“Bye, Dad,” River said, without even looking up. It was apparently his son’s turn at the video game, which was far more important than saying a proper goodbye.
“I’ll bring him back after dinner.” Melissa laughed, propping her sunglasses on the bridge of her nose again. “And don’t forget about my offer. If you ever need River to come stay with us for a while, he’s welcome any time.”
“Noted,” Joseph said and embraced her in a warm, grateful hug. He waved goodbye as she pulled out of the driveway with all three boys in tow and let out a sigh of relief as her van disappeared into the dark depths of the pine scrub forest. Joseph had a solid eight to ten hours to begin working on the kitchen again now that River was safely out of harm’s way and enjoying the day with his cousins. He nearly forgot about the surreal encounter that he and River had had just moments before Melissa came to visit.
Joseph’s arms prickled and the hair on the back of his neck rose once again as he cast his eyes to the third floor window. Somehow, he already knew what he would see through the glint of the sun on the windowpane in the early morning light. There, staring down at him just as he assumed, was the spirit. The ghost, Carolina, looking back down at him with a smile.
Chapter Seven
“Are you going to justwatch me work all day then?”
Carolina swung her legs from the kitchen counter as Joseph continued to pry up the once gorgeous oak wood flooring. It hurt her to see it removed but she recognized that the kitchen floor sagged under the weight of Joseph and the many plumbers and electricians that bumbled about the property. She could accept that they needed to be replaced for safety sake, so long as the job was done right.
“Well, what better is there to do, Joseph?” she quipped. “Apparently, I’m dead and not good for much else but watching the world go by.”
Carolina had spent the better part of the morning coming to grips with the fact that both the man and the boy could not only see her, but speak to her as well. Her newfound voice and visibility was hard to contain, and all she wanted to do was ask the man questions about the outside world and himself. She could imagine that her appearance must have come as a shock, especially to the man, and chalked his quiet response to her existence as one of confusion. Children, on the other hand, have a way of still believing the unbelievable, as River so eagerly did when she and the young boy first met. She had spent so many lonely years watching other people from the shadows. Neither Joseph nor River knew what a true miracle it was that after all this time, someone finally was able to noticeher.
“It’s just a little... unnerving is all,” he said, ripping up another strip of flooring. Joseph was playing his awful screaming music once again as he worked, though he kept the volume considerably lower this time. All of the manual labor he had done that morning, removing damaged wood and plaster, had left him covered in dust and sweat. Carolina was surprised to find that her ill-begotten housemate with the big, beefy arms looked even better when he was working.
“Well, if my presence bothers you, I’ll just go away.”
Carolina threw her shoulders back and hopped down from the counter, her emotions slightly wounded. She couldn’t help but admit that it hurt that the only adult that she had been able to speak to in nearly a century wanted her to go away. Carolina began to move out of the kitchen toward her third floor safe space when the man called out from behind.
“No,” he said, turning off his music. “I’m sorry. That was rude.”
Carolina’s shoulders softened as she turned back to look at him. She had been rattling off all morning about her friends Kitty and Juju, and wondering aloud what had become of them. Of the good times she used to have on Anastasia Island and how her father made the best fresh-squeezed orange juice in that very kitchen. She didn’t realize just how much she missed being around living, breathing people after all these years spent locked up and alone.
“Well, I suppose I’ve been rather chatty,” she sniffed. “I know it can’t be easy to come to terms with... my current state.”
“You mean, the fact that you’re a ghost?” he said, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. A dark, winding tattoo peered out of the sleeve of his shirt as he lifted his arm and Carolina nearly gasped despite herself. She had only seen tattoos before on the fisherman and sailors that had docked in Matanzas Bay; dangerous, burly men that her mother would say didn’t belong in polite society, but who excited her just the same. Joseph was a strange anomaly of a man and had so many secrets. Perhaps she could uncover some of them.
“Yes, that,” she said, trying not to be curt. “It wasn’t easy for me to admit you know. I very much enjoyed being alive.”
Joseph grew quiet and returned to ripping up the floorboards. She frowned, realizing that the comment was probably in bad taste. The poor man was still grieving for his wife after all.
“What happened to her, Joseph?”
