Cemetery Tours (7 page)

He hadn’t seen or heard from Kate or Gavin since
Saturday
night, and even though he realized that was probably for the best, it bothered him.  Were they alright?  Had their ghostly visitor wreaked any more havoc on their lives?  He hadn’t a clue and he wished with all his heart that he didn’t care so much.  He’d never worried about any of his other neighbors, and they’d all suffered the effects of residual hauntings from the ghosts who’d followed him home.  Of course, this time, the haunting was not only personal, it was violent.  

Michael grabbed a handful of books and stepped up onto the foot stool.
  He was so tall, he hardly needed it to reach the top shelf.  Still, it kept him from having to strain his body by stretching to place books back in their proper places.

“Man, it’s so quiet in here.”
 

Michael was so startled he dropped the books and had to grab ahold of the shelf to keep from toppling off the stool.
  He whirled around to see Brink, in all his plaid, 90s style glory, lounging against a shelf and staring at the books as though they had been hand-crafted by aliens.     

“Brink, what the hell?” Michael hissed.

“Michael?”  One of his coworkers, a sweet, elderly woman named Barb appeared at the end of the aisle.  Barb worked at the help desk.  She’d probably heard the racket he’d made when he dropped the books.  “Are you alright, Dear?”

“Fine.
  Just lost my balance,” he explained.  He saw Brink smirking out of the corner of his eye.  

“You weren’t dizzy, were you?”

“No, nothing like that.  I just misstepped.”  

“Are you sure?
  You look a little pale.  You are eating enough, aren’t you?”  

Barb’s abundance of concern reminded Michael of Kate and the way she worried about Gavin.
  He hoped he wasn’t scowling as he replied, “I’m okay, Barb.  Thanks.”

“That was smooth,” Brink remarked once Barb had returned to her desk.
  Michael glared at him.  “What?”  

“How many times have I told you not to drop in on me like that?
  Especially when I’m at work?”  

“Hey, you might want to keep your voice down.
  This is a library,” Brink patronized in a hushed voice.  Michael felt like punching him.  Unfortunately, his fist would fly right through Brink’s smug grin and into the shelf behind it.  Turning his back on his friend, he stooped down to collect the fallen books and climbed back onto the stool.  “Wait a minute.  Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m here?”  Michael ignored him.  “Oh, that’s great.  Pretend you don’t hear me.  Now I know how all the other ghosts feel.”  Michael cast him a sidelong glance.  “That’s a little better.  At least it’s a form of acknowledgement.”

“
What
do you want?” Michael whispered.  

“I wanted to talk to you.
  You’ve been so engrossed in your personal melodrama that you’ve barely said a word to me all week.”

“My what?”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“I
don’t
know what you’re talking about,” Michael told him, stepping down off the stool, which he collected in one hand.  With the other hand, he pushed the cart full of books to be shelved down the aisle.

“You.
  Being all mopey since you came home from that party the other night.”

“Really?
  You’re bringing this up now?”

“Well whenever I tried to talk to you at home, you’d shrug it off and tell me everything was fine.”

“Everything
is
fine.”

“Right.
  Because it’s totally normal for guys to spend their weekends watching the entire
Pride and Prejudice
miniseries.”   

“When did I watch
Pride and Prejudice
?” Michael asked.

“
Sunday
morning and then again
on Sunday
evening because, God bless A&E, they decided to show it twice.” Brink scowled at his friend, as though it was his fault he’d been forced to sit through twelve hours of girly television.  Which, in hindsight, it kind of was, but still.  “You were so distracted that you didn’t even realize what was on.  I wanted to change the channel but you know, kinda need a body for that.”

“I thought you finally got the hang of that.”

“It comes and goes.  Don’t change the subject.  What’s bothering you?”

“Nothing.”

“I’m going to possess the librarian if you don‘t tell me.”

“Go ahead.
  I’m sure a ghost who can’t figure out how to work a television will have no problem with a full blown possession.”  

“That hurts, bro.
  But seriously, does this have to do with Cute Neighbor Girl?”

“No,” Michael lied, taking a stack of books and placing them back onto the shelf.
 

“So you had nothing to do with that gnarly black eye she’s rocking?”
 

“How did you - oh no.
  Brink, please tell me - ”

“Who’s he talking to?” a small voice behind him whispered.

“I don’t know.” 

Michael turned to see two small girls staring at him from one of the kiddie tables.
  He averted his gaze and pushed his cart around a corner and out of their line of vision.

“See?
  This is why I tell you not to bother me at work.”

“Oh, like anyone will believe
what those kids have to say.”

“Brink.
  Did you spy on Kate and Gavin?”

“Yes,” Brink answered shamelessly.
  “What’s the big deal?  I spy on all our neighbors.”  

“Well... don’t.”

“Why not?  They can’t see me.  Besides, how is spying any worse than spending God knows how long Googling her?”  He had a point.  Not that Michael would ever admit it.    

“That was different.”

“Right,” Brink deadpanned.  “Well in that case, I guess I’ll just go.  I was going to tell you that she seems just as miserable as you are and maybe you should call her or something, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear it.  You know, since spying is so wrong and everything.”  

“Wait a minute.
” Michael turned to look at his friend.  

“Yes?” Brink smirked.
  Michael knew he was playing right into his hand, but for once, he didn’t care.

“You think she’s upset because of me?” he asked.
  Brink nodded.  “Why?”

“Let’s review, shall we?
  Cute Girl Next Door invites you to a party.  Although you don’t want to admit it, you like this girl, so you go to the party like the sap you are.  There, you inevitably make a fool of yourself, accidentally give her a black eye, and knowing you, run off in order to avoid any sort of confrontation that might involve actual feelings.  On top of all of that, you make no attempt whatsoever to contact her in the days that follow.  That’s a lot of mixed signals on your end, especially if she likes you too.”  Brink had tried to offer Michael dating advice in the past, but it was usually something juvenile, like “Pretend you’re not really into her.  Chicks love that.”  He was also usually wrong.  This time, however, he sort of made sense.      

“You think I hurt her feelings?” Michael asked.
 

“I think you’re afraid of getting close to people and because of that, yeah, you end up hurting them.
  Especially when they have no idea
why
you’re pushing them away.”  

“But it’s for the best,” Michael told him.
 

“For them or for you?” Brink countered.
  “I think you underestimate people.  I mean, yeah, if you’d come up to me while I was alive and told me you could talk to ghosts, I’d have thought you were a little crazy.  But if you could prove it, man, I’d have thought that was so cool.”

“You still think that your cartilage piercing is cool,” Michael countered.
       

“It is not my fault that you can’t appreciate my sublime fashion sense.
  I’m just trying to help you out.  You know, you might not have the greatest people skills and your hair could use a trim, but you’re a good guy.  You deserve some happiness.  You just need to learn to trust.”  Michael was fully prepared to argue that trust wasn’t the issue when Barb poked her head around the corner of the shelf. 

“Michael dear, after you’ve finished, I need you to fetch a box or two from downstairs,” she told him.
   

“Okay,” Michael replied.
  Barb smiled at him and shuffled back to the help desk.  Michael glanced back to where Brink had been standing, only to be met with shelves of dusty books.  His friend was nowhere to be seen.

It was only
Wednesday
, but the way the week was dragging, Kate felt she should already be well into the following
Monday
.  Work wasn’t going well.  Their most recent client, a woman who had hired Val and her team to decorate her house for an anniversary party, was an absolute pain.  Her requests for her house had been very specific, but after Val, Kate, and a few other members of the team had spent a substantial amount of time and money meeting her numerous demands, she’d changed her mind and refused to pay Val extra for her troubles or the wasted materials.  

On top of that, Gavin’s health had been on a steady decline ever since
Friday
night.  Kate blamed herself.  If the party hadn’t been overexertion, then her waking him up in the middle of the night so he could investigate some imaginary presence had certainly done the trick.  They’d spent
Sunday
afternoon with their parents, but Gavin had been so ill and exhausted that Kate hadn’t seen much of him since.  

With all of that, she shouldn’t have had the time or energy to think about how Michael had made no attempt to contact her at all.
  She told herself that she was being irrational, that she had no reason to expect him to contact her.  It wasn’t like they were dating or anything, but she hoped he at least considered her a friend.  And wouldn’t a friend have texted her to ask how she was feeling after being pummeled in the face with a volleyball?  

Feeling drained and bitter, she pulled into her driveway and turned off her car.
  She probably should have gone to the grocery store, but she simply wasn’t in the mood.  Climbing out of her car, she was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she almost missed the young woman storming out of the apartment directly below hers.  

“I don’t care, Billy!
  I’m telling you, I’ve had it with this apartment!”  With an exasperated groan, she slammed the door behind her and began rummaging through her purse.  She pulled out her sunglasses and turned her eyes forward.  Only then did she notice Kate.  “Oh, hello.”  

“Hi,” Kate replied, feeling awkward for having been caught eavesdropping.

“You don’t look familiar.  Did you just move in?”

“Yeah.
  About two weeks ago.”  

“Well do yourself a favor and
don’t
renew your lease. I’ve only lived here for four months and let me tell you, it’s been a nightmare.”

“What’s wrong with it?”
 

“You haven’t noticed?”
  Kate shook her head.  “Well I guess you really haven’t been here that long.  I’m guessing you work during the day?”