Paranormal Summer (Indigo Moon Rising) (18 page)

Sonya was quietly telling Jillian about things at the B&B and that she had spent time at Doreen's store helping to arrange things earlier. Doreen and Thomas were talking about all they still had to do before the opening tomorrow, but said it was okay because they didn't expect too many visitors the first few days, and all would be worked out in time.

Jillian noticed that Aunt Jana was looking at her. So she mouthed, “
What?”
to her. Her aunt nodded towards Doreen. Jillian was feeling shy. She would wait till she got to know Doreen before she asked. But she wanted to help out too. But what if she said no? But she said she needed help, she just said it. Jillian was having an argument with herself inside her own head.

Doreen had finished talking and looked over to Jillian, "You know Jillian, if you have any free time, and if you wanted to, I could always find some things for you to do at the shop. But since it is summer you are probably pretty busy. "

Jillian about choked on her brownie. "Oh no, I have time. I can come down whenever you want," she said delighted. She looked further down the table. Aunt Jana winked at her, and Sonya elbowed her in the arm.

"All right!" Sonya said, getting up from the table. She grabbed her plate and Jillian’s and took them to the trash can. She kissed her Grandma Hilde on the back of the head. "Need anything?”

"No, you go play with your friends. You have a day off! Enjoy it," Grandma Hilde said.

"You heard it, let's go!" She said running to the front of the house to another large tree with a tire swing.  She got in, "Push me!" she demanded of Jillian.

"Gladly," Jillian said, grabbing it by the bottom and pulling it as high as she could, trying to twist and spin it at the same time.

Ryan came walking towards them. Today he was wearing a white stretchy tank top tucked into black jeans, wristlets and sunglasses. Jillian did not like sunglasses. It was almost like she threw a bolt of lightning between them when she tried to look at his eyes. She thought that some people try to hide behind them. Ryan grabbed the tire swing and started spinning it around in a circle, Sonya laughing. He stopped abruptly and walked away and sat down in a lawn chair. The swing started to unwind, and picked up speed. Sonya started screaming! Jillian was laughing at her, knowing when it stopped the one direction, it had enough momentum to start winding the other way!

She looked up at Ryan. He had taken his sunglasses off and was looking at her, smiling.

"This was a neat idea. And my tummy’s so full, I could use a nap right now," Jillian said, lying down in the lush, green grass. “So what is the story behind those two at the table? I didn't realize I was staring.”

“Well good thing Allison didn't notice it, too.” Ryan said chuckling. “I just don't think that you would like her mad at you. Jorge was cleaning the windows at the restaurant. He flicked the dirty water off of the squeegee onto the sidewalk as Allison happened to be walking past him. She assumed he did it on purpose and tried to Kung Fu him. She didn't know that he had been trained in MMA before he and his uncle moved here and was able to defensively keep her from kicking his ass. She kept trying to hurt him, and he wouldn't let her. But he wouldn't hurt her, either.”

“I think she has a chip on her shoulder because her dad was stationed in China and met her mom, who was a nurse. They didn’t get married, but Allison talked to her dad off and on over the years. So her mom and grandparents raised her, until her mom got sick and passed. Then her grandparents were both put into assisted living, and her father, Rusty had to step up to the plate. So she moved here and has been living with her dad. She works at his garage because she is a wiz at cars, better than any guy I have ever seen. But she wants to go to Beauty College, so she also works at the salon.”

“She is kinda bitter, and she’s friends with Roberta, and nobody wants any trouble from those kids. Now I think she feels that Jorge has the upper hand over her. But actually, he isn't like that at all. We've been friends since the 5
^th
grade. We used to do everything together, but he's been busy with the restaurant, and I've been busy with the farm.”

“So why did you make that comment about him and me? Jillian asked, feeling a little bit excited.

“Well, you two are nice upstanding citizens.” Ryan said matter of factly. “You both are good people, sensitive and honest.”

“Well, it's nice to know somebody thinks highly of me.” Jillian said, feeling sad that he wasn't offering himself up to her.

Sonya was still spinning, now asking for someone to help her before she got sick. Jillian just giggled.
Just 'be', she
heard in her head, like a thought. So she laid there relaxing, enjoying the moment. Looking up in to the tree, bits of sunlight showing through as the branches moving in the slight breeze. Even when she closed her eyes, she could still see the faint glow shining through the green. This all felt so right, like she had intended it all this morning. As if it was woven into the fabric of time.

Sonya got out of the tire swing and zigzagged to where Jillian was lying. She literally fell back, "Oh my God I am so dizzy, and would somebody stop everything from spinning?

"Heal thyself," Jillian said, and realizing what she said, she started to laugh. Then Ryan and Sonya started laughing, too.

Sonya closed her eyes. The dizziness was starting to wear off. Then it started again. It was the trance like state she would find herself in and see things. Not like the regression. This was as if she was someone else. Sometimes it was like a city scene, and she was exhilarated. She saw things in a different way. Lots of colors, and fabrics, and textures. Adventurous, stimulating, connected, a wonderful feeling that she wished she could have all the time. Then she would be overcome with the feelings of selfishness, greed, and immature, whiney and bitter like a tornado, waiting to strike. A force of nature that could not be understood. She started breathing deep. Now something else was going on, and this time it
was
her. Awareness. Something was not right.

"Ryan, do you have a ghost around here?" Sonya asked.

"Why? Do you feel someone, or something?" Ryan said, sitting forward.

"I don't know what it is. I don't think it's...human? I feel like it's, like misty, smoky, inky," she said covering her eyes with her hands. "Like it wants to move, but it may be confined or trapped."

"I don't know about anything like that here," Ryan said, becoming concerned.

Jillian asked, "Well, this is an old house, What about the attic, or basement, root cellar, places you don't usually go. Could there be something lurking around that you haven't discovered? Can we go look? Oh please, oh please?" With these two companions she felt invincible.

Ryan rolled his eyes, got up and walked towards the two girls. "Only if Sonya can walk. I aint gonna carry her, “ he said standing there, looming over her limp body on the ground.

"Oh, so I get to play a part in the paranormal activity this time, huh? You're on!" she said getting to her knees, a bit wobbly, so Ryan helped her the rest of the way up.

"You have been playing a part, but we just haven't discovered all of your talents yet," Ryan said. "Who knows what's lurking in there?" he said eyes wide and scary-looking as he shoved her, almost making her topple over.

Jillian bolted up, like a flash, as if electrified.

Ryan led them into the house through the mud room and into the kitchen. "Well, why don't you girls just walk around and let me know if you have any questions," He said leaning against the archway that led into the dining room.

Jillian was excited. She was going to get a feel for the house, like the mediums do in the TV shows. She just walked around, slowly, touching things that she wanted to know more about. Sonya was doing the same thing as Jillian, but she seemed keenly interested in the old photographs. There were a bunch of them on the mantle, neatly arranged and dust free on a hand crocheted doily in the dining room. She also spent a long time looking at a photo album that was lying on an armchair in the living room. She would look at the pictures and then look around the room, and sometimes look at Ryan. It looked like she was trying to get a feeling, or a sense of what she was looking at.

They opened closed doors, peered out the curtains that looked outside to the fields, touched desks and dressers. From time to time, Jillian would get a sense of something, words, pictures, a feeling, and a few times she heard words. At one point she thought she smelled roses. Looking around she didn't see anything it could be. She felt like she needed to respect everything she sensed. Like it was all credible information that she was getting, and not to let her head get in the way. She found herself smiling by the time she got up to the second floor. Sonya was right behind her, but a bit apprehensive because she was the one that had seen the dark thing. Ryan kept two steps behind them, wondering what felt so awful. How could he have missed it?

The first door they came to was a guest room. It seemed kinda empty. It had furniture in it, but it felt empty, emotionless, and cold. Ryan explained to them that the room was his father’s while he was growing up.

The next room they came to was Ryan's bedroom. As much as they wanted to find some little secrets he had, or get to know him better, they were respectful of his space. At the same time Ryan was worried that they might find out too much. There were things that he did not want the girls to know. His fears, he was normal, he had secrets, and he never wanted anyone to know some of the things he had thought about his parents. Could he ever actually be transparent with someone, anyone?

The walls of his room were all knotty pine, everything was picked up and put away, and his bed was even made. The girls found it strange his room was ten times cleaner than their rooms. He had a few music posters on the walls, and a guitar sitting up against an old wicker chair that sat facing the window. His closet was full of clothes neatly hung on hangers. There were little built in shelves that held models that he must have built - cars, planes, boats and some monsters. Three pair of ice skates hung on the other wall. On the back of the door was a mirror, just his height, with some small photographs taped around it. There was a small shelf with a bottle of contact lens cleaner and a case, a bottle of cologne and hooks for his belts and bracelets. There were some framed photos on his dresser. The girls looked, but didn't ask who they were because they didn't want to intrude.

Jillian walked over to touch the guitar and Sonya walked to the window. Jillian ran her fingertips across the strings. Ryan waited in the doorway.

Sonya stood in the window peering out the curtains. "I know where it is," she said, looking down under the shade of the towering tree where the picnic was still taking place. Jillian turned around and Ryan walked up behind the girls. "It's down there," she said, pointing at the table.

"Where?" Jillian asked moving her head closer to the glass, squinting to see.

"At the end of the table. It's right by GG, to the right of him," she pointed again.

"Behind Lois? I don't see anything,” Jillian said.

"Is Lois there?" Sonya squinted.

As the three were watching the gathering below, it seemed as if on command, all of the people sitting at the picnic table slowly turned and looked up at them. The teenagers stepped away from the window. "Why are they looking at us?" Jillian asked. "Oh my God, that is creepy."

"Let's just go downstairs and find something to watch on TV," Ryan said, turning away from the window and heading down the stairs.

The three watched the Matrix, one of Ryan's favorite movies and snacked on what was left over from the picnic the rest of the afternoon and on into the evening, not saying a word about what was going on at the picnic table.