“Oh. Okay.”
“What do you want for dinner?”
“Doesn’t matter. Anything.”
I figured the day had been dramatic enough to justify some splurging, so I
called up the nearby Chinese eatery and placed an order for my favourite
dishes. It was near their closing time, but the owner agreed to deliver the food
on his way home and promised it wouldn’t take long. Then I made myself a
cup of tea, returned to the sitting room, and took the seat next to Lucky. The
lines around his eyes and the thousand-yard-stare told me he still needed time to process his thoughts, so I let him sit in silence.We could see the front half of the Marwick house through the window.
Lights turned on and off again as Ruby moved through the building, making
her own late dinner then retreating to the back half of the house, probably to
work on her dolls.
Lucky chewed on his thumb as he watched her silhouette disappear.
“How much do you know about ghosts?” “Not much,” I admitted. “Most of what I have is hearsay.” I briefly told him Penny’s story about Shreya and Rohit and mentioned the nightmare I’d had when sleeping over. He lapsed back into silence. The doorbell rang, and I jumped up to collect our food.
The man on the doorstep was scowling when I answered. He handed over
my food, accepted payment, then nodded towards the Marwick house.
“What’s up with that place?”
“What do you mean?”
He gave me an odd look, then shrugged. “I dunno. I felt sick when I
drove past it. Is there some kind of gas leak or something?”
I swallowed. “Maybe. He nodded and returned to his motorbike. I closed the door but watched through the curtain as he stared at the house for another long minute before driving off in the opposite direction.
I MADE Lucky a bed on the couch. He still wasn’t talking much, but I noticed
he grew restless whenever I left the room for more than a few minutes, so I
made my own couch-bed opposite. When I asked if he wanted to watch TV,
he said he didn’t care, so I flipped through the channels. There wasn’t
anything good on. I turned off the TV, and we sat in silence, both watching
the house next door.
A little after midnight, Marwick’s living room light turned on. We
watched for a silhouette behind the curtains, but none appeared.
“The light’s not going to turn off until Ruby gets downstairs tomorrow,” I
said. “Did you want to move to another room?”
“No, I’m fine here. ”
“All right.”
I lay down and pulled the blankets over my head to block out the light.
Lucky stayed sitting. I don’t know how long it took him to fall asleep, only
that he was still alert by the time I finally drifted off an hour later.
When I woke the next morning, my house was saturated with the smell of
coffee. I rolled off the couch and shambled into the kitchen, where Lucky was
chewing on toast and clutching a cup of coffee that I suspected was not his
first.
“Morning,” I said, dropping into the chair opposite him. “Make yourself
at home, by the way.”
He looked wholly different that morning. The awful dazed look had left
his eyes, and his face had animation back in it. He’d showered and shaved,
too, and plasters covered the scratches on his arm. Instead of responding tomy lazy jab, he said, “I want to know more about that house.”
“Oh. Okay.”
He dropped the toast back onto his plate and took a gulp of the black
coffee. “I want to talk to Ruby. I want to watch the videos. I need to
understand .”
“I mean, as long as Ruby agrees, sure.” I scratched at my scalp. I hoped it
was a good sign that Ruby hadn’t called during the night. “She’s got a lot
going on right now.”
“Of course.” He hunkered farther over the bench. “ But this—I’ve never
seen anything like this before. I’ve been thinking about it all night. I’m not
delusional. I’m not paranoid. But last night, I saw a woman who doesn’t
exist, and I can’t explain it, but I need to.”
“I can explain it.” I was still sleepy, and that bled into vague irritability.
“Ghosts.”