Ghosted by Sarah Ready

Author:Sarah Ready [Ready, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC

31

The tiny basement room is still infused with a pink glow from the Himalayan sea salt lamp and the gold lamp covered with a red silk shawl. Incense burns in the brass bowl by the front door, hitting me with a wall of sandalwood and ylang-ylang.

The bell on the door jangles, and then the door sweeps shut behind me, sealing out the cool night air of outside.

Everything is the same. There’s the same threadbare blue and gold rug, the same folding card table with two metal folding chairs, and the same scowling glare on Zelda’s wrinkled visage.

I smile widely at her, taking in her leather metal spike jacket, her obvious annoyance, and the to-go carton of white rice steaming on the table in front of her.

“I’m eating,” she says, narrowing her eyes on me as she takes a forceful bite of her fire engine-red chicken skewer. The bright red, garlic-cumin sauce stains her lips, and she says, her mouth full, “You’re one of kind, no manners. Always coming in the second I sit down for a meal.”

I nod. Yes. For sure.

“You remember me?” I ask, stepping close and pulling out the chair across from her, the metal warm from the crackling heat of the room.

Zelda takes another bite of her chicken, the meat shredding off the wooden skewer, bits falling to the table.

I take that as a yes.

“What do you want?” she asks, eyeing me without interest.

I drop into the seat across from her, then lean forward and ask the question burning on the tip of my tongue. “When I was here last time, you could feel the ghost with me—”

“Yeah. The annoying horn dog.” She bites the last piece of chicken from the skewer, looks at the wood with disappointment, then tosses it to the table. It hits with a dull thud.

“Well, he wasn’t actually annoying—”

“What do you want?” she interrupts, looking down at her watch. “My TV show starts in three minutes.”

“Is he here?” I ask, looking her in the eye, impressing her with the importance of my question. “Can you feel him here now? With me?”

Say yes.

Say yes.

Say yes.

“No,” she says, not bothering to look around the room. “Congratulations, you got rid of that annoying ball of energy.”

No?

No.

It’s at that moment I realize how much I’d hoped that Daniel was still here, that for some reason I’d (temporarily) lost the ability to see him. Now that I know he’s not with me, a cold numbness slides into me, like an iceberg slipping into the cold, dark sea.

My heart, previously pumping along with hope, flutters, seizes, and stutters. Then just as suddenly, it starts back up again, thudding to adjust to this new reality.

“He’s not here,” I say, just to be certain. “You can’t sense him, at all?”

Zelda sighs, then looks up at the ceiling, cocking her head as if she’s listening for something. After a silent minute, she snaps her gaze back to me and says, “No. Lucky you. He’s gone.”

“Bring him back,” I say, gripping the edge of the table, filled with a desperate urgency.

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