Page 3 of The Accidental Ghost

No one could see or hear her. Yet, she was still wandering around, capable of seeing other people in current time. In fact, she’d watched the news with Greg and Nina (okay, so they didn’t know she was there, but still…) and the current year was 2024. She knew it was still 2024.

Then there was that call Nina had made to some friend of hers, who knew someone who hunted ghosts.

She’d heard the vampire say those exact words. I need someone who hunts ghosts, Georgie…

Thus, that had to mean Nina thought she was…

A ghost.

Le gasp…

Chapter

Two

But a ghost who was…what?

Stuck?

Had unfinished business?

Hadn’t been invited upstairs to mingle with the divine amongst the clouds?

Was there even an upstairs?

There must be, if Nina and crew had a friend who was an angel, right? Or had she heard that wrong?

Ralph blanched. Maybe she hadn’t been invited upstairs because she was supposed to go downstairs?

Hold up. She didn’t claim to be perfect, but she’d been a decent enough person when she was alive. She didn’t lie, cheat, steal. So why was she here, and not at the Pearly Gates?

Yet, it was the only explanation. All the evidence pointed to her being a ghost.

The first piece of said evidence pointing to her ghostly status? She could float, and in some moments that was pretty righteous, if she kept it honest.

Ralph had touched the highest height of Nina’s ornate castle ceiling without any effort at all. She’d risen like a hot air balloon, and it had to be at least forty feet high.

Second bit of proof? She could make the lights flicker—also cool, except…so what?

Making the lights flicker had only resulted in Nina calling her friend Darnell (a demon who, frankly, came across as anything but demonic. He was actually quite sweet and cuddly looking, and he loved her children and her dog, Waffles). He came over and checked the fuse boxes in her enormous digs.

Finally, sometimes, if Raphaela concentrated really hard, she could almost pick up items. During a recent family meal, without thinking about manners, or the fact that no one could see her and her actions might create a stir, she’d reached for the most delicious-looking cupcake, piled high with the thickest chocolate frosting she’d ever seen.

The blue man named Arch had made them—he was always making something delicious—and after their elaborate family dinner, he’d set them in the middle of the table on a gleaming red platter.

She hadn’t even been hungry. In fact, she couldn’t remember being hungry or thirsty or tired or much of anything but lost since she’d ended up here.

Yet, the cupcakes smelled heavenly, and her instincts kicked in.

That had gone so spectacularly wrong. Her hand didn’t feel like her hand anymore. When she’d grabbed the cupcake, her fingers felt like rubber and her hand felt like a heavy slab of meat. Yet, in a weird turn of events, she could still touch her bracelets and necklaces, her clothes and hair.

Anyway, instead of snatching the tempting cupcake up whole, she’d annihilated it. Crushed it until its crumbs lie strewn all over the table, similar to the way Godzilla had trashed Tokyo.

She’d moved things before, with the same rubbery feel to her hands, but they’d been things that had gone unnoticed. Like a small Hummel figurine on a shelf in the play room, where Nina displayed her gramma Lou’s collection, or little Charlie’s toothbrush.

Leave it to her sweet tooth to create the kind of havoc that would get Ralph noticed in all the wrong ways.

Phew, had that ever caused serious havoc. There’d been yelling, and lots of sniffing (because apparently when you were paranormal, you could sniff out all sorts of things, including danger), and more yelling that included threats from Nina to whoever was “fucking around.”

---