“Addison? You there?”
Luke’s groggy voice vibrated down the hall. Addison switched the bathroom light off and walked back to the bedroom, stopping when she reached the doorway. Luke was propped up in bed, his back resting on a pillow he’d jammed in front of the headboard. The light from the nightstand cast a fluorescent shadow across his face, and she noticed he was eyeing her strangely.
She half-smiled, tried to pretend nothing was wrong. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I was just coming back to bed.”
“What time is it?”
“A little after one, I think.”
“When did you get up?”
“Five, maybe ten minutes ago.”
He tilted his head to the side. “I’ve been awake for at least twenty.”
“I … ahh … woke up with a headache and was looking for some ibuprofen in the bathroom.”
He tugged at his chin. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Your eyes are red. Really red. To be honest, when I first saw you, I thought you’d been crying.”
“I haven’t. I’m fine.”
He stared at her for a moment, didn’t speak. He knew something was wrong. He always knew. She walked over, sat down on the bed next to him. He reached out, entwined her hand in his, pulled it to his mouth, and kissed it. “Whatever it is, you know you can tell me.”
She smiled. “I know. Do you remember when Roxy first appeared to me?”
He nodded. She continued.
“I think it’s happening again.”
He leaned back, looked at her like she hadn’t said anything out of the ordinary. “I’m not surprised.”
“You’re not?”
“You knew there would be others. It was the last thing your grandmother told you before she left. Remember?”
“I remember,” Addison said. “I guess … well … it’s just … it’s been several months now, and since it hadn’t happened again—”
“You didn’t think it would?”
“I don’t know what I thought. One day I’m living a normal life, the next a spirit appears to me, and I have to figure out what they want and how to give it to them. It’s confusing. I mean, it’s not like there’s a handbook for dealing with dead people.”
“Roxy appeared to you because she couldn’t move on until her body was located. Do you think you’re dealing with a similar situation?”
“Maybe. I wish I knew how it all worked, how one spirit has the ability to appear to me while millions of others don’t. Who decides these things? Someone has to. Even in the afterlife, there has to be a system in place.
He laughed. “A system?”
“I’m serious. In my head I picture a giant bowl with all the names of the dead on it, those who haven’t crossed over. All the spirits are hovering around it, waiting for their names to be called, like some kind of lottery.”
“You can spend your entire life trying to make sense of it, and you never will. Why not focus on what you can control, who you can help, how you can make a difference?”
Helping Roxy had felt great. It elevated her confidence, gave her a purpose in life, a higher calling. Even so, it hadn’t kept the occasional feelings of inadequacy from seeping in, making her feel she wasn’t the right person for the job. “What happened tonight, I always assumed it would mimic my first experience. It didn’t though. It was different this time.”
“Different how?”
“I didn’t see anyone. No one appeared to me, I mean. I had a dream. I was standing outside a manor I didn’t recognize. There was a tall iron gate. On the right side, in a black metal rectangle, there was a word, or maybe two words partially covered by a tree branch. I made out the first word—Rose—and then the letter C. Nothing else. I assumed it was a family surname. Rosecrest or Rosecrans maybe.”
“It’s a start. What else did you see?”
“Two young girls. Twins. They were playing together in front of the house. One walked over to me. Her name was Vivian. She said her sister, Grace, wouldn’t talk to me because she was afraid.”
“Of what?”
Addison shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Did she say anything else?”
“She wanted me to remember something.”
“Remember what?”
“No clue,” Addison said. “She didn’t tell me. Everything about the dream was unnatural. The girls were both wearing the same dress. But they were odd.”
“The girls?”
“The dresses.”
“In what way?”
“They were dated. Thick and plain. Nothing like the clothing girls wear today.”
Addison folded a pillow next to Luke’s and leaned back. In her dream, the colors were muted and drab, like she was viewing the scene through a filter. The one exception had been the vibrant yellow color of the girls’ dresses.
“I just thought of something that seemed insignificant until now,” Addison said. “Months ago when we visited Roxy’s gravesite, I saw two young girls at the cemetery. They were wearing matching yellow dresses and chasing each other around a headstone. I remember wondering why they weren’t with their parents, why they’d been left alone without supervision, and why they were dressed in short sleeves with no jackets during such a cold time of year.”
“Did you ever see their parents?”
Addison shook her head. “I watched them for a few minutes. They caught me staring and stopped. One of them waved.”
“What did you do?”
“The sun was in my eyes. It was so bright, I could hardly see anything. I closed my eyes. Not for long. A few seconds. When I reopened them, the girls were gone.”
Luke squeezed Addison’s hand. “I think you just figured out what you were supposed to remember.”