Love In The Wrong Dimension (Romantic Ghost Story) (3 page)

After two more of mugs of tea, and a quick tweak of her hastily applied make-up, Jemma looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. Who was she kidding? ‘I’m nearly 30 years old, and am about to go back to school with a bunch of teenagers,’ she thought dejectedly. She looked at her trendy skinny fit jeans, and the tight t-shirt which showed off her generous cleavage, and the words mutton and lamb sprang to mind.

As she studied her reflection, she wished she looked more like Alice. They couldn’t be more different. Alice looked like an elf; petite and pale, whereas she was tall and tanned. They were different in every sense, and they loved to tell people they were twins so they could watch their shocked reactions.

Alice came up behind her and gave her arm a squeeze. “You look great, hun.”

“
Thanks. So do you. Hey, are your eyelashes longer?” Jemma noticed for the first time that Alice looked particularly good today. Her shoulder length blonde hair had been blow-dried into a stylish bob, she had applied a little discreet blusher, and her blue eyes looked huge, thanks to eyelashes that were suspiciously longer than they were yesterday.

“
Yep, I knew that ultra lengthening mascara I bought in the sale would come in handy one day,” grinned Alice, fluttering her lashes at Jemma.

“
You flutter your lashes like that at Jack, young lady, and you won’t have to try and seduce him. He’ll be seducing you.”

“
I’m going to play it cool with Jack, remember. I don’t want to scare him off,” she glanced up at the clock. “Hey, you’d better get a move on, it really is time to go now.”

It was only two stops on the tube to get to Hampstead, and Jemma got there with time to spare. As she walked through the gates of Hampstead College of Further Education, she suddenly became aware of the thousands of butterflies that seemed to be fluttering around in her tummy. Was she nervous, she wondered, or excited? Probably a bit of both.

Once inside, she noticed there were people everywhere, and not just youngsters. Some were young and trendy, but there were people of all different ages, nationalities and cultures, some of whom looked just as lost and nervous as she felt.

As Jemma stood quietly and took in the sight and, slightly musty, smell of the busy corridor, memories of school came flooding back to her. She’d been happy at school when she was younger. Although she wasn’t as brainy as some of the kids, she could certainly hold her own. In fact, the only negative comments on her school reports were that she needed to concentrate more and chatter less. She smiled to herself as she remembered telling her teachers that if chatting was on the curriculum, she’d be a grade A student.

But then her smile faded and her eyes misted over, as her thoughts went back to the fateful day her world had fallen apart. When she was fifteen, she had come home from school as normal one day, and was met by a police officer. He was waiting outside the house for her, and she had immediately known something was wrong by the serious look on his face. He had tried to break the news as gently as he could, but that didn’t stop her becoming hysterical when he told her that her mum had been killed in a road accident that afternoon. Her beautiful, kind, loving mother had been taken from her, and she had been left alone. She had never known her father, he had left when she was a baby, so her mother had been everything to her. A wave of grief threatened to engulf her, and she tried to snap her thoughts back to the present, willing herself to think of something else. ‘This is not the time to get all emotional,’ she thought, crossly. But it was too late, she had allowed herself to think of her mum, and now she couldn’t stop. ‘Oh, mum, I wish you were here with me now, I could really do with a hug.’

She thought back to her mum’s funeral, knowing full well that she was only upsetting herself even more, but she couldn’t help it. The funeral had been the second most devastating day of her life, the first being the day her mum had died. Afterwards, she had gone to stay with her mum’s sister, Aunt Tess, but she was ten years older than her mum and the two sisters had never been very close. Aunt Tess had meant well, but she didn’t have any kids of her own, and just didn’t know what to say to help her cope with her grief. It had been Alice who had been there and offered her a shoulder to cry on, and it was at that time that they had grown close. She smiled ironically as she remembered Alice’s attempts to help her, but, unfortunately, she had been a lost cause and Alice’s friendship wasn’t enough to stop her getting in with the wrong crowd. Soon she had started bunking off, drinking, smoking and drifting further away from the secure, happy past she'd previously known at school.

“
Excuse me?” A voice interrupted her thoughts, and she found herself back in the corridor of the college. “Do you know where room 3G is?”

“
Er, no. Sorry.” Hastily Jemma realised she had better get a move on and find out where she was meant to be going, or she’d be late for her first lesson.

The rest of the morning passed quickly. She had eventually found her way to her classroom, just in time for registration. The first lesson had been study skills and, to be honest, it was all a bit obvious. But that was probably just to make everyone feel that they weren’t in above their heads on their first day, she figured.

At lunchtime, she sat with three of her classmates in the canteen. She was surprised at how nice it was, she had half expected stale old sandwiches and vending machine coffee. However, there was freshly cooked hot food, including fish and chips, curry, jacket potatoes and it was all quite cheap too. So, over egg and chips, Jemma eagerly joined in the conversation, which ranged from a debate about whether their teacher was gay or not, to speculation about what they’d be doing in the afternoon.

The room was full of enthusiastic energy, everyone keen to get to know each other and work out who they had most in common with. Some people were sitting with their carefully prepared packed lunches, others tucking in to the surprisingly tasty canteen food. The room was buzzing with excited chatter and activity, and Jemma felt a thrill of excitement to be a part of it.

She looked up at the clock and wondered whether Alice had arrived at Jack’s yet. She smiled as she remembered her prank that morning. Only Alice knew her well enough to know that she needed to tell a little white lie in order for her to be ready on time. She really hoped that this meeting at Jack’s worked out for her. Since returning from her travels in America, Alice had seemed a bit lost, unsure of what to do next. Her parents had invested in a flat in Chalk Farm, correction - Camden, and agreed to rent it out to Alice and herself at a reduced rent. At first they had been so excited about sharing a flat together that jobs and careers hadn’t seemed all that important. It was only at Jack’s party at the weekend that they’d finally got their acts together, and made the decisions that led them to where they were today.

“
Earth to Jemima Haley.”

“
What? Oh, I’m sorry. I was miles away,” Jemma snapped back to the canteen, and the conversation which had moved on to the male students in their class. “What did you say?”

“
Is there anyone in our class that you fancy?” asked Kirsten, a bubbly blonde with an Australian accent.

“
Not really, they’re not my type.” Jemma wasn’t paying attention any more though. She had noticed a group of students heading for the door with cigarettes and lighters in their hands. She could kill for a fag right now. Alice would go mad if she knew she still smoked the odd little ciggie or two, but, here, she would never know.

“
Sorry guys, but I’m just going to nip outside for a minute. See you back in class.” Jemma hurriedly made her excuses and left the others to their gossip.

As she was making her way across the canteen, she searched frantically in her bag for her secret stash. She had to make sure her ciggies were well hidden, so that Alice wouldn’t find them. She knew Alice meant well, but sometimes it got bloody annoying when she kept on nagging her about her smoking. She had often accused Alice of being more like an overbearing mother than a friend, but she didn’t really mean it. Deep down she was thankful that someone actually liked her enough to care. Nevertheless, when it came to smoking, it was so much easier just to play along and pretend that she had given up.

Jemma was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn’t notice the coffee that someone had spilt on the floor earlier, and it wasn’t until her foot slipped on the small puddle, that she became aware that something was up. She felt herself falling backwards, legs sprawling in the air, as she landed with an ungraceful bump on her backside. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion until her head hit the edge of a table, and after that, everything went black.

And now, standing next to her body, trying to get to grips with what had just happened, Jemma could only stare in horror as the moments that had led to her death kept replaying in her head, again and again.

Eventually, she slowly started to move away from the crowd, stepping backwards, unable to take her eyes off her body. She saw that the people she had just had lunch with were coming over to see what all the commotion was about. She watched their curiosity turn to shock when they saw that it was their new friend who had just died.

With one final glance at her body, now lying in a pool of blood that was trickling from her head, she turned and walked away in a complete daze, not knowing what to do or where to go, a sense of panic growing inside, threatening to overcome her .

“
Alice,” she thought desperately. “I’ve got to find Alice, she can help me.” She didn’t know why she thought Alice could help, but it was the only thing she could think of.

Jemma had no sense of time as she made her way to Swiss Cottage, it was as if it didn’t exist anymore. Everything felt muted, sounds were muffled, sights were a little blurry. It was as if she were inside a giant bubble, detached from the real world, which was carrying on without her. When she arrived at Jack’s house, she paused momentarily outside and thought sadly of the last time she’d been there. She and Alice had been so full of optimism as they’d set off on their walk to Belsize Park that morning, with Alice still reeling from her faux pas with Jack.

Now though, she stood alone, hesitating before reaching up for the doorbell. Nothing happened, her finger just went through it. ‘Oh yeah, I'm dead,’ she thought wryly, stifling more feelings of panic that kept coming in waves. She tried the door handle, but as she suspected, her hand went through it just like it had with the doorbell. Slowly she raised her hand and cautiously put it on the door, gasping as it went straight through. Then she stuck her foot through and eventually her whole body stepped though the closed door. She felt absolutely nothing, it was as if the door wasn’t there.

Once inside, she crossed the hallway and stood outside the closed living room door, feeling like an impostor. On the one hand, she didn’t want to interrupt Jack’s meeting, but on the other, she didn't know where else to go.

She stepped tentatively towards the door and paused for a moment, before silently stepping through the door and into the living room. She looked around for Alice and quickly found her sitting next to Jack, looking totally transfixed by everything he was saying. She stood still for a moment, not sure what to do next. There were about twelve people, she noted, most of them sitting in chairs in a circle, except for a couple of people sitting near the window. There was also a lone man sitting in a corner, away from the others, and looking as if he didn’t want to be part of the group.

There were no windows open, and it felt warm and rather stuffy, with a sweet perfume smell wafting up from an oil burner. The curtains were half drawn, giving the room a dark, subdued feel, and several candles were lit, their flames throwing shadows that were gently dancing against the wall, creating a calm and tranquil atmosphere.

The only sound came from an old antique clock, ticking rhythmically on the mantelpiece, and Jack’s velvety voice talking to the group quietly and slowly.

“
You need to clear your minds of everything,” he said, softly. “Remember, you wrote your problems and negative thoughts on that piece of paper earlier and threw it away. There really is nothing to stop you from focusing on that imaginary blank screen in front of you.”

Jemma stood quietly behind Alice as she contemplated what to do. She somehow had to make Alice aware that she was there, but how?

“
Hey, Alice,” she whispered in Alice’s ear, hoping that she would somehow turn around and say ‘Oh, hi Jem, what are you doing here?’

But, of course, there was no response. Nothing.

“
Alice, it’s me,” she said a little louder.

Still nothing. Alice remained quiet with her eyes shut, listening to Jack. There wasn’t even a shiver of reaction to her presence. “So much for your bloody psychic skills,” she muttered.

She had another look around the room. Everyone was sitting concentrating quietly with their eyes shut, except for the two people near the window. On closer inspection, Jemma noticed that one of them was a young girl, probably about 8 or 9 years old. It crossed her mind that it was a bit odd that someone would bring a child to something like this. The other person was a man who looked like he was in his thirties, maybe the girl’s dad. Actually, he was quite cute. He had a beautiful, sculptured mouth, a bit like Johnny Depp, and the most striking green eyes she had ever seen.

“
Hello Hot Lips,” she murmured, seductively, briefly forgetting her ordeal and enjoying the fact that she could say whatever she liked without anyone hearing her. “I bet you know how to kiss a girl.”