and started to guide the pointer to various letters. The three girls gasped.
“It’s stopped at ‘P’.” Adele scribbled the letter on her pad.
“That’s an ‘R,’” said Jane.
“An ‘E’.”
“G,” muttered Gigi.
“Pregnant. Are you saying someone’s preggers?” Jane demanded.
Paco swung the pointer to ‘yes’ so rapidly they all jumped.
“Good heavens!” Adele dropped her pencil and the girls stared at each other. “Who is pregnant?” Adele's voice shook.
‘G.’ Gigi went pale.
‘I’
“Gigi?” Both Jane and Adele turned to her. “You never told us.”
“That spirit’s got a bloody good imagination. Talk about an Immaculate Conception! And my mother didn't call me Mary.”
“The pointer’s moving again,” Jane said in a hushed tone.
‘Born …September.’
Adele counted on her fingers. “You’re going to have it off sometime in December.”
“Rubbish. I’m not with anyone and I don’t do one night stands. Who’s the father?” Gigi challenged.
‘You…you’ll…” Adele was writing furiously.
‘Find…out.’
Gigi jumped to her feet. Her face had gone bright red. “You’re not funny! Whoever is doing this has a warped sense of humour. I can take a joke, but that's the outside of enough. Goodnight, spirit, I’m leaving.” She jumped up, upsetting the Ouija board and stalked out of the room.
“Just as well. This is too scary. Do you think it means anything?” Jane asked in a small voice, shivering slightly.
“I doubt it, but we’ll find out in time.” Adele shrugged. “I’m glad the message was for Gigi and not for me. Either of us are more likely to get pregnant than she is at the moment. You weren’t moving the pointer, were you?”
“No. Were you?” asked Jane.
“No. Must be Gigi.”
“I don’t think so,” Jane said slowly. “She seemed pretty shaken up to me. She wouldn't act that way, if she’d been doing it herself. She’d laugh and confess she'd tricked us, just to see our expressions. I’m not sure I want to play with Ouija boards anymore.”
“Unless we had a reason to.”
“What do you mean?”
“Suppose, for a moment, everything we heard tonight came true. I would believe in the whole thing then and we might want to find out more.”
“That's a horrible thought! Don't say such things.” Jane went even paler. “I’m scared enough already. Never again.”
“Don’t worry; I don’t think anything will happen. Do you truly believe spirits exist and tell us about our future?” Adele folded the board away.
“Before tonight, I didn’t. Now I’m not so sure.” Jane pulled her bedclothes up round her shoulders. “The spirits seemed to know all sorts of weird things, like my grandmother’s name and her birthday. I’ve never mentioned them to you. It described your dog. You didn't tell us you had a dog when you were little. I don’t suppose I’ll sleep a wink but I’ve got to get up early, so I’m going to try. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
The door banged open and Gigi reappeared, still looking furious. “Night!” she snarled, climbed into her own bed and snapped off her light.
“Well, what did you think of that?” Paco asked us.
“Seemed like a good way to get a message across...” I said, trying to be diplomatic.
“...if you hadn’t frightened them into fits! They won’t take the Ouija board out for months now. Might have been useful,” Maude snapped, finishing my sentence. “You don’t believe in being subtle, Paco!”
“Subtlety’s for wimps.”
“Thanks a lot, cobber!”
“A good spook can use plenty of other methods to get attention, without a Ouija board.” Paco bent forward and kissed me on both cheeks, continental fashion, lingering deliberately over the last kiss. What’s with these sailors?
“I’ll leave you then. Enjoy yourself and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Not much left then,” Leilani murmured. “Bye.”
“Fat chance,” said Maude. “Go save the world, sailor boy.”
“Well, now he's out of the way, thank heavens,” Maude exclaimed, as he vanished. “We can enjoy a girly night in, until our clients wake up and need us. They won’t stir for hours, so let's party.”
“I love sleepovers and I came prepared to welcome you, once I knew you were on your way.” Leilani touched her bracelet, which looked like a circle of delicate orchids. A plaited straw basket, full of food, plonked down beside her. She passed round chocolate, strawberries, macadamia nuts and glasses of cold white wine. “Picnics always remind me of home. Every Sunday we used to go to the beach and stay the night. All the stars were shining and the moon came up. We’d sleep on the warm sand until the sun woke us in the morning, then we’d go surfing. This is the proper way to welcome a new friend, where I come from. Just because we’re in the centre of London, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do the same. Come on, now everything’s quiet, tell us all about yourself.”
7th September 1967, Thursday night, London.
Gigi’s hostel is horrid. Each room has four beds, four wardrobes, four sets of drawers and four chairs. A grimy picture window gives a panoramic view of Euston Station, with its constant stream of taxis. All the walls are cream; the curtains faded institutional green and the lino brown. So tasteful! The girls aren’t even allowed to put posters up, to relieve the grimness. The only good thing about Gigi’s room is that one of the beds is empty, which gives them a little more space. In a word, it’s stark. That changed, temporarily at least.
The three of us settled comfortably on the spare bed. Leilani screwed up her face and pushed hard on her bracelet. Our surroundings transformed. Suddenly palm trees danced against the night sky, surf broke at our feet and a driftwood fire with leaping flames appeared. London disappeared and we were in Waikiki.
“Much better.’’ Leilani leaned back to toast her toes.
At first I was concerned we would disturb our clients, but Maude assured me they could not see or sense anything.
“They stir occasionally, but they never wake. We’d need to do something drastic to get their attention. Drop a ton of bricks, perhaps, or pour water on their heads. If they heard us, they'd only think we are part of their dreams, and there are worse nightmares than this! Now, we want to know all about you. It’s fun to meet someone new.”
“My history will bore you to tears,” I protested.
“I bet it won’t. No one’s is as bad as that. Do tell, unless you really don’t want to.”
“Well. You did ask.” I shrugged. “I died aged twenty-five. My parents loved me and I had a happy home. I grew up and got a job in the Careers Service. I went into hospital for a minor operation and died. I never did anything special with my life.”
“Most people don’t,” Maude said. “Did you want to?”
“I suppose I did. I left very little behind me, except my family, not even children.” The old dream flashed into my mind and I saw myself holding Michael’s baby. Angrily I pushed the picture away. Something must have shown in my face, though, for Leilani asked,
“What are you thinking about?”
“A former boyfriend...” I hesitated.
“Maude is certain to worm the story out of you,” Leilani said with a laugh.
“I’m not that crass!” protested Maude. “We all keep some things private and we’ve had our own problems, even me.”
“Sometimes saying things aloud takes the pain away,” said Leilani.
I nodded, not believing her, but I liked these two women. Their empathy enfolded me like a warm blanket. In some ways it would be a relief to speak out, so I did.
“The man in my life was Michael. From the first mom
ent I met him, I wanted to be with him forever but, once I was dead, he betrayed me with my best friend.” Hesitantly, I described the scene in the portal.
“So you rushed off and came down here. We did wonder, when Brenda told us how new you were.”
“This seemed like a good way to forget him.”
“We’ll make sure you do,” they said in chorus and we all smiled.
“Well that’s me,” I concluded. “Not much to tell. I had a short life and a happy one. At least I thought so; until I found out I’d got Michael all wrong.”
“You’ve been unlucky,” Maude said sympathetically. “Heaven’s not supposed to be like that. You should be glowing with wonder at this moment.”
“I think you did the right thing coming here,” Leilani murmured. “No point in moaning; better to get on with your life.”
“Looking forward is more fun than looking back. Lots of things for you to enjoy in the future. You won't be sad again, believe me.”
They had made me feel a little better and I wanted to know their stories in return. Curiosity is one of my worst failings – that and gossip, of course.
“What about you two?” I asked.
They both had had longer and more interesting lives than me. I was fascinated and envious.
“You first.” Maude nodded to Leilani.
Leilani took a sip of wine and said softly, “I worked at Hickham field, Hawaii, on December 7th 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. I had the early duty, working in the office, sorting lists and mail. It was a lovely day. I remember looking out of the window and thinking how peaceful everything seemed. Suddenly, swarms of bombers screamed in. They skimmed along the runway, firing at anyone who moved. Bombs went off everywhere. Our pilots tried to get into their planes to fight back. Some of them died immediately and others were injured. A friend of mine fell down in front of me, shot in the leg. He crawled away, to get to shelter. I ran outside to help him and died instantly.”
“What she hasn’t mentioned is - she threw herself on top of him. She tried to protect him, but the bullets went through both of them. She’s a right little hero.”
Ghost Diaries 1_Gigi's Guardian_Paranormal Romance Page 5