“Well, he saved my life not once, but twice now. I’ll do anything I need to, to keep the big lug happy.” Not thinking, I reached down to ruffle his fluffy head, drawing my hand back quickly as soon as I felt the cold. “Crap. Oh, sorry, ma’am! I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Being able to pet Toby, sometimes I forget I can’t pet Jake, too. I feel bad about that all the time.”
She shook her head, laughing. “It’s all right, Roxanne. Elmer has told me so much about you and his years here, while he was waiting to come back to me. If it’s okay with Ms. Stone and if they’re still up there in the attic, like Elmer thinks they might be, there’s something I would like you to have.” She looked over at Elmer, who nodded.
“They’re in one of the bins next to our Memory chest,” he said.
“Oh, okay. Thank you.” What could she possibly want to give me?
“They are in a box engraved with my initials. Elmer made it for me. If you already have a set, I would appreciate it if you could pass them along to one of my grandchildren when you find them. If not, I think they might be useful for you. My mother gave them to me,” Birdie said, her eyes twinkling. Who in the heck had eyes that twinkled? I had heard the phrase before, but thought it was just that, a phrase, kind of like a ‘her lips were like rubies’ sort of thing. “I had always wanted Ellie, our youngest daughter, to have them but . . . she’s on the other side with us now.”
“I’m so sorry.” That sounded incredibly inadequate. What did you say to news like that? She was gone from our side, but with them there. I thought back to my web search for her just weeks ago.
“Birdie, my love, I think it’s time for Roxanne to send us back. Those two over there are getting a bit antsy, by the looks they’re giving us. Let’s say our goodbyes to Jake.”
They both knelt down to the big dog, hugging him and telling him how much they missed him. He whined, his tail wagging furiously.
“It sounds like you’re taking real good care of Miss Roxanne, Jake. I’m proud of you boy. You be good. And you make sure that Rand fellow is behaving himself.” He looked up at me, nodding. “We’re ready, Roxanne.”
I nodded back, not trusting my voice, not ready to cry in front of everyone. Birdie gave me one last smile. Hoping I didn’t mess this up, I closed my eyes and thought of them going back–just them. When I opened my eyes again, they were gone. Jake whined and laid down on the floor where they had been standing. Toby came over and sat next to his massive friend. When Toby’s tail started thumping and Jake lifted his head, his own tail wagging silently, I knew he would be fine.
Grandmam cleared her throat again. Sighing, I turned to the other two women. I glanced back and caught Sam’s eye. She tilted her head at the door, silently asking if I wanted them to step out of the room. Gratefully, I gave her a small nod.
“Hey girls, how about we go put on a pot of coffee. Roxie, we’ll see you in a few minutes, right?” Sam asked, as if this was just another normal experience.
“Yes, thanks Sam.” I turned to Grandmam and Rosemary as my friends headed down to the kitchen, taking Toby with them. Steeling myself, I figured it would be best to start out with an apology for pulling them here in the middle of the night. Briefly, I wondered if they had been sleeping. Did they even sleep? They were dressed in, well, day clothes, I guess you would call them, not pajamas or anything. Maybe it was like a different time zone over there? Yanking my mind back to the issue at hand, I addressed them. “I’m really sorry about all of this.”
“Which part?” Grandmam asked flatly. “Pulling us over by accident or bringing all of your friends into it?”
“Well . . . all of it? I don’t even know what happened. Really. I was sleeping—you saw that—so I don’t even know why you’re here.” I threw my hands up in the air, flustered.
“Why are you wearing those two rings together?” she asked. “They aren’t exactly for casual wear. And I don’t even want to know why you were in bed with a woman.”
Judgy much? I almost laughed, but I remembered she was from a completely different era. “We had a bit too much to drink earlier this evening, so Tess and Annie stayed the night, just to be on the safe side. Being that we’re both adults and were short a bed, she passed out in my bed. I, um, don’t really remember putting these rings on, to tell you the truth. I only remember thinking I was going to have one heck of a hangover in the morning. Come to think of it, I’m tired but my head doesn’t hurt. That must be why I put the Rose Quartz ring on. And the other ring, I must have out of habit.” I shrugged, not sure what else to say or how to explain why they were here.
Rosemary and Grandmam shared a look. Rosemary finally spoke up. “Roxanne,” she began slowly, her usual burliness gone, “we’ve been talking to a few of the Elders on the other side. We have a few . . . concerns. And, with this tonight it only adds to those concerns. You shouldn’t have been able to call Grandmam and myself at the same time. For you to have called Elmer and Birdie, too?” She shook her head. “Unheard of.”
“How sure are you that the streak in your hair was from your head injury?” Grandmam asked.
Why was she asking about my hair? There were people over there that Grandmam called Elders? How old did they have to be for that? “I’m not. We just figured that was the reason because it wasn’t there before.”
“Just like you didn’t have the Sight before?” she asked.
“I-I guess,” I answered, thinking. Sam had asked Leo about it–the streak, not the Sight–and he hadn’t seemed concerned. “I don’t understand what my hair would have to do with any of this.”
“We don’t know yet. You just seem to be very . . . different from any others of our line. We talked to several from other known lines, as well, and they don’t know of any that have ever done what you’ve been able to. We’ve speculated that you could be from an unknown line. We’ve also wondered if your own Items of Power,” she nodded at my ring, “might be influencing the Items from our line. Or that you could be something else entirely. There are just too many unknowns here.”
That ‘something else entirely’ bit worried me more than anything else she had just said. “So, what does that mean for me?” I asked cautiously, wondering if they were going to ask for their Items back.
Grandmam shared another look with Rosemary. “We’ll meet with the Elders again. Call us, just us, back tomorrow, and we should have more answers.”
Rosemary nudged the older woman. “Technically, it’s already tomorrow. You might want to clarify whether you mean later today or, oh, you know what I mean.”
“Roxanne, what day is it?”
“Day of the week or date? It’s Saturday as of about an hour and a half ago. The date is . . . oh, it’s my birthday!” I suddenly realized.
“Day of the week is all I needed. Call us back this afternoon, around four o’clock,” she said, back to her usual brusque demeanor. “And happy birthday. You can send us back now. We’ve already missed out on most of the line dancing and now it looks like we’re going to miss our shuffleboard tournament tomorrow.”
Rosemary rolled her eyes at her Grandmam and stepped over to me, taking my hand. “Happy birthday, Roxanne. We’ll be here to help you as much as we can. Get some sleep and don’t forget to call the both of us back at four. I would recommend that you don’t invite your friends this time.” She winked at me.
Nodding, I started to close my eyes to send them back, but stopped myself, forcing myself to look directly at them, instead. When they suddenly blinked out, I almost jumped.
“Well, let’s go face the gang, Roxie,” I muttered to myself. “This will be fun.” But I really needed to pee first.
Chapter 4
As I reached the bottom of the stairs, barely two hours after I had pulled myself up them, I braced myself before walking into the kitchen. All three of the women at the snack bar suddenly stopped talking and turned to look at me. Feeling self-conscious, I walked over to the coffee pot to pour myself a cup of coffee, staving off the inevitable
questions for a little longer.
Sam broke the silence first. “Were they upset? About us?”
“I think it will be okay. I’ll know more tomorrow afternoon–I mean this afternoon. There’s going to be a meeting about it, I guess.”
They shared worried looks. “So what will happen? Will they come back and wipe our memories or something? I don’t want them messing with my head!” Annie insisted, sounding completely serious.
“I don’t think that’s how it works, Annie. I’m the only one that will be in any trouble. I think.”
“Do you want us to be here with you when they come back?” That question was from Sam, of course.
“No, just me. They'll probably have a lot to talk to me about. I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” I took a drink of my coffee and tried to appear nonchalant.
Tess was the only one that hadn’t said anything, at this point. She wasn’t usually the quiet one in our group.
“You okay?” I asked, giving her a nudge.
“I’m good. Just thinking about the fact that you’ve been dealing with this all by yourself for, what, over two months now? If it were me, I would be a mess. Why didn’t you say something?”
“What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey guys, you know that head trauma I had when I was attacked by Steven? Well, now I see ghosts and their ghost dogs.’ And that’s not even the half of it, you know.” I put my face in my hands. “It all sounds crazy, even to me, and I’m the one it’s happening to. Would any of you have believed me without proof?”
Sam leaned over and put her arm around me. I looked back up at my friends. “We totally wouldn’t have believed you.” I grimaced at her and she laughed. “But, think about it this way. At least your secret’s safe with us. Who would believe us? At least you know you have a way to prove it now. We don’t.”
I thought about that. She did have a point. Would I have believed any of them had they come to me with a similar story? No, I wouldn’t have. But I would have visited them every day in the asylum. I snorted.
Toby was suddenly leaning against my leg. I hadn’t even heard him walk over. “Where’s Jake, boy? Did he disappear on you?” I asked. looking around the room. Maybe seeing Elmer again had been too much for the big dog. I scratched Toby’s neck. “He’ll be back tomorrow, boy.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tess and Annie exchange a look. Annie nudged Tess. What was that about? Turns out I didn’t have to wait very long to find out.
“So, Sam told us a little more about the back story, the real back story, about Toby,” Tess hedged, as Annie craned her neck looking around the room.
“That’s good.” After everything they had already seen, there was no point in not telling them about the rest. Hopefully. If most of it came out before my meeting and Grandmam was upset, well, it’s usually better to beg for forgiveness than to ask permission, right?
“We were wondering about your ghost guy? Sam says he was an Army Ranger.”
“And that he’s kind of hunky,” Annie piped in.
Raising a brow at Sam, I took another sip of my coffee, wondering where they were going with this.
“Can we see him?” Tess whispered. “Is he here now?”
Choking on my coffee, I grabbed a napkin to mop up the mess while I regained my composure. “Um, he’s not here right now. Weren’t you two ready to pass out upstairs just a little while ago? Annie was two seconds away from hyperventilating.”
“I was just surprised, is all. This is a lot to take in. But I wouldn’t mind seeing the hunky, Army Ranger dude,” she shrugged.
“We’re forty, well forty-ish, year old women, not teenagers. I don’t know if he would appreciate popping in to be ogled.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from my friends.
“Hey, you might have quit looking when you met Steven, but we’re single and can still appreciate a good looking man. Shoot, even if we weren’t single, a little window shopping doesn’t hurt.” Tess waggled her eyebrows at me comically, but her comment made me think.
They were right, I knew. I had quit looking after I met Steven. That’s what marriage was, wasn’t it? I had always been faithful, never even thinking about window shopping, even after we had begun to lose intimacy. Until his attack, I had never admitted to myself how deeply unhappy I was. And Rand? Rand flustered me, for sure. He was good looking and was awakening feelings I hadn’t felt in years, but he was a ghost, after all. It’s not like there was a future there, so I figured it was best to just tamp those feelings back down and pretend they weren’t happening. If there was one thing I had gotten good at during my marriage, it was avoiding.
“Roxie? I think we lost you there, for a minute,” Sam’s voice interrupted my musings. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. Just thinking, is all. My life has just taken such a weird turn, sometimes it still doesn’t seem real. And I’m going on about an hour of sleep.”
“We probably should all try to get some sleep,” she said.
“I don’t know if I want to sleep down here alone.”
I huffed. “Tess, ten seconds ago you wanted to see another ghost.”
“I wanted to see another hunky ghost. But not by myself.”
Annie raised her hand, giving me an apologetic look. “I get dibs on sleeping in Sam’s room. No offense, Roxie.”
Sam’s expression warred between amusement and apology. “It’s a king size bed. We could all fit in it if we had to.”
Tess and Annie agreed immediately.
“I’m okay in my own bed. I think four of us piling into Sam’s bed would be a bit much.”
“Nope. We wanted a girls’ night and this will make it a true girls’ night. We used to do this all the time,” Sam insisted.
“A decade ago! We were all smaller, then, too. Except for you, Annie.”
Tess chimed in, “And we were usually way more drunk. But I’m good with it.”
In the end, they insisted. We all went back upstairs, got ready for bed again—this time I changed into pajamas, at least—and piled into Sam’s bed. Toby followed us in and whined, so I dragged his dog bed in and set him up a couple of feet away from my side of the bed. It was nearly three o’clock in the morning.
“Now this feels like a sleepover,” Tess laughed, squished in between Annie and Sam.
“Let’s see if you still feel that way in the morning,” Sam mumbled, nearly asleep.
***
The next morning came far too soon. I woke up to whining and a cold nose in my neck. And really bad dog breath. Lifting my head up to try to escape the smell, I looked over my shoulder at my friends and tried not to laugh. I was pushed so close to the edge, I was almost off the bed. Annie was sandwiched between Tess and I, and Sam was spooning Tess’s back, her arm thrown over Tess and Annie, fingers just barely touching my arm. We must have looked like the weirdest group hug ever. And Tess really was snoring pretty loud. She definitely put Toby to shame.
Toby gave another whine just as I laid my head back and shut my eyes again. “Just a sec boy and I’ll get you fed. What time is it, even? You’re probably starved.”
“It’s after nine,” Rand answered.
My eyes flew open, searching the room. He was standing in the doorway, trying hard not to laugh. Extricating myself carefully, I looked back at my friends again, but they were still sleeping soundly, except for Tess. She snorted, relaxed, and then started snoring again, at a slightly lower volume.
“What are you doing in here?” I demanded in a whisper. Then, before he could answer, “Come on, Toby. Let’s get you breakfast.”
Tiptoeing down the stairs as quickly as I could, I poured Toby’s food in his bowl, and then practically ran to the bathroom. Rand looked like he was going to hurt himself, laughing at me.
After I took care of business, my reflection in the mirror made me groan. I was wearing pajamas that were the equivalent of sweats. My hair was completely flattened on one side and my face still had pillow marks on it. Washing my face didn’t he
lp, so I gave up and tried to finger comb my hair into some semblance of order. Rinsing my mouth out, I went back into the kitchen, to let Toby outside so he could do his business.
Grabbing the coffee carafe, I dumped the little bit left over from the night before and started making a fresh pot. I studiously ignored Rand, not knowing what to say.
“I wasn’t in the room, Roxie,” he said, after a minute. “I was wondering where everyone was, Toby included. I could, well, feel him upstairs, but he wasn’t in your room, so I went up to see what was going on and saw Sam’s door was open. Now I don’t even know if I want to know what was going on.” He ran a hand through his short hair. “Aren’t you ladies a little old for sleepovers or whatever that was? And who was snoring so loud?”
“First off,” I began, as I walked over to let Toby back in, “never, ever call any woman over forty old. I will call in an exorcist if you do it again.” I started pulling everything I needed to make pancakes out of the cupboards and fridge. “Secondly, Tess has a deviated septum, so she can’t help it. Thirdly,” I started to deflate a little, “it was a really long night. We had unexpected visitors.”
Throwing the ingredients into the bowl with a little more force than needed, I started mixing it all together. By the time the griddle was ready and I was pouring the batter on, I had almost forgotten Rand was still in the room.
“What happened?”
Giving him a cliff notes version of everything that happened still took a few minutes. I had a small stack of pancakes ready by the time I was done talking. He didn’t even interrupt at any point.
“It sounds like your friends handled it all fairly well. You’ve got really good friends, I would say.”
“Yes, they did. I do have great friends.”
“Damn straight you do. Who are you talking to? Is it Rand?” Tess asked, with a little too much excitement in her voice. I looked over to see Sam, Tess, and Annie all standing in the doorway, watching me.
Seeing Witchy Things Page 4