4 The Silent Ghost

by Sue Ann Jaffarian

  When Kelly emerged from the bathroom, Tanisha grabbed her coffee mug and headed for the kitchen. “I’m starving,” she announced. “Kelly, I’m having a bagel while we talk. You want one?”

  “No, thanks.”

  Granny sidled up to Kelly before she moved closer. “That girl is a wreck and doesn’t look like she’s slept a wink.”

  “I agree,” Kelly whispered.

  “Maybe she’ll relax and tell you more over breakfast than if you simply interrogate her.”

  Kelly immediately understood where Granny was going with the suggestion. “You know,” she said to Tanisha, “I’ve changed my mind, a bagel sounds great.”

  “Egg or blueberry?”

  “Blueberry, please.”

  “Toasted or not?”

  “Toasted, if it’s no trouble.”

  While Tanisha slipped two blueberry bagel halves into her four-slice toaster, Kelly took a seat on one of the stools at the counter that divided the kitchen from the living space. “That ghost that’s been bothering you isn’t here right now, but it was here last night, wasn’t it?”

  Tanisha stared into the slots of the toaster, watching the glowing coils do their work. “Yes, all night. I didn’t fall asleep until after six this morning.”

  “We must have woken her up,” Granny said to Kelly.

  Kelly felt bad. Tanisha did look like she’d had a very bad night. “I’m so sorry I barged in,” Kelly apologized. “Maybe I should have waited and caught up with you at Gabby’s.”

  Tanisha shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I was actually awake when you rang the buzzer. I woke up around nine and called a friend to cancel our plans for the day. I was too worn out to go.”

  “But if you can’t hear the ghost, why didn’t you just go to sleep and forget about it?”

  Tanisha turned to her, the corners of her mouth turned downward. “You’d think it would be that easy, wouldn’t you? And I sure tried. If I’d had sleeping pills in the house, I would have taken them. As it was, I drank half a bottle of wine, but it didn’t help, only made me feel worse.”

  Granny moved next to Tanisha and put a ghostly hand on the young woman’s shoulder in comfort. “Poor child.” She turned to Kelly. “I told you that spirit is transferring its misery to her. She doesn’t need to hear it to be disturbed. It’s the emotion the ghost is communicating.”

  “Granny has a hand on your shoulder. She’s very concerned about you.”

  Tanisha managed a weak smile in Granny’s direction.

  “She says,” Kelly continued, “that this ghost is transferring its emotions to you. You feel what it does. That’s how it’s forcing you to help it.”

  “If that’s true, then that ghost is at the bottom of a deep, dark well, because that’s exactly how I feel when it’s around.” Tanisha went to the refrigerator and pulled out a container of low-fat cream cheese, some butter, and a jar of raspberry jam. She put them on the counter, along with knives and napkins.

  Kelly fetched her mug from the coffee table and refilled it from the pot on the counter. She topped off Tanisha’s while she was at it. When the toaster popped, Tanisha put the bagels on two plates, and placed them on the counter. The two women took stools next to each other.

  Kelly smeared jam on her bagel. “So tell us everything you can about this ghost.”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s female. At least that’s the sense I get.”

  Granny nodded. “I got that impression myself.”

  “If the dimensions of the cloudy image are any indication,” Tanisha continued after swallowing a bit of bagel, “she might be sort of on the tall side. Although next to me, everyone seems tall.” She smiled, “Except your Granny.”

  “Yes, Granny’s petite, like you.” Kelly stood up. “Is your ghost about my height or close?”

  Tanisha eyed her, trying to size Kelly’s height up with her recollection of the ghost. “Possibly. The haze always seems to tower over me when it’s near.” She took a drink of her coffee. “How does this ghost thing work? Can you call to them and ask them to appear? Or do you just wait around and they do, or don’t, return?”

  “I don’t know exactly how it works,” Kelly answered, taking her seat again. “It’s not like spirits are dogs we can order to come to us whenever we want, but it does seem like they can be called or summoned. Though I think it’s up to them if they want to respond. According to my mom, once they attach themselves to a place or a person, they can visit anytime they want without an invitation.”

  “How do they attach themselves?”

  Kelly tried to remember what Emma had told her. Ever since Granny Apples had become a fixture in their lives, she’d taken Granny’s presence for granted and not really given the hows or whys much consideration.

  “I think they just have to go to a place or meet someone once. After that, they can go to that place or visit that person anytime they want, unless they are told to go away. Like once Granny connected with you the other night, she was able to find you and follow you here.”

  Tanisha straightened, zeroing in on something Kelly said. “You mean, you can tell them to go away?”

  “That’s what I understand. They might still be around, but they probably won’t bother you if you ask them to leave you alone. At least the nice ones won’t. I don’t know about ghosts with a specific agenda. That’s more something my mom would know.”

  “This ghost,” Granny commented, “is reaching out for some specific purpose. She might not have gone over to the other side yet, or maybe she has and returned for some reason, like unfinished business.”

  After translating for Tanisha, Kelly asked, “When did you first start seeing the spirit?”

  “It was shortly after I came to live here.” While digging through her memory, Tanisha took another bite of her bagel, chewed, and swallowed. “Not right away, but maybe a few months after I moved in. It started with a feeling that someone was watching me, followed by a chill. At first I thought it was nonsense. Then I started making out a whitish haze floating around. Sometimes it would come near me, almost touching me. Sometimes it stayed on the other side of the loft. Over time, it has gotten much more aggressive. I don’t feel or see it all the time.” She looked around. “Like now. I can see Granny a tiny bit,” Tanisha pointed to the other side of the counter. “She’s right there, right?”

  “Yes,” answered Kelly.

  “But the ghost I usually see isn’t here right now.”

  “Is this your first experience with the paranormal?” asked Kelly.

  With that question, Tanisha smiled inwardly at a memory and licked cream cheese off an index finger. “When I was very small, my father’s grand-mother would tell me stories about ghosts and spirits. She was the one person in my father’s family who accepted me one hundred percent. Nonna claimed she could see ghosts and communicate with them.” Tanisha cupped a hand to her own face. “She’d put her gnarled hand on my face like this and tell me I had the gift. That she could see it in me. Of course, as a young kid, that scared the crap out of me, even though I loved her.” She lowered her hand with some reluctance, not wanting to let go of the memory. “Dad’s mother was fanatically Catholic and hated her mother-in-law, saying she was the devil and a curse on the family, and that she was passing along the curse to me.” Tanisha shook her head. “When Nonna died, my grand-mother had a priest come in and do some mumbo jumbo to clean out any evil spirits.”

  “So you could see them since you were a kid?”

  Tanisha shook her head slowly. “I believed Nonna and always thought spirits were around us, and always hoped she was right, that I did have the gift, but I never saw any until this one showed up here at the loft. Then in May, I was in Gabby’s and saw the one with you.” She held up her hands. “That’s been my whole experience so far. And frankly, it’s more than I bargained for. I’ve thought about moving, but my father bought this place specifically for me and I like it.” She gave off a short sarcastic snort. “And if I told him about the
ghost, I’m sure he wouldn’t believe it. He always thought Nonna was nuts.”

  While the two women finished their breakfast, Granny drifted around the loft. Tanisha followed her movements with her eyes. “Having an unseen entity that could go places and then report back to you could come in pretty handy, both in my line of work and in college.”

  “True,” admitted Kelly, polishing off her bagel, “but it’s also an unfair advantage. One of the things my mother drilled into my head is that I shouldn’t use Granny’s presence for personal gain.”

  “Not that I’d allow myself to be used in that manner,” Granny said, returning to the counter. Kelly passed along the message.

  “I can also see the downside, especially in your case, Kelly. Aren’t you afraid she might tell your mother everything you do?”

  “I ain’t no rat!” Granny insisted, stamping her booted foot soundlessly on the hardwood floor. She leaned towards Tanisha, who saw the hazy little cloud advance on her. She leaned back a few inches.

  Kelly laughed. “Granny says she’s not a rat.”

  Tanisha looked at the apparition with wary eyes. “She actually said rat?”

  “Yeah, she did,” Kelly confirmed. “She likes to watch old crime dramas and movies on TV.”

  Shifting her eyes back and forth between the spirit and Kelly, Tanisha looked skeptical. “Come on.”

  “Really. As for reporting back to my mother, we’ve set boundaries. Mom said Granny can only visit me if she doesn’t interfere with my studies, and I only allow her to visit if she respects my privacy.”

  Tanisha’s mouth twitched. “Kind of what happens in Boston stays in Boston?”

  Granny pointed at Tanisha, but spoke to Kelly. “She said the same thing I did, but you rolled your eyes at me.”

  Kelly relayed Granny’s words to Tanisha, who still wasn’t sure what to make of it. If not for her own experience and Nonna’s stories, she might have dismissed Kelly Whitecastle as a kook—a spoiled rich kid living in a fantasy world. Maybe even a modern-day Elwood P. Dowd. “I wish my ghost was as friendly as Granny.”

  Granny went back to drifting about the room. “I don’t sense any other spirits here today. Whoever this ghost is, she’s a no-show.” Kelly passed along the comment.

  “She’s probably worn out from harassing me last night.” Tanisha rubbed a hand over her tired eyes. “It was the worst yet. I was actually wondering if she was going to hurt me.”

  “My mother says ghosts can’t harm us physically, but they can intimidate us emotionally and mentally.”

  “That’s exactly what’s happening.” Tanisha held her hands out in a pleading gesture. “I don’t experience much depression, but when that ghost is around, I feel so…so…” Tanisha looked for the right word. “Abandoned. That’s what I feel. Abandoned and hopeless. Like I want to crawl into a hole. At the same time, I feel it’s trying to tell me something but can’t.”

  Granny came near again, her face swathed in concern. “Tell her to be careful. Remember how Emma had that ghost earlier that was making people kill themselves.”

  Kelly wasn’t sure she wanted to tell Tanisha something that might scare her more. Instead, she warned, “Just make sure this ghost doesn’t make you do things you don’t want to do. My mother has run into that situation. A vicious ghost might get into your head and screw with you. When you feel it attacking you mentally, you have to fight it off.”

  Tanisha seemed on the edge of breaking. “I can’t do this forever.” She turned to Granny. “Can you help, Granny? Can you find this ghost and tell her to knock it off?”

  “I can try,” Granny answered. “But it sounds like she needs help and might not stop until she gets it.”

  Kelly relayed the words, then asked Granny her own question, “What should we do then?”

  The ghost drifted around the room as she gave the situation thought. When she returned to the two young women, she said with determination, “The real question is, what would Emma do?”

  Chapter 6

  “But I don’t want to call Mom about this,” Kelly answered. “It will only upset her.”

  “What did Granny say?” asked Tanisha, looking from Kelly to Granny.

  “I didn’t say to call Emma,” Granny clarified. “Just think about how she would handle this.”

  After filling Tanisha in, Kelly decided Granny might be right. Her mother had handled lots of difficult spirits, usually by finding out more about their background when they were alive. But how could she do that if the ghost didn’t show itself?

  After a few minutes, Kelly turned to Tanisha. “Did you say you only feel this way here in the apartment?”

  “Yes,” Tanisha admitted. “Maybe I should move after all. Dad will just have to suck it up.”

  Kelly got off the stool and walked around the living area, circling the perimeter. “I’m thinking the ghost is attached to this place specifically. Could be a prior owner trying to tell you something.”

  “Or trying to get her to leave,” added Granny.

  “Or trying to make me leave,” Tanisha commented almost at the same time.

  Granny studied Tanisha, then turned to Kelly with a grin. “I like this girl. We think alike—great minds and all.”

  Kelly ignored the remark and continued walking around the loft as if the walls might spill their secrets if she just listened closely enough. Granny followed after her like a puppy. When Kelly returned to the counter, she asked Tanisha, “Do you know who your father bought this place from?”

  In response, Tanisha went to her desk and yanked open the bottom drawer of her desk. “My father gave me a copy of the real estate paperwork, in case I ever needed it.” She pulled out a file and brought it back to the counter.

  Together, they sifted through the documents. Kelly examined the deed. “It says here you and your father both own the loft.” She looked up at Tanisha. “I thought you said your name wasn’t on the property.”

  Tanisha shrugged. “So I lied about that. What do you expect? You track me down, show up unannounced, and start nosing around. It was a defensive lie.”

  “My girl T’s got a point,” said Granny.

  Kelly snapped her head around to glare at the ghost, who drifted away in the pretense of examining something.

  Kelly returned her attention to Tanisha. “Don’t you do the same as a reporter hunting for a story?”

  In response, Tanisha gave her a shrug and a small, lopsided grin.

  Kelly went back to checking out the documents. “Seems the previous owner was a Rhoda Saatela.” Kelly looked up. “I wonder if we’d be able to find her? Doesn’t sound like a common name.”

  Again, Tanisha went to her desk. This time she fired up her laptop. “I subscribe to a pretty good people search site. Let’s see if she’s listed anywhere.”

  Granny followed Tanisha to the desk. “Now you girls are cookin’.”

  While Tanisha searched for Rhoda Saatela, Kelly buried herself in the real estate documents, hoping to find more clues to past owners. “Says here the building was converted from a warehouse into lofts in the late 1990s.” She held up a real estate flyer.

  Tanisha glanced over at it. “Yes, I remember that. It’s the sell sheet the seller’s realtor was handing out.” They both went back to their tasks.

  After a few minutes, Kelly heard Granny say, “Leave Tanisha alone.”

  Whipping her head around, Kelly saw Granny confronting a ghost standing directly behind Tanisha. Granny was next to it, her head tilted up as she shook a finger in the taller spirit’s face. “She can’t help you if you’re bothering her.”

  At the laptop, Tanisha was still working away, but her fingers were moving slowly. Every now and then, she stopped and shook her head like a dog shaking off water.

  Kelly jumped off her stool. In two long strides she was at the desk. “Tanisha, you okay?”

  “Yeah,” she answered, but her words came slow. “I’m mentally fighting her off, like you said, but it’s hard.” She k
ept working, her hand guiding the mouse through a list of names. “Can you see her? The ghost—can you see her clearly?”

  “Yes.” Kelly studied the ghost standing behind the desk. She didn’t appear to be angry or vindictive. She simply hovered in silence over Tanisha like a heavy rain cloud, her face tragic and forlorn.

  “I can see and hear you,” Kelly said to the spirit. “We’re all here to help you. Tell me what you want.”

  Granny wedged herself between Tanisha and the spirit, their hazy forms blurring around the edges. The other ghost backed up a few feet. “These girls want to help you,” Granny explained to the spirit. “They’re friends to us on the other side.”

  Kelly grabbed a large notepad off of Tanisha’s desk, then pulled a pen from a heavy mug pressed into service as a pencil holder. “Can you tell us your name?” she asked as she quickly went to work sketching the ghost.

  The spirit said nothing, but backed up a few more steps. The further she moved away from Tanisha, the less her hold on her seemed to be.

  Tanisha stopped working and took several deep breaths. “My head’s clearing.” She swiveled in her desk chair until she faced the ghost. “I’m Tanisha. This is Kelly and Granny,” she explained to the spirit. “I asked them to help me help you.”

  The wary spirit said nothing but looked at the two living women, then at Granny, her head moving slowly as she took in each.

  Continuing to sketch, Kelly asked Tanisha, “You look awful. How do you feel?”

  “Better, but still pretty low.” Tanisha rubbed her chest. “It’s almost like a weight sitting on my chest.” She turned back to the laptop. “There are more Saatelas than you’d think in New England, but I found a Rhoda Saatela Browne in Weston.”

  Kelly stopped drawing. “Weston’s west of here, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, about twenty miles away, if that.” Tanisha got up and went to the kitchen counter where she’d set her cell phone. She brought it back to the desk and started punching in numbers as she read them from the screen.

  “You’re just going to call her up?” asked Kelly.