Page 3 of Dancing with a Ghost

"Toby will be far too busy, but I suppose we could ask him to do something for you." Mother stood, straightening her skirt, unaware of just how close she came to being soaked. How that vase had missed her, I did not know.

"I'd love to, Tabitha. It's no trouble at all." What was Mother always saying about keeping the customers happy? Well, this was one time when I was right and she was wrong.

She turned to me, a tight smile on her face. “Of course you should, Toby.”

“Like I said, whatever Tabitha wants.” He leaned forward, placing a kiss on the end of Tabitha's nose, before standing and helping her to her feet. “I’ll pay you extra for the drawings, but I think that covers everything. Thank you, Hilary. Toby. The next time we see you will be a couple of days before the wedding. I trust it’ll all be sorted.”

It’d be sorted, I’d make sure of that. It was my job, after all.

Chapter Two

Matthias

Icouldn’tresistit.His mother was taking credit for all his hard work….. again. I’d watched, day after day as he worked on the notes for this wedding, painstakingly drawing in great detail how it should all look, only for his mother to take the credit.

I knew she was going to do it again. That was why I’d hidden the notes. Yes, it took a lot for me to do that, but it wasn’t fair, not when he’d spent so much time on it. The effort to move the vase cost me even more of my energy and I’d have to rest for a while to gather what little I had left.

The other question was why I’d shown him where the notes were. I could have just let them disappear completely so she couldn't pass it off as her own work, but the thought of the unkind words she would impart was too much. Toby didn’t deserve that, not one bit.

As to why he put up with her, I’d learnt over the time he’d worked at the hotel that he always did what she said, that she laid down the law. Even Toby’s father didn’t argue, and he was a giant of a man. He clearly knew who was the boss, though, and rarely disagreed with her. Anything for a quiet life, I suppose.

But now it was time to rest. The exertion from earlier had exhausted me. You wouldn’t think a ghost needed to sleep, but I wasn’t quite a ghost. Or was I?

I'd been a pilot in the RAF when a problem with my aircraft had forced me to land. The canopy had failed to open and after a tense few moments, the flames licking at my body, I'd somehow climbed from the plane, damaged but not broken. I'd been one of the lucky ones and had landed quite close to a hospital where I was treated for my burns.

They weren't so bad, I hadn't thought, but I wavered between life and death for some time. Eventually, I was relocated to a different hospital where I was approached by a nurse. It was all a little vague now though, and my head felt as if it were full of wool. What was it she'd said? Something about dying, living….I struggled to remember. Yet here I was, a different time, but in the same place. A life lived in limbo.

As the years and months had passed, my life energy, call it what you will, had faded, and I was becoming weaker. I needed to regroup and replenish for a day or so, but I knew deep down I didn’t have long. My eighty years were almost up and if I wasn’t able to return to my corporeal form by then, I would fade into the ether, become part of the universe along with the others that had failed to find their connection.

How did I get here, this limbo I was in? It had been clear at the start, but as the years passed, it had become contorted, like something there just on the tip of my tongue. A thought or memory that just wouldn't form.

It was definitely time to rest.

I needed to check up on Toby, though. I think I’d shocked him today. It was the first time I’d ever spoken to him, the first time I’d had the courage to approach him in any form. I wasn’t sure what had changed. Maybe it was the thought that my time was running out or maybe I was just tired of seeing the man downtrodden by an overbearing mother. I knew all about those, which was why I’d joined the Air Force at an early age.

I couldn’t walk through walls, that only happened in stories, but I could imagine someone in my mind’s eye and manifest to the room they were in. I’d not done it much. It expended far too much energy. With Toby, it was different. I felt a connection to him, more so than anyone I’d experienced here in this house.

Of course, when I first came here, it was a hospital, a place of recuperation. Except I hadn’t recovered. It certainly wasn’t the place it was now. A very lavish hotel, with people coming and going at all hours of the day and night.

It had been many things in my time; a hospital, a home, before finally becoming what it was today. I milled around for the first goodness knows how many years, not really knowing what was happening. I’d tried talking to people, but it hadn’t ended well, most running from me, some screaming as they did so.

When the word exorcism started being thrown around, I scaled it back. It was the last thing I wanted. I was here for a reason. I was here for someone and I knew that person was Toby. Don’t ask me how, I just did.

And thinking of Toby, I found him in his bedroom, lying on his bed.

“Why do I let her do it? Why do I let her get away with it repeatedly? Those were my bloody notes, all my bloody work.” He sat up, twisting to punch his pillows. “Stand up for yourself, Toby. That’s what Georgie would say, but she’s not here, is she? Leaving me to take care of everything as usual, dealing with Mother. And as for dad. Well, he’s neither use nor ornament.”

He lay back down and placed a pillow over his face, screaming into it. The first time he’d done this, I hadn’t known what to do, thinking he was trying to kill himself, but soon realised it was his way of dealing with his mother, or anything else, come to that matter, that annoyed him.

Sitting on the bed, I longed to reach out and touch him, soothe him with some kind words, and tell him I understood his frustration. I refrained, though, thinking I'd worried him enough today.

I lay next to him on my side and waited for him to remove the pillow so I could gaze at his handsome face. In my brief life, I'd seen many good-looking men, but Toby was by far the best. He had the most endearing smile, and the bluest of eyes, wavy dark hair I could run my hands through.

I'd known I preferred men from an early age, watching my school boy chums, then the other members of my squadron. I'd hidden it well, had to, really. Being homosexual when I was alive was illegal and I couldn't afford to be caught. Now, though, as I wandered the halls and corridors, I'd seen things I'd only seen in scandalous publications or photos passed around in secret. Everything had changed, but I wasn't entirely sure it was for the best. Surely, some things were best kept behind closed doors.

After a few moments, Toby removed the pillow and threw it to the floor before placing his hands behind his head.

He breathed deeply, turning to look at where I lay.

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