Chapter 06 SHANA
I figured the least I could do while Charlie was cleaning up my mess was to go figure out what that bang was upstairs. Beau was at the top of the right side, whining and circling like he wanted me to follow him.
I trusted that he knew what he was doing, so I followed him to a room at the end of the hallway, unable to take my eyes off the interior of the house I had always loved. It seemed like Charlie hadn’t gotten to the renovations on this side of the house yet. The hall was dusty, and the hardwood floors were in need of repair, the wood bare and gouged. The dark cherry wood door stood ominous against the backdrop of plaster walls that had seen better days.
Hesitantly, I opened the door, scared something was going to pop out and murder me. Beau, acting as my protector, forced his way into the room. I attempted to hold him back, but that fucker was slick.
Cursing under my breath, I stood there, indecisive. Taking a breath to calm my nerves, I waited a beat before following him in. I knew Charlie’s affinity for animals, so I couldn’t just let Beau go it alone.
My imagination ran wild, thinking back to a photo Charlie had taken of me back in high school. I swore that picture had the ghost of the woman who originally lived here. I was ready to bolt, but I turned on the light from my phone instead, intent on making sure the ghost didn’t harm my protector.
The room was full of antique furniture that wasn’t in great shape, but probably would be worth a fortune once restored. I coughed as the dust got kicked up from Beau’s inspection, and he sneezed, billowing more dust into the air. I let out a sigh of relief, poking a hole in the tension I’d built up in my head. My shoulders slowly crept down to their natural position, and my cheeks heated in embarrassment. My imagination had convinced me that the ghost would show her face.
I didn’t find a culprit. It was probably just something that had been sitting on the edge of a dresser that fell off due to the winds from the storm outside. I shooed Beau out, and we once again stopped at the top of the stairwell. Beau bumped me with his head, pointing up at the wall with his nose. An old photo of me hung against the wall. It was the same one I’d been thinking of a few minutes earlier.
A noise behind me made me jump, but it was only Charlie coming up the stairs.
“Did you and Beau find anything?“
she asked.
“Nothing. It might’ve been the ghost, but who knows?“
I joked, still distracted by the picture hanging on the wall.
“I haven’t seen her yet since I moved in. I wondered if she decided to exit this plane.”
I turned. “Do you still believe in ghosts?”
Charlie nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think so. There are too many unexplainable things not to, right?”
My lips twitched, “Yeah. I guess so.”
When we used to come here as angsty teenagers, we would sit in the glen behind the house underneath a copse of trees. The previous owners of the house had a sign back there that talked about the history of the house, and we’d both hang around for hours, sometimes with a picnic basket, and other times pretending as if we could do gymnastics as well as an Olympian. Sometimes, we laid on a blanket and snuggled, staring up at the clouds and finding shapes. Other times, we cracked jokes about the world when it was more unserious, and I’d play with the blades of grass while I imagined that this glen was anywhere but our hometown.
But the one thing Charlie and I could always do, even as kids, was comfortably sit in silence with each other. The only other time my brain shut off was when I was out in nature, capturing the indescribable beauty with film. Just Charlie’s presence was grounding. As a teen navigating my own identity, Charlie’s quiet support had been validating in its own right, while also being there when I needed it.
There was so much for us to talk about. I grieved the relationship we once had, and then I forced myself to move on. The happy young woman in the picture was long gone, but in its place was someone who had learned resilience, and how to speak up for myself because I didn’t have anyone else to help me navigate the world around me like Charlie had.
I steeled myself before asking quietly, “What happened to us?”
Charlie was quiet for a long while, tension in her posture. “It’s a long story. I promise to tell you, but before we do that, I think we could both benefit from a change of clothes.”
I smiled, checking her out in her armor. “You mean to tell me that this armor isn’t doing it for you? It’s doing something for me.”
She chuckled as she took my hand, leading me down the stairs and to the other stairwell leading up. “Come on. I think I have some warmer clothes for you.”