All About Eve - Part 4

Eve stepped gingerly across the large flat rocks in the river just up from the bridge. She sat down on the largest rock and took out her lunch from her favourite leather carryall. She sat with her feet in the cool water. She was looking towards the bridge, and about to take a bite of her sandwich, when she saw what she thought was, at first, a cloud of gnats hovering a few feet above the bridge. She looked more closely and realized it wasn’t insects that were moving, it was the air and it was shimmering as if the air was hot. She hadn’t seen this since the last time she saw the strange tall man. As if on cue, as she looked at the shimmering patch of air. She saw the man with the long smoking jacket appear on the bridge just behind the shimmer. The man stared at her and she stared back. She didn’t move, remembering every other time she had gone to speak to the man up close, she had been hit by the blinding pain in her head.

Then she did something she had never done before. She focused her mental energies and visualised a barrier. What Eve liked to call her psychic net. She placed it around her head. And then she saw Arra in her minds eye. And placed another net around her. Then she opened herself up to the man on the bridge. She could hear Arra’s voice in her head, but it sounded like it was coming from behind a heavy wall. She sounded angry. Eve smiled. ‘Good,’ she thought. ‘It worked.’

She looked at the man and the man looked back and then she heard his voice in her head. ‘She wants to talk to you,’ he said. It was the same message he had given her last time she was able to talk to her, back when she was in high school.

‘Who wants to talk to me?’ Eve asked again, the same as last time they spoke. Once again the man pointed to the shimmering in the air.

‘She wants to talk,’ he said

‘But who is she? Why can’t I see her?’ Eve said.

‘She has sent you a message,’ said the man, in a monotone voice. ‘And she will send you another. Next week’.

Eve was about to ask more when her mental barrier broke and Arra came crashing through. Pain wracked her body and Eve blacked out.

She awoke in her own bed. She wondered how long she had been out. She sent a thought out to Arra, but as she had done more and more recently, she did not answer. ‘Understandable’, thought Eve. ‘She’s probably mad at me for blocking her out.’

She got out of bed and stood on unsteady legs. That last outburst of Arra’s had taken a lot out of her. She left her bedroom and went out into the kitchen. Her mother was there, her back towards Eve. She was preparing dinner.

‘Hey Mom,’ Eve said. ‘Do you need any help?’

Eve’s mother turned around. ‘Eve! You’re awake!’ she exclaimed, gathering her daughter up in a hug. ‘How are you feeling?’ her mother said, holding her at arms length. Eve noticed her mothers eyes were red and watery.

‘Have you been crying, Mom?’ she asked.

‘Oh, it’s nothing, don’t worry,’ said her mother, rubbing her eyes with a hand. ‘I was just worried about you, that’s all. I tried hard not to get upset.’ She laughed with embarrassment. ‘I guess it didn’t really work.’ Eve laughed too and gave her mother a hug. Then she grabbed a handful of carrots and started to chop.

Eve glanced over at her mother. And then back at the carrots. She stopped cutting, put the knife down and took a deep breath. ‘Mom…’ she asked.

‘Yes dear?’

‘I was just wondering, what do you think of Psychics?’ Eve asked meekly.

Her mother laughed ‘Psychics! What on earth made you think of that?’

‘Oh, I just saw a TV show on them’ Eve said, her hand involuntarily going up to her twitching eye. ‘Do you believe in them?’

‘Oh goodness no. Of course not. People who see the dead…’ her mother trailed off, and became quiet, concentrating on basting the roast. After a few minutes she said ‘Your grandmother, Eva. That’s who you’re named after, you know, she was always going on about being psychic, and talking to dead people. It was ridiculous!’

‘Really?’ said Eve. She had seen pictures of her great grandmother. She always thought she looked a bit scary, a stern look and eyes that seemed to look right through you.

‘Yes,’ said her mother. ‘She was always quite eccentric.’ Her mother laughed. ‘She always used to wear these giant floppy hats, all year round, even in the middle of winter, when there was snow on the ground.’

‘Hmmm,’ said Eve. ‘Do you know if she had any journals or anything? I would love to read them.’

Her mother turned and looked at her. ‘Why?’

‘Oh, just because I want to find out more about her. Plus it’d be a good story to tell my friends at school, that I had a relative who thought she was psychic.’ Eve laughed, trying to make her mother believe she thought it was just as silly as she did.

‘Oh that would be fun,’ her mother agreed. ‘I’m glad you’re spending more time with friends.’ She handed Eve the large roast in a pan. ‘Put that in the oven, will you?’

Eve did so and then went back to the vegetables. After a few minutes, she asked ‘So…did Eva have any kind of diary?’

‘What?’ said her mother distractedly. ‘Oh, yes, sorry. I forgot. If we still have them, they should be down underneath the stairs in the storage room. Somewhere in all that junk.’ Her mother shook her head.

Eve raced down the stairs, taking them two at a time. She opened the small door to the crawlspace under the stairs. She groaned when she saw it was packed to the rafters will all kinds of junk – old sleeping bags and foam mattresses, boxes of picture albums, her old tricycle. She dragged everything out and spread it out on the floor of the downstairs den. It didn’t take her long to find. They were in a box marked ‘Great Gran’s things.’

She opened the box and found three ancient looking leather bound books, plain in colour. She picked up the first, a small red one, dusted off the cover and opened it. Inside in ink, was her great-grandmothers flowing script handwriting. It was difficult to read in certain parts, the ink having bled over the years. She flipped through it, reading headlines such as: Moving with the mind, Seeing the Future, Seeing the Past, Communicating with Animals.’ Eve didn’t find what she was looking for and put the book aside. She took out the second book, this one purple with gold filigree on the cover in a strange pattern. She opened it and flipped through it, stopping to read certain passages, or trying to read a certain word or sentence that had bled. She came to the end and placed it on top of the first book. She hadn’t found what she was looking for, but she hoped it was in the final book with the green cover at the bottom of the box. This last one seemed to have a certain glow about it.

She opened it and placed it on her knees. It was much bigger and heavier than the first two. She turned the first page and there it was, the headline in heavy ink and underlined, ‘Messages from the Dead’. Eve started to read. ‘Messages from the dead can come in many forms,’ it said in the swirly writing. ‘Sometimes aurally, sometimes in dreams. But mostly as inanimate objects’. Eve went to the next passage. ‘Depending on the size of the object, and its uses, sending these objects, or clues, to a psychic take a lot of energy from the spirit on the other side.’ Eve turned the page. ‘The most common items that psychics come across are feathers, rings, items of sentimental value that represent that spirit on the other side.’ Eve turned the page again and continued ‘It is especially important for those spirits who cannot, for some reason, manifest themselves visually to communicate with the psychic. They have to represent themselves by these objects in the real world.’ Eve scanned the rest of the page, but to her disappointment that was all that was said on the matter. She flipped through the rest of the book, hoping there would be more. Eve closed the book. She kept the green book out but put the other two back in their box and then placed everything else back into the storage under the stairs, brushing a large spider that had landed on her arm onto the ground.

Instead of heading back upstairs, she stayed down in the den, sitting in a large comfy, but rarely used armchair. ‘This…someone,’ said Eve out loud to herself, ‘is trying to send me a message. That what that strange and pale spirit man said. But I haven’t seen any feathers or family trinkets or anything.’ She sighed. She got up and took the large green book and hid it underneath the armchair. ‘Safekeeping,’ she thought. ‘What do you think Arra?’ she asked in a whisper. Yet again Arra was silent.

The following week autumn decided to hit with force. Up until then the weather had been unseasonably warm. But as September came to a close, it brought with it harsh freezing wind from the mountains to the north, and cold driving rain. Eve brought all her cardigans out of the closet and thick fleecy socks. She hated having to put away her light and floaty summer dresses. She loved the colourful clothes of the summer time and even the rich colours of early Fall clothes – the reds and the oranges, matching the colours of the changing leaves outside on the trees. Somehow without fail when October came around, the colour drained from people’s wardrobes, as well as the trees and the grasses outside. She wrapped herself up in her favourite Fall cardigan, even though it was a drab brown in colour. She added a splash of colour with a long chunky woven scarf in a rainbow of colours. She tied her long hair back and tucked it up under a woollen hat.

She was about to open the door when her mother appeared at the top of the stairs. ‘Where are you going on a day like this?’ she asked. ‘It’s horrible out!’

Eve was going to say that she was going to head down to the river, just to go for a walk, but then for some reason, decided against it. ‘That’s why I’m all wrapped up like this’ Eve explained. She noticed her mother looking at her expectantly. She still wanted to know where Eve was headed. ‘I’m just going out,’ said Eve, quickly adding ‘I’m meeting a boy,’ which wasn’t too far from the truth. She was hoping to run into Cst. Paul Hannigan, just to ask him a few more questions about the girl that was found down by the river a few weeks before.

Her mother couldn’t hide her surprise ‘oh really?’

Eve nodded.

‘And who might this boy be?’ enquired her mother. Always asking questions, Eve thought, annoyed.

‘Paul Hannigan,’ Eve said. After all, she was wanting to see him, maybe just not today. But if she did, she wouldn’t have minded.

‘Paul Hannigan,’ repeated her mother. ‘You mean the young Constable out at the police station?’

‘The very same,’ said Eve.

‘Where did you meet him?’

‘Oh you know…’ Eve said evasively, placing her hand on the doorknob, wanting to escape this conversation.

Suspicion clouded her mother’s face. ‘Just outside the police station,’ said Eve quickly. ‘I was just walking past one day, and he was getting out of his car.’

‘Oh,’ said her mother. Eve took this chance to escape and opened the door. ‘I’ve got to go, I’ll be back later,’ she shouted as she left the house and walked into a bitter blowing wind that seemed to whip the words away from her. She pulled her wool coat tightly around her, wrapping her arms around herself for warmth. Even though she had heavy boots on, necessary for the inclement Autumn and winter weather in Golden Falls. It was a town nestled in a valley between two giant mountain ranges. This caused the cold winds from the mountain tops, in the winter, to descend down into the valley and surround the town in an icy grip that seemed loathe to ease up on Golden Falls long after other towns in the area had experienced the warmth of spring.

~*~

Eve had meant to head to the river. She was thinking about Officer Hannigan, and about what her great - grandmothers journals had said about messages from the spirit world. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that her feet seemed to take her somewhere else entirely, and by the time she came out of her reverie she found herself near the high school. She hadn’t been this way in years. There wasn’t any reason to go by the school if you didn’t actually attend the school as it was out past the edge of town. And Eve noticed, past the police station. She wondered vaguely if Paul was perhaps working today.

There was no one on the school grounds, it being a Sunday and blustery with the October wind keeping everyone inside and warm. She looked around her and noticed the tree. It was The large oak tree at the edge of the football field where the strange ghostly man had lead her that day and had first told her of the girl with the message for her. She walked over to the tree, glad to be protected from the strong chill winds by the hardy oak canopy. She pulled her long cardigan underneath her and sat down on the cold, hard ground. she was glad that it was thick and grateful for its warmth. ‘Maybe if I sit here for a bit, a message will come to me,’ she thought. ‘I must clear my mind,’ she said, thinking back to the early lessons Arra gave her on how to use her psychic talents. She crossed her legs and closed her eyes. She cleared her mind. She sat there peacefully for a few minutes when Arra’s voice interrupted. ‘Don’t do this,’ she said. ‘Some things are best left alone.’

Eve opened her eyes and looked upwards as she always did when she talked out loud to Arra.

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Do not worry yourself. There is no need to look for messages for something that isn’t an issue,’ Arra said.

‘Well, I happen to think there is!’ said Eve petulantly, closing her eyes again. Before she continued to receive any messages that might be there from the spirit world, Eve first cast one of her psychic nets over Arra. Arra screamed in rage, and Eve pictured her thrashing around in the protective energy barrier Eve had placed her in. Eve visualized a second barrier on top of the barrier of golden light she had put around Arra. ‘Don’t want any repeats of last time,’ she thought, as she placed another psychic net, this one of silver light, using her abilities to imagine it being as strong as steel, and so that it was so. With Arra safely out of the way, Eve continued to open her mind to any spirits in the area. At first, she saw nothing. And then, as if coming from within a deep, heavy fog, a figure appeared, and slowly came closer and closer to where Eve sat. She opened her eyes, staring with unseeing, glazed eyes. She was not seeing the reality around her, she was now seeing into the spirit world.

She heard a noise, off in the distance. A banging and screaming. Arra, she thought, then moved her mind and re-focused on the figure coming towards her. In this psychic realm, this other plane, Eve was no longer sitting on the cold hard ground under the oak tree near the school. She was sitting on an ornately carved stone bench. The same bench she had sat many times in her dream encounters with Arra. Arra was not there, being safely locked away in some other plane.

The figure suddenly broke through the veil of fog. It was a girl. A young girl in a long pink dress, with long blonde hair. Eve was reminded of the girl she had found by the river so many weeks ago, at the end of summer. Eve looked closely at the girl. No, this wasn’t her, this was someone else. The girl smiled at Eve. The smile of a girl too young to have any cares or worries of the adult world. The girl opened her mouth as if to speak but no sound came out. She looked around, suddenly fear filled her youthful face. ‘What’s wrong?’ asked Eve.

The girl looked around and became more panicked. Eve noticed she was fading away rapidly, almost as if the mist had come and started to swallow her up. The girl mouthed something, but no sound came out. Eve tried to read her lips. ‘I can’t hear you!’ said Eve, starting to panic herself. ‘Please don’t go away!’ Eve shouted. She could barely see the girl who was now translucent, and then suddenly she was gone.

‘Come back!’ yelled Eve into the fog that started to come in thick and fast, and started to swirl around her. She was becoming disoriented. ‘Help me!’ she screamed, trying to move, trying to wake herself up from this psychic trance, and come back from this other plane of existence. Suddenly the thick grey misted parted and seeped away, and Arra was standing in front of her. ‘Hush,’ she said, placing a pale thin hand on Eve’s shoulder. ‘You’re okay now.’

Eve burst into tears, frightened. ‘Oh Arra!’ she cried, throwing herself at Arra, and hugging the tall ephemeral woman in her long blue gown. ‘Thank you! you saved me. I didn’t know what was happening. This mist…’

‘Shhhh, relax,’ Arra soothed. ‘I know. you’re safe now.’

Eve snapped open her eyes. She was lying on the ground, sprawled underneath the great oak tree. She was staring up through the branches of the oak, at a bright white sky, a sign that snow was imminent. She sat up and took a few deep breathes. She looked around her, half expecting to see some thick fog.

She got up and walked unsteadily home. It was late afternoon by the time she walked through the door. She went straight to her room and climbed under her duvet, not bothering to take off her sweater. She awoke to the sound of crying. She opened her bedroom door. She heard her mother crying, and her father trying to soothe her.

Eve walked into the living room. Her parents were standing in the middle of the room, her father hugging her mother to him. The TV was on, to the only news station the town had. On it was a now familiar scene. A group of people were standing down by the river. There was a small huddle of people from the town, cordoned off a little ways away from the river bank, with two police officers manning the barrier. Behind the news reporters shoulders you could see some people standing on the riverbank itself. There was an area to the side of the people on the riverbank that was clear, and you could see the dark, turbulent river flowing past. Eve watched some of the story, standing near her mother who had her face buried in her father’s chest. Her father also looked as if he had been crying, his eyes glassy and red rimmed.

Eve was about to turn away from the screen when she saw something that made her stop in her tracks. In the clearing on the riverbank, where you could see right down to the water, stood a man. The man. Eve hadn’t seen the tall man with the top hat in a long time. Even though he was far away, it seemed as though he was looking straight at Eve. He pointed down to the ground, where obviously another body had been discovered. And then he lifted something out of his opaque smoking jacket. It was round and shiny, on a string of some sort. He pointed to it.

Stunned, after a few minutes Eve managed to open her mouth and ask her parents, ‘Do you see that man standing by the river?’

Her mother turned to look at the TV. Her father said ‘What do you mean? There are lots of men down there’.

‘Yes, but the man who isn’t a police officer.’ Said Eve. They both looked at the screen and then looked back at Eve as if she was crazy.

‘Never mind,’ Eve said. ‘He must’ve left already. I don’t see him anymore.’ Her eye twitched. She looked at the TV again and the man stood there gesturing to the object dangling from his hand. At this moment the camera happened to zoom in on the scene around the river and Eve could make out that what the man was holding was a gold pocket watch. And then she heard words in her head. Not from Arra, but from the man. She would recognize that deep, gravelly voice anywhere. He spoke to her. ‘He must know I can see him,’ she thought.

He said just four words. ‘This is the message,’ and then promptly faded away. Just then the news moved on to another story. Eve’s mother stood wiping tears from her eyes, her father with his arms wrapped around her.

‘Why are you guys so upset?’ Eve asked. ‘It’s just some stranger that’s drowned.’ She thought as she said the words that they came across quite callous but she couldn’t think of any other way to say it.

Her mother looked at her, then ran out of the room, crying harder. Her father watched her mother leave the room, and then sat down on the large worn sofa and sighed. He patted the cushion beside him, gesturing for Eve to join him. Eve sat down beside him. ‘Eve,’ he started ‘I know you like to spend a lot of time down by the river.’

Suddenly behind her father a woman appeared. A woman that Eve recognized. It was Ellie, the wife of Mr. Hillsborough. She was standing next to her fathers shoulder, wearing a blackened and charred dress, the burns on her face obscured by her dark hair. She leaned into her father and spoke into his ear. ‘Don’t,’ she said. ‘Don’t say anything, not now,’ Ellie said.

Eve stared, not hearing anything her father was saying, even though he had stopped talking. She just stared at the ghostly woman who was whispering to her father. ‘What are you talking about?’ she said to the woman. The woman stopped and turned to Eve, a look of genuine shock on her face. ‘You can see me?’ she said.

Eve nodded.

‘Who are you talking to?’ her father asked, turning to look behind him.

Eve didn’t answer. The woman put a hand up to her face, self consciously aware of her burns, even in death. ‘And you can hear me?’ the woman asked.

Eve nodded again. At that, the woman said ‘I’m sorry,’ and disappeared.

Eve’s father was staring at her. She ignored it and spoke. ‘You were going to tell me something, but then you decided not to,’ she said. ‘Something in your head told you not to’.

Her father nodded, a look of bewilderment on his face. He was about to ask her how she knew when an anguished cry came from the bedroom. Her father stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said looking towards the bedroom. ‘Later,’ he said looking at her apologetically, and he ran off to the back of the house to comfort his wife.

Eve sat on the couch, stunned. She ran over in her head what she had just witnessed. She wondered if spirit guides acted as your conscious. Those times when your mind sent you messages of right and wrong or when the voices in your head warned you that something wasn’t right. Was it really instinct or was it some spirit whispering in your ear when all along you thought it was your own inner voice telling you what to do or say? Eve wasn’t sure anymore.

She got up and headed towards her parents bedroom. The door was shut. She paused and then thought better of it. She realized there was somewhere else she needed to go first.

She grabbed her fleecy winter coat from the hall closet by the front door and left. She moved briskly, trying to stay warm on a late October day with evening fast approaching.

She got to the police station just as Officer Hannigan was closing and locking the door to the building. She jogged the last few feet towards him. ‘Paul!’

He turned. ‘Oh, Eve,’ he said. He looked exhausted, she noticed. Dark sunken circles under his eyes.

‘You look terrible,’ Eve said.

Paul smiled wanly. ‘Gee, thanks’.

‘No, I mean you look tired’.

‘Yeah, well with these bodies recently washing up by the river, it’s a lot of work for a small police station like us. We’re taxed to the limit. All our officers are working over time, going through old files and interviewing basically everyone in town.’ He pulled on a fleece lined cap with ear flaps. It had the police department logo stitched on the front. He put a padded jacket on and stuck his hands in the pockets. ‘Was there something you wanted?’ he asked, heading for his car, the only one left in the small parking lot out in front of the building.

‘Um, well,’ Eve said, following along side him. ‘That latest…person,’ she said.

Paul nodded, understanding ‘The girl.’

Eve raised an eyebrow.

‘Yeah it’s another young girl that was found on the river bank earlier today.’ He opened his car door. ‘The creepy thing is she looks almost the same as the first girl: long blondish hair, kind of like yours, actually. And probably about a few years older than you I’d say. Maybe about twenty - eight, or twenty nine.’

He got into his car. Eve stood outside. ‘Would I be able to see her, tonight, do you think?’

Paul shook his head. ‘Nope, sorry, not tonight,’ he said. ‘I’ve handed the keys to the morgue back to the bank. They store them in a safety deposit box for us every night. Saves them from being possibly stolen from one of us if we take them home for the night. The only key’s we’re left with are the ones to the front door of the station. All other keys - even to evidence lockers - are handed into the security people at 6pm sharp, every day,’ he shrugged. ‘It’s our policy, always has been.’ He laughed. ‘I don’t know why the department is so worried about people stealing some keys, anyway.’ He smiled to himself. ‘This is Golden Falls for god’s sake!’ He looked up at Eve standing outside his window. ‘Do you want me to drop you off anywhere?’ he asked. ‘I don’t want to have you walking all by yourself, especially in this cold. It’s just going to get colder too’.

Eve hesitated. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked.

‘The same place I always go after work,’ Paul replied. ‘Auntie Em’s café on Main Street. They do the best strawberry rhubarb pie and a good cup of coffee.’ He looked at her again. ‘Do you want to come?’

Eve bit her lip, unsure.

‘Come on,’ said Paul, opening the passenger door of the police car. ‘Looks like you could do with a warm drink. And you can’t go wrong with a great piece of pie!’

Eve relented. ‘Okay’ she said, sliding into the seat beside him. It felt strange riding in a police car.

‘Great,’ Paul said, smiling at her. He really did have a nice smile, she though. And a little dimple on one side, she noticed when he smiled.

Less than ten minutes later they were sitting in a booth in a cozy café. There were a handful of other customers, mostly sitting on red leather stools along the long counter. Most, she noticed, had a slice of pie of one kind or another.

Paul already had a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. Eve had ordered hot chocolate. Coffee disagreed with her. ‘I’d recommend the strawberry rhubarb,’ Paul said. Soon they both had giant pieces of pie in front of them. Paul was swallowing mouthfuls as if he’d never seen a piece of pie before.

Eve took a small sip of her hot chocolate, leaving her pie untouched in front of her. ‘Auntie Em’s,’ she said, trying to make conversation. ‘That’s a good name. I remember really liking the Wizard of Oz when I was little.’

Paul mumbled something through a mouthful of pie. He washed it down with a bigger mouthful of coffee. ‘Yeah, Emma, who owns this place had a bit of a thing for Judy Garland,’ he said, gesturing to the black and white photos that lined the walls, all scenes from the film.

‘Oh,’ said Eve. She looked down at the table, and brought her pie forward. She took a small bite. It really was good.

‘So,’ said Eve. Paul looked up from his pie.

‘Mmm?’ he said through some more pie.

‘So,’ Eve repeated ‘this new girl. She looks similar to the last one?’

Paul swallowed another giant piece of pie. ‘Yep. Pretty identical. She actually reminds me of,’ he stopped, and coughed. He took a long drink of his coffee.

‘She reminds you of who?’ said Eve.

Paul looked around the room, seemingly avoiding her. ‘Oh, just that she looks familiar, that’s all,’ he said, glancing back at Eve. ‘Probably just because she looks so much like the first girl, I guess.’ he said. ‘That’s all’.

Eve didn’t say anything and just looked at Paul.

‘The river is dangerous,’ he continued nervously, ‘especially at this time of year, you know, with the rain and when the water rises.’

‘Does anyone know who she is yet?’ Eve asked, ignoring Paul’s warning about the river, she knew it was dangerous in the fall and winter, he didn’t need to tell her that, she wasn’t a little girl.

Paul shook his head. ‘Nope.’ He stabbed at a stray chunk of rhubarb on his plate. ‘Same as last time,’ he said. ‘No one seems to recognize her. We haven’t got one phone call since the news report. Usually with something like this we have pretty much the whole town calling in by now.’

A large woman came by the table with a coffee pot and topped up Paul’s cup. The name ‘Emma’ was stitched on the front of her blue and white waitress blouse.

‘Don’t like your pie?’ she said to Eve.

‘Oh no,’ said Eve, ‘I like it a lot,‘ and she demonstrated this by putting another piece of pie in her mouth. ‘I’m just not very hungry I guess’.

‘You need to get some food into you dearie’ said Emma. ’Lookit you,’ she said grabbing Eve’s upper arm, ’so thin!’ she clucked in disapproval. Eve wished she could crawl under the table. She ate another bite of pie. Emma seemed happy with this and then moved onto the next table.

Paul had been watching Eve during this interruption to their conversation. ’Do you think you might recognize this new girl?’ he asked. ’Is that why you want to see her?’

Eve was about to say yes when she looked beside Paul and saw someone sitting beside him in the booth. It was an elderly lady with short curly gray hair and high round cheekbones. She was wearing a cream shawl over a long brown dress. The woman smiled and Eve and said ‘could you tell him that I’m glad he became a police officer, just like his Grandfather.’ The woman added ‘I’m his Nana.’

Without thinking Eve blurted out, ‘Your Nana says she’s glad you’re a police officer like your Grandpa.’ Paul had been about to take a drink of his coffee when he froze, his cup stopped right at his lips. He slowly lowered the mug to the table. ‘What?’ he said in a shocked whisper.

‘Your Grandma,’ she’s sitting next to you, ‘she says to tell you she’s proud of you, because your Grandfather was a police officer too.’ Paul slowly looked at the empty space beside him and then back at Eve.

Nervously Eve continued ‘she has grey curly hair and high cheekbones and is wearing a long brown dress with a cream shawl on her shoulders.’

‘You can see her?’ Paul asked with wonder.

Eve nodded.

‘My Nana died when I was eleven,’ he said.

Eve didn’t say anything. ‘He’s going to think I’m totally nuts,’ she thought.

Paul continued, ‘Every time I saw her she wore the same cream shawl. and she worn a brown dress all the time,’ he said. ‘I remember my Grandfather too. He died when I was fifteen. I was always telling him I wanted to be a police officer like he was.’

Eve smiled and nodded. ‘Well that wasn’t too bad,’ she thought. ‘He didn’t give me a really weird look, or run away screaming and saying I’m crazy.’

He pushed his empty pie plate to the side. ‘So I guess you must be psychic?’ he said bluntly.

Eve didn’t know how to answer that so simply nodded.

‘Huh,’ said Paul, playing with his coffee mug awkwardly.

‘I’ve never actually told anyone before,’ said Eve slightly relieved. ‘Not even my parents.’

Paul looked at her and put his hand on hers.

‘I thought you would just think I was totally crazy,’ she said.

‘I can understand that.’ said Paul. ’You’d probably get some pretty weird reactions here. Small town people get freaked out by stuff like that’ he said. ‘You probably could be sent to the asylum’ he said laughing.

‘That’s not funny,’ said Eve, pulling her hand away.

‘Sorry,’ he apologized.

‘Why are you not freaked out by me then? Now that you know I can see your Grandma who is dead?’ she asked.

He shrugged. ‘I lived in Vancouver for a few years when I was younger. The big city is a lot different than here. People are more open, more tolerant. And there’s quite a few people who are psychics there. Or say they are anyway.’ he smiled a slightly lopsided smile. ‘I even went to one once,’ he admitted. ‘I wanted to hear from my Nana or Grandpa. But all the woman did was tell me that I was on some wrong path and needed to make amends with my father to be able to change my life and get on a better track’ he laughed at the memory. ‘I get on fine with my father, and my life was on a fine track at the time.’

Eve laughed at this. ‘Really?’ she asked. ‘You’ve been to another psychic before?’

Paul nodded, ‘But she didn’t give me a message that she couldn’t have known about, from my Nana or describe her so perfectly, like you just did’.

He leaned forward and whispered. ‘Is that why you’re wanting to see the body? to see if you can see her ghost?’

‘Spirit,’ Eve corrected. ‘They prefer being called that. But, yes.’

‘What did you see with the first girl?’ he asked, curious now.

Eve shook her head, her hair falling into her eyes. ‘Nothing,’ she said brushing the strands away. ‘I didn’t see anything. Just darkness’.

‘Hmmm,’ said Paul, adding more sugar to his coffee and twirling a spoon in the mug.

‘Well, I think we’ll just have to go and see this new girl then, won’t we?’ he said. He took his jacket that was hanging on the corner of the booth and grabbed Eve’s hand. ‘Come on!’ he said.

Soon they were outside the bank. Eve stayed in the car while Paul went up to speak to the security guard. She could see him after he was let into the bank and saw him through the windows speaking to the security guard stationed at the front reception desk. She could see Paul gesturing to the older man sitting behind the desk. Ten minutes later Paul exited looking dejected and shaking his head. ‘Sorry,’ he said sliding into the seat beside her. ‘First thing tomorrow morning we can get the keys back and we can go over there’ he said. ‘I promise.’

~~~~~~~

Check out the final part, part 5 below!