by Judith Post
Thea blinked and hesitated a moment.
“What is it?” Gabe asked.
“This doesn’t feel real. I’m sort of ashamed of myself.”
“Why?”
“I came here, all worried about the new ghost, to ask you to find her and see if you could help her. . . “
“And?”
Her cheeks flushed. “I can’t believe I’m looking at you and wanting you when we have important things to do. I was so scared, so worried. . . “
“That’s why,” Gabe said, coming to take her in his arms. “Whenever life rattled me, I always felt better when I could touch you and hold you close.”
She shook her head. “But look at you! And look at me.” She glanced down at her ratty robe and old slippers. “I guess I thought you’d look as tired and rumpled as I do since it’s the middle of the night and I haven’t gotten enough sleep. But you look. . . well, . . . damn, you look good!” She could hardly keep up with her own emotions. The ghost’s visit had freaked her out. Then she saw Gabe, and a wave of loneliness washed over her. She missed hugs and having solid flesh to lean into. She missed. . .
Gabe’s grin flashed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“This is awful,” she said. “For the first time, I realize that you’re ALWAYS going to look good. You’re never going to change.”
“That’s a bad thing?”
“Hell, yes.” Her eyes drank in his worn jeans and white T-shirt, his long body, and his dark, tousled hair. “You’re always going to be sexy. I’m going to get old and wrinkled, and everything’s going to sag, and you’re going to look like--“ She motioned with her hand. “---that.”
He pulled her close, wrapping her in his misty embrace. “And you’ll be beautiful to me, forever and always. I just wish that I could get wrinkled and saggy with you.”
“Damn, this sucks.”
“Am I making you sad?”
“Once in a while, I just want what we can’t have.”
“Me, too.”
She stayed still in his arms for a few minutes, gathering strength from his nearness. Then she pushed herself away. “I came about the ghost. She’s in trouble. She needs help.”
“How can a ghost be in trouble?”
“I don’t know, but she has to be the ghost who’s coming into the studio. The thing is, I don’t think she WANTS to.”
“I’ve tried to find her before and she wouldn’t let me.”
Thea nodded. “But she’s getting desperate. She wants help. Maybe this time will be different. You need to go to her.”
“What do I do if I find her?”
“Just let her talk, let her tell you what’s wrong, and then we’ll try to fix it.”
Gabe looked doubtful. “She came to you. For some reason, she trusts you.”
“She has to know that we’re together,” Thea said. “If she trusts me, she should trust you, too.”
“I’ll do my best.” Gabe gave her a quick, cool kiss on the top of her head and disappeared.
Thea stood there for a moment, in the middle of her studio, and fought back tears. She’d been a weaver long enough to know that she couldn’t control her own life, but she could control how she reacted to what life sent her. Lately, though, she wasn’t sure that she was even doing a good job of that. Nothing had prepared her for any of this. She sighed. She was doing the best she could. That’s all a person could do.
She locked the barn and headed back to the house. She wanted to be with Hannah in case the ghost came again.
Chapter 36
Shari’s white convertible flew up the drive and screeched to a stop. Thea finished the last sip of her coffee and pushed herself out of the rocking chair on the deck.
“Oh, God, it was awful.” Shari was talking a hundred miles an hour as she climbed the steps and flew into Thea’s arms. “Why couldn’t it have happened while Barb was with Tillie? I’m not made for this kind of thing. I’m no good at it.”
“You were there for her. That IS being good at it.”
Shari’s body shook as she talked into Thea’s shoulder. “Tillie’s a wreck. The doctor gave her some kind of a shot to calm her down. The poor girl’s exhausted, her nerves are shot. . .”
“How’s Bill?”
“He looks like someone rammed a giant needle into him and drew out every happy gene he had.”
“I can’t imagine losing a child,” Thea said. “It’s just too awful to think about.”
Shari wriggled out of Thea’s arms and wiped her eyes. “Bill’s been telling Tillie that they’ll give themselves a month or two, and then she’s supposed to plan their wedding.”
“So soon?”
“He wants the whole town to know that he’s marrying her because he wants to, not just because he got her pregnant. Isn’t that sweet?” She brushed her hand over her eyes again and opened the door to wander into Thea’s kitchen. She went to the refrigerator, opened it, and rummaged inside. “I’ll need a whole chocolate cake to survive this. After the funeral--“ She gulped. “Oh, God, I don’t know if I can stand seeing that tiny baby in a little casket. I’ll need a brownie deluxe sundae to make it through that.” She looked at Thea in disgust. “There’s nothing but healthy stuff in here!”
“Give me a minute.” Thea dug through the freezer and brought out homemade ice cream sandwiches, with mocha ice cream slathered between thick, chocolate cookies. “These are Hannah’s summer favorites.”
“Got any hot fudge?” Shari got a bowl out of the cupboards. She laid the ice cream sandwich in the bottom and covered it with fudge and caramel toppings.
“Got a maraschino cherry?”
With her dessert complete, she dug in. Between bites, she said, “I brought my life map for you to look at. When I had my cancer scare, the only thing I cared about was whether I was going to make it or not. If you looked at my weave and said my time was up pretty soon, I’d made up my mind I wasn’t doing chemo or any of it. I’d just die in as little pain as possible.”
“I don’t blame you for that.”
“Yeah, well, now I’d like to know more,” Shari said. “I’d like you to look at the rest of it and tell me if anything else is going to broadside me.”
“Are you sure? Sometimes, if there’s something bad in the future, you worry about that so much you miss the present.”
“I want to know,” Shari said. She went to her car and came back with the woven map.
A jumble of bright colors formed a haphazard pattern, and Thea studied it. “Here’s Hank’s thread,” she said, pointing to a dark brown strand of yarn.
“Brown?” Shari asked.
“Earthy, solid.”
“That’s Hank.”
Thea followed it through the weave. “It goes almost to the end,” Thea said. “You’ll only outlive Hank by a few years.”
“Good, I don’t like to be alone.”
“This must be Jerry.” Thea pointed to a rust-colored thread--a mixture of earthy and creative urges--that represented Shari’s son. “See? He weaves in and out of your pattern for the rest of the map. He’ll visit you off and on.”
“That’s nice.”
“And here’s Jessica.” A dark blue thread mixed often in the weave. “She’ll stop by a lot to see you.”
“Why is she blue?” Shari asked. “Isn’t she happy?”
“Blue means caring and nurturing. She’s dark blue, so she’s a little bit moody, too.”
“She’d have to be in our family. All of us are worriers.”
“And she’s a little bit of a loner.”
“Probably has to be, to get away from us once in a while.” Shari was starting to look a little more relaxed.
“The rest of your weave only has little knots, nothing big, nothing you can’t handle.”
“Where’s Tillie?” Shari asked.
Thea pointed to a tight tangle. “That’s where you are in your life right now, but you get through it.”
“What about Tillie?” Shari asked.
“How will she do?”
“I can’t tell.”
“Could you call down her bookmark and do a life map for her?”
“I wouldn’t do that unless she asked me. It wouldn’t be fair. It would be snooping.”
Shari shrugged. “I know you’re right, but what would it hurt to just take one peek?”
“It’s not our choice.” Thea had made a hard and fast rule with herself. She wouldn’t study someone else’s bookmark unless that person asked her to. Following that rule had been harder than she’d expected, but she still believed she was right. “It’s up to Tillie.”
“You’re no fun,” Shari said. She pushed her empty bowl away. “I’d make a lousy weaver. I’m not strong, like you. I can run the inn and chair committees, but that’s as much responsibility as I want. And if I could snoop around a little, well, hey!”
Thea smiled. “I’d be happy to weave a life map for Tillie if she wants one, but most people don’t. I didn’t.”
Shari sighed and pushed herself to her feet. “I think I’ll stop at Abby’s on the way home. A box of chocolate is just what I need.” She picked up her life map and gave Thea a hug on her way out. “Thanks.”
Thea gave her own sigh of relief. She didn’t know what she’d have done if Shari’s map had shown a serious life bump in her future. A worried Shari might be enough to drive her to chocolate, too.
Chapter 37
After Shari left, Gabe came.
“Bad morning?” he asked.
“Tillie’s baby died. Shari’s been staying at the hospital with Tillie as much as she can. It was pretty awful.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, but it rattles me. No matter how long I weave, I can’t get enough separation so that it doesn’t hurt.”
“Rachel’s going to have a hard time with that.”
“She’s really struggling with it.” Thea poured herself the last cup of coffee. “How did you do last night?”
“Every time I saw sparkles of light and knew that she was close, she took off. I finally lost her. I spent the rest of the night looking for her, but I didn’t have any luck.”
Thea shook her head. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I know that girl is in trouble. I hope she comes to me again.”
“Her sparkles were white light,” Gabe said. “Not dark, so I think you’re right about her. She’s good. But there are dark swirls in the light. She’s really bothered about something.”
They were talking when Hannah came up the steps into the kitchen. “Hi, Gabe.”
“’Morning, kid.”
“I need to go to Toby’s and take his Game Boy back to him,” Hannah told Thea. “I was cleaning out my backpack and found it. He let me play with it at recess on the last day of school, and I forgot to give it back to him.”
“I have to get Annabel’s medicine later today. I can drop it off then.”
“He’ll need it,” Hannah argued. “He plays it all the time when he’s bored by himself.”
Thea still hesitated.
“It’s not that far,” Gabe said. “She’ll be safe. Or are you afraid a tourist is going to rip the game out of her hands and steal it on her way to Cynthia’s?”
Just like him, siding with the kids. “No, it’s just that I know that Cynthia hired Amy to stay with Toby a few hours each morning while she works in the gallery.”
Gabe raised his eyebrows. “And?”
“I like Amy,” Hannah said.
“So do I, but I don’t know about her babysitting for Toby. She’s great with her brothers, but she cusses as much as Nancy and Bart, and she’ll probably teach Toby some things he’s too young to know.”
Hannah grinned. “She already rented Sex And The City and watched a few episodes with him, but she told Toby not to tell.”
“My God.” Thea shook her head. “You’re too young for that show, understand? You are NOT going to watch it if you want to go anywhere without me until you’re thirty-five.”
“Toby says it’s not that great. He says all the women do is smoke and drink and spend a lot of time talking about boys.”
Thea sighed. She was turning into a worry wart. “Okay, but you know my rules. If you break them, things change. I won’t trust you until you earn it back.”
Hannah started for the door.
“I’ll drive you,” Thea said.
“Can we stop at Isak’s and buy cookies to take to Toby? He loves peanut butter.”
Gabe gave her a look. “Give them an inch…”
Hannah shrugged. “You could buy a few for me, too,” she begged.
“With ghost money?” Gabe laughed. “You two have fun. I’m going back to the studio. No one bothers me there.”
Thea decided to do the whole deal right and make Hannah happy. They stopped at Isak’s and bought a dozen cookies, six for Toby and six for Hannah, on their way to Cynthia’s gallery. Rachel was at the bakery, too, and they ended up staying longer than they should, but there was nothing pressing that Thea had to do, so she decided to enjoy herself and take the day as it came. After the night she’d had, she told herself that she’d earned a little R&R.
They were driving down Gold Galleyway when they saw Les Smith leaving Nancy’s restaurant and waved to him. He gave a huge smile and waved back. Thea had to stop for Emerald Hills’ one red light, and she watched Les walk to his car. There was a bounce in his step that she hadn’t seen for years. She knew that Les and a bunch of local businessmen got together for brunch at Nancy’s once a month. They’d either had an especially fun meeting or his upcoming trip was putting a new zip in his get-along.
Before the light changed, Guff Amick, one of her dad’s old friends, came plodding through the intersection, driving his horse and carriage. Two little girls, nestled between their parents in the old-fashioned black buggy, waved at Hannah.
Les had pulled out of his parking space on the street and started toward them when suddenly, his body gave a sharp spasm, and he slumped forward on the steering wheel.
Thea watched in horror as his car sped up. She rolled down her window and yelled, “Get out of the way!” to Guff. But he didn’t have time to do anything. Les’s car smashed into the beautiful Palomino. The horse crashed onto the pavement, taking the buggy with it. The horse gave a high, pained whinny and thrashed helplessly beneath Les’s car.
“Stay where you are,” Thea told Hannah. She jumped out of her car and ran to the carriage. “Guff!”
“Under here.” Guff was pinned under a buggy wheel that was still spinning, but he was alive. She couldn’t get him out by herself.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Check on my tourists,” he said. “See if they’re all right.”
She picked her way through the twisted mess to look under the buggy’s hood. The mother and father had huddled over their daughters at Thea’s shout, and the four of them lay in a disheveled heap, protected by the buggy’s frame. They were scared and shaken, but they’d missed the full brunt of the accident.
“Are you all right?” Thea asked, helping them out of the carnage.
“When you yelled, we grabbed each other. We got lucky.”
“How’s the driver?” the father asked.
“He’s pinned under a wheel, but I think he’s all right.” When others ran from their shops, she yelled, “Over here! Hurry!”
Together, they helped heave the wheel out of the way so that Guff could climb out of the wreckage. He held his shoulder, but seemed all right, until he looked at his horse. The poor animal was pinned beneath Les’s car and was suffering.
Thea could hardly stand to listen to its whinnies. When Mike Krider’s cruiser screeched to a halt beside her, she yelled, “Do something! Put him out of his misery.”
Mike looked at Guff, who nodded. He took his gun from his holster, walked to the poor animal, and shot him.
Thea felt a tug on her T-shirt and jumped. Hannah stood beside her, looking up. “Les said to tell you that he’s sorry. He didn’t mean to
hurt anyone.”
Thea’s face crumpled. She felt tears streaming down her cheeks and didn’t care. She started to ask Hannah what happened, but her voice didn’t work.
Hannah understood. “It was an aneurysm. It snapped, and he was gone. He’s leaving now.”
Thea followed Hannah’s gaze.
“Goodbye, Les.” Hannah gripped Thea’s hand. “It’s all right. He’s going to the light.”
“And the horse?” Thea felt stupid for asking. A man had just died, but the horse had suffered horribly.
“He’s going to the light, too.”
Thea glanced down at Hannah and saw that she was smiling.
Chapter 38
Thea’s nerves felt as if they’d been stretched too far and hadn’t snapped back into shape. She was glad that she had a stop to make before she went home.
“Run the Game Boy up to Toby while I stay and talk to Cynthia,” she told Hannah.
“It was awful. It all happened so fast,” she explained. “At least no one else was hurt. It could have been a lot worse.”
“It wasn’t their time yet,” Cynthia said. “Can you imagine? Those poor people.”
“And Guff. He swears he’s going to retire. He says that his nephew can use his horses and do the buggy rides from now on.”
On the short drive home, Hannah said, “I talked to Mom about the accident. She said to check the bookmarks in your studio.”
“You mean she thinks someone tampered with Les’s?”
“Mom said the new ghost tried to come to Cynthia’s last night, sensed her, and took off. But she said the girl was really bent out of shape, that her energy was just crazy.”
“Did you tell Aggie about the girl coming to us and asking for help?”
Hannah nodded and looked out the passenger window toward their driveway. “Look! Rachel’s here!”
Rachel’s red Geo was parked under the deck’s overhang. When Rachel saw them pull in the drive, she walked onto the deck to greet them.
“Hi. I heard about the accident, and Isak and I were wondering if Hannah would like to spend the day with us. What do you say, kiddo? You could help in the bakery, then