Maybe This Time

Fifteen

“Get out of him,” she said, as he advanced on her. “That’s not your body, give it back.”

She took a step back, keeping her eyes on the watch in his hand. “We have to burn that watch, Lydia,” she called out as her back hit the door. “It’s-”

He grabbed for her, and she ducked and tried to knock the watch from his hand, but he got her by the throat, lifting her up off her feet as she choked, her eyes level with his, staring into the empty evil horror that was there. “North,” she choked out, but the room began to spin, there was a rushing in her ears, and then suddenly he dropped to the floor and she went with him, and Carter was standing over them with the small fire extinguisher from the mantel.

“I hit him,” Carter said, anguished, and North began to struggle to his feet, the back of his head bleeding, and then Miss J was there, too, and Andie felt ice in her veins.

“No!” she screamed and grabbed the watch from the floor, triggering the catch so that it opened as she flung it into the fire. She heard Miss J shriek like nothing on God’s earth, and then the ice in her blood was gone, but North was reaching for Alice, and Carter and Lydia and Andie all dragged him back while he fought them, and Alice shrank back against the wall, terrified, screaming, “Bad!”, as her necklaces swung forward-

Andie lunged over North, still struggling on the floor, and screamed, “Give me the locket!”, and Alice ripped it off without question and threw it to her.

North surged up from the floor, Carter and Andie hanging on to him, and Andie flung the locket into the flames.

The locket blackened in the fire, but Peter fought on in North’s body, rage distorting his face.

“It didn’t work,” Andie yelled, grabbing North around the neck and holding on to him while the others fought to keep him down.

“It didn’t open,” Carter yelled back, and reached into the flames and pulled it out, his face twisting as the fire burned him, and then he stamped on the locket and broke it open, exposing a brown curl of hair inside.

Peter screamed, and Carter threw the curl into the fire where it crackled and then turned to ash, and North collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

Lydia bent over him. “What the hell was that thing?”

“A ghost.” Andie grabbed the pitcher of ice water from the lunch tray and plunged Carter’s hand into it. “That was incredibly brave,” she told him. “Keep your hand cold.”

“Jesus Christ,” Lydia said. “That was evil.”

Andie left Carter and bent over North, looking at the back of his head as he came to. Carter had really smacked him, there was blood back there, but with any luck he hadn’t cracked his skull.

“North?” she said. “North? Honey?”

His eyelids fluttered, and then he said, “Ouch,” his voice wobbly, and sat up, wincing, dizzy enough that he leaned on her. “What was that?”

“You were possessed,” Andie said. “Didn’t you know? Didn’t you feel it?”

North put his hand on the back of his head and then pulled it back to look at the blood on it. “I blacked out. What the hell happened?”

“You were possessed and tried to choke me and Carter hit you with a fire extinguisher to save me.”

North’s eyes widened, and Carter said, “Sorry.”

“I’m not,” Andie said.

May came to the door and stopped, barred by the fire. What happened?

Then Southie was there, staring through May, saying, “What the hell?” and Flo looked at them all from behind him and said, “Oh, no,” and went to Carter, and Isolde stood in the doorway next to May and stared.

“So,” Lydia said. “Ghosts are real and they can do that?”

It was the pocket watch? May said. And the locket? Because Miss J and Peter are gone. Really, they’re gone. I felt them go. Ask Dennis if you don’t believe me. He’s down on the couch.

“We burned the watch but he kept going,” Andie said to May.

That makes sense. It was his watch, so he’d put a lock of her hair in there. And she’d put his in her locket.

“They’re both gone,” Alice said, and sat back, an odd look on her face.

Carter nodded, holding his hand in the ice water, and Flo said, “You’ve burned yourself, let me take care of that,” and Lydia and Southie helped North to his feet.

North turned green and bolted for the bathroom.

“What’s wrong?” Lydia said, starting to follow him, and Andie said, “You do that after you’ve been possessed,” and turned back to Alice.

“Are you okay?” she said.

“Yes,” Alice said. “You’re here.”

“So you got rid of them,” Isolde said.

Not all of them, May said. I’m still here.

Andie looked up at her. “And we’re going to talk about that now.”

Andie went out into the hall with May. “Remember when you told me that the others had had their humanity burned away? I think you’re going that way. You possessed me, and then when I was too strong for you, you possessed Kelly. That’s evil, May. That’s wrong. From the way the kids have talked about you, that’s not who you were.”

Well, I wasn’t DEAD before.

“It’s more than that. You know it’s more than that.”

I saved your life.

“I know. But what you’re doing, staying here, it’s wrong. This is not the way it works. You know it’s wrong.”

May pulled back, doing that shifting thing that always made Andie’s stomach turn. I didn’t know my life would be over so fast. It’s not my fault. That insane bitch killed me before I had a chance. Everybody deserves a second chance. That’s all I want, a second chance.

“I know,” Andie said miserably. “I know all of that, but that’s not the way it played out. And the way you’re living now… You’re not living, May. You’re just a shadow.”

I can’t give up. But it’s okay, I have a plan.

“May-”

Take me to Columbus, and I’ll take Kelly.

“No!”

Andie, I’ve been inside her and there’s nothing there, it’s just all this greed and need, and you know how she was after the kids, she’s a miserable bitch-

“You can’t hijack somebody else’s life, May.”

– and it’s not like I’m getting a great deal there, she must be pushing forty. I’m nineteen, Andie. I had my whole life ahead of me.

“And now it’s gone,” Andie said, making it sound as final as she could. “You got screwed over, no doubt about it, you deserved so much more, but it’s done. It’s over.”

No!

“Look, maybe there’s something wonderful if you move ahead. Maybe if you go toward the light-”

Maybe there’s nothing there. Maybe if I go into the light, I really do die.

“You’re already dead.”

No. No, this is ME. I’m here.

“May. I don’t know how to help you. But you can’t stay here trying to steal other people’s lives.”

Don’t leave me here.

Andie stared at the girl helplessly. “May, I’m not even sure you can leave here. I think you’re tied to the house.”

No. No, there’s a lock of my hair in my old jewelry box. My mother braided mine and April’s together.

“Who’s April?”

My sister. Carter and Alice’s mother.

Andie looked around. “Is she here, too?”

No, I don’t think she stayed after she died. I think she just snuffed out like a candle. I was alive then so I don’t know. I didn’t even know this existed.

“Maybe she knew what she was doing.”

Maybe she just gave up. I’m not giving up.

Andie took a deep breath. “Think this through. If you’re tied to that lock of hair, you’re stuck wherever the hair is. I can take you to school with me once I start another job, but then you’re going to be hanging out listening to high school kids murder Shakespeare. You can stay in the house and watch the kids grow up, but somehow, that doesn’t seem like it’s enough for you.”

It’s SOMETHING.

May sounded frantic, which was natural considering what she was facing, but there was an edge there that hadn’t been there before, a savagery under the complaint.

“You sound different.”

I’m scared. I’m angry. What do you expect?

Andie bit her lip. “What if you’re losing your humanity? The others did, they became monsters. You don’t want to become a monster-”

They hung around for two hundred years. You’ll be dead before I start to lose it. Then we can really talk.

“We don’t know that,” Andie said. “We don’t-”

So you’re saying no.

“I’m saying you’re not where you’re supposed to be. You’re not supposed to be stuck between two planes living a shadow life. This is wrong for you. It’s wrong for everybody. And if we don’t fix it, if you don’t move on, I think things could get really bad.”

May was silent, and even worse, Andie couldn’t see her moving. It was as if May had finally stopped dancing. Maybe because she was starting to think.

“May?”

I don’t want to move on.

“Okay.” Andie got up. “It’s your choice. But I can’t take you to Columbus. It’s just wrong, May. You’ll have to stay here.

I hate it here. I’ve been stuck here in this stupid town and then this stupid house all my life.

“And when your life ended, you should have been free.”

You’re taking Dennis back.

“Not necessarily,” Andie said, exasperated, “I’m trying to talk him toward the light, too. You’re both being stubborn. But if he insists, I’ll take him back to his home in Cleveland. He doesn’t belong here, he was just visiting. But first I’m going to try to talk him into going.”

Would you go?

“Yes.”

How can you know?

“Because I wouldn’t ever want to be stuck watching somebody else live. Because if there’s a new adventure ahead of me, I want to go toward it. Because living like a shadow would make me insane.”

So you’d just let go.

“It’s what people who die are supposed to do. Not hang on to the past. Go toward the future.”

What if there isn’t any future?

“I think there’s something in the light. And I think because it’s light, it’s probably good. Or at least interesting and not eternal damnation in some sadist’s idea of an afterlife. That is just something somebody dreamed up to keep other people in line.”

You don’t think there’s a hell.

“I don’t see how a hell makes sense. What’s the point of tormenting souls forever? Where’s the poetry in that, what use is it? If there is a guiding intelligence that created this world, which is amazing, why would it design eternal pain and torment for the next one? It’s just a stupid concept.”

To punish the bad people.

“Forever?” Andie said, getting impatient. “What good is that? That’s just vengeance, it doesn’t accomplish anything. The whole hell thing annoys me, it’s such a power play.”

May was quiet for a long while, and finally Andie said, “May?”

All right.

Andie hesitated, and when May didn’t say anything else, she went to check on Dennis. She’d have to be insane to take May back to Columbus with her. Even thinking about taking Dennis was crazy but at least he belonged up north. Well, no he didn’t. He belonged on the other side. Wherever that was.

“Dennis?” she said at the door of the sitting room.

You got rid of them. Good for you.

“You can tell they’re gone.”

Yes. They’re gone. It’s much better here now.

“It’s still Hell House, Dennis. Now, about you.”

Don’t worry about me, Dennis said. I can stay. I’m not going to kill anybody.

“Right,” Andie said and went back upstairs to the kids, meeting Flo on the first flight of stairs as she went to get bandages for Carter; and Lydia on the second flight, carrying the lunch tray down.

“North’s throwing up in the bathroom,” Lydia said.

“Well, it’s his turn,” Andie said and went up to the nursery.

When she opened the nursery door, the fire was off, and May was there with Alice and Carter.

“Hey!” Andie said, but May said, All right.

“All right what?”

I’ll move on. Alice has the lock of hair.

Alice held out a thick, dark curl, her face sober.

“Did you tell them what it means?” Andie said.

They know. I just need one favor from you.

“All right,” Andie said cautiously.

I want to hug them good-bye.

“Okay. Go ahead.”

No, really hug them. I want to borrow your body.

“No!” Andie took a step back. “No. You did it before and it was horrible. No.”

Andie, I’m never going to see them again. This is the end for us. You don’t have anything to worry about. I’ll go. Even if I didn’t, you’re stronger than I am. You can get rid of me any time you want.

Andie looked back at the kids, standing silent and miserable. They’d never had a chance to say good-bye, she was their last close family member, maybe it would help them-

I just want to hug them.

Andie swallowed. “All right.”

Thank you, May said. Just relax.

“That’s not happening,” Andie said, and felt the cold in her bones again, felt May fill her as she shivered, saw everything go black and white, and then May was lifting her arms over her head, stretching to feel her muscles.

“A body,” May said. “You don’t know how awful it is not to have a body!”

Yes, I do, Andie said. Make this fast. This is horrible.

May turned toward the kids and Andie went with her, feeling her body follow somebody else’s command, the nausea rising again from the sheer wrongness of it. May bent down and hugged Alice, and the little girl hugged her back.

“Keep your promise,” she whispered in Andie’s ear, and May said, “I will.”

Then May straightened and held out Andie’s arms to Carter. “Come say good-bye, Carter!”

Carter turned and walked away.

“Carter!” May called. “It’s me. It’s not Andie, it’s me.”

He turned back at the door. “I’d hug Andie,” he said and walked out.

“He’s just upset,” May said to Alice.

“You promised,” Alice said.

Promised what? Andie said. What’s going on?

“That I wouldn’t keep your body,” May said, and let go, and Andie slumped from the relief of it, the cold leaving her as May went.

She was weak and nauseous but she was the only one in her head again.

Thank you, May said, and then Carter came back in.

“You okay?” he said to Andie.

“Yes,” Andie began, and Carter took the curl from Alice and put it in the fire. May took one sorrowful look back and vanished, and Andie said, “Wait! May! I’m sorry. Good luck… May?”

The curl turned to ash, and there was nothing there.

“Oh,” she said, looking at the kids. “She’s gone. Are you all right?”

Carter turned and left.

“We’re okay,” Alice said, and followed him.

“Wait a minute,” Andie said, but they’d just lost their aunt, really lost her this time, and if they wanted to talk about it, they’d tell her. Hell, I want to talk about it, she thought, but the only person she really wanted to talk to was North and he was throwing up with a concussion.

So she got boxes and went through the nursery cupboards, packing up everything she found that was theirs, and when the kids came back half an hour later, she said, “I’m packing. We can go to Columbus now, right?”

Carter nodded, and she took a deep breath, just from the relief of it all.

“It’ll be okay now,” she told Carter, but his face was a mask again. “You’ll like Columbus,” she told Alice.

Alice nodded and held Rose Bunny closer.

Andie kissed her cheek, and Alice suddenly wrapped her arms around Andie’s neck and pulled her down.

“I love you, Andie,” she said.

“I love you, too, baby,” Andie said, blinking back tears. “It’ll all be all right now, I swear.”

Alice nodded and said, “Can I have a box? I’ll pack my clothes.”

“There’s more in the hall,” Andie told her, thinking, It’s safe to go into the hall because the ghosts are gone.

When she turned, Carter was watching them, his jaw set.

“I love you, too,” she told him. “I know you don’t believe me, but I’ll make it all right for you, I swear.”

“I believe you,” he said, and went out to the hall and picked up two boxes, even as Flo came up and said, “Oh, honey, be careful of your hand.”

It was going to be all right. They were packing. It was over.

And May was gone forever, all that gaiety and passion burned away in an instant.

I’m sorry, May, Andie thought, and went to pack her own things.

By eight, the kids were packed, fed, and put to bed, ready to leave the next morning.

“I can’t believe we’re really going,” Andie said to North when she went into May’s bedroom. “How’s your head?”

“Bashed in,” North said, sitting up in bed. “But I’ve stopped throwing up. Tell me again why Carter hit me with a fire extinguisher?”

“Just get some sleep. You have a lot of stuff to move tomorrow.”

“Are the kids okay?”

Andie nodded. “I think they’re relieved, but it’s hard to tell. They had a rough day.”

“They’re good kids,” North said. “We’ll take them home and keep them safe, and in a while, they’ll be-”

“Normal? Not a chance.” Andie climbed into bed beside him and stretched. “God, I’m tired.”

She reached over and turned out the light and settled in beside him. There was a long silence and then he said, “You’re coming back, too, right? You’re moving in with us?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Good.”

She lay in the darkness next to him, and thought about the future. She’d been concentrating so long on getting the kids out of the house, and now they were going to be out of the house and she had to look at the next problem. No matter what North said, he was going to get caught up in work again, she had to accept that. He was a hard worker, that was one of the things she loved about him. She could make him eat with the kids every night, she could force him to remember them, but she was going to have to live with him spending more time with his desk than he did with her. This has to be enough, she thought, and decided it was. Even if it all happened the way it did the last time, this time she could stand it. She was different now.

North’s voice came out of the dark. “You all right?”

“I’m just fine.” She rolled to face him and felt his hand slide under her waist. “I’m just thinking about the future.”

“It’ll be different this time,” he said. “I swear, I won’t make the same mistakes.”

“Me, either. We’ll make different ones, though. But it doesn’t matter, I’ll stick this time. We were just too young and we got married too fast. And I was unrealistic. I wanted to be adored, and that’s just not your style. Which I would have known if I’d gotten to know you first. I was just… immature.” She sighed. “And then I got the guy who adored me with Will and I didn’t like that, either. I don’t know what I want. Besides you. I want you. I know I want you.”

He was quiet for so long that she thought he’d fallen asleep, and then he said, “I lost your scent first. I kept your pillowcase unwashed for three weeks and then Lydia sent in the cleaners and it was gone. It’s hard to remember scent. I dated a woman for a month once, Lydia and Southie despised her, and I didn’t like her much, but I couldn’t let go until Southie pointed out that she used the same shampoo you did. Sense memory. She smelled like you.”

“Oh,” Andie said.

“I kept your voice longer. At least a year. And after that I got a tape, you’d done that morning show for the school, remember? I got the tape so I could hear your voice. Close my eyes and think you were in the same room. But it was a tape and it didn’t sound quite right and I lost your voice.”

“North-”

“I never lost your face.”

Andie went up on one elbow to face him, not sure what was going on. “It’s okay.”

“I adored you,” North said. “I just didn’t tell you. You were the most amazing thing that had ever happened to me. Nothing else like you in my world before or since. I was crazy about you. I still am. Ten years later you walk into my office and I see you and it’s like the first time, I can’t think, I can’t talk, I just need you with me. It makes me crazy, but now that I’ve got you back… You’re everything, Andie. I should have told you that before.”

“Oh,” Andie said, swallowing back tears. “I still have your T-shirt. The one I bought you at the Jackson Browne concert. You used to sleep in it and when I left, I took it because I wanted something of yours. I’ve never washed it. I keep finding it every time I unpack and I think, ‘I should throw that out,’ but I can’t. And I still have the ring.” She held up her hand, knowing he couldn’t see it in the dark but wanting to show him anyway.

“It’s a terrible ring,” North said, his voice thick.

“I love this ring,” Andie said, her throat thick, too. “I love you. I loved you then, too, so much. That’s why it hurt so much when you left me, I loved you so much and I thought you didn’t love me, but I’ve never stopped loving you, North, never even for a moment, I-”

He pulled her to him and kissed her hard, and she clung to him.

“This time we’ll do it right,” he said to her. “We won’t do it over, we’ll do it new. This time, we’ll make it.”

“Yes, please,” she said, and believed it.

“I swear,” he said and kissed her again, and she moved against him, wanting him again.

“How bad does your head feel?” she whispered to him.

“It feels fine,” he said and pulled her down to him and loved her.

Andie got downstairs early the next morning in time to catch Isolde before she left. “Call me when you get to Columbus,” she said, handing Andie her card. “If you ever need help. Or make banana bread and want company.”

“I will do that,” Andie said, and meant it.

Then she went back into the house, passing North and Southie and Carter carrying boxes to the cars, and stopped in the sitting room to deal with her last loose end.

She said, “Dennis?,” prepared to convince him to embrace the afterlife.

Good morning.

“Dennis, we’re leaving.”

Yes, I know.

Andie smiled at where she thought he was. “I’m thinking maybe you should, too.”

With you?

“No, I was thinking more of the next plane of existence for you. The kids and I are going to Columbus. It’s not the same thing.”

I might like Columbus.

Andie sat down. “I’m worried about you not going toward the light. I’m afraid you’re going to miss it.”

It’s not a bus, Andie, it’s the afterlife.

“Yes, but isn’t Somebody going to get pissed if you keep rejecting the invitation?”

I don’t think so. Dennis sounded thoughtful. I think I was taken before my time, so I have some leeway. It’s not like it was a natural death.

“Stop rationalizing, Dennis. I’m pretty sure death doesn’t have a no-fair clause.” If it had, May would have used it.

I want to go to Columbus with Alice and Carter and you.

“Dennis, be reasonable.”

I’m dead. I don’t have to be reasonable. The fact of my continued existence is in itself unreasonable.

“Okay. Let me think.” Really, it was pretty much a choice between Columbus and the afterlife. Unless… “How about this: Harold’s gone, so Isolde needs a spirit guide. If you’d… attach to her in some way, you could stay with her. She left already, but she said she’d keep in touch. Maybe-”

I’m not sure about spending the rest of my life with Isolde.

“The rest of your life is over,” Andie said. “And I don’t think she’d hold you captive. Harold was there willingly.”

Harold ran like a rabbit the first chance he got.

“Fine. You have any ideas on how we can pack you up and take you with us?”

I’m tied to this couch.

“Isolde says you aren’t. She said you’re using it as a security blanket.”

And this is the woman you want me to spend eternity with.

“She has a point. I don’t see any other ghosts tied to furniture.”

Just lockets and pocket watches.

“Which were portable,” Andie pointed out. “And also contained parts of their… bodies. You didn’t cut your nails on the couch, did you?”

The silence stretched out.

“Okay, fine, be snitty,” Andie said. “But I don’t think we can tie this thing to the top of Lydia’s Lexus.”

“I’m packing up the bedroom next,” North said, coming in from the flagstoned yard. “Did you want that plaque over the bed, the ‘Always Kiss Me Good Night’ thing?”

“God, no,” Andie said.

“Good. What can’t you tie to the top of Lydia’s Lexus?”

“What? Oh. This couch. Dennis won’t go toward the light, won’t go with Isolde, and won’t leave the couch.”

“Uh huh,” North said, and went through the dining room into the kitchen.

Andie looked back in the general direction of Dennis. “I keep forgetting he doesn’t believe in ghosts.”

He never will. He’s too rational. He’s going to miss a lot that way.

“Says the guy who didn’t believe in them when he was alive.”

I’ve learned. I’ve grown. I’m a better person now.

“Dennis, you’re not a person. And I am seriously worried about your afterlife. May told me that the longer a ghost hangs around, the less humanity it has. That’s why she went willingly. She didn’t want to turn into a monster.”

That’s not going to happen to me.

“Really. Why not?”

I have no passion.

That was so true that Andie felt suddenly sad for him, which was ridiculous because he was dead.

The others turned because the reason they stayed was their passion. It was the tie holding them to this plane, so when everything else evaporated, that’s all that was left.

“Uh huh,” Andie said, considering this. “So what’s tying you here?”

Intellectual curiosity.

“I see. So when your humanity burns away…”

You’ll have a supernatural encyclopedia on your couch.

“Oh, Dennis,” Andie said, laughing in spite of herself. “Look, we-”

North came through on his way to the outside. “New Essex has a rental place with a van available. Southie and I will go get it. We’ll put Dennis and his couch in there. Southie came down in Kelly’s car, so he’ll drive my car back and I’ll take the van. If there’s anything else you want from here, now’s the time to mention it. We’ll stick that in the van, too.”

“Uh, make sure you put the bolsters in, too, I think they’re part of the couch,” Andie said, stunned, and then North was gone. She turned back to Dennis. “Do you believe that? He got you a van.”

No, he got you a van. He doesn’t believe in me, but he believes in you. And you need a van.

“Damn,” Andie said. “You’re right.”

I’m always right.

“Fine.” Andie turned for the door and then stopped. “I’m really glad you’re coming with us. I think it would be better for you if you went on to the next plane or whatever, but selfishly, I’m glad we’re going to have you around.”

Thank you, Dennis said, sounding touched.

“But work on separating yourself from the couch, will you? It would make everything so much easier,” Andie said and went to look for Alice and Carter.

Andie climbed the stairs and found Alice in her room, Rose Bunny under one arm, and her comforter under the other. There was more comforter than there was Alice, so Andie said, “I’ll carry that,” and Alice handed it over.

“Your suitcase is in my car,” Andie told her. “And your box of toys. The rest of your stuff is in Grandma Flo’s car. Grandmother Lydia has Carter’s things. And Bad and Southie are putting Dennis and the couch in the rental van now. They’ve even got the bolsters, everything’s out there. We’re ready to go.” She waited for Alice to say something, but the little girl just looked around. “Are you ready to go, Alice?”

Alice was quiet for a moment and then she nodded. Andie held out her hand and Alice took it, and they walked down the wide stone staircase for what Andie sincerely hoped was the last time ever.

“Columbus will be better,” she told Alice quietly, not sure why she was keeping her voice low.

“Will there be butterflies?” Alice said.

“Yes,” Andie said. “In the spring, there’ll be butterflies, just like here. And a butterfly garden, just like here.” Except for the salvia.

Alice nodded.

When they went out the back door, Lydia was putting on her gloves by the driver’s side door. “Carter’s going to ride with North in the van,” she said to Andie.

“Okay,” Andie said and opened the door to her Mustang. “Alice, are you ready to go?”

Alice looked around again, as if she were listening for something, and then Carter got out of the van and came toward her. She lifted up her face as he came up to her. “It’s okay. Get in the car.”

Don’t back out now, baby, Andie prayed, and Alice crawled into the front seat.

“What’s wrong?” she said to Alice, and the little girl looked at her for a long minute and then shook her head.

“You’re okay with us all leaving here,” Andie said.

Alice nodded.

“Then let’s go.”

Andie waved to North who waved back and got in the driver’s seat of the van. Carter went around to the other side of the van and Andie heard the door slam. Southie came out of the house with a last box, put it in the back of the van, slammed the doors and then smacked the side, and North began to pull out onto the bridge.

There’s something wrong, Andie thought. The kids were too quiet. Everything was too quiet. She looked around but there was nothing, no Miss J, no Peter, no May. They were gone. They really were.

“I don’t get it,” she said, and Southie heard her and came over.

“What’s wrong?”

“Something,” she said. “But I don’t know what.”

“Is it something you can deal with in Columbus?” Southie said, genial as ever.

“If it isn’t, we’ll find out when we try to leave.”

“Then let’s leave and find out.”

North had slowed the van just before it went into the trees, and Carter leaned out and yelled, “Come on!”

“Follow me out,” Southie told his mother, and Andie got in the car with Alice, made sure her seat belt was on, and belted herself in. Through the window she saw Southie get in North’s car and start up the drive toward the van, and then Flo got in her car and followed, and Lydia followed behind her. Andie said, “You ready to go, Alice?” and Alice said, “Yes,” and Andie started the car, and thought, We’re not going to get out of here. Something will stop us.

The line of cars wound down through the trees and then up to the road, each one gunning its motor to make it up the insane incline, and then Andie gunned the motor and the Mustang shot forward and they were actually out of the drive. She braced herself for what was to come, some supernatural gatekeeper swooping down to snatch Alice away from her, but the only things that swooped were the crows in the trees, circling and cawing at them as they drone away.

She looked over at the little girl. Alice had pulled her comforter over her, up to her chin, and was looking quiet and tense, only her pale little face showing above the blue chiffon.

“I was afraid we wouldn’t get out,” she told Alice.

“It’s okay,” Alice said. “We can go to Columbus.”

“You’ll like it,” Andie told her. “They painted your bedroom blue.”

Alice nodded, and Andie looked in her rearview mirror.

There was nothing back there, just an empty stretch of road.

Did I imagine all of that? she thought, and kept an eye on the rearview until she turned onto the main highway and the idea of ghosts coming after them seemed ridiculous.

So it’s over, Andie thought and leaned back, trying to get all the foreboding out of her brain.

“It’ll be okay,” Alice said from beside her.

She knows something, Andie thought. That’s why she keeps saying that. “How do you know?”

“I just know,” Alice said and closed her eyes and went to sleep.