Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Epilogue
One afternoon, about a week after the safety discussion, Mom decided she needed to run to the pharmacy. Dad was still at work. I was reading in the family room. Seth was playing outside. Mom asked if I wanted to go, but I was at a really captivating part of the novel. Outside, I heard her speak to Seth. I heard his voice, "Can I get..." but couldn't understand the rest. He probably was asking if he could get a snack or a toy. That pharmacy had dollar toys that were kind of cool, and cheap snacks, too. I heard Mom answer yes, then there was the sound of them getting into the car and driving away. For a few moments, I was semi-aware of the sound of the clock ticking, and then I was back in the world of the novel, totally zoned out. Few things would break through the reading trance.
After I don't know how long, one of those things did. Mom and Seth weren't back. Dad was still out. The story had reached a more calm point, in which the characters were in their home, in a discussion which was related to an interesting subplot of the story. I was still pretty into it, but hey, I was a teen. I'd have been blind and deaf to a tornado picking up the house while I was reading, but you can bet I heard the phone ringing.
At first, I'd forgotten I was alone in the house. After the third ring, I realized my error and jumped up to go answer it. It was in the living room. I turned the corner to head in there, only to come face to face with my ghosts from upstairs, standing on the other side of the doorway to the living room with their arms crossed.
Mama looked very stern, as though she were about to discipline someone. Eyes wide, jaw set, head tilted to the side, everything about her said, "Young lady, you are in big trouble."
Just like up in my room that night, Grace had no eyes. I hadn't imagined it! The entire upper half of her face was smooth skin. Her mouth, impossibly wide, was set in the same grim, determined expression as her mother's. It almost made her look like her face had been split with a knife. She didn't even have a nose. There were bald patches in her hair. As my step took me up to the threshhold of the doorway between the rooms, she uncrossed her arms and reached for me.
Startled, I jumped back with a loud scream, and nearly dropped my book. They looked almost solid. I could barely see through them. "NO!" I shouted involuntarily, then, "no-no-no-no-no..." until I shut myself up. As I backed away, their faces began to change. Once I was in the kitchen, they were back to looking pretty normal, Grace with her blue eyes and pretty smile, her blond hair braided and tied, no bald spots, nothing freaky about her except for the fact that she was a ghost. There was no sign of her previous, momentarily horrifying appearance. I could almost have gone back to believing she had never looked like that.
And Mama... Mama looked immensely relieved as the phone stopped ringing. She actually took the posture and made the motion of relaxing with a sigh. She looked at me and wagged a finger, as if to say that I knew better. What the heck?
As scared as I was, I was more confused and curious. This was broad daylight, and I was seeing ghosts in my living room who seemed to have appeared there to scare me away from the phone. I said to the girl, "Is your name Grace?"
Her pretty blue eyes widened for a moment. She nodded happily. I asked "Are you here because of the mirror?" Mama shook her head.
"Why did you come here, then? What drew you to my house? Did I know you some time before?"
As if in answer, the two ghosts rapidly faded out and dissapeared. One moment, they were almost solid, then I could really see through them... and then they were gone.
It could have just been my imagination, but it looked to me as if, at the last moment, they both looked really, really sad. Why, I wondered. What had brought them here? Why was I dreaming about them, and why did they sometimes look so scary? Why had they vanished when I started asking them questions?
I went to the phone to check the caller ID and see if I could call back the person I'd missed. Whoever it was would have to call back. The number was "restricted." That was kind of odd. Everyone from whom we normally received phone calls came up on the caller ID. We'd even entered the names of most of our friends and family, so if it had been one of them, that would have come up. I'd never seen it come up with "restricted" before. Maybe it was a wrong number, or maybe it was a telemarketer from somewhere caller ID couldn't trace yet.
So why did looking at that word give me chills? Why did I have goosebumps until Mom and Seth got home? I wasn't spooked any more by the ghosts, but something about having received an anonymous call really gave me the creeps.
When Mom and Seth finally did get home, I dragged him inside to play video games with me until supper. Mom thought it was just fabulous that we were getting along and playing together. Seth was totally suspicious again, giving me sideways looks and quietly asking what was wrong. Instead of answering him, I yelled out to Mom in the kitchen that I'd missed a phone call while I was in the bathroom, but couldn't call them back because the number came up "restricted."
"Restricted?" Mom looked surprised "We don't know anyone with an unlisted number. Must not have been for us anyway." After a pause, she finished, "I guess if it's important, they'll call back."
Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Epilogue
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