Coming through the dining room doors I heard loud laughter.
“Hey, what did I miss?” I asked pulling up a chair beside Chris.
“Joey, just told the funniest joke,” Justin informed me.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Chris started, “What do you call a lesbian in Alaska?” I shrugged my answer.
“Klondike! Get it…Klondike.” Everybody started laughing all over again except me.
I shrugged, “Its not that funny.”
“Well it was at the time.”
“Right.” I suddenly got an idea at that moment. I just about spit out the piece of apple I was eating. “Oh, man, I just got this great idea. Why don’t we try figure out who the ghosts are.”
“How are we going to do that?” Joey wondered.
“We go on a exploration through the house. Figure out what rooms they haunt the most.”
“Why would we want to do that after today?” Lance asked.
“Maybe we could help them to leave the house and help them to decide to cross over,” I told them excitedly. My plan could work, it would work. “I will need some help, through. Two heads are better than one.” They looked around worriedly, undecided. Joey was the first to speak up.
“I’ll do it.” I smiled at him gratefully. Justin said he would, secondly. Followed by Chris and Lance. J.C. stayed quiet.
“I’m sorry guys but I won’t do it,” J.C. told us. I nodded respectfully.
We decided to meet at the center of the Ballroom at sundown with flashlights and candles.
Later that afternoon all five of us were upstairs in the Library. The library is very large room with shelves from the floor to the ceiling filled and overfilled with books. Three large windows that were from the floor to the ceiling gave us plenty of light. A fireplace was also against the same wall. The large balcony was from the middle of one wall to the other middle the fireplace separating the walls.
Chris, Joey, and Justin were spread out among the red-carpeted floor reading anything that Lance handed to them. I was on the ladder that slid across the bookshelves handing down books to Lance that I thought would be ghost related. We needed to be prepared at what we’re be facing tonight. After about 100 books taking form the shelves my arms started to ache from aching.
“Coming down,” I told Lance so he wouldn’t be alarmed. I took each step slowly so not to fall from as high as I was. I had 6 or 7 more steps to descend from when I felt a hand on my chest pushing me backwards. Losing my grip, I screamed. Lance looked up and dropped his book, he was holding when I literally fell in his arms.
“So glad you could drop in,” Lance said putting me on my feet.
Joey came to me, “Are you ok? No, broken bones? No, concussion? Tabitha, speak to me.”
I pulled from his grip on my arms. “Yeah, I’m fine. I didn’t mean to fall, I was pushed,” I told them.
“Pushed?” Justin asked.”
“Somebody put their hand on my chest and pushed me backwards. I lost my grip and fell. Thanks for catching me, Lance.”
“It was a reflex. I mean, I couldn’t just step away and let you fall.”
We all resumed to the floor looking through books that would hopefully get us prepared to look for. After about 15 minutes of looking though 8 books I came up with a conclusion.
Slamming the book I held shut it suddenly got unbelievably cold. “Guys there is nothing here that would help us here.” They lifted their eyes at me. Agreeing they also shut their books. “Are any of you cold?” Joey asked rubbing his arms.
“Yeah, I just noticed that,” I said getting up to check the thermostat. Moving past everybody to one wall, I suddenly had a cold hand clasp mine. I turned around to find Joey sat quietly on his part of the floor calmly surrounded by books. He watched me turn pale looking at my hand.
“What is wrong?” Joey asked.
I looked at everybody scared. “Who is holding my hand?”
“Nobody why?” Chris said looking at me like I was crazy.
“Somebody is holding my hand,” I told them.
“No there isn’t,” Chris argued.
“Yeah there is,” by that time my hand was jerked and something was pulling me toward the open door of the library. It started pulling me harder and pretty soon I was running down the hallway going past my room. Turning left as that hallway ended into a much smaller one. It pulled me right, down another hallway. Hearing heavy footsteps behind me, I looked over my shoulder to see the guys running after us.
The thing that had a grip like nothing I ever experienced kept dragging me towards my parent’s bedroom, which was at the end of the hall. It dragged me into a room filled with books and papers scattered among the floor. The room was always locked. My parents told me it was just junk in there. The thing suddenly let go of my hand and I could now feel my hand. Looking around among the floor the guys halt to a stop outside the door.
“Hey guys long time no see.”
They cautiously walked into the room. “What was all of that about?” asked Lance.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Do you think it was one of the ghosts?” Chris guessed.
“That’s a good possibility, probably.”
“Why would they lead you here?” Joey asked shifting through the dust-covered books.
“I don’t know. This door was always locked, though,” I concluded looking through the papers beside me. Shrugging I placed the papers down and picked up a photo album. Many different people filled the pages. Under the pictures dates were placed.
“Hey that looks like on of the guys that chased us,” Joey pointed over my shoulder.
“Yeah, his name is Lewis Cunning died February 7, 1736 at 50. Wonder how mom and dad knew that. It does look like their handwriting.”
We looked at it some more before Justin spoke up from his intense reading. “ You guys, this book tells everything about ghosts, this whole room does.”
I picked up a thick dusty book from beside me and flipped to a page. “Telepathic communication, a communication between mind and mind otherwise than through the senses. Ghosts do this a lot to humans. You could say it in your head, voice, or in another’s voice. You’ve got to be careful, though, you could just think about it. For example if you were studying English and suddenly you think about Science and matter, but you have never studied matter than you probably just had telepathic communication.”
copyright © 2001 AngelH