by S. A. Hunter
"And one box of Goobers," Rachel added.
Mary rolled her eyes. "And a box of Goobers. Do you want a soda, too?" Rachel nodded. "And another soda."
"Two medium popcorns, three medium sodas, and a box of Goobers. That’ll be twenty-one dollars."
Mary paid and stepped back to let the others grab their stuff.
"Thanks," Kyle said. He still didn’t seem too happy about having let her pay, but she was glad she’d done it.
She nodded. Rachel had already made it through the ticket taker. She waited on the other side. "So how’s your day been?" Kyle asked.
Mary took a moment to think of an innocuous answer. She really didn’t want to explain about the dress. "It’s been fine. How about yours?"
Kyle nodded his head. "Fine. Rachel mentioned something about a ghost emergency?"
She tried to laugh it off. "It was nothing."
They’d made it through the ticket taker and joined Rachel.
"What was nothing?" Rachel asked.
"The ghost emergency," Kyle said.
Rachel’s eyes widened. "Mary, you really do understate things to the point that one could think you’re lying."
"It’s over. The ghost’s gone. No big deal," Mary argued. She really didn’t want to rehash this. They’d done that enough with Gran. And it didn’t seem like good date conversation. Wait, this wasn’t a date. But Kyle wasn’t likely to ever ask her on a date if he knew just how weird she was.
"What happened?" Kyle asked.
She turned to Rachel and silently pleaded with her not to tell, but Rachel wasn’t looking at her. "We went dress shopping at the Goodwill, and a fancy dress tried to possess Mary."
"You went dress shopping at the Goodwill?"
The way he said it reminded Mary just how not affluent she was. Kyle, of course, had his own truck. He probably didn’t think anything of paying for the tickets. She only had twenty-five bucks in her pocket, actually only four bucks now and no credit or bank cards. "Yeah, Goodwill. They sometimes have really good stuff there."
Kyle seemed to realize that he may have put his foot in it with his question. "Cool, they have any tuxes?"
"They had this powder blue one that would really bring out your eyes, and the ruffled shirt was so cute."
He laughed and shook his head. "Don’t think I got the balls for powder blue."
They went into the theater and looked at the seating. The lights were starting to go down. The place was maybe half full. Rachel picked the third row from the back and started passing in front of people. Mary and Kyle followed. The theater had gone dark by the time they sat down. The pre-show announcements were going across the screen requesting everyone to turn off their cell phones and showing where the fire exits were.
Mary was sitting between Rachel and Kyle, naturally. She knew that was how it would go, but she hadn’t really considered the fact she’d be sitting next to Kyle. On the Rachel side, her body was totally relaxed. Any nudges or touches from Rach were completely unnoteworthy. On the Kyle side, the merest ruffle of air made her tense up and over analyze it. What did that nudge mean? Was he uncomfortable? Did he want the armrest all to himself? She tried to toss a piece of popcorn into her mouth and missed. It landed on Kyle’s arm.
“Oops,” he said with a chuckle. He picked it up. For a second, Mary feared he’d try throwing it into her mouth. It would be cute and couple-y, and she was sure to choke on it and require the Heimlich maneuver. Wouldn’t that be cute? Instead he popped it back into her bucket of popcorn. Maddeningly, she felt a bit let down that he hadn’t tried to toss it into her mouth.
Rachel’s cell phone began chirping. "Huh, I thought it was turned off."
Mary looked over at her as she dug her phone out of her purse. "I wonder who this is." Rachel flipped it open and put it to her ear. "Hello?"
Mary looked over at Kyle on her other side. He returned her glance, and they exchanged nervous smiles.
"Hello? I can’t hear you. You’re breaking up."
Rachel put her hand up to her ear to block out everything else as she pressed her phone to her other ear. She shook her head and took the phone away. "Don’t know who that was." She turned the phone off and dropped it back into her purse.
The first preview started. Ominous music played while a girl ran through the woods.
A few rows below them, another cell phone began ringing. Mary watched the person take the phone out. He looked at the display and turned it off without bothering to answer. Another trailer started playing. The music indicated it was to be an epic adventure.
The preview was pretty grandiose. Mary was enthralled, but no matter how loud the explosions were and how much the music swelled, it couldn’t drown out the ringing cell phones erupting across the theater. People were beginning to complain. Mary scanned the rows in front of her and watched the various cell phone owners hold their devices to their ears and shake their heads before putting the phones away. Mary was suddenly quite happy to not have a cell phone with her. It seemed as soon as one cell phone cut off, another would start ringing. The ring tones were a menagerie of song snippets and other sounds. One of them sounded like a yowling cat. It became kind of comical after a bit, and she started laughing with each new cell phone that went off.
"Geez, I hope the whole movie isn’t like this," Rachel said.
"It’s weird. I think a lot of people thought their phones were—” Kyle was cut off by the opening notes of California Love coming from his pocket. That set Mary’s giggles off harder. She started bouncing to the beat as Kyle scrambled to pull his phone out. She peeked over his shoulder as he flipped open the phone and looked at the display. All it said was “Unavailable.” He pressed the answer button and held it to his ear. "Hello?"
Mary watched him, and he put his other hand to his ear the same as Rachel. "Hello?" he said again, "I can’t hear you. There’s static on the line. Who is this?"
Mary’s giggles died down as her attention zeroed in on Kyle. She was beginning to get a nasty feeling.
"Hello? I’m sorry, but I can’t hear you."
She looked around. Other people were holding their phones up to their ears and saying similar things. It was like an echo that bounced around the theater. She realized some of the people had been ones she’d watched turn their phones off. But here they were ringing again. Rachel’s phone rang again.
"What the hell?" her friend said. She dug out her phone.
Mary grabbed it. "Let me see it." She flipped it open. The display said “Unavailable”. She pressed the answer button and held it to her ear. "Hello?" She pressed the phone tightly to her head. Big mistake. A rush of noise blasted her eardrum from the tiny speaker. She jerked the phone away in horror. It sounded like crickets and television static. Rachel’s phone wasn’t the only one making the loud sound either. Kyle had jerked his phone from his ear and was hitting the off button to get it to stop.
The theater filled with the noise. It drowned out the grandiose trailer’s epic climax.
"Why are all the phones freaking out?" Kyle asked. Mary watched in dread as people tried to turn off their phones. It seemed flipping them closed wasn’t working. She watched one person two rows down take the back off his phone and remove the battery. The phone didn’t die.
"Mary, is that what I think it is? Is it here?" Rachel asked.
Mary couldn’t reply. She rose from her seat and began making her way to the aisle. She had trouble getting by the people in her row because they were focused on their phones. She realized she still had Rachel’s phone in her hand. She didn’t know what to do with it. She broke through to the aisle and raced to the exit. She reached the hallway. Rachel’s phone was still making the noise. She brought it up to her ear again. "Stop it! I don’t know who you are, but I know you’re not the Shadowman. It’s dead. I killed it, so you can just shut up!" She flipped the phone shut. She waited tensely for it to ring again, but it stayed silent.
"The Shadowman’s dead?" Rachel asked. She turned and found
Kyle and Rachel behind her.
Mary didn’t know what to say. She instinctively wanted to deny it. And when did lying become instinctive? She didn’t know what to tell Rachel. The longer she didn’t speak, the madder Rachel got.
"I can’t believe you! First you went to face Ricky alone and now this. What is with you? Do you think I can’t handle it? Do you think I can’t do anything? Just because you can hear ghosts doesn’t make you better than me!"
"Rach, I don’t think that. I swear. Gran thought it would be better if you didn’t know. And it turned out the Shadowman was working with Mr. White—”
"I told you! I told you he was fishy, but you didn’t listen to me."
"I’m sorry, Rach. I really am."
"Gah! You can’t keep doing this. Not if you want to keep any friends."
The implied threat scared Mary. "I know! Believe me I would’ve told you, but it was bad, okay? Really bad. Mr. White died and Chowder and Max ..."
"Who the heck is Max?"
"He was a ghost of Mr. White’s. He was supposed to help the Shadowman take us. He drugged Gran and killed Chowder."
"Wait, is Chowder the ghost dog?" Kyle asked. Her stomach dropped as she turned and nodded to him. He was hearing all of this and what must he be thinking? She felt awful. Rachel was pissed, and Kyle was getting a front row seat. Who needed a movie?
"So Mr. White died?” Rachel asked.
"I killed him."
Rachel’s jaw dropped.
"Whoa. I think we need to go somewhere else," Kyle said. He grabbed both of them by the arm and started to the exit. As soon as they were outside, Rachel shrugged out of his grip and stepped away to wheel around on Mary to point angrily at her.
"I cannot believe you! We talked yesterday about Mr. White. You could’ve laid it all out then, but no, you didn’t mention any of it. You weren’t planning to tell me anything, were you? I bet if you could’ve, you wouldn’t have let me in on that damn dress possessing you. Well, guess what? You don’t have to worry about telling me anything anymore." She roughly grabbed Mary’s arm and took her phone. Mary would’ve handed it to her, but Rachel seemed too angry to ask.
"Rach, I’m sorry, but what was I supposed to tell you? You think I want to tell anyone this? A man died. He was trying to kill me and Gran. I helped cause his death."
Rachel shook her head and wiped her eyes. "Whatever, Mary. See ya." And then she ran. Actually more like sprinted. Mary had never seen her move so fast. She tried to go after her, but Kyle still held her arm.
"Let go, Kyle."
"No, she needs to cool off and so do you. Give each other some space."
"But—Oh man, she’s my ride."
Then it sort of hit her just how upset Rachel was and how much Mary had hurt her. She turned and slapped the brick wall of the theater with her hand. It stung. She slapped it again. Her hand went numb. She deserved this. She raised her hand to hit the wall again, but Kyle stopped her by gently grabbing her wrist. "Hey, enough of that. Let’s get out of here."
"I am such a freak."
"No, don’t say stuff like that. Come on." He put his arm around her. "I can take you home."
She nodded. She was too upset to even get nervous about his arm being around her. It wasn’t cute and couple-y anyway. He was holding her up and guiding her like an invalid. Maybe cute and couple-y weren’t meant for her. "Bet you’re glad you agreed to do this, huh?"
"Don’t worry about it. Didn’t really want to see that movie anyway. Not really good with blood and gore."
“Why’d you pick it then?” Mary asked and couldn’t stop the sharp whine in her voice. She was as far from cute and couple-y as one could be. She was irritating and troublesome.
Kyle gave her wry smile. “Thought you’d like it.”
That just made Mary feel worse. Kyle had been trying to make her happy, and she’d completely ruined everything. He’d been practically bending over backwards to make this good for her. He shouldn’t have been trying to do that. She was the one who asked him out. She should’ve been the one trying to make him happy.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t believe how much I screwed this up.”
"It wasn’t your fault. Don’t worry about it."
He unlocked the truck and held the door open for her. She climbed in and slumped in the seat. When Kyle started the truck, the truck’s clock showed it was only 8:15. She’d be home by 8:30, two hours earlier than expected.
"What am I gonna tell Gran?" she wondered and rubbed her eyes. She’d have to tell her about the Shadowman calling everyone’s cell phones, of course, but she dreaded telling her about the worst part, the fallout with Rachel.
"I don’t know, since I still don’t understand what all that was about. What was the deal with the cell phones?"
"I don’t know. But I got a call like that yesterday at home."
"And it has something to do with this Shadowman thing?"
"It’s the sound it makes."
"Oh, so it can call cell phones?"
"I don’t know. I mean the one I dealt with is gone. It died."
"Could it have a vengeful brother?"
The question surprised a laugh out of her. "I don’t think so." But could Mr. White have a brother or some other family? Gran said he had no family, but what if she were wrong?
"Okay. And a would-be homecoming dress attacked you?" Kyle said.
"Yeah, great life I live, isn’t it?"
"Can’t say it’s boring."
"Wish I could."
"Mary, everything’s going to be okay. Give Rachel tonight to cool down and then get down on your knees to grovel tomorrow."
"I think it’s going to take more than that."
"You two have been best friends for a long time, right?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because she accepts me for who I am and I accept her. We like a lot of the same stuff, and we’re always there for each other."
"You think she’s going to just let all that go over this?"
The question was supposed to be rhetorical, but she was afraid the answer wasn’t so obvious. "She doesn’t like me keeping stuff from her and doing stuff on my own."
"I don’t think that’s quite right. From the sound of it, it seems she doesn’t like you putting yourself in danger and not letting her help. And I have to say, I don’t like it either."
With a flash of guilt, she remembered how she’d lied to Kyle about Vicky and his offer to help. "I don’t want to put her or anyone in danger. I couldn’t handle it if she got hurt by something."
"It would tear her up too if you got hurt."
Maybe he was right, but still, this was her deal. She could hear ghosts. Rachel couldn’t. Mary couldn’t avoid the freakishness in the world, but Rachel could. Mary wished she could. Maybe this training Gran was planning would help with that. It’d be nice to not hear ghosts for once.
“Do you want me to take you straight home?”
Mary didn’t want to say yes, but she didn’t know where else she could go, and Kyle probably wanted to get rid of her anyway. This date had been a total disaster, and it wasn’t even a real date! “Yeah, you better,” she said.
"We don’t necessarily have to," Kyle said. Mary folded her hands in her lap and stared at them.
"No, you should take me home. Don’t want some other freak thing to happen."
"I seem to be bad luck for you."
"What?" She turned to Kyle. Where had that come from? He didn’t glance at her, but she could see his wry smile.
"I seem to remember another incident where I was present and a date went south."
"That was not your fault and neither was tonight. I’m the bad luck."
"And how was tonight your fault?"
"The phone calls were obviously for me."
"You sure?"
"Had you ever heard of a Shadowman before tonight?"
"Before now? No."
"So why did your phone ring? And it had called me at home yesterday.
Scared the bejesus out of me."
"Did it call before yesterday?"
"No, it sneaked into my room while I was asleep."
"What?"
She probably shouldn’t have said that. "It didn’t do anything."
"But it almost did."
She sighed. "Yeah, but Chowder woke me up before it could."
Kyle didn’t reply. Why couldn’t they talk about something fun? What was a fun topic?
"So what do you like to watch on TV?" she asked.
“What?”
“I’m trying to change the subject to something normal.”
“I don’t mind talking about this stuff, especially if you need to.”
“I’d like to talk about something normal for five minutes. Please?”
Kyle smiled. “Okay. I like to watch sports: baseball, basketball, and football, mainly."
"No television shows?"
He shrugged. "Not really. You?"
"I like cop shows. The Law and Orders, and the CSIs. They’re boring but not. I like the formula."
"Okay." Well, that took two blocks. Why wasn’t she fun? Why couldn’t she have better hobbies or something? Something interesting? Maybe she should take up rock climbing or spelunking, or were they the same thing? She wasn’t sure. It had to be a more interesting topic than television.
"So do you, like, read palms, too?" Kyle asked. She could tell he was trying to stay off the subjects of ghosts and Shadowmen for her.
"No, I mean, I read a book on it, but I don’t have a talent for it. You’ve gotta be able to read the person as much as the palm. I was never good at that."
"You mean read them to tell them what they want to hear?"
"No, not exactly. You’ve gotta sorta be in tune with the person. Gran doesn’t look at a palm and tell the person what they want to hear, but what they need to hear."
"That’s pretty profound."
"I guess." Kyle pulled into her driveway. "Thanks for the ride and sorry about the movie."
"Hey, we can try again another time."
She gave him a smile as she unbuckled her seat belt. "See you tomorrow."
He nodded and added, "Hey, don’t worry about Rachel. Talk to her tomorrow, and you’ll work it out." This was some way to end a pseudo-date.