The Haunting of Pico (Pico, Texas - Book 1)

by PATRICK KAMPMAN

  “Howdy, Chris.”

  “Hey.”

  “Becky’s out with Jason.”

  “Okay.” I felt a little pang of something.

  “Thought you two were getting along pretty well there at the party. Not sure what happened.”

  “I screwed up. I had already asked someone else out the day before.”

  “Day before, huh? You know Becky had been talking about you for a couple of weeks?”

  “Yeah. That’s where the screwed up part comes in.”

  “Okay, I follow you. So then I hear things kind of got out of hand at the dance with this other girl? Right smack dab in the middle of the dance floor?”

  “Um, yeah, I’d say she kissed me, but I guess it wouldn’t matter, huh?”

  “Well, it might, son, it might. But see here, you can’t just go leading one girl on, and messing with another one at the same time. Especially when one of them girls is my daughter.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You don’t get to be the third largest Ford dealer in the state, out here in the middle of nowhere no less, without being a good judge of character, and I think you’re all right. Maybe this other girl clouded your vision a little; some girls can do that. Enjoy doing it, in fact. Now, I like you. I like you a heck of a lot better than Jason. That kid’s a suck-up. I don’t like suck-ups. Don’t trust ’em.” He looked to the side, then back at me.

  “Tell you what. I’ll give you one more shot with Becky, but son, don’t screw this one up. Cause if you do I’ll kick your ass all the way back to California.”

  “Yes, sir. Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it. That your dad?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Volvo, huh? Well, that’s almost a Ford. Come on and introduce us. Now that we’re going to be family, I should get to know him.” I didn’t understand Mr. Bailey at all, but I took him over to my dad, who saw us coming and got out of the car.

  My dad was a big guy, well over six feet tall, and a rugby player in college. Mr. Bailey was shorter but broader. The pair of them looked like two prizefighters ready to go a few rounds, but the conversation was surprisingly cordial.

  “Mr. Bailey,” my dad said, extending his hand.

  “Mr. Harding, pleasure to meet you! I heard you’ve been doing a good job over at the plant. And you can just call me Bobby; everybody else does.”

  The conversation went on for about ten minutes and ended with my family being invited over for dinner on Wednesday. I wasn’t even going to pretend to know how that was going to play out once Becky found out. I hoped she wouldn’t think it was some sort of plan on my part. I’m not that good.

  When we got home, I went straight to my room and called Monica.

  “Thanks a lot, Monica. Now my dad thinks I’m whatever the male equivalent of a whore is.”

  “Player, gigolo, womanizer, lady-killer, Casanova, stud, lucky…”

  “Okay, okay, I get it. Anyway, have you found anything useful at all? ’Cause the ghost almost took my head off with a meat cleaver the other night.”

  “Some might call that Karma.”

  “Hey! It happened before the dance.”

  “Maybe it was life being preemptive. Anyway, I’m working on it.”

  “Work faster. I like my head!”

  “Whatever. It’s not like anyone else will miss it, but if you’re going to be all melodramatic, I’ll see what I can do. Though, honestly, Chris—as far as the ghost goes, I don’t know what else I can find out. It’s simple. We have to figure out what she wants and give it to her.”

  “I think the ghost wants its Mommy.”

  “And so the mom would be, like, Charlotte?”

  “Like, yes. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The ghost has to be Emily, Charlotte’s daughter.”

  “Then we have to find the kid and bring it to its mother.”

  “Great. How am I supposed to do that? The last time anyone saw Emily was sixty years ago in Vermont!”

  “You’ll think of something. Until then, you might want to hide the cutlery.”

  “Thanks. Hey, what did you mean earlier when you said you found something in the book? What is it?” But she had hung up.

  I decided not to call Becky again. I would deal with that mess tomorrow at school. I played some video games to clear my mind and procrastinate. I wasn’t interested in sleep. The sooner I fell asleep, the sooner the ghost would wake me up. Emily. Emily would wake me up. I hoped she wouldn’t find the chainsaw out in the shed.

  I turned off the TV around midnight and was about to flip off the light when I heard a knock on my door. It slowly opened, and Eve walked in holding her pillow.

  “Scoot over,” she ordered. I obliged. She lay down and I turned off the light.

  “Think she’ll come tonight?” Eve asked.

  “I’m not sure. She’s had a day to rest since the last time she expended herself, so maybe.”

  “I hope not. Chris?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Sorry things didn’t work out with Becky. I know Rose is…well, I got to hand it to you, bro: she’s really, really pretty. But I kind of liked you with Becky. She was pretty and nice. I think you would have been good together. Rose is… I don’t know how to put it.”

  “Creepy?”

  “I was going to say cold, but creepy fits.”

  “Yeah. And, for your information, Rose has nothing on Becky. Not looks or anything else. And stop being so fatalistic; Becky and I are going to work out just fine.”

  “Oh, really?” I sensed her rising to the challenge.

  “Yup. I have something to give Becky tomorrow that should take care of everything. Then I can focus on this ghost. Not that I don’t mind sharing a bed with you, sis, but you snore.”

  “Do not!”

  She did, loudly, and had since she was a baby.

  “Yes, you do. Ten bucks says I have a date with Becky by Friday.”

  “You’re on. And the dinner on Wednesday doesn’t count. And please don’t tell me that this something is flowers.” She paused to consider. “Though that wouldn’t be a bad start, but it’s not enough. Oh, God, you didn’t waste your money on something cheesy like an airplane pulling one of those signs, did you?”

  “Good night, Eve.”

  She harrumphed, and then we both went to sleep. Emily didn’t show, but I dreamed of Rose again.

  She looked surprised to see my sister, who woke up and was even more surprised than Rose. But then Rose told her to sleep and she did, and Rose told me to relax and bent over me. Then the dream faded and I didn’t remember the rest.

  Chapter 26

  I woke up Monday feeling wiped out, even though Emily hadn’t woken me up. My sister was lying in bed next to me, her eyes open.

  “At least the ghost didn’t come,” I said.

  “Yeah. Too bad I had this weird dream about your new girlfriend.”

  “I have those all the time.” It had slipped out before I could stop it. I closed my eyes and silently cursed. I felt Eve turn toward me and could only imagine the look on her face. “And she’s not my girlfriend. Like I said, I’m going to work things out with Becky.”

  “So what kind of dreams do you have?”

  “Um, don’t you think that’s a little personal? I think that falls under the Too Much Information rule. Seriously, though, nothing too exciting; I just dream she visits a lot. Anyway, it’s time to get up. I have a big day ahead: winning back Becky and saving my family from a homicidal ghost.”

  Eve looked at me for a second before bolting out of bed. I tore out after her and we raced to the bathroom. I lost.

  Along with the rest of the town, my parents had heard that Tim had gone missing. My mom lectured us about safety on the way to school, reminding us to have our phones with us at all times (“that goes double for you, Christopher”) and to not go anywhere alone. She said that either she or Dad would be taking me to and from work.

  The lecture had the unfortunate effect of reminding me t
hat the whole school would be buzzing about it by now. Tim had been gone since Friday with no word to anyone. The police had started looking for him, and I bet by tonight there’d be a segment on the local news.

  After we both agreed to travel with buddies and otherwise be on alert, my mom’s lecture abated. I spent the rest of the ride to school avoiding my sister’s questions about what I was giving Becky. She even grabbed my backpack and searched it, ignoring my protests. As soon as she was satisfied that whatever it was hadn’t been stashed in there, she started texting.

  Perfect—now the whole school would know. I couldn’t have planned it better. Of course, if this thing fell flat I was going to look stupid.

  Once I got to school, I started having second thoughts about my plan to woo Becky, but I squashed them. I was going to do this. Today. One way or the other. I had nothing to lose, really. If it didn’t work, I could always try the flowers and airplane banner. And if everything failed, well, I guess I was out a cool girlfriend and ten bucks.

  Who was I kidding? If it didn’t work I was going to be miserable.

  No matter what happened with Becky, I’d talk with Rose tonight. I needed to end that, even if Becky still wanted nothing to do with me. Every time I was around Rose I made stupid decisions. I did things I know I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t stop myself.

  Something about Rose was just wrong. I wished I knew what it was. I thought maybe I did, but I just couldn’t focus on it. I had the feeling that if my mind hadn’t been so cloudy from lack of sleep, I would figure it out. It was on the tip of my brain, just out of reach. But every time I thought about her, it would slip away, like trying to remember a dream but finding that the details fade just as you reach for them.

  I was so busy thinking about Rose that I missed Becky waiting by the door to my first-period class. I was walking through the doorway when she grabbed my arm and hauled me back into the hall.

  “Hello? Chris? I heard from everyone you had something you wanted to give me.” She stood with arms crossed, hips cocked, attitude loaded.

  “Everyone, huh?” I sighed, though this was exactly what I had been counting on. My scheme relied on a very public venue to make the right statement.

  “Yeah, I was kind of planning on giving it to you in the quad at lunch.” I told myself it was to maximize the impact, but I was just stalling. Panic was setting in.

  “Fine. I’ll see you at lunch, then.”

  As she started to leave, I thought about lunch, and the quad, and all the people that would be there. Maybe this was a better place after all. It would basically be the same thing. I’d do it quick, like pulling off a Band-Aid. I’d either end up with a healed wound, or I’d pull the scab off and leave a bloody mess.

  “No, it’s okay. Here’s fine,” I said.

  She stopped and turned back around, arms still folded in front of her. “Okay, so what is it? I’m going to be late to class.”

  “This.” I stepped forward, leaned down and kissed her. Whatever it was she thought was coming, apparently this wasn’t it, because she stood stock-still, totally stunned. It wasn’t much of a kiss. Nothing that didn’t happen a dozen times every day in the halls. I mean, it was on the lips and all, but it’s hard to be passionate when your partner is in shock. All she managed to do was unfold her arms and straighten them out by her sides.

  I pulled away to find Becky staring at me with a distinctly odd expression.

  “Well, I have to get to class,” I said, leaving her standing in the hall, still frozen. Nice exit. At least I didn’t get slapped. I had even odds on that. My face was still a little sore from Tim’s right hook, and it didn’t need any more abuse. Not to mention, that would have been pretty embarrassing.

  I sat through my classes only partially tuning in to the lectures as I waited for the repercussions of the kiss, but they didn’t come. All the gossip revolved around Tim being missing, and what could have happened to him.

  He was popular enough to get people riled up, and I was worried they’d blame me. Everyone knew we’d had a falling out. I had a brief nightmare about being hauled off to prison, accused of murdering him. Thankfully, a ton of witnesses had seen me and my parents at the game, and that was when he’d gone missing.

  As it turned out, my fears were unfounded. Everyone thought Tim ran away. His family was going through a rough time, and he had a history of publicly acting out, usually violently. There was a surprise. But this time his truck was missing, so people figured he just couldn’t take it and split.

  I was sure they would be talking about the kiss by third period, but the topic of conversation was still Tim. The latest rumor was that Savannah was hiding him, or that she was going to run away too and meet him somewhere. She seemed genuinely distraught to me, but for all I knew, she could be a great actress.

  Monica didn’t even mention anything about that morning. She gave me a couple of weird looks, but she did that every day, so it didn’t mean much. This place was the capital of rumor mills; information spread here like the plague, and still nothing about Becky and me.

  It served to ground my sense of self-importance. How could I have thought one kiss in the hall was more newsworthy than the disappearance of a popular kid? That put things into perspective, and even I started thinking about what could have happened to Tim.

  Lunch had high potential to be awkward. The proximity of my fourth-period class meant I was one of the first people to the wall as usual. I pulled out my lunch and handed half of my sandwich over to Richard when he sat down a minute later. He didn’t say anything, and I knew there was no way he would have kept quiet about it. At this point I was starting to think I’d imagined the whole kiss.

  I felt a little tired and dizzy, but I figured that was just the drama getting to me. I started eating, and the food seemed to help. I wondered what Becky would do when she showed up. I figured it was a toss-up between not showing up, ignoring me, pointing and laughing, or pretending that it had never happened.

  A large crowd gathered at the wall today because everyone wanted to gossip about Tim. I got to hear some crazy theories: alien abductions, werewolves, demonic cults. Someone even thought he ran away to California to become a movie star.

  When Becky and Monica finally showed up, I knew I had been played. Monica sat down with Richard and looked entirely too innocent. My first thought was that Becky had just told her on the way over, but no—she’d found out about a minute after it happened.

  Becky sat down on the grass right in the middle of everyone, not next to me like she normally did, or next to Monica like she did when she was mad at me. This was a strategic placement, and I thought Richard’s assessment of her was a little off. Becky might not be a plotter like Eve or Monica, but she wasn’t entirely above a game or two. I found out what the game was a second later.

  “So, Chris—I heard you had something you wanted to give me?” Oh, see, now that was messed up. She shouldn’t be able to have it both ways. I did the public spectacle thing this morning; I shouldn’t have to repeat it. Then I had a horrible thought. What if this was going to be some sort of punishment? My hand went reflexively to my sore face. Nothing like dissing a guy in the middle of a zillion people. At least if I had been able to spring it on her like last time, I would have had stunned surprise going for me. Now she’d had all morning to prepare the most devastating response possible.

  Eve was there with Trevor. She looked apprehensive. I couldn’t tell if it was fear of losing the bet, or fear for me making a complete ass out of myself and thereby tarnishing her coolness factor by being related to me.

  As I got up off the wall, I wished I could say I was only trembling on the inside. I was dizzy and hoped I wasn’t going to pass out, because that would put a crimp in my style. I had to step over a few people on my way to Becky. When I got there, I held my hand out to her. She took it, and I helped her up.

  Looking into her mischievous green eyes I knew that, for better or worse, this was going to be a little different than th
is morning. I leaned in and went for broke.

  As far as kisses go, I’ve never had a better one. Even Rose paled by comparison. I was surprised the faculty didn’t stop it, it was that intense. Though Richard’s getting up to get a better look might have shielded us from them.

  After about thirty seconds, there were cries of “get a room” and “enough already.” I think it was after Monica’s reminder that “Like, you know PDA is not permitted on school property or whatever” that we finally broke apart. At least by an inch or two. Becky had thrown her arms behind my neck during the kiss and they were still there, so I couldn’t escape far. I remained blissfully lost in her eyes.

  That had gone well.

  Eventually we disentangled ourselves. I took her hand, and she followed me back to the wall. I sat down and she sat next to me where she used to, except now there was no space between us. I realized I hadn’t noticed a single person since I kissed her.

  I took the opportunity to look around, feeling a little self-conscious. Richard had sat back down and was eating the half sandwich I had given him. Monica looked up at us and smiled, then pulled out of her backpack the book that Mr. Sherman had given me on general supernatural weirdness. Eve shook her head, but she was smiling a genuine smile as she did it. Trevor, sitting next to her, gave me a thumbs-up and tackily asked, “Does that mean Rose is available?”

  The look Eve shot him promised that, whatever was in store for Trevor, it was going to be bad and he wasn’t going to expect it.

  “Rose who? I’ve got the most beautiful girl in Texas right here.” I couldn’t help leaning over for another kiss. Becky didn’t seem to mind at all, but someone else clearly did. From somewhere nearby I heard, “Oh, God, not again!”

  After lunch, I walked hand-in-hand with Becky to her class, which gave me just enough time afterward to sprint to my own. I sat through the next few periods thinking about Becky, and feeling guilty pleasure that the rumor mill was finally talking about us instead of Tim.

  It was nice, but not what I needed to be focused on. I had to figure out how to get rid of the ghost. But I’d deal with Rose first. Tonight I’d tell her I couldn’t see her any more. It would just be easier that way— eventually. I promised myself I wouldn’t use lines like “Can’t we just be friends?” or “It’s not you, it’s me.” I’d tell her the truth. She was a great girl, but I liked Becky. Hopefully she’d be cool with it.