A Rocky Path

by Lauralynn Elliott

  Emily went back up the stairs to her room. As she entered the room, she felt like something was different. She smelled a pleasant scent, like fresh air and the sea. She looked around, and then she saw it. Propped up against the wall next to her bed was a canvas covered in a cloth. She walked over to it, and with shaking hands, pulled the cloth off. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. There, on the canvas, was a likeness of her, painted with the eye of someone who cared deeply about his subject. Her knees buckled and she collapsed to the floor in front of the picture. As she looked at it, she seemed to feel every stroke of the brush that Patrick had held in his hand. If the picture of the blond woman was good, this one was magnificent. He had portrayed her with a dreamy expression on her face, as if she were thinking of someone she loved. Her dark hair billowed around her face, her cheeks were a little flushed, and her lips were slightly parted. And on her finger was the silver ring. This was the most beautiful portrait she had ever seen. He had to have painted her from memory because this picture was not a duplicate of the one he had drawn. And yet he had remembered every detail of her face. How could a man paint a woman like this unless he loved her?

  Emily saw something white peeking out from behind the picture. She reached down and picked it up. She saw that it was a letter. Her heart skipped a beat. It was from Patrick!

  Dearest Emily,

  I regret that we parted in the way that we did. I know that I hurt you, but that was never my intention. The more time we spent together, the harder it was for me to let you go. I wonder over and over whether or not I made the correct decision. The hurt look on your face will haunt me forever. But I had to decide what was best for you, regardless of how I felt. It tore my heart out to leave you. Every day I am tempted to come to our special place, find you, and tell you everything about me and why I am the way I am. As you go through your life, I want you to know and remember this…you will always be loved. No matter how hard I tried not to love you, I couldn’t stop my feelings. I love you more than you will ever realize. I hope this painting will always remind you of me and how much I love you. I have never painted anything with as much love and care as I did this painting. Please remember me fondly.

  Love always,

  Patrick

  Emily wept long and hard that night. Her heart was breaking, but a part of her rejoiced because Patrick loved her. How could she find him? Would she ever see him again to tell him that she loved him and that she knew what he was and that it didn’t matter? Somehow, she would find him. There had to be a way! Tomorrow she would do everything in her power to find someone who could help her find Patrick. She wasn’t going to give up.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The next day Emily called Jarrod Connelly and asked him if he knew anyone that could help her learn more about ghosts.

  “Emily, are you sure you want to pursue this? Why don’t you just let him go? He told you he wasn’t coming back. Just let him be. Don’t try to get in touch with him.”

  “Jarrod, I know that you have my best interests at heart. You are a very nice man, and you were very open-minded about the whole ghost thing and didn’t scoff at my ideas. Most men your age would have been a lot different. In fact, most people of any age would have thought I had lost my mind. But you have to understand that this is my decision. You don’t have to help me if you don’t want to, but I will find some way of getting the answers anyway.”

  “You’re definitely a persistent girl. I know you’ll do what you want to do no matter what I say. So I’ll help you. Write this phone number down.”

  He gave her the number of a lady that he knew that studied ghosts and other paranormal phenomena. She wrote it down and thanked him for his help. She felt like now she had at least made a start.

  After she got off from work that day, she called the number that Jarrod had given her. The lady’s name was Sarah Stone and Jarrod had told Emily that they were old childhood friends.

  “Hello, Mrs. Stone? This is Emily Adams. I work for Rebecca Winslow in the old McCulloch house.”

  “Oh, yes, I have heard about you. In a town this small, everyone knows when someone new comes to town.”

  Emily laughed. “I’m sure that’s true. Listen, I have a very strange request. I would like to come to your house and talk to you about ghosts. I would like to know what you know about them and how they behave.”

  “Do you believe in ghosts, young lady?” Mrs. Stone asked.

  “Well, I never did before. But I think I do now. Please, would you let me come and talk to you?”

  “Of course, dear. I would be glad to have the company. But be warned…I don’t get to talk a lot about my interests, so if you get me talking, you may not be able to get me to stop!”

  “I think I can deal with that,” laughed Emily. “When will you be able to see me?”

  “How about after dinner tonight? Maybe around 8:00 or so.”

  “I’ll be there!”

  Mrs. Stone gave her directions to her house and Emily thanked her. Then she went down to dinner.

  “Hi, Emily,” said Jamie. He still seemed nervous around her. She wasn’t entirely comfortable around him yet, either.

  “Hello, Jamie.” She looked around the table. “How is everyone tonight?”

  Sam immediately started talking about the new novel he was working on. Pretty soon, he and his aunt had their heads together, talking animatedly about their writing projects. Jamie mentioned a 1966 fully restored Mustang he had seen that day and was excited about the possibility of buying it. Everything was so normal, and Emily wondered what everyone would think if they knew what was on her mind.

  Everyone seemed to be enjoying their dinner together. Emily felt like she was an outsider looking at a Norman Rockwell painting or something. She didn’t feel a part of anything right now. Everyone was so happy and cheerful, and here she was as miserable as she could be. She didn’t want to be here. But she went through the motions, smiling pleasantly as if everything was fine. She was just counting the minutes before she could excuse herself and get ready to go meet Mrs. Stone.

  * * *

  She pulled up to the elderly lady’s house and was pleasantly surprised. She had somehow expected a “ghost person” to live in a dark, forbidding house with ominous looking gargoyles guarding the front door. This house, however, was the perfect place for a nice, grandmotherly lady to live and bake cookies for all the neighborhood children. It had little lights on each side of the path leading up to the house. The house was painted yellow, like a lemon drop, with white shutters. There were beds of fall flowers adorning the front lawn. All kinds of little creatures, such as fairies, frogs and dragonflies, were keeping watch in the flower gardens.

  She knocked on the door and it was answered by a short, slender lady with gray hair cut close to her head. Her face was wrinkled, with smile lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. She wore a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, rather than the exotic caftan she had expected.

  Mrs. Stone smiled. “You look surprised. What were you expecting, someone that looked like she had just eaten Hansel and Gretel?”

  Emily laughed. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t know what to expect. You just look so…”

  “Normal?” suggested Mrs. Stone.

  “Ok, I’m guilty. I was expecting someone a little bit, I don’t know, strange, I guess. It’s not every day you meet someone who is an expert on ghosts.”

  “I’m sure that you have a very good reason for wanting information on that subject. Let’s sit down in the living room. I’ve made us a pot of tea.”

  “Thank you. I would really enjoy a cup of tea.”

  They sat down and got settled with their tea, then Mrs. Stone looked at Emily and asked, “Alright, Ms. Adams, what has brought you here? Why the interest in ghosts? Do you have a personal interest, or are you just doing some kind of study or report?”

  Emily said, “I have a personal interest. I don’t really know where to start. But I guess the beginning is as good a place as any.”r />
  Emily told her the story that she had told Jarrod. She didn’t leave anything out. She even told of her feelings and the things that had happened that had broken her heart. When she had finished, there were tears in her eyes.

  “That is quite a story, child. You know, don’t you, that most people wouldn’t believe you.”

  “Yes, I know. But Jarrod believes me. And I hope you do, too, because I need your help.”

  “What is it you think that I can do for you?”

  “I want to find him, Mrs. Stone. I want to find some way to get in touch with him. Jarrod thought you might be able to help me with that.”

  The older lady sighed. “First, if we are going to work together, we should be on a first name basis. Please call me Sarah. Next, I want you to be absolutely sure that you really want to get in contact with this Patrick. This can’t be a normal relationship, you know.”

  “I know. Obviously, there would be problems. But I really want to be with him.”

  Sarah looked at her closely. “How do you know what all that will entail? He can’t live with you. He is destined to stay within a mile or so of the place where he died. You would never be able to be with him anywhere else.”

  “Why is it that way?” asked Emily, surprised.

  “It just is. There are things that just are, and we don’t have to understand them. We just have to accept them.”

  “Ok, then I accept that.”

  “What if you lost your job for some reason? What if you wanted to move to another location? He couldn’t go with you. That would hurt both of you more than you are hurt right now.”

  “I will stay here. I have to if I want to be with him. But first, I would just like to talk to him. I want to tell him that I know what he is, but that I love him anyway.”

  “Emily, you’re really taking on a lot. You’re a young woman with your whole life ahead of you. How do you know you can handle this?”

  “I can, I know I can!” Emily cried.

  “Alright, I won’t try to talk you out of it. I just wanted you to know what you are facing. You said that he appeared one night and rescued you from being hurt by another man. There was some reason he knew you were in danger. We first need to find out what that reason is.”

  “Do you think there is some link between us?”

  “There seems to be. He knew you needed his help. Also, a spirit that old is not going to give his heart away easily. Yet you said you believe he loves you. There has to be something. Maybe you remind him of someone he loved before.”

  “I’ve seen a portrait of the woman he was engaged to. I don’t think she looks anything like me. And I don’t think her personality was like mine either. I’m a one man woman. If I give my heart to someone, I will be faithful. At first I wasn’t sure that I loved Patrick. I even thought I could be interested in someone else, but it turned out Patrick was all I could think about. So he has my heart. I would never betray him if he wanted my love. But this blond woman in the picture obviously betrayed him. You could tell by the letters she wrote to someone whom she was forbidden to see. I wish I knew who that other person was.”

  “Maybe someday you will know the whole story. Patrick may be able to tell you everything. The reason he roams the earth is because there is something that is holding him here. I suspect he is here because his heart was broken by this woman. What we really should be doing is finding out what could make him let go of this world so he could go on to Heaven where he belongs.”

  “No, I don’t want him to go! I want to be with him. I would sacrifice my freedom and be tied down to this place forever for him! Surely he would stay with me if I asked him to.”

  Sarah smiled sadly at her. “Emily, dear, don’t you think that’s a very selfish thing to say?”

  Tears trickled down Emily’s face. “Yes, it was very selfish. I’m so sorry. But I want to see him, to talk to him. It would be so awful to finally find him again, only to lose him again, this time forever.”

  “I will help you try to find him. I won’t judge either of you for what you decide to do. I just want you to know the facts. I want you to realize that if you keep him here even if we figure out how to release him from this world, then you will be doing him a great injustice. If you really love him, you should want what is best for him. He might even come to resent you if you keep him from going to the place he is supposed to be.”

  “Sarah, if I could just talk to him, we would be able to work everything out. I would never try to force him to stay here. That is, if he really wanted to leave me.”

  “Emily, it wouldn’t be because he wanted to leave you, it would be because he wanted to leave this earth and go home where he belongs. Please try to understand that!”

  “Ok, I’ll try not to be so selfish. It’s just so hard to think of losing him forever.”

  “I know, child. Life can be very hurtful sometimes. And in Patrick’s case, so can death. Now, let’s figure out what the link is between you two. Something that makes him always know whether you are safe or in danger.”

  “I wonder….” said Emily, thoughtfully.

  “What are you thinking?”

  She looked at her silver ring. “This ring. It belonged to the blond woman, his fiancée. She is wearing it in the portrait. I was wearing it the first time we met. I’ve worn it ever since.”

  “I bet that’s it!” exclaimed Sarah. “That’s the link. It’s probably not the fact that it once belonged to the girl. It’s more than likely because it’s something from his time. If you had chosen another trinket, then he still would probably be linked to you because of it. Anything that’s from his time would do it, I think.”

  “So, do you think that we can somehow use this ring to get him to come to me? So I can talk to him?”

  “Maybe we can. Let me think on this. Come back tomorrow at the same time and maybe I will have figured out something. I’ll do some reading about these things tomorrow. If he is linked to you by this ring, there must be a way to use the link.”

  “Sarah, thank you so much for your help. I’m beginning to feel like there is hope.”

  “You’re welcome. Just remember what we talked about. You need to think long and hard about trying to keep him here.”

  “I’ll think about that and try not to be so selfish. I just want to take one day at a time right now. I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll be able to find Patrick.”

  She left the older lady’s house with hope in her heart. For the first time since that last night she saw Patrick, she was feeling a little bit of happiness returning to her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Emily spent a lot of the next day thinking about how self-centered she had been acting. Here was a ghost, roaming the earth for 150 years, and she wanted him to stay with her for the rest of her life instead of trying to find a way to help him leave this world. She was feeling really guilty about wanting him to stay with her. Of course, she may not even be able to find him again, anyway. But she decided that if she did find him, she would tell him how much she loved him, and that she would help him break the ties to this world, if possible.

  At lunch, she decided she would walk down to the rocks and eat her lunch there. As she was fixing herself a sandwich, Sam came in.

  “Hey, Emily,” he said. “Are you brown bagging it today?”

  She laughed. “I thought I would take my lunch down to the water today. It’s a pretty, sunny day, and I need to get out of here.”

  “Do you realize that it’s only about 45 degrees out there?”

  “I know, but I need the fresh air.”

  “Well, in that case, would you like some company?”

  Emily hesitated for a moment, and Sam said, “Oh, I guess you want to be alone.”

  “You know what? I would love some company. Fix yourself a sandwich and come on down with me.”

  Sam and Emily went down the path together and sat down on the rocks to eat their lunch. It was chilly and they were both bundled up warmly.

  Sam said, �
�You know, it’s awfully chilly, but you’re right about it being a beautiful day. This was just what I needed. I’ve been writing all morning and I’m exhausted. I usually take a break or two, but I was on a roll. So I kept working until my back was hurting and my eyes were crossing.”

  “I’ve been down here a lot. You know, when I was meeting Patrick,” she said wistfully.

  “So, you aren’t meeting him anymore? What happened?”

  She sighed. “He just doesn’t want to see me anymore.”

  “What is wrong with this guy? Is he crazy? Any man would be out of his mind to not want to see you. What’s the story with him?”

  “Sam, I really don’t want to go into it. He just feels like it’s best that we don’t see each other. I don’t know, maybe he’ll change his mind. But for now, I just have to accept it.”

  “I hate to see you hurting, Emily. I can tell you really cared a lot about this guy. He obviously had some pretty strong feelings for you or he wouldn’t have been so hard on Jamie when he attacked you. I mean, I respect him for wanting to rescue you, but if you were someone he didn’t care for, I think he would have just pulled him off of you, not throw him around a few times. And he must have been pretty strong to be able to do that. Jamie is a big guy.”

  “Patrick is apparently a lot stronger than he looks. Anyway, maybe we should just stop talking about him. It’s just depressing me. Let’s talk about your writing. What are you working on now?”

  They spent the rest of the lunch hour talking about other things, avoiding any more mention of Patrick. But Emily kept getting the feeling they were being watched, like someone was hovering just out of sight. It sent a little chill up her spine. She wondered if Patrick was nearby or if she was just wishing he was here.

  When it was time to go, they picked up their trash and started back to the house. As she was leaving, she felt what seemed to be the tiniest whisper of a breath against the back of her neck. She shivered and turned around. Of course there was no one there.