by John Stone
“Mia,” Emily uttered the name and realized that Denise, being Mia’s friend must’ve known about the incident. “So that’s why she was so sure about the ghost,” she muttered.
“You said something?” Jamie asked.
“Does anyone else know about this apart from the friend who told you?” Emily asked, desperate to seek more answers.
“Emily, there are many people who know that someone saw the ghost, but no one’s that sure who it is,” Jamie answered.
“Did you know about this?”
“A little, but I never paid much attention to it. Ghost rumors are so common today, they don't interest me.”
“So anyone can pretend and play a joke; that is possible, right? Maybe they’re the ones who sent me the letter.” Emily looked up at Jamie expectantly.
“I’m not ruling that out, but why would anyone want to scare you? You are hardly that popular,” Natalie explained with a flip of her hair. She winced and looked like she regretted saying the last part.
Emily didn’t seem to mind because she had bigger problems to deal with. Winning a popularity contest was not one of them. Emily knew she had Natalie on a roll and was successfully able to win her trust. Now, it was time to milk the gossip queen for everything she’s worth. Before she could ask anything else, Natalie grabbed her arm.
“Did you tell anyone about this letter?” Jamie questioned further.
“I went to talk to Keisha yesterday about this, because she knew about the anonymous delivery of the previous packages. Mia and Denise were present when I went. It seemed like they were hiding something from me. I don’t know what it was, but I’m sure they were reading something when I entered their room. They had such guilty looks on their faces and immediately closed the book when they saw me,” Emily said with an air of exasperation.
“Are you sure that you’re not thinking too much into this?” Jamie asked, trying to reason with Emily.
“No, something is not right, Jamie. I know it. Why did you ask me to meet you here today? What did you find out?”
“Not much, but it turns out that your Mr. Mitchell was indeed a student here at the university. Not many people know about it, but I have my source. I believe that for some reason it’s been covered up, like nobody is supposed to know about it.”
“But why is that? What is there to hide about it?”
‘‘You didn’t expect me to find everything in one day, did you? Looking into the past of one professor is not easy, and we have to be very careful about it, too. Do you know what might happen if this gets out? Plus, your friend already knows that we’re meeting. We’re kind of on thin ice,” Natalie said. “One more thing, Mr. Mitchell knows something, too. Don’t believe everything you see with him. That’s all I’m saying. Anyway, I have to go and you need to complete your assignment, so I’ll talk to you later.” Jamie started to leave, but Emily called her back.
“Wait, what about Mr. Mitchell,” Emily asked? “I’ve known him for so long, and I’m sure he has nothing to do with this. He has his own son to take care of and he’s too old to be a part of anything.”
Emily defended Mr. Mitchell again like she always used to do. Jamie was younger than Emily, but she didn’t have much respect for her seniority. She didn’t hesitate to point out a flaw in Emily’s logic as soon as she completed her sentence.
“You are so gullible, aren’t you? What do you know about Mr. Mitchell that makes you so sure about him? Is he that nice to you?”
“Yes, he is all the time,” Emily said, feeling a sense of responsibility towards the librarian.
“Do you know that some of the kids in the library have even heard him talking to himself? He thinks that nobody’s around, but people have seen him getting pretty weird,” she said, circling her head with her finger. “Did you know that he tried to run away from the university once like some little kid?” When Emily didn’t respond, Natalie added, “yeah. When the security guards caught up to him, he acted as if someone was after him? Since then, he walks around the campus all frightened and shy. When Mia saw the ghost, Mr. Mitchell was perfectly calm and acted like it was a common occurrence. She was scared out of her life and swore to never set foot in the library again. Your Mr. Mitchell’s not so clean.”
Emily was adamant and refused to believe what she heard. She calmly said, “Don’t speak about him like that and don’t judge me wither. I have known him for a long time. It's true that he acts strange at times, but you are making him sound like the guilty party. How can he be? He was the one who told me about the argument between Grace and Mr. Gallagher the other day.”
“Then believe what you want. I simply informed you of what I know, and since I agreed to help you, I’ll try to find out about the letter you just received.” Then Jamie walked out of Emily’s sight.
“I don’t believe that Mr. Mitchell is guilty, not him,” Emily kept telling herself. When she turned back to leave, she saw that same girl again with those emerald green eyes standing behind her silently. “Do you need any help?” Emily asked.
The girl didn’t answer, but kept on looking. Emily knew most of the regulars in the library. She used to hang out in the library often, but didn’t recall ever seeing her. Then again, there was that one day when she passed under the window.
“Are you new here? What’s your name?”
The girl stared back with no answer. Her lips gave away nothing and her eyes looked on blankly. Yet, she stood there blocking Emily’s way. There was something strange about her, but Emily was so distracted that she couldn’t figure out what it was.
“Can you move? I have to go, please,” Emily requested. “Who does she think she is?” Emily muttered under her breath when the girl still didn’t move.
It was getting late. She remembered leaving Denise with the assignment and it was her responsibility to complete the next part. Needing to leave, Emily reached toward the girl to move past her. Emily’s hand brushed her for a brief second and it sent chills down her spine. Her skin was as cold as ice.
Emily didn’t look back, because a part of her told her not to. She walked over to where Denise was working on the assignment, and found her with her head down on the bench. She rushed towards her and called her name, but Denise didn’t respond.
“Denise” Emily called out her name again, this time more loudly.
Denise looked up, but her eyes were bloodshot red. Emily stepped back, both scared and bewildered. She nearly tripped over her heels.
“Oh, no! This can’t be happening!”
She started taking steps back without looking and hit someone on her way. When she turned around to say her apologies, her eyes met the most horrifying pair of green eyes she had seen. Emily put her hands on her mouth and saw a pair a sickly white hands reaching for her. She tried to move back again, but Denise was blocking her way with a dead look on her face. She gave out a loud shriek when Denise’s hand touched her. She started shaking her, and Emily cast her eyes down.
“Emily! Emily! Wake up already!” Denise was shaking her vigorously. “You dozed off after coming here; do you want to take a break? It is getting late, and you don’t seem fit to work. Do you want to head back and do the rest of this tomorrow?”
Denise’s eyes looked the normal shade of gray and she was speaking in her usual soothing tone. The previous tensions between them were forgotten. Emily didn’t answer Denise’s question immediately as the image of the girl still lingered in her head. She couldn’t understand why the strange girl whom she saw just a few moments ago was also in her dream, reaching out for her. Emily turned her head and looked around the library, but there was no one there except for them. She could see that Denise was looking at her expectantly, waiting for the answer.
“Are you okay,” Denise asked her?
Emily insisted on completing the assignment, so she shook away the dream. “Let’s just finish this. We have to present this tomorrow.” She tried to regain her composure. “I’m sorry for dozing off; I am a little tired,” she expla
ined.
“If you insist, then let’s do it,” Denise said.
“So how far are you with the assignment?” Emily peeked at her paper.
“Just the first part,” Denise admitted with a playful grin. “I got stuck. You weren’t here and I didn’t understand a few things.”
“Try the red book, page eleven,’’ Emily suggested. She pointed out where the book with the red velvet cover was lying on the shelf. The pages were yellowish and tattered, reflecting that it had passed several hands over the years. Emily was still shaken by what happened earlier. In her mind, the book and the old librarian might have had something to do with it, so she didn’t want to go anywhere near it. However, it was necessary at that moment and they needed to finish their assignment. Denise came back with the book and sat down. She turned to page eleven and found that several texts were underlined in red ink. There were also bracketed paragraphs and she started reading them.
“The answers,” she noted with surprise, “they are right here. It is as if someone had marked them for us,” Denise exclaimed in utter joy, “and this makes our work so much easier.”
Both girls hurried with their assignments. They revised each chapter, and incidentally, all the answers were in the old red book that was suggested to Emily. She was relieved and overwhelmed at the same time. Both feelings dominated her psyche and she wanted nothing more than to finish the assignment and get out of there. An hour or so passed, and then Denise announced that she was hungry. She wanted to go and grab a bite to eat.
“Would you like to go eat with me?” she asked.
“No, you just go ahead and I’ll just finish with the answers.”
Emily motioned Denise to go and take a break. She closed her notebook and decided to stretch a bit herself. She walked around for a bit and noticed there were a few students who were still there going through their books. One or two looked sleepy, and seeing them made Emily realize that she wanted to rest as well. She had already missed one day of class and tomorrow she was supposed to submit her paper. So Emily went back to her seat. Moments later, her hand found its way to her pocket and she took out the folded letter.
Who would want to meet me here today? And the day is almost getting over, she thought.
Emily still nurtured the possibility that someone knew about her nightmares and mistrusting ways. A part of her wanted to believe that this was just someone messing with her. However, the stolen books still didn’t make sense.
“Hey, are you done with the answers? Denise tapped Emily from behind.
“Ah, it’s you. I am working on it,” Emily replied.
“Were you expecting someone else? Denise questioned.
Emily fumbled, “No, why do you ask?”
“Because you seemed a little surprised, Denise responded. “It might have been the old librarian,” Denise mocked again.
“Denise can you not say that? I’m not very comfortable with that discussion right now,” Emily firmly said.
“And why are you so adamant to dismiss it?” Denise questioned back. “It’s okay if you don’t want to agree with me on this, but you denying it won’t change the fact that you did see the old librarian, Emily, and thus it is certain that the rumors after all are more than just rumors.”
“Denise, this proves nothing.” Emily shot back.
She was still sticking to her theory of silly pranks by students who love keeping such rumors alive. Rumors add spice to an otherwise drab college life. It provided the opportunity to be creative. It fueled the mischievous minds, but only served to torture the gullible victims. Emily refused to fall into their traps and become a fool. She refused to be a part of their amusement. She needed to stop this sick and twisted game. She wanted to somehow prove that there was no such thing as a ghost and that the existence of the old lady librarian was simply a myth.
There were a bunch of pranksters in the university. Emily knew that. She ran through every possible scenario in her head while sitting there on her bench. She only needed to find out who was sending her the books, and the letter. Or she could take another approach and find out who was dressed as the librarian.
What a silly trick that was, Emily thought and laughed inside her head.
She told herself that the incident with Grace going away might just be a coincidence. Surely, her energetic friend must have found something interesting on her visit to someplace, and finally sent her the text message yesterday to tell her all about it. Mr. Gallagher might have just been arguing with Grace and asking her to pay more attention in class. Denise, Keisha and Mia could just be developing some new hobby that they wanted to be secretive about or they would eventually tell her about it. Mr. Mitchell might just be a sad victim of old age and misunderstanding by the rest of the student body. As far as her nightmares and odd sleeping habits, she could always get medicine to get a better night sleep.
Emily thought that if her father was there, then he would have told her to buckle up and stay strong. She had faced more difficult moments in the past and might have to face many more in the future. She was being silly and Emily knew that. She was freaking out over little things and she didn't need to. The only thing that bothered her was the missing books. That was the only thing she couldn’t reason away or figure out. However, thinking about that now was pointless for her.
Emily reminded herself of the reason for being at the university in the first place, the crime against Mrs. Hampton that motivated her to work so hard to become one of the top criminologists in the country. The incidents in the past week had somehow derailed her on the way to her dreams. She was focusing on things that weren’t necessary. She was worrying herself sick. She shook her head in disgust at her recent behavior. She cried at night, wasn’t going to class, and now at every turn, she feared a ghost would show up. Emily was getting paranoid and tired. The lack of sleep prohibited her from concentrating during her classes and now it was leaking into her personal life, as well. If she kept on this way, she would never be able to keep up the grades that she worked so relentlessly to achieve.
All because of some old books, a stupid letter and a silly rumor, she categorized in her head. Logic and reasoning were my strong points and from now on I’m going to start using them. The next day is going to be a new day and all of this will be in the past, she told herself. Emily resolved to forget it all.
Denise waved a hand in front of her eyes and that broke Emily out of her trance. She looked much more relaxed, but Denise didn’t. “You were lost again,” her friend said. “What were you thinking?”
Emily gave out a small laugh; she was indeed feeling lighthearted and relaxed after a long time. So she cheerfully answered, “I was thinking about what I should do tomorrow.”
“But tomorrow we have class and ….’’
Emily didn’t let Denise complete her sentence, but instead gave her a mischievous wink and said, “Don’t state the obvious, Denise, I meant after class”
“Something changed?” Denise quizzed again.
Emily playfully said, “What do you think?”
Denise checked her watch and they were fast approaching the night time closure of campus buildings.
“Hey, Denise,” Emily said. “I’m finished with the assignment and I marked your portion, too, so let’s check out and head back. I am hungry.”
Emily seemed to have gotten rid of her anxiety and it reflected on her face. Denise could see that and she was happy, as well. “All right, let me pack my things at least.” Both of them packed their stuff, checked out the book and headed out.
At that moment, it would have been impossible to say that these two girls were in a fight a few hours ago. Emily’s shoulders hung low and she was taking small steps. She was in no hurry to reach her room, even though she was hungry. The cool air outside made her calm and composed. Denise looked at her once or twice, then asked her to keep up the pace saying, “Didn’t you say that you were hungry?”
“I most certainly am, but the air is refreshing and I like it. Hey
, do you want me to carry the books for you?’’ Emily volunteered.
“No, I can carry them on my own,” Denise managed to say.
Denise was confused about Emily’s sudden change in mood. Just hours ago, she was all crazed out, and now she was quiet and unfazed. It threw Denise off and she didn’t know how to respond at first. They walked quietly for few steps, and a brief moment of silence descended over them.
“Denise, I am sorry about what happened in the library. It was truly unnecessary and uncalled for. You are my friend and I don’t know what happened between you and Jamie. So let me be clear that it was not intentional. She was just helping me with some information and that was nothing too important. But I shouldn’t have argued with you in front of her,” she added with a touch of compassion. “It was not right of me to do that, but rest assured that I don’t think she’ll talk about it. Better yet, I will speak to her tomorrow, so she won’t talk about it. So, is that all right with you?”
Denise was astounded by Emily’s long explanation. On one hand, she was pleased, but mostly she was surprised and taken aback. Yet, she accepted the apology anyway. Now it was her turn to offer an explanation. She was ready to do so, but somehow it irked her that Emily had come around so dramatically.
“It’s all right; I shouldn’t have indulged in the argument as well. It was pointless and things between me and Jamie are a little rough. We had a stupid disagreement last year and I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. So I guess everything is fine between us now.”
Emily linked their arms, gave her an assuring smile and nodded. However, Denise wasn’t finished. She broke away from Emily and asked if she could ask one last question before they entered their building.
“Go ahead,” Emily said.
“Just what made you change your mind?”
“You’re being silly, Denise. I’m being reasonable and now you are worrying too much,” Emily smiled.
Denise didn’t look convinced, but Emily didn’t bother to offer any other explanations. Emily turned toward the door and Denise hesitantly followed suit. They made their way quietly to their rooms. Emily offered to eat dinner with them and Denise agreed to that.