Toe to Toe

by Deborah LeBlanc

  “Quit showing off,” the captain growled.

  “Oh, hush, you old coot,” Helen said. “I want to be on television.” With that she sent the second empty cot sailing across the room.

  “Holy crap,” Buggy said. “Who’s doing that?”

  “Mrs. Richardson,” Nonie said. “She’s determined to be on television.”

  “How was that?” Helen asked. “Do you think it’ll get their attention?”

  “Oh, I’m sure it’ll get somebody’s attention,” Nonie said with a laugh.

  “What else can I do?” Helen asked.

  Nonie couldn’t have asked for a Christmas present that would’ve made her happier. “See that silver machine on the other side of the mantel?”

  “Yes, I saw you put it there.”

  “It’s a digital recorder. If you go near it and speak, it’ll pick up whatever you say.”

  “Buggy,” Nonie said. “Aim your camera at the fireplace, where the digital recorder is.”

  Helen hurried over to the fireplace, her slippers shuffling across the floor. She leaned over to the digital recorder. “Hello, my name is Helen Richardson, and I’m a ghost, but I’m speaking to you now on this machine so I can be on television. My house is a historical site. It’s very old and part of it used to be a hospital during the Civil War. There were many men that came here to be doctored on and sent back to the field. Some, bless their hearts, didn’t make it. Me? I just died of old age, right downstairs in my recliner. I guess my body parts just got old and shut down. It wasn’t painful, though. Now I feel better than ever. I can come and go where I please and right now I would be pleased if you’d send your film crew over to my house and put me on television. I used to watch the Ed Sullivan show all the time. I think being on television would be the greatest thing ever.”

  Helen looked over at Nonie as if to confirm that she’d said enough. Nonie nodded. “I can’t thank you enough for your help, Mrs. Richardson.”

  “Call me Helen, please.”

  “Okay, Helen. Thank you again for your help.”

  “You’re very welcome. Oh, and just so you know, Captain has one of his legs. But his spirit has both, and occasionally he’ll go stomping around the house. You had a friend downstairs earlier, snooping around which made Captain angry. So the voice your friend heard downstairs belonged to Captain, and I’m afraid the lump on your friend’s head came from Captain, too.”

  “Who’s the young man beside you?” Helen suddenly asked. “Oh, I see, you’re one of us.” She turned to Nonie. “And you did introduce us before.” She tapped a finger against her right temple. “Every once in a while this old clock up here forgets to click to the next second. I apologize for that.”

  Helen looked at Guy. “My name is Helen. What’s yours?”

  “Guy Skinard.”

  Helen lifted a hand to shake his but their palms simply passed through each other.

  “Does she see you, as well? Helen asked referring to Nonie.

  “Every day,” Guy said.

  “What a blessing it is to have someone to talk to every day. And what about your friend, the one with the video camera. Does she see anything at all?”

  “Nothing,” Guy said. “Bug can't see anything but she knows that Nonie can. You know what’s odd? If people paid close enough attention, I’d bet anyone could see us if they really tried hard enough. I think some are just too scared and that may be—”

  “You said her name is Bug?” Helen asked. “Odd name for a girl.”

  “It’s Buggy,” Guy said. “Her real name is Beatrice, but she’d rather be called by her nickname. Anyway, that may be Buggy’s problem. She’s just too afraid to see. I’m sure she’s fine being afraid and just leaving well enough alone.”

  “Well, if you don’t mind,” Helen said with a yawn. “It’s way past my naptime. It’s been a pleasure meeting all of you, but I think it’s time that you leave now. The later it gets, the grouchier Captain gets. I think it’s his leg. It’s like ghost pains. I think it really starts hurting him. I wish there was more I could do to help him, but, unfortunately, he never went to the light when it called to him. He was too angry over his troops being killed on this property during the war. He wanted to stay around, hoping to be healed so he could find them. I tried to explain it to him that that’s not going to happen, but the poor dear won’t listen to me. A little hard in the head, if you know what I mean.”

  “And you’re still here because you don’t want your son to renovate the house?” Nonie asked.

  “Oh, no,” Helen said. “He can turn it back to its original splendid glory. In fact that would be wonderful. I just don’t want him taking all of my trophies and pictures, all the things I worked so hard for out of the house. I want them to be showcased.”

  “I know,” Nonie said.

  “Know what?” Jack asked, suddenly appearing up in the attic.

  Helen disappeared in the blink of an eye. Captain remained on his cot, giving Jack a hard, cold look.

  “To try to get the EVPs and pictures we need for the production crew,” Nonie said. She figured a half lie wasn’t as condemning as a balls to the wall lie.

  “I heard all kinds of banging going on up here. You two okay?”

  “Fine,” Nonie said.

  “Yeah,” Buggy said. “Two cots moved on their own. One flipped over and look . . .” She pointed to the cot on its side on the other side of the room. “That one got thrown.”

  “We’ve got pictures of that,” Nonie said. “We also did a fairly long EVP session, so I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”

  “Great job,” Jack said.

  Nonie saw Guy get up and move between her and Jack. He edged closer to Jack until they were nearly nose to nose.

  Jack shivered. “Did it suddenly get cold in here, like twenty degrees or something, or is that my imagination?”

  “Not that I noticed.” Nonie said.

  “Maybe we shut it down here for the night,” Jack said. “The house isn’t that big, and I think we’ve got plenty of pictures and EVPs to go over to see if we’ve caught anything.”

  “You mean besides the lump on your head?” Nonie asked, giving him a half smile.

  “Funny.”

  “What happened?”

  “Long story. I’ll tell you later.”

  “Okay, so let’s move onto the plantation,” Nonie said with a shrug.

  “Not until you answer my question,” Jack said.

  “What question is that?”

  “I said it sounded like you were talking to someone other than Buggy. I could hear you all the way downstairs near the hallway.”

  Nonie shrugged. “We could have been role playing in case we did see someone. You know, figuring out the questions we’d ask, things like that. Maybe that’s what you heard.” She wasn’t very good at lying and knew it.

  From the look on Jack’s face, he didn’t fully believe her either. His eyes were narrowed and suspicious. There was a moment of silence before he said, “Fine, let’s move onto the plantation. I’ll get Tatman and Shaundelle and let them know.”

  “Sounds good,” Nonie said.

  After gathering up the equipment, Jack started down the stairs of the attic with Buggy following right behind. Guy followed after and Nonie pulled up the rear.

  When they reached the living room, Jack turned to Buggy and said, “You mind going to get Shaundelle and Tatman and tell them we’re heading for the plantation now. I’ll make sure all the equipment down here is rounded up.

  “Sure,” Buggy said, and hurried off to the kitchen.

  Jack turned to Nonie. “You saw something up there, didn’t you? You see them don’t you?”

  “If you’re talking about the cots, yes, I saw them move.”

  “I’m not talking about that.”

  “What are you talking about then?”

  “The dead. You were talking to somebody other than Buggy. I know it as sure as I know my name.”

  Nonie raised an
eyebrow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “If you can see them, then we’ll see them on camera.” He held up the digital recorder she had used upstairs. “Better yet, that conversation will be picked up on this recorder, and I’ll be able to tell who you were talking to. Buggy or someone else. That’s why I’m asking you directly now, so I don’t have to question you later.”

  “You’re being a jerk,” Nonie said, folding her arms across her chest.

  “No, I’m not. I’m just trying to get the truth. If you can actually see these ghosts then that’s a huge plus for us.”

  “All I see is a man trying to force me say something I don’t want to say.”

  “Fine,” Jack said. “Have it your way. But I have a feeling we’ll be having this discussion again very soon.

  A cold sensation suddenly ran up the back of Nonie’s spine, and it had nothing to do with a drop in temperature. Realization froze her to one spot for a moment. The recordings. The digital recorder and the camera. If they picked up any of Helen’s conversation and the sound of the cots moving, undoubtedly they picked up her voice, too. Her saying she’d seen the dead since she was a little girl. Her responding directly to Helen’s questions. She’d screwed up royally. She’d gotten so caught up in the moment that she’d forgotten her deal with Buggy. Nonie was supposed to signal her if she saw a ghost. Not talk to it! Now Jack had the recorder. She’d be busted as surely as a raccoon rummaging through garbage.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The plantation house stood approximately seven hundred feet behind the Richardson home and looked creepy as hell. Nonie was anything but excited about having to investigate it.

  When they’d wrapped up at the house, Jack went to the back of the van and grabbed more flashlights. He handed one to each person on the team.

  “Use them only if absolutely necessary,” he said. “The plantation will be great for our IR vid camera and full spectrum camera. Both will get great pictures without any light, which is a good thing since the plantation has no electricity.”

  “Crap on a saltine, that figures,” Shaundelle said, and threw her hands up. “No electricity? Are you kidding? We won’t be able to see nothin’”

  “That’s why I gave all of you flashlights.”

  “Yeah, but you said not to use them unless it was necessary,” Shaundelle fumed. “I consider using a flashlight when I’m walking into an old, creepy joint like that without electricity a necessary.”

  “Maybe it’s not as bad as it looks,” Nonie said. “We’ll turn the flashlights on when we first get inside. You know, to get a lay of the land.”

  “Right,” Jack said. “Soon as we decide who’ll investigate what area, flashlights go off.”

  “We’re not like each going to do a room by ourselves, huh?” Shaundelle asked.

  Jack pursed his lips thoughtfully. “It’s definitely big enough for us to do that. We could cover more territory—”

  “Oh, hell to the hell-no,” Shaundelle said. “I’m not goin’—”

  “Let him finish,” Nonie said, then suddenly saw Guy appear between Jack and Tatman. He scowled at her.

  Nonie gritted her teeth to keep from lashing out at him.

  “Like I was saying,” Jack continued. “It’s big enough for each of us to take a different area, but since all of you are new to this, we’ll stick to pairs.”

  “Now you’re talkin,’” Shaundelle said.

  “Thank G-o-d,” Buggy said.

  Even Tatman looked relieved, like he’d just passed a pent-up bubble of gas.

  The plantation stood two and a half stories tall with a pair of dormers resting on the edge of the roof, facing the front porch. By flashlight, it looked like the building had once been painted white with green shutters. Now most of the paint on the clapboard structure had either curled up, chipped off or had bowed to naked wood.

  Nonie aimed her flashlight at the multiple windows from the first floor up to the dormers that had center panes. She didn’t see one that hadn’t been shattered.

  Four large, round pillars, also in desperate need of paint, were attached to the roof’s edge that hung over a sagging porch. Chipped and dirt-covered brick steps led the way up to a wide porch.

  “H-How do we get inside?” Nonie asked, feeling sweat form at the nape of her neck despite the cool November night breeze. As angry as she’d been moments ago when she’d spotted Guy and he’d vanished, she wished him back.

  “Through the front door,” Jack said. “It’s not locked.”

  Shaundelle shook her head vigorously, dreadlocks flying. “Breakin’ and enterin’. Breakin’ and enterin’. We gonna wind up in jail.”

  “No we’re not,” Jack said. “Remember, I told you I spoke to the cops, to the city, and as long as we don’t take anything from the house, they’ve allowed us access.”

  “Yeah, but what if some rookie shows up,” Shaundelle said. “And he don’t know squat about who you talked to. We gonna wind up in the back of a squad car for sure.”

  “Trust me,” Jack said. “That won’t happen. I promise.”

  “Let’s get this over with,” Nonie said. “It’s getting late, and I’ve got a funeral to work in the morning.”

  “I thought you said your mom and Margaret gave you the day off tomorrow?” Buggy said.

  Nonie eyed her for ratting her out. “Yeah . . . well . . . Let’s just get this over with.”

  Jack aimed his flashlight at the porch as they made their way to the front door. “Be careful climbing up here. The porch is sagging badly, and there’re a few broken boards.”

  “Aren’t we going to get the equipment?” Tatman asked, following up the rear as they entered the house.

  “Yeah, but I want to make sure we’re not facing another Richardson hoarding before we started unloading everything.”

  The front door gave an ominous creak as Jack turned the knob and pushed it open. Everyone stepped inside huddled together.

  “I don’t like this place,” Nonie said, her ghost radar on high alert. It felt like a low-voltage electrical current running through her body.

  “Ditto that, girl,” Shaundelle said.

  A short foyer opened up into a large sitting room. Two old, dusty rockers sat against one wall and an even dustier piano sat against the opposite wall. Aside from that, the room was void of everything, including light. Jack led them to a room off to the left, where an old wooden dining table, large enough to seat ten stood in the middle of the room. No chairs surrounded it. A soot-covered fireplace sat against the west wall. One could only assume this used to be a dining room.

  The plantation seemed to be one big square, like a large box with walls separating rooms for general purposes. Jack aimed his flashlight at the doorway to the right of the dining room. The room behind it held a fireplace, similar to the one in the dining room, yet nothing else. They followed Jack’s flashlight to the right, into another doorway, which led to a large, dusty, empty room.

  As they continued in what seemed like a ceremonial circle, the next door led to what appeared to have once been a sitting room. A ratty, old, cloth-covered couch sat in the middle of the room. One more doorway led them into what appeared to have been a bedroom. Someone must have attempted an upgrade, however, for where a bed should have been, stood a wall with a toilet behind it.

  The last room in the circle of doorways was the kitchen. It held a hearth, rat feces on the wooden countertops, chipped ceramic sinks, and an old icebox. Out of all the rooms they’d covered so far, this one seemed to be twenty degrees colder than the rest.

  “We’ve got plenty of room to set up a command center,” Jack said.

  “Aren’t you going to check out the upstairs before you set anything up?” Nonie asked.

  “We’ll start setting up down here, then do a walk-through upstairs and see how many rooms we have to cover. I may not have enough cameras to cover both floors at one time, which is why I suggest we start down here.”

  “While
you set up, mind if Buggy and I check upstairs?” Nonie asked.

  Buggy went wide-eyed. “Are you crazy? All we have are flashlights. And look at those old creaky stairs. Half the banister is gone. You’ve got a death wish or what?”

  “Then I’ll take Shaundelle with me,” Nonie said, determined to get upstairs. She’d hoped it would have been Buggy because she wanted to call out to Guy and see if he was around.

  “This black girl ain’t goin’ nowhere right now,” Shaundelle said. “Jack said we’d check it out later. I don’t know why you want to go up there now. To find trouble?”

  “Just curious,” Nonie said, frustrated. She couldn’t ask Tatman because Jack needed him to set up cameras and the main monitor.

  Nonie shrugged. “Fine, I’ll go alone.”

  “Stop trippin’, Nonie. You’re not going up there alone,” Buggy said.

  “Then are you coming?”

  Buggy let out a loud sigh and clicked on her flashlight. “Yeah, okay, I’ll go, but you’re gonna take the lead, and I’m hanging on to your shirt for dear life. So if something pops up, don’t count on me to save you ‘cause I’ll be hauling ass back downstairs.”

  “Just a quick run-through,” Nonie said, trying to signal Buggy with her eyes that there was a direct purpose for her wanting to leave the group.

  Buggy didn’t catch the signal. Instead, she grabbed hold of the back of Nonie’s shirt, and said, “If we’re going to do a run-through, then you best get to runnin’ before I chicken out.”

  As soon as they hit the landing and were out of earshot, Nonie whispered in Buggy’s ear. “He’s not here.”

  Buggy’s eyes grew wider. “He who?”

  “Guy.”

  Buggy let out a relieved breath. “I thought you were going to say a demon or some weird crap like that. Where’d he go? You’d think he’d a least be here watching your back.”

  Nonie flashed her light about. “Earlier, when I told Shaundelle to give Jack a chance to finish what he was saying, you should have seen the eyes Guy gave me. You’d have sworn I’d kissed Jack right on the mouth in front of everyone.”