Chapter 24
Later that night I lay in bed, on my phone, flipping through the comments on the company’s latest YouTube video, which showed Thibaut and Jorge replacing the insulation in my attic.
I couldn’t hop on my bike and go see my house, but this was the next best thing.
I felt like a mother watching a nanny cam to check on her baby.
The random comments about Mardi’s supposed owner had stopped being posted, or Jolene was very vigilant about deleting them before I saw them.
Either way, they weren’t on public view.
I’d have to ask if she would be checking the comments over Thanksgiving or if she’d want to delegate the task to me.
I would be doing little besides sitting on the couch with my leg raised until my doctor’s appointment the following week.
I glanced at the time on my phone and confirmed that it was well past midnight.
I’d been put to bed hours before by Jolene and Camille, the latter making sure I had my pain meds set out on my nightstand, along with a full glass of water.
My ankle throbbed, but despite what Camille had said about pain management, I was, for reasons I chose not to share with her, reluctant to take a pill.
In case I needed anything, my bedroom door had been left open a crack, despite Sarah sleeping on an air mattress next to my bed while Mardi, the traitor, curled up against her side.
I could hear Jolene moving around in her room, her humming accompanying the sounds of drawers opening and closing as she planned her wardrobe for the coming days and found miraculous ways to condense twenty outfits, plus accessories and makeup, into two suitcases.
I made a mental note to ask her to make a video of her packing hacks for the YouTube channel.
If we made sure Mardi was visible in the background, we’d get thousands of likes.
Social media was a strange beast, but as long as it garnered more customers, Mardi and I were game.
“Nola? You’re not snoring, so you’re awake, right?” Sarah asked quietly from the floor.
“I don’t snore.”
“Yeah, you do. I’ve recorded it, if you want to hear it.”
“That’s not necessary. And if I do, it’s only because I’m on my back because I have to keep my leg propped up. Otherwise I don’t snore. Maybe it’s Mardi. I think he might need a C-PUP machine.” I laughed at my own joke.
“Uh-huh.”
“Is there anything you need?”
There was a brief pause, and then I felt Sarah gingerly sit on my bed. A soft woof soon followed, along with the warmth of dog fur next to me on my pillow. “Yeah. I wanted to talk to you. About…dead people.”
I lifted my head. “Any in the apartment I need to know about?” I asked with alarm.
“Dead people are everywhere. The ones here are just passing through, I think. They’re only here because they sense my presence, but if I ignore them, they mind their own business and go on their way.
It’s like they were just hanging out and saw my light and had to come see what it was all about—sort of like how a shark can detect a drop of blood from a mile away. ”
“That’s encouraging.” I pressed my head back into the pillow. “I don’t want you bothered by lost spirits. It was hard for Melanie when she was your age and didn’t have anyone to explain it to her. She doesn’t want you to go through what she did.”
“I brought the peacock pin just in case.”
“Good.” The pin had belonged to Melanie’s grandmother Sarah, and my sister used it for the same purpose that Beau used his rubber band.
“And I’ve been memorizing lots of ABBA lyrics and songs.”
“Even better,” I said, unable to keep myself from smiling. “Hopefully you won’t have to resort to using either the brooch or ABBA. We’re just going to have a chill weekend filled with lots of pizza, popcorn, and chick flicks. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
When she didn’t say anything, I lifted my head again. “Sarah? Are you regretting not calling Melanie? Because I can call her right now and have you on the first flight home if—”
“No. It’s not that.”
I did my best to scooch back in the bed to rest against the headboard without my foot coming dislodged from the stack of pillows it rested on, and I waited for her to say something.
“I want to help. With Beau’s mom. And with whatever is haunting that creepy doll.”
I didn’t add Cooper’s ghostly female companion.
Even I couldn’t grapple with all the lost and lonely spirits that were inhabiting my world at the moment, and I was presumably an adult.
“You shouldn’t have to worry about any of it, Sarah.
You’re a kid, and one day soon you’ll be all grown up, and then you’ll have to worry about stuff. Enjoy it while you can.”
“When you were my age you were on a Greyhound bus all by yourself, moving across the country.”
“Yes, but—”
“Sometimes we know what’s best for us even if other people think we’re too young.
You have bravery on steroids, and I can talk to dead people.
It’s, like, our superpowers, you know? And I think we have them so that we can help others.
I would feel selfish if someone needed my help and I said I couldn’t help because I wasn’t old enough. ”
We lay in the dark without speaking, with only the sound of Mardi’s snoring interrupting the silence. Eventually I said, “What is it you want to do that you think I’ll say no to?”
“How did you know?”
“I was once a dumb preteen, too. I know how you think. So, what is it?”
“Since you asked, I need you to tell Beau to let me help him talk to his mom. He needs to. There’s something…
not right in Mimi’s house, and I think it’s about Adele.
And how she died. She wouldn’t let me see anything, but I felt it.
Felt her. She really needs to talk to Beau.
He needs to find his dad before they do. ”
Chill bumps bounced along my spine. “Who are ‘they’?”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “The same people who hurt Adele.”
I lay against the pillow. “Madame Zoe said the same thing. And why are you whispering?”
“Because I don’t want anyone else to hear,” she whispered back.
By “anyone else” I knew she wasn’t referring to Jolene.
Mardi left my pillow and stepped across me to settle into Sarah’s lap, as if he sensed that she needed comfort and support. In the same low voice, she said, “Something’s building—something real bad. It’s like a pimple right under the skin getting ready to pop.”
It was refreshing to be reminded sometimes that Sarah was just a preteen with a grown-up gift.
She leaned closer to me. “Beau’s in real danger.”
My apprehension turned into full-blown panic, and I had to force myself to keep my voice calm. “All right. And if I convince him to talk to Adele, you believe that you can help him with what’s next?”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
“If I do that, you have to promise me that if you are in any kind of danger, you will stop immediately and let me send you home. Melanie would kill me just for having this conversation.”
“I know. But since she didn’t make you disappear when you were a teenager, or me when I was a colicky baby, I think we’re safe.”
“That’s very dark, Sarah. Very dark.”
“It comes with the territory.”
I sighed. “What makes you think Beau will listen to me?”
“Seriously?” I imagined Sarah rolling her eyes in the dark. “Do you really need me to answer that?”
Instead of responding with something even I wouldn’t believe, I asked, “Why can’t you just be another adolescent girl who’s obsessed with selfies and Instagram likes?”
“Because social media sucks. And if you don’t want to sound even older than you are, call it IG.”
I let the dig about my age slide. I hated social media, too, mostly because I found it to be a time suck filled with curated pictures and inane prattle about things I didn’t care about.
Except for accounts about dogs and old houses.
Those I followed religiously. “Are girls picking on you again?” Melanie had shared that Sarah had become very low-key about her abilities since letting it slip that a classmate’s deceased grandmother was standing in the classroom.
“Duh. Why do you think I closed my social media accounts? They practically exist only for bullies, and I’ve got better things to do with my time. Not that it stops them from inviting me to slumber parties so I can be the free entertainment.”
“I’m sorry. That stinks.”
She stretched out her legs. “It’s all right. It’s fun to freak them out. Like once, at lunch, when I made a scared face looking behind one girl and wouldn’t tell her what I saw. She had to go home for the rest of the day.”
“Sarah, that’s not nice.”
“I know, and I felt bad. But she’s the one who started the nickname Scary Sarah.”
“Well, in that case, she deserved it. But still. Did you apologize?”
“Yeah. And I told her that one day she was going to be really famous.”
“Wait—you can see the future?”
“No. But she doesn’t know that. And we won’t be in school together anymore when she finds out, and now she’s being nicer to me. So it’s a win-win.”
I didn’t want to encourage her, but I couldn’t help but laugh. “Have you shared this with Melanie?”
“Of course, but not until I figured out how to present it to her so I wouldn’t get in trouble.” She was silent for a moment, and then we both said together, “WWMD?” before bursting out laughing.
We’d lain in silence for long enough that I was beginning to drift to sleep when Sarah spoke again. “There’s one more thing.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask. What?”
“I want to go see the house on Esplanade. After I saw that doll, the lady came to see me after I went to sleep.”
I jerked my head off the pillow. “Here? In this apartment?”
“Yes. I already told you. Dead people are everywhere.”
I pulled my sheets closer under my chin. “What did she say?”
“She needs my help to protect Lynda.”
I was fully awake now. “Lynda? Did she tell you how that’s spelled?”
I felt Sarah sit up. “Uh, no. We weren’t doing a spelling bee. She just said ‘Lynda,’ so however you spell it works, I guess. Why? Do you know who she is?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. I have no idea what it means, but I know two people who might know.
We’ll have to find someone to drive us to see the house.
I can ask Cooper if he can take us after he gets back on Friday.
But only if you’re sure. There’s another spirit in the house who isn’t nice at all.
I think he’s the one who wrecked Cooper’s car. ”
I felt her steady gaze on me in the darkness. “I know. The lady told me. The man doesn’t like her talking to me.”
That unexpected comment chilled me to the bone. “She saved me, I think. In the crash, I felt someone cushioning me. Did she give you her name?”
“No. I got the feeling that she might not want me to know. But she did say she saved your life. She doesn’t know how much longer she can keep protecting everyone. She’s not getting any stronger, but the bad man is. That’s why I need to help her. There’s no one else.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Sarah. I don’t understand how this works, but I’ve been around Melanie and Beau enough to see how nasty things can get. Maybe we should ask Beau.”
“You don’t think finding out who killed his mom and what happened to his dad is enough for him right now? Maybe I was wrong and you actually don’t like him.”
“I do like him….”
“Ha. I knew it!”
I would have smiled, but I was too busy trying to stop my teeth from chattering.
The thought of dead people in my apartment talking to my sister was more unnerving than I would have imagined.
And the notion of the entity in Cooper’s backseat getting stronger was nearly enough to send me over the edge.
“Very funny,” I managed. “But you’re right.
Beau does have a lot on his plate.” Briefly, I considered suggesting that we bring in Melanie.
But being allowed to move to New Orleans by myself had been premised on the assurance that I was completely ready to live on my own, without any financial or emotional support from my family.
It wasn’t that I felt I would let them down if I asked for help; I didn’t want to disappoint myself.
“So, you’ll ask Cooper to take us?”
I didn’t respond right away; I wasn’t sure what the correct answer was.
After thinking it through from all angles, I said, “Yes. I can ask. And we should see if we can meet with the previous owners, too. If Cooper wants to buy the house, he should be part of figuring out what happened to the people who used to live there.”
Sarah and Mardi resettled themselves on the floor, and I resumed drifting to sleep. A needling memory of something Sarah had said brought me fully awake again. “Do you really think I’m brave?”
“Don’t let it go to your head or anything, okay? But yeah. You’re a freaking icon of bravery.”
I paused, letting her words sink in. “I’m not sure if I agree, but thanks. So are you, you know.”
“Or maybe I’m just too dumb not to be afraid.”
“Maybe it runs in the family.” I stared out into the darkness, wondering if anyone besides my sister was there, and decided I didn’t want to know. “Good night, Sarah. I love you. And please disregard every mean thing I said to you when you were little and annoying. I’m glad you’re my sister.”
“Same,” she said.
I listened until her breathing slowed and Mardi began snoring again before I closed my eyes, knowing that, at least for a moment, all was right in my world.