“Call the police then, right now. Call them, and let Irene and her family finally get the closure they deserve,” Ollie said firmly.
Taking a stuttered breath, Georgie nodded and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
They all stayed quiet as they listened to the man talk to the police. The call took longer than one would think, but after hanging up, Mr. Babs looked at him with tears still trailing down his cheeks before glancing towards the ground where Irene was buried and then back to him. “How did you know?”
Ollie hesitated, glancing briefly at Noble, who unhelpfully shrugged, before blurting, “I know this sounds crazy, but I saw her! She sort of…led us here?”
Georgie’s eyes widened. “Y-you, what?!”
“Her ghost… I can see her…ghost.”Yeah, that sounded about as crazy out loud as it had in his head.But the shift in conversation had finally stopped his tears at least.
Mr. Babs’ tears, however, seemed to fall faster as he stuttered out, “I-is she’s st-still h-here?!”
“She is.”
Sniffing hard, the man cried, “I’m sorry, Irene. I’m so sorry!”
So much for his crying stopping,he thought as his tears came rushing back and a distressed whimper slipped past his lips, the sound prompting Noble to move closer and run a comforting hand along his back.
“Tell him there is nothing to forgive. I never blamed him,” Irene said.
“S-she says she n-never blamed you, and there is nothing to for-forgive,” he stuttered, fighting back the urge to wail.
His face crumbled further as Georgie wordlessly nodded.
Ollie moved to hug the man, but Noble held him back. “Ollie, we should really go before the cops come. Or at least hide somewhere until we can blend into the crowd that will no doubt show up.”
He looked back and forth between Noble and Georgie helplessly, tears still trailing down his face. “B-but?—”
“Go, go…” Mr. Babs waved them away. “I’m not…going anywhere.”
Nodding, he clung to Noble’s arm as they turned and walked away from the still weeping man, Irene trailing behind, Ollie’s heart breaking a bit as they did.
When Georgie was out of view, Irene softly rasped, “I never blamed him, I… I knew… I knew it was him behind the shelves. I thought I didn’t know who it was, but I did! I’m sure I did at some point. But then I guess I forgot…” She frowned.
Ollie sniffled and tried to take a calming breath. “M-maybe time makes the memories confusing?”
Something he should look into, when he didn’t feel like curling up into a ball and becoming a sobbing mess, as it was pretty important to know how much they could trust a ghost’s memory. But then, maybe it was just like a living person’s? Tinted by bias and faded with time.
The night seeming even cooler than before, Ollie leaned back against Noble, trying to take comfort in his boyfriend’s warmth, as they watched the police work on exhuming Irene’s body from behind the yellow tape. Georgie was nowhere to be seen, and while there were plenty of trees between them and the police, making it harder to see, there were now also a lot of free-standing spotlights.
Despite it being past midnight, and nearing the low forties, there was quite a crowd being held back. When Noble had mentioned the possibility of other people attending the scene, he hadn’t thought he was serious, but Ollie had apparently underestimated the nosiness, and the speed news travels in small communities.
Hearing a soft gasp, Ollie looked over to where Irene had been, only to find her gone. A moment later, he spotted her across the way, on the opposite side of the yellow tape barrier, floating near two older men who had younger versions of themselves by their sides. While he knew one had to be eighty, and the other in his late seventies, he could still see their resemblance to Irene, with the same pointed noses and chins. The two younger men with them even sported the same blond hair that Irene had in the photo at the diner.
Tears filled his eyes, quickly spilling over when he saw the heartbreak on Irene’s face, as the two men stared on with what could only be painful hope in their eyes.
Sniffling, he stuttered, “H-her brothers are h-here.” He took a shuddered breath, in an attempt to calm down as Noble kissed the top of his head, no doubt trying to comfort him. “The police must have called them.”
“Someone on the local force must know them, or someone related to them. Otherwise, I doubt they’d call without being sure, not when there is a risk of giving false hope.”
“M-maybe, or…maybe Georgie called them himself?” he sighed.
The crowd let out a collective gasp when the police finally removed Irene from the ground. Most likely due to the fact anything was found over what could actually be seen, as it was a shroud, dirt-covered form, with nothing gruesome visible. And as they laid her down, he wasn’t sure what confirmation they specifically found, as too many officers were blocking his view, but it was pretty dang clear, despite the distance, that they had found something, as one of the officers looked towards Irene’s family and nodded. Tears blurred Ollie’s vision in that moment, as the two older men grabbed onto each other and started to sob loudly.
Wiping at his eyes, when he met Irene’s gaze again, he saw sadness there, but as a small smile slipped onto her face, a soft, “Thank you,” floated to his ears. And then, just like the first ghost, she slowly started to…dissipate, her form disappearing bit by bit until she was gone.
As the last inch of her disappeared, Ollie whimpered, “S-she’s gone.”
