Becky enjoyed each mouthwatering bite of Eggplant Napoleon until the final forkful was finished.
When April brought the check, Becky asked, “Do you have a break anytime soon, April?”
“Yes, I’m about to take one now as soon as I close out your ticket. Is there something else you need?”
“I have a message from Brad. He’s very anxious to let you know what happened that night… Could you meet us outside?”
Although it was a bizarre thing to hear from a stranger, for a brief moment, April felt hopeful. She replied, “Come around back while I take a smoke break. You can go out that door.”
Chapter 29
Later that night, Hillary and Becky sat on her covered patio with the twinkle lights shining down on them. It was a safe and protected place to discuss the night’s events. Besides, Hillary had insisted that she wasn’t finished asking questions about the ghost case she had witnessed.
“You really do this all the time, don’t you?” Hills repeated as if she hadn’t really believed it until now.
“It’s what I do, Hills.”
“It’s amazing. It must bring you such satisfaction to give someone those final comforting words. April really did think that Brad had ditched her. To find out that he was simply trying to make the night more special by proposing with ring in hand, gave her the very peace she needed.”
“It is amazing,” Becky agreed.
“Do you wonder what would’ve happened if Brad hadn’t decided to rush off to Columbia that way? I mean, do you think he would’ve died some other way on that very night?”
Everything is exactly as it is supposed to be, Zetmeh encouraged.
“I don’t know about that,” Becky admitted, “but I do have faith that there are no mistakes or coincidences.”
“I hope she’s able to recover the rings from his car. You know, anything that didn’t come with the car when it was new belongs to the owner or their survivors.”
“You’d know more about that than I do. You work for the police department.”
“Well, it is the law. Some of those towing companies are shady, but for the most part, they follow the law and allow folks to remove their personal items. Speaking of the police department, what do you think of Patrick Burns, the new detective? He’s the one who found you, right?”
“He helped Bobby find me.”
“According to Bobby, he made it possible to find and rescue you, Becky. Without him, the ambulance might not have gotten there in time. When I think about all the things that could’ve gone wrong… words just can’t describe it. So, Patrick Burns was instrumental is saving your behind. Give the man credit where credit is due.”
“I didn’t even know he was there. In my woozy state, I could only see Bobby. I’ve never been happier to see my brother, Hills. Never!”
“Yeah, Bobby is something to behold. That’s for sure,” Hills admitted.
“Wait, are you really hoping to catch Bobby’s eye one day like Patty Lawless claimed? Because I have to tell you, Hills, that he is not the type to stick-around.”
“Well, sure he is, Becky. He just hasn’t found the right one. That’s how it always is. They ain’t until they are.”
“You’re sure about that, Hills? Would you risk taking a chance that you’re the one, knowing full well that he’d move on if you weren’t?”
Hills took a deep breath and then said, “I don’t know if I’m hung up on Bobby or not… not really. I know I love you. I know I admire him. He’s surely good eye-candy. And, to be quite honest, I haven’t found anyone else worth fantasizing about. So let a girl have her little private dreams, Becks. Looks like you have some dreams of your own coming around. Tell me what you really thought about the new Sergeant?”
“He stopped by the hospital to see me the day I was released… he’s pretty good eye-candy too.”
“I’ll say he is!” Hills eagerly agreed.
“I’m having coffee with him Wednesday,” Becky added with a timid smile.
“Woo-hoo!” Hills exclaimed. “Girl, it’s about time you met someone interesting.”
“How do you know I find him interesting?” Becky asked.
“You’re having coffee with him, aren’t you?”
Chapter 30
The antique store remained closed until Becky opened it again on Wednesday. It was her first day back to work since the kidnapping incident. Bobby, fully understanding how the simplest things can trigger a flashback, followed her to work that day.
Sure enough, when Becky got out of her truck, the terror of Irene’s meaty-handed vice grip and Henrietta’s stronghold overwhelmed Becky. Her knees grew weak, and if her brother had not been there to catch her, she would’ve ended up on the ground.
“Are you all right?’ Bobby asked once Becky was standing again.
“I will be. I guess that memory needs to subside before I’ll feel completely safe in the parking lot again.”
Once they were inside, Bobby asked, “Becky, don’t you think you’d feel more secure if you pressed charges against those women?”
“I don’t think I would. They’d get released in only a short while. It’s not really worth the effort. Besides, it could backfire and I don’t want to make enemies of the Johnson family.”
“You’re so stubborn,” Bobby acknowledged, but he let the pending argument go. “Would you like for me to get us some coffee and donuts before I head out?” He offered.
“That sounds really nice, but I’ve already had two cups at home. I’m supposed to have coffee with Patrick around eleven this morning. Too much caffeine will make me feel anxious.”
“That’s great, Becky. I hope you two hit it off. I really like him, but don’t let my opinion influence you. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, Bobby. Thanks for making sure of my safety this morning.”
“You got it, Sis. It’s the least I could do.”
Jacob, Myrtle, and Lois waited until Bobby left before they rushed to surround Becky and to offer sympathy about the things she’d suffered on Saturday. However, soon the first shoppers arrived and Becky was pulled away from their sentimental well-wishes to her daily responsibilities.
At eleven o’clock, Patrick stopped by to walk Becky to the coffee shop three doors down. She hung up a sign that said, “Be Back in Thirty” and walked beside him as she shyly avoided eye contact. He helped her get settled in a booth and then went to the counter to order coffees for each of them. When he returned, he held two steaming cups of black coffee in white porcelain mugs.
“Oh, you didn’t get them in the paper take away cups,” Becky admired. “I always prefer real mugs.”
“Something we have in common,” Patrick’s eyes twinkled with amusement.
They chatted lightly and easily as they avoided any topic about her abduction. Both were aware that they each had to return to their respective work and it wouldn’t do to discuss something that held no resolution. However, soon enough, they were accosted by none other than Patty Lawless.
“Oh, don’t tell me that you’re seeing this freak, Patrick Burns!” Patty stormed with her left hand on her hip and her right hand wagging an index finger at him.
“Move along, Patty,” he calmly replied.
“You can’t use your cop talk on me,” Patty declared. “What are you doing with her?”
“It’s none of your business for one thing and for another, you’re causing a scene. But if you must know, I enjoy her company. Excuse me for a moment, Becky.”
Patrick stood, firmly clasped Patty’s elbow in one hand, and led her to the door and outside. “Stay away from me Patty. I don’t want anything further to do with you. I have a restraining order in place and I will call for back-up if you persist in showing your ass. Do you understand me?” His voice was calm, but strong.
Patty snatched her arm away from him and stuck out her tongue, “You’ll get tired of that little goodie-two-shoes soon enough and when you do, you’ll come crawling back to me. Did you know she’
s a freak? A real freak, the kind that talks to dead people? You won’t like her once you get to know her, Patrick.”
“That might be true. I certainly don’t like you now that I know you, but I suspect that Becky Tibbs is nothing at all like you, thank goodness. Goodbye, Patty. Don’t come around me and Becky again.”
In the meantime, while Patrick handled the situation with Patty, a young mother came in with her six year old daughter, Suzie. After she’d gotten her coffee and some hot chocolate for Suzie, they sat at the nearest table to Becky’s booth. Suzie’s eyes traveled around the room many times as she studied the other people having coffee, but they always returned to Becky.
“Look, Mama, she has a lot of friends,” Suzie’s joyful voice proclaimed.
“Shush, Suzie. Don’t bother the lady.”
“It’s no bother,” Becky said. “Suzie sees a lot, doesn’t she?”
“Indeed she does and it can sometimes be a little embarrassing. I don’t want to stymie her gift, but most people don’t understand. I try to teach her to keep it to herself. I’m Sheryl Black and it is very nice to meet someone who understands.”
“I’m Becky Tibbs. I own the antique shop a few doors down. Believe me, I understand more than most folks.”
Sheryl’s eyes widened as she repeated, “Becky Tibbs. I know who you are. Suzie, it’s time to go. We must hurry,” Sheryl suddenly exclaimed.
“But Mama, I need to talk to her. I’ve been looking for her. I don’t want to leave yet.”
“We must! Now, don’t argue with me, young lady.”
Sheryl hurriedly gathered up their belongings and drinks. She seemed frantic to leave the coffee shop as quickly as possible.
“Did I say something wrong or offend you in some way?” Becky croaked out a shocked response. She was baffled by the sudden change in Sheryl.
“Stay away from us!” Sheryl gritted out, and with her daughter in tow, she headed out the door in a mad rush, bumping right into Patrick as he returned.
“Is there a fire?” he jokingly asked as he settled down next to Becky.
“No, just your typical ‘Oh my Goodness, I’m sitting next to a medium!’ response from the locals.”
“It’s not going to scare me off,” he consoled.
“It might.”
“It won’t,” he insisted.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how do you know Patty Lawless?”
“I dated her in college for a very short while. I guess you went to high school with her, right?”
“You went to NCU?” Becky asked in surprise.
“No, I was at Duke, but you know how close Raleigh is to Durham. We met at a football game. She practically followed me home on the pretense of converting me to her ‘only true religion.’ I didn’t want to offend her. I was very naïve back then. It took me a while to realize that you can’t really offend someone like Patty. To be honest, her religion included a lot of sex. She drove me nuts.”
Becky choked on a sip of coffee and Patrick hurriedly added, “Not in a good way; in a bad way. Look, I don’t normally kiss and tell, but I feel like you need to know this. After only a few dates, it became obvious that her cheese had slid off her cracker. I ended up getting a restraining order there and after I transferred here to Asheville, I had to do it again. She’s not supposed to come near me, my job, my home, or in any establishment I’m in, but she’s very persistent.”
“On what grounds?” Becky asked.
“Criminal mischief. She destroyed almost everything in my apartment when I told her to leave and never come back. She trashed my car and she tried her best to damage my reputation. It was really sick.”
“I better get back to work,” Becky advised. After Sheryl’s response and running into Patty too, she felt tired and out of sorts.
“Don’t tell me that now you’re scared of me,” Patrick admonished.
“No, it’s not that. Believe me; I know Patty Lawless is a handful and more. Remember, I went to school with her.”
“Prove it,” Patrick said. “How about dinner on Friday night?”
After carefully thinking about it for several moments, Becky offered, “Let me cook for you; my home is the only sacred space where I’m not bombarded by ghost business or accosted by critics.”
“Wonderful! It’s a date.”
Chapter 31
That night, Becky dreamed of Suzie. The young girl could see and hear the spirit guides of all those she met, but she could also see darker forces. That aspect of her ability terrified her. Suzie wanted help and she believed that Becky was the only one who could make things better.
Becky’s dream was neither pleasant nor alarming. It was simply an observation. Like a fly on the wall, Becky watched Suzie as she went about her normal routine that day after her mother had dragged her from the coffee shop.
Suzie was a lonely little girl. Only allowed two hours of television each day, and only under her mother’s careful supervision, Suzie played with dolls and had a tea party while she read a story out loud to her tea-mates. After she tired of using her imagination for entertainment, she helped her mother in the kitchen as she made lunch for them.
Sheryl, a single mother, had been alone since Suzie’s father ran off with another woman. He’d blamed his actions on Suzie, saying that he couldn’t take another second of her mumbo-jumbo, creepy witchy crap, but Sheryl had always blamed herself. She was certain that he’d left because of her, that she simply wasn’t enough for him.
After her husband left, it was all she could do to keep a roof over their heads. To do so, she worked a fulltime job at Walmart and ran a small e-Bay resell shop from home. The pace and responsibilities were exhausting and Sheryl was impatient with Suzie more than she wanted to be.
“Mama, I don’t know why you acted that way about Becky. Are you frightened of her?” Suzie asked as they settled at the kitchen table for soup and sandwiches.
“No, honey,” Sheryl protested. “It’s not that…” but she halted mid-sentence when she realized that her daughter’s look was skeptical. Suzie didn’t believe her mother and the child simply could never accept lies coming from those she loved.
“Are you scared of me?”
“Definitely not!” Sheryl proclaimed. “I love you very much Suzie-Q and you can tell that when you look into my eyes. You will only find love there, sweetie. Do you see it? My love fills up my heart and shines right out my eyes. Tell me you see it.” She tickled Suzie to lighten the mood.
“I see it, Mama,” Suzie giggled. “Still, I need to talk to Becky. She is the only one who can help me. Please, please, please, call her so she knows that you aren’t mad and that she can talk to me.”
“Can’t I help you, Suzie? I’m your mother. Can’t I help you with whatever it is? You won’t tell me what has you so worried, but if you did, maybe I could help.”
“No, Mama. I need Becky. Please, just let her know that she can talk to me and that you won’t be mean to her again.”
The next morning while Becky had her first cup of coffee, she shared her dream about Suzie with Zetmeh and asked for her insight about the young girl.
The physical eyes and the third eye are similar to a camera lens, Zetmeh explained. We see through them, but the image we see is out there somewhere, not in our eyes. Suzie sees a darkness in the world around her the same as she sees the spiritual guides of the people she meets. While those spiritual companions are light, Suzie perceives the other images she sees as dark. Her translation of the darkness takes place in her own imagination. That is not to say that she doesn’t see this darkness, it is to say rather that she interprets the darkness into something frightening. It is the same with religions. It is the need to project evil onto something tangible. ‘The devil made me do it’ is a common excuse that we’ve heard throughout the ages and the notion continues even today. I suspect that Suzie has some area of her life where she believes her shortcomings have caused the darkness she sees. She fears it because she fears that it is in her and tha
t she is responsible in some way. I also suspect that this could manifest in many terrible ways if it is not explained to her. Again, my dear Becky, these concepts are controlled by beliefs the same as they were with Josh and Matt. To free Suzie, you must show her that her beliefs are responsible for this terror she feels.
Becky carefully considered Zetmeh’s advice. It was true that Josh and Matt were locked in a prison of their own making by their misguided beliefs about the things they’d been taught. When she thought about it, so were most of the other ghosts she had helped over the years. Why, even Sharrone was trapped in her angry loop because she thought the other side was blocked to her.
“How odd,” Becky thought. “I wonder how far this takes us… If we believe we are fat, are we? If we believe we are unloved, does that make it so? If we believe we are a failure, do we fail? Can our beliefs about life really affect our perception of that life… and its outcome? Do we prophesy our own failed or successful futures?”
Chapter 32
It was late afternoon and only a few hours left until closing when Sheryl and Suzie visited Becky’s antique shop. Sheryl was nervous. She’d worried that Becky would be as rude to her as she had been to Becky in the coffee shop, but Suzie had begged and pleaded until Sheryl had no other option but to give in to her daughter. She was fully prepared for a tongue-lashing from Becky, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Becky smiled at the two visitors and came forward with her hand extended in friendship.
“Hello, Sheryl. Hi Suzie,” Becky smiled again as she bent over to look closely at Suzie’s face. “It’s really nice to see you again.”
“See, I told you Mama; Becky isn’t like most people. She is sweet and wants to help me.”
“That’s very true, Suzie. I really do want to help you. I’ve never met anyone like you, but I am eager to offer my assistance in whatever way that is needed.”
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