Page 19 of Ghostly

“Feel enlightened yet?”

“It’s certainly an interesting fact,” she drawled. “Maybe a little short of being enlightening? Also, I can’t have debates about tomatoes with anyone but you, and you made your standing clear.”

“Okay.” He nodded and scratched his chin some more. “Pickles need to bounce in order to be legally fit for human consumption.”

“Kind of in the same category as the previous one and, what is it with you and vegetables?”

“I don’t know!” He stood up. “Then what is enlightening? Women can vote now?”

“I still know what’s going on in the world. I’m a ghost, not oblivious.” She sagged into the couch. “Maybe, because of my ghost status, I’m not a good subject. Maybe I can’t be enlightened.”

“Or it doesn’t work because you’re the GI. We need a third, contract-independent person.” He raked his hair, sat down and started his laptop. “I’ve got just the candidate.” He clicked a few times, until a ringing sound was heard, and a voice on the other end.

“Mr. Vane. Hi. How can I help you?”

“Ollie, stop sounding like a receptionist,” Gabriel said.

Ida leaned in. A young, bespectacled man with wild dark curls was on camera. “Who is he?”

“This is…” Gabriel cut himself off and shook his head. “Ollie, this is a special request. I’ll tell you a fact now.”

“You’re talking weird,” Ida whispered.

“I know. Stop talking to me,” Gabriel whispered back, then, louder to Ollie, “Ernest has a quirk. Whenever you bring him multiple folders, if they’re different colors, lighter ones need to be on top and darker ones at the bottom.”

“Oh, I like Ernest, whoever he is,” Ida said.

Gabriel ignored her and continued, “If there are multiple folders of the same color, those folders need to be together. That’s regardless of the contents. And if he has coffee on the table when you bring them in, they need to be to the left of the coffee, otherwise he’s afraid he may spill it on the paperwork.” Gabriel took a breath. “How was that?”

Ida wasn’t sure whom he was addressing, but Ollie said, after some stammering, “Helpful, sir. Really helpful.”

“Would you say you feel enlightened?”

“Well, yes, sir, I’d dare say so.”

“Wonderful! Back to work with you, then. Have a nice day.” Gabriel canceled the call and closed the laptop. “Ollie is my assistant. He’s a paralegal. And now, he should also be the person whom I enlightened.”

Ida looked at the contract. Nothing changed. “Maybe I need to haunt it again to make it stick.” She did so, and even spent a few seconds inside the page in case she needed to form a stronger bond, but when she came out, everything was still the same.

“Perhaps we need to go through all of these and only then will we see the effects,” Gabriel said.

Ida bit her nail. “I guess. I’d just liked to have seen a sign. Know we’re on the right track.”

“Come on.” Gabriel tapped his knees and stood. “Let’s try more. How about some fixing?”

***

“There’s a joke hidden in here somewhere.” Gabriel gave the light bulb one last screw, tapped it, and got off the chair. “How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?”

Ida didn’t respond, staring at the book instead. “Still nothing.”

Gabriel turned on the light. “But it works now. You broke it, I fixed it.”

He came to stand by her and checked the contract. “We did exactly what it says. So, if it’s worth its salt—”

“Which you were in doubts about, anyway—”

“Then it should’ve worked. It’s a paranormal contract, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be interactive.” Did he seriously say those words? “It doesn’t show when a term is fulfilled. And I’ve got to have done at least one of those right.” Even if enlightening Ollie hadn’t been enough, Gabriel had done three kinds of warming up—by doing a jog around the house, warming up by the radiator inside, and drinking hot coffee. Add to that a pretty straightforward fixing procedure, and they should be halfway done.