Finding the Way Back

by Jill Bisker

  “Yum, cookies,” Connie uttered hungrily, reaching for the plate. “You didn’t say you’d brought cookies.”

  “Come sit down, Emmett. Would you like a cup of tea, a cookie, coffee?” Aunt Shelly asked then winked. “Or perhaps a beer would be more to your taste?”

  “Not yet, thanks. If I have one now, I’m just going to want a nap. I came to hear about what happened last night after we left. I will have a cookie, though, and a cup of coffee wouldn’t be out of line.”

  My mother lifted the plate and passed it around. “Laney, make Emmett a cup of coffee.”

  I moved over to the coffee maker and turned it on. “Anyone else?” All hands rose at the table. Sighing, I started pulling down cups for everyone.

  “Last night was super cool, Emmett,” Connie started, dribbling cookie all over the table.

  “What? Connie, it wasn’t super cool last night. It was super scary,” I said, delivering cups of coffee to her and Emmett.

  “Come on, Laney. You have to admit when you think about it now, it was super cool,” she insisted.

  “Okay, you’re right, when I think about it now in broad daylight with a house full of people, it does seem cool. I still can’t believe we saw our grandmother.” Putting another cup under the dispenser I hit the brew button. Adding creamer and sugar I went back to the table.

  My mother looked at her sister, tears in her eyes. “As crazy as it sounds, I would love to believe she’d somehow been here all these years, trying to keep us safe.”

  “Watching out for us.” Aunt Shelly touched my mother’s hand.

  Emmett knitted his brow. “I don’t think you should automatically assume it was her. It could have been a lot of things. I know you think you’re sure, but maybe you want so badly for it to be her that you’re filling in the ending without having all the facts.”

  “She looked just like pictures we have of her, Emmett. Laney and I both saw her,” Connie said, her voice getting louder.

  “And we’re not just jumping to conclusions. You weren’t here. What do you know?”

  “Hey, hey, no need to get excited.” Emmett raised his hands in submission. “I just want to slow you down a little so you don’t get disappointed later. I think we should bring our equipment back and do some more work. I also think we should do some research and find out more about this house if we can. Do you have a picture of your grandmother I can see? What was her name?”

  “Teoline. I always loved her name. It always sounded like the name of a flower to me.”

  “That is a pretty name,” Emmett agreed, grabbing another cookie. “So, a picture?”

  “That brings up a good point,” I said, puzzled. “Mom, why are there no pictures of her in this house? For a house so filled with stuff there aren’t any photos around at all. Why didn’t Grandfather have pictures of your lives surrounding him?” We all started looking at the walls we could see from our seats.

  “There used to be a wedding photo on the wall there in the living room but that’s gone now,” my mom said, getting up to point to a blank spot on the far wall. “It’s probably in a box somewhere. I suppose he didn’t want it hanging up if he was going to bring girlfriends around. You know we haven’t been here in many years. After Mom died our father didn’t take many photos, and the few we have are probably in an album someplace. We each have our own photo books but if there are family ones, they are somewhere in this mess.”

  “I’d love to see more photos of our grandparents. I only have a few pictures,” I said.

  “It would be helpful to have more pictures to use as a reference,” Emmett agreed. “Plus, there might be clues in old photographs. You’d be surprised what you find sometimes. Could be a hat, a piece of jewelry, sometimes another picture in the photograph.”

  “Well, we can certainly pull out some old photographs,” Aunt Shelly added. “But what do you hope to achieve if you were to come back? Even if Mother’s spirit is here, what can you do about that?”

  “With how many experiences we’ve had here in the house, I would really like to have more instances of solid evidence—an apparition on film, voices, footsteps, anything. Then there’s always the possibility of communication with a spirit. Sometimes they just want to be heard then they can move on to the afterlife. Sometimes there’s a riddle or puzzle that has to be solved before they can rest easily.”

  “Have you ever been able to facilitate something like that?” my mom asked.

  “Um, no, actually. But I’ve heard about other people who have. I only do this part time, you know.” Emmett looked as if he were feeling a little awkward.

  Aunt Shelly folded her arms. “Well, we should have some idea what we’re doing before we just start hanging around waiting for a ghost to show up.”

  “Listen,” Emmett replied, his voice firm. “I’ve been around enough to know that something is going on here. This is not normal. Even when other people are sure they have a haunting, it’s miniscule evidence compared to this—a brief EVP, a pen that rolled half an inch across a desk. Here, too many people have had significant experiences for it to be coincidental or just your imagination. I’ve never seen a full body apparition. Very few people actually have. I believe you think you saw your grandmother. But,” he added quickly and held up his hand to quell any objection. “It’s not the whole story. I still believe you were pushed down the stairs, Laney. That much is clear on the video. Do you think your grandmother did that?”

  “Of course not,” I answered without hesitation.

  “All right, then. So who or what did that? That’s my point. You said this house was haunted from the moment your grandparents moved in which was before Teoline died. So we don’t know what’s going on here. And until we do, we need to keep searching. There’s an answer somewhere at the bottom of all this. Don’t you want to find out?” He looked each of us in the eye, the question hanging in the air.

  “Okay, I’m convinced,” my mother said. “You can try again, but this time Shelly and I want to be involved.” She got up to get another cup of coffee.

  “Mom,” I began, but she cut me off.

  “Don’t you start with me, Elaine MacKenzie. We’re coming and that’s the end of it.” And there she went with my full name again. She was brooking no opposition this time. “Now, why don’t we go finish what we were doing in the dining and living room. Everyone could use a good night’s sleep so let’s leave the next investigation until tomorrow night.”

  None of us was up to another round of bumbling about in the dark, so Emmett agreed to come back the next evening with his crew and equipment then left us to our work. I was hoping for a quiet evening for a change. I really needed to go to bed early. I was so tired I couldn’t even think straight.

  We turned back to the work at hand, finding more treasures and more trash in almost equal amounts. We still kept finding loose bills and change on the bottom of most of the boxes. The jar on the kitchen table was starting to fill up nicely.

  I started on the boxes next to the television set while my mom and Aunt Shelly went through the last of the boxes in the dining room. Connie left to find packing materials and small boxes for the items we thought we could sell. If we could clear a few more boxes out of the way I would be able to get to the built-in bookshelves and cabinets next to the television.

  I was hoping to find some photographs somewhere. This evening, if I felt up to it, I was going to look through the bookshelves in the study. That would probably be the most logical place for photo albums. There had to be something somewhere.

  We continued our work, mostly in silence. I could tell everyone was getting tired at this point. Finishing up my last box I yelled, “Three dollars and sixty-seven cents. And there are some old coins here too.” I walked into the kitchen and threw the money into the jar. Might have to count up our total pretty soon.

  I took a load out to the dumpster and stretched in the sunlight. An entire day with nothing more than Saundra and a spider to make it exciting. I could have don
e without Saundra and the spider attack, but at least nothing ghostly had happened. I hoped our luck would stick with us.

  The cable company showed up as I was going back inside. We would finally be able to go online again—what did people do without the internet? Plus, we would now have a multitude of TV channels instead of just four. There might still be nothing on, but at least it would be a lot more of nothing.

  Two men got out of the van. I smiled as I realized one of them was Dean. “I didn’t realize you were with the cable company. Or are you just tagging along for fun?”

  “Hi darlin’. I told you I had a real job. This here’s Jimmy, and he’ll do the actual work.”

  “Hey,” said Jimmy, who looked about sixteen, with spiky blonde hair and sunglasses.

  “I’m actually a supervisor,” Dean continued. “But when I saw your address come across my desk I decided to run out and help. I figured my unique expertise might come in handy on this project.” He winked at me before picking me up in another big bear hug and spinning me around. He sure was ‘huggy’, but it felt natural. I blushed as I pressed up against his six-pack abs. I wondered if he might need to take off his shirt sometime during the visit.

  “I was hoping it was going to be a quiet afternoon,” I said. “But we could come up with something freaky if you like.” I felt myself blushing as I realized what that sounded like. I really wasn’t very good at this flirting thing. Fortunately he didn’t seem to notice.

  We walked into the house and I showed him to the study. “Connie, come tell us where we want the internet to go,” I called out.

  “I don’t really care,” she said, stepping into the room. “I’m just excited to have—oh. Um, hi, Dean.” She stuttered mid-sentence when she saw him. I watched Connie with interest as she ran a hand through her curls and brushed a few loose strands behind her right ear.

  “So you couldn’t keep away, huh?” she asked flamboyantly. We must be too much fun for you,” she said, and gave him a hug.

  I left them to figure out the wiring and went to check on our mothers. They looked a bit wrung out when I saw them. Aunt Shelly was listlessly dropping items into a box and my mom was just sitting back staring into space. “Hey, you two, you’ve been working like demons, why not go home? You can have tomorrow off if you think we can handle it. Come back in the evening when Emmett and crew come over.”

  The sisters looked grateful. “That’s actually not a bad idea,” my mother said, sitting up taking a last look around.

  “I think we will leave tomorrow up to you two,” Aunt Shelly said. “You can call us if you have any questions. Connie is really a better judge if things look valuable.”

  After they left I started wiping down the wooden furniture. It was amazing how much better it looked after just a little dusting. I pulled out the old vacuum we had found in the corner. It was a deafening old Kirby, but it still worked. There was even an attachment for the cushioned furniture. After vacuuming the sofa and chairs I felt like I could sit on them without having dust mites carry me off. The newly polished and vacuumed room gave me a renewed feeling of accomplishment. With just a few inroads made, the house no longer felt quite so overwhelming. When I thought of all we’d done in just a few days I was overjoyed. Continued progress like this and we could move on to the remodeling soon, or at least the planning stages of it. Then the real mess would begin in earnest.

  I could hear Connie and Dean laughing while they came up from the basement. “How’s it going?”

  “We’re coming along great,” Dean said walking into the kitchen. “Actually, someone had installed cable here before. It looks like he had it turned off in the last few years but the cables were already in place and everything so we’ll have you two up and running in no time.”

  “Really? That’s great. I never thought our grandfather would have had cable.”

  “Yep. We’ll leave a box here with you, then I’ll head back to the office with Jimmy and we’ll get you ‘turned on’ in no time,” he said with a grin.

  “Funny. I don’t care what you do, just so I get HGTV.”

  After Dean and Jimmy left, I ran up to get some clean sweats. Connie was in her room looking through her suitcase when I popped in to chat. “Hey, I’m going to take a shower. I feel disgusting. Then do you want to eat dinner while sitting on the couch and watching TV? Maybe Dean will have the cable working by then. I’m so excited to have more channels. Mom put some soup in the fridge and I think there is some salad left. I’m really not in the mood to either cook or go out to eat.”

  “Sounds like a plan. Do you need me to go to the basement with you?” I wasn’t sure if Connie was serious or teasing but part of me didn’t want to go to the basement alone. That was the trouble with being grown up. You had to face things alone and pretend to be brave.

  “I don’t think so. I’ll bring my flashlight and leave the door at the top of the stairs open,” I answered. I walked out of her room and grabbed another load of laundry as I went down. My clothes were filthy with all the housecleaning. I still hadn’t picked up any more clothes from my mom’s house, and I would run out soon.

  Feeling refreshed and clean we headed to the couch with our freshly warmed soup and salads. Our moms had also left a delightful loaf of freshly baked bread.

  “I can’t wait to go through the built-in cabinets and hutch, can you?” Connie asked sinking into the couch. “By the way this room looks amazing.”

  “Thanks. If I had the energy to stand I would be digging through them as we speak. Right now, I just want to sit here on the couch and not think of anything more.” I set my soup on the coffee table and dug into the salad. After all the days of eating poorly, the salad was delightful, fresh and light.

  We discovered the cable was working, and I enjoyed flipping through all the new channels on the television between bites. I soon realized there was nothing new to watch. I came upon a nineteen forties screwball comedy on a classic movie channel. “Finally, something fun to watch. I wish I had grown up in that era. I realize there were a ton of bad things about it that people like to forget, but I really hate all this ‘reality TV’. Whose reality? All it does is encourage people to embrace really bad behavior.” I spilled some soup down the front of my shirt as I tried to balance both my bowl and the piece of bread.

  “True, but then people look back at the eighties now with fondness and I doubt they were that great. Back in the fifties, the man could backhand a woman and a mother could smoke with a child in her lap. Things are never nearly as cool as people like to think later,” Connie said.

  “You’re right, I’m sure they aren’t. At least the movies weren’t only about graphic sex and the actors dressed really well.” We both laughed.

  “That I can get behind. Let’s start on your bedroom tomorrow. I’m looking forward to going through the closet when we can get to it. It looks like Grandfather kept everything. I’m hoping he still has Grandmother’s clothes.”

  “Ooh, I didn’t even think of that. I love vintage clothes. Now I can’t wait to get up tomorrow.”

  When the comedy on TV ended we went upstairs and decided to leave some lights on in the living room again. We also agreed to stay together in Connie’s room again. There was strength in numbers, plus I was really starting to feel close to Connie. “It would be nice if we didn’t have to worry about ghosts. It’s weird. A few days ago, I never would have believed it. Now I’m so used to the idea I just talk about it offhand.”

  “Wouldn’t it be great if we could resolve whatever the problem is, like Emmett said?”

  “Yeah, it sure would.” We both fell asleep quickly.

  I awoke once in the night and thought I heard music playing quietly downstairs. I opened my eyes and listened, but the house was silent. I decided I must have dreamed it and went back to sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The sun was flooding the hall with light when I awoke. A feeling of well-being pervaded the house after our full night’s sleep. Two nights with no i
nterruptions, maybe we were getting past the occurrences, and whatever we had stirred up was quieting down.

  Connie was up and showering when I came down to the kitchen. Everything seemed to be in place, everything quiet. I could almost believe we had imagined the strange events of the past few days.

  After my morning coffee and day-old donuts I decided to open some windows and air out the house. It was a beautiful spring day with sunshine and a brisk wind. Going to the double-hung windows in the dining room, I unfastened the lock on one and tried to open it. This one seemed wedged tight. I hated old windows. It wasn’t painted shut but it probably hadn’t been opened in ten years or more. I banged against the sashes and tried again. It reluctantly started to creep up. A slight breeze swept through the opening, disturbing the fine coating of dust that had resettled on the dining room table I had dusted yesterday. I stepped around a little desk to try the window next to it and found it in the same condition. My, there was a lot of furniture cluttering the room. Even though we cleared out the boxes we didn’t have anywhere to put the extra furniture.

  Moving around a dresser and small table I walked over to the hutch and peered inside the glass doors. Covered in dust despite being inside the cabinet, a myriad of objects filled the interior. Beautiful china, old steins and glass figurines were all crammed together with no space in between. Some of the items I knew had value from my ventures through antique stores all my life, but the other items I had no clue about. It was probably safer for the objects to just stay where they were until we had time to clean and sort them. Perhaps the family would want to keep some of the pieces as keepsakes and others could be sold.

  I went upstairs to open more windows, hoping to get a cross breeze going. Struggling again with the old windows, I finally was able to wrestle the bathroom and extra bedroom windows open. I ran downstairs and quickly showered, got dressed then braided my hair. Now I was ready to tackle the boxes in my bedroom. Maybe I could actually sleep in the room tonight since there had been less activity.