Page 34 of Ghosted
A huge wet snuffle. Then, a throat clears and, “Yeah. Yes. Sorry. I just never thought I’d talk to my grandma again.”
The grandma in question, Eloise, smiles at me. She’s been hovering somewhere between the curtain and ducking her head one way and then the other, depending on who's speaking. “Thank you, dear. I’ve been waiting to talk to that boy for a long time. He needed to hear it from me or else he wouldn’t have listened.”
I nod at her and ask, “Do you think you can move on now, Eloise?”
She sighs a bone-weary sigh and says, “Yes. My Paul has been waiting patiently for me. I’m ready to see him again.” I nod to her, happy to hear she has someone waiting for her on the other side.
“Is she… Is she gone?” Caleb asks roughly.
“Not yet, but she’s ready. Do you have any last things you want to say to her?”
“Just that—I love her and am glad she’s going to be with Pop-Pop. And I’m sorry that I’m the thing that was holding her back.”
Eloise makes a tsking noise against her teeth. “None of that now. I chose to stay. I could have gone, but I wasn’t ready. That was my decision to make, and there’s nothing he could have done to stop me. Tell him not to make my choice about himself. I raised him better than that,” she harrumphs.
I relate what she said verbatim (I learned my lesson when she chastised me earlier for trying to soften some of her words).
Caleb rattles a sigh, and I can hear him shifting in his chair. “Alright, Grandma. I hear you. Thank you for waiting. You have no idea how much I needed to hear you say that.”
Eloise raised Caleb from a young age. Her daughter got lostwithin a drug addiction and made the choice to drop him off on Eloise’s doorstep in the middle of an icy February night. Eloise was a mother to him in all but name, and only because she insisted he call her Grandma. At the end of her life, she battled heart disease and was eventually put on life support.
Caleb carried around the guilt of taking her off it for years, even though it was in her will to be removed from life support after a certain period. He didn’t want to let her go, but felt like he had to. And once that decision was made, it couldn’t be undone. It’s been eating at him for a long time, but Eloise finally set him straight. She spent a long time during this visit lamenting the fact that he would rather have her unresponsive and miserable than not have her at all.
“I love you, Cay. You’re going to be all right. Oh, and ask that girl out already. What’s her name?” She snaps her fingers. “Cara? She’s over the moon for you, you ninny. Stop dilly-dallying and grab happiness by the short and curlies while you can.” I swallow my laugh and once again relay her message exactly.
Caleb lets out a strangled chuckle. “Noted. Thanks for—for everything, Gram. Love you. Tell Pop-Pop I said hello.”
Eloise drifts to his side, whispers something I can’t make out, and then flits back to me. “Thank you. We both needed this.”
“Of course, Eloise. Rest easy,” I say, watching as she shimmers and pops out of existence. I relish in the bath of comfort, smelling pine and coffee for just a moment after she disappears.
“Is she gone?” Caleb hiccups.
“Yeah, but I think she’s going to like where she ends up,” I say with a small smile.
The room warms in increments until I can finally stophiding my fingertips between my thighs for warmth. Eloise was sucking the energy out of here at an impressive rate. Caleb clears his throat a few times. “So, I won’t be able to talk to her again?” he asks in a voice that makes me imagine him as a little boy with knobby knees, carrying around a prized teddy by the ear.
“No, sorry. Once they cross over, the connection to this world is severed. I don’t know what’s over there, but I know it’s better than here.”
He inhales noisily through his stuffy nose and says, “Okay, thank you. You have no idea what this meant to me.” I hear shuffling and the rustling of fabric that tells me he’s probably slipping a jacket back on. “Bye, Claire.”
I had given a false name to protect my identity and thought Claire was cute, because, you know… Clairvoyant. Even though I’m the one who came up with it, it takes me a moment to respond because I forgot that that’s me. “Oh, right. Yes—Bye now.” I say, before dropping my head in my hands, grateful at least that he won’t be able to see my mortified expression.
He was the final client of the night, and I feel wrung out. Emotionally and physically. My first one went okay, but the second one was a bust. The woman wanted me to contact her dead ex-husband, and when I explained that he wasn’t coming through, she wouldn’t leave it alone. I tried explaining that he was probably at peace if he wasn’t picking up the proverbial phone. That only incensed her further, because apparently, the last thing she wanted that “gambling, no good, dough-for-brains asshole” to feel is peace. So that was fun.
It took my Aunt Clarissa threatening to call the police on the woman to get her out of my room.
Caleb and his grandmother were a welcome change ofpace, but I’m glad the night is over. Despite Delinda and her gambling ex-husband, I’m excited to do it again tomorrow. Facilitating a conversation between loved ones has always been one of the best parts of the job, but to do it in such a direct way was an even better experience. Mom’s going to be so mad that Aunt Clarissa was right.
After the door chimes, I poke my head out of the room to make sure he’s gone. Aunt Clarissa waves a wad of cash at me. “Look, doll! This is just your tip!” I take the money from her and count out well over a hundred dollars.Damn.“And he said he’d tell his friends about it!” I shove the wad of cash in my back pocket and do some mental math. Today, we brought in hundreds of dollars, and that was with one of the appointments storming out without pay. I feel something unclench in my chest. This might work out.
I smile tiredly, and reply “That’s good, Aunt C. Really good. I’m going to go collapse on my bed now. See you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow,” she affirms, giving me an affectionate chuck under the chin.
TWENTY-ONE
The mid-morning sunstreams in through Dean’s giant windows. I let out a contented sigh, watching deer scamper by in the meadow out front. “This house might be an architectural monstrosity, but you sure do have a good view,” I say.
