Elizabeth Basque - Medium Mysteries 01 - Echo Park (19 page)

Now, it was Julie’s idea to apply to become a foster parent for drug-addicted newborns. She would have to go through some medical training and the usual foster parent classes, but that was all right. She would take in the little ones until their parents could care for them or someone wanted to adopt them.

The hope was that Julie would fall in love with one of those babies. It would be a special child, and Julie would work so that she would have the means to support them. She would, if her choice was right, adopt a child, who loved and needed her as much as Carla had, and they would share a life as mother and child; Carla would be a spiritual presence in their lives.

That was something, I reflected. Julie had intended to become a hairstylist before she’d met Carla. Funny how people could change your life, even if they were ghosts. Funny how you never knew what would happen next.

As if on cue, I heard the chair in my living room thump as it overturned.

Macky’s back in town
.

Well, he’d been gone for a couple days and there he was, chair bowling again and putting an old song lyric in my head. I took a last look at the line of headlights shining in my direction, and the taillights headed away from me, and then, I headed inside. Maybe Mack had something important to tell me, or maybe he just wanted to bother me. Either way, it was okay.

A Fed-Ex overnight envelope with my name on it was torn open and on the floor with some discarded bubble wrap.

What the hell?
I picked it up and realized it must have been what Mack had ordered from eBay.

As I turned the chair right-side up from Mack’s relentless passive-aggressive gag, my stereo turned on and a record dropped. I heard the brief
whisk-whisk
before a song on vinyl began. Bobby Darin started singing
Mack the Knife
, which made me laugh out loud to discover what Mack had bought on eBay. Apparently, he had chosen his personal theme song.
Or something.
What a character he was.

A tingle went through me as I heard Mack start belting out the lyrics along with the record, and without his Boston accent, how funny. Funny, as in
strange,
because he was doing it from somewhere else. Like from another dimension. I’d have to ask him about that. How he did it.

Mack must have really been something when he was alive, because even as a shadow of his former self, he was pretty damn vibrant when he wanted to be. All this time he’d been my friend and still, I knew almost nothing about him except that he came from Massachusetts. And that he had more compassion for others than he let on. But actions speak louder than words…

I thought about how ghosts were only echoes of the people they had been, and how someday, I, too, would become an echo, unless I went straight Home when called.

I doubted I would want to leave Earth immediately, although I guessed I wouldn’t know until I was standing there in the moment and the Light came for me.
Would I go or stay?
I guessed that depended on how my life ended and if I had unfinished business or not. And if there was someone who loved me, whom I loved back, holding me tight to Earth.

Michael had left without seeing Renee, at least, that I knew of. He was probably too ashamed or scared of what he might find, things he couldn’t control or repair as a ghost. Not everything and everyone had to have closure when
I
thought it did. I had learned this over the last couple of days, with Michael and Carla.

With a start, I suddenly wondered if Mack was staying because of
me
. The way he shrank back from the light that led Home. The way he avoided talking about leaving or
actually
leaving. Was it
me
? I sighed. It better
not
be me. I didn’t want a ghost
not
to go Home because of me. My job was to help them go Home. Not that I didn’t appreciate Mack’s
undying
friendship and loyalty. In fact, I cherished it. But at what cost to him? Was
I
making him stay?

After the “45” ended, the record player clicked off automatically.

“Mack?” No, I didn’t sense Mack nearby. Where the heck did he go again? And when would he be back?

I grabbed the remote and tried to turn on the TV, but the batteries were dead.

I scrabbled through my kitchen junk drawer and discovered it held no more fresh batteries. Those things were expensive and I went through a lot of them. I also realized I had no idea how to turn on the TV manually. So much for a TV-filled night. Or a ghost-filled one, for that matter.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about Mack. Why, indeed, was he so mysterious? About his own death, and why he stayed so far away from the light that came to bring souls Home? I made a resolution, then and there, to find out. I would drag it out of him if I had to. Yes, I was fond of him. I was used to his presence. Probably more so than was healthy, for either of us. Of all the souls I had assisted, Mack might have deserved my help the most. The decision to unravel Mack’s mysterious death, and help him, calmed me. I would miss him, but hell, it was my life’s work.

There were two things I really liked to drink: booze and coffee.

Instead of pouring myself the usual third martini—hey, I
was
trying to cut down—I brewed a pot of fresh-roasted coffee, put on an old cardigan and went outside again to sit in my patio chair. The coffee steamed up its ghostly wisps of vapor into the crisp October night. It would be Halloween soon, my favorite holiday. I wondered if I could get Mack to help me plan a Halloween party with his friends, and maybe I would have Julie over, too. She was a client, but I liked her. A lot.

Not even one minute after I had planted my butt in the patio chair, damned if I didn’t hear my mockingbird singing. Just one trilled, sweet melodic song for about thirty seconds, and then he was quiet. I had forgotten that mockingbirds sang at night sometimes.

Yep.
Mockingbirds were like Mediums. We sang everyone’s songs. Day or night.

In the dark, I noticed him roosting right on top of the bird feeder. Talk about knowing what you wanted from life. And
claiming
it.

I sipped my coffee and listened to the endless prattle of the ghosts of Echo Park rise up like a symphony.

Perhaps it was.

The End

Pauline will be back in:

Hollywood Hills

Medium Mysteries #2

Coming soon!

~~~~~

Additionally, Pauline originally appears in:

The Body Departed

by J.R. Rain

Available at:

Amazon Kindle

Also available:

The Gathering

Sharpened Edges Trilogy #1

by Elizabeth Basque

Available at:

Amazon Kindle

~~~~~

Mercy’s Magic

Mercedes Cruz Series #1

by P.J. Day and Elizabeth Basque

Available at:

Amazon Kindle