Reveal (Cryptid Tales) (7 page)

“
How about tonight? 12:30? There’s a bench by an old pine tree. There’s a crack in the tree near the base. Let’s meet there,” I suggest, I need to know more,
now
.

“
Sounds fine, see you tonight.” He takes his hands out of mine, smiles, and vanishes.

I go to get dressed for the day, my jeans and hoodie from yesterday won’t do. And note that I need a shower. I walk into my attached bathroom, also done in my favorite color, purple. I turn on the shower and slowly climb in. As the water warms my body I think about all the pieces of information given to me over the past couple days. Ever since Wendy showed up things in my life have been moving at a much quicker pace than ever before. I am used to seeing ghosts but besides that I live a very normal boring life. I go to school, work, and track. I don’t have a lot of friends so I’m not invited to the high school drunk fests their parents call sleepovers or parties.

But here I am, suddenly thrown into a whole new world of summoning and bringing ghosts to our plane. Our plane? I’m still trying to work out how there can be more than one plane. Is this what a wormhole is? Note to self, Google that later.

And best of all about these new developments is Jeremy is back and from his reaction I can tell we’ll pick back up where we left off. Though his changed appearance will be something I need to get used to. I do miss the piercing eyes of the fifteen year old Jeremy, but I can certainly get used to him being a child again. I have to guess that he changed his appearance to match me and resorted back to the form he’s most comfortable once I wasn’t around anymore. The same body he had when he died.

As I get out of the shower and dry off I notice my eyes in the mirror. They’re almost a yellow color now. Something is off here. Maybe me using my summoning power is causing my eyes to change? But I hadn’t even known I could do these things when my eyes started to lighten last month. So weird.

I walk downstairs and notice Chad in his normal spot.

“
Hi Chad.” He barely nods and over the couch I can see he’s playing Madden again. God isn’t playing the game six days a week for real enough? Chad plays football all year with various teams. Mom hopes it’ll help get him into a good school

“
Are you doing anything today? I have to go to work soon; I could drop you off at the mall or something.”

My mom says I have to make an effort with Chad, she thinks my father’s disappearance has affected him more than me. That’s the psychiatrist in her. She has office hours at the college today, so I’m trying to help out. He doesn’t respond, I doubt he’s even heard me.

“
Yo! Do you wanna go into town or not?” I yell, hoping for a small response, even if it’s a no.

“
Promise not to drop me off too close?” He squints at me over the couch as he pauses his game.

“
Sure, whatever.” I know he tries to act all big and bad but I also know he appreciates the ride. He’s too young for a license and I think Mom has some issues getting him a car for when he is. She’s weird about that with him. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s the baby or because he’s irresponsible. Either way, I don’t think I would help him get his own wheels either.

After I finish my cereal at noon (
I know, lazy
), we get into the car and drive to the Marksville Mall. It’s pretty nice; it has Macy’s and Sears and a couple of outlet stores. I drop him off in front of Barnes and Nobles, his friends will be nowhere near here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Chad pick up a book, unless it has naked anime girls in it.

“
You good?” I say as he gets out of the car.

He bends down to look in, “Yeah Tim said his brother would pick us up later and bring me home.”

“
OK, see ya, and Chad?” He looks at me and raises his eyebrows. “Be good, alright? Don’t go and do anything dumb.”

He says, “Thanks Mom,” sarcastically and shuts the door. He might seem touch but I can see the smile playing on his face as I drive away.

I speed into work and park behind the old building on the town square. There’s an iron statue in the middle of the square of two brothers, a confederate and union solider shaking hands. I always look at it and wonder what it must have been like back then. I also think about what their mother must have felt, her two sons going to war, against each other.

I’ve never told Chad about my gift. Actually I’ve never told anyone. But I don’t think Chad can do what I can, so that puts us on opposite sides of a line. Like the two brothers in the statue, I think we would have different views. Mine would be that ghosts are special and we’re lucky to help them, his would be that I am totally bananas.

The back door chimes as I come in the shop. Olivia is behind the counter talking on the phone. Sounds like she’s making a deal for consignment.

“
Well if you can have it in by Wednesday we can work something out, but if not then we’ll have to fill the space with someone else.” She sounds impatient; this must have been a long conversation.

“
OK that sounds fine. We’ll see you Tuesday afternoon. As always, thank you for calling McEwyen’s Antiques.” She hangs up the phone and looks at me.

“
Hey! Cute sweater.” I look down at my outfit, a long brown sweater with leggings and boots. I’m a firm believer that boots should be worn all year, they’re too comfortable not to.

“
Thanks,” I say smiling. “Busy today?”

She turns toward the register, “I wish. I am sooo bored. Mom and Dad are away so I have to man the shop all weekend. I’m stoked you’re working today. I had a great time at your place the other night; maybe we can have a repeat tonight? I have the whole place to myself.”

We did have a good time on Thursday but I have plans tonight. “I’m watching Chad, sorry. Mom’s busy so I’m in charge. You know that means no sleepovers. My mom is so strict.” It’s a harmless lie.

She nods looks bummed but she suddenly grabs her bag. “Well then we’ll have to look at my surprise now!” She holds up a Teen Vogue, the prom edition. She continues, “We can look at dresses for Senior Shuffle. I can’t believe it’s coming up so soon! We’ll be graduates!”

“
I know! I’m so glad they ditched prom and made this party just for seniors, it feels so much more, I don’t know, exclusive or something,” I say as I hop up on one of the stools behind the counter. I’m looking for any reason to not think about my life right now or the shambles it’s in. Besides, I can hardly contain how excited I am to see Jeremy tonight and I certainly can’t discuss any of that with Liv. She’s my best friend, but I’ve never told her about my gift.

When I was younger I was afraid of what I could do. Jeremy always tried to make me feel better about it, but deep down, I was just plain scared. What if someone learned of my secret? How would they treat me? Would my mom put me in the loony bin? I’ve asked myself these questions a million times. Now that I’m older, I just want to fit in, have a normal life. And although having a missing dad makes it so you’re never quite normal, I still felt like I was on the right track. But ever since Wendy showed up my life has snowballed into a crazy mess. The worst part is I can’t tell Olivia any of this, I can’t tell anyone any of this. I feel kind of alone.

I focus on the magazine and gaze at the glossy pictures. The beautiful girls with their matching jewelry and shoes stand out to me. Hair piled high on their heads and huge smiles plastered on their faces. I want to be just like them, hell, I want to
be
them. I look at Liv who’s scanning her cell for other pictures of dresses she can’t wait to try on. She is one of these girls and she doesn’t even know it.

I point to a dark haired brunette in a blue gown, “Olivia,” I start, she looks up, “do you think I could pull this off?”

She squints at the picture, “Oh yeah, why not? Though honestly, I think you’d look super hot in black.” She pages through quickly to a page she has dog-eared. “This one,” she announces and points to a short black dress with feathers on the bottom.

“
Are you serious? I could never pull that off!” I’m shocked at the dress she picked. I’m decent looking I guess, but I don’t have a body like that girl!

Liv smiles hugely, “You would look rockin in that! And I know just where we can find it.”

I crinkle my eyebrows, “Where?” I think about our small town’s mall, nothing this sexy could ever be sold there.

She shows me what she’s been looking at on her phone. “Ebay.” She says with a smile. There it is,
the
dress, on sale for just under one hundred dollars. “We have to bid on it! It’s perfect for you.”

I shake my head. “I don’t even have a date.”

“
If all else fails, I’ll be your date. But I’m sure we’ll find someone, maybe even Tall, Dark and Handsome.” She winks at me.

“
Uh huh, sure as if I’ll ever see him again.” I’m bummed, I want to see him again, but who knows when I will, or
if
I will. “We’re texting occasionally,” I tell her. “But it’s nothing to write home about. He hasn’t asked me to meet up again, just Calc questions mostly.” Quick to change the subject I add, “Got any inventory that needs marking?” I don’t want to think about how much I treasure that night we spent at the store together. Or the fact that we haven’t gotten together since. It breaks my heart to not be with him. It’s weird, its’ like I feel more alive when he’s close. He’s almost like this power that takes hold of me and I’m totally addicted to it.

Liv snaps me back into my reality, the one where Hugh doesn’t walk through the door on my command. Because if we were in that world,
he
would be here right now.

“
Yea, a bunch of doorknobs came in this morning. The box is still by the door.”

I walk over with the tagger and start marking them. Olivia comes over to help me and the afternoon passes quickly. She tells me all about her date last night with a guy from a neighboring high school. Apparently all thoughts of Eddie have left Oliva’s mind
thank goodness
. She even says she’s thinking of leaving the book club. Their latest story is “not really her thing,” (AKA she’s done since he’s left for his new internship and also since he left her and his precious book club). Things with Eddie would have been weird anyway. I mean he would never have been able to take her to Senior Shuffle or anything; it would have been awkward. All the seniors at the after graduation party with a student teacher hanging around? Totally bizarre. Liv also asks about my Friday night. I lie and tell her I just stayed in, watched movies with my mom. I just hope she doesn’t ask Mom what we watched. She’s pretty close with her and they always strike up conversation when she’s over. Luckily she ignores my lies and continues on about her date. His name is Luke and he’s on the track team. Liv gushes about what she wore, what he said and so much more, but all I’m thinking about is what Jeremy has to say to me tonight and Hugh and his piercing green eyes.

I drive out to the spot where I told Jeremy to meet me. Let’s see how good a six year old ghost is at remembering directions. It’s really dark tonight so I’m glad I remembered my flashlight. When I arrive near the orphanage I zipper up my coat and pull my scarf around my neck. I always feel like it’s cold when it’s this dark no matter what time of year. I get out and walk holding my flashlight out in front of me. I can hear voices up ahead. There are more voices than there should be. There’s a distinct difference between live voices and dead ones. People who have passed lack control of their final consonants, meaning there’s almost always a wispiness to the end of their words. In the conversation up ahead I hear both live and dead voices. I shine my light in their direction and two things surprise me. One, there’s about ten or so ghosts here, all children,
not in the plan, Jeremy
. Two, there is a guy here, a guy I know and that I’m practically in love with.

“
Excuse me,” I say loudly, knowing he’s already seen me, “do you know this is private property?”

“
Yes, I do, and I also happen to know you’re trespassing.” I get a better look at him now that I’m closer.
Shit
, he has a security uniform on. How am I going to talk my way out of this one? He looks me up and down, sizing me up, I’m not sure if he is thinking about tazeing me or sleeping with me, but either way I’m slightly worried.

“
I didn’t know they had security out here. I was just taking a walk and I heard voices, thought I’d come check it out.”

“
Shay, that’s dangerous and besides you were taking a walk? At 12:30 at night?”