by Gary Jonas
“Then maybe you're not paying attention.”
“Or maybe I'm distracted. Working a case.”
“A case without a client?”
“I didn't say that.”
“No, I heard your Chinese friend say it. Kelly?”
“Yeah, Kelly.”
“She's very angry.”
“She's had a rough life.”
“Who hasn't?”
“We're docking now,” I said.
“And not a moment too soon.”
Our group disembarked, went through a security checkpoint, and headed for the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Once inside, I took our tickets to the Save Ellis Island Information Desk and checked us in. We didn't have long to wait, so we made pit stops in the restrooms since the tour was going to be ninety minutes and there were no facilities on the other side of the island.
A little later, we gathered with our group to go on the actual tour. Each of us was issued a hard hat, which made sense since it was called the hard hat tour. The guide told us a few facts about Ellis Island as we walked to the hospital complex.
“You should be able to appreciate the New York Gothic architecture of the buildings,” the tour guide said. She was in her early fifties and had a big smile and bright eyes. She loved what she did and it showed. “My great-great grandparents arrived here on a steamship. They were fortunate to have first-class accommodations. Many people rode in steerage. I'm sure you've all seen the movie Titanic. The folks Leonardo hung out with in the depths of the ship, they were in steerage, only the ships our ancestors rode in were not on their maiden voyage. The conditions were beyond awful and many people died or got sick in the weeks at sea.”
She kept talking as we approached one of the main buildings. Evidently, there were more than thirty buildings on the island. I tuned out most of what she said; I was busy looking for any ghosts or other supernatural entities that might happen to be lurking in view. The guide talked fast, and fired off facts as if they were bullets from an AR-15.
“Forty percent of all Americans have ancestors who arrived through Ellis Island,” she said. “But not everyone made it. If someone was sick or pregnant or looked mentally ill, they were detained here. More than three thousand people died on the island.”
Kelly touched my shoulder. “More than three thousand potential ghosts,” she said.
“Most people don't stick around as ghosts,” I said. “Out of three thousand, there might be a dozen tops. I'll let you know, though.”
A sixty-ish woman in front of us with her silver hair pulled into a bun overheard my comment and gave me a dirty look. Far be it from me to interfere with a tourist's appreciation of history, so I offered her an apology. She turned up her nose and resumed listening to the guide.
Esther popped in front of me and I started.
“Sorry,” she said. “I'm gonna scout ahead.”
I gave her a nod.
Isabel looked at me. “You all right?” she asked.
“Fine and dandy,” I said.
“If you say so.”
The silver-haired woman turned to give me yet another dirty look. “Keep your voice down,” she said. “Some of us are trying to learn something.”
Isabel gave her a big smile and said, “Well dip me in cat shit, I didn't even think about the educational aspect of this little jaunt. Fuck you very much for sharing.”
The woman looked aghast, and she moved to stand elsewhere.
Isabel gave me a satisfied nod.
The tour guide talked about the original acreage and how most of the island had been built up using landfill. She kept tossing out tidbits of information as we entered the hospital complex. We toured the hospital, spending time in the infectious and contagious disease wards. A few ghosts wandered aimlessly there. They looked forlorn and didn't even notice the living people standing in the room checking things out. There was broken glass here and there, and the floors were uneven. While the buildings had been refurbished a bit, they were still maintained to only a point because if they evened out the floors and repaired the loose fixtures or sealed up the various cracked walls, the place might lose some of its allure. It was supposed to look abandoned because it had been. That was the point.
Rayna stood on one side of me while Isabel remained on the other. Rayna flipped her hair and leaned close. “Is Esther in here?” she asked.
“No,” I said.
We followed the guide around and entered a room where we waited for everyone to gather. “This was the morgue,” she said.
I looked around, expecting to see more ghosts. Instead, I saw plaster walls, concrete floors, and a whole lot of nothing else. A sense of despair hung in the air. Esther popped in beside me, but this time I kept my reaction under control. “Bored yet?” she asked.
I shook my head. Ellis Island was the story of America told in miniature. I stood in a place filled with history, and in this particular room, bodies had been cut open as doctors searched for cause of death or for learning purposes. It seemed odd not to see any ghosts in the room, though. Morgues were often occupied by bewildered spirits who never recovered from seeing their bodies cut apart.
A few people asked questions, and I tuned them out because I thought I heard children laughing.
“Did you hear that?” I asked. “Laughter in the other room?”
Isabel shrugged. “I didn't hear anything. Might ask the pissed-off lady because she hears everything.”
“Now, now,” I said. “She's not bothering us. I thought I heard kids laughing.”
“No one under thirteen is allowed here,” Rayna said.
“There were workers who heard children,” I said and moved back through the doorway. I looked down the hall and saw the ghosts of three children chasing each other. They laughed.
“Hey!” I yelled.
They turned to look at me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Nobody,” one of the kids said, and they darted through the wall and disappeared.
I started down the hall, but a security guard walked around the corner. “Sir,” he said, “you need to stay with your group.”
“Did you see those kids?” I asked, looking past him toward where they'd vanished.
“Return to your group, sir. If you don't, I can have you arrested, and we will prosecute you for trespassing.”
As the guard walked closer, I gave him a once-over. He looked familiar.
“Stuart?” I asked.
He gave me a quizzical look. “How did you know my name?” he asked.
“Have you been to Kings Park?” I asked.
He looked surprised but instantly covered it up with a stern expression. “Answer my question, sir. How did you know my name?”
“You look like a Stuart to me.”
He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and raised it to take a picture.
I held up a hand to block my face. While I knew my picture was being taken by security cameras all over the city, I still tried to avoid direct photos. It felt important to stay under the radar. “Sorry, man,” I said and turned away from him. “I'll rejoin my group.”
When I returned to the morgue area, the guide was just leading people out. I fell into step with them and worked my way back to Kelly, Rayna, and Isabel.
Esther popped in. “This place is amazing,” she said.
“Did you see the kids?” I asked.
Rayna nodded, pretending I'd been talking to her to cover for me because a few people shot me odd looks.
“I did,” Esther said.
“Can you talk to them?”
“Not now,” Rayna said, still covering for me. “No cell signal. Just enjoy the tour. They'll be fine.”
Esther grinned. “Smart cookie. You want me to ask the kids if they've seen anything weird?”
I nodded.
“I'm on it,” she said and popped away.
Isabel stared at me. She leaned close and whispered, “You weren't talking to your mistress.”
&nb
sp; “Sure I was,” I whispered back.
And fortunately the tour guide led us into a large laundry building.
“This is the laundry room,” the guide said.
“We should pay attention,” I said and pointed at the guide.
“We'll talk about this later,” Isabel said.
“As you can imagine, with contagious diseases and seven hundred fifty beds in the hospital, there was a lot of laundry. In fact, more than three thousand articles were disinfected and washed every day.”
She pointed to the various machines in the room, but my eyes were riveted to a corner where something darker than the shadows perched and watched us all. I didn't hear another word she said.
The figure seemed to roil like smoke, but as I stared, I could make out various faces swimming in and out of focus within it, and while it could have been my imagination, I kept my focus so intent and clinical that I knew what I was seeing had to be real.
Isabel pointed into the shadows, right at the darkness. “That's where Juanita was when Pedro pushed her into the dark.”
“Do you see anything there now?” I whispered.
She squinted. “No.”
Kelly scooted closer. “You're attracting unwanted attention,” she said softly and pointed behind us.
I turned and saw Stuart watching us, hands gripping his belt.
“Do you recognize him?” I asked.
Kelly shook her head. “No.”
“Ask Rayna.”
Kelly tugged on Rayna's sleeve, and Rayna conferred with us, but she didn't recognize Stuart either.
“He was at Kings Park,” I said. “He was one of the inmates.”
“I think they're called patients,” Rayna said. “And he looks like a security guard to me.”
I looked back to the shadows, but now the darkness was gone. I scanned the room and saw nothing. Stuart approached us.
“I'm sorry to interrupt,” Stuart said, “but we've had complaints about this man.” He pointed at me.
“Yes,” the silver-haired woman said. “He and his friends have been talking through the entire tour. They should be removed.”
“We just want him, ma'am. Sir, if you'll come with me?”
Everyone looked at me, so I had two choices. I could either go with Stuart and maybe get arrested or I could make a scene, which would definitely get me arrested. The only way off the island was by the ferry, and that meant I didn't really have any other options.
“If they arrest me, come bail me out,” I said.
Rayna nodded. “We've got your back.”
Stuart stepped closer and I nodded to him.
“I don't want any trouble, Stuart,” I said.
He kept a hand on his baton and nodded. “Good. If you'll come peacefully, we can work this out.”
My only concern was that he might be under control of the demon thing, so I worried that he might pull that baton and smack me on the head as soon as I was in the hall. I walked in front of him and stepped into the hall, then did a sudden side step just in case.
“Keep walking,” he said.
“I'll walk beside you, Stuart.”
“If you give me any trouble, I'll shoot you.”
“No trouble at all. You didn't have any complaints about me,” I said and walked down the hall at his side, keeping enough distance that I could react to anything he might try.
“You caught my attention when you left your group. That's enough justification for me.”
“I thought I heard kids laughing.”
“There aren't any kids on the island.”
“So I misheard. No big.”
We stepped outside and he pulled his baton. “We're going back to the museum,” he said. “I'm going to run a check on you.”
“I went through security twice,” I said. “Once at Liberty Island and once here.”
“Then you won't object to a third time. People like you come here all the time hoping to steal an artifact from one of the rooms.”
“I wasn't looking to steal anything. I told you, I thought I heard kids.”
“It's time to drop all pretense,” he said.
“Okay,” I said.
He pointed at me with the baton. “Who are you and what do you want here?”
“My name is Bret Michaels,” I said. “And I came here for the tour.”
“Bret Michaels is the lead singer of the rock band Poison.”
“He's the more famous Bret Michaels. So far as I know, we're not related. I did sing 'Talk Dirty to Me' at karaoke once, though.”
He frowned. “You are trying to make light of a serious situation.”
“You're not Stuart,” I said.
“Yes I am.”
“No, you're the darker-than-darkness thing I saw in there.”
Stuart shook his head, and I saw puffs of darkness burst from his nostrils, ears, and mouth. The dark entity was losing control of its vessel.
“I'd love to stay and chat,” I said, “but you're not as strong as you think.”
I punched Stuart in the jaw, and he staggered to the side. He bent and vomited black smoke. I didn't wait around to see what happened. Instead, I rushed back into the laundry building and rejoined the group.
“You're back?” the tour guide said.
“Yeah, sorry for the disturbance. It was just a misunderstanding.”
“We were just leaving,” she said.
“I hope I didn't miss anything too important,” I said and eased my way back into the group, keeping myself toward the center. The silver-haired lady gave me a glare, but I didn't acknowledge it. I was too busy thinking that a single punch was enough to knock the darkness out of Stuart. If Kelly had seen that, she'd walk away from me, disgusted that I'd wasted her time. I made a note to let the darkness seem stronger.
Kelly, Rayna, and Isabel joined me in the center.
When we left the building, Stuart stood in a clearing, rubbing his chin. He looked confused and sick to his stomach.
“Stuart?” the tour guide said. “Is everything all right?”
“I'm fine,” he said. “Stomach is a bit upset, though. Shouldn't have had those burritos.”
We moved past him, and I made sure to keep myself out of his direct line of sight. Fortunately he wasn't looking for me.
As we moved into the next building, the darkness coalesced in the shadows, and watched from afar. It didn't try to come closer, but it followed us all the way to the exit and turned up in each building until we made it back to the museum.
Kelly wanted to talk, but I needed to keep as low a profile as possible, so I told her we'd discuss everything later. She accepted it.
In each building, I kept an eye out for three things: the dark entity, any lingering ghosts, and Esther. I saw the first but didn't see any ghosts, including my little flapper.
As weak as the darkness was, I wasn't worried about Esther. I knew she was all right, but it did give me something to pretend to worry about. Maybe if I played it out long enough, I could find a way to make Kelly believe there was real danger.
CHAPTER NINE
“I don't want to leave without Esther,” I said when we arrived at the ferry slip for the return back to Manhattan.
“She can come to us whenever she wants,” Kelly said.
People boarded the ferry while we stayed back. The afternoon rolled forward, and Isabel needed to get home so she could go to work. I looked around, watching the buildings, but didn't see any sign of Esther. Good. Until she came back, I could play the worried card.
“She can catch up,” Rayna said. “She doesn't need to make the trip the way we do.”
Isabel was already on the ferry, and the last few people boarded. Kelly and Rayna stared at me for a moment.
“Okay, okay,” I said. “I'm coming.”
They were right. Esther could pop over to us whenever she wanted, and nobody here could stop her. She probably ran into a ghost she wanted to get to know and the conversation lasted longer than she expected. Whe
n you're having a good time, the hours fly by unnoticed. But I kept up the ruse.
I took a seat next to Isabel. Kelly and Rayna found seats toward the back.
Isabel checked her watch. “I should have just enough time to shower and get changed before work,” she said.
“Thanks for coming along,” I said.
“I don't know how much help I was. I probably could have told you which room and saved you the fifty-dollar ticket.”
“No worries. It was good to know exactly where you saw the darkness.”
She shivered and rolled her shoulders, looking around her. It was a warm afternoon, so the chill wasn't from the temperature. “I feel like that darkness is here with us,” she said.
Now that she said it, I felt that way too. The power of suggestion? Method acting? She didn't know about my encounter with the darkness using Stuart as a vessel. I hadn't told anyone about that.
“It's mighty bright to be worried about the dark,” I said, gesturing to the sky. A cloud blew across the sun and cast us in shade. “Or not.”
Isabel laughed.
I liked her laugh. It was honest. She placed a hand on my arm, gave her hair a flip, and met my eyes while she held her smile. Her eyes sparkled as the cloud moved to let the sunshine through again.
“I'm tempted to call in sick to work,” she said. “I feel like I faced a demon and should celebrate. A glass of wine would be nice right about now.”
“I can Google a nice restaurant,” I said.
She shook her head. “I'd love to but I really need the paycheck. Rent is coming due, and I'm almost out of cat food.”
“Another time, then.”
“I'd like that,” she said, smiling. “I'm off tomorrow. Give me a call.”
“Will do,” I said.
She leaned close and kissed my cheek. “You'd better.”
***
Isabel went home to get ready for work while Kelly, Rayna, and I went back to the hotel. Still no sign of Esther, which now started to bother me, but she was a ghost, which meant it was unlikely anything really bad could have happened to her. I just wanted an update from her.
We went to Kelly's room and sat on opposite beds, me on one, Kelly and Rayna on the other. I filled them in on most of what happened.