Chapter 28 #2
“If you’re supposed to haunt this place, then wouldn’t you keep haunting it?
” Nate asked. He looked at the back of the house as if he expected to see a sign, something that made it obvious Abaddon Cottage was not a normal house.
“I’m new to this ghost business, but ..
. why would anything have to change if your spirit is still tied to the house? ”
“It wasn’t the house that brought me back to life, dears.” Annabelle folded her hands on the table. She had tucked a napkin into her jumpsuit top to avoid getting crumbs all over it. She looked ridiculous with the napkin sticking out. I loved her so much I ached with it.
Annabelle continued. “At first, being a ghost was very confusing.” She spoke as if she was telling someone else’s story, not her own. “I wandered the fort for a long time, scaring the dickens out of people. I’m not proud to admit it, but at times, I enjoyed being spooky!”
She smiled and waved her hands in the air, making “boo” sounds.
“But mostly I wandered the forest where I wouldn’t scare anyone.
I also didn’t want to get attached. People used to die much earlier.
This place, where this house was built, was a lovely meadow that made me happy.
I felt it was where I was supposed to be, so I stayed.
Eventually, a house was built here, and I found myself unable to leave it.
I’m not sure why I came out of the lake when I should have moved on, but it must be part of a plan that I simply do not understand. ”
“A plan?” I scoffed, then remembered to be kind. “Sorry, Marley, but I just have a hard time with the idea that everything in life is preordained.”
“What else am I to think, dear? That I’m a cosmic clerical error?”
I didn’t have an answer to that. The adults around the table examined their drinks.
Yasmin wrung her hands. “I wish I could predict what would happen tomorrow. It seems like I should be able to, but ... Maybe my mom could—”
Annabelle put her hand on Yasmin’s shoulder. “You’ve done great, Yas.”
“You can’t know everything, dear,” Miranda said. She looked directly at Pete and said, “Life is supposed to surprise you.” To Annabelle, she said, “And death, I suppose.”
I grabbed one of the terrible beers. “I’ll drink to that.”
We toasted, then Annabelle said, “I don’t care.” She stood and took the napkin out of her shirt collar, putting it down on the table with an air of finality. “I have an hour or so left before the moon returns to its place and whatever is slated to happen happens.”
She gathered the empty plates and headed inside. I followed her.
Annabelle washed the dishes. I stood next to her and started rinsing them, trying not to cry.
In the bottom of the sink, the dishes shifted and I heard a delicate crack.
I carefully pulled out the angel wings mug from the bottom of the pile.
The point where the wings jutted out from the mug had broken, leaving one dainty wing hanging off.
“Well, that’s a bit on the nose. I mean, honestly.” A few tears escaped my eyes, and I wiped them, trying not to fall apart entirely. “If this is all the time we have ...”
Annabelle wrapped her arms around me, soapy hands dripping on my shirt, and buried her face in my neck. “I don’t think it is.”
“But if it is—”
“No, darling, I don’t think so. Though I wish I could’ve taken you up to Sunset Rock. The view is stunning.” She hugged me even tighter.
“But what if it is? What if you cross to the other side, and it’s all because I was selfish and—”
Annabelle loosened her hold on me so she could turn me around in her arms. “Gibson, listen to me. If this is all we had, then I’m grateful. I’ve had far more time to enjoy the beautiful things in the world than most. And even if all I had was this short time with you, then—”
I closed my eyes and held still while she raised up on her toes to kiss me, lightly, on the forehead.
“Then it was time well spent,” she whispered. “I want you to live the rest of your life fiercely. Without regrets. Even if I can’t be here with you, we’ll have had these moments and, my darling, you won’t ever be alone.”
Fresh tears fell and she kissed them away.
I felt a desire, then, to protect this place and the people here who had helped me even when I didn’t want to be helped. Annabelle kissed me again, more firmly this time.
“I’m still here,” she said. “Let’s make the most of the time we have.”
I let her lead me upstairs. Annabelle closed the bedroom door behind us.
She took off the jumpsuit I bought her and hung it up in the wardrobe carefully.
Then she helped me pull off my clothes. We didn’t speak.
The moon rose over the bedroom at the top floor of Abaddon Cottage, and this time it cast a pale silver light instead of a burned red.
We went slow, touching and kissing tenderly until we couldn’t take it anymore, and then we didn’t go slow at all.
I let sleep take me, drifting away as Annabelle whispered nonsense in my ear and kissed the sweaty hairs on the back of my neck. The soft, human smell of her accompanied me into the darkness of dreams.
When I woke up in the small hours of the night, I was alone.