Page 45 of My Blind Date is a Ghost

“Can you speak to me?” I ask.

She shakes her head.

“I wonder why,” I say. I’m starting to think I might need to learn sign language in order to communicate with the dead. I wonder if the ghosts can learn sign language.

Sabrina moves her hand over her face, and I think she is indicating that I need to close my eyes. I nod and do so.

Too…hard… I hear a voice in my ear say. My eyes shoot open and I look to my left, but of course, no one is there. Sabrina is still sitting across from me.

“Too hard,” I repeat. “Too hard for you? Too difficult? Uses too much energy?”

Sabrina nods.

“But you spoke to me just now.”

She sort of pantomimes to me, One, not two.

So, she can either appear to me or speak to me, not both. Interesting.

“Is that because you are too weak?” I ask. “Or because I am too weak?”

She points to me.

I chuckle. “Oh, nice. So, it’s all on me, is it?”

Sabrina gives me a smile.

“So, I need to work on figuring out how to strengthen my powers so I can talk to ghosts. Any idea how I can do that?”

She shrugs.

“Well, I need to figure this out by Christmas, otherwise I won’t have a gift for Beverly. Have you ever been in contact with another human who could hear you?”

She shakes her head.

“Is there any other way we could communicate?”

She pantomimes writing with a pen.

“Oh, you can manipulate a pen?” I get up and rummage around the counter until I find a pen and paper. I bring it back to the table between the couches and hold the pen in my hand loosely. I actually read about this in Eusapia Palladino’s book. It’s called automatic writing. It is when a spirit inhabits a human’s body and leaves written messages behind.

I just hold the pen in my hand, but don’t write anything. I let out a long exhale and close my eyes. After a moment, I can feel the pen moving. I get very excited, but I try not to show it. I keep my eyes closed and just let Sabrina do her thing. After a minute, the pen stops moving. I open one eye, and then the other. Sabrina is gone. I look down at the paper.

You are doing very a very good j, is all it says. I assume she was trying to say “job” before she simply ran out of energy. I try not feel disappointed. After all, I just received a message from a ghost. And a pep talk at that. But at the same time, it’s not anything particularly useful. And it’s not even a message for Beverly.

“Thank you,” I say, hoping she can hear me. After all, it is something, and it’s a start.

* * *

“So, Detective Dawson is on his way?” Dianna asks after I ring up a customer and he leaves. Dianna is sitting on a stool, flipping through pictures of tattoos on her phone. She doesn’t have enough, apparently. Though, I have no idea where she would put another one. I guess she could still have blank skin where the sun doesn’t shine.

“That’s what he texted me,” I say, anxiously checking the time. He should arrive any minute.

“I hope no one comes in while you are gone,” she says. “I could use some time off.”

“You haven’t done anything all day,” I say. “I’m the one whose been working.”

“Yeah,” she says. “But Parker and I just got to a really big scene in the webcomic we’ve been developing together. Ugh! I just can’t wait to work on it.” She brings out her iPad and shows me a draft of the scene she’s working on. I haven’t been following the story, but I guess the adventurers are facing a dragon. It’s a technically impressive piece for an artist, I will give her that.

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