“He ignores me, that’s for sure.”
“Since when?”
“Since…” Robin shrugged. “I don’t know. Since a long time. I can’t remember. I’ve honestly wondered whether he’s just going to leave me when Emma’s out of the house. He has no friends here anymore. He ignores me. He pays more attention to his work friends online than he does to me.”
Monica was staring at Robin with wide eyes. “You think Mark’s gonna leave you?”
“I mean… maybe.”
“Robin, how do you say a thing like that like it’s no big deal?” Monica glared at her. “‘So I’ve been thinking we might get a fake Christmas tree this year. Also, I think I might paint the living room, and oh, Mark might leave me when Emma goes away to college.’”
“It’s not… Don’t overreact, okay? I’m not saying he will.”
“Do you want him to leave?”
“No.” Robin shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s messy.”
“He’s messy?”
“Yes. He leaves socks everywhere. It’s annoying.”
“You’re willing to let go of a twenty-three-year marriage because he leaves socks lying around the house?”
Robin took a deep breath. “Maybe the question is, is it inevitable? Why am I holding on to it if it’s not working? Can anyone stay together for that long and still like each other?”
“It happens! Look at your parents. Or Val’s mom and dad. And what about me and Gil?”
She glanced at Monica. “I’m not talking about you and Gil. You guys were special.”
“No, we weren’t.”
“Yeah, you were.”
Monica turned on her rock to face Robin. “No. We were not. We got sick of each other too. You think having four kids that fast and that young is easy? We just went through our shitty stuff when the kids were young.”
“So what’s the secret?”
“The secret?” Monica huffed out a breath. “I don’t know that there’s a secret or anything.”
“Not helpful.” Robin took a deep breath. “Maybe—”
“Are you still interested in him?”
“Who, Mark?” Robin frowned. “He’s my husband. Of course I’m—”
“No, I mean… Imagine if you weren’t married to him. Would you still consider him an interesting person? If you were introduced at a party, would you be curious about him? About what he does and who he is?”
Robin opened her mouth. Shut it. “I think so. He does interesting work. He helps companies expand their platforms internationally, so he works with people all over the world and he travels quite a bit. And he really likes outdoor stuff. Camping. Hiking.” She shrugged. “Yeah, I think he’s an interesting person.”
“Good to know. Now, do you think you’re an interesting person?”
No.
The answer came to her so quickly she felt her heart sink. “I don’t…. I mean, how do you judge that for yourself? It’s impossible.”
“No, it’s not.”
“I don’t know, Monica.”
“Liar.”
“Fine.” Robin swallowed hard. “No. I’m not interesting. I’m practical. I’m always on time. I’m boring. I’m a boring, middle-aged mother of two with an antique shop and two kids who barely acknowledge me and a husband who can’t be bothered to look at my face when he walks through the kitchen in the morning.” She coughed to clear the lump from her throat and fought back tears. “Happy?”
“No. Because you don’t see yourself at all.” Monica slid her arm around Robin’s waist. “You’re a passionate, talented artist who runs a thriving business and doesn’t make enough time for herself. You’re generous to a fault, will do anything for your friends, and have raised two amazing children.”
Robin stared at the water. The sun was starting to sink, and the bugs were coming out, but the water was like a mirror, reflecting the forest and mountains that surrounded her.
“But I don’t think I’m interesting,” Robin said. “And you’re right. Why would Mark like me if even I don’t think I’m interesting?”
“You are not understanding me at all. I think he sees the same things I do. But you need to make it clear to him that you’re not fine.” She raised a hand quickly. “And don’t tell me you have because I know you haven’t. You are terrible at telling people when you need help. I have many theories about this, mostly revolving around your mother, but the fact is, Mark loves you.”
Robin raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Don’t give me that look. He does. I’ve seen him watch you when you’re not paying attention—which you do a lot, by the way. You get wrapped up in details, and you don’t pay attention. So pay attention to this: you need to make time for yourself, and you need to recognize how great you are.”
“But Mark and I—”
“Just shut up, because you’re alive.” She blinked back tears. “Both of you. You love each other and you’re alive. So fix things while you can, so you don’t lose something precious.”
Robin put her arm around Monica’s shoulders. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t waste time because I think my life is blah.”
“Your life is not blah! If you don’t recognize that, you’re going to end up pushing everyone away.”
Robin took a deep breath. “My life is not blah.”
“It’s not. On top of all the cool things I mentioned before, you see ghosts now. And that’s like the opposite of blah.”
“Do I though?” Robin looked around. “I’m not having much luck calling Billy.”
“Are you really calling him though?” Monica looked around.
“No. I mean, I don’t know how I’d call a ghost. Do you? The other times he just kind of showed up.”
“How to call a ghost…?” Monica pulled out her phone and tapped. “Okay, no, that’s about a weird malware thing in mobile phones.”
“Malware thing?”
Monica waved her hand. “Wait, this is better. Twenty ways to summon spirits.” She frowned. “We don’t have a Ouija board.”
“I’m not going to use a— Monica, seriously?”
“It’s at the top of the list!” She pointed to her phone. “Okay, summon a witch, don’t need that. Summon a demon, definitely don’t need that. Summon the grim—you know, there’s not actually much about summoning ghosts. Google, you’ve failed me.”
Robin stood and brushed her hands off on her pants. “Okay, clearly I don’t know much about being a medium.” She turned around. “So why don’t we just…”
A man stepped out from between the trees.
Robin froze. “Monica?”
“I think a Ouija board might be the—” Monica yelped when Robin tugged on her hair. “Ouch! What are you looking at?”
“Ghost.” Robin’s voice was tiny. “Seeing the ghost.”
“Oh wait.” Monica scrambled to her feet. “Like right now? I don’t see anything.”
“Nothing?”
“She can’t,” the ghost said. “But you can. I wasn’t sure. I thought I’d imagined it when you saw me in the water.” He stared at Robin, who was still frozen. “Sorry you were waiting so long, but it seemed like an important conversation, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Considerate for a ghost,” Robin murmured.
“I try to be.”
“Robin?” Monica asked. “What are you seeing?”
“Billy,” she murmured.
The ghost smiled. “You know my name.”
“Yeah.” Robin stepped closer. “Why did you save our lives?”
The ghost shrugged. “Seemed like the thing to do. No use letting you drown in the lake. Drowning isn’t a fun way to die.”
Chapter 13
“You drowned,” Robin said. “Val—our friend, the one with the short hair? She saw you. She touched…” She winced. Did the ghost remember the chains? Was it rude to bring up how he’d died to his face? Did ghosts get offended? “She touched something and saw that you were trapped and water was
coming.”
Billy’s ghost looked remarkably human. There was a faint glow around the edges of his body, but she wouldn’t have even noticed unless she was looking for it. He looked solid. Tangible. If she reached out, could she touch him?
Robin could see a swollen lump on the side of his head, but his dark hair hid the blood from the wound. He was wearing the same jeans and flannel shirt as the first time she saw him in the lake.
“Thank you.” Monica was looking the same direction as Robin even though she couldn’t see Billy. “Thank you for saving us. Me and my whole family are very grateful.”
“You’re welcome, ma’am.”
“He says you’re welcome.” Robin kept her eyes on Billy. “We found your picture in the paper. You helped build the dam.”
His expression darkened. “God help me, I did.”
“You regret it?”
“The dam killed everything. The animals. The forest. The farms.” Billy shook his head. “And me.”
“What’s your last name? It starts with a G.”
“Grimmer.” Billy smiled. “They named the town after my grandpa. We had a big ranch back in the day.” He glanced at the lake. “Of course, that’s all gone now.”
“His name is Billy Grimmer,” Robin said to Monica.
“Oh! Like the founder of the town?”
“He says it was his grandfather.” She turned back to the ghost. “If you hated the dam so much, why did you work on it?”
“Trying to make my mama happy. The government needed the electricity the dam would produce if it was gonna keep powering those factories for the war. So everyone had a choice.”
“What kind of choice?”
“If you worked on the dam, you wouldn’t get drafted into the army. I didn’t mind signing up, mind you, but I was the youngest. My mama already had four boys in the war, and she couldn’t bear to let me go. When I turned eighteen, she told me, ‘Billy, you better stay here. You work on the dam so that war don’t take all my boys from me. They’re gonna build it with or without you.’” He offered Robin a small smile. “I might have had better luck in the army.”
“He worked on the dam to keep from getting drafted during the war,” Robin said, conscious that Monica could only hear one side of the conversation. “He was the last of his brothers left, and his mom insisted.”
“That sounds like something my mom would do too,” Monica said. “Is he Catholic?”
“Are you Catholic?” Robin asked. “Wait, I don’t think that’s important.” She looked at Monica. “Is it?”
“You think I know?”
“I don’t need a priest,” Billy said. “I don’t think.”
“Why are you still here?” Robin asked. “Do you know?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Do you remember what happened when you died?”
He shook his head. “It’s all a little fuzzy. I remember waking up in the mine and I was chained up and had a big, bloody knot on my head. Don’t remember what happened before that. There was something…” He frowned. “I was supposed to be somewhere that night. I don’t know where or why, but I needed… I needed to be someplace.”
“Like an appointment?” Robin asked. She glanced at Monica. “He says he doesn’t remember what happened. Just remembers waking up in the mine. Someone must have knocked him out before.”
“Do you know why you can see me?” Billy asked. “That hasn’t happened for a good long while. Most people can’t. Every now and then a little kid will see me, but their parents usually ignore them. And dogs. Dogs can usually sniff me out.”
“That’s so weird.” Robin breathed out. “I’m not sure why I can see you. We just…” Robin looked helplessly at Monica. “We went in the water normal and came out—”
“Different.” Monica smiled a little. “Just… kind of different.”
“And you’ve never seen ghosts before now?” Billy asked.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Robin thought back to the strange ringing bell in her shop. That wasn’t recent. That had been happening for months. “I saw a little girl by the lake. Have you seen her?”
He shook his head with a soft smile. “We can’t see each other. I can feel other spirits sometimes, but I don’t see them. They don’t see me. You’re the only person I’ve talked to in… I don’t know. Time is different here.”
“Where is here?”
“I guess… I don’t know how to explain that either.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “What’s your name, ma’am? You from Grimmer?”
“They call it Glimmer Lake now.”
Billy turned to the water and the corner of his mouth turned up. “I suppose that’s a prettier name than Grimmer.”
“Robin. My name is Robin Brannon. And yeah, I’m from here. I have the shop at the corner of Foreman Creek Road and Lake Drive. The big old log house. Does that sound familiar?”
Billy shook his head. “I’m not much for town; I like the woods. Always have.”
Robin stared at him while the light grew dim. “Why do I know you?”
The corner of Billy’s mouth turned up. “You’ve seen me a few times now.”
“No, it’s not that. As soon as I saw you—as soon as I remembered you—I could picture your face. It was familiar, like someone I’ve seen before.”
“You got any Grimmer people in your background? Maybe we’re related. Probably not. All my people were on the way to Sacramento when…”
“When what?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head again. “It’s like there’s this fog that comes down when I try to think of it. I was going with them. I’m sure of it. But there was some place I needed to be first. And then…” He pointed to his temple. “Quite a thing, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Robin saw his outline beginning to fade. “You can touch things. How does that work? You broke the car window. Can you feel my hand?” She held it out and Billy reached for it, but their hands passed through each other with nothing more than a gust of cold air.
“Guess not. I think I have to want something real hard to do that,” Billy said. “And I wanted to save you. I saw your face, and it reminded me…” His voice drifted out and his tenuous outline seemed to shimmer in the setting sun.
“Billy? I reminded you of what?”
His mouth was moving, but the sound of his voice was gone. Billy Grimmer reached out his hand and Robin tried to close her fingers around his, but they were gone.
“He’s gone.” Robin stared at the place where he’d been. “And we still know nothing.”
“We know his name.” Monica put her arm around Robin’s shoulders. “That’s something.”
“Do you think I did it right?” Robin said. “Maybe there are ways to help him remember stuff better. Do you think that’s what I need to do? Does his soul have to… I don’t know. Find peace?”
Monica looked over the deep blue water of the lake. “It’s pretty peaceful here.”
“Not for him.” Robin walked to the edge and watched the evening breeze whip up small whitecaps. “For him, this is his grave.”
* * *
They were pulling onto Robin’s street when Monica suggested it. Robin thought she was hearing things.
“Wait, what?”
“I think we should talk to Sylvia,” Monica said. “Don’t you think that would be good?”
Robin’s eyes went wide. “Sylvia? Your Sylvia? The daughter who is getting her masters in psychology? Um, no. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think that sounds like a recipe for us being committed.”
“Oh, come on,” Monica said. “Maybe she’ll know how we can get rid of this.”
“I’m sorry.” Robin reached out. “Are you still having dreams?”
“Every night.”
“Every night? Why didn’t you tell us?” Robin couldn’t imagine seeing ghosts every day. It was bad enough that she saw them sometimes. “What are they? Are you seeing Billy? Somet
hing about his death? Are you—?”
“I had a dream that my car battery went dead this morning.” Monica turned right on Robin’s road. “And it was true. I got up and my battery was dead. Jake had to give me a jump start.”
Robin waited. “And…?”
“And nothing. That’s the kind of stuff I’m seeing. And you think you’re boring. I get a premonition that the casserole is going to burn. Or the car battery is dead.” She stopped the car abruptly. “A deer is gonna cross the street right in front of the Millers’ house.”
Seconds later, a deer bounded across the road and into the brush along the road.
“See?”
Robin stared at the dark space where the deer had disappeared. “Okay, but the deer thing is really useful.”
“I’m not denying that. But the rest of it is just kind of annoying. Also, I live in terror of seeing something really bad. I don’t know what I’d do, Robin. Would I call the police? Would they believe me? Of course they wouldn’t.”
“Probably not.” Robin stared at her house, which was lit with glowing gold lights. “You want to get rid of it?”
“The visions? Yes! Don’t you?” Monica parked in the driveway. “I don’t want to know what the future holds. Not little boring things or big scary things. Do you want to keep seeing ghosts everywhere? That sounds scary as hell.”
“It’s not bad so far,” Robin said. “Though, admittedly, I’ve only met nice ghosts.”
“And you know they can’t all be nice. Assholes are everywhere. Even on the… spiritual plane or whatever you call it.”
“So your solution to this is to call Sylvia?”
“She does brain research! If she doesn’t know about psychic stuff, maybe she can find out. Maybe there are studies. I heard the military uses psychics. Maybe there are research papers.”
“Maybe?” Robin still felt skeptical. “Our kids don’t take us seriously, Monica. Sylvia’s going to think we’re nuts.”
“My daughter loves me.”
“Yes, and she’s also a twenty-two-year-old grad student. She thinks she knows everything.”
Suddenly Psychic: Glimmer Lake Book One Page 11