“I have relived my death hundreds of times and am bound by fate to relive it thousands more. With each occurrence, I hope that the end will be different, but it never is.”
Mia leaned closer to him, intrigued. “What do you mean?”
“It matters not. I should bid you farewell for the evening, Mia Randall. Will you come back tomorrow?”
“Yes.” Mia nodded, wondering whether to push him for an answer to her question. “Yes, I’ll come back tomorrow, Benjamin.”
“Good night, Mia.”
Benjamin vanished. “Good night, Benjamin,” she called into the darkness.
On the way home, Mia thought about everything Benjamin had said. Despite being born a century and a half later, she and Benjamin had something in common. He had spent much of his life without his mother, just as she had without her father. Maybe it had even been more difficult for him than it had been for her. She had never really known her father, but Benjamin had known his mother. Not only did Benjamin know the pain of growing up without her, but he had endured the loss of her, a grieving process that surely could not be easy for a five-year-old boy.
She couldn’t help but wonder if he would be there tomorrow. She was torn between the fear of being crazy if he was there and the fear of not seeing him if he wasn’t. If the truth be told, she would rather be hallucinating than to know that Private Benjamin Alexander Richards did not exist at all.
When Mia got home, her mother was already asleep. Mia retired to her own room and lay across the bed. She desperately wanted to call Jennie, but after the fiasco of taking Jennie to Chickamauga Park and Benjamin being a no show, Mia was hesitant to mention it again.
She could try talking to her mother. In general, her mother was understanding, but Mia thought better of it.
Mia shuffled through thought after thought of what she should do, if anything. When calling Kaylie popped in her mind, the idea was so perfect that she didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it sooner. Jennie had told her that Kaylie’s father writes about ghosts. Who better to ask about them than Kaylie?
Mia texted a brief message to Kaylie. Are you up?
As soon as she received Kaylie’s affirmative reply, she called her.
“Hello.”
“Kaylie,” Mia blurted out excitedly, “Jennie told me that your dad writes about ghosts.”
“He does,” Kaylie said simply, as if it was no big deal.
“Has he ever seen one?” Mia asked hopefully.
“He’s seen a lot of strange things—the kind of things that would make you think that ghosts certainly do exist, but he’s never actually seen one.”
Disappointment radiated throughout Mia’s body.
“He has heard them, though. At least, he suspects that what he heard were ghosts. He’s seen objects move when no one was standing near them. A couple of times he thought he saw one, but it was so brief, he can’t be sure.”
Mia recalled that Benjamin had said that souls in transition could use energy to make things move. That was something.
“Have you ever gone with your dad to track down ghosts?”
“Only once. Why all the questions about ghosts, Mia?” Kaylie asked.
“Oh, I was just thinking about the night at Chickamauga Park when we were telling ghost stories.”
“My dad says ghosts are abundant in battlefields,” Kaylie stated. “In fact, Dad has even mentioned that he might write a book on that someday.”
“So you believe in ghosts?”
“Absolutely,” Kaylie replied without hesitation.
Mia felt better. “I know it’s late, so I’ll let you go. Maybe we can hang out tomorrow or the next day.”
“Cool,” Kaylie said. “Just give me a call.”
“Great. I’ll talk to you later then.”
“Bye.”
Mia hung up. Relief washed over her and for the first time since she had met Benjamin, she thought maybe she wasn’t crazy. She quickly slipped into a peaceful slumber.
***
Benjamin waited patiently, perched atop the fallen trunk that Mia had sat on the day before. If he had learned anything in the last century and a half, it was patience. When one was a soul in transition, there wasn’t much one could do, but wait. He was never entirely sure what he had been waiting for—until now.
The early morning sun broke through the treetops, a balmy breeze rustling the foliage. The peace he felt on this morn was in great contrast to the horror and deafening explosions of gunfire that he had experienced repeatedly as he relived the day of his death.
He tried to clear his head of the horrible experience. Today was different. Today he had something he hadn’t had since he died that first time so long ago. Today he had hope. Today he had Mia.
“Benjamin.”
Her soft voice beckoned to him, bringing him out of his reverie. He watched her as she carefully made her way through the underbrush toward the tree trunk. Her silky hair the color of brown sugar hung well past her slender shoulders. “Benjamin?”
He looked alive as she approached him. “Good morning, Mia.”
“Benjamin!”
A jolt of happiness surged through him as she genuinely seemed glad to see him.
“I trust you slept well?” he asked, admiring her beauty.
“Yes,” she answered, watching him with blue-gray eyes.
She straightened her purple shirt and sat beside him on the trunk.
“When I was a small boy, my mother used to sing me to sleep,” he stated. “Her voice soothed me, and it never took me long to fall asleep. It was one of the things that I missed most after she died.
“I can remember lying in bed, tossing and turning, trying desperately to hear her voice in my mind.”
“It must have been very painful for you.”
“It was,” Benjamin agreed.
“Which do you think is easier? Knowing your mother and having the memories and the pain of her loss? Or in my case, never knowing my father, and while I don’t have any memories of him, I didn’t have to endure the pain of losing him, either.”
“The rainy days in life are what make us treasure the sunny days,” Benjamin responded. “I don’t know which is easier. I only know that I would gladly endure a thousand nights of pain to experience the joy of being loved for only one night. When my mother sang me a lullaby, I was surrounded by her love. What more can one ask for? And while you may not have endured the pain of your father’s death, you did endure the pain of losing him.”
“I suppose you’re right, and I do wish that I had memories of him.”
Benjamin could see the sadness in her eyes. “Let’s focus on brighter things. What are your hobbies?”
“I like to read and hang out with friends. I love animals. I have an adorable black Labrador mix named Achilles, who loves chasing tennis balls and squirrels. But my favorite hobby is also my newest.”
“What’s that?” Benjamin asked, wanting to know as much about Mia Randall as he could.
“Ghost chasing.”
Benjamin laughed. “You like chasing ghosts, do you?”
“Not just any ghost,” Mia corrected.
Benjamin inched his face closer to hers. “The first night that I saw you, I would have given anything to be the one who was in the tower with you, to know the touch of your lips against mine, to know the softness of your skin.”
Mia whispered timidly, “I wish you could kiss me, Benjamin.”
“As do I.”
“It seems so unfair,” Mia said. “Why can’t something good happen to me just once?”
“Mia,” he spoke softly. “There is a way.”
Her eyes lit with hope. “What do you mean?”
Turmoil churned within Benjamin. He should not even be considering this. “I should not speak of it, and it could be dangerous.”
“What is it?” she whispered, searching his face for the answer.
“It is incredibly selfish of me,” Benjamin said more to himself than to her.
<
br /> “What?” she demanded.
He looked away from her, unable to control the surge of emotions that ripped through his soul. “No, I cannot,” he said finally.
“Benjamin,” she said, her voice laced with a frantic urgency. “Benjamin, please tell me.”
“I want to,” he countered. “More than you know, but….”
“Then tell me.”
It was a moment of weakness, he knew. But like Mia, he was also desperate for joy in the midst of despair. He had wandered aimlessly for many years, not knowing the reason, only knowing that he had not truly lived. He had been drawn to Mia since the initial moment that he laid eyes upon her, but it was the first time that he looked in her eyes that he knew, she was his reason. Then how could it be wrong? It was his fate. He knew it as surely as he knew his name. Wrong or right, his decision was made. “There is a way for me to be…alive.”
“How, Benjamin?”
“Mia, I fear that it would be asking too much of you.”
“Tell me,” she insisted. “Please.”
Doubt crept into his conscience. It was unfair. She would be the one at risk, not him. If something happened to her because of him, he would never forgive himself. “I cannot. It was foolish of me to bring it up. Can you forgive me for being so thoughtless, Mia?”
“Please tell me, Benjamin.”
He looked into her pleading eyes, cursing himself for having been so weak as to even mention it. “Perchance another time. Today, let us just enjoy each other’s company.
“I believe you were telling me how much you enjoyed chasing a particular ghost.”
Mia smiled. “What do you enjoy, Benjamin?”
“I enjoy being chased by one, particular, beautiful girl,” he answered. “I was thinking that one of these days, I might even let her catch me.”
“You have an unfair advantage,” Mia mused. “You can disappear.”
Benjamin became transparent. “Like this, you mean?”
“Yes, like that,” Mia laughed.
Benjamin looked alive. “Mia, what do you want out of life?”
“Well, I hope to graduate from college and have a successful career, so that I can take care of my mother the way that she has taken care of me all these years. She works really hard as a waitress—too hard, and I want to make life easier for her.
“Then one day I hope to get married and have children.
“What about you, Benjamin? What do you…what did you want out of life?”
“To be honest, I was a bit undecided. I had thought about attending a university to study medicine or perhaps law. My father supported me in either decision; although, I think he wanted me to spend some time in the family business first.”
“Your father had his own business?”
“Yes, Richards & Son Railroad. My father was in the process of extending his track to Knoxville when I died. He also opened a luxurious hotel in Chattanooga. His businesses were growing so fast that it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with them. I was helping him, and I think he was a bit afraid that if I went to a university, it would slow him down and it would be more difficult to keep up with the competition. I think that may have contributed to his reasons for not wanting me to join the war efforts.
“My father did nothing haphazard. He built the grandest hotel in Chattanooga.”
“He did?”
“Yes, but he seemed to lose interest in business after my death. In the end, he lost his railroad and his hotel. I had shown myself to him a few times, but he seemed to think he was hallucinating. It made things worse, so I stopped. He lived the next few years in poverty and died from pneumonia. I blame myself for his early death. If I had continued working with him instead of going to war….”
“You can’t blame yourself. You had no way of knowing what was going to happen. You did what you thought best at the time,” Mia reassured him.
“Perhaps, but it doesn’t make it any easier. I wish that I had heeded my father’s advice.”
A comfortable silence settled between them. Benjamin supposed that judging by the tiny crease in her forehead, Mia was lost in her thoughts. He wondered what the future would hold for her.
He felt strongly that fate had brought her to him, but to what purpose? He had told her that he wished that he had heeded his father’s advice, but things of that nature were much easier to discern when one already knew the outcome.
He did not know Mia’s future, and he did not know what effect, if any, she was destined to have on him.
One thing he did know—he wanted their futures to be entwined for eternity.
Chapter 5
Mia lightly ran her fingers over the cover of the book that Kaylie Gaston’s father had written. He had written other books since then, but this particular book was the one that had brought him to Chattanooga for ghost research.
“My father has been infatuated with ghosts his entire life,” Kaylie said as she pulled another one of her father’s books off the oak bookshelf in her living room. “When he was young, he was swinging in his backyard. He thought he saw his grandfather, who had passed away a few months before, standing under a tree near the swing. By the time he jumped off the swing to investigate, his grandfather was gone. But since then, he has been convinced that ghosts do exist.”
“Did he ever see his grandfather again?”
“Once more on the day he married my mother. But it was very brief, too. It was so brief that he won’t confess to having seen a ghost. He says he can’t be sure whether he had seen something or whether he was just imagining it.”
Mia thought about how Benjamin had said that he had shown himself to his father, and she knew that Mia’s great grandfather must have also been a soul in transition.
“My father has talked to numerous people while he has researched his books who have sworn that they have seen ghosts. Many of them saw loved ones who had passed away. Some saw random ghosts. The ghosts seem to be associated with a particular place. Like the hotel downtown, for instance. One particular room manifests most of the ghostly activity, but strange things have been seen throughout the hotel. It seems to be some type of ghostly hotspot.” Kaylie slid the book back in its slot on the bookshelf.
“The night we were at the battlefield, you mentioned some ghosts,” Mia said.
“The bride in the white dress and Old Green Eyes are probably the two most popular ghosts from the Chickamauga Battlefield,” Kaylie replied.
“What do you know about them?”
“Not much, really,” Kaylie said. “The woman dressed in white is supposed to be a bride-to-be searching for her fiancée, who was a fallen Civil War soldier. Old Green Eyes is much more evil. He’s supposed to have glowing green eyes, long hair, and fangs. That’s all I know about him. You can search the Internet for him. Of course, you never know if the stories are true or if it’s just people wanting to tell a good ghost story.”
“Do you think he’s real?”
Kaylie thought for a moment. “I don’t know. Several people claim to have seen him, which makes me think there must be something to it.”
“Has your father ever researched him?”
“Not yet. Although, he’s talked a lot about writing a book about the ghosts from the Civil War.”
Mia flipped through the book and read several excerpts. She snapped the book shut and placed it back on the shelf.
“This stuff doesn’t spook you?” Mia asked as she sat down on the brown leather sofa.
“Nah. My father’s talked about the paranormal my whole life,” Kaylie answered, sitting in an overstuffed leather chair across from her. “Oh, I’ve got something to show you. I’ll be right back.” Kaylie hopped up from the chair and disappeared down the hall. Five minutes later, she returned, carrying a large, cardboard box.
“What’s that?” Mia asked, curious about the box’s contents.
“Pictures. Some of them are just the places where my father has done research. Others are pictures of ghosts, orbs, and ect
oplasm.”
Kaylie sat the box on the hardwood floor in front of Mia. She sorted through a few photos and showed one to Mia. “This person is surrounded by ectoplasm.”
“What’s ectoplasm?” Mia asked, her curiosity mounting as she took the photo from Kaylie.
“It’s a transparent, white spirit. It looks like smoke. Sometimes when people take pictures, a spirit will show up in the photo.”
Kaylie shuffled through the box. “Here’s a photo with several orbs. Orbs are spherical lights that are believed to be spirits.” She handed the photo to Mia. “Critics say they are nothing more than motes of dust in the photo.
“Here’s a photo that my father took when he visited the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The photo is of some rock formations on the battlefield, but look at this.” Kaylie pointed to a figure in the photo. “It’s a Union soldier. There was no one in this photo when my father took it.”
Mia took the photo from Kaylie. A transparent image of a Union soldier stood solemnly near one of the rocks. The image in the photo made her realize that there were others like Benjamin. “Why do you think this soldier showed up in this photo?”
“I don’t think anyone really knows. All we can do is guess. Some of the theories are that ghosts, like this soldier, want to send a message or maybe they just want to be acknowledged. Other theories are that ghosts are spirits who want to watch over loved ones or have unfinished business on Earth. Maybe that soldier didn’t even mean to be photographed.”
“Would it scare you to see a ghost?” Mia asked.
“I guess it could depend on the ghost, but I don’t think so. I thought about doing my senior project on ghosts. My father has a lot of really great props I could use.”
“Yeah, that would be really cool. I’m sure it would be very original, too. That should score you some extra points.”
“I’ll take all the extra points that I can get. I am so ready to graduate from high school.”
“You won’t miss it?” Mia questioned.
“Nah. I’m ready to have some adventure. Sitting in class day after day is totally boring.”
“Are you going to college?”
“My dad wants me to,” Kaylie replied. “But I think I want to take some time off first. I told him that he and I should work on a project together. I think he actually liked that idea.”
Ghostly Encounter (Ghostly #1) (Ghostly Series) Page 6