Heidi Sees - Series 1 - Chapter 13
My name is Heidi Crolley, and I can see ghosts. I can explain, mostly.
13
The car ride from the thrift store included a barrage of exclamations and questions from Doris as she flickered from the backseat next to me to the passenger seat in the front, craning her neck to see everything through the tinted windows.
She asked me about the car. "Is that a taxi? Do you know the driver? Why are you just getting into his car?"
She asked about my phone. "Is that a walkie-talkie? What makes it a ‘smart’ phone? How can it be a computer?"
She asked about Tulsa. "What part of Tulsa is this? Where are the flying cars? Oh, look, McDonald's."
As I texted Nicole to let her know I was headed back to Mom's house, I struggled to imagine being excited to see any part of Tulsa. Even more than that, I was distracted, thinking about Dad. Was I, after all these years, going to get my father back? What would it be like? It was difficult to think straight.
Fortunately, Doris was too excited to wait for even the few answers I felt I could provide under my breath or pretending to text on my phone. I tried not to appear like too much of a crazy woman, but I'm sure my performance would have cost me a star on my rating from the driver after he dropped me off if I hadn't doubled my normal tip.
After getting out of the car, Doris did cartwheels and round offs on the precisely mowed semicircle of the front lawn. I carried the box to the front door and rang the bell.
"These houses are so huge!" Doris shouted, her voice Dopplering slightly as her head traced a gymnastic sine wave. "I've never seen houses this big except in movies. Which room is yours?"
"None of them. I never lived here."
"How could you not live here?"
The door opened, sparing me from explaining the facts of twenty-first-century family life.
"I guess you found them," Mom said, looking at the box. She had changed into long, white, cuffed shorts and a button-up, yellow-print blouse with three-quarter sleeves. Her eyes were still puffy, though. Her gaze landed on my wrist. "When did you start wearing jewelry again?"
"It spoke to me," I said.
Behind me, Doris laughed.
Mom stepped back and I walked through the door.
Doris's laughter cut off abruptly. For a second, the bracelet went cold, chilling my wrist.
I paused just inside the door and looked back the way I had come. There was no sign of Doris on the lawn. I had no experience with carrying around haunted items, so I didn't know what had happened. Just one instant Doris was there, feet in the air, hair dangling, laughing, and the next—she wasn't.
Was she gone? Had she "passed on"? I didn't think so. On my wrist, the bracelet settled, feeling oddly heavy. And then, somehow, I knew she was still there. She was, somehow, nestled inside the tiny red and white spaceship. Before I could think about it further, Mom spoke.
"You didn't say Nicole was coming."
Before I could tell her Nicole wasn't coming, Nicole's shiny red Ford F-150 pulled into the circle drive. Just goes to show you what I know.
I gave Nicole an incline nod when she waved at me through the truck windows, then turned back around.
I parked the box on the bare entryway table and took out the brown teddy bear. As I held it in my left hand, the upturned face of the bear seemed to be looking up at me, curious.
I was curious too. I felt none of the cold or tingle that I had from Doris's bracelet, or when I picked up Dad's stack of notebooks. Had Ronnie sold me the wrong bear? I had been so focused on getting the bear, and the Barbie for Nicky Junior, and on Doris, that I hadn't thought to inspect the bear before leaving.
I shook the bear, which also shook the bracelet. Still no sparks or winter breeze. I resisted the urge to apologize to Doris.
"You never had a bear," Mom said. She still stood near the open door. "How was I supposed to know?"
I looked over my shoulder at her, but was spared having to reply by Nicole coming through the front door. She wore pink shorts and a pale blue sleeveless shirt, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her eyes went to Snuffles the Bear. "Since when did you have a teddy bear?" she asked as she pushed the door closed. Then she spotted the bracelet. "Or jewelry?"
"Teddy bears and charm bracelets are considered pretty normal," I said as I turned to face her and Mom.
Nicole looked unconvinced. "Uh huh."
"Never mind," I said. "Let's go find Dad—"
Except Dad was already there, and he looked angry.
Subscribe for a new chapter every week!