by J A Whiting
Viv and Lin swam further out from the beach in the cool, clear water.
“I needed this. It was so hot and humid today, I almost felt sick.” Lin dove under the small waves and surfaced a few yards from Viv.
“The bookstore was crazy today.” Viv pushed her wet hair off of her forehead. “Even though I don’t work outside in the heat, I felt overworked and harried so when you suggested a swim, I jumped on it. I feel much better now.” Treading water, she asked, “Have you seen the old ghost again who was in your kitchen the other night?”
“I haven’t.” Lin’s voice was sad. “If he doesn’t materialize for me, I don’t know how I’ll figure out what he wants.”
“It could be that the ghost wanted validation of some sort. Maybe you appeased him with what you said.”
Lin gave a scowl. “I promised him I’d figure out what he needed. He can’t just up and disappear and never come back. He can’t just leave it to me. I need some help here.”
“Your clever cousin is by your side.” Viv saluted.
Lin smiled. “We both need some help here.”
The two decided to head back and warm themselves on the sand so they struck out for the shore, their swimming strokes relaxed and easy as their arms dipped and rose in the water. When they reached the beach, the young women toweled off and sat in the sun for a while enjoying the view.
“I’m starving,” Viv announced. “Let’s ride over to Cliff Road to the sandwich shop.”
Lin agreed. They pulled on shorts and tank tops, took their towels, and climbed the stairs up to the top of the dunes to their bikes with Viv complaining that there should be an elevator or an escalator to carry people back to the top after their swims. “We just get hot all over again.”
After riding the short distance to the sandwich place, the girls ordered and then settled down at a picnic table under the shade of the trees to eat.
“Hey, you two.” John, dressed in a linen suit, strode across the lawn to them.
Surprised to see her boyfriend, Viv patted the bench for John to sit next to her. “What are you up to? What are you doing here?”
“I’m meeting a client. I’m showing her a house a few streets over. She asked if I’d meet her here.”
Viv gave John part of her sandwich and he munched. “I’m glad I ran into you,” he grinned enjoying the delicious snack. He asked Lin, “What happened after I texted you? Did you see the owner of the Cape house?”
“I did.” Lin wiped a bit of aioli from her lips. She told him about the conversation she had with the man.
“So he said he didn’t employ a caretaker?” John asked.
“That’s right.”
John said, “Good, because he didn’t tell me he had a man taking care of the place. I like to know who’s supposed to be around the house and who isn’t. Did you ask him about the ghost?”
Lin gave a nod. “He said those were only silly stories that a ghost lived in his house.”
John narrowed his eyes. “Really … because he told me there was a ghost.”
Viv sipped from her soft drink. “The owner might have thought Lin was interested in the house or maybe that she had a friend who might be interested. He doesn’t want to scare anyone off from a possible sale.”
“He can’t be telling people there’s no ghost. I need to be upfront with the clients I show the place to.”
“You actually come right out and say, there’s a ghost living in here?” Lin was astounded.
John shook his head. “No, no. I mention, with a smile of course, that some people have suggested the sensation of a ghost around the house. I tell possible buyers, but downplay the unusual news. And I don’t want to hear any weird stories of people’s experiences who have lived in the house, that way, I can stay neutral. I don’t offend anyone who might believe in such things and I don’t scare anyone off. It’s a delicate balance.”
“I want to hear the stories about the ghost,” Lin told John.
Viv looked up from her sandwich and asked John, “Do you know anyone who’s actually spent time living in the Cape?”
John picked up a potato chip from Viv’s brown paper sandwich box. “Of course, I do. In fact, the woman I’m meeting here rented that house a few years ago.”
Lin almost dropped her sandwich. “She did? Can I talk to her before you leave to show her your listing?”
“I guess so. I’ll ask her when she shows up.” John gave Lin a look that said he wasn’t sure why anyone would want to talk with somebody about a haunted house. “There she is.” He stood up, waved, and walked over to his client.
The woman was in her thirties with chin-length, light brown hair. She glanced over to the picnic table and eyed the cousins as John had a few words with her.
John led her over to the table and made introductions. “This is Ginny Hillsborough. She’s agreed to chat with you for a few minutes. I’m going to go buy a couple of bottles of water. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Ginny sat down with the cousins. “Nice to meet you. You want to ask about the haunted house?”
“Thanks for agreeing to chat,” Lin said. “Can you tell us what you experienced while renting the Cape?”
Ginny let out a sigh. “My husband, he was my boyfriend at the time, and I lived in the house for a year. It was less than that, really, because we moved out two months before the lease was up. We didn’t want to stay there anymore. We’d had enough. I’ve never experienced anything like what went on in that house.” Ginny passed her hand over her eyes. “And I hope I never do again.”
“What went on?” Viv asked softly, looking horrified to have to engage in the topic of conversation.
“At first, it was little things. Things were moved from where we left them. Doors slammed shut. Lights came on in rooms without us flicking the lamps on.” Ginny paused in her telling. “Cold air, freezing air, would float through the room like we’d left the door open in the middle of a winter night. Colder than that, actually.”
“Did you ever see anything?” Lin asked.
“We saw lights moving through the hallway at night sometimes. A glowing ball.” She held her hands to show the size … which was a little bigger than a baseball.
“Was that why you moved out?” Viv questioned.
Ginny made eye contact with Viv and Lin. “No, it wasn’t. The things I told you about were odd enough, but other things were the reason we left.” She sucked in a breath. “Some nights we’d wake up to the sound of sobbing. Terrible sobbing. A man’s cries.”
“Where was it coming from?” Viv rubbed the goosebumps on her arms.
“We could never pinpoint it. Sometimes when the man was crying, he called out a name … it was hard to make out, it sounded like Sara, or Clara, or something like that. It was chilling.” Ginny shuddered. “You can’t imagine.”
Lin thought she probably could imagine.
“Someone mentioned to John that the ghost seemed angry,” Viv said. “Did you ever get that impression?”
Ginny nodded gravely. “We did, yes. It was more than an impression. You might think we’re crazy, believing these things happened, but some nights after the crying, objects in our room would get picked up and thrown across the bedroom.”
Viv gasped.
“Did the objects move on their own?” Lin’s eyes were like saucers.
“It seemed like they were being lifted and thrown by an invisible hand. We’d be in bed and the room would fill with freezing air. We knew if that happened right after the sobbing stopped that something would go airborne in a minute or two.” Ginny crossed her arms over her chest. “It was unnerving, let me tell you.”
“Did you feel like you were in danger?” Lin asked.
“Not really. The spirit never seemed to be after us. It seemed like the ghost was full of terrible sorrow and anger that was directed at someone, but not towards us.” Ginny checked her watch. “I should get going to see the house John wants to show me. I don’t have a lot of time today.”
“I found out I was pregnant. The crying and the freezing air and the breaking things increased. Once in the middle of the night, my husband got up to use the bathroom and when he came back to the bedroom, he got hit in the head with a flying book. It wasn’t intended for him, at least, we didn’t think so. It was just another ghostly fit being had. My husband decided he didn’t want me getting hurt by stepping into the path of something being thrown. I agreed with him that it was time to get out of there. We don’t usually tell people about what went on in that house. Most people looked at us like we were nuts when we discussed it, so we decided to keep the experience to ourselves.” Ginny looked over to John and nodded. “John said it was okay to talk to you about it. If he didn’t vouch for you, I would never have agreed.”
Lin and Viv thanked the woman for sharing and Ginny started away, but stopped and turned back. “You know, talking about it has made me sad all over again. That poor spirit or ghost or whatever it is that’s stuck inside that house, when we lived there, I wished so much that I could help him. It just about broke my heart listening to that terrible sobbing.”
Lin swallowed hard. She was pretty sure she knew who the sorrowful, angry ghost was who lived in that Cape house.
9
Lin stepped over the threshold into the gray-shingled antique Cape on the lot next to Neil’s place. The sun had set and darkness settled over the yard and invaded the spaces of the house. The floor creaked when she walked across the living room to admire a huge stone fireplace. The ceilings were lower than in modern houses, but Lin thought it gave the room a cozy feeling.
John flicked the wall switch and the light came on and chased away the shadows.
Lin and Viv met John at the house so they could get a sense of the home. They told him that Lin could spread the word about the place being for sale to some of her landscaping clients who might enjoy stories of ghosts or who believed that ghosts moved among the living.
“Have a look around the place and spread the word to your customers,” John encouraged. “I’m going to sit in the car and make some calls to my clients.”
The Cape had been nicely kept up and the wide pine floors were in good shape for being over two-hundred-and fifty-years old. As the cousins moved from the living room, to the dining room, and into the kitchen, Viv remarked how surprisingly large the rooms were for such an old house. There were two bedrooms and a sunroom on the first floor as well as two bathrooms.
“This is a great house for a family,” Viv said while standing in front of the wall of windows in the sunroom. “So roomy and with a beautiful backyard.” Turning to her cousin, she watched Lin walk around the room, running her hand over a few of the furniture pieces remaining in the house. “Are you picking up on anything?” Viv asked.
“Not yet,” Lin said quietly. There was a strange silence in the house. It felt … empty, lonely. Lin’s heart contracted. She moved to a door on the other side of the kitchen and as she reached for the latch, a vibrating humming sensation moved over her skin. She pulled her hand back.
“Is that a closet?” Viv asked.
“I think it’s the door to the back staircase.” Lin’s heart pounded. She placed the palm of her hand on the wooden door and a buzzing pulsed against her skin. Moving her hand to the left, she grasped the latch and pulled the door open.
A dark whoosh of bad feelings rushed from the narrow stairwell and almost knocked Lin over.
“Are you going up?” Viv didn’t realize that her cousin was picking up on things floating on the air and she came behind Lin and peeked up the stairs.
“Um, maybe we should use the main staircase.” Lin did not want to go up to the second floor using the back stairs.
“Why?” Viv questioned.
“The steps look a little rickety.” Lin backed away and shut the door, letting the latch click into place.
Viv led the way to the front of the house and started up the steps. Lin took in a breath and followed. At the top of the landing, there was a long hallway with four bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small room that had probably been most recently used as an office. The back staircase was at the end of the hall.
Lin got a dark feeling in her chest when she approached the door to the stairs. It made her shudder and want to hurry away. Again, she forced herself to place her palm against the door and felt the same buzzing and pricking against her skin that she experienced on the first floor when looking at the staircase. It was as if the vibration was warning her to get away.
“I feel something bad,” Lin whispered.
Viv’s breath caught in her throat and she practically ran to Lin’s side. “Bad? What kind of bad?”
“I don’t know. I feel it near the back staircase.”
Viv laced her arm through Lin’s and tugged. “Get away from it then. Let’s go downstairs. Let’s use the main staircase.”
“I’d like to stand here for a minute.”
Viv stood still flicking her eyes around the space, her chest rapidly rising and falling with shallow breaths. “For only one minute, then we’re out of here.”
Long ago impressions moved in the air, some bumped against Lin, while others floated gently past. She attempted to steady herself by deepening her breathing and relaxing her muscles and she listened to the vibrations that lingered in the long-ago atmosphere of the house. Snippets of things washed over her … joy and love, and then a feeling of sadness.
Suddenly, a sensation hit Lin square in the chest and almost made her fall back. It was a sucker-punch of terror and fear followed by disbelief, and then crushing grief, misery, and the longing for something that was no more.
Lin inhaled audibly and took three steps back.
“What is it? What’s happening?” Viv grabbed her cousin’s arm. “Are you okay?”
Lin gave a nod and moved her hand to her temple. “Let’s go now.”
After reaching the first floor of the house, the young women sat at the old wooden kitchen table.
“Did you see a ghost?” Viv asked, her face pale.
With her shoulders hunched, Lin looked worn out. “I didn’t. I didn’t feel any cold air. I didn’t see anything.” She rested her elbows on the tabletop and held her head in her hands.
“Why did you gasp then? You must have seen something.”
“It was sensations, feelings … impressions.” Lin looked into her cousin’s eyes. “There were happy times in this house … then something bad happened, maybe two bad things. I feel it most at the back stairs.”
Viv moved her hand to her throat. “Did someone get murdered in here?”
“I don’t know what happened.” Lin gave a sad half-smile. “I don’t really know what the sensations are.”
“Was it an accident of some sort? Did someone break in? Did someone get killed?”
“What happened here a long time ago feels terribly, terribly sad.” Lin shrugged. “Whatever it was.”
“Why doesn’t that old ghost show up?” Viv glanced over her shoulders as if she was concerned that the spirit would sneak up on them. “If he wants help, he needs to show up and point us to some clues.”
Lin gave a weary shrug. Being in the house seemed to be sapping her energy.
Viv sat up straight. “Did the old ghost live here? Can you sense his presence in this house? Maybe he never lived here at all. Maybe being here isn’t going to help at all.”
“I don’t know who I sense.” Lin’s voice was small. “I’ve only seen the old ghost once. I don’t have a good sense of him. I don’t know if he lived here or not. I don’t know if the sadness in this house is connected to him or to someone else.”
“If he did live here as a ghost, where did he go?” Viv pulled her chair closer to the table.
Lin frowned. “Yo
u know I don’t understand a single thing about this skill of mine. I also don’t know a single thing about ghosts.”
“You know a few things,” Viv reminded her cousin. “You know they never speak.”
“What else do I know?” Lin looked exhausted.
Viv’s lips squeezed together in a tight line while she thought about what else Lin knew. “Well, I can’t think of anything right this second, but there must be something else.”
“Why don’t we head out?” Disappointment from not finding out anything about the ghost was evident in Lin’s tone.
Before they got out of their seats, the back door opened with a bang and Lin and Viv leapt to their feet.
John stepped into the room holding a flashlight and saw the startled looks on the girls’ faces. “Sorry, a gust of wind pulled the door right out of my grasp.”
“Why are you coming in through the back?” Viv asked.
“I walked around the outside of the house to be sure everything was okay. There’s no moon. It’s really dark.” John looked from Viv to Lin. “You all done? We ready to get going?”
The cousins nodded and John locked the back door. Walking through the living room to the front, John chuckled. “Did you run into any ghosts while you were touring the house?”
“Only one,” Viv kidded her boyfriend. “He told me to warn you to never be in this house alone.”
John spun around and stared at Viv and she let out a hoot of laughter. “I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts.”
With a scowl, John led the way to the front door muttering how Viv’s joke wasn’t funny at all.
Smiling at Viv’s light-hearted teasing of her boyfriend, Lin took a last look around the living room before following the others out of the house.
Something on the empty bookshelf in the corner of the room caught Lin’s attention. She narrowed her eyes and her heart raced. A sailor’s valentine stood on the middle shelf. It looked exactly like the one she’d bought at the shop the other day.