4 The Ghost of Christmas

by K. J. Emrick

  Helen Nelson, taking a break from her duties as mayor to pitch in with the preparations, told Darcy that she knew a little about Roger August. “He used to be friends with Wally Marlow when he was mayor all those years ago.” Helen stopped what she was doing and brushed her hands on the front of her puffy white coat. “He had a daughter. I just can’t remember her name. I know she had a different last name than his.” Helen shrugged and apologized for having to go off to help someone else.

  “Thanks Helen, you’ve been a help.” Darcy smiled at her and was about to leave and go back to the bookstore when Helen put a hand on her arm to stop her.

  “You should keep an eye out for Roland Baskin. He’s going around with that petition of his to stop the pageant. Thankfully, no one is signing it. Still he might know something about Roger.”

  Darcy nodded. She wasn’t looking forward to talking to that old grump. Maybe someone else would know something.

  ***

  Her interviews had turned up hardly anything on Roger. Hard to believe a man could live his whole life in this town and not have anyone remember him. Later that night when Darcy was back home she gave Grace a call.

  “Hi sis,” Darcy said when Grace answered.

  “I’m real busy right now, Darcy. I can’t really talk.”

  “Okay, I know. I’m sorry. I found out Roger had a daughter, though. Can you find out for me who she is?”

  “Yeah alright, but I can’t do it until tomorrow. What was her name?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Grace blew out a breath over the phone. “You don’t ask for much, do you?”

  “Thanks sis,” Darcy said. Grace had to go so they said their goodbyes.

  She hung up the phone thoughtfully. She realized that she would have to tell Jon the truth. She couldn’t keep hiding it from him and using her sister, his partner at work, this way. Reluctantly she pulled on her coat and boots and started off for Jon’s apartment.

  ***

  As Jon swung the door open to Darcy’s knock the smile on his face was wide and genuine. She thought he looked happy to see her and was glad about that but she could only raise a small smile in return.

  She didn’t know how to start. She felt tense and unsure of herself, so much so that she started to pace around his living room.

  Jon stood with his arms folded, watching her. “What’s wrong?” he said with no trace of the smile on his face now.

  She stopped pacing and made herself look at him. “I have something to tell you. It’s nothing really. It’s silly actually.” She tried to smile but it slipped. His face looked like it was carved out of stone. Taking a deep breath, she tried to rush through what she needed to say.

  “Look I don’t know why I kept this from you. I had a visitation from a spirit of a man named Roger August and he needs my help because he was murdered here in town years ago and, well, you know how I’m the only one who can help in situations like that. I asked Grace to look into it and she’s going to let me know what she finds out.”

  She thought she would feel better after saying it out loud but she found the lump in her throat was still there. Jon didn’t look any happier when she had finished speaking, either. Fidgeting with her ring, Darcy tried to explain herself. “I guess I kept it from you because of what you said about my abilities making you upset. You know? You’ve never said anything like that to me before and I didn’t want it to get in the way of you and me.”

  Jon just stood silently with his arms folded. He didn’t say a word. Darcy felt him putting a wall up, like he had raised some invisible defense between them. She sighed. This hadn’t helped at all.

  “Please tell the truth about how you feel about my abilities,” she asked softly, terrified of what his answer was going to be.

  “Okay,” he said, “I’ll tell you. They make me uncomfortable and I wish that you wouldn’t use them. It seems to me you’re just asking for trouble and we don’t need any more of that.” Darcy bit her lip, but he had more still to say. “I’m also really mad that you kept this latest vision or whatever it was from me.”

  Darcy didn’t think that was entirely fair. “You can’t have it both ways, Jon. Either I should have told you or I shouldn’t have. Which one is it?” Her feelings were in a knot, and she felt like she’d been punched in her gut. Anger like hot bile stirred in her.

  “I just want you to be honest with me Darcy, that’s all. When you have one of these visions you should tell me about it instead of keeping it a secret.” He stabbed the air with a finger.

  Darcy could feel tears stinging the corners of her eyes. This was getting out of control. They were both mad, about the same thing, and she knew she should just admit it to him and try to fix it. She just didn’t know how to get past it. “I should tell you? Every time? What, even if it upsets you like you are now?”

  They stood there, both of them staring, neither of them willing to give an inch. Finally, when she couldn’t hold the tears back anymore and they started to fall, she turned away. “I have to go,” she said as she moved towards the door.

  “Darcy, wait,” he said when her hand was on the door. “I don’t want this to affect you and me.”

  “You just think I can put away my abilities like taking off a shirt?” she accused him. “You just want me, without the abilities, is that it?”

  When he didn’t have an answer for her she walked out and closed the door behind her.

  Chapter Four

  Darcy stomped the length of her living room and then back again. She knew that she was overreacting, but she was just so upset with Jon for not accepting her for who she was. She had hidden her abilities from Jeff, her late ex-husband, whenever she could, and it had been part of the strain that finally led to their divorce. She didn’t want to have to do that same thing with Jon. A small part of her knew that he was just concerned for her, and she couldn’t really blame him, considering how her abilities had gotten her into danger in the past.

  Those same abilities had brought murderers to justice, though. Without her, the mysteries this town had fallen into in the past few months would have gone unsolved. She knew that. It scared her a little, too, if she was being honest. Just like it scared Jon.

  But right now she was just too upset to think about being honest or fair. The hurt was pulsing though her fast and heavy.

  Smudge came rushing up to her, meowing loudly and jumping into her arms. Her faithful cat pushed against her chin with his head, meowing again. He knew when she was upset. At least someone in her life was always there for her. Picking him up gently, she headed upstairs for a nice warm shower. Maybe that would help to calm her down.

  She went through the bathroom on her way to the bedroom, turning the shower on to make sure it would be nice and hot when she got in. Smudge jumped down out of her hands and hit out at the cascading shower. He loved playing in water but quickly tired of the game today and raced from the room. She smiled at his antics.

  Testing the temperature, she started to slip out of her clothes when she heard a thump in the bedroom. Running in, she saw that Smudge had knocked over one of the photo albums she had been looking through that morning. Now he was pawing at the pages, sniffing at one page in particular.

  “Smudge, stop that!” she said, shooing him away with a hand. “Come on, now. You can’t even read!”

  But she could. On the page Smudge had been sniffing at was a picture of a little girl. A little girl in a Christmas dress of white and reds. The name underneath read Katrina Settler.

  It was the same girl from her Aunt Millie’s journal. She studied the photo to be sure, but yes, there it was. The same girl.

  In her world, things never happened by coincidence.

  ***

  When Darcy woke up the next morning she felt a bit calmer. She got up slowly and started to get ready for her day, thoughts of Katrina Settler and how she tied in with Roger August running through her mind. She felt confident that she knew who the girl was. She just had to have it confirmed
.

  Jon took up a lot of her thoughts that morning, too. As she went about her usual morning routine she was deep in thought about the events of the day before.

  She thought about her psychic abilities and how they impacted on her life, and now Jon’s life. He had been unfair to her. She thought about his comments and how hurt she had been by them, but then a new thought occurred to her.

  Would she give her abilities up if she could? It would certainly make her life safer and easier. She wasn’t sure that she would ever do that, though, even if she could. Communicating with spirits from the other side was so much a part of her now that she just wouldn’t be who she was without them. And she liked who she was. She didn’t want to change. Not for anyone. Not even Jon.

  Just before she was ready to leave the house she gathered up the costumes for the pageant that she had finished putting together as promised and folded them into a large duffle bag that she slung crossways over her shoulder. She handled them with care as some of them were very old and had been used in the pageant for many years. She had just needed to patch them up a bit as they had been showing some wear and tear. A couple of them had needed altering a little to make them fit better. She put Santa’s hat in last on top of the rest and zipped up the bag, then headed downstairs ready to leave for work.

  ***

  Things were a little slow at the bookstore today and Darcy kept herself busy by rearranging some of the shelves. Sue had the day off so Darcy was by herself and was finding the store just a little too quiet for her liking. To make matters worse there had only been two customers the whole time the store had been open today. It was the age of electronic books. The store was actually seeing less and less income, and she knew there might come a day when she would have to consider selling it.

  The bell jingled into her thoughts as someone entered the bookstore. On her knees at the end of the mystery section, Darcy looked up to see who it was.

  “What are you doing down there?” Grace asked as she came closer. “Are you okay?”

  Darcy smiled at her sister. “I’m fine. I’ve been doing some rearranging.” She stood up and swiped at the legs of her jeans to clean off the floor dust. She and Sue would definitely need to spend some time in the near future cleaning the place up.

  Grace folded her arms and stood with one hip cocked. “I talked to Jon this morning. He was in a grumpy mood. The kind a guy gets into when he argues with his girlfriend.” She arched an eyebrow and let the statement hang in the air.

  Darcy sighed. Her sister was sharp. There wasn’t much that she missed. “Jon and I had a big fight,” she said. “He said things, I said things. It’s all over my…you know. My abilities.”

  Grace didn’t look surprised. In fact, she smiled. “Well. It’s about time something went wrong with you two.”

  Darcy was horrified. She gaped at her sister. “What do you mean?”

  Grace patted her sister’s arm. “I didn’t mean anything bad by it. I just meant that you and Jon have been getting along so well that it almost isn’t natural. You had to get into a fight sooner or later.”

  Darcy relaxed a little and smiled wryly at Grace. “Thanks, that makes me feel so much better. So you think our problem was that we were too perfect?”

  “Something like that.”

  Darcy let the smile slip a little. “You know how I told you ages ago that he wants us to move in together?”

  Grace nodded. “I haven’t heard you mention it lately.”

  “He went quiet on the subject for a while. He was supposed to be giving me time to think about it. But the other night he slipped it into the conversation again.”

  Grace’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? I take you said no.”

  Darcy winced. “Yes. I just kept putting him off and putting him off, and now it looks like I made the right decision because can you imagine what this would be like if we lived under the same roof?”

  “It would be just like every other relationship out there, sis. Couples fight. It’s part of life. This won’t be the last one you and Jon have either. You’re not giving up on him after one fight are you?”

  Darcy searched for the words to explain it. She really thought her sister would have understood her better. “I don’t know. If he can’t accept that part of me what future do we have? It’s who I am, Grace.”

  Grace shook her head. “I’m sure you’ll work it out. Just don’t give up. Okay?” Grace smiled at Darcy and then pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. “About Roger August’s daughter. I have a name for you.”

  “Is it Katrina Settler?” Darcy asked.

  Grace blew out the breath she had been about to speak with. “You already knew? Then why did you…oh. Right. You know, I can understand why Jon would say your abilities are annoying.”

  The look on Darcy’s face must have made Grace realize what she had said. “I didn’t mean it that way, sis. I was just kidding.”

  Darcy tried to play it off. “That’s fine Grace. I understand. So what did you find out?”

  “Well,” Grace said, “she lives on the outskirts of town. Roger never married and Katrina was born out of wedlock. She was an only child and was raised by her mother, Agnes Settler, who was a single parent. Roger had visitation rights to see his daughter.” Grace consulted the paper again. “Katrina is married to one Joseph Samson but I can’t find anything on him at all. That’s about it.” Grace handed Darcy the piece of paper.

  “Thanks for doing that Grace, I appreciate it.”

  “No problem. I have to get going, though. I’ll catch up with you later. Just take it easy on Jon, all right? Everything will work out. You’ll see.”

  Darcy hoped that she was right about that. She was having a hard time imagining her life without Jon in it.

  ***

  Darcy breathed a sigh of relief as she flipped the ‘OPEN a good book today’ sign to ‘CLOSED, THE END.’ She was so glad that it was the end of the day. She hefted the dufflebag up onto her shoulder and started walking her bike across to the town square to drop off the costumes to Helen.

  She dropped her bike gently down onto the snowy grass and walked towards Helen. As she got closer she could see that the other woman looked very distraught. When Helen looked up and spotted her she put her hands up into the air and she said, “Thank God! Darcy come here, quick. Something has gone horribly wrong with the pageant.”

  Darcy tensed. “Helen, what is it?”

  “Harry and Madge have both come down with some horrible sickness.” Darcy relaxed a little. “They were going to play Santa and Mrs. Claus. What will we do now?”

  Darcy realized what that would mean for the pageant. Santa had to be in the pageant or it would be ruined for the children.

  “You and Jon will have to do it,” Helen said suddenly. “You’re the only two volunteers left that aren’t in the show.”

  Darcy could think of nothing she wanted less. She was still mad at Jon and she could only imagine that he was still mad at her, too. What would it be like to stand on the stage together as such a famous married couple as Santa and his wife? She couldn’t see any way to get out of it, though, and the pageant meant so much to her and everyone else in town, so she begrudgingly agreed.

  Helen hugged her. “Oh, thank you. One less thing to worry about. Are those the costumes? Oh, Darcy you’re a life saver! What would I do without you and Jon?”

  Helen smiled at her and Darcy could only smile back, wondering what Jon would say about all this. She said goodbye to Helen and started to walk towards the police station to tell Jon the news.

  She hesitated, knowing that anything she said to him now would probably only make things worse or spark another argument. One of them needed to apologize first before anything could be healed between them. It would probably be her. Jon was stubborn, in his own way. She wanted to do it, too, because she wanted them to be back to the way they were. Just not right now.

  Sighing, she picked up her bike and started to ride in the direction of home.
>
  Chapter Five

  Once again Darcy found herself wide awake when she should have been sleeping. Only this time she knew what the problem was. She wished that she had gone to Jon’s apartment after work and apologized. Her anger at him was gone and she missed him badly. She just hoped that she hadn’t ruined things with him.

  She wondered why she was putting all of the blame on herself. He had started the argument, after all. Maybe she should hold her ground and wait for him to apologize to her first.

  She rolled over onto her side and looked out of the window. It looked much as it had the other night with the heavy cover of dark clouds in the sky. Her window was open just a crack and a trickle of a breeze was coming through. She could sense the possibility of snow once again and it was kind of comforting. She smiled.

  Quickly sitting up and jumping out of bed she raced downstairs to put on her coat and boots. If she couldn’t sleep she might as well go outside and watch the snowflakes fall for a little while. The fresh air might do her some good.

  As she pulled open the front door the cold air stung her face and took her breath away for a moment. She raced down the porch steps and stood in the front yard. She lifted her face to the sky just as the first snowflakes began to fall. She took a deep breath and let the frigid air burn her lungs. It was magical. The only thing missing was Jon.

  “Can I join you?” She startled a little as his quiet voice came from behind her. She thought that she had imagined it for a moment.

  Darcy turned to find him standing behind her. Then Jon suddenly moved and closed the space between them. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply.

  “I’m sorry.” They both said at the same time when they pulled apart for air. They laughed together.

  “I love you Darcy, and I accept all of you. I’ve been an idiot but you understand, don’t you? I’m just so worried about all of the danger that your abilities seem to attract to you. That’s why I said that I wished that you didn’t have them. I don’t want you to get hurt.”