“You’ve done a very good thing. Rosie is determined to go back to school while modeling. She’s going to make you proud.”
Although there was no response because his spirit had moved on, Sadie liked to think Boom Boom heard her anyway.
She worked straight through the night, scrubbing decomp from walls and floor. Flooring and wallboard that couldn’t be cleaned were cut out and placed into the medical waste bins. If a material couldn’t be made sterile, she was required to remove it, and a renovation company would replace the damage that she’d done. Sloughed skin adhered to much of the changing room like petrified oatmeal, and it took a tremendous amount of elbow grease to complete the task. It was dawn when Sadie loaded the last of the equipment and medical waste bins into her van and said good-bye to Bellevue Square. A couple of the security officers assisted her in putting the stuff in the back of the Scene-2-Clean van, and Sadie was grateful for their help. Once she’d rolled the back door shut, she thanked them and watched them head back inside the mall. While she opened her driver’s-side door, Sadie checked her cell phone for missed calls but there weren’t any.
“Damn,” she muttered under her breath.
She’d been hoping for a call from Zack and she’d also been expecting one from Paula, but nobody had tried to reach her. Disappointed, she crammed her phone in her purse. She hoisted herself up onto the driver’s seat and quickly exclaimed, “Holy shit!”
The vinyl seats of her van had been torn to shreds by someone with a lot of anger and a sharp knife.
7
Someone had also taken a permanent marker to her dashboard and scrawled, “Go Away, Queen of Clean!”
“Queen of Clean?” Sadie rolled her eyes and laughed mirthlessly. “Nice. Real nice,” she grumbled sarcastically. With a whimper of exhaustion, she put her key into the ignition as she sat down on the tufts of stuffing that had been tugged from inside the seat cushion. “Obviously I forgot to lock up. Serves me right,” she mumbled, and yawned.
Sadie spied a clutch of punked-out teens across the lot.
“Stupid kids,” Sadie muttered under her breath. Vandals. It was the only explanation she could think of.
She drove the medical waste bins over to her storage unit and unloaded them there. They would stay in her storage facility until picked up by the medical waste company for disposal. The graffiti on her dash glared in her line of vision. If she’d been on speaking terms with Zack, this would’ve warranted a phone call to her boyfriend. They would’ve had a laugh over the Queen of Clean remark, and no doubt Zack would’ve teased her about the silly moniker for weeks. She sighed.
When she crawled back into bed in the guest room at her mom’s house, Sadie’s entire body ached with the fatigue of performing manual labor straight through the night.
“This was a lot easier when there were two of us,” she murmured sleepily into her pillow. Thoughts of Zack swirled around her head and made her heart ache with longing. She made a mental note to call him as she drifted into an exhausted sleep with unshed tears still in her eyes.
Sadie woke abruptly a few hours later with the feeling that someone was in the room. Her eyes sprang open to see her father sitting on the edge of her bed, staring at her. At least Sadie thought he was staring at her. She couldn’t be certain because half of her father’s face was either missing or invisible.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” he said. “Or should I say afternoon?”
Sadie blinked at the digital clock in the corner.
“Afternoon is still an hour away.” Sadie stifled a yawn.
“It’s only eleven, so I think I’ll—” Her eyes drifted shut and she was back in dreamland, but her father’s words echoed through the fog.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said about whether I have unfinished business here,” Dad said. “I’ve got a few ideas about things we should talk about.”
Sadie blinked her eyes open and stretched.
“Maybe your unfinished business is just quality time with your daughter?” Sadie asked hopefully.
Dad looked at her somberly without reply.
“Okay, if we’re going to have a serious conversation, I should have a shower to wake up first.” Sadie swung her legs out of bed. “And I should probably say hi to Mom too.”
“Peggy checked in on you a few minutes ago, but now she’s outside doing some weeding in the garden.”
Sadie reached for her cell phone on the bedside table.
“And he hasn’t called,” Dad said.
Dad was right. No calls from Zack. The only missed call was from Maeva.
“You should call him,” Dad suggested. “You know you want to.”
“Later,” Sadie said. “Will you be here when I get back from my shower?”
“I’ll try.”
Once under the hot spray, she closed her eyes and leaned into the water, wishing it could wash away her troubles. She tried to think of a way to make things right with Zack. She also considered ways to keep Dad around for a little longer. She liked having him around and didn’t want him to leave. Not yet.
“Maybe not ever,” she murmured into the spray.
Sadie knew there was a good chance that eventually he’d move on without her help. Certainly the fact that he could barely force his physical image to fully appear must mean that he was already moving on at some level. That realization angered her. Why the hell couldn’t her talking-to-the-dead skill ever work in her favor? She pounded a fist against the tile wall in frustration.
After her shower she returned to the room, but Dad was gone. Hoping he’d return, she dressed quickly and went to the kitchen. She poured herself cold coffee from the pot on the counter, microwaved it until it was scalding, and waved to her mother, who was attacking dandelions on the far side of the yard.
Mom waved back, and Sadie took her coffee into the living room, where she was relieved to find Dad waiting. He sat in his favorite chair and had propped what there was of his hands on the arm rests. His fingers had also failed to appear this time, giving him an amputated look.
“I’m going to give you a list of things to deal with,” Dad said, getting right down to business. “You should probably write it all down.”
Sadie got up to retrieve a pen and paper from the counter near the phone. “Okay, where do you want to begin?” Sadie asked, sitting back on the sofa. “How about we talk about how to properly bait a hook?”
“What?” Dad looked confused.
“Well, anytime we all went fishing, I could never get the dew worms to stay on the hook. I’d always lose them when I went to cast, so I had to get you to do it for me.”
“You were probably twelve last time we went fishing. Somehow I don’t think my staying here without getting to heaven has anything to do with my giving you fishing tips.”
“Well, sure, but while you’re here . . .”
“I was thinking more about something to hand down to future generations. Advice for you to give to little Dylan, for starters.”
“You think the thing you still need to do before you move on is to pass on words of wisdom to your one-year-old grandson?”
“He won’t always be one. Before you know it, he’s going to be off to school and have girlfriends and—”
“All of that is a long way off.”
“He won’t know me,” her dad said softly.
Sadie felt tears in her eyes. “We’ll make sure he knows who you were,” Sadie said just as softly. Wanting to lighten the mood, she added, “And I’ll personally be around to remind him to change the oil in his car.”
“I know, but it’s not the same.”
Sadie nodded and they sat silently for a minute until he cleared his throat and then began, pointing at the pen and paper she’d put down.
“Let him know that school grades are important because good habits stick with you all your life. Hard workers at school become hardworking adults.”
“Got it,” Sadie said, scratching the note quickly on the pad.
&nbs
p; “And when he starts playing baseball, he’s gotta be sure to get the right bat. Nothing too heavy. If he starts light, he’ll be more likely to hit the ball. Oh, and make sure he remembers to oil his glove.”
“Right.”
“Now, when it comes to women . . .”
“Dad, do you really think this is necessary?”
A firm look from him was the only answer she got.
“Fine,” Sadie said. “Continue.”
“First of all, I want you to tell him to never hit a girl. Even if she deserves it.”
A small smile curved her lips as she wrote it down.
Dad continued, “And next he needs to know that it’s okay to play the field for a while. I’m not talking sex—”
“Okay, at exactly what age do I have this little chat with him?” Sadie asked. “Preschool or kindergarten?”
“When he starts dating, of course.”
“Okay. Right.” Sadie wrote it down. “Play the field but no sex. Got it.”
“I didn’t say no sex. It just doesn’t have to be all about sex.”
“Okay.” Sadie resisted rolling her eyes and waved her pen for him to go on.
“What I meant by that was that he should date a lot of women before he chooses the right one to marry. Some of them are going to turn his head and turn him on, but that doesn’t mean they’ll fit in well with the family dynamics. Others are going to be great at the family thing but if there’s no spark, well, he’ll just get tired of her real quick. Take for example Molly Macgregor—”
“Who’s Molly Macgregor?”
“She was a gal I dated before your mother. She was a gorgeous woman. Sexy as hell.”
“Molly Macgregor was sexy. Got it,” Sadie said.
“Oh, no.”
“What? Molly wasn’t sexy?”
“Behind you,” Dad said ominously.
Sadie turned her head to see her mother standing in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. Her gardening gloves were still on her hands. Her jaw had dropped and her eyes were wide in a look of utter shock.
“Mom!” Sadie exclaimed, getting to her feet.
“What are you doing?” her mom said, her look quickly changing from hurt to fury as she tore the gloves off her hands.
“Nothing. I’m just—”
“You’re just what?” she demanded. “I never thought I’d see the day when my daughter would mention the name Molly Macgregor in my own house.”
“I probably should’ve warned you that your mom’s still a little sore about Molly Macgregor,” Dad said.
Sadie scowled in his direction.
“I want to know what’s going on!” Mom repeated shrilly.
“Nothing,” Sadie said, her mind working quickly to try to figure out how long her mother had been listening. “What do you think is going on?”
“Well, you’re looking at your father’s chair and talking about his old girlfriend.” She flung the gloves to the side table, and a fine spray of dust lifted into the air. Sadie opened her mouth to speak and then snapped it shut. She had no idea how to explain things.
“Maybe you should just tell her the truth, or do you want her to find out the same way I did?” Dad asked.
“Be quiet,” Sadie hissed.
When she glanced back at her mother, Sadie realized Mom had followed the direction of Sadie’s gaze. A look of pained sympathy crossed her mother’s face.
“Oh, my God, you’re talking to him.” Mom shook her head slowly from side to side and crossed the room to her daughter. “Sadie, hon, your dad is gone.”
“I know that,” Sadie snapped.
“Well, you can’t go around talking as if he’s still around or people will think you’re—” The word crazy hung in the air unspoken. Mom placed a gentle hand on Sadie’s shoulder. “Maybe I should take you to see Dr. Aston.”
“I’m not insane.”
“Of course you’re not! But maybe it would help if you just talked to someone, or got some medication to help you get through—”
“I talk to the dead!” The words were out of Sadie’s mouth before she could stop them.
“Oh, this should be good,” Dad commented from his place in his chair.
“Sadie, one thing I’ve learned in life is that everyone handles grief differently,” Mom said, choosing her words very carefully.
“It’s not grief, Mom. I’ve been able to talk to the dead since Brian killed himself. When I work a trauma clean, oftentimes there are spirits around, and I help them go over to the other side if they’re stuck here in this dimension. I know it’s unusual, but it is what it is.”
Mom sat down in the La-Z-Boy directly across from her husband’s spirit. Sadie took a calming breath and sat down on the sofa between her mom and dad, prepared to do some gentle convincing.
“I didn’t realize things had gotten this bad,” Mom said, a look of concern etched into the grieving lines on her face. “I should’ve been paying more attention to you. Of course you must be going through hell, what with a job cleaning up bodies. And losing both your dad and your brother is hard on a woman. It was bound to take its toll.” She looked Sadie in the eye. “We’ll get you help, and before you know it—”
“I’m. Not. Crazy.” Sadie spoke slowly and deliberately. “I talk to the dead. I help them go over to the next dimension, and what you heard when you walked into this room was me talking to Dad.”
“Stop!” Mom’s hands flew to cover her ears and she squeezed her eyes shut.
“You’re going to have to try harder than that,” Dad said drily. “This is the same woman who refused to believe that cell phones would catch on and thought I was pulling her leg when I told her e-mail was instantaneous.”
“You’re not helping,” Sadie told him. She turned to her mother, who had finally opened her eyes and uncovered her ears. “Mom, I know this is hard for you to hear. Trust me, it was really tough for me to buy into this whole supernatural thing in the beginning and, yes, I even saw a psychiatrist for a while at the start. But I’m not insane. I just have an unusual ability and—”
“I’m calling Aunt Lynn. She’ll know what to do,” Mom said, jumping to her feet and running for the phone in the kitchen.
Sadie followed her. “You just think Aunt Lynn will know what to do because Uncle Glen spent all those years in the nuthouse.” Sadie spoke very slowly. “Listen carefully: I’m. Not. Crazy.”
Mom had the phone in her hand and began dialing. Sadie snatched the receiver from her fingers.
“Stop it!” Sadie shouted. “I know this isn’t easy but I need you to just sit down and open your mind a little. Even Dawn took a little while getting used to the idea but—”
“Wait a minute; you mean your sister knew about your problem and never—”
“It’s not a problem!” Sadie shouted.
“Oh, it’s a problem, all right,” Dad said. He had followed them into the kitchen and was leaning against the door frame.
“Right now, you’re the problem,” Sadie told her dad.
“I’m trying my best to help you, dear,” her mom said softly.
“Not you,” Sadie said with exasperation. “I’m talking to Dad.”
“Oh, God,” Mom whispered in a how-am-I-going-to-deal-with-my-crazy-daughter kind of way.
“Come,” Sadie said, taking her mom by the hand and leading her to the kitchen table and pressing her into a chair. “You.” She pointed at her dad, and then pointed at a seat opposite his wife.
“I’m going to prove this to you,” Sadie said to her mom, pulling out a chair and sitting between them. “Dad was just giving me a list of things he wanted me to tell Dylan, and one of the things he asked me to pass along is some advice on women.”
“Well, that proves it right there,” Mom snorted. “Your father doesn’t know a damn thing about women.”
Dad stuck his tongue out at his wife, and Sadie pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers and asked God for strength.
“What Dad said was t
hat a woman has to fit with family dynamics but there also has to be a spark or the relationship won’t work. That’s when he mentioned Molly Macgregor and—”
“I don’t want to hear that woman’s name!” Mom shouted.
“She’s always been stubborn,” Dad said.
“Both of you be quiet!” Sadie shouted. “Anyway, Dad told me that Molly Macgregor may have been good-looking but he was looking for someone who had spark and was good with family, and that’s why he chose you over her. There was a spark with you and that’s why you two were the right fit.”
“Sadie,” Mom said softly. “In a way, it’s very sweet that you’re speaking to your dad, but I’m sure if you think back you’ll remember him telling you about Molly Macgregor when he was alive. Even though I asked him not to. The ass.”
“Who are you calling an ass?” Dad roared.
“She can’t hear you,” Sadie reminded him. “Only I can.” To Mom she said, “He doesn’t appreciate you calling him an ass.”
“Great way to talk about me now that I’m dead,” Dad said grumpily.
“Lord help me,” Mom said, looking to the ceiling. “Please, Sadie. Stop talking to your father like he’s sitting at the table with us.”
“But he is,” Sadie insisted. To her father she said, “Tell me something that will help convince Mom you’re here.”
“Like what?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Something I wouldn’t know. Something you couldn’t have told me before you died,” Sadie demanded.
“Well, I don’t know. . . . I already told you the Molly Macgregor thing, and that sure didn’t turn out well,” Dad said. He pursed his lips and then scratched the side of his face that was invisible.
“I’m really getting worried about you,” Mom said. Getting to her feet, she added, “I still have some of the Ativan the doctor prescribed me. I’ll get you one to take the edge off and—”
“Sit down,” Sadie ordered.
Mom gingerly sat back in her chair and clasped her hands tightly together on top of the table.
Dead and Kicking Page 10