Chapter 11
Tyler
After we made love, we held each other in bed and talked for hours.
Ava had brought me back to life. My world before her had shrunk down into something hard and small. But now every moment felt like magic.
I was either with her, basking in the rays of her light, or I was thinking of her.
But she needed to leave for work soon, and she’d already put her clothes back on.
“Should we open the envelope?”
A distinct thump came from the floorboard.
Ava jumped at the sound.
“I wasn’t asking you, ghost. I was asking Ava.”
Ava whispered, “You shouldn’t disrespect it. It might get angry.”
I grinned at her. “Honey, I’m not afraid of a ghost… or bad construction, or whatever the sound is from.”
She picked up the envelope and teased it across my naked torso. “Read it to me.”
How could a man say no to that?
So, I worked my thumb under the edge of the envelope and slowly ripped it open.
A gold locket fell out, along with several sheets of paper folded in half. I put the locket aside and started reading the letter out loud.
Hello stranger,
Whoever finds this letter should know it was meant to be. There’s no other reason you’d be rooting through the floorboards of the old gardener’s cottage otherwise.
I’m eighty-seven now, and I can feel it in my bones that the good lord is coming to take me away soon. I’ve lived the best life I could, given the circumstances. But there’s one thing I was never able to do. And it’s going to haunt me until it’s done.
Ava interrupted me. “See! It is a ghost!”
I gave her a smooch on the cheek and growled, “I’ll haunt you if you don’t let me finish this letter.” Then I grabbed her breast and played with her nipple until she shrieked with delight.
“You have to stop that or I’ll be late for work,” she grumbled playfully.
That was my cue to start reading again.
My husband, Orson, and I were traveling with our baby boy, Wallace, when a flood came. We’d been on our way to San Francisco to start a new life, and we were in Kentucky when the rains started. It rained and rained and never ended.
We tried to stay together, but the water swept me away. Orson did everything he could to hold on to me, but I slipped out of his grasp. His wedding ring came off right in my hand, and then the waters took me. He’s probably thought I was dead all these years. But I survived.
The last time I saw him, he was holding Wallace with his legs wrapped around a tree trunk, reaching his arm out to me as I was whisked away by the angry waters.
After the flood, I walked for days trying to find them again. But I couldn’t even locate the roadside camp where we’d stayed. The whole thing had been washed away.
Even though I tried to make it west, I only made it as far as Arkansas before my money ran out. All of our valuables had been in the automobile, or in Orson’s pockets.
I didn’t know how to find him again, and I wandered lost and hopeless until a kind man took me in. Dr. Ferrel hired me to be his housekeeper, and I stayed here all these years because I didn’t know what else to do.
I sent telegrams to San Francisco for years, hoping Orson might check to see if there was one in his name. But I was always notified that they’d gone undelivered.
My entire life I dreamed of seeing Orson and little Wallace again. Now I’ve given up hope of that. Dr. Ferrel found his obituary and gave it to me. We’ll never be joined again in life, but I’m hoping we can still be joined together forever.
After Orson died, I tried to find Wallace. Dr. Ferrel even hired a private investigator since we finally had a lead. Orson passed away in Saint Louis.
That’s where my baby probably is. Although he’d be a man by now. A grown man.
If you find this letter, please do anything you can to find my baby boy. Please give him his father’s wedding ring so it can be put back on his finger where it belongs.
And give him this letter if you do find him.
Wallace, even though I couldn’t be there, I want you to know you were loved dearly your entire life.
You will always be my son and the light shining in my heart.
If you can, please bury me next to your father wearing our wedding rings.
I know that’s a lot to ask. I’ll be in the Ferrel family cemetery plot waiting to be reunited with Orson.
Sincerely,
Cordelia Myers
1923
By the time I reached the end, Ava was crying softly, her body hitching lightly as she pressed herself tightly against me.
I rubbed her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “That’s the saddest story I’ve ever heard.”
The floorboard thumped, and Ava jumped again.
“Looks like our ghost agrees,” I told her.
Ava swallowed. “I work in dispatch. Have I already mentioned that? And I hear sad things that happen every night at work. But this… this is worse somehow. It sounds as though they really loved each other. True love. And to be separated from the person you love for your entire life?” She looked up at me, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “That’s the worst thing I can imagine.”
“You’re a romantic,” I said as I kissed her forehead.
“I’m not. Not really. Maybe I am. I don’t know. Maybe you’re bringing it out in me. Or maybe this place is.” She looked around the room as though the ghost was going to pop out at any second.
My chest felt warm where my heart usually sat. This woman was doing things to me.
“You know what we should do?” I asked before I took time to think it through. “We should find her descendants. Wallace might not be alive anymore, but if he had kids, they might like to know about their great-great grandparents.”
“But… how?”
I kissed her again. “I still have some contacts in the military. Let me ask a few of my friends.”
Her eyes popped open wide. “You have friends?”
I shut my mouth. Then carefully measured my words. “I do. I may have driven some of them off recently, but they still have my back.”
Ava grinned, “Look at you, coming out of your shell.”
Grinning back, I said, “Don’t push it. I’m not ready to go to a party.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “But maybe you’ll go see Abby and Silas with me? The Ferrel cemetery grounds must be on their property.”
And this is how it starts.
I’d gone from a peaceful hermit’s life, content to live out the rest of my days as an old surly bastard. Now instead I was going to find myself traipsing over to the neighbor’s house for a little chit-chat time. It was all Ava’s fault.
“Yes, ma’am. It’s a date.”
She beamed up at me. “We can go tomorrow before work.”
I shook my head. “Tomorrow is my therapy day.”
“The next day then.”
“Yup, that’ll do.”
Ava peered up at me. “Do you think we can find time to see each other tomorrow, even if we’re not going to Abby and Silas’ until the next day?”
It looked like my pretty Ava was turning me into a habit. Good.
“Of course you’re coming over tomorrow,” I drawled. “How else would your sweet pussy get licked?”
She started laughing, then groaned when she glanced at the clock on my nightstand. “I really do have to go.”
I didn’t want her to leave. But at least I knew I was going to see her again tomorrow.