Page 34 of Ghost of a Chance

K irsty finally had an idea for her story all thanks to Jasper. He was unlocking parts that she’d never focused on before. Waking in the middle of the night, she grabbed her laptop and started writing. Jasper was sleeping on his side next to her in the attic room again.

He looked so calm and sweet in sleep. Curled on his side, his hand extended to where she’d been.

Now she was distracted from writing. She was meant to talk to Aza later today and frankly she was hoping to get some clarity on who the hell was trapped in the book.

It felt like cheating to go to another medium when she was supposed to be one.

But her abilities were sketchy at best. If they even existed.

After their bench rendezvous, Jasper wanted to leave the textbook at the frat house, but Kirsty insisted they take it back with them. She wanted to look through it in more detail. It was large and weighty, filled with concepts that still eluded her.

Though that didn’t matter. Whoever was trapped in the book wasn’t trying to teach them physics.

Closing her eyes, she let her head fall back and put her hand on the cover of the book.

All of the times when she’d had any contact with the spirit in the book it had been accidental. What would happen if she tried contacting it herself? If she focused her mind? It couldn’t be any worse than their other methods.

“Spirit, I invited you to join me. I mean you no harm and seek only answers,” she said.

Opening one eye a crack, she glanced around but nothing was happening.

Shaking her head hard. No candles. She needed at least the white one to invite the ghost in.

Being as quiet as she could she took the candle and the book out as far away from the bed as she could.

Sitting down again she lit the white candle. Closed her eyes and reached out with her mind.

“I’m not going to harm you. I want to help you move on.”

The deep voice didn’t answer her. She probably needed all the candles and a better incantation. She walked to the dormer window overlooking the street. That big moon illuminated the floor around her. Maybe she should try again over here.

Putting the book on the floor, she took a moment to dig the other partially burned candles out of her bag, along with a lighter, and placed them around the book.

“What are you doing?”

She jumped at the deep rasp of Jasper’s voice.

“Jesus! You scared me. Trying one last time to see if these medium powers can get us any answers,” she said.

“Want me to help?” Climbing out of the bed, he came and sank down next to her on the carpeted floor.

He wore only a pair of gray boxer briefs and his hair stuck straight up on one side like a cartoon character. He rubbed his hand over his chest as he shifted one of the candles into a better position.

He crossed his legs and held his hand out to her. “I’m ready this time.”

Me too . Whatever happened she was going to keep her focus. “I’m going to find out who this ghost really is.”

“Fine. I want to know as well,” he added. “I read in one of your books that having the window open might help. Also that you should have something they can extinguish or a pendulum to direct answers to.”

“You get the window… I can’t reach that one very well,” she said. “I have a letter map I made for my last book.”

Her book’s heroine, Eva, needed to communicate to a spirit that wasn’t able to talk. Her editor had suggested it would be a nice twist since the other ghosts that Eva had encountered had been verbal. The solution was a letter map.

In this case, the map was really two pieces of copy paper she’d taped together and then used some stickers and markers to decorate it. The entire alphabet was spelled out in three arching rows. There was a yes on the left side and a no on the right side for simple questions.

She even had the jade crystal necklace that she’d used as inspiration for a pendulum for the book. Breathing in the combined scents of the candles and the faint smell of rain on the breeze from the newly opened window, she closed her eyes.

“Ready to begin?” Jasper settled next to her.

She wished she was more prepared.

Tonight she didn’t want to force anything.

Jasper squeezed her hand. “You sure you want to do this?”

“Yes. I have to,” she said. Lacing their fingers together, they started chanting to invite friendly spirits to come and help them. The room felt calm around them as a gentle breeze filtered through the window.

After about ten minutes, a sense of relaxation came over her and she let go of Jasper’s hand, lifting the pendulum over the letter map.

“Spirit in the book: Are you named Paul?”

She opened her eyes, but the jade crystal just hung there, completely still.

God was she wasting her time?

Suddenly, the crystal began to swing.

NO.

Wait. What? “Are you Paul, Jasper’s cousin?”

YOU’RE NOT ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.

That voice in her head was back again, strong and deep, but not scary this time. Probably because she was ready for it.

“Are you here for Jasper?”

YES.

“Does he know why?”

A strong gust of wind blew through the window and the candle flames pitched before going completely out. The pendulum stopped swinging, and her head was silent.

Jasper looked over at her.

“Anything?”

“I’m not sure. Uh, the ghost is definitely here for you. But when I asked if you knew why, all of that happened.”

* * *

“What the hell does that mean?”

Jasper had felt Kirsty’s energy change before that gust of wind. He was in awe of her talents. Somehow a woman who began as a total stranger had spoken to his ghost, however briefly.

“Did they say who they are?”

Kirsty didn’t answer him, playing with the leather cord and its crystal, running it through her fingers.

“Not really. I asked if they were Paul and they said I’m not asking the right questions. Which they did the last time, too.”

“So then you asked about me and the wind blew all the candles out…” Restating the obvious somehow made him feel less shaken.

There was no denying that he was disturbed. First they learned that the book wasn’t Paul’s textbook for class, then the light shattered in front of them at the frat house, and now this.

“What could a spirit want from me?”

Like she had a clue. She was as much in the dark as he was.

“What does it sound like?” he pressed.

She stood up, wrapping her arms around her body. “I don’t know. It sounds loud and firm and sort of scary. I’m not sure what it wants.”

Draping his arm around her shoulder, he tried to comfort her but she held herself stiffly, resisting his proximity.

“Do you think it’s in your head?” It was the question he was afraid to ask. What if this was all just a collective delusion?

“What do you mean?”

“I figured since it was speaking and you were the only one who could hear it…”

“I honestly don’t know. I have no training and until you and the textbook, most of this ghost business was just for fun to research my books.

” She frowned, her forehead creased in thought.

“That voice could be talking to me, but it’s definitely not my own thoughts.

I have never heard that voice in my head before. ”

“Okay, well, you did hear Paul’s voice on the video. So I believe you, that it’s not his.” He couldn’t tell if he was relieved or heartbroken. “Do you feel like we got anywhere?”

Her skin was paler than usual, her body language subdued. She probably needed space, but he couldn’t resist trying a little harder. “Tomorrow we’ll talk to Victor, and you’re going to the other medium. We have to be close.”

“Yeah.”

“Kirst, you will figure this out. The ghost was probably just startled. I think you were on the right track. Want to try again?”

“No,” she said sounding a little put out. “I just want some fucking answers.”

He did too but life didn’t work that way. Sometimes you just had to settle for moving on. Ironic coming from him—he’d been stuck in the past for years, assuming that this haunting was based in his own mistakes and guilt.

“I do too. I really don’t know a lot of dead people,” he said, trying to lighten things.

“Great, then it should be a short list,” she said. Then she wrinkled her brow. “Though maybe asking about you is frustrating the ghost. Both times they’ve run away, once when I brought you up. What if they’re involuntarily stuck with you?”

“Kind of like the afterlife version of what’s been going on with me?” It was a thought. One that would completely suck if it were true. But Gia was tracking down the last owner of the book, so perhaps that would answer things before long.

“Yeah, something like that.”

He opened his mouth and she held her hand up. “Don’t ask. I have no idea if that’s possible or not. It’s a theory.”

“What if the book has always been haunted? Then when Paul died I got it when his stuff was boxed up?”

“That’s a good idea. We need to ask Victor about it. You said you thought Paul liked Judge Judy but what if it was the book the entire time?” She hurried to her side of the bed and started jotting things down in her notebook.

He followed her around, sitting down next to her on the bed. That vague feeling of being stuck that had dogged him since he’d graduated was coalescing into a future the more time he spent with Kirsty.

He wanted her by his side.

And she wouldn’t even commit to watching Star Wars with him after this, let alone something more. But these feelings that she’d brought to life in him weren’t going to disappear. He wasn’t about to run from them.

“Any other ideas?” she asked.

Tossing her hair, she chewed the end of her pen as he contemplated her question. All he could think was about pulling her under him and making love to her.

There was no future or past. Nothing but the two of them together in the present.

“Only one.”

“What?”

He took the notebook and pen from her, placing them on the nightstand before he pushed her gently back on the bed and came down on top of her, careful to keep his weight from crushing her.

She wrapped her legs around him, the tail of her nightshirt falling to the tops of her thighs, and he felt the warmth of her center against his growing erection.

The smile on her face was soft, gentle and so open that he couldn’t bear it.

When she looked at him like that, the love he’d been hiding from her struggled to stay hidden.

* * *

Judge Judy woke the house at 6:00 a.m. with a loud, “If it doesn’t make sense, it’s not true.

” Jasper went down to turn it off and to take Chewie out.

Kirsty pulled on her headphones as she got out her laptop.

Today, she was writing. Last night had been frustrating.

At least Eva always found the answers when she needed them.

In fact, Kirsty had been way too easy on Eva, looking back on the books. She’d used her abilities as a tool. This time Eva wasn’t going to be able to. That would push the character in a new direction. She turned on her playlist, fingers moving over the keyboard as the words just flowed out.

When she finished the chapter she was working on she felt better. Two hours had passed. Jasper had brought her a strong black coffee partway through writing and left it on the nightstand. It felt good to do the thing she was good at rather than trying to play a part.

She showered and got dressed ready for the day. She was meeting with Aza while Jasper and Dan went to get the remaining B-roll they’d been waiting to shoot. Gia had a lead on Peterson’s Used Books, so she was on her way there to investigate.

They all had tasks to do. As she prepared to leave the house, she found herself lingering in her room. She was going to miss this little group they’d formed once this was all said and done.

Though she had more questions today than she had yesterday, the answers were getting close. Like any investigation she could feel it slowly coming to a conclusion. Maybe Jasper felt it too.

He’d given her a lot of space this morning and was quieter than usual.

He hardly even looked at her when she came downstairs though she struggled to keep her eyes off him.

Somehow, he was getting cuter each time she saw him.

The way he concentrated on editing his part of the video footage this morning was impressive.

He might not have wanted to work in television but she could tell he was very knowledgeable and good at his job. He’d found something that suited him, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

As Jasper finished his edits with Dan, he glanced up and she winked at him, just to throw him off. He flushed, sheepishly coming over to her.

“Did you have a good morning?” he asked.

“Yeah. Lots of words down and I finished my chapter,” she said.

“Good. You were practically in a trance,” he said.

“I get that way.” Nothing felt as good as hitting her stride in a new story.

“Were you thinking about your book just now?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m heading out to see the medium.”

“Want me to come? Maybe she can tell me how I’m involved,” he said.

* * *

“Yeah. But Dan can’t come, no cameras at all. She doesn’t want to be filmed,” Kirsty said.

“Figures. Be careful she’s not scamming you,” Dan said.

“Why would she be?”

“The lack of filming makes me think she’s hiding something. You didn’t have any objections?”

She had similar concerns, but at the same time she’d had no choice. “Thanks, Dan.”

“No problem,” he said. “I’ll keep editing and get some footage around campus and town for the voice-over you suggested.”

“What voice-over?”

“I figured it would make a nice story if we started with a voice-over explaining my history with Paul and the book even if it turns out not to be Paul trapped in it. The haunting definitely started here,” Jasper said, explaining as they both left the house.

Kirsty grabbed her keys while Jasper got into the passenger side of her car, putting the seat back. His long legs weren’t suited for this.

The trip to Aza’s took all of ten minutes. The house they pulled up to looked ordinary, like every other one on the street. There was a small sign out front with a palm stamped with the all-seeing eye and other symbols.

“Guess this is the place,” Jasper said. He’d been eerily quiet on the drive again.

Worrying about a man wasn’t something she’d allow. Not again. It was just that now she was forming an attachment to him. And it felt almost like he was pulling back.

This was precisely why she had stuck to one-night stands.

He followed her up the walkway to the front door.

The door opened and a woman appeared, about Kirsty’s height with straight blond hair wearing a purple silk slip skirt and a mohair sweater. She smiled easily at them, the scent of patchouli wafting out.

“You must be K.L. Henson.”

“I am. This is Jasper Cotton. We both have some questions about this textbook,” she said.

Hopefully Aza could give them a lead. Once this was wrapped up she would know for sure if Jasper’s presence in her life was just a Burlington fling, or something more.