He Loves Me Not

by Matt Coolomon

  Leslie’s brown eyes widened, and she attempted without success to smooth a wild corkscrew of a bright-red curl.

  “Why do you want to move out?” she asked.

  “Lots of reasons,” Jules replied. “But they’re private. Suffice it to say, I won’t be sleeping here anymore. And I’m a senior. There’s no requirement that I have to. What do I need to do?”

  “Um, I’ll get the paperwork together. You’ll have to sign it. Eventually you’ll need to fill out a change of address form at the Academic Services building, but that can be done any time in the next week or so.”

  “Thank you, Leslie,” Julie said gently. She hoped she hadn’t been too abrupt with the RA, who really was a decent human being. Her frustration with Keller wasn’t Leslie’s fault.

  “Good luck, Jules,” Leslie said.

  Jules nodded and went to her room. She’d emptied out her backpack at Theo’s place the night before, and the satchel had enough space inside for the rest of her clothes. Her toiletries already lived in a little basket with a handle. If she was careful, she wouldn’t need to pack them. That just left her bedding. What to do? Theo’s bed was queen-sized, and her single sheets and blanket wouldn’t fit. She could bring her sleeping pillow and her little fuzzy skull, but the rest of the bedding would be pretty much useless.

  Well, there was a room down the hall for stuff people didn’t want anymore. Jules felt more than a slight pang as she folded up the bedding she’d loved and carried it down to the cast-offs room. She hoped some other goth girl would enjoy them. She would have to wash them too. Jules didn’t want to take the time.

  The atmosphere in there was strange, heavy and oppressive, as though something was glaring at her, and she hurried out again. It felt good to leave the jumble of abandoned backpacks, discarded clothing, and torn posters to gather dust in uninterrupted silence.

  As she was gathering her pieces into a pile and trying to figure out how to carry it without dropping anything, Leslie knocked on the door. She handed Jules a piece of paper to sign and reclaimed the key.

  Jules’ cell phone chirped and she glanced at the text message. Theo was outside with the cab. Did he need to come and help her? She sent a quick reply in the negative and slipped her backpack on her back. Clutching both pillows in one arm, she had one hand free, and she scooped up her little basket.

  “Good luck, Jules,” Leslie said.

  “Thank you,” she replied. As she walked down the hallway to the elevator, she saw Keller coming in. The girl gave her an uncertain look. Jules responded with a curt nod, acknowledging her presence but not reacting in any way to it. They weren’t really friends, never had been, and Jules wouldn’t miss her.

  She boarded the slow elevator to the bottom floor and loaded her possessions into the trunk of the yellow taxi Theo had summoned. She tucked the basket between the backpack and pillow so it wouldn’t tip over and slammed the trunk before slipping into the backseat with her boyfriend. He took her hand.

  “Back to my place,” he told the driver, a fat pale man with greasy hair and a definite aroma of unwashed armpits. Jules suppressed a shudder.

  The ride was brief, but the heater in the cab blasted the cabby’s unpleasant personal miasma over the passengers. By the time they’d arrived at Theo’s motor home and paid the fare, Jules was close to gagging.

  She quickly retrieved her possessions and dropped them in the sitting area before returning outside to breathe in deep lungfuls of cold, pine-scented air. Theo joined her there, wrapping his arms around her. He kissed her cheek. She slid her fingers through his.

  She had told her mother the truth. Nothing had felt this right in her whole life.

  “So, um, Julie?"

  “Yes, Theo?” Jules slipped her arms around her boyfriend's neck. He looked like he had something to say. “What is it?" she asked with a kiss. “Are you regretting inviting me to move in already?"

  “Um, no, the opposite. Plus there's a few other things.”

  “Like, what other things?"

  “Like what I've been planning to do after graduation next month. And if you want to come with me.”

  He led back inside and sat in the soft leather seat, Jules on his lap.

  “Come with you where, exactly?"

  “Well to um... check out some other ghosts. I know you were only doing this for school but I've been dealing with ghosts since I was a little kid, and I've already got two more hauntings to investigate.”

  This was interesting. Theo dealing with ghosts since childhood was, and so too the idea of a ghost hunting adventure after graduation. Jules had been waiting for a ‘what next' idea to strike her.

  She gave her rather fascinating boyfriend another kiss. “What other hauntings, Theo?"

  Well, a friend of mine from high school just inherited a really amazing property with a hot springs on it, near Yellowstone. She wants to open a spa, but there’s something freaky there scaring the builders. And then my cousin... well there’s something at his house that’s throwing plates and scratching people. That’s in the suburbs of Denver. They want me to use my gift to sort things out for them.

  Jules turned excitedly. “Oh my God. And we're going to Wyoming and Colorado? In this?" She peered around at her first grown-up home. “Awesome!"

  “So that's a yes?" Theo was beaming.

  “Of course! That's a no-brainer yes, Theo.”

  He huffed his apparent satisfaction. “Good... so that was the first thing. Next is about...” He rolled his eyes from one end of the motor home to the other. “Whatever you want to do... like to make this nicer… well, it's completely up to you. I'm going to get you a debit card so you can access our account. And anything you want me to do to help, just say so.”

  “Hold up there. Wait a minute. What account?"

  Theo frowned. “Our account. You know... what's mine is yours and all that. Well, we've got this big sucker of a bank account that's getting bigger and bigger with interest every quarter. You have to help me spend some.”

  Jules grinned. She gave her even more fascinating boyfriend another kiss. “I do?"

  “Sure you do,” he replied with a chuckle. “Don't you know how to spend money?"

  “I grew up in a single parent household. Spending kinda goes against the grain. But I can learn.”

  “Good. I'll get you your own card, and until then you can share mine. But first thing is we need to pick out a car. The scooter is okay for around here, but when we go hunting we'll need four wheels and a roof.”

  “Oh... so you mean a Jeep?” Jules said. “A pink one?”

  “Um...” Theo looked worried.

  “Just kidding. What about black? I like black.”

  “Okay… a black Jeep it is. Actually I think I saw one the other day when I was buying your helmet. It was a demonstration model, so we can probably get it fast.”

  The thing Theo had said earlier was still on Jules’ mind. She sat straddling his lap and fiddling with his shirt buttons.

  “What did you mean when you said you’ve been dealing with ghosts since childhood, Theo?”

  “Oh that. It’s probably all in my imagination. I think our minds are pretty good at conjuring up stuff.”

  “No, don’t try and get out of it,” Jules pressed. “Come on… tell me what you meant.”

  He blushed. “Do you really want to know?”

  She kissed him. “Yes. I promise I won’t laugh or anything.”

  He nodded. “Okay. Although I’m really not sure how much of this is for real, and how much is just my mind playing tricks.”

  “Noted,” Jules replied. “What kind of things do you experience?”

  “Well there are three things that might be linked somehow. I can sort of communicate with another spirit… either dead or alive. Which can be picking up on an emotion or even picking up a thought. That’s the first thing. Then I can kind of see stuff, especially colors.” He looked around and chose a small yellow laptop speaker with a smiley face on it. He unplugged
it and gave it to Jules. “There… I have to go to the bathroom, so while I’m in there you put that in one of the cupboards in the kitchen, and when I come back I’ll tell you where it is.”

  “Okay. But no peeking,” Jules said, giggling as she got up and let Theo go.

  He was in the bathroom with the door closed for a minute. She didn’t put the speaker in a cupboard. She hid it under the sofa instead. Theo returned, smiling and gazing at the kitchen cupboards. He turned to her. She couldn’t stop herself from giggling.

  “You cheated,” he said. “It’s not in a cupboard.”

  “Oh… how did you know?”

  He looked down at the lounge, tilting his head. “It’s under there, isn’t it?”

  “No way! How did you know that?” Jules cried.

  “It’s actually really easy with a bright color like yellow. But I can also sense other stuff, like, playing cards are easy… or underwear,” he added with a grin.

  Jules pushed him back down and straddled his lap again. “Oh yeah? So you will always know what color I’m wearing, huh? Like, if I buy something special to wear for you, you’ll know?”

  He nodded. “Only if I concentrate. It’s not like I can see everyone walking around in their underwear.”

  Jules kissed him softly and whispered, “And what if I’m not wearing any sometimes… will you know that too?”

  He groaned. There was movement in the front of his pants. They both looked down at what was happening there.

  “Sorry,” Theo said. “That’s been happening a lot since… since um… the other night.”

  “Oh. I see.” Jules placed her hand over the bulge. “Soon, okay?” she said, kissing him again.

  “Um… okay, but don’t touch it,” he stammered. “I don’t want to… you know… like that first time.”

  Jules giggled. “Alright. Let’s change the subject then. What about this ghost hunting? What are we supposed to do with this brown suit man?”

  “Oh yeah… that! Check this out?” Theo replied excitedly. His laptop was there on the low wooden table beside the sofa. He opened it, and Jules slipped from his lap to cuddle up beside him. “I searched the university news archives for that name I got from the spirit the other night, and I found this.”

  On screen was a news article about a female grad-student being raped by her drama professor. The student was Viki Cranston, the same name Theo had received from the spirit in the auditorium. The professor was Dr. Henderson Jiles. He was pictured in the article as an attractive man of about forty years in a plain suit.

  “I think that’s our ghost,” Theo declared. Then he clicked on another file and a news article about Dr. Jiles being killed in a car accident filled the screen. “It looks like he got axed for assaulting his student and was killed in a completely unrelated accident a few days later.”

  “Oh, so he was a pervert and sex offender,” Jules said, her skin crawling as she recalled his spirit approaching her in her bed. “And now he’s hanging around attacking any girls who look like this Viki whatever her name is.”

  “Looks like it,” Theo agreed. “But if he’s really just plain evil, he isn’t going to be able to hurt anyone physically. The worst he could do is scare someone and make them panic and fall. Plus he will only be able to hang around the campus. Not like if he was a good soul. They can travel all over to be with their loved ones.”

  Theo took a moment, reflecting it seemed.

  “And that’s the third thing I was saying before. I can pick up emotions and thoughts, see things that are hidden, and I can sort of leave my body when I’m sleeping and travel places. I seem to be able to kind of fly… and I can go a long way.”

  ***

  In bed that night, Jules lay on her back, sleeping soundly beside her boyfriend. It was around midnight. At first she experienced a tightening of her chest, just like the other time. It felt as if a heavy weight had been placed on top of her and her chest couldn’t expand. Then her eyes shot open to meet the dead black eyes of the spirit. She immediately screamed, but while her mouth opened, the sound stayed in her head. She was paralyzed. She could feel Theo’s arm, her fingers touching it, but she couldn’t even grip him to tell him to wake up.

  The spirit looked at him, turning its translucent head slowly, then its eyes returned to glare into Jules’. There was something different, though. There didn’t appear to be the rage that she felt emanating from the creature last time, more so curiosity.

  It drifted higher and her chest loosened so that she could breathe. The spirit blended into the ceiling and was gone.

  “Theo!” she cried, shaking him. “Theo, the spirit was back!”

  “What?” He sat up, peering around. “Where?”

  “It was here. It was right above me, just looking at us… at both of us!”

  Theo turned on the lamp beside the bed. He looked bewildered. “Are you sure, Julie? Are you sure you saw it… here?”

  “Yes, I’m certain. It was just like before, only he wasn’t angry this time. He was different… calm and… like he was trying to work something out.”

  Theo cuddled close, stroking Jules’ hair from her face. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. It wasn’t so scary. Except I couldn’t move again.”

  “Yes, that’s normal. It’s just that you weren’t fully awake yet. They like approaching you in that state between asleep and awake. It’s like your mind is here but your body hasn’t woken up yet. That’s when you can float out of your body and travel, when you get used to it.” Theo was looking around at the walls and ceiling. “It’s weird that he could come here, though. Unless he’s been right here at this trailer park as a spirit before. Maybe there’s someone else here that he visits. And even then he mustn’t be as evil as I thought. Maybe there’s more to his death than was in those news articles.”

  Jules cuddled up. Theo turned off the light and held her in his arms. “I’ll stay awake. Don’t worry,” he said, making Jules sigh with contentment as she closed her eyes and drifted back off to sleep.

  ***Chapter 12***

  “Are you ready?” Theo asked. Jules had rinsed the breakfast bowls and coffee cups. She was indeed ready to go ghost hunting officially.

  “We need a handle,” she said as she pulled on the helmet Theo had bought her. He had the scooter putting away.

  “What kind of handle?”

  “I don’t know. A cool one. Let me think about it.”

  They zoomed out through the residential section of the park and headed across town to find the address listed online in the White Pages for Viki Cranston. She apparently still lived in town.

  Theo pulled up at the side of the road and took off his helmet.

  “What?’ Jules asked.

  He pointed. “That’s what.”

  They were parked in front of a car dealership. There was a shiny black Jeep up on a stand with ‘Demo Model Clearance’ painted on the side. She followed Theo to have a look. It was near new and a good price. She nodded and smiled when he questioned her with a shrug.

  “Okay. We’ll take it,” he said to the fat salesman, who also gave a big greedy grin.

  They were taken into the sales office and offered a seat. A wall full of sales awards formed the backdrop on which the rotund, dark-haired man smiled his oily smile. Theo did a bank transfer to cover a deposit; a check for the balance would be required on Monday. Insurance was arranged and the keys were handed over while the yard staff got the vehicle down from the stand. Theo was allowed to park the scooter in their workshop until he could get back to pick it up.

  Jules got in the passenger seat. Theo beamed a big grin from behind the wheel. “Is this better?” he asked proudly.

  “Oh yes. This is much better,” Jules replied, grabbing his shirt and smashing a kiss to his lips. The compact little 4WD had soft leather seats and a GPS navigator. Jules punched in the address they needed to find. The talking female voice took them to an old suburb over behind the railway shunting yards where ramshackle ti
mber houses were set on overgrown lawns. The street they were looking for had several abandoned cars with no wheels. They parked behind one of those, across the road from a small white cottage with scruffy dead grass intertwined in a rusty wire mesh fence and white painted car tires, each housing a potted plant, along the sides of a cracked concrete footpath. There were no living plants in the orange ceramic pots, only a few dead sticks where whatever was living had probably died of thirst.

  “Is that it?” Jules asked, peering across at the place, not really keen on getting out of the car.

  “151 Eastward. That must be it,” Theo commented. “I guess we go and ask if anyone here is being haunted much. It looks like a good place for a haunting.”

  Jules went with him, clinging to his hand. There was a gate, broken from its hinges and resting half open. A tattered brown lawn chair on the veranda held a tin can full of cigarette butts and a plastic garbage can was full of soda bottles and chip bags. A timber-framed screen door squealed as Theo opened it and knocked.

  Heavy footsteps shook the little house before the main door opened to reveal a huge woman with a droopy mouth and a wart on her nose, dressed in a sweaty floral housecoat. Jules couldn’t keep her eyes off the wart as she spoke.

  “Yes?” She looked Jules and Theo over, scowling. “I’m not buying anything and I’m not interested in any religious bullshit.”

  “No, ma’am. We’re from the College News. We’re interested in speaking with Viki Cranston.”

  “I’m Viki Cranston. What’s this about?” The woman stuck her fists on her huge hips. One eyebrow cocked suspiciously.

  “It’s about the report you made to police about Dr. Henderson Jiles, ma’am,” Theo stated forthrightly.

  It was the wrong approach. Jules could see the woman wasn’t one to confront. She edged in front of him. “We’re following up on what became of that horrible man. Apparently he died soon after your report. Can you tell us anything about the circumstances of his death?”

  “Run his car into a light pole. Head smashed in. Circumstances like that,” the woman said with a sardonic chuckle. “Good riddance, I say.”