Ghost Lover (3 page)

The woods were still quiet and still, but not in a peaceful way. It was more like emptiness in a place where you expect something to be. I stood at the base of the grave that was my friend’s and called her name softly. Nothing happened. My heart started to beat a little harder and faster from fear. I was really afraid that I was never going to see Leotie again.

I called her name again, louder this time, more insistent. Still nothing happened. I took a deep breath that shook a little with an edge of tears. I closed my eyes and pictured Leotie’s face with its bright dark eyes and pointed chin. I pictured her as clearly as I could and then called again, “Leotie, please come to me.” I held my breath, almost afraid to open my eyes. Then I heard a soft rustling that sounded like someone shifting from foot to foot in the dry leaves.

I cracked one eye hopefully and my heart leapt when I registered the dark skin and long black hair but it didn’t take more than a moment to realize this was not my Leotie. The faces were similar, but this woman was older. In fact, after a moment of consideration, I realized that their faces were almost identical except for this woman obviously being older than Leotie.

We just watched each other for a few heartbeats before I said, “Are you Leotie’s mother?” The woman nodded, her eyes grave. “Do you know my Leotie?” Her voice was beautiful, mellow and smooth, and the way she pronounced my friend’s name was a 1000 times more musical than anything I had ever managed. I cleared my throat. “I do. She’s been my friend since I was small. I haven’t been able to find her for a while though. Have you seen her?” I clasped my hands in front of me. They were cold and they shook a little.

The woman nodded slowly. “Leotie passed into the Beyond,” she said. “I watched her myself. She came back here, walking as though she was in a trance. She did not see me. When she stepped into her stone, there was a bright light and she was just…gone.” I felt tears prick my eyes, hot and fierce. I gave into it for a moment and let them well up and roll down my cheeks. Silently, I said goodbye to my friend.

The woman watched my quietly with a somewhat tender expression on her face. “You loved my girl. I can tell.” I dried my eyes and did my best to smile. I had to remember that this was a happy thing. We were never meant to linger here indefinitely. We were meant to go on. And Leotie had probably found her baby brother, whom she had missed so much.

“I’ve watched them all pass,” the woman said quietly, “one by one, they came here and went on. If only my son would come, then I could go too and we could all be together again.” Impulsively I reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze. “He’s already gone on. Leotie told me. She looked for him for years but he isn’t here.”

The woman didn’t seem to have heard me. She was just staring at where my hand held hers. The confusion and amazement in her face reminded me that she didn’t know me well enough to know that this was one of my personal gifts. “I’ve always been able to make spirits solid, at least for me. I can touch them and when I do they become solid enough for even the non-gifted to see something. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

She nodded slowly, seeming to take in what I was saying. “I just have not been touched in so long. I had almost forgotten the sensation. Did you say that Atohi has already gone on?” I released her hand and smiled at her. “Yes.” I might have said more but didn’t have time to. Her whole face was suffused with purest joy. She reached forward and threw her arms around my shoulders. She gave me a desperately tight squeeze and whispered, “Thank you.” A moment later, she was gone. There was a flash of bright light near the grave stones and I was once again alone in the forest.

The normal forest noises were starting to return now, and I smiled to myself briefly. My friend had gone on, but now she had her whole family with her. I just knew she was happy. I laid the daffodils on the ground at her grave and then whirled around, making my skirt flare around me, and threw my arms up over my head. And as I did, I realized that I wasn’t really alone.

The path to Leotie’s former home and resting spot had taken me back out to where I could see the train tracks through the branches and leaves of the trees. There, by the tracks, stood the lady I had watched since I was a child. She was standing perfectly still, just watching me but when she saw that I had noticed her, she motioned for me to come up to where she stood. I hesitated for a moment. I had always been in awe of this tall, slender, beautiful woman.

I started towards her slowly, realizing that my fingers were cold and tingling and my heart was pounding. I began to wonder why I was so nervous. It took me almost the full walk over to where she stood before I realized what the problem was. This was a crush, probably my first crush. That was why I had never mustered up the nerve to speak to her when I spoke so casually with other spirits. And with that thought I straightened my shoulders and took the last few steps to face my fear.

The sunlight spilling over the tracks was so bright after the cool dimness of the woods that for a moment it dazzled my eyes. When they adjusted, I got my first close up look at the mysterious lady I’d spent most of my childhood watching covertly. She was beautiful from afar and up close she was breath-taking.

Her hair was the color of polished mahogany and her eyes were the grey of storm clouds right before rain. She was taller than me by a few inches putting her at around 5’6. She smiled at me in greeting and I was struck by the thought that she had the most beautiful mouth and smile I had ever seen. Her lips were a deep rose pink and curved in a perfect bow. I think I ended up standing there, just staring at her stupidly, for close to a full minute before I finally snapped out of it.

It was her voice that snapped me back to reality. In rich, smooth alto tones she said, “Hello. I’m Elise. You must be Ana.”  I nodded, feeling a little bit like one of those bobble head dolls that they put on dashboards, and had to clear my throat twice before I could manage, “Yes, I am. But I didn’t know that you knew my name.” Elise half inclined her head in a sort of graceful half nod. “My apologies, I did not mean to offend you by being overly familiar. Your Leotie told me your name.” She must have caught my look of surprise because she gave me a faint smile and answered it, just as though I had asked a question.

“You never spoke with me, though you did with all the other spirits in the area. I wondered why, so I asked her. I know that must make me seem like a dreadful busybody. I admit that I have always suffered from an overabundance of curiosity.” I assured her that I didn’t think she was a busybody and said a mental prayer of thanksgiving that I had finally managed to start speaking without sounding like a babbling idiot. I was trying to make polite small talk when Elise reached out and touched my hand. “I know I may be interfering again but I can tell something is amiss with you today. Would you like to talk about it? You are positively vibrating with pent up energy and stress.”

Just that one touch and inquiry was enough. I burst into tears. Elise looked appalled and starting patting my shoulder. “There, there, it’s fine. You do not have to tell me. It’s okay.” “You don’t understand,” I sobbed, shoulders shaking, “I’d love to tell you. I was hoping to have already gotten the chance to unburden some of this but Mom is out and then finding out Leotie is gone on top of everything else…it is just a little overwhelming.”

Next thing I knew, we were sitting on the embankment next to the old tracks. Elise had her arm around my shoulders and I was leaned in against her pouring out my heart. We must have talked for over an hour, but at the end of it, I felt better. Finally, I fished a tissue out of the pocket of my skirt and fixed the damage that an hour of crying on and off had created. I let out a sigh and relaxed against her side. We sat like that for I don’t know how long listening to all the sounds around us.

“Thank you,” I said. “I really needed to tell someone all of that.” I glanced up at her from where my head lay against her shoulder and was suddenly struck by how intimate it felt to look at someone from this close. She was looking down at me with such an intense expression that I was almost startled. “What is it? What’s wr---“

The rest of my words were cut off by the sudden, unexpected press of her lips. I froze for just a second out of pure shock before I melted into the kiss. My arms went around her shoulders and one hand crept up to cup the back of her head. In all the times Joseph and I had kissed, it had never felt like this. Her lips were like warm silk and even though it was a relatively chaste kiss, fires were sparking all up and down my body. A strange, unfamiliar hunger to be touched started to rush through me and I leaned in closer.

It was Elise that broke the kiss. She leaned her forehead against mine and whispered, with her lips only inches from mine, “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t help myself.” My lips were tingling and I felt like my skin was throbbing. “I don’t want you to help yourself,” I whispered back and I closed the distance between us.

This time I parted my lips and let the tip of my tongue trace the seam of her mouth. I flicked my tongue lightly against her lips and she opened her mouth. It was as if that one act broke through the wall and she stopped holding herself back. Her hands slid up my back and neck and tangled in my hair so she could hold me still where she wanted me. Her tongue plunged into my mouth, filling it and retreating and rubbing and sliding along my own until it became a form of sex all on its own. But even that didn’t seem to be enough.

With a desperate moan she pressed me backwards onto the grass. My skirt rode up my legs as she spread them with her body. Even though the clothes I could feel her firm breasts press against me and brush my own. It was my turn to moan into her mouth and arch my back, desperate for more contact. Her hands slid down my neck and over my shoulders, finally sliding over the mounds of my breasts. The nipples stiffened under her hands and I moaned again.

She squeezed her hands around my breasts and when she was rewarded with another arch and moan she moved her hands down and started pulling at my shirt. I helped her eagerly. I was wet and throbbing between my legs and my breasts were aching with the need to be touched. I lay for a moment in the grass in my bra and skirt with her gazing down at me like I was the most beautiful thing in the world and smiled. This was not really how I had ever imagined my first experience but there was something perfectly right about it.

Elise slid her hands behind me to unfasten my bra and I reached up to unbutton her shirt. She wore no bra, just a thin cotton undershirt. The nipples were stiff against the fabric. My own bra unsnapped and my breasts were spilled free into the sunshine. The look in Elise’s eyes was a hunger that was close to pain. She helped me free her of her shirt and undershirt. Her breasts were beautiful, small and firm with rose pink nipples.

I raised my upper body up from the ground and closed my lips over one pale pink nipple, sucking lightly. Elise’s fingers plunged into my hair and she made an almost animal noise. I drew my teeth lightly down her nipple even as I cupped her breasts in my hands. Her hands closed back over my bare breasts in a grip so tight that it was just this side of painful. That tore my mouth free of her breast and made me arch and cry out. As I did, our breasts brushed against each other and an almost electric sensation shot through my belly and centered itself between my legs. It felt like the delicate muscles there were clenching and unclenching and I suddenly knew that if she didn’t touch me I would begin to hurt.

“Please,” I moaned, “please touch me.” The grin she gave me was fierce, almost a bearing of teeth. She skimmed her fingertips down over my ribs and hips until she found the zipper at the side of my skirt. The skirt followed the shirt and the lace thong followed behind it. I was left naked in the sun with the grass cushioning and tickling the back of my body. “Spread your legs for me,” she said hoarsely, “and let me see you.” I did, suddenly feeling a little shy.

“So beautiful,” Elise whispered, “soft and perfectly pink with all the petals glistening.” She leaned forward and kissed me fiercely before whispering against my lips. “I like that you are wet. I love knowing that when I touch you, slide my fingers over you, inside you, you will be slick and hot and that it is just for me, just because of me. I’m going to make you come and I’m going to get off on knowing that you are coming for me.”

“You sure do have a good grasp of modern language,” I gasped, feeling stupid even as I said it. “I’ve been here for a long time, waiting for a moment like this.” I smiled up at her. “I’m glad I could be part of your moment.” I reached for the fastenings on her skirt. When she was as bare to the air as I was she stretched back out on top of me and kissed me again. I wrapped my legs around her waist and ground the slick throbbing center of myself against her belly.

When we broke the kiss, both of us were panting. With a dark, knowing look she slid down and placed an open mouthed kiss against the bottom of my belly right above the strip of hair that was all I left. With the tip of one finger she traced the folds of my pussy as she kissed and licked and lightly bit right above my pubic bone. She had rolled her eyes up so she could watch my reactions and so every time I gasped or shuddered or moaned under her hands and mouth the dark, knowing look in her eyes increased and I was rewarded with an extra pass of whatever movement had felt so good. Finally her fingertip slid over that sweetest of spots just above my opening and I gave a low scream.

“Oh, do you like that, then?” she asked, grinning up at me as she made soft circles with her finger. The pulsing between my legs increased and I cried out again. She slid one finger inside me and my breath went out in a sob. “So tight and so wet. I like that about you,” Elise purred. Her finger moved in and out and I felt a weight building between my legs. The skin of my breasts felt tight and my nipples were so hard that they almost ached. “Please, please, please,” I chanted, though I wasn’t completely sure what I was asking for.

The orgasm broke over me like a wave of heat and I screamed, thrusting my hips up to meet her fingers. She added a second finger, stretching me wider, and adding a flick of her fingers at the end of each stroke, so that the tips of her fingers slid over the spot just inside me. My body bucked and the orgasm just kept going. When her thumb slid up to stroke my clit while her fingers plunged in and out of my pussy my hand began to scramble in the grass, desperate for something to hold onto.