“Yes, about that. What detained your ghost? Why didn’t he come with you?”
“I’ll let him explain when he gets here,” Roz said. “Meanwhile your testimony, which can only be considered hearsay, is causing an innocent man major problems. I think you should recant.”
“And I think you should lose a few pounds.”
Roz balled her fists and her face turned red, but before she came up with a retort, Reginald sensed another presence.
“Is someone else here?”
“Yeah, hello, bonehead. My name is Chad, and I have a message for you.”
“Bonehead?”
“It’s a modern expression meaning idiot, moron, a person who’s stupid beyond belief.”
“Oh?” Reginald was highly offended, but decided to play it cool. Perhaps the fellow was trying to get him so riled that he’d blurt out the truth. Well, he wouldn’t let that happen.
The medium continued to speak for him, but apparently the other spirit preferred she didn’t.
He said, “Morgaine, do you think you could give us a few minutes of silence to speak ghost to ghost?”
Morgaine nodded, opened her eyes, and came out of her trance.
“Yeah, listen up dude. Konrad is kind and decent. He hasn’t done anything to deserve this frame job. And you’re an ass for not only trying to ruin his life, but your afterlife too.”
“What are you talking about? What more can happen to me?” Was it possible this other spirit knew something about the afterlife? Reginald had been stuck for eighty-something years, and no heaven or hell had opened its gates to claim him. At this point, he didn’t care which. Any change would be welcome.
The other spirit sighed. Reginald didn’t know why he couldn’t see him. He wished he could. It would be nice to know what kind of man he was dealing with.
Chad continued. “Do you know what karma is? I doubt you do, or you’d realize how messed up yours is.”
“Karma is a term I’m familiar with, although it has to do with an Eastern religion, and I fail to see what difference—”
“That’s because you’re a dumb ass.”
All this name-calling was getting ugly. Reginald liked having someone to talk to, and he’d thought communicating with another spirit would be a special treat, but not this one. “Now see here—”
“No,yousee. You’ll never get to the other side if you keep pulling this kind of crap.”
“What other side? What do you know about it, and if that’s where we’re supposed to be, why are you still here?”
“I thought it was because of unfinished business, but once my murder had been solved and I still didn’t move on, I realized it had to be more than that.”
“And have you deduced what that additional criterion might be?”
“I knew enough to realize I was losing my shit. I had gone a little nuts from being alone so long. I took it out on the residents of my building, simply because I was bored.”
“How so?”
“I learned to move objects with my mind. It’s called telekinesis. I had an obnoxious sense of humor and redirected moving objects to hit someone in the eye or set up an obstacle course so I could laugh my ass off when they tripped. And then Morgaine talked to me, and I slowly came to realize what I had been doing.”
“What? Enjoying yourself?”
“That’s what I used to think. Now I know I had been lengthening my time here in purgatory.”
Reginald snapped to attention. “Purgatory? This is purgatory?”
“Either that or limbo. Whatever you call it, we ain’t here, and we ain’t there. We’re trapped because we can’t go back, and we’re not welcome wherever we were headed, yet.”
