Page 121 of Ghostly

The bedroom door opened. “Are you ready?” Gabriel asked.

“Just a second.”

“You said that five minutes ago.”

She turned to him with pretend disapproval. “Says the man who spends twenty minutes in the bathroom each morning.”

Gabriel came to her and hugged her from behind.

Hugs? Rated way above fuzzy sweaters and pants.

“Our grill master is impatient. Says the chicken will be overdone,” he said.

“Oh, we can’t have that.” She made one last, needless fluff of her hair, and let Gabriel lead her to the hallway. She paused on the doorstep.

Need to make sure the floor is stable. This is the most trekked path, withthe most wear on the floorboards.

Her foot hovered a few inches above the floor.

“Ida.” Gabriel’s voice was calm, steadying. “Less steps, less wear, don’t you think?”

Right. That made sense.

Makes sense, makes sense, makes sense.

She took a deep breath and crossed the threshold without staggering back. Gabriel reaffirmed his grip.

In the months since she’d left her ghostly state, many things with and within her changed. There were the obvious human problems, but besides that, her razor-sharp memory began to fade. Oh, nothing to worry about; she simply wasn’t working like a computer anymore. She remembered everything she’d done as a ghost, but the information absorbed from books, movies, and other objects slowly moved to the back of her mind, like a childhood memory that, in time, becomes but a recollection of images and feelings.

The one thing that hadn’t changed was her affliction, but with Gabriel’s support and frequent sessions with a therapist, she was managing. They’d returned to the house, deciding what to do with it while Ida adjusted to life. At least here, she knew exactly where all the walls were, and bumped into them less when she forgot she couldn’t phase through anymore.

Besides, Ida enjoyed properly meeting the locals.

A mouthwatering aroma of grilled meat and veggies reached them even before they turned the corner to the backyard. The Schuyler Sisters sat around the picnic table, for once eating more than chatting. Mark waved at them from behind the grill.

“There’s our freshly engaged couple!” Jason approached with a plate of chicken kabobs. “Don’t tell me what you’ve been doing. Just eat.”

“Gladly,” Ida said. Oh, food—haunting didn’t do it justice. It smelled delicious and tasted better than heaven. But before she could reach for it, a brown and white four-legged furball launched herself toward Ida, barking at first, then scratching her pants.

“Rosie!” Ida kneeled and scratched the dog behind her ears. “Look at how you’ve grown!”

“She can play dead now,” Marge explained, a bit of mustard dripping down her hand as she waved it in excitement.

“She can? Rosie, play dead!”

Rosalie dropped on her back and stuck her paws in the air, looking like a most adorable corpse.

“She always does everything Ida tells her to, doesn’t she?” Janice remarked. “And she liked her from the moment she met her.”

Ida gave a sly look to Gabriel. She was convinced Rosalie had recognized her as the former ghost. Luckily, she couldn’t talk.

“I saw your new post on the blog,” Dina said as they all congregated around the table. “Well done!”

“Thank you!” Ida said through a mouthful. “Forty-eight new views in the past two hours. One reader even asked me for more tips about the rose bushes. Oh!” She reached her hand over the table. “We should do a collaboration! People could call us the Garden Gurus.”

“You become famous, more people come into town…” Jason counted off his fingers. “Deaths happen, more work for me at the morgue, profit for everyone!” Mark punched him in the shoulder, and joined the rest of the table in a roaring laugh.

Were her neighbors slightly strange? Perhaps. But after a century, Ida finally fit in.