Olivia opened her eyes and found her four neighbors standing by the sofa, anxiously looking down at her. Blinking, she tried to remember what had just happened. She glanced over to the nearby coffee table, where Walt Marlow had set the basket of pastries, and it all came back to her. Walt, Danielle, Chris, and Heather had been sitting on the sofa, talking about mediums, astral projection, and telekinesis when the basket took flight. Then everything went black. But now she was the one on the sofa, as if she had been napping, and by their looks, they had been waiting for her to wake up.
“You should see a doctor,” Danielle said.
Olivia frowned and sat up while rubbing her head. The others moved back a few steps, giving her more room. “I don’t feel like I hit anything.”
“No, because Walt intervened again,” Danielle said. “I’m serious about the doctor. We only met you five days ago, and you’ve fainted twice. That’s not normal.”
Now sitting on the sofa, Olivia shook her head. “No. I’m okay. With the move and all, I haven’t been eating well this last week. And I need to drink more water. Plus, it’s kind of freaky when baskets fly around the room.”
“Sorry about that,” Walt said. They all sat back down, with Heather and Danielle sitting on the sofa with Olivia, and Chris and Walt each taking a seat on nearby chairs. “I was proving a point.”
“I’m kinda surprised you didn’t faint when you saw that bomb under your car. I know that would freak me out more than Walt’s trick,” Heather said.
“How can this be true?” Olivia muttered, now leaning forward, her elbows resting on her knees as she buried her face in her palms.
“Let me get you some water.” Heather stood and dashed from the room. A few minutes later, she returned with a glass of water and found Olivia still with her face in her palms as the others looked on silently.
Shoving the glass of water at Olivia, Heather said, “Drink this.” After Olivia reluctantly took the glass, Heather snatched a cinnamon roll from the basket and handed it to Olivia. “Maybe you need something to eat, too.”
They all sat quietly while Olivia sipped the water, set the glass on the coffee table, and took a bite of the cinnamon roll. After a few moments, her expression changed from confusion to wonder. She looked down at the cinnamon roll. “Wow, this is amazing.”
“Yeah, they are pretty darn good,” Danielle agreed.
Olivia looked around the room at all the faces quietly watching her. Hesitantly, she asked, “Umm, you want some?” She motioned to the basket with the cinnamon roll in her hand.
“No, thank you,” Walt said as the others shook their heads. “Are you ready to talk about this? About your adventures in astral projection?”
Olivia took another bite of the cinnamon roll, leaned forward, and set it in the basket. Sitting back on the sofa, she licked the sweet residue off her fingers before saying, “I’m not sure about all this. Too far-fetched.”
“You are the one doing the astral projection,” Heather reminded her. “Are you suggesting you didn’t do it?”
Olivia shook her head. “About the medium stuff. You guys are seriously saying you can communicate with ghosts?”
“There are two of them in the room with us right now,” Heather said.
Olivia frowned at Heather. “Are you suggesting Pearl Huckabee’s ghost is haunting this house?”
“Nah, Pearl’s ghost hung around for a little while after she died,” Heather said. “Actually, she made a better neighbor as a ghost than when she was alive. But after she did what she needed to do here, she moved on.”
“Last night, you made a phone call to someone. You told them there were two women in your bedroom. One was an older woman, wearing a yellow gingham dress and straw hat. The other was a younger woman, who you said looked like the Gibson Girl,” Danielle said.
Olivia narrowed her eyes at Danielle. “Is my house bugged?”
“No. At least, not in the way you suggest.” Danielle pulled her cellphone out of her jacket’s pocket. She opened her photo app and showed a picture to Olivia. “Is this one of the women in your house last night?”
Olivia stared dumbly at the image. After a moment, she looked at Danielle. “Who is she?”
“She was a dear friend of ours who passed. Her name is Marie Nichols. Her spirit decided to stick around. She is here now with us. And she witnessed your spirit leave your body last night. And she listened to you make that phone call.”
Danielle took back her phone. She flipped to another photo, this one of the portrait of Eva in the museum. She handed the phone back to Olivia.
“The Gibson Girl,” Olivia muttered, staring at the image.
“Her name was Eva Thorndike. When you get around to visiting the local museum, you’ll find this portrait there. She bears a remarkable resemblance to Dana Gibson’s drawing. Eva was a silent screen star, and she died about a hundred years ago. She, like Marie, has decided not to move on. They are both here with us now.”
Olivia shook her head and handed the cellphone back to Danielle. “This is insane.”
“As insane as you leaving your body?” Heather asked.
Olivia slumped back on the sofa. She looked from Heather to the rest of them. “You are all mediums?”
“We are,” Danielle said, “but please keep this between us. While a few people are aware of our gifts, many of our friends aren’t.”
“And you all live on this street?” Olivia asked.
“Yep. We are the mediums of Beach Drive,” Heather chirped.
“But I’m not a medium, so how could I see a ghost?” Olivia asked.
“When your spirit leaves your body,” Chris explained, “you can communicate with spirits of those who’ve died yet haven’t moved on. Even if your physical body has not died.”
“What makes you think this is true?” Olivia asked.
“Over three years ago, I suffered a head injury,” Chris began. “I was in a coma for a few days, and during that time, my spirit moved from where my body was in Arizona back to Frederickport. I wasn’t dead, but Danielle could recognize and communicate with my spirit when it disconnected from my body.”
Olivia considered Chris’s words for a moment. Finally, she said, “Maybe it explains how a medium like Danielle could communicate with your detached spirit, and you also claim to be a medium. But I’m not. So I don’t understand why you believe a non-medium’s spirit would suddenly become a medium.”
“We have another friend who was in a coma. She is not a medium, yet while out of her body, not only could I see her, she could see spirits,” Danielle explained.
Once again Olivia grew quiet while digesting the information. Finally, she said, “The waitress at Pier Café told me about my neighbors. And from what she said, you all moved here at different times.”
“Carla,” the mediums chorused.
“Yes, I believe that was her name. Were you all friends before you moved here? The way she explained it, you met here.”
“True, we met each other after we moved to Frederickport,” Danielle said.
“Then, I don’t understand. I guess I can believe in mediums. After all, astral projection is real. But how is it four mediums are living on the same street?” Olivia asked.
With a smile, Danielle glanced at Eva and then back to Olivia. “Sometimes the Universe has a reason for bringing certain people—certain spirits—together. I believe we were all destined to meet each other, to be part of each other’s lives. And I suspect the Universe has a reason for bringing you here.”
“If so, I wonder what the reason could be. To make me more miserable? Ever since I got here, things keep going wrong,” Olivia grumbled.
“Why don’t we focus on your visit here on Friday morning, when you were with Betty,” Chris suggested.
Olivia looked at Heather. “When I picked up my keys at Marlow House, it freaked me out the way you looked at me. When I saw you earlier that morning and looked you right in the eyes, I never imagined you could actually see me. I never considered that was possible. But then later, you came to my house and confronted me. I wasn’t sure what to think.”
“But you thought it might be possible,” Heather said. “Because you told me you wouldn’t expect an apology from me after the police received the video from the airport. Why else would you say that?”
“True. I wondered if maybe you had seen me. I don’t understand how all this works,” Olivia said.
“Tell us about that day,” Walt asked.
With a sigh, Olivia leaned back on the sofa. “I was on that flight, eager to get here. I’m not a big fan of flying and wondered if I could leave the plane without my body. So I gave it a try, and then suddenly I was standing in my new house. But right after I arrived, a woman ran by the kitchen window. I learned later it was Betty Kelty. At the time, I was just wondering who was going through my yard, so I followed her.”
“Did you witness her murder?” Chris asked.
“Goodness no! In fact, I had no idea she had been murdered until the police questioned me. And when I found out who she was, I was shocked to learn she was going to be my boss. None of it made sense.”
“What happened after you walked down the street with her?” Heather asked.
“I followed her. She stopped at someone’s house and knocked on the door. She waited a while, and when they didn’t answer, she turned around and started back down the street. I wondered if she was going back to my house, so I kept following her. But then a car pulled up beside her. Right through me. That freaked me out. Having a car drive through me. The next moment, I was back on the airplane.”
“You say the car pulled up next to Betty? Do you know if it stopped?” Walt asked.
Olivia nodded. “Yes. Like I said, I was walking next to her. Of course, she thought she was alone. And then this car, it just plows through me and stops. Like I said, it freaked me out.”
“Did you see who was in the car?” Walt asked.
Olivia shook her head. “No, not really. I mean, sort of. Kinda the back of their head. But they were wearing something like a hoody or something covering their head. Like I said, it happened so fast. I’m pretty sure there was just one person in the car.”
“Can you describe the car?” Chris said.
“No. Not really.” Olivia closed her eyes, trying to visualize that point in time. After a moment she said, “There was a bear hanging on the rearview mirror.”
Walt frowned. “A bear?”
Olivia flashed Walt a smile. “A little pink stuffed bear. Like one of those Beanie Babies.”
“That could be our killer,” Heather said.
Danielle looked to Walt. “We need to tell the chief.”
“The chief?” Olivia asked.
“Police Chief MacDonald,” Danielle explained.
“Isn’t he going to wonder where you got this information?” Olivia asked.
Danielle chuckled. “Yes. And I can already hear him groaning after I tell him.”
Olivia frowned. “And he will believe you?”
“Like I said, a few of our friends know about our abilities. The chief is one of them,” Danielle explained.
“There is one thing that just makes little sense to me,” Walt said.
“You think any of this makes sense?” Olivia muttered.
Danielle looked at Walt. “What’s that?”
“Someone put a bomb in Olivia’s car. They tried to kill her. We all assumed it was because she was involved with Betty’s murder. But if all Olivia tells us is true, then why did someone try to kill her?”
Heather groaned. “It was probably my fault.”
They all looked at Heather. “What do you mean?” Danielle asked.
“I kept insisting I saw Olivia that morning with Betty, right before her murder. The killer must know I told the police I saw her, and they think she really was there that morning and might be a witness. I could have gotten Olivia killed!”