by Daria Kacie
When Josh came out the office door and charged Tom, she, like everyone, was surprised. She was still attached to Tom’s aura and when he went down, she went down with him. She stared disbelievingly into the 38-year-old eyes of her brother. She read his energy but was stunned by his age and size. Look at HIM! He has turned out to be quite a man she thought. Mom was right, all that baby fat was preparing him for some Paul Bunion growth spurt. Had she been in human form she wasn’t sure she would have recognized him. As a spirit though, she saw his energy immediately and she felt all the love she had always felt for her brother. It was overwhelming.
As angry as she was that day she took those pills, now she was not angry. All that tangled energy was gone. She didn’t want to hurt Tom or Deanna. She did enjoy the torment she had created over that first weekend with him, but thrill quickly wore off. She could deeply feel his sadness and his pain. It had created a dark spot in his aura and for that, she was sorry.
He could have handled things better in the past but he didn’t. The bottom line was that his immature actions should not have been a life sentence. Kids do stupid things. Young men…do stupid things. Sunday mulled it all over and over for twenty five long years.
Now, here they all were in the same room. Together again, laughed Sunday. She knelt down in front of her brother and saw the tear run down his cheeks. She felt his loss and grief so acutely she wanted to fly out of the room. This was precisely why she needed to see him. It was for some of the same reasons she needed to reconnect with Tom as well. It was important that she release them from their bondage and then she felt she could finally be free to move on.
Janet relaxed and did the best she could to connect with Sunday and avoid getting tangled in Josh’s sadness. She found the task difficult.
Sunday began projecting information with all her might. She hoped Janet would receive the transmission.
Janet looked into Josh’s sad eyes, “Josh, she is showing me a picture of a, uhm, a Gremlin?”
Josh sat straight up in his chair and nodded in disbelief.
“She is showing me an image of a movie title and a dog. She is letting me know that you watched the movie, Gremlins?” Janet paused as she put together images she didn’t quite know how to interpret, then continued, “You watched Gremlins many, many, she is saying with a deep sigh, many times.”
“Yes,” said Josh transfixed on Janet’s eyes, “It was my favorite movie when I was about seven. I made Sunny watch it no less than twenty times.”
Janet continued, “She is showing me a small dog. Sunday is pointing to a sign with a picture of water with a big red ‘X’ over the top of it. I have no idea what it means.”
Slowly a smile crept across Josh’s face, “I wouldn’t let my Mother wash our Shih Tzu. I had convinced myself he was a Mogwai and would cause a lot of Gremlin havoc if he got wet!” He laughed heartily as the memories came flooding back like it was yesterday.
“She wants to know that you believe she is here,” said Janet.
“I do believe she is here,” said Josh.
Janet sat quiet for what seemed like a very long time. “Josh, she is so sorry for what she put you through. It was an accident. She truly believed she would be fine and at worst, would end up in the hospital getting her stomach pumped. She had a fantasy that Tom would rush to her side and take her back.”
Tom gasped and put his head into his hands. “Damn it Sunny!” he whispered to himself.
“Josh, she wants you to know how much she loves you and your parents. She wants you to tell them she is ok, no, that she is great. She is getting very intense now Josh. She needs you to understand there was NOTHING you could have done to save her. She messed up, not you. Please let this go and allow love and joy into your life.”
Josh looked confused, “I understand.”
“No,” said Janet very intently, looking directly into his eyes and grabbing his broad shoulders, “Josh, this was not your fault. You must begin to let love and joy into your life. She said you have resisted. She is telling me you are not happy and she knows it’s because of her; it’s because of what happened. You must re-evaluate your life and find how you can…live!”
Janet standing now, walked to the middle of the room. “This is so important that both you men understand that she is sorry. She wants your forgiveness so she can move on.”
Tom spoke first as he wiped his eyes, “She wants my forgiveness? That is ridiculous after how I hurt her and created all this misery?”
“No Tom, you must forgive yourself. She does not hold you responsible. She forgives your adolescent action and is asking that you forgive yourself and her for what she did.”
“Josh, can you forgive her?” Lizzy finally spoke.
“Of course I can!”
“Can you forgive yourself?” asked Janet.
Silence dropped over the room. Both men sat in their chairs, drained. Neither knew how to forgive themselves at that moment.
Agitated, Sunday pushed a picture off the wall. The sudden crash jolted everyone in the room.
Janet paced around the room. She could feel Sunday’s frustration. Sunday had been pondering all this for the last 25 years. She was ready to move into the light.
“The two of you are blocking her path!” Janet quickly raised her voice. Both men looked up at Janet not knowing how to transition from 25 years of guilt and shame to forgiveness.
“Well, these are Sunday’s words not mine,” Janet said as she delivered the rest of the message, “For such big strong guys, you’re a couple pussies! She said she is the one who is dead. Get over it! You’re alive, start living!”
Tom weary from the weight of Sunday’s death in his life wanted to let it go. He was ready and began to pray.
Janet’s head snapped around to look at Tom, “Forgive yourself and tell her if you forgive her.”
“I definitely forgive her!” said Tom as he shifted in his chair.
“Now Josh,” said Janet, “she is quite intense about this. She will kick your ass to Texas if you don’t let loose of this self-loathing!
Sunday pushed as hard as she could and tried to touched Josh’s face and kiss his forehead. At that moment, he felt her. He completely felt her and he understood. “I forgive her, I forgive myself,” Josh said, wiping the tears from his face as 25 years of grief and self-blame lifted from his soul.
“Heal thyself, counselor,” Josh said out loud.
“Let’s join hands and see if we can help send her into the light,” Lizzy said as she gathered Tom’s and Josh’s hands in hers.
The four stood in a circle holding hands and praying for Sunday. Sunday was ready to move on. The light had been calling her for some time, but she had been ignoring it. Now that she had made right what she believed was her wrong, she could go now. The group helped send her off with their thoughts and prayers. Sunday Stewart, after 25 years of lingering in the gap between worlds, moved into a bright, warm, loving light. She felt complete love as she disappeared off this earth plane.
“She’s gone,” said Janet.
Lizzy nodded her head, “I felt it too!”
The group stood silent for a moment. It wasn’t every day you moved someone from one existence to another. The room felt lighter. Lizzy and Janet hugged Tom and Josh. Josh and Tom looked at each other for a moment and then embraced. Lizzy noticed that both men looked a bit younger and lighter in their energy.
Lizzy handed Tom and Josh her card with her and Janet’s phone numbers. “Just in case you run into something else or just need someone to talk to. I have found that not everyone is open to hearing about supernatural events.”
“This is going to take a little time to process,” Josh said as he ushered everyone into the foyer. “I’ve never experienced anything like this. I felt her, I really felt her in there.”
Out at the curb they gave each other one last hug and departed. Josh stood at the curb and watched them drive away. He wasn’t exactly sure what he felt but a great sense of relief and a feelin
g of joy percolated in his broad chest. The weight of Sunday’s death freshly off his chest made him want to celebrate her life and his. He called Cynthia and told her to get her best dress on, they were going out!
Lizzy and Janet dropped Tom off at his home. The girls got out of the car with him and walked him to his door.
“Are you ok?” Janet asked.
“I am. This has been a very odd experience. As Josh said, it will take some time to process. I can say I do feel lighter. I didn’t realize just how much this has weighed me down all these years. I fell in love with my wife. I never meant to hurt Sunday the way I did. I realize now, that although I have been very happy in my marriage, this has been a dark cloud existing within me all these years. I look forward to moving on without it. Thank you so much for your help.” Tom stepped forward and hugged Janet and then Lizzy.
“If you need us for anything, please don’t hesitate to call,” said Lizzy.
“I will. You girls drive carefully and good luck in your future endeavors. If I hear of someone who needs a Ghost Investigator I’ll give them your names.”
“We’re not ghost investigators!” laughed Lizzy. “We just wanted to help my friend Karen and it turned into this whole other thing!”
“Well, it appears you ARE some kind of spirit workers so, like I said, if I hear of anything I will send them your way. Smiling he turned around and gave a back handed wave as he strode through his front door. Lizzy and Janet could hear Greg and Deanna inside asking him a hundred questions about what happened. The door shut and Lizzy and Janet began their journey home.
Chapter 16
Lizzy and Janet talked fast and furious on their way home. They reviewed every detail of what had happened.
“I think it went very well,” said Janet, grinning ear to ear.
“So, what do you think? Should we become the next GI’s?” asked Lizzy with a smirk.
“GI’s?” Janet didn’t put it together.
“You know, Ghost Investigators,” Lizzy laughed. “I feel we could be of real help to people. You know, maybe it was lucky all this happened as it did. What would have happened if Sunday had attached to someone else and had found her way to Tom somehow? Tom and his wife might have dealt with a lot of paranormal activity for a long time before they would have gotten help and Sunday may have been stuck here for a really long time.”
“So, what? You want to advertise?” said Janet apprehensively.
“I don’t know about all that,” Lizzy said as her excitement started to build. “Yes, to a degree maybe we should. I mean we could put a little website up and just let people know what we are up to. What would it be like to help lead other trapped spirits to the light? It feels good doesn’t it?”
“It does have an interestingly happy energy to it. It was a little stressful getting there though. I don’t know that I will always connect as well as I did this time. I can’t be expected to perform on cue you know,” Janet said.
“I think between the two of us we will be able to get enough information and it will be fine. If we don’t, we don’t. All we can do is be willing to be of service. We set our intention to be of help and see where it leads us. I’ve noticed on a lot of these TV programs, the paranormal investigators go in and seem to just stir things up. Many times, they leave the people with the problem. Sometimes the paranormal activity actually gets worse after they leave. The people getting haunted have no idea what to do. We could contact some of these teams and let them know we can cleanse the homes and maybe even get more information for them,” Lizzy’s mind raced like a freight train with ideas. As always, she would land on an idea, or cause, and become completely consumed by it. She couldn’t help herself. She felt that it was something she wanted, or maybe even needed to do. There seemed to be a force behind it pulling her in.
“I’m in,” said Janet. “How many ghostly issues could there be out there anyway?”
Chapter 17
Karen waited on pins and needles for Lizzy to arrive. She flew out the door to meet her when Lizzy pulled into the driveway.
“Well, how was it? Were you scared? Did she get her message out? Did her brother believe you?”
“Whoa there, hundred question Nellie! Give me a chance to answer the first question before you hammer me with three more!” Lizzy said as she put her arm around Karen and started into the house. “What did you cook me for dinner? I’m totally starved!”
“Roast beef, baby!” Karen said with a giggle “Before I make you tell me everything though, there is something I have to tell you,” she said with a big Cheshire cat grin.
“My God, what?” Lizzy could only imagine at this point, what Karen had going. This had been one crazy month.
Karen pulled a card out of her pocket and handed it to Lizzy. “Just in case you lost it, ‘Officer Dan’ would like you to call him.”
“Whhhat!” Lizzy squealed. “He came here?”
“He sure did. He asked me to please pass a message to you that he would like to take you to dinner. He also asked me to remind you to be mindful when dressing because where he is taking you requires all clothing to be worn right side out. He plans on taking you somewhere nice,” Karen said, beaming now. It wasn’t often that a man tracked Lizzy down for a date and this one most certainly, romantically, did.
Lizzy rolled her eyes and stuffed the card in her pocket, “This is all just too much. Feed me and let me tell you what happened, I’ll deal with lover boy later.”
Lizzy gave every detail to Karen. She finished the story and her dinner at the same time. Emotionally exhausted and physically stuffed, she had to go home and get into bed.
“That was an amazing dinner buddy, thank you. I need to head out though. I’m so tired right now I can barely stand myself,” Lizzy sat on the edge of the couch not wanting to eat and run but she was spent. She had been so energized earlier and in one fell swoop, she felt completely drained. “I’ve got to go get some sleep.”
“Its fine,” Karen laughed. “Before you go I have to talk to you about two things. First, I won’t be joining you on any further, whatever you call them, ghost chasings.”
“I’m surprised,” said Lizzy. “I thought when I told you Janet agreed to proceed I kind of just assumed you would be there as well. Why don’t you want to be a part of this?” asked Lizzy.
Karen breathed deep that drew a long sigh, “I just don’t want to. There is too much drama. You know, Sunday wasn’t in your house banging around, she was in mine. It was upsetting. Even though I know now that she was trying to get attention so she could get some help getting to the other side, I didn’t enjoy it.
“That’s true,” Lizzy admitted.
“All my life I have heard of haunted houses, but I never heard of haunted people. I think that is what we experienced in this situation. If the spirit of Sunday Stewart was able to attach itself to someone and travel, then other spirits can do the same thing. It was eye-opening, that’s for sure. I’ve decided I don’t want to take a chance of bringing something back into my home.”
“I know, but we can protect ourselves now. We know how to move them out of the house and to the other side,” Lizzy said suddenly feeling abandoned.
“No, Lizzy we don’t know any of that for sure. We didn’t really cleanse my house of a spirit as we thought because she had already left.”
“You’re right. I do feel we can protect ourselves though,” Lizzy moved into sales pitch mode. She didn’t want to do this without Karen.
“Lizzy, don’t. I can see in your eyes you want to convince me. I have kids and I am not taking any chances. Billy was being traumatized and I didn’t know it. That is a terrible feeling. These spirits are single minded and motivated when they are trying to finish their mission. I don’t want to be in between them and their mission.”
“All right! All right!” Lizzy bellowed, throwing her hands in the air. She refused to hide her disappointment. She knew when Karen set her mind to something that was it. She was even more stubborn than Lizz
y.
“Now, on to a happier topic!” Karen said jumping up and grabbing Lizzy’s belongings. “You go home, call that Officer Dan and then get some sleep, you look like shit!”
“Thanks,” Lizzy said sarcastically. She waved Karen off. “I’ll think about it. It sounds like a lot of trouble.”
“Lizzy, you call him. He came all the way, over here chasing you down! It’s very romantic.”
“Oh shut up!” Lizzy couldn’t get out of Karen’s clutches fast enough. “I will call him! Don’t go buying us wedding china or anything else, geez!”
Lizzy arrived home, parked her car and walked straight into her bedroom. She tore off her clothes and jumped into bed without even brushing her teeth. She didn’t care, she felt delirium setting in. Her head hit the pillow and she was gone.
Friday, at work, she could not concentrate. Had she really helped Sunday cross over? Lizzy felt strange and oddly gratified, she believed they had done something really meaningful for those families. Sitting at her desk, thumbing through the invoices she needed to mail out now seemed…stupid.
She worked for System Gifts for four years. The job paid the bills. Lizzy could sell. She always managed to make a good living but this company to one degree or another seemed ‘soul-less’. There seemed to be no real meaning to the trinkets and traveler’s mementos Lizzy promoted.
There is a whole other world and dimension going on around us. Souls are working to finish unfinished business and maybe I can help. Lizzy thought, as she restacked the invoices she had stacked just a moment ago. Her mind writhed around trying to process everything she had been exposed to the last few weeks. She picked up her phone and returned calls to her clients. Lizzy knew she wasn’t going to get much done today. She pushed the business card around on her desk with ‘Officer Dan’s’ phone number displayed with a red circle prominently around it.
Oh why not, she asked herself. She took a moment to gather her courage and then dialed his number. Why was she feeling so nervous? It’s not like she’d never gone on a date for God's sake. The line rang. Her stomach jumped into her throat. She swallowed hard and waited as the phone rang a second time. She started to hang up when he answered.