Page 53 of A Very No Strings Halloween
“Oh, but we’re together again at last, you silly goose! We must never let each other go!” I hurl myself at him. Or rather, Lara hurls myself at him.
And then my lips press against his.
My memory of kissing Billy like this at the football game gets overtaken by a memory that isn’t mine—of kissing Lars.
The unabashed rush of love is so beautiful it brings tears to our eyes—myeyes.
“Oh, my love, my love, my love! Don’t ever stop kissing me!” It’s not quite my voice, but it somehow matches my feelings.
He looks at me. Looks into my eyes, trying to figure out who’s saying that to him.
“Lars. Lars!”I wanted to sayBilly, dammit!“More, please, don’t stop! Oh, my darling, Lars!”
He looks disappointed, grips my arms and pulls away. “Lara,” he says, authoritatively. “Sit down in that chair so I can finish reading my letters to you. You need to hear them. Then we can really be together.”
“Why, yes sir,” I purr. Both of us are having a distinct reaction to that tone. My body returns to the chair and listens to the rest of the letters.
Apparently Lara got cold feet and was nervous about leaving her parents and her life in Virginia. Lars had promised his mother that he wouldn’t leave Massachusetts again now that he was home from the war. The fear and sadness is overwhelming. I can’t stop the tears. They’re pouring down my face. I know how much they love each other and I know how it all turns out, and it’s all just sad. Even Billy is getting a tremor in his voice.
He gets to the final letter in the box and has to clearhis throat before reading it.
“‘My love. My scarlet spitfire. My bride. The month I spent without seeing you or hearing from you brought the kind of agony that I never want to experience again. The loss of you was the loss of everything. Opening the door to this house and finding you standing there on the porch, your beautiful face wet from the rain and your tears, was the great surprise of a lifetime. Greater, even, than our chance meeting when I was visiting a friend. You came to me. You pledged yourself to me. And you married me. Not in haste, but in pure joy. Now I must wait for you to return with the rest of your belongings. We’ll have a wedding here one day, my love, I promise. This house is ready for us and all the love we have to fill it with.
Our life together will begin.
There is so much I could say to you, my darling. Fortunately I have the rest of my life to tell you. Just know that anything I ever tell you means this: I love you.’”
He looks up from the letter and directly at me.
“I love you,” he says again. “I love you.” And there’s no trace of the black-and-white actor or Lars. It’s pure Billy Boston baritone.
“Oh, I love you too!” I cry out. But it’s not Lara’s voice. It’s mine. I get up and reach across the table to grab his face and kiss him. It’s not the invisible puppet strings that are making me do it.
And then I get dizzy, so dizzy.
The room is spinning.
I don’t feel Lara anymore—she’s gone.
It’s just me kissing Billy.
We finally break the kiss.
I still feel a head rush, but I don’t think it has anything to do with Lara leaving.
I have to sit down again because my knees feel weak, and again, I don’t think it has anything to do with being possessed by Lara.
Some voice in the back of my mind reminds me to close the session.
I place my fingers on the planchette. Billy takes a seat and does the same. We slide it to the wordsGood Byeon the board.
And now it’s done.
Lara got what she wanted.
She heard what she needed to hear.
I’m just not sure who saidI love youto whom just now.
