by Wendy Webb
Something felt off. Wrong, somehow. My flesh crawled. But why?
I talked to the man and pointed to the bathroom, and all at once, bright light began pouring from under the doors of all the rooms, including mine, illuminating the hallway with an eerie glow.
That was when I saw that it didn’t look like the hallway, not exactly. There was a runner on the floor. It was blue with tiny red flowers. Had that been there before and I just hadn’t noticed it? No, I was sure the floor was bare, just wide-planked wood. And I saw wallpaper on the walls. White, with thin blue pinstripes. I was sure the walls had been painted off-white.
Gas lamps, which were lining both walls, flickered on, one by one. I watched as their flames danced. I could smell the oil.
An old mirror hung on the wall opposite Dominic’s room, its pane weathered with age. I caught a glimpse of myself and realized I had on a dark-blue dress, not the jacket and jeans I had been wearing.
I stood there, staring at my own reflection, when Dominic appeared behind me. He smiled at me in the mirror before wrapping his arms around my waist. I leaned back into him and watched in the mirror as he began kissing my neck.
“This is just a dream, Brynn,” he whispered, his deep voice husky and rough. “I’ve found my world in you. Let’s go back. Just for fun.”
All at once, I was in a club. A bar. Hazy smoke swirled through the air; men in suits enjoyed their cocktails. I was dressed like a flapper. A man walked toward me, smiling. Dominic. He took me into his arms. I melted into them. I realized it was the same man I had imagined when Dominic and I were sitting in my room on that rainy morning.
He led me onto the dance floor. We whirled and danced and laughed until a commotion broke the reverie. A raid! People were rushing here and there, police rounding them up. I watched Dominic wink at one of the cops as he grabbed my hand and led me through a door in the back of the room. We hurried down the back stairs and into the alley, laughing all the way.
“That was close!” I said.
He shook his head. “You’re always safe with me.”
But then, it all vanished. I was standing alone in the hallway. What was I doing there? Had I been sleepwalking? It was dark now, except for the moonlight shining from the window at the end of the hall. No light pouring from under the doors of the rooms. No wallpaper. The walls were painted off-white, just as they had been. No gas lamps. No mirror. No runner on the wide-planked wood floor.
I hurried back down to my room and turned on the light as I closed the door behind me. Checked in the closet and bathroom. Under the bed. Looked at my purse and computer. Checked my wallet. Took the small box out of the bottom of my purse and clasped the chain around my neck. All was quiet. I was safe.
I laid my head on the pillow and curled down under the covers.
But soon my eyes shot open, and I sat up in bed, switching on the lamp that sat on my bedside table. I took a long gulp from my water glass. I was shaking, deep in my core. That same feeling I had in my dream, my flesh crawling, still had ahold of me.
I glanced at the clock. Five thirty. Two hours had passed.
I set the glass back on my nightstand, switched off the light, curled back down, and closed my eyes, but I knew there would be no more sleep that night.
What had really happened, and what was the dream? I lay there sorting it out, retracing my steps in my mind. I had come out of Gil and Jason’s suite, heard some voices, encountered the man, pointed to the bathroom, and hurried back to my suite.
My eyes shot open when it hit me: there were no bathrooms in the hallway.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I don’t know how I fell asleep after that, but I must have, because I found myself opening my eyes to a bright, blue day. It was nearly nine thirty. I grabbed my towel, pulled on my robe, and padded down the hall. I needed a hot shower to wash the night away.
I passed by Dominic’s room and wanted to knock but thought better of it. He’d had a long night, first rescuing Alice and then staying awake while Gil and Jason got some sleep, and I was sure he was sacked out. I wondered how everyone else was doing after last night.
I stood under the shower stream for a long time, probably too long per LuAnn’s instructions to get in and get out, letting the hot water bring me back to myself. In my room, I dried my hair, scowling at it in the mirror, noting I was due for a root touch-up. Then I pulled on jeans and a T-shirt and headed downstairs. I needed some coffee and one of Gary’s decadent breakfasts. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten anything.
People were still lingering at a few of the tables, so I slipped onto a barstool. Gary appeared out of the kitchen.
“Morning, doll!” He grinned at me as he turned over the mug in front of me and poured steaming coffee into it. “What else can I getcha?”
“That same breakfast you made for me before,” I said, splashing some cream into my mug and taking a sip. “The one with the hash browns and cheese.”
“That’ll cure what ails you. Coming right up!”
A short while later, he was back, carrying the slice of heaven that was his egg, hash browns, veggies, and cheese concoction. He set the steaming plate in front of me.
“I heard about what happened last night,” he said, leaning on the counter. “Alice.”
I nodded as I took my first bite. It seemed so long ago and far away, but it had happened only hours before.
“It was pretty scary.”
“Word is Dominic went into the water and saved her,” Gary went on, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Like some kind of superhero.”
“He did,” I said. “Jason is getting an alarmed baby gate so she won’t wander out of the suite again in the middle of the night.”
“Never a dull moment around here,” Gary said. “I hope the lady isn’t too shaken up.”
I took another bite and considered whether I should tell Gary about what happened in the hallway. I decided he was the one person I wanted to tell.
“I think I saw a ghost last night,” I said finally. I eyed him over the rim of my coffee mug. “At least, it might have been. I’m not sure.”
“The lady in room five again?”
“No,” I said. “I was going back to my room after we had gotten Alice cleaned up and into bed. I saw a man in the hallway—”
“What man?” It was LuAnn, rounding the corner. She was wearing purple leggings and a black tunic, her hair tied back with a purple and black scarf. “Sorry to eavesdrop, but I heard you say you saw a man upstairs last night?”
Gary and I exchanged a glance. “I saw someone, yes.”
LuAnn slid onto the stool next to mine. “What time was it?”
“Around three thirty,” I said.
LuAnn shook her head. “Honey, are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”
“A distinct possibility when it comes to me, but this time, no. I had just left Jason and Gil’s suite and was going back to my room.”
“Well, if there was a man, he shouldn’t have been in the house,” she said, a look of concern washing over her face. “We don’t have any renters this week.”
A chill ran through me. There it was, then.
“I think it might have been a ghost,” I said, wincing. “He came out of one of the rooms and asked me where the bathroom was.”
LuAnn let out a hoot of laughter. “There’s no bathroom off the hallway upstairs,” she said. “There were three of them, but not anymore. I had them turned into the shower and tub rooms when I bought the place eons ago.”
“I realized that last night after I got back to my room,” I said. “It gave me chills, actually.”
LuAnn and Gary chuckled.
I narrowed my eyes at them and shook my head. “I can’t get over you two,” I said. “You take these encounters with ghosts, or whatever they are, in stride. They don’t faze you in the least. You’re so matter-of-fact about it.”
LuAnn waved her hand. “Aw, once it happens a few times, you start to realize that most of them don’
t mean any harm.”
“Most of them?”
LuAnn brushed some unseen lint off her shoulder. “Over the years we’ve had a few less-than-pleasant spirits we’ve had to run out of here,” she said. “But for the most part, they’re harmless.”
“Even the lady in room five?” I wanted to know.
LuAnn narrowed her eyes and considered this. “It seems to me she’s got a connection to you.”
“Me? Why?”
“Honey, you’re the one who keeps seeing her. She’s reaching out to you. It could be as simple as the woman died in room five and her spirit is still floating around. You’re the one who’s here right now that she can connect to. That happens sometimes.”
“A random connection?”
“Sort of. It’s like you’re at a party filled with people you don’t know. You see one friendly face across the room and that’s who you go talk to.”
I nodded. I guess I could see that.
LuAnn wagged a finger at me. “But it also could be she wants to tell you something. Or ask you to do something for her. That happens, too.”
My stomach knotted up at the thought of it. I remembered she handed me the book, The Illustrated Man, and got the feeling LuAnn was right. It was no random connection.
“How will I know what she wants?” I asked.
LuAnn chuckled at this. “For heaven’s sake, honey! Next time you see her, just ask!”
Gary chuckled, too. “You’re officially one of us now, Brynn,” he said. “You had an encounter with a passer-through.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “A passer-through?”
Gary took another sip of his coffee as LuAnn got up and poured herself a cup. “Like I told you a few days ago, they pass through here. People who have been here before. Boarders. People who have worked here. The place draws people back somehow. Some way.”
LuAnn chortled, wrapping an arm around his waist. “Gary, you and I are going to be haunting this house when our time comes, you know that, right?”
He kissed her cheek. “No place else I’d rather be.”
I took in the image of the two of them for a moment, and all at once, it dawned on me. They were together. A couple. I had been so caught up in my dramas, I hadn’t noticed it before.
I sat there, smiling at them.
LuAnn narrowed her eyes at me. “What?”
“Are you two a couple?”
“Twelve wonderful years with this galoot,” LuAnn said, beaming at him. “He came to work for me a few years after his wife died. My husband had passed the year before.”
“It took her a while to catch on to my devastating charms,” he said, grinning. “Only about fifteen years. I was beginning to think she didn’t have eyes to see with.” He laughed his gravelly laugh.
She slapped his arm. “It was the best day of your life when I said yes.”
A look of gravity came over Gary’s face then. His eyes filled with admiration when he gazed at LuAnn, then back to me.
“We kid around a lot,” he said. “That’s the fun of it. But there’s another side, too.”
LuAnn nodded, knowing what he was going to say.
“Both Lu and I were married before. Me for thirty-four years, her for—what, honey?”
“Twenty-nine,” she said, gazing off into the past. “Two months shy of thirty.”
“You’re damn lucky if you can find love once in this lifetime,” Gary went on. “We found it twice.”
“That’s right,” LuAnn said. “That’s exactly right. I thought I’d never marry again. Never find anyone. That I’d grow old alone. And then this old coot came along and stole my heart.”
“Not many people can say they’ve had two great loves in their lives,” Gary said. “We both know how rare it is. How lucky we are.”
I took another sip of my coffee and smiled at them, even as tears were stinging the backs of my eyes. LuAnn and Gary had found love the second time around, and a happy, playful love at that. I thought of my parents, the great loves of each other’s lives for sixty-three years. Kate and Nick. Simon and Jonathan. Jason and Gil. All of them had the kind of love that had eluded me.
I had reached this stage of life without finding it. It made me wonder what I was doing wrong. If I was wrong somehow.
Yes, Dominic and I were in the throes of a blossoming romance, there was no doubt about it. But was he my true love? I had no idea. It was too new for me to be thinking in those terms. There was still plenty of time for it to fall apart.
As if sensing what was going through my mind, LuAnn reached over and took my hand. “Love comes along when you least expect it, but when you need it most,” she said. “Sometimes, if you’re lucky, the right people come into your life at just the right time. People ask me if I believe in destiny. Hell no, I used to say. But now? I’m not so sure.”
“Destiny?” I asked.
“Gary toddled into my life when I was grieving the loss of my husband. I thought I was going to lose this place, too. I didn’t think I could run it alone.”
“You certainly could have,” Gary broke in.
She shook her head. “Not then, I couldn’t. And here he came. He stepped in, ran the kitchen and did the maintenance and everything else. Helped me remodel. At first, I was just grateful for his friendship, companionship, and partnership.”
“Then she finally opened her eyes,” Gary said, laughing. “But the lady has a point about the right person at the right time. When I walked into LuAnn’s, I had lost my wife a few years prior. Then I was the one who got lost.”
I leaned my elbow on the counter, resting my chin in my palm. “How so?”
Gary poured himself another shot of coffee. “I had been a career Coast Guard man,” he said.
“A sea dog,” LuAnn piped up, chuckling.
“Inland seas, if you please. I served on the Great Lakes. Superior, mostly.”
“Wow,” I said. “I’ll bet you saw your share of adventure when the gales of November hit every year.”
Gary shook his head and whistled, long and low. “I could tell you stories. Anyway, I had been retired for a few years before my wife passed. Cancer.”
The very sound of the word burned my ears.
“I had been taking care of her during her last years,” he said.
Tears pricked at the backs of my eyes, and I involuntarily fingered the chain around my neck. “Oh, Gary. I know how hard that is.”
He waved his hand. “It was hard, but it was a privilege.”
I knew exactly what he meant. I hoped I could come to that realization myself one day, after the grief had lessened.
“But when she was gone, I had no idea what to do with myself,” he said. “I watched a lot of meaningless television. Found myself at the bottom of a whiskey bottle more times than I care to admit. Stopped reaching out to friends. I was never a churchgoer, so I found no comfort there. I was an old, retired seaman who was rudderless. Can you imagine that? Some days, I didn’t care if I lived or died. I was just beginning to think dying would be a blessing. Then I came to Wharton, walked by LuAnn’s, and saw her ‘Help Wanted’ sign in the window.”
“And the rest is history.” LuAnn smiled at him.
“I found purpose in life again,” he said. “LuAnn needed help, and so did I. All of a sudden, I had a reason to get up in the morning. So, I might have come along just when she needed me, but she came along just when I needed her.”
“Two people, walking through life, gasping for air, slowly dying because we desperately needed what the other could provide,” LuAnn said. “And somehow, we found our way to each other.”
“How wild is that?” Gary piped up. “What are the chances?”
“That’s why I believe there are forces at work out there,” LuAnn said, raising her eyebrows. “Strange and mystical forces. I didn’t do anything to bring Gary to me but put out a ‘Help Wanted’ sign. He didn’t do anything to find me but walk by my place on a weekend trip to Wharton. So random, all of it. And yet, those
small, random acts led us to the next chapter for both of us.”
“Destiny brought me here to meet you,” Gary said.
“Well, let’s thank destiny, then,” LuAnn said, kissing his cheek.
I sipped my coffee, wondering if, like Gary, destiny—or something else—had a hand in bringing me to Wharton.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
After breakfast, I took the mystery I was reading and sat out on the deck in the sunshine. When I had come back upstairs, I noticed the door to the suite was closed. I wanted to check on Alice—on all of them—but I didn’t want to intrude if they were sleeping. I wouldn’t blame them if they were sacked out for most of the day.
It was peaceful, reading on my own for a couple of hours. I hadn’t had much solo time since I’d arrived—not that I really needed it—and it was nice to be alone with my own thoughts, getting immersed in a mystery that did not involve me being pursued by ghosts, the lady in room five, or even Alice. I was off the clock, and it felt good.
I was in the middle of a chapter when my phone buzzed. I glanced at the time—almost two o’clock already.
“Hey, you!” Kate chirped. “How’s your day going?”
“Entirely uneventful,” I said, exhaling. “Thank the gods above. I’ve done nothing all day but eat Gary’s famous breakfast and sit on the deck reading.”
“After last night, you deserve a day of rest,” she said.
This stopped me. “You heard what happened?”
“This is Wharton, and I’m married to the police chief,” she said. But then her voice turned serious. “Is Alice okay? Are you?”
“I’m assuming she is,” I said. “I would’ve heard about it if she had taken a turn for the worse. I haven’t seen any of them today. I’m sure they’re wiped.”
“I heard your man was the hero of the night. It’s all over town.”