by Harper Lin
We walked back to the spa slowly and silently. What were they going to think of three women staggering in at this hour? Our clothes were dirty and wrinkled but not too badly. We could just say we got a little turned around out on the nature path trying to take in the phase of the moon but were fine. No one was hurt.
But as luck would have it, the front desk was occupied by one young blond fellow who was happily reading a book as we walked in. He barely looked up as the electric doors slipped shut behind us. A security guard gave us a nod and a slight smile, probably thinking we had slipped into town for happy hour and were just making it back a little the worse for wear. I didn’t have it in me to correct him. I didn’t even want to speak as my aunt and Bea led the way to the elevator.
Too tired to argue, I climbed on board the elevator and was happy that it did not produce a single rattle or bump to make me nervous. In fact, it seemed to run more smoothly than it had before.
“Do you guys feel the difference?”
“I was just thinking that,” they said in unison.
“The air is lighter, the lights are brighter, the energy is positive. Yeah, that is much better. I wouldn’t be surprised if business picks up after this,” Bea said.
“Well, I’m going to sleep in my room tonight.” I scratched my head and rubbed my neck. “I’d like a hot bath and some room service and some bad television until checkout time tomorrow.”
“I’m so tired I’m skipping the bath until five minutes before checkout. Good night, girls.” Aunt Astrid waved and let herself into her room.
Bea didn’t say anything as she unlocked the door. When she looked at me, I could see she was feeling a little better. What that Enisi had shown her really bothered her. I had the feeling it might not have seemed so horrible to someone like Blake, who saw the darker side of life a lot, or even to me with my more cynical streak. But it was so bad for Bea because she was so good.
“You going to be okay?” I stood in the hall with my hands on my hips. “If you’d like some company, I can stay with you. Crappy television can wait.”
“No. I’m tired.” She managed a smile.
“You know, I think that after this vacation you planned, we all could use a vacation. Thanks, Bea.”
This time she did laugh. A few tears fell, and I understood why. But her laugh came from that deep-down place real laughs always come from.
“Yeah, thanks for thinking of me. You can bet I’ll return the favor.”
“No, don’t. I can’t believe we have to go back to work the day after tomorrow. I could sleep for a week.”
“Well, checkout is at noon. I’ll come get you at ten till.”
“Deal.”
I waved and made my way back to my room. It was cool inside because I had left the balcony door open. I didn’t mind. I grabbed the late-night menu and the remote control for the television, clicked it on, and stretched out on the bed.
Before I knew it, I was waking up to the sound of chirping birds and the sight of the sun starting to rise. The sky was a beautiful, cloudless pink, and the bare branches of the trees scribbled across it like it was a page in a coloring book. Checkout wasn’t until noon. With a loud sigh of relief, I pulled the comforter around me and went back to sleep. It was a peaceful, deep sleep with simple dreams of people I knew catching a train, eating cake, and redecorating the café, the usual nonsensical things that made up dreams.
The funny thing was that I saw Officer Tom Warner in my dream. What was he doing there? He was smiling that wonderful smile that showed off his dimples and made his eyes into crescent moons. He was just there, I guessed, checking up on me.
Now, had I told Bea I dreamt of Officer Warner, she would have quickly run for some tea leaves to read my future and done a palm check to make sure no blocks of energy might impair my judgment and prevent me from kissing him or agreeing to another date.
So when I woke up the second time that day, I kept the characters in my dream to myself. But I couldn’t help wondering about the person who wasn’t there. I had dreamed of Blake Samberg before, harmless scenes in which he came into the café or was at Bea’s house watering the garden or polishing shoes. Dream stuff.
But he hadn’t been in that dream. I would never say a word to anyone, but I was disappointed.
Clementine Hotel
“Are you nervous?” Bea asked me as she looked over the newspaper spread out on the counter. It was a slow day, and we were all thankful for that. After our three-day “vacation” at the Muskox Serenity Spa and Retreat Center, we were all exhausted. I was a good bit better off than my two partners in crime.
Bea, after her direct exposure to the Enisi, had suffered a migraine for two and a half days and bad dreams for almost a week. She had been able to talk with Jake about it since his job lent itself to the darker side of humanity. He could understand Bea’s feelings just as she could understand his fear after aiming his gun at Blake. (He had spilled the beans on that and my name hadn’t come up, for which I was thankful.)
“I’m not speaking in front of thousands of people, Bea. No. I’m not nervous.”
I looked at my cousin, who nodded, her eyebrows arched high into her forehead while she pretended to read the news. I didn’t think she believed me.
Between her and Aunt Astrid sharing the days, my aunt in the morning and Bea at night, while I helped all day at the café, I felt like I was repeating myself all the time.
Tonight was special, though. Both of them were in, and my aunt, shuffling receipts at her favorite table for two, seemed to be a little better than she had been the past couple of days. She was giving me sneaky looks, too.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Aunt Astrid replied in a sing-songy kind of way while looking over her shoulder at Bea.
“You two are up to something.”
“Us?”
“Yeah. And the last time you guys put your heads together, you came up with the genius idea of visiting the Muskox Serenity Spa and House of Horrors, thank you.” I folded my arms over my chest and gave them a harummff that made them laugh out loud.
“We were trying to help you.” Bea chuckled. “How were we to know what was going to happen?”
“Does your psychic ability tell you nothing?” I asked my aunt, who shrugged.
We were quiet as the last two customers in the place finished their coffees. A young man reading a book and checking his watch, looking like he was killing time, sat at the far wall underneath the picture of the black cat that had been hanging there since the reconstruction after the fire.
A woman nursed an iced tea while she studied her iPad. She sat next to the window and barely looked up.
I was happy business was slow. Even though Bea and Aunt Astrid had borne the brunt of the cleansing, I was a little burnt out myself. It seemed like the universe was aware of that, because it gave us steady business, but even the morning rushes were calm and devoid of any drama.
Noticing a few crumbs on the back table, I took one of the rags from next to Bea and walked back there to quickly wipe them off. The bells over the front door jingled, making me jump and turn around slightly, losing my balance.
“Meow.” Treacle slunk in and made a running leap onto the counter, where he found a spot right smack in the middle of the newspaper Bea was reading.
“Well, hello, handsome,” Bea said, scratching my cat behind his ears.
I walked over to the counter and took a seat on the stool in front of Bea and leaned my head in. Treacle gave me a head-butt of affection and purred loudly.
“Bea was reading that paper,” I told him.
“It feels so good to sit here. It crinkles and is noisy and mine.”
“You’re going to have to move. Let her finish and then I’ll put you back.” I scooped up the soft feline and held him close to me.
When I had finally come home after the vacation in hell, Treacle had jumped up into my arms as soon as I walked in the door. I had missed quite a bit of excitement, according to hi
m.
A new puppy had been adopted at the yellow house with the black shutters a few doors down, one of those black-faced, curly-tailed beasts that breathed funny and barked constantly.
Treacle had inspected a couple of abandoned buildings in the rougher part of town and was sure that more than just mice hid in the walls. I didn’t want to hear about it. I had had enough ghost chasing and paranormal cleansing to last me a good while.
And a surprise had waited for me at the back window. I’d carried the big ball of fur with me as I peeked out the window to find a big, fat, dead rat.
What a nice surprise! I was grossed out, but this was my favorite pet’s way of saying “I love you.” I’d rather have died than let him think I didn’t appreciate it. He’d head-butted my chin then pushed himself out of my arms in order to take a seat on the floor and begin a long, arduous grooming session.
I had been happy to be home. For the first time in a long time, the walls of my house gave me great comfort. They weren’t the scary, isolating barriers they had felt like just a few days ago. They were just my walls, decorated with pictures I had chosen or drawn myself. The whole place, as simple as it might have been, reflected me. I saw myself in everything around me and was happy.
On my first night back home, I’d stayed inside and eaten soup in front of the television while I drew some pictures.
If a stranger had stumbled across my sketchpad, they would have turned it over to the police and sworn that I was some kind of serial killer or at least covering for one. But expressing the feelings that are deep down can help a trauma victim heal.
With charcoal and pencil, I drew the monstrous astral spider that had affixed itself to me. I drew the Enisi, her face full of anger and insanity. I drew the wolves that ultimately tore her soul apart.
Those hours spent creating the images that scared me took away their power. I remembered wondering if I’d have trouble sleeping if I thought too hard about the elevator or the hot springs that had almost drowned me.
But I didn’t. I’d slipped easily and peacefully into a deep slumber that left me feeling refreshed.
So I didn’t mind carrying the load for Bea and Aunt Astrid. They needed to recuperate, too. It was the least I could do for all they had tried to do for me.
“Hey! Check this out!” Bea said, picking the newspaper up and looking at some tiny print. “Waldo Ferguson, age eighty-nine, was arrested Monday for the 1952 murder of Sadie McGill. When questioned, Ferguson confessed to strangling the victim in what was once the Clementine Hotel, located in what is now unincorporated Wonder Falls. Within hours of his arrest, Mr. Ferguson collapsed and died of a heart attack.”
“Well, I’m surprised the authorities moved so quickly on an anonymous tip,” Aunt Astrid said without looking up at either one of us.
I looked at her and shook my head no to answer her question.
Aunt Astrid had also been laid up for a couple of days. “I can’t take a punch like I used to,” she had said in between a chuckle and a sigh.
I didn’t want to think about my aunt being old, because to me she wasn’t old. Astrid Greenstone was just more mature than Bea and me, not old, not winding down. I couldn’t imagine going through losing her right now. Jeez, it felt like I had just lost my mom the day before. Everyone else on the planet only loses their mom once, and that is bad enough. Losing my mom and then Aunt Astrid would be like losing my mom twice, something I just didn’t want to dwell on.
“Did you stop in room 116 before we left?” To be honest, I had completely forgotten about poor Sadie McGill, the mistress of her sister’s husband. I could tell by the look on my Aunt’s face that she had felt sorry for Sadie. I couldn’t help but feel the poor thing had been cursed with a low I.Q. and high libido. Plain, old-fashioned common sense could keep a girl out of her situation. But what did I know about love?
“I did. It was empty. Empty of everyone and everything.”
“I’m glad.” I was. What the heck kind of existence was it for a person living or dead to loiter around a hotel waiting for their true love to arrive? That sounded seedy even though I really didn’t mean it to.
“Where do you think Ferguson ended up? With Sadie or her sister?” Bea tapped her chin, thinking.
“I don’t think the universe will give him such a good choice. He’ll have to make amends, and heaven only knows what that will entail.”
Treacle was fussing in my arms, so I let him go. He went straight back to Bea and plopped down on the newspaper. She scratched him behind the ears again, and this time we let him stay.
“You know, you guys don’t have to wait with me. I can lock the place up.” I tugged at the V-neck of my dress, which I was sure was slipping open a little too far.
“Are you kidding?” Bea shouted.
“I wouldn’t miss this for anything. No way am I leaving,” Aunt Astrid stated loudly as well.
I let out a sigh.
“That’s why I’m here. I need to know what is going on, too,” Treacle piped up. I gave him a narrow-eyed glare.
“You, too, Treacle?”
“Meow.”
Rolling my eyes, I went back to wiping down the tables. I was a little nervous. I was wearing a bright-red dress that, at the time I’d bought it, I had considered modest but still flattering. Now, as I kept looking at my reflection in the storefront window, I was starting to think I looked like the whore of Babylon.
“You look so pretty. You really should wear dresses more often,” my aunt said.
“And that color is fantastic on you. Not everyone can get away with something so bright,” Bea cheered for me.
“You don’t think it’s too bright?” I tugged at the sleeves and again adjusted the V-neck.
“No! No way!” Bea and Aunt Astrid chorused.
“You want to be noticed. You just wait and see all the heads that turn. He won’t want to turn his back on you for a second for fear you’ll be swept away by someone else,” Aunt Astrid encouraged. “Now, do you need me to explain how things go on a date?”
“Are you kidding?”
“It’s been, well, to say a long time would be an understatement. I just want to remind you that no means no, and if you like the guy, play hard to get. Run just fast enough that he breaks a sweat but not so fast he can’t catch you.”
“I should have said no. Not because I didn’t want to go out but because it is inevitable he’ll have to deal with you guys.”
“We are the first line of defense, Cath.” Bea flexed her muscles.
“Do you need me to explain the birds and the bees?” Aunt Astrid piped up.
“Bea, is your mother on some kind of medication I don’t know about? Has she been drinking?”
My aunt was really enjoying herself. I hadn’t seen her laugh so hard in a long time, and I wasn’t sure what about her explaining the birds and bees was so funny. I found it a bit gross if I had to be honest.
When the door jingled, my heart leapt in my chest, and I nearly tripped over myself in the tiny heels I was wearing as I turned to see who was coming in.
Surprise Visit
“I’m surprised you are still open. I am in dire need of a cappuccino. I’ll also need a double-shot espresso to go,” Darla Castellano said as she flipped her hair and reached her perfectly manicured nails into her purse to pull out her wallet.
Normally I would have been seething on the inside that she would show up here tonight of all nights, but something inside me had changed. I didn’t look at Darla and instead concentrated out the window.
Could it be that I was getting over this high school drama with her? Could it be that maybe I was maturing, becoming more aware of myself and less concerned with the opinions of people around me? My last few experiences had certainly given me a reason to do a little soul searching.
“That will be six dollars, Darla,” Bea said as she hustled behind the counter.
“Six dollars? Wow. Who do you think you are, Starbucks?” Darla griped as she took out some m
oney. “I don’t have anything smaller than a hundred.” She put the money on the counter and pushed it with her long, dark-brown nails toward Bea as if she were afraid their fingers might touch if she handed Bea the money like a civilized person.
“I’ll help you with that, Bea,” I said, scooting behind the counter.
“Oh, no you won’t,” Bea protested. “I won’t have you risk getting anything on your new dress. Go on. You’re off the clock.”
Darla had acted as if she didn’t see me as usual. But as I turned, obeying Bea’s command, I saw her eyes float up one side of me and down the other as she looked at my dress. She delivered no comment, no eye rolling, no nothing. I must have looked good or else a snide remark would have been too much for her to keep inside.
The door jingled again. I did trip a little as I saw Blake enter the café. He nodded politely to Bea and Aunt Astrid. I wanted to shrink into the corner, but one thing a red dress like this didn’t allow me to do was not be noticed. Blake stopped and looked at me as if I were a ghost.
“There you are,” Darla said in a low, purring kind of way, snapping Blake out of his trance. “I got you a double shot.” She handed him the espresso Bea had made.
What the hell were these two doing here? What was Darla trying to prove, and why in the world, after everything he’d said to me at the spa, was Blake willing to go along with her? My gosh, I couldn’t imagine wielding the kind of power over the opposite sex that Darla did. It was truly jaw dropping.
I turned my back and busied myself with things that wouldn’t get my dress dirty. I rolled silverware, stacked bags for carry-out, and grabbed the broom to sweep up the little pieces of nothing that were on the floor.
I couldn’t help but feel like I was being watched. Peeking over my shoulder, I saw Blake doing the same thing. He had taken a seat next to Darla, and rather than looking at her when she talked, he lifted his eyes from hers to meet mine.