“Eight days.”
His brows creased. “I’ve only just felt strong enough to come back and show myself like this.”
“Does it always take you that long to get your energy back?” I couldn’t place why that bothered me so much. Maybe I was just worried about Janine or missed her company.
He shrugged. “Like I said, time is different there. It doesn’t feel like I’m gone as long as I am, but I think…” he scuffed a foot along the ground.
“You think?” I prompted.
“I think it helps to be around someone.” His cheeks darkened. “To feel like a person.”
There were a few moments of silence. I thought back to when he’d shouted at me for closing the window, and how I’d misinterpreted his anguish for rage. “I left the chair and blanket out for you,” I said gruffly. “You don’t have to ask me to come. But maybe let me know when you’re here, so I don’t get naked or something.”
I washed every other day out on the deck using a portable shower I warmed in the sun, and I wouldn’t want to startle him.
Heh. Wouldn’t want to startle the ghost.
He blinked rapidly. Did he already know that? “You mean, you want me around? I don’t freak you out?”
I laughed. “At first? You absolutely terrified me.”
He smiled a little.
“But now, no. You don’t freak me out.” My stomach growled again, louder this time.
His smile widened. “God, I miss food.”
“Do you want to try eating something?” I asked, matching his grin.
He grimaced. “I don’t know what would happen to it, and I don’t want to waste your groceries.”
“I’ll finish what you don’t eat, and I need to make a trip to town to restock soon anyway. Come on, what’s the worst that could happen? It won’t kill you.”
The words were out before I could think. My jaw dropped at my own stupidity.
Foot. In. Mouth.
Charlie burst out laughing, clutching his belly. When he could take a breath, he wiped at his eyes and said, “You’re right. It won’t kill me to try. But eating that burnt husk of a sandwich might, so I want a fresh one.”
I grinned.
Search parties and scent dogs combed the forest for a week after Janine went missing.
The radio chatter was constant. Everyone was on edge, passing around information and rumors they’d heard like wildfire. It got so bad, we were told to take the non-work talk to a group text, rather than clog up the channel in case someone had to report a fire.
On the third morning since she disappeared, rumors spread that the dogs alerted to a possible crime scene in the woods near Janine’s tower, but no one knew what they’d found.
The two lookouts closest to me on the west side, Tower Six and Five, quit the next day.
“That happened the first time, too,” Charlie commented. He’d appeared a few minutes ago, right as I prepared lunch. “Most quit after the fourth person went missing. But I was the only one left on the west side of the park, and I’d moved out here to be a Ranger. I thought staying was the right thing to do, and could put me ahead when they were hiring full-time.”
“I hate that,” I said. “I hate that you stayed because you thought it was right, and still…”
My words trailed off.Still died.
He looked out toward the forest, pensive.
I plated up two bowls of ramen, because we’d discovered Charlie could eat. He liked grilled cheese sandwiches—un-burnt,he’d unnecessarily commented—tomato soup, canned ravioli, and hot dogs.
