Hauntings of the Heart

by Joselyn Vaughn

  He dared to speculate it was her relationship with him. He dared. She’d given no indication their connection was anything but a memory. And yet…

  Something was off between them. Something that hadn’t been erased by the fuzziness of the passing years. He still felt all the old excitement when she was in the room, but there was something else. A lot of water had flowed under their respective bridges, but something more than losing touch bothered Minnie. He couldn’t describe it, but he knew it wasn’t right.

  It didn’t irritate only her. He hated how things had ended between them, as if they’d both forgotten the other existed. He’d never forgotten Minnie. It hurt to think she’d forgotten him.

  He leaned against the doorjamb as he waited for Barbara to finish her instructions. When the group dispersed to their stations, Gordon ambled over to Minnie. “Where are you going to watch the show?”

  “I’m not sure I want to see any paranormal activity.” She shivered and pulled her cardigan tighter around her shoulders.

  “Who knows what ghosts this place can conjure up?” Gordon chuckled. He ached to wrap his arms around her, guard her against the chill and the things that bump in the night. “Some of my relatives were scary enough while they were alive; I’m not sure I’d want to meet them in a state I don’t understand.”

  “Your mother is a lovely woman,” Minnie chided.

  “I wasn’t talking about her. My father and his family benefited from her refinement.” Gordon scanned the foyer where they had all congregated. “She worked so hard to build a good reputation for the Anderson family name. She turned this house into a welcoming place. The community was always meeting here for teas and fundraisers.”

  “I remember,” Minnie said quietly. “My heart ached to see the place deteriorate in her absence. It would have made her so sad.”

  “If only my father hadn’t ruined it for her.”

  Minnie gave him a puzzled look, but Barbara approached before she could say anything. Gordon was thankful. As much as he wanted to address the issue, he didn’t care to have an audience.

  “We’re ready to start our investigation. Where will you be?” Barbara jabbed her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose and rolled the cuffs of her sweater above her elbows. A fanny pack sagged from her waist. Antennas poked out through its open zipper.

  “Where do you want me?” Minnie gestured toward her apartment. Gordon suspected she was preparing to dart down the hallway as soon as Barbara gave her the go-ahead.

  “It doesn’t matter. We just need to know in case our sensors pick up something. We’ll need to know what to attribute to you and what is generally unexplained.”

  “Why don’t we take a walk?” Gordon asked. “It’s a nice evening.” Maybe with some time alone with Minnie, he could figure out what was keeping them apart.

  Keeping them apart? Did he think they’d be getting together? He wanted to. Having discovered Minnie again, he couldn’t imagine living the rest of his life without her. But he couldn’t seem to rebuild the destroyed relationship. Minnie dismantled every bridge he constructed.

  “It’s getting dark.” Minnie inched toward the hallway.

  “Never stopped us before.” He opened the front door and held his arm out to her. She stared at it for a moment, then at his face. He knew his eyes begged, but if that was what it took, he’d do it.

  Finally, she slipped her arm through his. Her hand settled in the crook of his elbow as if it had its own groove there. They walked down the steps and veered right at the end of the walkway. Drifting toward the lake, their usual haunt. Their steps fit together in a natural rhythm. A chill had touched the evening air, and Gordon pulled Minnie a little closer.

  After they’d gone a block, Gordon said, “This feels so familiar. It’s hard to believe it’s been fifty years since I last strolled with you.”

  Minnie studied the landscaping of the houses they passed. Gordon tried to recall the families who lived in the neighborhood, but he drew a blank. He remembered boys and girls and an occasional dog or cat, but the family names had slipped away.

  “I could almost forget how much time had gone by. What would it be like if our plans had gone the way we dreamed?” Gordon certainly wished he’d made better choices as a young man.

  “From when? Our plans went awry the night we said goodbye.”

  “Our goodbye wasn’t what we planned, but I don’t regret it.” His step hitched. “Do you?”

  Minnie was still looking at him, and Gordon wasn’t sure she would answer.

  “At times I have.” She paused, taking several steps as her words hung in the air. Gordon’s heart sank a little with each step. “Other times, I wouldn’t trade it. But it’s hard to separate an event from its aftermath.”

  Gordon reached over and patted her hand. Maybe it was time to come clean about what his father had done. Maybe she was waiting for him to acknowledge history before she spoke about it. “So many times I wished things were different. If Dad hadn’t siphoned money from our family’s investments for Mother’s charities, I’d have joined you in the Philippines.”

  It was Minnie’s turn for her steps to hitch.

  “Is that what happened? Why didn’t you write me?”

  “I guess I succeeded. I worked so hard to keep the ugly details from spreading. It wouldn’t do anyone any good.” Gordon stepped over a bump in the sidewalk. “With all the things going on with my mom and the estate after Dad…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. It was an awful confession. How could he tell Minnie his father had ruined their family? She obviously hadn’t known anything about it.

  “Your father’s subsequent heart attack? And your decision to move away? By the time I returned from overseas, no one was talking about it much anymore.” Minnie shrugged, then tugged the opening of her cardigan closer with her free hand.

  They strolled past a fence crowded with red and gold chrysanthemums. Gordon snagged one and held it out to Minnie. Her lips curled up as she twirled it in her hand. A small step.

  No one outside the family knew what had really happened. How his mother had found his father slumped over his desk amid the pills, the bounced checks, the foreclosure statements. And that cryptic note. He owed Minnie the truth. She deserved to know why he hadn’t fought harder for her. Why he’d abandoned his intentions toward her when she left. All their plans had disappeared with his mother’s scream.

  His steps slowed. He stopped Minnie and faced her. He cradled her elbows in his hands.

  “Whatever you heard, it isn’t what happened. I need to tell you all of it. You deserve to know.”

  Minnie scrunched her forehead. “It was so long ago. We don’t need to resurrect all those ghosts.”

  Gordon half-smiled at her mention of ghosts. If there was any paranormal activity at the Bower, he’d suspect it was his father tormenting the house. Gordon would do what he could to ease his mother’s anxiety before she died. She’d been a victim of it all, too. His dad…well, he’d made his own choices.

  “It’s important to me.” He told her how his mother had found his father. How they’d found the bank statement under the bottle of pills and how it all snowballed from there—the debt collectors, the loss of the Bower, and his mother’s failing health.

  “I had to keep it all quiet. We told everyone Dad had a heart attack. I took Mom and my sisters to the summer cottage to get away for a while, but we ended up having to stay. Dad had defaulted on the mortgage of the house. We didn’t even know he had mortgaged it. Every bank account was overdrawn. It took some negotiating, but I secured a loan so we could keep the cottage and a roof over our heads.” Gordon sighed as they walked in the twilight around the lake. The water lapped at the shore in the light breeze, the sound too calm for the trauma he related. “Mother was in shock. She wouldn’t dress herself or bathe. I knew she needed help, but I couldn’t put her in an asylum. Her doctor suggested we hire a nurse. I couldn’t afford one.”

  Minnie reached over and squeezed his hand on he
r arm. He felt comforted, like she understood the struggles he had gone through to provide for his family. “I went to the agency anyway, hoping for a miracle. Mother needed care I couldn’t provide. I met a young woman there, fresh out of nursing school. Ann. She was sweet, and she adored Mother.

  “Everything happened so fast. Her apartment burned down and she needed a place to stay, but she couldn’t live with us and keep her job with the agency. We couldn’t afford to hire her outright. She and I were married before I realized how much I had committed to.”

  Perhaps Ann had been as naïve as he, not grasping the gravity or permanence of their situation. He could truthfully say they’d never been in love, but the pain of their marriage had been like a pair of shoes that never fit quite right. There were days they were tolerable, days when they squeaked, and days when they gave you blisters.

  Now that he’d seen Minnie again, he understood why it hadn’t worked. He hadn’t been willing to give Ann everything she’d wanted. Despite the mutual convenience of their marriage, Ann had expected his heart, too. The enormity of it all seemed heavy in the night air. “Mother eventually recovered, but she’s needed nursing care ever since. I wrote once things settled down, but—" Gordon shook his head.

  “I never received it.” Minnie stopped walking.

  “I never mailed it.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I couldn’t put it all on paper. There was too much to say, and no good way to say it.”

  Minnie’s hand slipped from his. She buttoned her sweater and turned toward the Bower. “I think it’s time to head back.”

  He stared after her and jammed his hands in his jacket pockets. He’d expected to feel relieved after talking with Minnie and getting everything out in the open—the way it had actually happened, and not how the gossip mongers may have twisted it. But Minnie had pulled even farther away.

  * * *

  Minnie delivered a tray of cookies to the coffee table in the common area. The ghost hunting team had finished their investigation for the evening, and had begun comparing notes. Gordon had gone upstairs to drop off his coat and hat. She was glad for the chance to breathe in air that wasn’t laced with his aftershave.

  Her mind wandered away from Barbara and Elmer’s rehash to her stroll with Gordon. All he had gone through and carried…he’d shouldered his whole family’s burdens alone. His whole family, except her—his almost-fiancé, and mother of his child. She’d had to cut their walk short before they reached the beach, once she’d understood. She couldn’t stand his presence for a moment longer.

  He’d dumped her from a hemisphere away without even the courtesy of a Dear Jane letter. Married some broad he’d barely laid eyes on, and shuffled his declared soul mate away like she meant less to him than a fast food wrapper. She understood adding her pregnancy to his plate would have been difficult, but he hadn’t even had the courage to tell her goodbye. Instead, he’d abandoned her. Swept her off his plate, onto the floor, and out the door. She’d been the least important of his worries.

  They’d returned from their walk to find Barbara, Elmer, and the rest of the team gathered in the parlor, assessing their equipment. She’d offered cookies and they’d gladly accepted. She’d scurried off to the kitchen, eager to put some distance between herself and Gordon. Unfortunately, she couldn’t shut off her mind’s replay of their conversation.

  “I didn’t have a single reading in the expected range,” Elmer said, snatching a peanut butter cookie off the tray before she even set it down.

  Another member of the team searched through the images on a digital camera. “Nothing. No shadows, no ghostly faces, not even any orbs.”

  “You can’t see much on those small screens,” Barbara said. “We need to download them to your laptop.”

  “I know. I was just hoping I would see something that wouldn’t make the last two hours a bust.”

  “You didn’t find anything?” Minnie asked, dragging a chair from the dining room into their circle.

  “Not tonight,” Barbara said. “No unusual activity at all.”

  “I don’t get it,” Elmer said. “The capture last time was so promising.”

  A woman with long black hair and dark-framed glasses piped up. “I didn’t feel any presence until after we stopped our investigation.” She rearranged her denim skirt around her combat boots, airily flicking her fingers to show off knuckles full of rings.

  “Josie—” Barbara indicated with her hand, “—is one of our sensitives. Sometimes she can sense or feel a presence even when our gadgets don’t pick it up.”

  “After? You’re sensing something now?” Minnie asked.

  The teams’ eyes darted to the crown molding. Elmer stared at Josie like he was waiting for her to start speaking in the voice of the dead. Minnie mimicked their actions. She traced the edges of the room, wondering if she would see a foggy figure materializing against the ceiling.

  “It’s getting stronger, but it feels high.” Her voice trembled. She pointed up, and Minnie followed her gesture to the chandelier and the decorative medallion around it.

  “In the room? Now?” The hair stood up on the back of Minnie’s neck, and she could have sworn bugs were crawling on her scalp. There couldn’t really be anything paranormal here, could there? She pressed herself into her chair, willing the creepy-crawlies away.

  Josie cocked her head to the side and closed her eyes. “No. It’s over closer to the wall.”

  “Should we check it out?” Elmer asked, inching off his seat. He snatched his camera from the table and jabbed the power button. He held the camera ready to capture the apparition as it manifested. The other members of the team scanned the corners of the room, grabbing recorders and cameras too.

  “It’s not strong,” Josie said. She raised her hands as if trying to reach for the presence. “No. It’s gone.” She slumped in her chair as if the process had exhausted her.

  Elmer sighed. “Shoot. I guess we go again tomorrow morning.”

  Gordon came around the corner from the staircase and joined the group. If Minnie didn’t know better, she’d call herself a sensitive. She knew the moment he entered the parlor by the tingles zipping across her arms.

  “More coffee, anyone?” Minnie asked, reaching for the cookie tray and preparing to escape to the kitchen. She thought she heard Gordon requesting a cup of decaf, but she was already down the hall. And if he intended to buy the place, he could get his own dang coffee.

  As she rinsed out cups, she contemplated Elmer’s findings. She’d known they’d find nothing, but a small part of her had hoped for a little flash or a strange creaking—something to keep their interest. Maybe she could come up with something to fool their equipment before tomorrow morning. She checked the wall clock. It was too late to call Edith for help. Edith didn’t answer her phone after eight on Thursdays. Minnie didn’t ask why. Some things were better left unknown.

  What was she going to do? The ghost hunters couldn’t come up empty on this trip. They’d never add the Bower to their registry then. She needed for them to find something. If she could keep business steady, she’d be better prepared for emergencies. Mark would be after her about new shingles next spring. If she had the cash, she wouldn’t have to worry about Gordon swooping in again to steal the Bower from her. She didn’t like the leverage he already had; she didn’t need to give him more.

  She didn’t know what to believe about ghosts in general, but she hoped if they did make their presence known, they were friendly enough to help her out rather than scaring the bejesus out of her and her guests. Gordon already had her nerves on edge. She didn’t need anything else rattling them.

  16

  Minnie passed informational packets for the haunted house to Dinah, Edith, and Gordon. They had all squeezed into her office at the Bower to go over the final arrangements for the haunted house that evening, while the caterers finished setting up the parlor and dining room. They had only a few hours left to get everything squared away.
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br />   She whipped Gordon’s papers into his lap, hoping his dive to grab them resulted in a handful of paper cuts. She really didn’t see why he thought he needed to be here, or why he had to choose the chair directly opposite of hers. Her eyes swept over his whenever she surveyed the group.

  He’d been under her feet for the last week. Hovering in the hall as she chatted with the caterer, assisting Mark with piecing pipes into the walls, discussing ideas with Barbara and Elmer as they planned the haunting. Whenever she needed to check on something for the party, he was right where she needed to be. If she could trust him to take care of things for her…but he’d made it clear he didn’t care about her problems. He had her nerves twisted in knots.

  “I’ve compiled a list of duties we’ll need to cover for the party. Barbara and Elmer’s team has agreed to arrange the haunted house portion. It’s going to be great. Each of the available guest rooms upstairs will feature a paranormal phenomenon the party-goers will be able investigate, as if they were on a regular ghost-hunting team.” She couldn’t believe Mark had agreed to adjust the air conditioning for them. Though, he still wouldn’t give her the password to the system. “It will be like CSI except with ghosts.”

  “Is there going to be a Jim Brass character?” Dinah asked over her half-rim glasses. “He’s just so cute. I’d love to pinch his cheeks.”

  “I was always partial to Catherine Willows,” Gordon said. “Such a looker.”

  Minnie rolled her eyes. If he joined these two in a CSI debate, they’d be sitting here until seven o’clock. She had to keep them all on task. But after this week, she wasn’t sure she had the strength.

  “It’s not going to be actual CSI. It’s like CSI,” Edith explained.

  “Each team member will play themselves,” Minnie added, and Dinah nodded.

  Edith flipped the first page of her packet. “I don’t see anything about my Elvis impersonator. Isn’t he going to be in one of the guest rooms?”