The Ninth Floor (8 page)

I opened the
bedroom door closest to the bathroom and pulled out three ridiculously heavy
boxes. Sitting on the floor, I opened the first one. It was filled with photo
albums. One was red and embossed in gold with the initials A.B.S. The front
flap had a family crest and the name Augusta Bonnie Scott. The next page
contained her birth date and all the stats. I flipped through the rest of the
book quickly—just photos. I rested the book on the floor to my right—my keep
pile.

The next box
held high school yearbooks. Again I shoved it to the right. The third was
filled with old books. At this rate I’d have to put everything into storage. I
grabbed more boxes, going through each with a single-minded determinedness. By
dawn I had thirteen boxes for donation, seven for trash, and sixteen for
storage elsewhere. Only the photo albums, family papers, and yearbooks were
stowed away in the coat closet so I could look at them later.

I was dead
tired, but the bedroom was mostly cleared out. If I painted it tonight, then
Vivian could find me a bedroom set, and I’d be well on my way to having a home.
I looked at the piles in the living room and wondered how I was going to get
them out.

I started
carrying the keep boxes down to my car, noticing the sky was pink and the
crickets were chirping. I loaded as many as I could fit and drove out to Bee’s
house. The stuff was hers, so it made sense to store it in her garage. I was
unloading when I heard a car pull up. I turned wearily, expecting Ashley, but
was surprised by Blair.

“You look like
hell,” he said.

“What the hell
are you doing up so early?”

“Up? I never
went to sleep.”

I laughed. “That
makes two of us.” A little knot of guilt felt hard in my chest. “I’m sorry I
ruined your evening.”

He waved me
off. “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t just you. Dad was pretty mad at Mom when
you left. He really misses you, you know?”

“I’m just not
a good fit with this family, Blair.”

“That’s the
beauty of family. You don’t have to be a ‘good fit.’ We love you anyway. You’re
a breath of fresh air. Something we all need.”

“So you
forgive me?”

“Nothing to
forgive.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the boxes still in
the car. “Moving in?”

“Nope. Moving
Bee’s stuff to her house so I can make the apartment over her store livable.”

“Need help?”

“I can handle
it. You should go home and get some sleep.”

Blair ignored
me and grabbed two boxes. Together we moved everything into the garage in no
time. I thanked Blair for his help.

“Is this all?”
he asked

“No. I have to
go back and get a couple more, then I’ll figure out what to do with the other
ones.”

“I’ll come
with you.” I started to protest, but he cut me off. “That’s what families do.
It’s time you and Mom started acknowledging the fact that we’re all a family.”

He followed me
back to the apartment. We carried the trash boxes to the dumpster, loaded the
donation boxes into my car, and put the few remaining keep boxes into Blair’s
so he could drop them off on his way home. I gave him a hug and thanked him
again. My little brother had turned into a good man while I was away. It made
me a little wistful that I had missed it. “How did you manage to turn out so
sweet?” I asked before he left.

He scrunched
his nose and looked off into nothing. “I think it must’ve been my big sister
who took the time to play with me every time she came home even though she was
much too cool to hang out with a kid like me.” He flashed a grin as he drove
off.

I wiped a tear
from my eye and drove the opposite direction to the Goodwill. I made it to the
hospital by 7:00 and headed up to see Bee. I noticed a couple nurses whispering
urgently to each other as I approached. I tried not to make eye contact so they
wouldn’t notice me.

One of them
whispered, “But it kept calling my name all night. Patient lights kept going on
and off—and room 1009 felt like a freezer. “

“You won’t say
a word about this if you want to keep your job,” an older nurse said sternly.

“I can’t work
like this,” the terrified girl hissed.

The other lady
cleared her throat and smiled at me. “Good morning, Ms. Sterling.”

“Good morning,”
I said, my cheeks coloring because I’d been caught eavesdropping. Why on earth
would people be fired for just talking about ghosts? It seemed suspicious, like
there was more to the story. I didn’t think rumors of a little haunting would
cause quite the hysteria Jack said it would. Perhaps there was something to
this story. I chewed on my lips as I considered my options and opened Bee’s
door. Bee was still asleep so I crept in and sat next to her bed. I could start
freelance writing. It would be a shame not to use the story right in front of
me. I just had to do a little investigation, maybe some interviews.

The more I
thought about it, the more I liked it. All I had to do was find some old
hospital employees who could talk about what they knew and go from there. The
only thing I was lacking was time, but since I was living here and had no
immediate plans to leave, that shouldn’t be an issue either. There was a knock
on Bee’s door that woke her up, and a nurse brought in a tray of food for her.
Bee was on a highly restricted diet. She wasn’t allowed to have sodium,
protein, vitamin k, or carbohydrates. It didn’t leave her with much to eat or
interesting choices, but Bee didn’t have enough of an appetite to complain. Her
smile was weak, and the skin on her face looked as thin as paper.

“How was
dinner with your family, dear?”

“I didn’t make
it past the cocktails. Mom and I got into it immediately.”

Bee shook her
head. “The thing about your mother is she’s very easily threatened. She needs
to be the apple of everyone’s eye.”

“Then maybe
she shouldn’t be such a bitch.”

“Ryan—”

“Sorry, sorry.”
Bee didn’t like me to call Mom names, but let’s face it, the woman deserved it.

“Your mom does
love you in her own way.”

“You keep
telling me that, and I keep waiting for her to show it.”

Bee shook her
head and looked like she was going to say something else but stopped when the
door opened. My father peeked his head into the room, smiling when he saw us.
He entered with a large vase of breathtaking flowers. I hopped up and stopped
him before he could get close. “Bee can’t have flowers or plants. Her immune
system is very weak right now. Sorry. I’ll take them out to the nurses’ station
for you.” He gave me another sheepish smile and let me take the vase.

I didn’t
return his smile. My dad had always been nice, and he loved me, but he never
stood up for me with Mom, not once. I wanted to forgive him, but every time I
looked at him I saw the man who let me be sent me away because he didn’t want
to make waves. I felt a familiar stab of disappointment.

I gave the
nurses the flowers and went to wash my hands. I walked out of the restroom as
Jack came out of the nursing station. He smiled and nodded toward the end of
the hall. I turned and went in the direction he indicated, happy for a reason
not to go back in the room with my dad. When I got to the window at the end of
the hall, I waited for him to catch up. He cleared his throat and headed for
the stairwell. I paused a heartbeat then followed behind. My pulse quickened at
the subterfuge. I couldn’t imagine what he was being so secretive about, but my
interest was definitely piqued. When the door clicked shut, he took my hand and
led me down a flight of stairs, still not saying a word. Once we were on the
landing of the ninth floor, he tugged me toward him and his mouth grazed over
mine once before coming back for a deeper, longer kiss that made my toes curl.
My fingers found their way to his soft hair while his hands ran down my spine
to the arch of my back where they slipped beneath my shirt.

He pulled back
slightly, but our noses were still touching and his hands were still rubbing
circles on the bare skin of my back. “Good morning,” he whispered.

“This isn’t
slow,” I whispered back before I feathered a kiss across his lips, which curled
into a smile at my words.

“I guess I’m
still confused. Do you mean slow like this?” He met my lips again, only this
time it was a long, languid kiss that stole my breath and made a sigh lodge in
my throat.

The sound of a
nearby door opening made us pull apart, though our lips were swollen and it
would be obvious to anyone what we were doing. I smoothed and straightened my
royal blue shirt as we waited for footsteps but nothing echoed in the
stairwell. I looked at Jack.

“It sounded
like it was from up there,” I whispered. Jack went up a level to check. I
crossed my arms, my cheeks flaming as I pressed up against the wall. The doors
on our level were chained shut. So strange. Part of me wanted to find out why,
but the more practical part said there was enough going on with Bee and I didn’t
need to run off on a wild goose chase.

Jack came down
the steps with a curious expression. “Whoever it was must have gone back. I
didn’t see anyone.”

“I don’t think
exit doors are supposed to be chained shut, are they?”

“I told you
the floor was closed.”

“I thought you
just meant no one was on it, not that it was physically locked up.”

He shrugged.

“Isn’t the
hospital building a new wing because they need more space? How can they not use
one of the floors just because of a ghost story?”

Jack shushed
me. “Don’t even say the word. We’ll talk more about it tonight if you’re free?”

“I need to do
some painting.”

“Would you
like company?”

I didn’t fight
my smile. “Well, yes, doctor. I think I would.”

Jack sent me
out into the hallway, saying he’d go down to the eighth floor and would come
back up on the elevator. I laughed but enjoyed the covert nature of whatever
was happening between us.

On my way to
Bee’s room, I passed Leigh, who was wheeling an oxygen tank in the same
direction. “I know about the ninth floor,” I whispered when we were side by
side.

She stopped
and looked over at me. “What?”

“The ghosts.”

Her face
blanched and she pressed her lips together. “Whatever you think you know, you
don’t.”

“Then tell me.”

“I don’t know
what you’re talking about, dear.” With that, she hustled away, and I entered
Bee’s room. Dad was in my chair, and Bee laughed at something he said.

“We were about
to send a search party.” He stood up as I came in, gave me a hug, and held me
an arm’s distance away. “Look at you. You’ve grown into such a beautiful young
woman.” Tears brimmed in his eyes.

I gave him a
tight smile for Bee’s sake. I didn’t want to cause her any more stress. “How
have you been, Dad?”

“Well, other
than missing my daughter all these years, excellent.”

“Hmph.” I bit
the inside of my lip against a retort. If he missed me so much, the phone
worked two ways. He could’ve called, or emailed, or done
anything
in the
last eight years, but the only person I heard from was Bee.

“Bee was kind
enough to keep us informed about your well-being. I believe there’s a boyfriend
you were pretty serious about. Walter Burke’s son?”

“You know
Briggs’s father?”

My father
nodded. “Nice family. I know your mother approved.”

“We broke up.”
Even if we hadn’t, Mom’s approval could have been the kiss of death.

“I thought as
much when you brought the doctor to the house last night. I’m sorry to hear
that, Ryan. You’re too young to settle anyway.”

“You mean you
don’t think Dr. Sadler and I should elope?” I asked innocently.

Bee smiled, my
dad looked nervous about how he should answer, and a throat cleared behind me,
making my cheeks heat.

Jack raised
his eyebrows at me with a small grin before he walked around to Bee with his
typical charming smile. “How are you feeling today, Bee? I see you have
visitors.”

Jack went
through his normal barrage of questions: her pain scale, energy, swelling,
stomach, etc. When he finished, he joined me, leaning against the window ledge
on the opposite side of the bed as my father. Dad and Bee watched us, and I was
careful not to look at Jack.

Jack cleared
his throat again. “Thank you for having me to your house last night, Neil. I’m
sorry the evening ended so abruptly.”

Dad shifted
uncomfortably.

“We’ll have to
try again,” Jack said, and this time I did look at him, but it wasn’t puppy
love in my eyes. I wasn’t going back there, and I didn’t appreciate him
intimating that I would.

What the hell.

Jack escaped from Bee’s room
before my father left so I couldn’t tell him what I thought about him promising
things on my behalf. I hoped Jack was comfortable with my family because he was
visiting them alone. When it was just Bee and me again, I casually asked if she
knew anything about the hospital.

“It’s a very
good facility, Ryan. I don’t need to be moved to a larger city,” she said
patiently, misunderstanding.

“That’s not
what I mean. I mean its history.”

Bee frowned
and her eyes flickered towards her closet, as if she expected a monster to come
out of it. “No.” Her lips pressed into a thin white line.

“Bee—”

“I’m really
tired, Ryan. I’m going to try to sleep for a little while.” She closed her eyes
and turned her head away from me.

Bee was being
evasive. Weird. We always talked about everything. What had changed? I sneaked
out of her room and headed for the cafeteria. I needed coffee. I got myself the
largest cup available and a fresh fruit bowl. Then I found a table by a window.
I stared out and contemplated why no one would talk about the hospital. I had
to be able to find out the big secret somehow. I made a mental note to Google
it when I got home.