She extricated herself reluctantly and had a few more words with Fiona—and met the stage theater owner, Vivien Savage, and the bread-making doctor, Jake DeRiccio.
When Baxter approached, camera in hand for the story he was doing for the local papers, she gratefully excused herself to speak with him.
Then she realized it was eleven forty-five and she needed to get upstairs! Fifteen minutes until the clock began to strike, and about eighteen minutes until the actual vows were to be exchanged.
She hurried away and climbed up the stairs once more. She’d done it often enough her butt should be getting tighter, but sadly, she didn’t think that was the case. Still, she made it up in less than five minutes and let herself into the room.
All right. Here we go.
She started to walk toward the door of the balcony, intending to hover just at the back and out of sight as the clock striking and ceremony proceeded, just in case she was needed.
But something stopped her. Something in the air…something shifting and cool and—
“Oh no youdon’t,”she hissed, looking around the room. “No, Brenda,no, please…not tonight. Please!”
But the air was definitely moving, beginning to swirl, and Callie began to panic. Her palms went damp and her stomach began to cringe and twist frighteningly. She couldn’t get sick now, she had to stop this, she had to—
“Ware…
“Rail…”
Callie froze. She couldfeelrather than hear the words…just as had happened before. Brenda had communicated with her this way once before—crying“Nooooo!”when Callie had first visited her—and now, for some reason, she was speaking again.
Well, of course she knew the reason—the crazy ghost wanted to ruin Iva and Hollis’s wedding!
“WARE… RAIL… !”
“What are you saying? What are you talking about?” Callie walked up to the portrait of Brenda, her heart pounding, her stomach in knots even as the air began to ruffle and whip more violently at her. “I don’t understand why you can’t just leave—”
Callie jumped when the clock began to strike and she started toward the door that led to the balcony.
She had to be out there to make sure everything went all right. She didn’t have time to deal with a freaky ghost.
She had to make sure everything went as planned: that the clock struck, the bells rang, the ball of light exploded—
Exploded.
Callie stopped, her hand on the doorknob.
Black marks on the white trees.
Ware… rail.
Black marks…scorchmarks?
Scorch marks!
It hit her, all at once, what Brenda had been trying to say—and what had happened, somehow—all those years ago.
The clock was still striking, but in only a few moments, on the last bong, the glittery ball would burst into light—
Callie burst through the door onto the the balcony, screaming as she ran outside.
“Don’t touch the railing!”
Twelve
“Thank God you figured it out,”Fiona was saying. “You saved their lives!”
