Five figures of varying levels of transparency sat around a table. The dancing light of dozens of candles bathed the room in an eerie glow.
“I say, Anthony,” said the man in a 19th century black Royal Navy vice admiral dress jacket with gold buttons and epaulets, “How did you ever get those candles lit?”
“I might have had some help from the living, Sir William.”
“Carl?”
“Yes, it was Carl.”
“He seems like a nice lad to put up with us.”
“We’re ghosts,” hissed a woman with a dramatic black bob and dangerously sharp cheekbones who was just a torso in a white lace dress hovering above a chair. “What’s he going to do?”
“Indeed we are, Ms. Stuart,” Sir William acknowledged. “I suppose if he wanted us out he could, I don’t know, do something with holy water or sage or some such thing. I hear that works…”
“It works really well,” said a diminutive blonde woman far too skinny to be healthy with sunken darting blue eyes. “This place on Wilshire me and my boyfriend were crashing at was totally haunted. Sage. Burning sage. Works. Just don’t, you know, catch the sofa on fire…”
The man sitting next to her in a tailored business suit looked askance at the young woman. “You caught the sofa on fire, Stacy?”
“Oh, yes. Well, not intentionally. Not that time at least…” she stared off as if she could see the flames.
“Huh,” he said, then turned to Anthony, “Anthony, are we going to do this? I’ve got a business meeting in half an hour…”
“Seriously, Dave? What kind of business are you doing?” Anthony asked, rubbing at a stain on his Pixies Doolittle tour shirt.
“Well, it’s not my meeting. But I’m haunting a board of director’s meeting of my old company. I figure I should keep up on what’s going on.”
“In case you happen to rise from the ashes?” said the torso woman.
Dave gave her a sour look, then said facetiously “Yes, Annabel, because I’m planning on coming back to life. Geez, can’t a ghost have a fricken hobby? I mean Anthony here has his totally healthy fixation on this… Jemma–“
“Jessica,” Anthony corrected.
“Jessica,” Dave acknowledged, “who may or may not be alive and may or may not have a thing for our boy.”
“She does. Well, did…. I’m worried about her, that’s all,” Anthony said.
“Well, I for one say this beats our usual support group,” said Sir William.
“Thank you, Sir William. Should we get this show on the road then?” Anthony asked.
“Lets,” hissed Annabel.
“Alright, let’s take each other’s hands and concentrate.” They took each other’s hands and closed their eyes. The room sat in silence for long moments before Anthony broke the silence. “Oh, spirits of the living, we the dead seek to communicate with you!”
A light breeze started to swirl in the room which grew into a wind coursing around the table. Stacy was the only ghost with her eyes open and she stared open mouthed at the wind which seemed to take on faces then fade out.
“Come forth, living, and speak with us! Present yourself!”
“Hey Anthony,” Carl opened the door to the candle lit room, bathing the room in garish white florescent light. “Just wanted to check on you guys. Everything cool?”
“Yes, Carl, everything was fine…” Anthony said annoyed.
“Cool, cool, cool,” Carl said. “Y’all need anything, I’ll be downstairs.”
“Thank you, Carl, we appreciate it,” Sir William said.
“No worries, Navy dude. Peace out,” and he closed the door.
“Well,” Annabel raised a delicately drawn eyebrow, “We did ask for the living to present themselves…”
“Totally,” Stacy nodded.
“That wasn’t what… Ugh,” Anthony growled in frustration.
“Anthony,” Dave said setting his hands on the table, “You haven’t been dead that long. Nothing just comes to us on this plane. You have to ask for what you want. You can’t be passive about this. Put your mind to it! Take what you want! Give voice to it. Close the deal!”
“Yeah,” Stacy said dreamily, “why don’t you just, you know, ask for Janelle to show up.”
“Jessica,” Anthony corrected. He started nodding, “Okay, okay, I can do that… Okay, let’s hold hands again.” They did. “Oh, spirits of the living,” Anthony intoned again, “Hear us, the dead, as we request one of the living to speak with us. Jessica Arnold, come forth and speak with us!”
The same wind started again whipping around the table in wisps. Stacy tried to catch one in her mouth, but it darted away.
“Spirits of the living, we know you hear us. We demand you appear. We seek Jessica Arnold to speak to us!”
The wind whipped more fiercely causing the candles outside the circle to dance more furiously. A vibration started and the candles began to rattle. The table itself started vibrating and seemed to jerk and jump under their hands.
“Spirits of the living! We make this plea for Jessica Arnold. We won’t be denied!”
The table bucked violently under them as the wind roared. Suddenly, the wind exploded out of the circle and swirled around the room whooshing the candles out all at once. The vibration and table jumping stopped and the room fell into quiet heavy darkness.
“Hello?” came a voice from the middle of the table. “Where the hell am I?” Suddenly the white light of an iPhone lit up the table. “What the hell?!” said a woman sitting in the middle of the table. She wore a men’s gray and white flannel shirt open over a white Adidas t-shirt. The flashlight beam of her phone cut right through Stacy who giggled. The woman in the middle of the table gasped and swung her light around to Annabel, then Dave. “Oh my God,” the woman said, “You’re all ghosts!”
“Sorry, my lady, we didn’t mean to scare you,” Sir William intoned.
“Scare?” she turned the flashlight to Sir William. “This is awesome! Real ghosts!” She furrowed her brow, “Wait, how the hell did this happen? Why am I here? Where am I? Am I now a ghost?”
“Jacinda, I presume,” Dave said.
“Uh, Jessica,” the woman corrected.
“Jessica, of course,” Dave said. “Someone very special brought you here…” he waggled his eyebrows at Anthony across the table and behind Jessica.
Anthony stared open-mouthed at Jessica. Annabell pushed his arm hard which seemed to snap him out of it. “He– hello Jessica,” he said haltingly.
Jessica spun on the table. “Anthony?! Is that you?”
“It’s me, yeah,” he blushed. “You remember me?”
“Remember you? I can’t forget you!”
“That’s sweet,” Annabel said in a genuine tone that sounded out of place from her strident make up.
“Sweet? Are you kidding? He scared the hell out of me! Texting me all the time – like dozens of texts before noon!”
“I… I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Is that why you kept showing up at my work?!”
“Oh, Anthony, that’s creepy,” Dave said seriously.
“I thought it’d be romantic!” Anthony said defensively.
“I had to change my phone number,” she started enumerating on her hand. “I had to move,” she counted another finger. “I had to transfer to another division out of state,” she counted. I told my friends and family to tell him I disappeared.
“They did!” Anthony said. “I was so worried about you, Jessica. Your old roommate said you had gone camping and never came back…”
Jessica chuckled, “Yeah, she told me she said that.”
“I was searching for you in the woods! I got bit by a rabid chipmunk! That’s how I died!”
“Ooh, that’s rough,” she said.
“Terrible way to go,” Sir William nodded solemnly.
“Hey,” Jessica said, “Let’s not lose sight of the fact that he was a creepy stalker! Rabid chipmunk or no, I am still afraid to date because of his shenanigans!”
“Not a good look, Anthony,” Stacy said.
“Thank you, scary skinny girl,” Jessica nodded at Stacy. “And now he’s stalking me from the Beyond?!”
“We weren’t aware of Anthony’s disreputable actions,” Annabel agreed. “I, for one, wouldn’t have participated had I known he caused you such injury.”
“Thank you, scary… torso. Eew, what happened?”
“Run over by a trolley, dear,” Annabel said. “You would think I would have been reunited with the lower half of my body in the afterlife, but no! Mind you,” she said confidentially, “Make sure you die with all your parts intact.”
“I… I’ll try?” Jessica said.
“Jessica, I’m sorry if I scared you…”
“Why wouldn’t you take no for an answer? I said I didn’t want to see you about a hundred times!”
“I… I thought you were kidding. You know, you’d come around when you saw how devoted I was…”
“Look, Anthony, I thought you were sweet in the beginning. But you… you were just too much,” Jessica said. “If it would help you, you know, pass over or whatever,” she took in a deep breath then said formally, “I forgive you for being a creepy stalker.”
“I knew you’d see how much I care for you!”
“Jesus Christ, no! And don’t you dare haunt me!”
“We’ll make sure he behaves, Ms. Arnold,” Sir William bowed his head. “We’re sorry for any inconvenience.”
“Yeah, no, this is cool,” Jessica said. “But, uh, could you put me, you know, back?”
Everyone looked at Anthony. “Uh, let’s hold hands again?” They all did. “Spirits of the Living…”
“Wow, seriously?” Jessica said.
Anthony ignored her, “Spirits of the living… uh… please take Jessica home.”
The wind whipped up furiously and Jessica – and the light from her phone – disappeared.
“Whoa, that actually worked?” Anthony said in the darkness.
“Anthony,” Sir William’s voice came, “We have a lot to work on in next week’s support group…”
