by L. K. Kuhl
“Ugh, you don’t make it easy for me, Tate. Just go with me in the morning to Denver, and give me some time to think.” I didn’t know what else to do.
“I will, but first, I want you to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Come with me now to the cabin, and we’ll get that money. I want you to have it. It will make your decision easier.”
“The money?” A nervous laugh surfaced in my throat. “I can’t take your money. That’s ridiculous.”
“I want you to have it. What good will it do me? I don’t have anyone else to give it to. It’ll help you become a lawyer and help your family. We can’t have each other, so at least let me give you a good life.”
“The whole twenty million? I don’t even know what to do with that much money.”
“I just told you…live out your dreams, the world is your oyster. I’d like to suggest giving some to Isaiah to help with his medical expenses, but otherwise, the rest is yours.”
“My dream is to have you…I don’t want anything else.” I turned away stubbornly. With much reluctance, I changed the subject. “Alright, I’ll go with you, but are we going to drive there tonight?” It worried me that it was getting too late.
“Well, not drive…exactly.” He launched a teasing smile my way.
“Fly?”
“Let’s take Symphony back to the house, and I’ll show you.”
Chapter 18
We walked toward the place where Mandy’s house sat and nothing was there—the lot was empty, there wasn’t even any houses close to it—it was all beach. I shook my head. “This is so hard to fathom, after all the time I spent there, and none of it was real. It’s hard to wrap your head around…you know?”
“I’m sure it is. To us, it’s nothing, but I’m sure to the living, it’s incomprehensible.”
We took Symphony inside when we got to Tate’s and stood in the living room, facing each other. “Okay, you ready to go?” He swept me with his sizzling blue eyes.
“I guess. Do I need to take anything?”
“Nope, only your beautiful smile.” He flashed a mischievous grin. “We won’t be gone long. All you have to do is wrap your body around me, and hold on tight.”
“Like this?” I stepped up to him, more than a little apprehensive.
“Yep, just like that.” He whispered into my ear. “Now, hold on tight, and close your eyes.”
His gentle kiss against my ear made me tingle with desire, and I got lost in him. In less than a second, the wind rushed through the pines and a waterfall cascaded in the distance.
“Alright, open them.” My eyes fluttered open. We stood by a cave etched into a mountain.
I looked around and blinked, thinking I was in some dream. “Wow, did we just travel two hours in one second?”
“Yep, you now know how ghost travel works, so technically, you were a ghost for about a second.” He took me by the hand and led me into the damp cave. “I think the spot is right over here.” Everything went black as he pulled me with him into the darkness. I had no idea where we were, but I trusted him.
“I can’t see a thing in here.” My hands groped in the murky blackness, more than a little frightened. “Where are we?”
“Just let me do the work. It won’t take long, and then we’ll leave.”
A deep thudding sound came from the left, and the smell of rich, damp soil filled my nose. “What are you doing, Tate?”
“Digging, I buried it about three feet deep…ah-ha…here it is.” Something hit the ground with a thud. “Let’s get out of here.” He picked up the bag and led me back out. It took him all of about four seconds to dig the bag out of three feet of dirt.
When we came out into the daylight, I squinted into the brightness, seeing the dirty green duffle bag that housed Tate’s fortune. “That’s the money? The bag’s huge! How are we ever going to get it back?”
He laughed. “Seriously, Sophia? I’m a ghost.”
“Whatever you say. I trust you.”
“Squeeze me tight, close your eyes, and hold on.” He kissed my ear again. “You can open them, now.” A second later we stood back in his living room—the duffle bag lying on the floor.
“That’s so cool. I wish I could travel that way all the time.”
“We’ll do the same thing in the morning to get to Denver. No sense messing around with airplanes. This’ll save us time.”
* * *
The next morning, I took in quick breaths and dialed the phone, nervous about how this would all go down. Steve might just hang up on me and threaten to call the police if he didn’t believe me.
“Mental Health Center of Denver, Betty speaking. May I help you?” The warm voice purred on the other end of the phone. I froze, jaw locked up tight. “Hello, is anyone there?”
“Uh...yes, this is Sophia Bandell.” I stammered, unsure of how to go about this. “Um…I would like to speak to either Steve or Marrian Stuart, if at all possible.” Finally spitting it out, my voice quivered, and I stared down at Mandy’s note wadded in my shaky hand.
“I can’t let you talk to Marrian, but I can give you Steve’s number. He’s not here right now.”
“That’ll be fine.”
She rattled off a number, and I scribbled it down. “Steve doesn’t come around here much anymore. Marrian’s visitors are scarce and any companionship she gets would help.”
“Thank you, I’ll try him at this number.” It sounded like what Aunt Bethany had hinted at about Steve and Marrian must be true.
My hands shook again when I dialed. I hit a wrong number and had to start over. It rang a couple of times before he answered. “Hello, Steve Stuart here.” His familiar, deep voice brought back memories of when Mandy and I were little.
“Steve, this is Sophia Bandell. Do you remember me?”
At first, everything went silent. Did he hang up on me? Then he spoke, his voice quavering, quiet. “Sophia…it’s been ages. I don’t know what to say.” A stifled sob echoed through the phone. “Have you heard?”
“Yes, yes I have. I’d like to come and talk to you and Marrian today if I could. We need to…discuss some things. Would one this afternoon be okay?”
He hesitated. “I guess I could do that. It wouldn’t hurt to see a familiar face again. I’ll meet you there then and tell Marrian you called. I’m sure it’ll brighten her day.”
“Great. I’ll see you then.” Relief flooded through me now that I had broken through the first layer of ice.
* * *
At a quarter till one, I held on to Tate, and we traveled, ghost style, to the Mental Health Center of Denver. Tate gave Symphony some food and fresh water, so she would be fine until we made it back to the house.
A five-story brick building loomed in front of us when I opened my eyes. The metal doors automatically opened to invite us in, slamming shut with a heavy echo after we stepped over the threshold. Disinfectant assaulted my nose when we walked through the long corridors, winding in different directions like a maze. We came upon a sign that read Front Desk and an arrow pointed off to the right.
“Let’s go here, Tate.” I pointed, keeping my voice at a low whisper.
“Hi, my name is Sophia Bandell, and I had a one o’ clock appointment to speak to Steven and Marrian Stuart.” My knees clanked together as I stood at the front desk.
The attractive lady sitting at the mahogany desk gave me a pleasant smile and glanced over her glasses to her appointment book. “Hello, Sophia, my name is Julia. I see here that you do have an appointment scheduled. Could I see some ID just to make sure it’s you?”
“Sure.” I fumbled through my purse.
I handed it to her, and she looked it over, then got up to make a photocopy. “There you go, Sophia.” She handed it back, pointing left down the hall. “Marrian is on the second floor, so just go down this hall, and to the left will be a set of elevators. Take the elevator up to the second floor. When you get off, take a right, and go clear to the end
of the hallway, taking another right, and her room is in the middle of that hall, room two-thirty-six.”
“Thank you very much, Julia.” Now that we were getting close, my nerves decided to crawl up from my belly and scratch at my throat. We got off the elevator, and a fluorescent bulb flickered as we made our way down the narrow, paint-chipped halls. Before we made our way to the last hallway, we came upon another metal door with a glass panel set in the top. A row of locks were located along the edge of it.
I rang the buzzer, and another woman with black hair got up from a desk and came to the window. She flipped a strand of hair behind an ear. “Your name, please?”
“Sophia Bandell. I’ve come to see Marrian Stuart.” I held up my ID to the glass pane.
The lady eyed it, and soon the locks clicked, one by one, the door opening. “Room two-thirty-six.” Her eyes narrowed thin and she smiled, then sat down at her desk again.
The numbers to Marrian’s room appeared not long after we walked through the last door. My nerves were so bad that my stomach tumbled, and I worried I might get sick to my stomach as I lifted my hand to knock on the door. I brought my hand back down again, trying to gain composure.
Tate put his hand on my back, reassuring me. “You can do this, Sophia.”
This time I lifted it and knocked.
I was sure my expression looked like I’d seen a ghost when the door opened and my gaze landed on a balding, frail man with a bent back. He stood in front of me, and I balked, my hand fluttering to my chest. Maybe I have the wrong room? A couple of thin gray wisps of hair sat on top of his head. Strong, indented creases framed his eyes.
“Sophia?” I recognized the curve of his mouth.
“Yes, it’s me.” I fought to keep the stricken look off my face at the sight of him. My gaze flashed to the floor, then back up at him. He looked as though he had aged fifty years since I’d last seen him.
“Come in…come in, we’ve been expecting you.” He motioned me in with his hand, opening the door wide.
“Thank you.”
The harsh, cold whiteness of the walls glared back at me when I stepped inside, and the rigid tension made my legs awkward. Uncertainty made my hand reach for the doorknob, grasping for reassurance. It would be so easy to turn and bolt right now. I took two steps, gripping my hands together now, trying to still them.
Aaron sat in a brown leather recliner pushed up against the left wall. His arms stretched wide, and he got up and came to me. “Sophia, it’s good to see you again. It’s been years—you look wonderful.” He grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a hug. Mandy’s death hadn’t impacted him as much, nothing like his parents.
“Uh-hum.” Tate grumbled, displaying his jealousy as he closed in close beside me.
“It’s good to see you, too, Aaron. You look…professional.” I didn’t know what to comment back for fear of making Tate angry. Aaron’s look still stunned with his dark, gelled, short hair, matching his black suit, adorned with a gray tie and black leather shoes. But he still paled in comparison to Tate.
His eyes roamed, assaulting me, but he didn’t answer back.
Steve coughed, clearing his throat. “Marrian, Sophia Bandell is here to see you. You remember Mandy’s friend Sophia, don’t you?” The uncaring look in Steve’s eyes was evident when he walked over to a white-haired lady in a wheelchair. She sat by a long window, covered with an eggshell-colored plastic blind, a brown crocheted afghan pulled up over her lap. He grabbed the wheelchair by its handles and pulled it out to face me.
I held in my gasp when he wheeled her toward me. The toll Mandy’s death took on both of them staggered me. Stringy white hair fell over her wrinkled face, halfway covering deep-set, sunken eyes highlighted with dark circles. Her drooping head seemed to be unhinged from her neck. A string of drool hung from the corner of her puckered mouth. She stared, unseeing, at the floor.
My heart thudded loud, and my mouth froze in place. I didn’t know what to say. Marrian had always been a vibrant, attractive lady who kept herself fixed up and wore the finest of clothes. Now, she vestured a faded, light green hospital gown, her hair uncombed—no makeup on. She never said a word, just sat staring at the floor.
I approached her, kneeling down, gripping the handle of her wheelchair in my right hand to steady myself. “Hi, Marrian, I’m glad I got the chance to come here to talk to you today. The news about Mandy left me devastated, and I’m so sorry.” Steve and Aaron’s eyes pierced into me, and I fought back the urge to flee.
A feather dropping would have sounded like a bomb exploding compared to the quietness of the room. Marrian never said a word, never looked up at me. She just sat staring at the monotone, threadbare carpet.
Steve cleared his throat again. “Keep talking, Sophia. She hears you, she just doesn’t respond. As you can see, she’s a vegetable, now. She’s been like this since the day we got the news about Mandy getting killed in that horrible accident. At first she would talk, but after claiming to have seen Mandy’s ghost about a week after the accident, she hasn’t spoken a word.
“She’s aged horrifically after the trauma of the whole thing…we all have. Her hair turned white overnight, mine was beginning to gray before the accident, but it accelerated it.” He grinned and rubbed the top of his head, turning his back to Marrian.
His tone lost some of its harshness, and my breathing eased. I took a deep breath, exhaling. Steve didn’t give Marrian much attention. She seemed to be a burr in his side while he busied himself with a texting conversation, all the time chatting on with me. But something this traumatic would alter the family dynamic.
I sat down in a hard folding chair that Aaron had brought out from a closet, crossing my legs. “How long has she been in here?”
Steve looked up from his phone. “About seven months. Two or three months after Mandy’s death.”
Aaron’s eyes drilled me. He crossed his arms. “December twenty-third, to be exact. It was right before Christmas Eve. Mom went insane then because Christmas was always her and Mandy’s favorite holiday.”
“That’s awful.” I shook my head. My hand trembled as I pulled Mandy’s note out of my purse. “Mandy and I were best friends. It’s so hard to believe.”
“Are you still living in Montana?” Aaron’s leg and knee bobbed up and down with a fervor as he sat in the leather recliner. “When did you hear about the accident?”
“Yes, I’m still there. I just heard about the accident a couple of days ago, so I wanted to come and offer my condolences.”
Steve pulled Marrian’s wheelchair closer to the bed. “Well, we’re glad you did, Sophia. I’m sorry we didn’t inform you and your family about it when it happened, but it’s been a heck of a journey, and to tell you the truth, we just never thought about it. As a matter of fact, there were a lot of people we never got around to calling. Marrian’s sister did most of the contacting for us.”
Aaron leaned forward in the recliner. “How did you hear of the accident after all this time?”
The tips of my fingers turned frigid, and the back of my throat ached because the time had come. Time to reveal the truth.
“It’s okay, Soph, just start at the beginning.” Tate told me. “You’re speaking the truth. They’ll believe you.”
“Here…I…I…need to give you this first, and then I’ll explain everything.” My gut recoiled and twisted, the taste of bile grazing the back of my tongue. I swallowed five times, keeping it down. Then I handed Mandy’s note to Steve.
“What’s this?” A puzzled look crowded his face.
“Just read it.” I bit my lip, my voice a hollow whisper.
Aaron got up to look over Steve’s shoulder so he could read it, too. Their faces crinkled, filling with horror as they both scanned over the page. Steve sat on the bed, silent and stunned, and stared at the wrinkled note. “What’s this all about?” He blurted loud, glaring at me. “Is this some sick joke?”
“Let me explain my story to you…and maybe you won’t think
Marrian’s crazy.” Marrian sat, still staring at the floor, picking at a loose string on her hospital gown. “Mandy called me back in May asking me to come and spend the summer with her.”
Aaron and Steve went pallid. Steve got up from the bed, his hand scratching over his bald head. He paced the floor. “You’re crazy, that’s impossible. How dare you come here and try to lay these lies on us.”
“Hold on now, Dad. Let Sophia tell her story.” Aaron held up his hand, a mocking laugh smeared across his face. “I’d like to hear this…even if it is all make-believe.” Then he got up and walked toward me, sticking his face up close to mine. “You know we don’t believe any of this, but continue.” He urged me on with his hand.
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me, and I told Mandy that. That’s why she wrote the note. Who else knew you called her princess, and sweet pea, and also how she would say ‘I wuv you.’ No one else in the world knew these things, except for maybe Marrian. I sure as heck didn’t. She told me this note would make you believe me, but I should have known better.” My eyes filled with tears. I plucked my purse from the floor and got up to go.
Steve stammered and shook his head, still pacing the room. “You’re right about me being the only one who knew these things. But…but it’s all so hard to comprehend. Mandy…a ghost? I can’t even begin to fathom the idea.”
“I know, it was the exact same thing for me.” I stood by the door, my hand on the knob.
“Sit down, Sophia.” Steve patted the back of the folding chair. “I’m sorry if I sounded harsh. Tell us the story, and I promise I won’t judge or argue with you anymore.” He sat back down on the bed. Aaron in the recliner.
I wiped my eyes, bowed my head and walked toward the chair, sitting down. My chest heaved, hesitant to begin speaking again. I looked Steve in the eye, took a deep, calming breath, and began. “She bought my airline tickets, so I agreed to come and stay with her. We spent the whole summer together—swimming, snorkeling, parasailing. She introduced me to her boyfriend, Matt Cobain.”