by Edie Claire
My heart fell. I was disappointed we couldn’t spend the afternoon together. But under the circumstances, his timing couldn’t be worse. I answered him with a quick “K.”
“Bad news?” Lacey asked, showing no glee, but clearly having to work at it.
“He can’t make it till later,” I reported, tucking the phone back in my bag. But at least he let me know, I left unsaid.
Zane never had told me exactly what he was doing today. Which bugged me… a little. Not that he was obligated to report his every movement. Neither one of us were the creepy controlling type. But we generally did know what each other was up to, just because we were close, and we talked a lot. When he said he couldn’t make it for laps today, he’d been vague about why he was coming into town, and I didn’t ask him to explain because I specifically didn’t want to be the creepy controlling type.
But that didn’t mean I didn’t wonder.
“I wish I didn’t have to work till closing again,” Lacey said sadly. “You and I haven’t hung out in forever. But with Lea quitting early, if Debra keeps going AWOL I’ll be working, like, nonstop till school starts.”
“Bummer,” I agreed, disheartened. I had been about to ask her when she got off work today. As wonderful as it had been spending so much time with Zane over the summer, I’d had pretty lousy luck meeting up with anyone else I knew. I saw Matt because he worked on the North Shore, and I saw Lacey because she worked at the pool, but I hadn’t run into any of their other friends I’d met at the dance at Frederick High over my spring break. Everyone seemed to be so busy that even Matt and Lacey didn’t see each other, much less have time to reintroduce me to the rest of their crowd. I had expected as much, and was glad to be able to start my senior year with at least a few familiar faces. But still, I did miss having girlfriends around. And this time of year especially, it made the pang of missing Tara and Kylee all the more intense.
“So much for ‘the lazy days of summer,’” Lacey said with a sigh, mirroring my thoughts. “Whoever said that obviously did not have parents who expected them to pay for half their own clothes.”
A whistle blew.
“Back to the grind,” Lacey declared as she stood. “Well, hey. At least I get a killer tan out of it, right? Helps with the highlights, too.” She threw me a smile and a wink and bounced back to work.
I smiled back at her. Lace had had a tough summer, but she wasn’t one to feel sorry for herself. Kylee and Tara would like her. Another pang hit my gut, and I tried unsuccessfully to squelch it.
The three of us had pretended, before I left Wyoming, that Tara and Kylee would come to visit me in Hawaii. We talked about how they would meet all my friends here, especially Zane, whom they had yet to lay eyes on. But deep down, we all knew it would never happen. Airfare was close to a thousand dollars each, and none of us had any money to spare with senior year coming up and college looming. I would be lucky to get myself back to Cheyenne before they graduated. I would be happy to see them anywhere, of course, but it was tough not to be sad when I thought about how much they would love Oahu. It was hard to share what I was doing and seeing without it sounding like bragging. And besides, how could they ever really understand just from texts and pics? I wanted so much for Tara to breathe in the smell of the ocean and the flowers for herself. And Kylee would love to feel the wind in her hair and the salty spray on her cheeks.
I sighed again. Then I told myself to stop sighing. Hadn’t I just been thinking how nice it was that Lacey didn’t feel sorry for herself?
Deal with it, Kali.
I tried to think more pleasant thoughts. I rested another few moments, catching my breath while mindlessly surveying the pool grounds for its usual complement of shadow people, none of whom were particularly interesting. Then I packed up my things and headed slowly home. I walked into the house to find my mother the technical writer busily typing away in her cordoned-off “speak to me and you die” corner of the main room. My father wasn’t home; he was at work at Hickam Air Force Base, as usual. I climbed the narrow steps to the open half second story that was my bedroom and opened the door that led to my lanai.
“Lanai” was a grandiose term for it — really, it was a flat spot on the roof of the first floor surrounded by a cheap iron railing. And if you looked down, the view of cluttered yards and privacy fences and barbecue grills and kids toys and lawn tools and junk was perhaps less than inspiring. But if you looked straight across or up, you saw sharp emerald peaks glistening with dew or mist or rain, stretching upward into blue sky or gray fog or white puffy clouds as the hour and the winds dictated. Always colorful, always changing, always dramatic, always full of life. My lanai was my happy place.
I sank into one of my folding lawn chairs, slumped down, and gazed up at my mountains. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the little shadow boy scramble over the railing and out onto the roof again, and I couldn’t help but smile. The first time I had seen him, the image had disturbed me, and I had turned my eyes away. I was afraid that he was one of the shadows whose energy had been burned into time at one of his darkest moments — when he had looked into the face of death. But once I’d gotten a better handle on my empathic capabilities, I’d realized the little imp was actually having the time of his life. He didn’t return to the lanai once he crawled out of sight over the peak of the roof, so I would never know how he got down, or how badly he got yelled at, or… truth be told, if he ever got down safely at all. I only know that, for him, those few seconds in time were pure, unadulterated bliss.
My phone vibrated and I jumped to look at the text, only to find that it was worthless spam. My shoulders sagged. First thing this morning, I’d had a nicely nostalgic conversation with both Kylee and Tara, but since then they’d both clammed up on me. Neither one had answered all day, in fact, which was weird. I backed up the thread and looked to see if I had said anything stupid or offensive. I didn’t see anything. Maybe they’d gone swimming or out for a drive beyond signal country. Or something.
I sat for a few more minutes, feeling lonely and trying not to, and then I forced myself to snap out of it and accomplish something. I set about the task of planning for the new school year, including looking at last year’s supply inventory and then trying to guess what I’d need for that all-important first day, as opposed to what I should put off buying until the teachers asked for it. Usually I enjoyed the process, but this time there wasn’t as much to go through, and I wound up inventorying my clothes as well, which got depressing fast because a summer of sun and sand had not been kind to any of the new things I’d bought since moving. So much for the bank account.
The hours began to drag. The day was hot and the house was way too quiet. I kept checking my phone to make sure the battery wasn’t dead. There was an unusual lack of wind outside, which made my bedroom feel like a sauna. It seemed to take forever for five o’clock to roll around.
And then it was five-fifteen.
I stared at my phone for the forty-eighth time. Nothing.
I gave in. I guess I was no better than one of those creepy-controlling girlfriends after all, because I really couldn’t stand it anymore. “Ish” meant fifteen minutes, give or take. Right? I fired off a text. What was Zane doing today, anyway?
You still coming to my house?
No answer. The minutes ticked by. I walked downstairs into the living room. My mother had finished working and was doing something in the kitchen. “What’s up, Kali?” she called.
“Zane’s coming over,” I answered. “Can I ask him to stay for dinner?”
“Sure,” she called back. “When is he coming?”
I glanced down at my silent phone again, and my spirits sank. “Half an hour ago,” I said flatly. I walked out the front door and leaned back against it. He must be on his way, driving. I wasn’t anxious. Not really. He wouldn’t just ignore me — I knew that. But then I started worrying about the whole “zone out” thing. We’d never considered whether his new ability could actually be dangerous to him
as a driver…
I got anxious.
By 5:43 pm my heart was racing, my shirt was stuck to my back, and I had paced a trail of trampled grass across the lawn. Where was he?
When at last I saw his beat-up sedan turn down the street, I almost collapsed from relief. As the car rolled slowly up to the curb, I turned and did my best to calm down before he saw me.
As soon as he parked I headed out towards him, but he jumped out quickly and met me in the middle of the yard. “Sorry I’m late,” he said cheerfully.
I threw myself onto his chest and stole the bear hug I so desperately needed.
He wrapped his arms around me and was quiet for a moment. When at last I drew back, he looked at me carefully. “Are you all right?” he asked.
How embarrassing. “Um… yeah,” I lied. “I just… Well, it occurred to me that it might be dangerous… to drive around by yourself not knowing when a vision might come.”
He blinked back at me. He hadn’t thought of that, either, obviously. “I guess you have a point,” he admitted. “But I’m sure I’ll be fine as long as I’m concentrating. I’m sorry you were worried. I would have texted, but…” His eyes twinkled at me oddly.
He seemed in rather too good a mood, for the circumstances.
“But what?”
“I have a surprise for you,” he taunted. “In the house.”
“In my house?” I said skeptically. “I just came from there!”
He shrugged and pulled me toward my front door. “Come check it out.”
I followed him, baffled. My house wasn’t the kind of place where you could hide something, unless it was the size of a hairpin. Most houses in Honolulu were small, and we affectionately referred to ours as “the cottage.” We stepped into the main room, which served as living room, family room, hall, den, etc., and I looked around aimlessly. My mother wasn’t visible, although I could hear her making noise in the kitchen around the corner.
“Upstairs,” Zane instructed.
I shot him a quizzical look. There was no way he’d hidden anything in my room. I had just gone through the entire thing! But he clearly had something up his sleeve, and whatever it was, he was excited about it. So, upstairs I went.
When we reached the top of the stairs, he gestured to the lanai. “Wow, it’s hot up here today,” he noted.
“You think?” I teased, leading him outside.
I expected him to sweep me up in his arms and kiss me. Or something. But all he did was sit down in one of the lawn chairs. “So, what did you do all afternoon?” he asked casually, a grin playing around his lips.
I groaned. “Zane Svenson! What are you up to?”
He looked back at me with wounded innocence.
I told you he was a really good actor.
“Me?” he defended easily. “All I did was ask what you’ve been doing all day. What’s wrong with that?”
I was about to wring his neck when his phone buzzed. He glanced down at it and then quickly shut it off. “It’s hot up here. Let’s go back downstairs.” He rose and held open the door to my room. “After you,” he said courteously, all smiles.
I heard some noise downstairs. I didn’t know what I was hearing exactly, but I was pretty sure it was human. I had a sudden, disturbing vision of Zane hiring some world-renowned ocean safety instructor to come chain blocks to my feet or make me swim with tires on my back. Zane would think that was fabulous.
Crap.
I might as well get this over with.
I shot Zane an anxious, pitiful look and forced my feet down the stairs. I made the tight turn in the bend and hopped down into the main room with feigned enthusiasm.
Kylee and Tara smiled back at me. “SURPRISE!!!”
Their screeches nearly brought the roof down — particularly when mine got added to them. If they hadn’t both rushed me at once, my knees would have given out, taking me straight down to the carpet. We screamed and group-hugged for I don’t know how long, but when we all came up for air, Zane, my mother, and my father (when did he get home?) were all standing there watching us with silly grins on their faces.
“How did you—” I babbled to no one in particular, “and did they, and how—” I looked over at my grinning father, assuming they had arrived with him.
Colonel Thompson took a half step back and raised his palms in the air. “Don’t look at me,” he chuckled. “I got here just in time for the screaming.”
Kylee and Tara looked at each other and wiped tears of laughter from their eyes. Kylee took a step towards me and leaned into my ear, fresh tears already replacing the ones she’d just cleared away. “Zane did it,” she whispered. “He bought tickets for both of us!”
I pulled away from her enough to get a clear view of Zane, who stood several feet away from me, smiling almost shyly now.
He shrugged.
My heart melted.
“But you, how did—” I mumbled incoherently.
“Zane arranged everything,” my mother confirmed. “The rest of us were just innocent bystanders.”
“You knew?” I protested, looking at my parents. They were both terrible at keeping secrets! How blind had I been?
Zane laughed. “Well of course they knew. I couldn’t invite two people to stay at their house for a week without asking them, could I?”
I sucked in a breath and turned back to my friends again. “A week? You’re staying a whole week?”
They nodded.
More hugging and screaming followed. I was so happy I couldn’t stand it, but not so happy that I failed to notice Zane slipping out the front door. I made a quick apology to Kylee and Tara, detached myself, and followed him.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I ordered, catching him just outside. “Come here.” I threw my arms around his neck and held him as tightly as I dared. I wanted to kiss him too, actually, but as crazy in love as I felt right now I was afraid that if I did, we might cause another tsunami.
“You,” I told him fervently as I hugged him, “are the most amazing boyfriend ever. Thank you! How did you know the one thing that could make me so happy, when I’m already the luckiest, happiest person alive? I don’t deserve it!” I drew back and looked at him. His green eyes were shining, and I could see my own happiness more than reflected in them. “I don’t deserve you,” I said softly.
He raised a hand to my temple and brushed a shock of curls behind my ear, then traced a finger lazily along my cheekbone. “Well,” he replied in that irresistibly sexy, husky whisper of his, “everyone needs a goal, I guess.”
I threw back my head with a groan. “You are terrible!”
“You just said I was amazing!” he protested. “Some people are so indecisive.”
“You are amazingly terrible,” I corrected. And then I did break down and kiss him. But only briefly, because you could see where we were standing from the far end of the front window, and Kylee had no shame. “And terribly amazing,” I finished in a whisper as I pulled away.
“Hold that thought,” he said with a smile, moving towards his car.
“You’re not leaving already, are you?” I asked, surprised. Surely my mom was planning a welcome dinner for everybody? She had already said I could invite him.
“And miss your mom’s cinnamon chili? Never,” he explained with a grin. “I just thought I’d grab their stuff out of the trunk.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and extended the remote.
I stepped after him to help. His keys fell to the ground.
His eyes went wide and his body froze with horror.
Chapter 5
I stared where Zane was staring. There was nothing on the car. There was nothing under or around the car. No fleeing footsteps. No shadows. I rolled back the defenses I usually kept in place so I could pick up any stray emotions in the area, and a burst of raw hostility hit me like a sucker punch to the gut.
“Geez,” I muttered out loud, shoring up my defenses again. I turned to Zane and took hold of his arm. He quickly gripped my hand in return, a
nd I was glad to see that he had recovered from his initial shock. Nevertheless, his eyes stayed glued to his car.
“I’m assuming there’s a ghost there,” I said unnecessarily.
“Oh, yeah,” he confirmed dryly.
“I also get the feeling it’s not too happy with us.”
Zane shook his head. “Um… no. No, you could definitely say that.”
“What is it doing, exactly?”
“Well, he’s kind of floating over the back of my car. Crouching and floating. With his arms crossed over his chest. That’s when he’s not making a fist and pounding it into his other hand. The rest of the time he’s just glaring at me.”
“Ouch,” I sympathized. “What era?”
Zane looked pained. “Hard to say… he’s just wearing these grungy cut-offs… could be any time since, like, the sixties, maybe? He’s a surfer. Local guy. Built like a truck. He’s the kind of guy who’d show up in your nightmares if you dropped in on his wave. If you lived long enough to have nightmares, that is. Why’s he mad at me?”
“Don’t take it personally,” I assured. “He’s a ghost. He’s dead. He doesn’t even know you.”
“But what if I did drop in on his wave?” Zane insisted nervously.
“Will you stop?” I demanded. “If some guy like him died surfing on the North Shore in the last three months wouldn’t you know about it?”
Zane considered. “I guess so.” He kept on staring. “He’s just so… determined. He wants me to stay away.”
“Away from what? Your own car?”
“He’s fading,” Zane reported. “And he’s angry about that, too.” He stepped back a few paces, pulling me with him. “Chill, dude!” He raised his palms in the air passively. Then, a moment later, he looked around us and relaxed. “He’s gone.”
“What was he doing? I mean, there at the end?” I asked anxiously. We had never encountered a hostile ghost before, and I didn’t like it. Hostile living people were bad enough. Whether they were better or worse as ghosts was an open question.
Zane’s eyes studied mine a second, then darted away. “You don’t want to know,” he answered, which came dangerously close to reading my mind again.