Chapter 8 #2
“Thanks, I hope he’s not going to wear one of those suits, like you,” Lilac said and set a plate in front of Bubba. “It makes me feel like I’m some politician’s child or maybe an ambassador’s kid.”
“I look good in my suit.” Bubba took a bite of the grits. “This is really good, thank you.”
“No problem. I’ve missed my kitchen,” Lilac smiled at me as she sat down. “I know, it’s technically your kitchen, but I’m claiming it until I move out.”
“You do you,” I took one bite, then another. The food was good and I was starving. “We didn’t stop for lunch, did we?”
“No, we did not. And you went straight to bed when we got home. I made BLT’s with Lilac’s help.” Bubba chuckled as he watched me devour the food. “I’ll insist we stop from now on.”
“It was just a lot of ghosting today. Oh, Lilac, I have a question,” I looked up from my empty bowl.
She stood and took the bowl back to the kitchen. “Yes, there is more.”
“Good to know, but that wasn’t my question. I saw a young man, well, a ghost of a young man today and yesterday. Yesterday he was at Fountain Square, and I could swear, he saw us leave and was angry we’d tricked him. Today, he was at the hospital.”
“Yuck, you went to a hospital? I hate those places.” Lilac set another bowl of shrimp and grits in front of me. It was a smaller helping, but I thought I’d finish it with no problem. Ghost talking takes a lot of energy.
“Yeah, they’re hard. Anyway, do you know a young male ghost,” Now I looked at Bubba. “How did I describe him?”
Bubba took out his notebook and read off the description. When he got to the shirt and jeans jacket, Lilac went white. “You know him.”
“It’s a guy I knew on the street. He hung with Kirk a lot, helping others.
I didn’t know he was dead.” She sank back into her chair but pushed her bowl aside.
“His name is Cameron. He was from St. Louis. He played the guitar and wanted to be a rock star. Kirk probably knows more. He stayed with him in his apartment sometimes. Now, don’t tell him I said that.
It was before you found out and told him no more. ”
“Another reason the society needs to get a shelter started,” I was slowing down but I still had a couple of bites left. “So this Cameron, when was the last time you saw him?”
“Maybe a month ago? I’ve been busy with the shop and trying to figure out the college thing. He was the one I thought might want to go to orientation with me. I was going to talk to you about maybe doing a scholarship or sponsoring him. He was really smart. I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“I’ll talk to Kirk tomorrow about him.” I pulled my phone out of the sweat jacket pocket and texted a message to Mel. “I asked Mel to leave him a note so he won’t disappear before we get there. Lilac, this meal was amazing. And I’m sorry for the loss of your friend.”
Lilac tried to smile but then wiped her eyes. “I just thought he might make it off the streets. He’s one of the group of kids I met when I first got here. He helped me get to Kirk.”
After dinner, Lilac and Bubba tried to get me to join them in their games, but I declined and headed into the living room to grab a book. I needed some time alone and this book was just the ticket. Two timelines and witches in both. I loved books that depicted women as strong and resourceful.
Not something I felt about myself right now, so it was nice to have a role model.
The knock on the door pulled me out of the reading, but before I could answer it, Bubba had already reached the foyer.
I assumed it was Alexander, checking on us.
Well, me really. I wanted to ask him more about Clarise’s claim that the ghosts talked among themselves.
This went against our family doctrine that they were focused on one thing – something they’d left uncompleted in life.
Tessa didn’t seem to be looking for completion.
She was enjoying her afterlife. She didn’t pay rent, she didn’t have a job, and she just existed.
On the negative side, she couldn’t partake in the more physical parts of life, like food and well, sex, but other than complaining about that, she didn’t seem to mind her new lifestyle.
Bubba brought Alexander into the living room and asked if he wanted a drink or coffee. When our neighbor said no, Bubba sat in a chair like he’d been there since dinner.
Alexander smiled at me, telling me he knew that Bubba was acting in his security role. Then he took a chair across from me. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “So tell me about your day.”
“You know I talked to Clarise,” I didn’t phrase it as a question, but just as a confirmation. When he nodded, I continued. “So she told me that the ghosts were working together. That they talk about the deaths and what it means.”
“I’ve heard rumors but have never been able to confirm that the ghosts or at least some of them were actually conscious or intelligent.
It seems like they are mostly lost here, trying to find their own lives and the more that they stay in that modality, the less sane they become.
Your ghost in the antique store seemed like a rarity, not the norm. ”
“And yet, Clarise is telling me something different. I don’t know if she knew this before her death or not.
I’ve never heard of ghosts actually working together.
I’ve been seeing one young man a lot lately.
He was part of the ghost mob that we left at the Café De Monde when we tried to get away from them and find Catherine.
And yesterday, he was at the hospital. Lilac knew him from her time on the street.
” I was rambling, but somehow, I knew all this worked together. I just hadn’t found the code yet.
“I’ve asked some of our academics to look into the situation. We should have answers soon. I’m certain this is probably an isolated case. Maybe it’s the New Orleans setting or the age of the buildings that gives them more strength than in other towns.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
Bubba made a noise and I realized Alexander had jerked back. I’d told him he was wrong. I guess that didn’t happen a lot.
“Look, I know I’m fairly new to this whole thing and there’s a lot I don’t know, but Clarise was clear.
There are intelligent, thinking ghosts. For good or bad.
And somehow, it’s attached to the book that Forrest had that was taken from him.
Maybe having that book close by is affecting the ghosts. Giving them more power than they had.”
“What book?” Alexander asked looking between Bubba and me.
“Remember in the crossing over ceremony, Forrest, once he could talk, told us about a book he found in Egypt. One he couldn’t read.
It was on his shelves when he died. Then he saw someone come and take it.
” I stood and went over to get my laptop.
“I need to find out what we can on that man. Maybe there are letters from him to Forrest. I wonder if Johnny Mayes’ daughter knows where his letters were or if she has access to his email. ”
“If they were letters,” Bubba reminded me, “they probably burned in the fire.”
I nodded, which was probably why the fire was set in the first place. I wonder if Boone has talked to the fire fighters to see if there was a determination on the cause of that fire yet.”
“It’s probably not in his jurisdiction. The house wasn’t in the quarter, remember?”
Alexander was watching as Bubba and I talked, looking amused at the back and forth. I saw it in his eyes.
“You could get the report, or you already have the report, don’t you?” I challenged him.
“There’s nothing that goes on in New Orleans that I don’t know.
I’m not sure if you know this but this town is one of a few places in the United States that is on a lay line.
It’s a place of power.” Alexander leaned back.
“These places, we keep a strong hold on what goes on. You never can know what might happen.”