Little Red Gem

by D L Richardson

  The clock above the library told me school had finished for the day. Audrey and her mom lived above Mysteries, the local spook shop, only a few blocks away from where I now stood. I headed there but I had to wait for a customer to open the door and for Teri to sing out brightly to the customer, “Nice to see you, come on in,” before I could slip inside.

  Entering the shop, I stuck close to the woman and I did a quick dash into a bookcase when Teri’s back stiffened. I counted five customers, busy by Providence’s standards. I wasn’t concerned about alerting the customers to my presence, but Teri possessed spirit detecting powers so I was forced to bide my time inside the bookcase until she was occupied at the counter with a particularly fussy customer. Then, I walked freely around the store. No amount of death could stop the internal chronometer that went off inside me every time I got within ten feet of a shop.

  Hanging from the ceiling were wind chimes, dream catchers, crystals, feathers. Over in a corner on a green velvet cloth were hundreds of fairy and dragon figurines. One corner was dedicated to books and tarot cards. Another corner was dedicated to brightly colored clothes. I found myself drawn to a vintage handheld mirror. It fit into the palm of my hand.

  Making sure that nobody was looking – who was I kidding? I was a ghost, but old habits were hard to ditch – I stashed the tiny mirror inside my dress pocket. William had assured me ghosts were some of the most proficient thieves because any item stashed in our clothing became invisible also.

  Audrey’s noisy charge across floorboards announced her arrival and I bolted through the front door on the heel of a customer. I waited outside on the sidewalk for her to come out.

  “Won’t be long, Mom,” she cried.

  She pushed through the door, and in her earthly state she couldn’t perceive me. Needing to get her attention, and thanks to my newfound talent for moving objects, I stuck my leg out and tripped her up. She fumbled but didn’t crash to the ground. Instead, she turned slowly in a three-hundred-and-sixty degree spin. Anyone else might have checked the ground for whatever the heck they’d tripped over. But Audrey believed in the things that couldn’t be seen.

  She peered into the air. “Who’s there?”

  Talking to her wouldn’t do me any good as I hadn’t mastered that act, and there was no indication I ever would. Instead, I pinched her on the arm.

  “Ow,” she squealed.

  I tugged at her hair. She swatted at my invisible hand.

  “Ruby, is that you?”

  Grabbing her attention was the easy part. I needed to send her a message. I banged on the glass of the storefront, not enough to break the glass, but enough for Audrey to get the hint.

  “Knock twice for yes, once for no,” she said.

  I knocked twice on the glass. My excitement grew as her eyes lit up; soon, and with Audrey’s help, I would be with Leo.

  I continued to bash my fists against the glass until a few stares were shot in Audrey’s direction.

  “I’m not thick,” she said in a quiet voice. “I know you want me to go upstairs and put myself in an astral state. Just please stop causing a scene. I need a few minutes to prepare.”

  I was too excited to stay still, so I kicked up puddles and tapped on windows. Passersby curiously looked up at the sky as if expecting something to fall. I am the wind. I am the air, the fire, the sun. I am everywhere at once.

  By the time Audrey’s apparition glided out of the shop through the wall, I felt as if I’d grown wings. She stepped directly into the path of a lady who walked right through her. Audrey didn’t seem to be affected by the experience like I was whenever somebody walked through me. Being an astral projection had its advantages, though of course the biggest was that she could wake up and go right back on living.

  “Gee, Audrey, there’s no law against smiling,” I said.

  Audrey’s scowl only deepened. “My mom isn’t the only one who can sense things. And I sense trouble.”

  “Nonsense.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I’m bored and I want you to play with me.”

  “We’re not kids anymore.” She folded her arms across her chest. “We knew each other a long time ago. Remember?”

  The cheek of her flinging my own words back at me stung, but only just. “My dear half-sister, I can only wander around a few minutes at a time before I’m pulled back down into the hollow. It’s dark and not exactly brimming with visitors since the gold rush ended millions of years ago. Please come and keep me company. Just for a little while.”

  Audrey eyed me dubiously. “I don’t know. I’ve got a lot of homework.”

  “Please. I don’t like being a ghost. Besides, I thought maybe you knew a magic spell that could help me break this curse so I can go to wherever it is people go to after they die.”

  She scoffed loudly. “What makes you think I know magic?”

  “Don’t try to deny it. You’ve got magic written all over your face.” To be honest, I couldn’t have told a witch apart from a garden gnome, but I had to convince Audrey to help me with my plan, and I hoped she didn’t see through my bluff.

  “At your funeral yesterday, I’m positive I saw the ministers out back building pyres.”

  “Nobody burns witches anymore, Audrey.” At least they shouldn’t. Not now that I was dead and needed the help of one in order to fulfill my plan.

  “Gotta come back into fashion at some point.”

  Frustrated, I hit the window with the palm of my hand. “Audrey I need your help. Are you coming or not?”

  She shrugged. “Suppose I have to. You’ll haunt me till the day I die if I don’t.”

  Audrey could travel faster than a human in her astral state, but as a ghost I merely needed to visualize a place and I teleported there, so I made a conscious effort to slow down to match her pace. Within minutes we arrived at the top of the hollow. From up here you could hardly make out the giant hole which had swallowed my mom’s Jeep. The only tell-tale sign that there had even been an accident was the trail of broken tree trunks, as if a flood had swept through.

  So there I stood, looking down over my death site. Surely if I didn’t feel a kinship with my resting place it meant I didn’t belong there.

  The cabin was located less than a hundred feet away, and it worried me that I felt the urgent pull of its comforting surrounds. I ignored the cabin’s siren song and nudged Audrey’s astral body down the embankment. The hollow was only fifteen feet deep yet Audrey and I were at the bottom in less than a second and without a single scratch or bruise thanks to our inhuman states. I’d been driving fast the night I’d died. In my rush to flee the cabin I’d failed to put on my seatbelt so after a tree trunk had shattered the windshield I’d gotten wedged up against the steering wheel. I recalled now that Leo had dragged me out of the car. I recalled seeing my body far below, Leo shouting at me to stay with him. Even now it gave me chills.

  “What do you make of my new home?” I asked her with fake cheerfulness.

  She gave a cursory glance around the hollow. “No question why you’re bored. So what did you really bring me here for?”

  I sighed, no longer certain about my plan. Audrey had been kind enough to track me down to explain that I had died, and I was about to repay this kindness with treachery. But it was too late to back out. My plan couldn’t succeed without Audrey’s help.

  I slipped the mirror out from my pocket and laid it gently on a log. “I need to trade places with you. Only for a while. You see…I never got to say goodbye to Leo and this is the only way I can be with him.”

  Before Audrey could protest, I grabbed her wrist. “I bind thee to this place so that I might wear thy face.”

  And with those words, I had transformed into Audrey Parker.

  ***

  “What have you done?” she shouted.

  She lunged at me but came to an abrupt halt as if she’d slammed into an invisible wall, similar to the way William couldn’t enter the cabin because he was trapped by a magical
barrier.

  Had I cursed Audrey? I didn’t think so. But I wasn’t an expert on magic. And, to be honest, I felt a little let down that something more dazzling than an instant shift from one body to another hadn’t occurred. I felt no different, but of course I was. My body stood opposite me, trapped inside an invisible force field. A quick check in the antique mirror proved that I now wore Audrey’s face and clothes.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, biting lips that strangely tasted like someone else’s. “But this is the only way I can be with Leo.”

  Audrey’s eyes – my eyes – widened. “Are you crazy? You won’t be with Leo. I will.”

  While this was true, I had considered this after the initial conversation with William and had dismissed it as collateral damage. Anyway, I was convinced Leo would recognize me beneath any façade.

  Tugging at Audrey’s clothes, I reminded myself I was doing this for a good reason. Besides, this was only temporary and I told Audrey so. At least William had promised me this spell wasn’t permanent.

  Without a second glance, I flittered my way up the embankment, ignoring the curses and shouts from below. Ten minutes later, I realized I should have asked the rules to astral projection before locking Audrey in the hollow. I stood beside her bed where her physical body was stretched out as if sunbathing with her eyes closed. She wore the same clothes I wore – a purple long-sleeved top with a bright yellow peace symbol on the front, jeans that were tight and black, and orange sneakers.

  William hadn’t mentioned anything beyond trapping Audrey’s body in the hollow. Perhaps he knew as much about magic as I did. Now I wished I’d asked for evidence of his skills. Was I supposed to lie down beside her? Would our bodies meld together? Did I wake her up and cuddle her? Did I say a magic charm?

  I pulled the small mirror out of my pocket, the one I’d swiped from the store simply because I’d wanted to test William’s theory that ghosts could steal things easily, wishing I’d stolen the instructions to astral projection instead. As I placed the mirror on the dresser I noticed the wristwatch. Audrey had worn a wristwatch when she’d blown into the cabin to beg me not to attend my funeral. Immediately after the watch alarm had beeped, she’d disappeared.

  I grabbed her limp arm and pressed a few buttons on the watch hoping one of them would activate the alarm. Success. The rhythmic beep started up and her body flinched as the beep-beep-beep pushed its way into her sleepy little inner sanctum.

  Time enough for me to cast my gaze around her bedroom. It had changed a lot since we were kids. On her desk sat a laptop I assumed was one of Dad’s latest purchases, with a monitor so huge it doubled for a TV. On her desk sat a stack of DVDs from horror films, many I recognized and some I didn’t. She had a row of six lava lamps on one shelf, of varying shapes and currently in their stagnant mode, looking like boiled eggs floating in goop. Below the row of lamps was a shelf brimming with figurines from movie and TV shows – Alien, The Ring, Star Wars, X-Men.

  I’d come to accept years ago that of the two of us, Dad loved her more. My proof? He’d given her presents while I’d received none.

  Stuck around the edge of Audrey’s dresser were dozens of photos of her and an Asian girl. I ripped one photo off and turned it over. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH was written on the back. Did Audrey have more than this one friend? Not that I was here to improve her social life, but the twinge of regret that I hadn’t made the effort to stay connected with my half-sister was like a punch to the stomach. I had to grit my teeth against the wave of guilt rushing around inside me. I also had to remind myself that a little over a week ago it had been a growing baby causing that churn, so I had every right to be here attempting to resolve the unfinished business between Leo and me.

  Audrey’s body on the bed was now fully awake. She sat up, looked at me curiously, and as her eyes widened my body was dragged under a surface. Like stepping through a waterfall, I waited a moment for the sheen to clear and then I looked around the room with fresh eyes. Things were the same, but also different. The room was brighter; the goop in the lava lamps glowed, the figurines seemed more lifelike, and at the exact moment when I adjusted to this very real world the aromas hit me. I’d been without this particular sense for over a week, so I picked up everything with wolf-like clarity. Dirty socks in the corner, onions frying in the kitchen, flowers in the window box outside Audrey’s bedroom, remnants of incense burned earlier downstairs. I greedily breathed in these aromas.

  When my stomach next grumbled I knew it was the hunger of the living. Coffee and chocolate before anything, it commanded. Having gotten this close to Leo, I told my stomach that it could wait. So, cramming Audrey’s phone into the pocket of her jeans I snuck my way across the hallway, but I was brought to a full stop at the kitchen when my stomach decided to pull rank and twisted my body into a series of unnatural yoga positions.

  Hurriedly, I ransacked the cupboards searching for a quick bite to ward off anarchy by any other parts of my new body.

  “What are you looking for?” Teri asked.

  I jumped, though I shouldn’t have been alarmed. This was her house and I was meant to be her daughter.

  “Coffee. Donuts.” I’d have eaten over-boiled broccoli right now.

  Teri pointed to the cupboard above my head and returned to cooking whatever she was cooking – garlic and onion hung in the air. It smelled divine and only added to my stomach’s cries for attention. Staring down at me was a shiny gold-foil wrapped parcel of coffee beans, a coffee bean grinder, a coffee plunger, and a sugar bowl in the shape of a cat. Looking down, three mugs were stacked in the sink begging to be washed. I threw my hands up in the air. Aargh, this was too much effort. No surprise why cafés did a roaring business.

  Stuffing a handful of not-so-fresh cookies into my mouth, I spun around and took a few steps toward the door. Down this set of stairs was a small garden where Teri had once grown herbs for her psychic readings, and from the smell of rosemary and oregano she still grew them.

  “Where are you going?” Teri asked, halting me in my tracks.

  “Art Café?” I said around a cookie.

  Teri frowned at me as she gave the pot a thorough beating with a wooden spoon. “You really shouldn’t have sweets or caffeine at this time of the day.”

  “I need some fresh air and a moment away from the books.”

  “Okay. Don’t be long. Dinner’s almost ready.”

  How easy had it been to convince Teri? And if I could fool my ‘new’ mom into believing I was her daughter, I could fool anybody. Well, that was the plan anyway.

  I hurried to the café; if I was lucky I’d catch up with some friends, though what would happen when I got there was anyone’s guess. Neither Shanessa nor Natalie had spoken a word to my half-sister, at least not in my presence, though I stoically clung to the conviction that the real me would shine through.

  From across the road I spotted the café, brimming with life as usual. Shanessa and Natalie stepped out onto the sidewalk, and out of habit I jumped in front of their path.

  “Hey superstars,” I sang out.

  Two sets of eyes probed me and I was left with the sinking impression I had something hatching out of my nose. Now would have been the perfect time for the gates of hell to open up and suck me in. I realized my error came from acting like me instead of Audrey.

  My brain suddenly kicked into gear and I blurted out the first thing that popped into my head. “I don’t know why I said that. I guess I just can’t get over the loss of Ruby.”

  Their faces immediately shifted from admonition to compassion.

  Shanessa smiled. “You were at the funeral. You’re Ruby’s half-sister. Of course we know you.”

  Two sets of eyes stared at me expectantly – they really had no idea who I was but bless their little hearts for pretending.

  “Audrey,” I offered, and I didn’t know why but I held out my hand.

  “We’re sorry for your loss,” Natalie whispered, grasping my hand in hers.

  I had
n’t felt human contact for over a week. My insides warmed up as sparks flew from her hand through mine. And then my heart skipped a beat; if this was an indication of how good human contact felt, how electrifying would it be when I finally wrapped my arms and legs around Leo’s body?

  My insides cooled down quickly when Shanessa added, “I still can’t believe she’s never coming back.”

  Maybe not in the way these two expected.

  “Are you heading home right away?” I asked. “I’d love to buy you both a piece of cheesecake.”

  They exchanged a fleeting look between them. Such a tiny exchange, yet it held more meaning than a dictionary.

  “Some other time. If you want. When you’re not busy.” I stammered over the words, embarrassed at acting like such an idiot. They were seniors. Why would they hang out with a sophomore? Who had purple hair. And orange sneakers. And figurines from geeky movies in her room.

  Natalie flicked her gaze over her shoulder. “We don’t mean to rush off.”

  “I know. You’ve got—”

  “We’ve got rehearsals.”

  The two of them strode over to Natalie’s Mazda which was parked in front of the cafe. As Natalie got in I overheard her say, “I wonder if she can sing as well as Ruby. The auditions are only a few days away.”

  Watching them drive off I was overcome with a sense of curiosity. Our band, Violet Dreamy Youth, rehearsed at Natalie’s house. Natalie lived in the opposite direction to where they now headed. I stood on the sidewalk, watching the car turn left down Hollowglen Road where Rock-A-Lilly’s Studios were located, and I kicked myself that I hadn’t begged them for a ride. Leo was bound to be at the rehearsal studio today.

  An unexpected raincloud forced any ideas of hijacking a car, a bicycle, even a golf buggy out of my mind when it pelted cold rain down on me. I had no choice but to return to my new home above the psychic shop.

  ***