Hamlet’s Ghost

by Jane Tara

  “No idea, he’s disappeared.”

  Kip rose above her, panicked. “You must find him. What if something happens to him?”

  “He’s a grown man. He needs some space to deal with this—and the fact that he has a sister.”

  Kip’s eyes bulged. “Jesus. Collette had another baby? The woman must be pushing sixty.”

  “I’m talking about me, you idiot.”

  “You’re pregnant? That would explain the weight gain.”

  “You know, death has turned you into a moron. Obviously I’m not pregnant at my age.”

  “Oh…well how do I know what advances they’ve made in those areas? Those smart phones are quite unnerving, as is Demi Moore…Hold on—sister?”

  Crystal shook her head. “The penny drops.”

  “Oh god, Crystal…your daughter is twenty-eight, right?”

  “Our daughter is twenty-eight.”

  And with that Kip began to moan. He began to wail. He hunched over himself, curled tight in a ball, and let out the most hideous, haunting cry.

  Crystal rushed to his side. “Oh darling, please don’t.”

  “I didn’t even know that I could cry, Cryssie.” He kept going. “I have a daughter?”

  “You do. And she’s wonderful and talented and you’d be very proud of her.”

  “Oh, Cryssie.”

  “She wants to meet you.”

  His eyes bulged. “No, impossible. I’d scare her. I’m not me. I have nothing to give. Oh god that fucking roof really screwed things up for me.”

  “No, love, it was your time.”

  “It wasn’t, it wasn’t…”

  Crystal tried to calm him down. “Kip, Rhi, Tye and I have been talking.”

  “Like a little coven.”

  “You need to cross over. We want to help you cross over.”

  He lifted him head, hurt. “Don’t you want me around?”

  “I wish I could have you around forever. But it’s not fair to Tye and Tad. And, my love…it’s not fair to you. You’re stuck.”

  “It is a bit endless,” he admitted.

  “We’re going to stage Hamlet.”

  Kip cracked a smile. “That’s funny.”

  “I’m serious. We’re going to cast actors who can see you, and invite an audience of psychics. You will have your moment.”

  Kip went quiet. He moved to the corner and hovered there, his form hazier than usual.

  “You don’t want that?”

  “I’ve always wanted that, Crystal.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  His form disappeared and then became visible again. It was as though there was a short circuit. Each time he reappeared he had his hands to his head, as though trying to shake off a terrible memory.

  “Darling, speak to me.” Crystal stood and moved toward him. Each step closer became more difficult. His energy was shaky and heavy. “Don’t you want to finish Hamlet, Kip?”

  He turned to her, grief etched across his spectacular features. “I always wanted that. And you think I want to be here? I didn’t choose this. I never would’ve have chosen this.” He began to shake, and as he did, his form rose and grew clear, filled with rage.

  Crystal stepped back. “Kip…calm down.”

  He began to spin. Around him a vortex of energy and shadows collected a pile of papers and they rotated faster and faster in a whirlwind of fury.

  “Kip, please.”

  Faster and faster until a specter of darkness filled the room.

  “I’m here because of her!”

  The full force of Kip’s rage threw Crystal across the room. She felt her body slam against the wall, and then everything went black.

  *

  Crystal felt faint from shock. Kip was standing in the doorway of her shop, an apologetic grin on his face and a baby in his arms. It had been just over two years since she’d seen him. Each day had been a battle between her heart and her mind. She had moved on from the old apartment. She’d opened her first shop, a tiny hovel of a place on the Lower East Side, where she provided readings and mixed charms. It didn’t take long for people to talk about how good she was, so her client list had grown exponentially and she was now looking for a new place to rent. She’d even been on a few dates, but no one could erase her feelings for Kip.

  And looking at him now, he knew it.

  “This is my son, Tad.”

  The baby beamed up at Crystal and her heart shifted gears. She knew immediately she was a goner, for him as much as his father.

  “It’s good to see you Crystal.”

  “I’m not sure if it’s good to see you, Kip.”

  He at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

  Kip peered around at the small table where Crystal’s tarot cards were placed, a chair either side. By the curtained window was a two-seater mahogany settee with a hand-reeded seat. The walls were lined with shelves containing all sorts of magical tools and potion jars. In the corner was a cash register.

  “I like your shop.” He seemed nervous.

  “Why are you here?”

  Kip burst into tears. “I have nowhere else to go.”

  Crystal closed the shop for the day and took Kip back to her studio apartment three blocks away. After putting Tad down for a nap, Kip told her the mess he was in.

  “I’m not sure how I ended up in a relationship with Brigid.”

  “Would you like me to remind you?”

  “God, Cryssie…I know, I know. I fucked up so badly. But what I mean is…I’ve never really liked her. She’s beautiful and cool…and a stupid part of me saw conquering her as a challenge, but I never felt comfortable with her, like I did with you.”

  “You make me sound like a pair of old slippers.”

  “Is that so bad?”

  “Obviously it was. You ran a mile.”

  “I’m so sorry, Cryssie. So very sorry. I’ll admit I wasn’t ready to settle down, but that’s exactly what I saw happening with you. It scared the hell out of me. I loved you. I don’t know what possessed me to throw that away.” Kip stared down at his hands, which were still shaking. “Brigid and I found a place in Astoria. Things were difficult right from the start. Then about a year ago I got a small role on The World Turns and Turns. Only a week’s work, but I met Collette.”

  “Collette Kelly?” Even Crystal knew of her and she’d never watched the show. “Are you telling me that little boy in there is Collette’s, not Brigid’s?”

  Kip’s eyes widened when he realized what Crystal had been thinking. “Tad’s not Brigid’s. Hell, Crystal, that woman will devour her young when she has them. I would never…” He paused for a moment and sighed. “Mind you, I didn’t expect this either. It was a one-night thing. But Collette and I…She’s cool. She doesn’t want a relationship with me but we’re on the same page with Tad.”

  “And Brigid?”

  “It’s over.”

  Crystal took a deep breath. She needed to muster as much strength as she could right now. He was single. He had a child. Of course he’d come back to her. But this time she would not be a pushover.

  “I didn’t have the guts to tell Brigid about Collette until just before Tad was born. She scares me, Crystal. I was trying to extract myself first, but the night I told her…she went nuts. Crazy. She screamed and made threats and threw things at me…and then—”

  Kip paled, as if all the blood from his body had drained out the soles of his feet.

  “What happened, Kip?”

  “She cursed me.”

  Ice coursed through Brigid’s veins. “Are you sure?”

  “One hundred percent. She cursed me, Crystal, and I feel it. Every day since, I’ve felt doomed.” He turned to her, grabbed her hands as if clutching hold for dear life. “It’s why I’m here. If something happens to me, I’m begging you to keep an eye on Tad.”

  Crystal was shocked to the core. “Of course.”

  “You’re the only person I trust.”

  *

&nb
sp; “Crystal? Cryssie, please wake up.”

  Crystal slowly opened her eyes and the room spun into view. She looked at Kip, who was kneeling beside her.

  “I’m so sorry.” He looked like he was about to cry.

  Crystal carefully sat up. “No, Kip, I’m sorry. I failed you.”

  Kip wouldn’t hear of such a thing. “You’re the one person who never failed me. The one person I could always trust.”

  “That’s not actually true.”

  He leaned closer to her, until she looked him in the eyes. “I love you. I always have, ever since I first saw you in that cafe eating that apple pie. All those other women who wouldn’t eat because they were watching their weight, and you there, with a slab of pie covered in cream—you were as gorgeous and delicious as what you were digging into.”

  “And now look at me. I should’ve steered clear of that pie.”

  “You’re still that girl to me.”

  Crystal began to sob. “I wish we’d grown old together. I wish you could touch me, Kip.”

  And in that moment, the Fates took pity on the lovers. The universe opened its veils and Kip reached forward and touched her. The tips of his fingers stroked her face. It was brief, but real and precious. Then the veils closed again. And they stared into each other’s eyes, more grief-stricken then ever.

  “I’ll make everything right for you, Kip, but you must promise me something.”

  “Anything.”

  “Start rehearsing Hamlet.”

  “What’s the point if I can’t cross over?”

  “You concentrate on Hamlet, and leave that one to me.”

  Kip nodded. “Anyone else…but you, I trust.”

  “I wish you hadn’t.”

  Chapter 38

  Rhi racked her brain about how to approach Hamlet. She could hardly stage a fully rehearsed version in two weeks. She pored over the play and decided that with some careful editing, it could be performed with seven actors.

  Kip wasn’t sold. “Seven? Impossible.”

  “It’s not impossible. In fact, I saw the play performed in New York a couple of years ago with a cast of four, and it was excellent. It got amazing reviews.”

  “From who? Staten Island Express?”

  “The New York Times and New York Magazine.”

  Kip was suddenly interested, although he still pretended not to be. “Is that so? I guess we could be a little experimental.”

  “In our production, the actor playing Hamlet is dead. That’s about as experimental as it gets.”

  “Shall I direct?”

  “Kip, I’m directing. My theater now, my rules.”

  “I’m glad Tad likes feisty women. He takes after me.”

  It was agreed, they would perform with a small cast. But even more complicated, Rhi needed actors who could see Kip. At a point in her life when she wanted to reject her roots, she needed to draw on them. Her extended Wiccan family was filled with actors and performers. Spellcrafting often involved great performance and theatrics, so it was natural that the arts and magical crafts often went together.

  Rhi thought long and hard about who could help her. Toby was an obvious choice for lighting design, while his girlfriend Darna was both a gifted actress and seer. Ren agreed to stage manage. Apparently her grandmother read tea leaves, so she didn’t think the reason for the performance strange at all. Finn would do sound. Rhi’s friend Anton was both a witch and a Julliard graduate, while an old friend from Columbia, Juan, was one of the most powerful psychics she knew. Both were working regularly in TV and film and Anton had just been signed for a pilot.

  “I’d prefer if no one knew about this,” he said. “They’re predicting big things for this series I’m in and I don’t want me being a witch to overshadow my work on that.”

  “I hear you, Anton. And I promise, this is a closed performance, with only family and friends who are practitioners of the craft in the audience.”

  “You aren’t inviting Dee Dee Duprey are you?”

  “Goddess, no. She always puts her celebrity gossip column before the craft.”

  “Okay, count me in.”

  Word spread around the small but diverse community of witch actors that a very unusual production of Hamlet was casting. Rhi received about two dozen calls, which were whittled down to a list of seven who were willing to drive to Hamlet to audition.

  “Won’t you be holding auditions in New York?” asked one actress.

  “Impossible. The actors need to meet our Hamlet and he can’t travel.”

  “He sounds difficult.”

  Never truer words spoken, thought Rhi as she sat through the casting process, listening to Kip bitch and moan. She’d grown to care deeply about him. She enjoyed his company. He often had her in hysterics. He was handsome—Rhi had to stop herself from staring, he was so exquisitely carved—but right now he also reminded her that she hadn’t heard from Tad. No one had. And she was worried. She didn’t mention anything to Kip—he was unbearable enough when he was stressed. So she kept her mouth shut, and tried not to look at him too often. Difficult to do when he was sprawled out across three seats near her. Instead, she focused on the actors who were making their way out onto the stage one by one.

  “Clare, first let’s talk about your physic abilities. Can you see anyone but me in this room?”

  Clare pointed to Kip. “Him.”

  Kip slapped a hand across his face and covered his eyes, as if it was too much to witness. “I have a name.”

  “And how would you explain your gifts, Clare?” Rhi continued.

  “I’m clairaudient, clairvoyant and clairsentient.”

  Kip burst into howls of laughter. “No pun intended, right?”

  Rhi cracked up too, covering her face with her clipboard. She couldn’t help it. Kip made her laugh.

  Clare looked baffled. “Did I say something funny?”

  “The whole ‘My name is Clare and I’m clairvoyant, clairsentient’ thing is a scream,” said Kip.

  “Oh, I’d never even thought about that.”

  Kip turned his attention away from her and shouted, “Next!”

  A confused Clare was hustled out the door and in her place came Yolo, in his early twenties. Kip took an immediate dislike to him and vice versa.

  “What sort of name is Yolo? You don’t look Asian,” Kip snapped.

  “It’s my life motto, dude, and it kind of caught on so now everyone calls me Yolo: you only live once.”

  Kip rolled his eyes. “I could argue that, but what joy would I gain from waging wits with you?”

  “Let’s just concentrate on the scene I gave you, between Hamlet and Horatio,” Rhi suggested.

  “So you want me to read this Hamlet dude?” Yolo asked.

  “Oh for heaven’s sake, the man is a twit.” Kip turned to Yolo. “I know you act like you had a roof fall on your head, but since that actually happened to me, Hamlet is mine.”

  “Okay, chill. I’ll read Horace.”

  “Horatio,” Rhi corrected.

  Kip tilted his head back and relayed the lines. Even in his frustration, he was superb.

  “So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other; You do remember all the circumstance?”

  Yolo followed from the script. “Yeah, like remember it, my lord?”

  Kip threw his hands into the air. “Enough. I refuse to share the stage with this barbarian. He’s crucifying the Bard’s language.”

  “Fine by me, dude. You take it all too seriously, anyway,” Yolo said dismissively, leaving the stage.

  “Of course I take it seriously, you imbecile. I was killed during this play. It tends to color things.”

  Kip was furious with Rhi. “Where did you find him?”

  “Through a friend. He channels.”

  “I want to change channels every time he opens his mouth.”

  “Settle down, you’ll have a coronary,” Rhi teased and then pretended she realized something. “Oh no, already dead, so rage away.”

&
nbsp; “Ha ha. And I won’t settle down. I’m absolutely amazed that anyone on the spiritual plane would use that dipstick as a vessel to pass on wisdom. Please tell me the next actor is of a higher caliber.”

  “Kip, beggars can’t be choosers. Actors who can also see ghosts are a little thin on the ground.”

  “Rubbish. I spent years around actors and they’ll all tell you how they’ve seen a ghost at some stage. They’re metaphysically open by nature.”

  “They also all like to drink and talk crap.”

  Fortunately, Kip liked the next applicant. Perhaps a little too much.

  “Jessica. That’s a pretty name.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Do you get a lot of work, Jessica? You should. You’re stunning.”

  “I’m focused on taking character roles at the moment.”

  “Are you nuts? You’re a knockout. Milk it, you foolish girl.”

  “I’m looking for longevity in the industry.”

  Kip snorted. “So was I, and look where it got me. I should’ve taken that pretty-boy role on Days of Our Lives…but no, I wanted to be a serious actor. Can’t get much more serious than being stuck in a regional theater for thirty fucking years.”

  Jessica didn’t bat a long eyelash. “Yeah, well, if I find myself in a similar situation, I know who to call.”

  Kip didn’t miss a beat. “Ghostbusters?”

  Jessica cracked up, and both Rhi and Kip joined in.

  “I like her,” Kip shouted to the stars. “Give her the role.”

  The cast was announced. Rhi would play Ophelia and Osric. The other main characters were divvied up between Darna, Jessica, Anton and Juan. There were just a few minor characters left, but they’d run out of options of who should play them.

  “Chandler Wheeler,” Kip said.

  “The local Chandler Wheeler, who occasionally reads tarots at Crystal’s shop?”

  “That one. He will do it for me. He was a friend.”

  Rhi tried to be diplomatic. “He’s not the greatest tarot reader. He’s a little hit and miss.”

  “Same goes for his acting. But he’ll understand what’s happening and he will support me.”

  It turned out that Chandler was more than happy to be involved. He was very emotional when Rhi explained what was going on. When he heard that Kip had been stuck in the theater all these years, he burst into tears.