Ghost Island (15 page)

CHAPTER 29

Grace’s sudden departure shouldn’t have bothered me. Once Chris had dumped me after my dad’s conviction, I thought I was immune to rejection. Guess I wasn’t. I had really believed that Grace understood what was happening. I’d saved her from Caitlin. But now all she could see was that creepy video of me, those long, dreamlike steps I took, and most of all, that embarrassing embrace with an imaginary guy.

It wasn’t just the video that bothered her, I knew. We’d been here a week, and Grace was getting wound up tighter and tighter. I wasn’t sure how much longer she could handle the storm and the creepy kids sharing the hotel with us.

I also knew the imaginary guy was more real than even I dared to believe. If only he could find a way for us to contact Grace’s father.

That morning, Charles and I got to the kitchen at the same time.

“You’re up early,” he said, and in the bright b
lu
e of his eyes, I could see the unasked question.

“I only took half a pill. No dreams, though.”

“Not for me either.” He jerked his head toward a c
lu
ster of forms at the far table. “Guess we aren’t the first here, after all.”

Emily was sitting with the three girls, her hands around a white mug. She smiled and waved two fingers at me.

The coffee pot was empty and cold.

“What’s wrong?” Charles asked.

“I’ll have to make some fresh coffee.” I opened the cupboard and pulled down a tin of ground generic stuff.

“What are they drinking?”

“Who knows? But if it came out of this pot, it was made yesterday.”

He made a face. “Gross.”

Oddly enough, I felt better. Those girls were the ones sitting in a dim room hanging onto empty cups of cold whatever. They appeared more lost in this storm world than we were.

Grace rushed in, her hair loose around her shoulders.

“Hey,” I said.

She ignored me and walked to the counter.

“Grace,” Charles called out.

She turned and glared at us. Then she grabbed an orange and headed back the way she had come.

“What’s wrong with her?” Charles asked. “She wouldn’t talk to me last night either.”

“She’ll be all right.”

“Who’ll be all right?” Johnny pulled out the chair beside me. His navy jacket was wrinkled.

“Grace.” I tried to sound as if I believed it.

“She’s acting crazy this morning,” Charles said.

As much as I didn’t want to talk about what had happened, I needed to tell them.

“Grace and I met with Ms. Gates last night.”

“What about?”
Johnny said. “Is Emily spreading more vicious rumors about you?”

“Worse. Ms. Gates shot a video of me while I was asleep and dreaming. I’ve got to tell you guys, it was creepy.”

“Creepy, how?”
Charles asked.

“Me walking around the room, lifting my legs, as if I’m going up the stairs.”
I didn’t add the dancing and kissing parts.

“What does it mean?” Johnny asked. “You didn’t just make up this dream stuff. We all know that.”

“All Ms. Gates proved with her video is that our bodies don’t seem to leave the room,” I told him.
“At least not every time.”

“And Grace can’t get that?”

“Not right now. Even though she pretty much gets what’s going on here, I just don’t think she can handle anymore. She doesn’t trust me, and she thinks I’m arrogant to believe in Aaron while he’s apparently not real.”

“Apparently?”
Johnny put his arms around me.

“We can’t desert Grace just because she’s disgusted with you,” Charles said. “And we can’t wait for the storm to pass. We’ve got to find a phone, one that works, I mean.”

“That’s what we’re trying to do,” I said without mentioning Aaron.

“How?”
Johnny asked.

Then I remembered something I had forgotten before. “Maybe we should start with Peggy. I saw her talking on one when I was at her house.”

“Let’s go.”

“Only one problem,” I told him. “Ms. Gates says I can’t leave the hotel.”

“Then let’s the three of us leave the hotel,” he said.

“Okay, Johnny, but if she catches me, you guys have to help me invent an excuse.”

“We’ll think of something.” His confidence made me wonder if he had forgotten the scene with Emily the night before.

Maybe he had. I wasn’t about to ask.

The guest golf carts were in back of the hotel.

“Looks like we can have our pick.”
Johnny laughed. “I guess we’re the only ones going out today.”

We climbed into the golf cart. Charles was driving and Johnny and I were hanging onto each other in the back. Heading down the hill was far easier than driving up the back road had been. Charles finally turned onto
Descanso
Street and the tiny driveway in front of the home.

The adobe roof tiles, wet from the rain, gleamed as if they had just been placed there. We hurried to the burgundy awning below the wrought-iron balcony. Once we were crowded into the curved entry, I knocked on the door. It opened a crack, and I glimpsed Peggy’s bright eyes.

“Oh, it’s you, Miss.” She opened it the rest of the way and let us in. “I was just putting on a stew for tonight.”

A pot on the stove sent out a fragrant aroma rich with herbs. The kitchen was spotless. In fact, from what I could see of it, the entire house was immaculate. The wood fireplace mantle looked freshly polished, and so did the two black-and-white framed photographs on top of it. One was a wedding photo—a curly haired girl in a white suit, a blond guy in a military uniform. The other was of the same grinning guy squinting at an invisible camera. Norm. Even as a young man, he had worn his glasses around his neck. Remembering what the shore boat driver had told us sent chills through me. This probably wasn’t the appropriate time to ask Peggy whether her husband was dead or alive, since I was here to borrow her phone.

In spite of the early hour, Peggy was wearing a neatly ironed b
lu
e shirt the same soft color as her eyes, and had smoothed her white hair into a bun. She seemed more alert than when I had shown up with Grace.

“These are my friends, Charles and Johnny,” I told her.

“I remember you from the casino,” she said to Charles. “It’s been a lot quieter since you left. Not that I’m blaming you for any of the trouble we had.”

“I didn’t have anything to do with what was going on in there,” he shot back.

I gave him a look that I hoped told him to back off.

“What kind of trouble?” I asked Peggy.

“Well, you know how disturbing it was with the workers making repairs and then those kids breaking in at night and making such a racket.” She glanced from Charles to me. “It’s not like that now. Aaron wants you to stay there.”

“That’s what he told me.”

“When did he say that?” Johnny demanded.

I ignored his question.

“Would you like some coffee?” Peggy asked quickly, as if she sensed my discomfort. “I’m brewing a fresh pot right now.” She nodded toward a coffeepot gurgling on the counter.

Although polished to a mirror-like sheen, it had to be almost as old as she was.

“Thanks,” I said, eyeing the cream-colored telephone hanging on the kitchen wall. “Actually, I was wondering if your phone is still working.”

“Aaron asked me the same thing.” She walked into the kitchen and we followed. “Sometimes when it rings, I can make out voices. Sometimes just sounds, and sometimes there’s nothing but static.”

“What about your answering machine?” I asked.

“We don’t have one.” She lifted the receiver. “What do you know?
A dial tone.”

She held it out to me, and it was all I could do to keep from yanking it out of her hands.

“Finally,” I said. “It’s working.” Just then, it went dead in my ear. I clicked the switch and tugged at the cord, but no sound returned.
“Nothing.”
I hung it back up.

“You see what I mean?” she said from one end of the wooden table. “Will you be moving into the casino then?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Aaron feels you’ll be safer there. The hotel’s not protected, you know.”

“Protected from what exactly?”

“From the weather.”
She gestured toward the rain-streaked window. “The way it’s built so high up there, it could suffer some real damage. Perhaps you should all stay there. It’s very secure, and one of us is always checking on it.”

“One of you?”
I didn’t dare look at the others.

“Norm or me.
That’s our job.”

“Where is Norm?” I asked.

“He’s—Oh, my goodness, the coffee.” She rushed to the counter and yanked out the cord. Boiling coffee roiled against the inside of the transparent lid. “This pot’s a little tricky,” she said. “Come, help yourselves.”

I stood beside her as Johnny and Charles filled their stoneware mugs. Johnny made eye contact with me as if to say they understood what I was trying to do. Then he and Charles strolled into the living room, not far away, but far enough for Peggy to feel as if she and I were alone.

“Norm?” I asked her again.

“He leaves early sometimes,” she replied and returned to the table.

“Where does he go?”

“We like to help out wherever we’re needed.” With a steady hand, she added more sugar to her partially filled cup. “You needn’t worry, though. We’ll check in on you every night just to be sure you’re okay. I made a fresh batch of herb tea too.”

That’s what I had smelled. The open jar sat on the counter.

“Would it be all right if I took it with me?” I asked.

“Of course.
Will you be staying at the casino tonight, then?”

“No,” I said too quickly. “I
mean,
maybe tomorrow I’ll go over there and check it out.”

“I do hope you’ll consider it. I think Aaron is right.”

“Don’t I need permission or something to stay there?” I asked.

“I can take care of that.” She got up, put the lid on the jar of tea leaves, and held it so that it gleamed in the light. “I’m sorry about the phone, but I’m so happy you stopped by this morning.”

“Do you know of any place where we can place a long-distance call?”

“Afraid not.”
She shook her head. “Our friend Daniel, the gentleman who drives the shore boat, could probably tell you. Aaron’s probably talked to him by now. That young man is determined to help you locate a working telephone, although I can’t say that I see the sense in it. The weather’s too uncertain for anyone to risk coming here.”

“Maybe,” I said, but I knew Grace was right in wanting to tell her father what was going on. I looked pointedly at the glass jar Peggy held and put out my hand. “Thanks so much for the tea.”

“You’re welcome, Miss,” she replied, and slowly handed it over. “You may not even need it. The casino is so peaceful now. I think the storm may be blowing itself out.”

***

“You’re not really going to stay at that place,” Charles said as soon as we were outside. “Are you?”

“Of course not.”
I started to climb in the cart.

“She didn’t even admit her husband is dead.” Johnny reached out to help me next to him.

“No, but then she had to know you guys could hear us.”

“You think she would have told you if we hadn’t been there?”

“Maybe.”
Yes, maybe she might have. She clearly blamed Charles for the disruption at the casino, and she seemed to kind of like me. Of course maybe that was because Aaron did. My face heated up at that insane thought. “Wait here,” I told him and jumped down from the cart. “I’m going to find out.”

“Hurry, though,” Johnny said, but I was already running back to Peggy’s door.

If she could see Norm—and make me see him—maybe she could see the others as well.

She stood under the awning partially and was just starting to go into the house. The rain was more mist than water, but it had managed to wilt her tidy bun. Water-logged white hair curled around her neck.

She pushed a strand from her eye. “What is it?” she said.

“I need to ask you something, and I wasn’t sure you’d want to discuss it in front of Johnny and Charles.” I paused and tried to think of a subtle way to phrase the question. “When was the last time you saw Norm?”

“Just this morning, of course.”
She turned and nodded toward the house as if he were waiting inside.

“I mean the last time you saw him, not just his spirit.”

She cocked her head and gave me a smile...of what?
Sadness, maybe.
Longing.
“When you get to be my age, Miss, you don’t notice which side of the river you’re walking along. Norm and I are together forever. That’s all that matters to me.”