Love In The Wrong Dimension (Romantic Ghost Story) (36 page)

Two Months Later

“
How do I look?” asked Alice. They were in the living room and Jemma was lying on the sofa, resting her head in her hands as she watched Alice do a little twirl in front of her.

Jemma studied her, and laughed. “Fine, if you’re going to a woodlands soiree with the local Elf Society.”

“
Huh?” Alice frowned and looked at herself in the mirror, clearly missing Jemma’s point.

“
Alice! You can’t go to an interview wearing that, you look like an anaemic elf!”

“
Thanks,” said Alice, sulkily.

“
Come on,” said Jemma, getting up from the sofa, “I’ll help you find something a bit more suitable. Seriously, hun, you can’t wear that.” They made their way into Alice’s room, and Jemma walked over to the wardrobe and started flicking through the hangers. Alice’s room was as tidy as Jemma’s was messy and, for once, Jemma was glad about that. She quickly found a stylish red blouse and held it up to Alice, swinging the hanger in front of her.

“
Here. This is perfect.”

“
Really?”

“
Yep. Here, try it on.” Alice took the green top off and handed it to Jemma, who discretely flung it in the bin. Alice then put the red blouse on, and they both surveyed the result in the mirror on Alice’s wardrobe.

“
You’re right. It’s much better,” said Alice, looking over her shoulder to check how it looked from behind.

“
Alice, please promise me you will never,
ever
buy anything green,
ever
again. What time’s your interview?”

“
Ten o’clock. I think I’ll walk, it’s only in Camden.”

“
So what’s this place called then?” asked Jemma, following Alice into the kitchen.

Alice filled the kettle and switched it on. “It’s called Glitz. It sounds great, Oh Jem, I really want this job.”

“
I hope you get it, hun. Good luck.” She meant it. It was two months since Jemma had started college, and Alice had been looking for a job since then. She hadn’t had any luck, until she came across an ad in the window of a bistro in Camden. This job sounded perfect, good shifts, decent money and the food was meant to be nice. Things were really looking up for Alice lately. Her and Jack were going out now and she was madly in love. In fact, Jemma had never seen Alice look so happy, so getting this job would really be the icing on the cake for her.

Things weren’t quite so rosy for her though. The college course had been a big disappointment. The work was too easy and she still, after two months, didn’t feel that she had learnt anything new. She had tried to talk to her tutor about it, but he had just said that she should stick with it, because once she had the right qualifications, she could access the university courses that would better suit her. He was right, of course, but Jemma was bored, and had lost interest. She had skipped a few classes recently, and was behind with the work. On top of that, she hadn’t managed to find a job, and was now seriously broke and, just to rub salt in the already painful wound, her love life was still non-existent. She couldn’t help feeling like she was slipping back to her old life when she was at school, bunking off, smoking in secret and drinking more than she should be.

After a cup of tea, Alice left for her interview, and Jemma was left alone, with nothing to do and nowhere to go as, yet again, she couldn’t be bothered going into college. On impulse, she reached for her phone, found her Aunt Tess’s number and pressed ‘call’. “Hello?” Aunt Tess’s soft voice sounded welcoming and familiar.

“
Hi Aunt Tess, it’s me.”

“
Hello, love. I haven’t heard from you for a while, how are you?”

“
Yeah, great. Well, actually I’m not sure. Are you free today?”

“
Yes, I’m here all day.”

“
Can I come and see you?” Jemma felt like crying, although she wasn’t entirely sure why. She could really do with being with the closest person she had to a mother.

“
Of course you can, you’re always welcome here. Are you going to catch the train?”

“
Yes. Shall I call you as the train approaches Tunbridge Wells?”

“
Yes, love, you do that and I’ll come and pick you up. We can stop off in town for a bite of lunch. See you later.”

Jemma scribbled a quick note to let Alice know where she had gone, and instructed her to let her know how the interview had gone. When she got to Charing Cross she had just enough money to buy a return ticket to Tunbridge Wells and, with ten minutes to spare before the train was due to depart, she nipped outside for a quick ciggie.

Aunt Tess was waiting for her at Tunbridge Wells station and gave Jemma a warm hug when she saw her. They decided to walk down to the Pantiles and eat lunch at their favourite cafe. They found a table in the corner, away from the cold draft seeping through the door, and picked up the menu, which was pointless really, as they always had the same thing. After they had ordered their food, they chatted idly about the weather, before Aunt Tess gave Jemma a serious look and asked, “So, how are you,
really
?”

“
Oh, you know. Okay.”

“
And college? How’s that going?”

“
Great.”

“
Then what’s wrong?”

Jemma took a deep breath and started pouring it all out, everything from her disillusionment with college, her futile attempts at getting a job, her loneliness, especially now that Alice was spending more time with Jack, and finally she told her aunt how much she still missed her mum. “I don’t feel as if I have any purpose anymore,” she said, sadly.

“
Would it help if we go and see your mother?” asked Aunt Tess, kindly.

“
Yes, please,” she whispered, her throat contracting as she attempted to stop her tears.

“
Then that’s what we’ll do. Finish your lunch, and we’ll go and visit her.” Jemma hadn’t even noticed that the waitress had brought their food, but she wasn’t hungry and half heartedly pushed the food around on her plate until it looked like she had eaten most of it. As Aunt Tess called the waitress over to ask for the bill, Jemma’s phone bleeped. It was Alice, ‘
I got the job! YAY! C U Later
. A xx’. Jemma was genuinely pleased for her friend, and quickly sent a text back congratulating her, and suggesting that maybe they should go out tonight and celebrate. Alice texted back saying,
‘I’m
really sorry, hun, Jack’s cooking dinner tonight. How about tomorrow? A x.’
Jemma sighed, another night in on her own then, which was probably just as well as she had no money anyway.

“
Is everything alright?” asked Aunt Tess, who had now paid the bill and was putting her coat on.

“
Alice went for an interview this morning, and she just texted me to let me know that she got the job,” smiled Jemma, helping her aunt with her coat.

“
Well, that is good news. It’ll be you next, just you see.” Jemma wasn’t so sure though, she couldn’t even get a cleaning job right now, so she certainly wasn’t holding her breath. She had applied for more jobs than she cared to admit, but none of them had come to anything. It didn’t exactly do much to help Jemma’s confidence, especially when she missed out on the cleaning job she had applied for last week. Every time she rang up about a new position, it was gone before she even had a chance to go for an interview.

They walked back to the car, stopping off at a florist on the way, and Aunt Tess drove them to the graveyard in Stenhurst. When they got there, Aunt Tess told Jemma that she would wait in the car so that Jemma could talk to her mum alone. Taking the flowers with her, she smiled her thanks to her aunt, and made her way through the graveyard.

As she approached the black marble headstone with her mum’s name on, Jemma felt a sob escape from deep inside her and, for a moment, she was too upset to speak. Eventually, she gently put the flowers, a beautiful bouquet of yellow and white roses, her mum’s favourite, down onto the grave. “Hi mum,” she said, softly.

She sat down next to the grave, ignoring the damp, cold ground, and closed her eyes. She wanted to feel her mum’s presence as she silently told her mum about how low she was feeling. Tears were pouring down her face freely now, and Jemma let them, glad of the chance to let her feelings out. Then, suddenly, something made her open her eyes again, and, to her amazement, she found a sprig of honeysuckle lying next to her. She picked it up and held it to her nose, smelling the beautiful sweet scent, and wondered how on earth it had got there. She was suddenly overwhelmed with an emotion so intensely powerful that she gasped, and, a second later, she thought she saw the outline of a man standing next to the grave. She blinked and the image was gone, but she couldn’t get it out of her head, and she held the sprig close to her, not sure why she was feeling so attached to it.

Eventually she made her way back to Aunt Tess, who was reading a newspaper in the car. “What’s that, love?” she asked, eying the sprig.

“
It’s honeysuckle, but I’ve not idea where it came from. It just sort of appeared out of nowhere. Was mum particularly partial to honeysuckle?”

“
No, not really.”

“
Hmm.” Jemma didn’t know why, but she couldn’t throw the sprig away, and she held onto it tightly as Aunt Tess drove her back to the station.

“
Will you be alright, love?” asked her aunt, looking worried, as they pulled up by the taxi ramp.

Jemma leant over and kissed her on the cheek. “Yes, thank you, I’ll be fine. Thank you for today.”

“
Here, take this,” she said, giving Jemma a couple of twenty pound notes. “You know where I am, just call me any time you need anything. And chin up, you’ll be back on your feet in no time.”

Jemma only had to wait about eight minutes for the fast train to London, and she was back in Charing Cross in less than an hour. Still clutching the honeysuckle, she jumped onto a number thirteen bus, which took her all the way to Swiss Cottage. She gazed dreamily out of the window at the hoards of people rushing to get on with their lives. Tourists strolled idly along Oxford Street, while frustrated Londoners, rushing home from work, tried to dodge past them. When she got off the bus at Swiss Cottage station, she decided to walk home, it would give her some thinking time, like what she was going to do with her life.

Swiss Cottage was buzzing as usual, with people, traffic and bikes all rushing to get to their destinations. Jemma decided to pop into a little deli on the way home and buy something nice for her dinner with the money Aunt Tess had given her. She stepped onto the road to cross and ....

Jemma f
elt a strange sensation of déjà vu as she slowly stood up. She hadn’t seen the bus coming towards her as she had stepped onto the road, one minute she had been about the cross, and the next, everything had gone blank.

“
It’s okay,” she said, to the alarmed crowd that was gathering around. “I’m fine.”

And then she remembered. She remembered dying before, and she remembered Tom. And then she remembered Susie, Claire and Max. She gasped as she looked down at her body, which was lying as still and lifeless as it had been the last time. ‘Oh no,’ she thought in dismay, unable to believe her bad luck, ‘it’s happened again, only this time Tom’s not here.’

And then she looked up and saw him. Tom was smiling and walking towards her, looking as real as he had done the first time around.

“
Tom?
” she cried, and threw herself into his arms. “Oh my god, Tom, I can’t believe it’s you.” She was laughing and crying at the same time. He hugged her tightly, and then gently pulled away and kissed her on the lips. “I’ve brought someone to see you,” he said, softly, and stepped aside. Jemma gasped, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Mum!” she cried and ran into her mum’s open arms.

“
Hello, sweetheart,”
said her mum, “I’ve missed you so much.”

“
Oh my god, is it really you?” Jemma was beginning to think she might be hallucinating, and just to make sure she wasn’t, she hugged her mum even tighter. Eventually she pulled away and looked at them both, “Is this really happening?”

Tom took her hand and squeezed it tightly. “Yes, my love, you just died again, but this time it was your time to die, and you’ve joined us as a free spirit.”

Still shaking her head in disbelief, she said, “That must have been why the angel was so keen for me to go back, he must have known that I was close to dying for real.”

She couldn’t stop looking at Tom, then at her mum and then back at Tom again. “What about your dad, have you seen him?” she asked, giving him another kiss.

“
Yes, he’s here, and he can’t wait to meet you.”

“
And Susie?”

“
Susie’s fine. She’s a teacher and is married with two kids, a dog and three cats. She’s very happy. We can visit her anytime you like, although she won’t know we’re there, of course. We can go anywhere we want, whenever we want. We could go to the Seychelles, or Norfolk or we could pop along to another galaxy for the day if you like.”

This was all so incredible
, she still couldn’t quite believe it was happening. Then a thought struck her, “Alice,” she cried, “oh no, she’s going to be devastated.”