Silent Song (Ghostly Rhapsody) (21 page)

“Thank you so much!” I grinned, hugged Dad and caught Mom’s conspiratorial wink over his shoulder. It was so rare for them to pay for my outings with my friends that it felt like a blessing over my relationship with Keith, even though I knew that it wasn’t like that.

“Thank you, sir.” Keith seemed a bit overwhelmed at not being run off by a fork-wielding mob as well. “It’s not…”

“Nonsense.” Dad cut his protest off even before it could have a go at life. “You’re just a kid. Let us working adults foot the bill from time to time.”

“Thanks.” Keith grinned and I took the chance to grab his arm.

“You’re both great,” I told my parents. “But we really need to go.”

“Don’t be back late, Alice. Tomorrow’s a school day,” Dad called out after our backs as I towed Keith away.

“Sure thing! I’ll be back soon… Soon-ish!”

Once we were out of earshot and sight, Keith chuckled and shook his head. “That went well.”

“Of course. I’m happy with you. Why are you surprised?”

He gave me a sideways look and smirked. “You were surprised.”

“Dad’s not one to pay for superficial stuff.” I shrugged.

“Food’s superficial?”

“Come on—you know what I mean,” I said, punching his upper arm.

He just smiled and we walked in silence for a bit longer, our breath leaving clouds of vapor in front of our faces.

“Since he liked you, I should have asked him to give us a ride,” I muttered when we arrived to the oversized neighborhood where the Nightrays lived.

“Like? I think you’re stretching it a little. He almost had a heart attack when he saw me.”

I shrugged. “He’s healthy. He’ll get used to it.”

“Will he?”

Stopping and turning to him, I asked, “What do you mean?”

“I guess I don’t want to drive a wedge between you and your parents,” he said, shrugging self-consciously.

“They can go to hell if they don’t accept you,” I said and immediately realized my mistake. Keith’s wince was almost imperceptible, but he averted his eyes and found an interesting spot near his left boot. “I…”

I had completely forgotten about his own wrecked family. But that was not an excuse.

“They’re there for you. Both of them, and they support you as best as they can, even if sometimes you don’t agree. They have every right to be worried if their daughter keeps bad company.” He laughed without meaning it. “Damn, I’d probably forbid you from seeing me, if I were them.”

“You’re not bad company.” I stood in front of him and framed his face with my icy hands, turning him to me. “I know I’m very lucky to have them, and I’m grateful. But you’re too important for me to give up, and they’ll understand and accept that.”

“I must not be a very good person, because I know I’d not give you up even if I started giving you trouble at home. You’ll have to tell me to let go.” His hand reached up, covering mine, and he intertwined our fingers.

“I won’t,” I said, willing him to see the determination in my eyes.

“I hope I won’t ever see you regret those words,” he whispered, and then he kissed me, soft and lingering, in the middle of the street. I couldn’t ever get enough of those kisses of his, so tender and passionate at the same time.

“We should probably get going,” he said after a moment.

I nodded. “It’s not very far.”

Of course, not very far in this neighborhood was a relative term. We had to trudge on for a little over fifteen minutes, and I started to worry, wondering if perhaps we had gotten lost along the way.

“Okay, I might have taken a wrong turn,” I admitted.

“Let me see the address.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course. Let the guy handle the map.” My tone wasn’t as acidic as the words might suggest, and I produced a folded, printed map of the area where I had marked with a big red “X” at the right address. Keith studied the map for a few minutes, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards.

“Have you seen
Treasure Hunt
lately?” he commented at last, taking my hand and doubling back.

“No… I don’t think I’ve seen it at all. Wait, is it the Muppets movie? From ages ago?” He grinned and I narrowed my eyes. “Why do you ask?”

“Just lacking the pirate banner,” he laughed, waving around the piece of paper.

“At least I bothered to print it and mark where we were going.”

He squeezed my fingers and I decided that I didn’t want to huff around, after all.

“Okay,” I said, “How far did we stray?”

“Not much. We just missed that last intersection.” He pointed to the map, but even though it was high resolution and straight from Google, all the directions still looked the same to me. Not my fault, taking into account that there were huge mansions all around us and they were hard to tell apart from the main street.

A gust of wind picked up and I remembered the warning smell of rain that morning. I hoped it would hold out until we were secure and at home after lunch at the very least, but I wouldn’t have placed money on the bet.

Then, Keith stopped so violently that he pulled on my hand with a jerk, and I broke off my thoughts and stared at him.

“I think you got the wrong address,” he said.

“I didn’t.”

“Did, too.” He jerked his chin to the house to our right and I followed his gaze.

The driveway was long and the house hid behind a front lawn, but I recognized the mansion. Except that I didn’t.

The lawn was overgrown, weeds having sprouted in place of the impressive flowerbeds. The gravel driveway was irregular, covered in mud, and some shrubs had started to venture into the inhospitable soil. The rose bushes were gone. Dry, broken skeletons full of spines and twisted limbs were left in their place. Beyond the desolation, the house itself was even worse. The glass from some windows had cracked, the windowpanes torn down, and a thick layer of dust made it impossible to see within the rooms wherever the windows held. The main door had a thick, rust-covered chain holding it closed and the steps up to the porch had sunk, the wooden planks rotten to the core. I couldn’t see much of the second floor, but some spots in the proud gables had caved in. It was the image of dereliction and ruin.

“Not possible.” I stood there, frozen, gaping as if I had never seen an abandoned house before. “I was here just a couple of months ago.”

Keith shook his head and shifted his weight. “This doesn’t happen in a couple of months. No one has been taking care of this place for years.”

“But it was this house! I recognize it. Except, the lawn was manicured and there were flower beds and it was lived in!”

“Perhaps we got the wrong house. Maybe this is just something that looks similar,” he said, dubiously.

Holding his hand like a lucky charm, I pulled him along toward the main entrance. The abandonment we had seen from the street became only more apparent, and I realized that some windows had been shuttered with rough planks. I didn’t want to risk climbing the porch, but I circled around, trying to find a service door or anything that would allow a glimpse inside.

“Alice,” Keith said, pulling me back against his chest. “Listen, there’s no one here. There hasn’t been for at least twenty years. Are you sure this is the address? You said yourself that most of the mansions look the same.”

I rummaged in my bag, allowing him to hold me close while I did. On the one hand, it was cold. And on the other, I felt better in his arms. There was something disquieting about the property, and while I couldn’t rationally expect him to be much of a shield, his determination to keep me safe was enough to make me feel secure.

I pulled out my cell and speed-dialed Anna, holding it between our heads so that he could hear her side of the conversation as well. She picked up on the third tone, and she was giggling when she did.

I didn’t really want to ask why.

“Hey, Anna? Got a question, super quick.”

“Alice! What’s up, girl? I hope you’re celebrating our opening weekend success!”

“Yeah, I am,” I said, looking uncomfortably to Keith. “About that. Could you please confirm the address we went to get the decor?”

“Do you really expect me to remember?”

“Anna, it’s kind of important.” Keith’s hand gave a gentle squeeze to my hip, and I noticed I had been fidgeting with the zipper of his jacket.

God, I must be more nervous than I cared to admit.

Taking a deep breath, I went on, “The mansion where you and Dave and I went to pick out the decorations.  I need you to tell me that address again.”

“Alice, I don’t know.” There was whispering on the other end, and then Anna sighed dramatically. “But Dave still has it stored in his phone. He’s texting you now. Happy?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Anna.”

I hung up and then we stared for a few seconds at the screen, until Dave’s text arrived with a bleep. My fingers shook when I checked out the contents, and then I felt numb.

There it was, all the evidence we needed glaring back at us.

“We came here. It was this house. We did,” I mumbled and hoped that if I kept repeating the words, they’d make sense.

“I believe you,” Keith interrupted me and I turned to look at him. He had a faraway look, his eyes transfixed beyond the old walls.

Was he a little bit paler?

“Coming here was a mistake,” I said, pulling him back along the lawn and toward the street, away from the house. He took a heartbeat to budge and in that instant, the mansion loomed like the most ominous portent in the world.

“No, it was our only lead. It’s still the only thing we have.”

“It’s nothing now.”

“Slow down,” he said, planting his feet and making me stumble. “Let’s ask the neighbors. They might know who it belonged to.”

I didn’t want to ask. I wanted to run and never look back. I think my expression betrayed my thoughts, because he reached out to brush the hair behind my ear.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t let it go. I need to understand what’s happening to me.”

Right. Whatever was going on, it was hurting him. Badly. I’d not leave him alone with that, and I’d not ask him to just grit his teeth and endure. Pulling my wits around me, I steeled myself.

“You’re right. Let’s ask around. Most everyone here is old money. They must know the gossip if nothing else.”

We trudged on to the mansion right in front, holding hands with such desperation that both our knuckles were white. I rang the bell and a young girl opened the door. I tried not to let my disappointment show. She couldn’t have known the inhabitants from the abandoned mansion, but she might have heard something.

“Hi,” I said, giving her a big, fake smile. “I’m sorry, but could we please take a moment of your time?” Without giving her the time to say no, I pressed on. “It’s about the house in front of this one.”

She looked confused. “What interest could you possibly have in the house?”

“History project,” Keith mumbled. “Local history.”

Appeased by the excuse, she nodded. “Well, I’m sure there’s nothing to help you in that house. I don’t know anything about it. I’d have heard if it was important, you know?”

Uh, sure.

“Ah… are you sure? Is there nothing you can recall? The name of the owners, perhaps?”

“It hasn’t had an owner since forever. It just sits there, waiting to fall. I tell you, nothing interesting. You should research something else.”

Okay, no answers here.

“Thanks for your help, ma’am,” Keith said, and we turned back toward the street. I felt her eyes boring into our backs the whole time.

It was creepy, but I guess we were a bit weird ourselves.

Next, we tried both the adjacent houses, with similar success. The woman on the left claimed to know nothing, and on the right we were chased by a huge dog even before we could approach the main door. It was getting past lunchtime, and the clouds in the sky were so dark that it was almost as if it was night already, but we couldn’t give up yet.

We went back to the side of the street where the ruined house sat. We tried the neighbor to the left, on a whim, and found that the front lawn was so covered in rose bushes that getting to the door was like sorting through a labyrinth.

I was starting to hate the neighborhood.

“Do you think we’ll get someone to answer?” I asked while picking my way among the flowers and the spines.

“I hope we won’t get another dog. I don’t think we could outrun it in here.”

I chuckled, but a gray, metallic flash in front of my nose cut my mirth abruptly.

It was a pair of cutting scissors, the huge kind used by gardeners to shape their bushes. I gulped, and in a moment Keith was shoving himself in front of me, standing in the weapon’s way.

Except that the other end of the blade was attached to an old, crinkly hand, and the beady eyes of the white-haired woman peering up at us barely reached Keith’s shoulder.

“I don’t need a dog to keep truants out of my property!” the old lady exclaimed, and I believed her.

“We’re no truants, ma’am.” If Keith said so. I didn’t really understand the word, but I took it to be an insult of some kind.