THREE

 

 

Eve figured her face was about as red as it was going to get, so she smiled at K.J. Then said, “Do you blame me?”

“Oh, my, not at all,” K.J. said, fanning himself.

Eve thought Tommy was going to fall out of his chair laughing.

Jewel was trying to hold it together enough to actually get an answer out of K.J.

Eve was really starting to like this crazy ghost of a boss.

“So, what is needed,” Jewel asked, “for these two to have sex? Real sex.”

“Passion,” K.J. said, “but with that hunk of a man, I doubt that is your problem, is it?”

“It is not,” Eve said, smiling at him. “And it is not his problem toward me either. We both want this, but both of us are so new to our worlds, we have no idea how to go about that part of a relationship.”

“Like two teenagers in the backseat of a car,” K.J. said. “The fumbling is half the fun I am told.”

“All I remember is the fear and the worry and the sweating,” Jewel said.

Again, Tommy just laughed and shook his head.

Eve hadn’t had any experience in back seats of cars. And her first sexual experiences hadn’t been that rewarding, actually. And her sexual experiences with her loser of a husband hadn’t changed that. So with Cascade, she was hoping for a little more.

Actually, a lot more.

K.J. looked at her. “You ever read the fine short story ‘Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex’?”

Eve shook her head. She had no idea what he was talking about.

Again Tommy laughed and Jewel just looked at K.J. with a stern look.

“No?” K.J. asked Eve. “For the better, since even though Cascade is a superhero and someone can put a hand through you like Kleenex, the situation in the story does not apply.”

Tommy had to catch himself from laughing himself off his chair. If they hadn’t been ghosts, everyone in the place would have been staring at them.

“K.J.,” Jewel said, pretending to put on a stern face. “This is a serious problem that these two young lovers are trying to solve.”

K.J. was laughing with Tommy at his own joke, but finally nodded and took a moment to catch his breath.

Eve was going to have to look up that story just to see why they were laughing.

Finally K.J. looked at both Jewel and Tommy. “I will teach you all a very nifty trick that none of your team knows yet, but that might come in handy at times.”

He glanced around, clearly to make sure none of the live customers were watching, even though none of the four of them could be seen. Then K.J. reached forward and picked up the Keno ticket holder in the center of the table.

Not just the ghost element of the ticket holder, but the entire holder.

Then he set it down on the table with an audible click, smiling.

“Damn,” Tommy said. “How did you do that?”

K.J. pointed to his head. “Just as we do all of our skills. I just imagined it.”

“So we can cross over into the real world without controlling a person to do it for us?” Jewel asked, clearly as stunned as Eve was feeling.

“Within limits,” K.J. said. “As far as I know, a normal human can’t see us no matter what we do. Something about light and things I didn’t understand.”

“Cascade can see me fine thanks to Laverne,” Eve said.

“Makes sense because he’s a superhero,” K.J. said, nodding.

K.J. then stood and indicated all three of them should follow him over to a planter filled with artificial plants that divided the buffet from a small lobby at the top of an escalator.

“Put your hand through the plants,” K.J. said to each of them.

They all did.

Eve had gotten used to walking through things and not feeling a thing. She actually kind of liked it.

“Now,” K.J. said, “Imagine your hand is solid enough to move a plant leaf.”

Eve used what Jewel and Tommy had taught her about imagining being in different places and just being there, and floating, and so on. All of her training had been on using her imagination. It seemed that ghosts felt like they were part of this world, but were not really, so then had what seemed like powers to jump anywhere they could imagine or float places or make others do as a ghost wanted.

Ghosts felt like they were tied in this world, but actually were not, thus their imagination had to break them free.

Eve focused that same imagination energy on making her hand solid and touching the plant leaf.

And suddenly she could feel the leaf. Not the ghost element of the leaf, that had a certain feel, but the actual artificial leaf.

It moved under her touch.

Jewel and Tommy had the same success.

“Wonderful! K.J. said, clapping his hands like a teenager happy to see someone.

He turned and went back to the table. As he did, Eve watched him study the room to make sure no one was looking, then he pulled out a chair that was tucked in too close to the table.

Not the ghost part of the chair, but the actual chair.

To any live person watching, either in the restaurant or on a camera, that chair must have looked like it had moved by itself.

Jewel, Tommy, and Eve tried to move a chair, but even though they all could feel the chair’s surface, they couldn’t get enough grip or energy to move it.

“This takes time and practice to learn,” K.J. said as they all sat back down.

Then he turned to Eve. “But I have discovered over the years, after many pleasurable nights in my oversized hot tub with wonderful and very-much-alive superheroes who could see me, the practice is very much worth the effort.”

Eve was again convinced she was blushing.

“That’s how you and Madge from the diner did it,” Tommy said, smiling.

Eve figured he was clearly talking about an event before she had died. She would ask later.

“A fella doesn’t kiss and tell,” K.J. said, laughing.

Jewel just laughed and shook her head.

“If I can make my hand solid to touch something,” Eve asked, “can I make other parts of my body solid as well for Cascade’s touch?”

K.J. smiled and fanned himself again with an imaginary fan. “With practice, Mr. Hunk Cascade can feel any part of you that you would want him to feel.”

Eve was about to jump up and down for joy.

She smiled at Jewel and Tommy. “Thank you both.”

Then she stood and moved over and kissed K.J. solidly on the cheek.

“And thank you,” Eve said to K.J. “And now I need to go do some practicing on Cascade’s wonderful and very masculine body.”

“I think I might have the vapors just thinking of that,” K.J. said, again fanning himself.

She laughed and jumped back to Cascade’s apartment.

He was stretched out on the couch, sound asleep. She knelt by the couch and then gently touched his face.

The light stubble on his cheeks felt wonderful against her hand.

He stirred as she brushed his cheek again. He smiled and opened his eyes.

“That felt wonderful,” he said, looking into her eyes.

“It did,” she said.

“How?” he asked.

“I’ll explain it all later,” she said.

Then she stood and stripped off her clothes as he watched intently. Quickly she was standing there in front of him completely naked and enjoying his look.

All he could do was stare.

Finally he said, “You are so beautiful.”

She imagined her hand firm and reached out for his hand.

“Come on,” she said, actually feeling his hand solidly in hers as she pulled him to his feet. “We have some practicing to do.”

“What kind of practicing?” he asked, smiling.

“The best kind,” she said. “The very best.”