“Actually, I’ve been watching you since you moved in. I think I’m in love. I’d like to stay if you’ll have me.”
“Are you, are you the man in my dreams?” she asked and blushed, thinking of how she’d been reacting to those dreams.
“I am.” He smiled.
“Oh my God, this isn’t happening,” she said.
“It is, and I’m glad. There have been plenty of owners of this place since it went up for sale by the city for unpaid taxes after Priscilla died. She never did tell them where she hid me. I scared them all away. But I want you and Tootsie to stay. I want to make you happy.”
Ashley passed out then leaving Tootsie standing over her and barking until she opened her eyes and found Perry standing over her body as she lay stretched out on her couch.
Chapter Seventeen
He put his finger to his lips. “Ssh, don’t be alarmed. I won’t hurt you. I’m in love with you.”
“What? You’re a ghost, or at least you say you are. How can that be?”
She ran to her bedroom, unlocked her gun, and ran back downstairs. He was waiting like he belonged there. Holding the gun in her two hands so as not to miss, she said, “Get out or I’ll shoot.”
He laughed, and she knew he was mocking her. “You can’t hurt me with that; my wife shot me to death with a shotgun years ago. She shot me over and over again to be sure I was gone. Shoot if you like if you don’t believe me.”
For some reason she couldn’t explain, she did believe him. Her lips quivered, and she lowered the gun in resignation and surrender, something she’d never imagined herself doing in her own home.
He laughed, and as much as she didn’t want to, she enjoyed the sound of its deep vibe.
“That’s better. You don’t need to fear me. I’ve been watching you. I love the way you care for this old house. I love how hard you work, much too hard for the fairer sex, but I’m aware things have changed since 1920 when my Priscilla took my own shotgun to me, and, of course, you are so beautiful.”
“How can you be a ghost? I don’t believe in ghosts. They are for dark fairytales and nightmares, not for real.”
He laughed again, that time making her annoyed. She didn’t want to be laughed at.
“I assure you I’m real. There are others too.”
She sat up then and looked around quickly. “Where?”
“Not here. Only I’m here. As I said. She hid me in the wall, confessed her crime, refused to say where she hid me, and they took her away to Concord.”
“I read that,” Ashley told him.
“Then, you know she was insane. She had been in Concord State Hospital before. After our sweet daughter, Nora, died. Poor thing.”
Ashley sat up then. It was surreal as if she was having a real conversation with a living human being. Could this be real? She pinched herself and knew she was awake. Tootsie snuggled into her, tilting her head as if to ask what she should think of this situation. Neither of them knew for sure.
“That I didn’t know,” Ashley admitted.
“Yes, we had our baby for almost fifteen months. Then one day when Priscilla went to check on her, she was dead in her crib. My wife was not the same. She blamed me, she blamed herself, and she blamed God. Finally, doctors recommended that she be sent to Concord for shock treatments. I didn’t want to do it, but they said it was the only way she would become herself again.”
“Oh my God, that’s so sad,” Ashley said. “It happens a lot though. They call it sudden infant death syndrome now. And they have medications for depression, which is probably what your Priscilla had. The outcome today would likely have been so much different. I’m sorry. Sorry for the loss of your baby and your wife.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“But, of course, you must hate her. After all, she killed you.”
She watched his expression. There didn’t seem to be any anger in his face, just sorrow.
“I really think she was so far gone, she didn’t know what she was doing.”
“That’s so very sad,” Ashley said.
“May I sit with you?” he asked.
“Sure.” She moved over to give him space and felt the cool breeze that she’d so often felt since moving into her home.
“All these years I’ve wished that someone would find my remains and give them a proper burial so that I could move to the light into eternity, but now that you’ve moved in, I don’t want to leave. I want to be with you, to comfort you on bad days, enjoy with you your great days, and be a companion for you always. Is that something you can see happening for us?”
Ashley moved farther away down the couch and took Tootsie with her. “I want companionship for sure, but not this. This is weird. You need to be where you need to be—in the afterlife. Not here. You could be with your love—Priscilla.”
“But I don’t want her now, I want you. Could you at least give this a try for a little while?”
Totally exhausted from a long day of hard work, the shock of a ghost living in her home, and his insistence that he should stay there, Ashley’s head felt like it might explode.
“This is too much. Too much. I need time to think. Time alone. Just leave me alone, please.”
And as if she had turned a light switch, he was gone.
“That was beyond weird, right, Tootsie?” she said. She let the dog out for her last pee of the evening, got two Tylenol PMs from the medicine cabinet for herself, and drank them with a cup of warm milk. Minutes later, Tootsie was in her crate and Ashley was snuggled under her covers wondering what the hell to do with a freaking ghost under her roof. Should she talk to someone about him? But to whom? No one would believe her if she did. She barely believed what she had seen herself. But while she slept, he visited her and pleasured her, and she didn’t ask him to stop. She loved every minute of him touching every inch of her. He knew all of her sensitive, needy, desperate places and fed them, kneaded them, and worked them to perfection. She was writhing wildly in her bed, thrashing the sheet and blanket until they were on the floor, and she had pulled her T-shirt she’d slept in off of her, so he could get easier access to every nook and cranny of her. She needed him, she wanted him, and she knew it with all her heart. He’d found a way, a way to convince her that he should stay. And she knew she’d let him.
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning, Ashley awoke to the gorgeous sunlight shimmering into her bedroom windows, stretched her arms out wide, and smiled. She looked down at Tootsie in her crate and saw her tail wagging and knew that meant she was as ready for the day to begin as Ashley was.
So, she rushed through her morning routine, took Tootsie with her to the kitchen, and found the table set for one with eggs, toast, and bacon with a cup of coffee set next to the plate. She let Tootsie out in the backyard to wander as she always did.
“To what do I owe this honor?” she asked out loud hoping it was Perry who had made the feast.
“I’m hoping it’s a thank you for you letting me stay on for a while, so you can decide whether or not I’m worthy of your company,” he responded. Then, suddenly, she felt a chill come up from behind her and smiled. He was there in the room with her. She lifted the cup and took a sip.