by Alexie Aaron
Jesse took out a chemical mask and put it on. Next, he sprayed the wood that needed to be removed bright orange. He moved in a circle, careful to support each step. The heat of the confined space had fogged up the mask, making it impossible to see clearly. He took it off, cleaned away the condensation, and put it back on. There, twelve feet from him, was a dark shadow. Jesse looked around, trying to find the light source and the object that was casting such a cylindrical shadow.
“What the devil are you?” he asked, his words muffled by the mask. He thumbed his radio and sent out an emergency tone as the black mass rushed at him.
Kiki’s head snapped around as her radio blared. She read the display, “Scrub is in trouble.” She clicked over as she ran towards the center staircase. “Walrus, you got eyes on Scrub?”
“No. I think he was heading into the attic, hunting wood rot.”
Cid, who was momentarily reeling from the loud tone, set his jaw and turned his head. “I hear him over us.”
Kiki was halfway up the stairs when Cid passed her. “Entrance is through the bathroom on your right!” she called after him.
Cid burst into the attic space and jumped back as something mammoth and black lunged out of the darkness at him. He dug into his pocket and pulled out the saltshaker, Mia had made him promise to keep on him. He emptied most of it into his hand and tossed the salt into the center of the blackness.
High-pitched screaming filled the attic.
Cid winced at the assault on his ears but moved forward. The mass shrunk into a small ball before fading out entirely. Cid moved the light around and found Jesse. He was dangling upside down from a roofing joist.
His face was turned away from Cid. He couldn’t tell if his friend was breathing. Cid sidestepped his way to Jesse.
“How is he?” Kiki asked from the opening.
Cid picked up his friend’s upper body to release the pressure on his head. Jesse started coughing.
“He’s alive. I could use some help,” Cid told her.
Kiki moved gracefully in the cramped space, avoiding the orange-sprayed wood. She reached up and pulled the man’s jean leg off the spike on which it had been hooked.
Cid felt the full weight of Jesse. Kiki quickly grabbed his legs and slid-walked backward as they carried him out of the attic and into the bathroom, laying him on the floor.
Walrus was there with the first-aid kit. He took Jesse’s vitals and smiled. “He’s going to live. Good thing too, he’s my partner in horseshoes tonight.”
“Glad to hear you have my welfare uppermost in your mind,” Jesse said through gritted teeth.
“I think he’s faking it, Boss,” Walrus said, packing up his gear.
“Clark, you’re pretty quiet. What’s your assessment?” Kiki asked.
“I’m no doctor.”
“He’s a ghost hunter,” Jesse reminded them.
“Paranormal investigator,” Cid clarified.
“Well, you don’t get more paranormal than Scrub,” Walrus said.
“In that case, he’s displaying cold burns on his leg from contact with an entity,” Cid said, pulling up Jesse’s pant leg to show the red-marked skin on his leg.
“Damn, that looks nasty,” Walrus said. “I’ve got some Neosporin in here somewhere,” he said, digging in the box and coming up with a tube. He handed it to Cid, who dabbed some on the rough patches and wound some gauze around the battered shin to keep the wounds clean.
“Mind telling us what happened?” Kiki asked.
“Not in front of Wayne,” Jesse said.
“Walrus will keep his big mouth shut if he wants to have July 4th off,” Kiki said, aiming her words at the large man.
Walrus, also known as Wayne Shipley, groaned but nodded his head. “You know, you’re un-American if you expect this crew to work the 4th.”
Kiki glared at the six-foot-six, 250-pound man. “My crew, my hours.”
He held up his hand in surrender. “I’ll not breathe a word, Boss.”
“Go on, Scrub, tell us how the hell you got yourself hung upside down in the hall attic.”
“I was just finishing up spraying for wood rot when I saw this column of black. At first I thought it was a shadow, but there isn’t enough light in there to cause such a thing. It came at me so fast, I barely had time to press the emergency button. It slammed me down, grabbed my leg, and hung me up. The blood rushed to my head, and that’s all I remember, until I woke up in Cid’s arms.”
“It was still there when I got to the entrance of the attic,” Cid said. “It pushed out at me. I got the idea it wasn’t going to let me in, so I blasted it with a handful of salt. It worked; so that’s how I know we’re dealing with a ghost. They hate being hit with salt. It burns them,” Cid informed them.
“Do you always carry salt around with you?” Kiki asked.
“In my business, you do. It’s a habit, but in this case, it proved to be a good habit,” Cid said proudly.
“Huh. So we have ourselves a ghost problem. Explains a few things, like that busted board on the scaffold,” Kiki said.
“And the electric cords being unplugged,” Walrus added.
“The missing circular-saw blades,” Kiki added.
“How long have these little things being going on?” Cid asked.
“Since we started prepping for the new heating system,” Jesse said.
“Maybe you woke something up,” Cid said, not really wanting to be the ghost guy. “Has this house gone through any renovations prior to this?”
“The kitchen was updated as needed,” Kiki told him.
Jesse made motions to get up, and Cid helped him to his feet. Walrus stood by to catch him if he keeled over.
“How far did you get on the wood rot check?” Cid asked.
“I have the perimeter of the attic to do.”
“I’ll finish it,” Cid offered.
“What about the ghost?”
“Oh, he’s got a bellyful of salt to deal with. I don’t think we’ll see it for a while. It’s got to power up.”
“What happens when it’s powered up?” Kiki asked.
“Depends on the ghost. Chaos, isolated attacks, or communication of some kind, hopefully.” Cid ducked into the attic.
“Clark,” Kiki called.
“Yes?”
“Be careful, we don’t need a Superman here; we need a decent carpenter.”
“Yes, Boss,” Cid said, smiling.
Cid took the time, after he finished the rot search, to check out every hidey-hole in the attic space. He had worked with the best of the best paranormal investigators, and he was determined to put that education to use. He had a go bag full of equipment in the back of his truck. Ted made him take it along with him.
“You never know, dude, what you’ll run into in a home renovation,” Ted had said.
“Hey, remember when we brainstormed having a ghost eradication service for contractors?” Cid asked.
“Yes. Can you see your buds taking seriously suggestions for the proper way to prepare a house for renovation to avoid disturbing the dead?” Ted asked.
“Nah. It’s all rip in and repair after,” Cid had acknowledged. “Mind if I give Mia a call if I run into a problem?” he asked.
“I think she’d be insulted if you didn’t. We’re going to miss you here,” Ted said, pulling his friend in for a hug.
Cid probed the old insulation, and it was devoid of bones. Birds hadn’t even invaded the space above the hall. Insect activity was maintained adequately by the spiders. Mia would hate it up here. She could take on a demon from hell but ran screaming if a spider dropped down on her. He would poke around on his free time to see if he could find out why Hidden Meadow was haunted and by who.
Chapter Two
Highway Ranches turned out to be quite a nice little community of long- and short-stay cabins. The construction crew managed to nab a group farthest from the busy interstate. Cid’s cabin was small but miraculously equipped with an extra-long twin bed.
The proprietress told Cid, because of the long range trucker clientele, she outfitted most of the cabins with the long beds.
He followed the sound of metal thuds, with an occasional click, as the horseshoes found the stake. Boos and cheers depended on the player. There were quite a few jeers too.
“Beer in the cooler. We collect a weekly tenner from everyone,” Walrus said, holding his hand out.
Cid handed over his ten, pulled out an icy can of Coors and found a seat on a neighboring picnic table to watch the action.
Jesse tossed a ringer which made Walrus hoot with pleasure.
Two contractors, Cid had yet to meet, groaned.
Jesse walked over. “Cid, I’d like you to meet Gary and Pete, also known as Holy Shit and What the Fuck.”
“Gary, Pete,” Cid said, shaking the men’s hands in turn.
“What’s the boss calling you?” Pete asked.
“Clark.”
“Clark?”
“Cid’s got super hearing. His crew back home call him Superman,” Jesse explained.
“Superman, huh,” Pete said, looking him over. “Nah, you’re too ugly. Clark is better.”
“Thanks,” Cid said.
“Just call ‘em as I see ‘em.”
Walrus tossed another ringer.
“What the fuck is that?” Pete said. “You got that thing magnetized again?”
Gary walked up and tossed a ringer of his own.
“Got to go, the pressures on,” Jesse said and left Cid.
Cid drank his beer and greeted the workers he knew as they arrived. He answered questions and took the ribbing he got over his nickname good-naturedly. Jesse returned, and the teasing changed to Jesse being trussed up like a side of beef in the attic.
“I would have been supper if it weren’t for Cid.”
“Nah, Kiki was on my heels,” Cid dismissed.
“But would she have been able to handle the ghost?” Jesse asked.
“She probably would have given it a befitting name and breezed right by,” Cid told him. “Like airhead or smoky.”
This caused the others to laugh.
A very ripped, black man walked over. “Man is it hot out,” he said, taking off his shirt. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on the man. The definition of his stomach made Cid suck in his.
“That’s Gut,” Jesse said. “Otherwise known as Carl.”
“I seem to have fallen down a rabbit hole,” Cid said. “Nothing is as advertised.”
Carl laughed. “The boss is an odd little duck, but man, she knows her stuff.”
“So what’s your story?” Carl asked.
“Story?”
“Occupation?”
“Been hired on to match the woodwork and trim pieces after you guys are done with the renovation,” Cid said.
“Cid and me worked for Heritage before they went belly up,” Jesse explained. “He just finished adding on to a friend’s farmhouse and supervised a whatchamacallit.”
“Aerie. It’s a guesthouse with an aerie on top,” Cid explained, taking his phone out and showing Carl the pictures.
Carl thumbed through the photos, stopping on Mia’s picture. “Isn’t that… The Ice Queen! How do you know her?” he asked. “My son has her picture in his dorm room.”
“She’s married to my best friend. I work with her.”
“Lucky.”
“Holy shit!” Gary said taking the iPhone from Carl. “You work with the Ice Queen? What are you, a model?”
“No. I’m a cameraman,” Cid said uncomfortably.
“What’s she like?”
“Funny and bossy,” Cid said, wishing they would change the conversation.
“She’s Ted’s wife?” Jesse asked.
“Yes.”
“Ted, as in Nerdy Ted who thinks he’s Batman, Ted,” Jesse clarified.
“Yes. They have a boy named Brian and another one on the way. I’m Brian’s godfather.”
Gary thumbed back to the farmhouse. “That’s a gem. Did you renovate it?”
“No, but I put on the extension. It starts here.”
Gary was impressed. “Seamless. The big windows give it away as a new addition, but I like the way you blended the style.”
“They wanted a place to grow herbs year round. Above it is a sitting room that connects the nursery and the master bedroom. The addition also gave the master suite a bigger bathroom and closets.”
“Good job. Now this building…”
“Mia - that’s the Ice Queen - inherited a truckload of valuable books. The bottom floor is open, filled with bookcases, couches, tables, and a small kitchen. Upstairs are two guest suites, and on the third floor, an aerie.”
“It’s pretty big for birds.”
“We have very large birds,” Cid said.
“Cool. We’re having a problem deciding whether or not to cut into that stairway to run the ducting from the west air system. We don’t want to destroy it. Could you look at it tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
Kiki watched the group from the back window of her cabin. She didn’t want to intrude. The boys needed a place to complain about the boss and use language a few of them wouldn’t use in her presence. She would join them when the pizzas she ordered arrived. She did this whenever a new guy joined her crew. Tomorrow, she wanted to introduce Cid to a few of the more talented local workers. He would need a team in order to complete his projects on time. The situation in the attic bothered her. It wasn’t the first time she had found herself in a project where they had woken something up. Normally, it settled down after making its displeasure known. However, this one felt different. She had felt the eyes on her back and the chill that accompanied the little pushes she braced herself for. The rule of working in an old house was: keep a hand on the stair rail at all times.
“Pizza’s here!” Kiki shouted as she walked over carrying a stack of boxes.
Cid quickly closed the distance and took half the boxes from her. To take them all would have demeaned her. He’d learned that being gallant sometimes wasn’t a good thing. Mia had schooled him well in dealing with independent women.
“Thanks, Clark,” Kiki said. They set the boxes down on one of the tables. Kiki pulled out a stack of napkins and paper plates from her back where she had secured them with her belted jeans. The guys didn’t care. Half of them wouldn’t use plates, and most wouldn’t use a napkin when a shirtsleeve or pant leg would do.
“What’re the standings?” she asked Pete.
“Jesse and Walrus have bested the bunch. I think the ghosties are helping Jesse because he couldn’t get a ringer unless he was standing on top of the stake.”
“Holy Shit, you’re full of shit,” Jesse said with a mouth full of pizza.
“Gut, have you heard from your missus?” Kiki asked.
“She’s touring colleges with the genius,” Carl said. “Anna’s thinking MIT. They are offering classes and books, and we’re gonna have to pick up room and board. I want her to go local, but she wants out.”
“If she needs a reference, I’ll talk to Hal and have him send something.”
“I’ll let you know what she decides.”
“Who’s Hal?” Cid asked Jesse.
“He’s the owner of the house. We’re not sure if it’s his real name or one of Kiki’s.”
Cid nodded, looking around at the group of men. Some were married, most were not. Traveling and working on these special projects didn’t allow too much time for dating. The only women on their crews were local, and hands off, according to Kiki’s rules. The amount Cid was being paid was well worth obeying her rules. Besides, he was in the early stages of a romance with Patty. He was moving slowly. Patty was worth waiting for. This summer, she was taking some management classes, and there wasn’t time to date, let alone phone calls. They sent a few emails to each other when there was time.
Cid’s phone vibrated, alerting him he had a text.
Proof of life, Ted demanded.
Cid pulled the phone aw
ay from his body for a selfie. The guys around him crowded in. He snapped the picture and sent it off.
“Wife?” Kiki asked.
“Nope, best friend. He and his wife are looking after me. I was going to call them later.”
“In my family, no news is good news,” Kiki said. “Besides, Mimi and I have this twin thing.” Cid focused in on her face while she explained, “If either of us is in trouble, we get this pulsing headache.”
“That is so cool,” he said. “I’ve been around some mind readers, and I’d rather have a pulse instead of a full-scale brain invasion.”
“Mind reading, I’d hate that. The last thing I want to know is what that crew is thinking, if they think at all. Right, What the Fuck?”
“Right, Boss,” Pete answered.
A distant rumble of thunder had the group breaking up. The remaining pizza was divvied up and the area cleaned up before the first drop of rain hit.
“Cid, I’ve got to go and check on the kitchen tarp,” Walrus said. “Mind helping me out?”
“Sure. Let me grab my go bag.”
“We’re not spending the night,” Walrus protested.
“No, it’s for the other problem.”
“Oh yeah. Bring it,” Walrus said.
“I’ve got a good team of local workers, but they are a little lax on details when it comes to squaring away at the end of the day. I have the whole back of the kitchen exposed at the moment. It was easier to take out the stone wall and rebuild it to fit the new window. Well, the window came in. Wrong window. So we’re screwed until late tomorrow,” Walrus explained.
They turned onto the lane. The plow wind was whipping the limbs of the arborvitae wildly in front of them.
“Looks like a carwash, doesn’t it?” Walrus said as his old truck pushed through as they climbed upwards.