Waiting Spirits (3 page)

“Me, too! But not as much as when the table moved. You should have seen Mom's face when that happened! That was when I knew something was weird. There was nothing to make the table move like that. Nothing at all.” Carrie paused, then whispered, “Want to try it again?”

“Are you crazy? Carrie, for all we know this place really is haunted. I mean, it's old enough. All kinds of things might have happened here. You want to stir things up any more than we already have?”

“Sure! It would give us something to tell the kids back home! Lisa, this place is so boring I could barf. At least a ghost would be interesting.”

“You say that now. I'd like to be there the first time you actually see one.”

“I'll just—just…“

Carrie's voice faltered and her eyes grew wide. Lisa turned in the direction her sister was staring and gave a tiny gasp of fear.

A woman had just stepped through the door. Not through the doorway. Through the
door!
She came gliding through the solid wood as though it were mist.

Both girls slid up against the back of the bed. Lisa felt a cold chill shiver down her spine. The woman seemed to be made of light, a soft blue glow you could see right through. She was dressed in old-fashioned clothes. Her long hair flowed down her back. Though it was difficult to make out the details of her face, something about her was oddly familiar.

Carrie's hand crept along under the sheet and took Lisa's. Lisa squeezed it, not daring to make any other move.

“I'm scared!” whispered Carrie, huddling against her.

Before Lisa could answer, the figure began floating toward the bed.

Lisa put her arm around Carrie, holding her protectively.

The woman moved slowly in their direction, looking at them intently, as if she were having a hard time getting them in focus.

The room had become very cold.

The woman stopped at the foot of the bed.

“What do you want?” cried Lisa.

The woman made no answer. The terrible cold grew deeper.

Lisa swallowed. The woman continued to stare at them.

No. Not
them.

She was staring at Carrie.

Then Lisa caught a sense of the woman's emotions. She shivered. It was almost as if she were a radio receiver, tuned in to what the woman was feeling. Suddenly she wanted to cry. The woman was radiating such strong love and sorrow that Lisa thought her own heart must break.

The woman smiled and reached out to Carrie.

“
Welcome home
,” she whispered.

Then she vanished.

Chapter Three
Brian

For a moment the two girls sat in stunned silence. There had been no aura of menace about the ghost. Yet what they had seen was terrifying. Part of what made it so frightening was the sense of having been at the edge of a great mystery, the feeling that they had been allowed a tiny peek at an awesome secret.

“Should we go get Mom and Dad?” whispered Carrie at last.

“I'm not sure,” said Lisa. It was strange: She knew that if she had been alone when the ghost arrived, her scream would have woken the dead—any that weren't already up and wandering. But having someone else with you—even someone younger, like Carrie—made something like this much easier to deal with. As to rousing their parents—well, her father was far too practical and scientific for this kind of… “nonsense.” She smiled. She could practically hear him saying the word.

Their mother
might
believe them. But even if she did, what could she do about it? It wasn't as if you could go to the store and get a can of spray-on ghost repellent. The only thing she could try to do would be to convince their father to take them home. But he wasn't apt to do that on the basis of a ghost story. And it was equally likely that he might suspect the whole tale was just a pretense to try to put an early end to the trip.

“I think we should keep this to ourselves,” said Lisa at last.

“Sacred sister pact?” asked Carrie.

Lisa nodded. “Our personal secret, until our dying day, because it's the most awesome thing that's ever happened to either of us.”

Carrie held out her hand in the private gesture they had created the year before, and they shook on it. Then they huddled together and stayed awake long into the night, talking in hushed voices as they waited to see if the ghost would reappear.

But she did not show herself again, and eventually both girls drifted into a deep sleep.

When Lisa yawned and stirred the next morning, she had the feeling that something was different. It took her a moment to realize what had changed. The sun was shining!

She couldn't believe it. After five days of constant rain, she had begun to feel that it was natural that the first thing you would hear when you woke was rain pattering against the windows, drumming on the roof, and pouring from the eaves. But this morning there were actually a few birds singing in the yard. All at once everything seemed a little more bearable… even the strange events of the previous night.

She slipped from beneath the covers and went to poke her head out the window. The sun was bright on the tangled, overgrown garden. Even the sight of the ruined summerhouse with its collapsed roof and broken walls couldn't darken her mood—though she hated it when beautiful old things were allowed to get run-down like that.

She glanced up. The sky was gloriously clear, not a cloud in sight. She pulled her head back inside then turned and hurried down the hall to take her shower. She planned to be out on the beach early. If nothing else, she would like to have a tan to show for her summer exile.

She wondered what Dennis was doing. Sleeping, probably. Morning was not his favorite time of the day.

When Lisa returned to the room after her shower, Carrie was sitting up in bed, looking nervous. “There you are,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I was beginning to get worried.”

“For heaven's sake,” said Lisa, toweling her hair. “How far away did you think I could get in—” She stopped. The haunted look in her sister's eyes made her stomach turn. “I'm sorry, Carrie. I shouldn't have left you alone!”

“It's all right,” Carrie replied quickly. “Really. It's just that last night was… “

“Weird,” said Lisa, finishing the sentence. “Absolutely. I was thinking about it all through my shower. So what do you think? I know we swore as sacred sisters but maybe we should tell Mom and Dad what happened anyway… “

“Are you kidding? They'd call in a whole army of shrinks.”

Lisa grimaced. “That was what I decided, too. And I'm in no mood to be analyzed.” She glanced at the window. It was weird how a bright sunny day made it hard to hold on to the reality of last night's strangeness. Turning back to Carrie, she said, “How do you feel? Are you all right?”

“Sure. It was just a little welcoming party, right? Or maybe it was that pizza we had for dinner. Can two people have the same nightmare?”

Lisa smiled. “No, but they can both have the same breakfast. Come on, let's go get something to eat.”

Their mother was standing in the kitchen when they came downstairs. “Good morning, girls! Did you sleep well?”

“I
didn't,” Carrie said. “Didn't you hear Lisa snoring?”

Lisa didn't know whether to smile or frown. Carrie was certainly acting like her old self. Maybe she hadn't been too scared after all. Turning to her mother, she said, “I'm going to the beach today. Okay?”

“Of course,” said Mrs. Burton. “It's about time you had a chance to get some sunshine.”

“I'll come, too!” said Carrie quickly. Lisa sighed. She really didn't want her sister along. But it wasn't a good day to leave her alone.

Though they got to the beach by ten o'clock it was already crowded.
Looks like
everyone
wants to welcome back the sunshine,
thought Lisa as she scanned the broad stretch of sand for a vacant spot.

“Over there!” said Carrie.

“Good eyes, twerp.” They made their way to the spot and spread out their blanket. Lisa slipped out of her shirt. As she rummaged in her beach bag for the tanning lotion Carrie examined her critically, then said, “You're not in bad shape for your age.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Well, let's just say that if that guy comes along again today, you shouldn't have any trouble attracting his attention. Of course, that bathing suit doesn't hurt. Did I tell you how mad Daddy was when he saw it? I heard him complaining to Mom the week you got it.”

Lisa looked down and assessed herself. The red bathing suit was a little skimpy, she supposed. But no more so than those that the other girls were wearing. Of course, she knew her father's answer to that particular point: “And if most girls were eating toad sandwiches, would you want one, too?”

“Stop being so hormonal and put some lotion on my back,” she said to Carrie. “I want to get a start on my tan.”

“All right, all right. Just give me a minute, will you?”

As Carrie began to arrange her things on her towel, Lisa stretched out on her back and closed her eyes. The sun against her skin was warm and soothing, the sound of the waves a few yards away gentle, rhythmic, and wonderfully relaxing. Lisa thought she might go back to sleep and catch up on some of the rest she had lost the night before.

“Okay,” said Carrie, “give me the bottle.”

Lisa opened her eyes, then smiled. For Carrie, going too the beach was a major expedition. After spreading her towel neatly across the sand, she had pinned it down at the corners with carefully selected items from her beach bag. At the top was her Walkman. Next to the Walkman was a pile of comic books. And next to them were the teen fan magazines that Carrie loved. Running down the side of the towel was a revolting array of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and Fritos. Kneeling in the middle of all this was Carrie, wearing a bright yellow two-piece bathing suit, which did nothing for her. She had sunglasses perched on her snub of a nose.

“If you want me to do your back you'll have to roll over,” she said.

Lisa lay on her stomach and luxuriated in the feel of the sun on her shoulders. “Yow!” she cried when the cold lotion hit her skin. But it warmed up quickly, and felt good.

“Uh-oh,” said Carrie. “Don't look now. But there he is!”

“Who?”

“The hunk!”

“Carrie, shut up,” said Lisa, lifting her head to see who Carrie was talking about.

It was the boy she had spotted the week before. Lisa blushed. He was walking toward them!

“Carrie! Did you do something to attract his attention?” She had a horrified thought. “Did you wink at him?”

“I'm not that stupid,” whispered Carrie. “Chill out. Maybe you just got lucky.”

The boy stopped in front of them. “Lisa?” he asked.

She scrambled to her feet, suddenly feeling uncovered. She wished she had picked a bathing suit that wasn't quite so tiny after all! Nervously she ran her fingers through her curly, dark brown hair.

“Your mother told me I'd find you here,” said the boy.

Lisa gave him a puzzled look. “I've heard a lot of lines before, but… “

He laughed, and Lisa found herself smiling, too. His laugh was deep and rich, not at all forced. It was the kind of laugh she always found attractive in a guy.

That fit. Everything else about him was attractive, too. His thick hair, long and parted in the middle, had been bleached by the sun to the color of light straw. He had impish blue eyes and a full mouth. He was lean, yet his faded cotton shirt had to stretch across his broad shoulders.

“Actually, I did stop to talk to you about a pickup,” he said. “But you're the one who has to do it. Your mother wants you to get these things on your way home.” He pulled a piece of paper from his shirt pocket. “She sent this to pay for them,” he added, handing her a twenty dollar bill.

“Why did she send this with you?” asked Lisa, trying to get her bearings.

“My dad and I are doing some work at the place you rented. The owners sent us. When we got there this morning, we realized we needed some more tools. Dad sent me back to get them, and your mother asked if I would be going by the beach on the way. I lied and told her yes.”

“That was pretty forward of you,” said Lisa. But the smile on her face made it clear she was delighted he had taken the liberty.

“It seemed like a good way to get to meet you,” he said. “My name is Brian. Brian Holme. I'm one of the local yokels.”

“And I'm one of the invaders,” said Lisa. “This is my sister, Carrie.”

“Hi,” said Carrie. “I think I'll go get an ice cream cone.”

Lisa didn't know whether to thank her sister or strangle her. It was nice of her to get out of the way, but did she have to be so obvious?

“It's nice to meet you,” said Brian to Carrie. “Maybe we can talk again some time.”

Carrie laughed and ran down the beach.

“Cute kid,” said Brian.

“She's okay most of the time.” Lisa sat back down on her towel. “So what are you doing at the house?”

“We're working on some of the windows. The wood's rotting around them. As a matter of fact, I have to get going. Dad's going to wonder where I am. See you later!”

With that he was gone. Lisa frowned. Had she said something wrong?

She stretched out in the sunshine and scowled at the rolling water of the Atlantic. Maybe Carrie had scared him off.
Well, it's no big deal,
she told herself.
He's only a boy.
She sighed. If only he wasn't so darn cute!

It was shortly after two when Lisa and Carrie arrived back at the house with the groceries their mother had requested. Lisa was delighted to see Brian standing on a ladder that was leaning against the west wall.

“Hi!” he called when he spotted her. “How was the beach?”

“Super! How are the windows?”