While Danielle nursed the babies, Heather told her and Walt about what had happened in the nursery while they slept. They concluded that whatever was going on seemed to be confined to the nursery—for now. They all agreed the best course of action was to talk to Eva and Marie, and hopefully the two spirits could unravel the paranormal mystery.
Eventually, the conversation drifted to the topic of the day’s warmer than normal May weather, and Danielle urged her friends to go do something fun and enjoy the sunshine and absence of rain. Instead of taking Danielle’s suggestion, Chris ordered food to be delivered, and they enjoyed a makeshift indoor picnic lunch in Marlow House’s living room.
It proved to be a lazy Sunday afternoon at Marlow House. Chris, who had moved to a recliner and had the footrest up, had been holding Addison when she nodded off after being nursed and changed. She napped on a receiving blanket draped over Chris’s denim-clad thighs.
Heather had been holding Jack when he fell back asleep, and now he napped on the sofa between Danielle and Heather while they discussed sourdough discard recipes Heather wanted to try.
Across the library, Walt sat with Brian at the small table with the chessboard while Walt reintroduced Brian to the game. After Danielle had suggested her friends go do something fun and enjoy the weather, someone suggested they stay in and play a game. When they couldn’t agree on a game, someone mentioned chess, and Brian told them his father had taught him chess, but he hadn’t played in years, which led to his playing with Walt.
Chris, who stretched out lazily on the recliner, looked down at the sleeping baby. Nearby, Danielle and Heather discussed discard pretzels and pizza, both of which sounded disgusting to him, because when he envisioned discard, the image of something spoiled and disgusting came to mind. To his right, he overheard bits of Walt and Brian’s quiet conversation involving knights and pawns.
Taking a deep breath, still staring down at the infant, Chris said, “They don’t do much at this age, do they?”
Heather and Danielle looked over at Chris and smiled.
“Just eat, sleep, and poop,” Heather said.
“But she is damn cute,” Chris added, still staring at Addison. “Look at that tiny little rosebud mouth. That delicate nose.”
Brian looked over at Chris from the chessboard. “Yearning to start a family?”
Before Chris could respond, Hunny jumped up and ran from the living room. A moment later, she returned with Sadie by her side, and trailing behind the dogs were Ian and Lily, with Ian holding Connor.
“Hi, guys,” Lily greeted a little too loudly, but immediately cringed when she noticed the sleeping infants, one on the sofa and the other on Chris’s lap. Yet neither baby woke up, not even when Sadie gave them each a quick sniff while her tail wagged.
“I doubt anything wakes these two besides an empty stomach,” Heather said.
“Where have you been?” Danielle asked Lily. “I tried calling you this morning.”
“Sorry. We had some errands, and my phone died. Forgot to charge it,” Lily explained.
Walt and Brian stopped playing chess. After everyone exchanged greetings, the adults all sat down, Connor dumped the basket of toys out, and the sleeping infants returned to their portable cribs.
With Connor playing on the floor nearby, Lily looked at Danielle and said, “Ian and I were talking about your offer yesterday to move over here while they finish the remodel. We would like to take you up on your offer.”
“You sure you want to live under the same roof as a poltergeist?” Heather asked Lily. “Dealing with objects flying off the shelf?”
Lily looked at Heather. “If you’re talking about what happened when Kelly and June were over here, I’m sure it was Kelly playing ghost.”
“Although the orbs in those photos were interesting,” Ian muttered.
Lily glanced at Ian and rolled her eyes.
Danielle was about to tell Lily it hadn’t been Kelly, but she paused when she saw two people walking by the living room window to the front door. One was the topic of their conversation, and the other one was Joe.
Before anyone could tell Lily and Ian about the possible poltergeist, Walt went to answer the front door and then brought Kelly and Joe into the living room.
Brian greeted the couple by asking Joe, “Aren’t you working today?”
“I am.” Joe glanced at his watch before looking back at Brian. “I don’t start for another hour. We just had lunch at Pier Café, ran into Melony and Adam. Kelly told them about what happened to her and June here yesterday. I don’t know if you’ve heard.”
“Yes, June says Marlow House is haunted.” Lily chuckled.
“Kelly said the rocking chair started rocking on its own, and a stuffed animal flew across the room. I told her there is a logical explanation, and it’s not ghosts.”
“You weren’t here, Joe. I know what I saw,” Kelly grumbled.
“I don’t doubt you saw something. Never did I say I don’t believe you. I just don’t agree with your conclusion. There is a logical explanation for everything.” Joe turned to Danielle. “I’m sorry we just barged in. But before I go to work, I was hoping we could put this thing to rest. Would you let me go up to the nursery with Kelly and help her figure out what really happened?”
Knowing they couldn’t come up with a good reason Joe and Kelly shouldn’t go up to the nursery—it wasn’t like they could claim the babies were upstairs and they didn’t want to wake them—Walt decided it best to take them upstairs himself so he could use his telekinetic gift to intervene if necessary.
Ian and Lily, who still assumed Kelly had thrown the stuffed animal, followed them upstairs. They were halfway up the stairs when Heather said, “I gotta see what’s going to happen.” She dashed from the living room and hurried up to the nursery. Tempted to join Heather, Chris figured that was too many people crammed into the nursery, so he stayed downstairs.
* * *
Walt walked into the nursery first and looked around. While nothing seemed unusual, he knew that could change in a moment. In the hallway, Kelly paused a moment at the open doorway, not wanting to go in, but Joe gave her a gentle nudge and said, “Come on. I’m going to prove there is no such thing as ghosts.”
Looking unconvincingly at Joe, Kelly entered the nursery, finding it looking just as it had been when she and June had first come into the room the previous day, with the stuffed elephant on a shelf.
Ian and Lily, still believing Kelly had thrown the stuffed animal, followed Joe and Kelly into the nursery, with Heather trailing behind them.
“Now what?” Lily asked.
Joe looked at Kelly. “Tell me what you did before the rocker supposedly started rocking on its own.”
Nervously chewing her lower lip, Kelly glanced around and then looked at the rocking chair Danielle had been using when nursing the babies. She pointed to the chair. “Danielle was there, nursing the twins. I walked over to the other rocker, picked up the quilt, held it up for my mom to take a picture, and the empty rocker just started rocking.”
“Like this?” Joe walked to the rocker and jerked the quilt from the chair, sending the chair rocking.
“No, not like that. I didn’t yank it like you did,” Kelly grumbled.
“Maybe you didn’t think you yanked it,” Joe said, still holding the quilt. “But that has to be what happened.” Joe reached out and put his hand on the chair, stopping it from rocking. Kelly was about to ask Joe how that explained the stuffed animal flying across the room, when the chair started rocking again.
Joe, who hadn’t yet noticed, continued to hold the quilt, a smug smile on his face, while Lily and Ian exchanged quick glances and Heather resisted the temptation to giggle.
Kelly pointed to the rocking chair. “Explain that!” Her voice quivered.
Joe looked down at the chair and frowned. Tossing the quilt on the other chair, he placed his hand back on the moving rocker; once again, it stopped. He glanced around at the floor, looking for an answer. Lifting his hand from the chair, he stared at it a moment and smiled when it stayed still. But a moment later, it began rocking. Convinced there was a logical explanation for the rocking, Joe continued inspecting the chair when something hit the back of his head. Kelly let out a scream.
Heather stood by the corner near the door and watched as stuffed animals started flying off the shelves behind Joe, hitting him in the head. Both Lily and Ian glanced over to Walt, believing he was responsible for the attack, and both silently questioned his actions.
Joe, so preoccupied with batting away the stuffed animals, failed to see them flying off the shelves. But after a moment, the assault stopped, leaving stuffed toys scattered on the floor.
The chair stopped rocking. No one spoke. Finally, Joe walked to Kelly, took her hand, and said, “Okay, I believe you saw something. But it’s not ghosts. Let’s go.”
* * *
They had heard Kelly’s scream from the living room, so they assumed the mystery spirit was up to its old tricks. Unsure how they were going to handle this, or if they should even bother, since it wasn’t like any of them knew what the heck was going on, they all remained where they had been sitting when Joe and Kelly first left to go upstairs.
Joe and Kelly entered the living room first, with Joe holding Kelly’s hand. Ian, Lily, Heather, and Walt entered next. Lily and Ian looked annoyed. Kelly looked terrified. Walt looked like someone trying to figure out a problem, and Heather looked like someone watching a good movie and waiting for the surprise ending. Joe looked amused.
“Cute trick,” Joe said after they were all back in the living room. “But I don’t think you should have played it on June. Sounds like it terrified her.”
“What are you talking about?” Danielle asked.
Joe smiled at Danielle. “Come on, Danielle. You guys obviously rigged the rocking chair to rock on its own.”
Danielle frowned at Joe. “We did?”
“Joe, what about the stuffed animals?” Kelly asked.
Joe shrugged. “Obviously thrown from one of those ball-throwing devices.”
“They flew off the shelves,” Kelly insisted. Joe rolled his eyes at her comment.
“Did you find a device like that?” Walt asked.
Joe looked at Walt and smiled. “No, I didn’t. But I didn’t check around. Joanne’s told us how you consider yourself an amateur magician. I didn’t feel compelled to figure out how you do your tricks. If Houdini can make an elephant disappear, I’m sure you can make a rocking chair rock and toss around some stuffed animals. It’s a good trick, but you did freak out my mother-in-law. She’s convinced Marlow House is haunted.”
Kelly frowned. “It was all a trick?”
Joe smiled at Kelly. “Certainly. Do you really believe the nursery is haunted?” He glanced around at the others and then looked back at Kelly. “And obviously everyone else knows it was a trick, too. You were the only one screaming up there when things started flying and rocking. It didn’t seem to scare anyone else.” Joe looked back at the others and said, “Next time, you should all act scared, too.”
Kelly, unlike Joe, was not amused that it had supposably all been a magic trick. She glared at Walt and then everyone else in the room, who she now believed was in on the joke, like always, even her brother.
“I guess you guys just love making me look like a fool!” Kelly shouted before breaking into tears and running from the room. Joe, who looked a little shocked at Kelly’s outburst, froze a moment before he ran out of the room after his wife.
After the door slammed, Ian turned angrily to Walt and said, “Why would you do that?”
“I don’t know what happened upstairs,” Danielle said, “but if things started flying, it wasn’t Walt. That’s why we have the babies napping downstairs and not in the nursery.”