Chapter 15
“Thanks so much, Howie,” Bianca said
again, as Howie drove around the large, circular drive, pulling to a stop right
in front of the large house.
“No problem, Bean,” Howie
replied.
Bianca opened the car door, which
turned on the overhead light in the car, giving Howie a good look at her face
and red-rimmed eyes. “Are you gonna be
okay alone, Bianca, or do you want me to stay for awhile?” he asked in concern.
Bianca was about to retort that she
was not a little girl and didn’t Howie to watch over her, but, glancing up at
the dark mansion, she realized that having him stay would actually be quite
nice. She got lonely in that big house
all by herself, and when she got lonely, she started thinking about AJ, and she
didn’t want to do that any more tonight.
It was too painful.
“Well… I guess if you don’t mind…”
Bianca started to say hesitantly, but Howie interrupted her.
“I don’t mind,” he said, smiling. “We gotta stick together through this,
Bean. It makes it easier, don’t you
think?”
“Yeah,” said Bianca truthfully. “Yeah, it really does.”
And so, Howie parked the car, shut off
the ignition, and followed Bianca into the house.
***
“Nice place you got here,” Lindy said,
looking up at AJ’s mansion.
‘Yup,” AJ said absently. He was looking at other things – Howie’s car,
for example. What’s he doing
here? he wondered, walking past the
familiar purple Corvette and up to the house.
He passed through the front door without opening it, Lindy following at
his heels, and set off to find Bianca and Howie.
He found them in the theater room,
watching “The Waterboy” on the big screen.
“Wow, looks like your chick’s really
grieving for you, huh? Getting it on
with your best friend and all,” Lindy commented wryly, peering over AJ’s
shoulder at Bianca and Howie.
“Shut up,” AJ muttered. “They’re just hanging out together. They’re friends, that’s all.”
“Yeah, now, they are. Just wait.
Now that you’re out of the picture, he’ll be moving in on her before you
can-“
“I said shut up!” AJ hissed.
“My, my, defensive, aren’t we?” Lindy
said in an annoying sing-song voice.
“Just making an observation. You
don’t have to bite my head off.”
Ignoring her, AJ walked into the room
and sat down in the chair next to Bianca’s.
While she watched the movie, he watched her. He was pleased to see a slight smile tugging
on the corners of her mouth as she watched.
He hadn’t seen her smile since… well, since he was alive. Subconsciously, she reached up and tucked a
lock of her short, copper-colored hair behind her ear, then set her arm down on
the armrest of her chair. AJ reached out
and lay his hand on top of hers. Of
course, it just slipped right through.
He sighed sadly, knowing that if he made his hand solid, he would just
freak her out by touching her. She wouldn’t
know it was him.
I have to figure out how to get her
attention, how to let her know I’m here, AJ
thought. That was going to be hard,
considering she couldn’t see or hear him.
“Hey, maybe I can write her a note!” AJ said aloud, brightening.
“Nice try,” said a voice beside
him. AJ jumped and turned to face Lindy,
who had snuck into the seat on his other side.
“Don’t do that!” he exclaimed.
Lindy smirked. “There’s no way you’d be able to solidify
your hand long enough to write anything,” she said. “You have to be patient, give it some time.”
“I don’t want to be patient!” AJ
cried. Then he got another idea. “Hey!
What about you? You have more
experience – could you solidify your hand long enough to write her a
note?”
Lindy shrugged. “Not now,” she said. “I need to rest up. Maybe another time.”
“When?” AJ persisted eagerly.
“I dunno,” replied Lindy, her tone
lazy. “And who said I would do it
anyway? I was just saying I could.”
“Lindy!”
She grinned devilishly. “Guess you’re going to have to be nice to me
from now on, aren’t you? No more ‘I said
shut up!’” She mocked his angry voice
and laughed.
“Whatever,” AJ muttered, rolling his
eyes. He didn’t appreciate being bossed around
and taunted by a female, particularly one who was at least six years younger
than him.
All of a sudden, laughter rang out,
startling AJ. He turned to see Bianca
and Howie both cracking up at whatever part it was in the movie. From his other side, Lindy, too, had begun to
chuckle. “Yup, they’re really in
mourning for you alright.”
AJ just glared at her.
***
The next night, Bianca had closing
duty at the book store. Just weeks
earlier, Bianca had hated closing, but these days, she looked forward to
it. She liked to stay busy as much as
possible, and being in the store with one other person late at night was better
than being at home by herself. That
night it was Eddie who would be closing with her. Out of all her co-workers, Bianca knew Eddie
the best, so she liked when they worked the same shifts.
At ten-o’clock, when the store was
supposed to be closed, Bianca left Eddie to man the counter and check out the
few remaining customers, saying, “I’m going to go make sure there’s no one else
in here.” She patrolled through the
store, walking down each aisle and checking for stragglers, picking up fallen
books when she came across them and putting them back in their rightful spots
on the shelves.
She had no idea that she was being
followed. But indeed, she was. AJ and
Lindy tagged along behind her, Lindy complaining loudly.
“You are pathetic, you know that? Chasing her around like this? When are you going to move on?”
“Move on to what? What else have I got to do?” AJ retorted,
glaring at Lindy for making him feel like some kind of obsessed stalker.
“Well, I don’t know, but jeez, you’re
dead! You need to move on, and so does
she. You can’t be with her anymore; just
let her go,” said Lindy.
But AJ couldn’t let her go. He had never even gotten to say goodbye to
her before he died, let alone tell her how much he loved her. And what if she found out what had happened
between him and Krystle? She would
always think he had betrayed her, and he would never get a chance to prove his
love to her. He was determined to get in
contact with her, to make his presence known.
“Lindy, will you please write her a
note? Please? I know you can do it; you haven’t solidified
yourself all day. Please?” AJ begged.
Lindy stared at him for a moment, her
lips pursed. He had been on her all day
about solidifying her fingers long enough to write a note to Bianca. She hesitated, then finally said, “Well… I
guess if it will get you to stop bugging me…”
“Oh, thank you, Lindy!” AJ shouted
happily, throwing his arms around her.
Their bodies felt solid to one another and did not pass through each
other. It felt surprisingly good to hug
her, for AJ had not had physical contact with anyone else since his death. She was not the same as Bianca though…
Lindy pulled back, looking
startled. She stood, stunned, for a
moment, then regained her composure and said, “Alright, let’s get this over
with.”
“Okay,” AJ said eagerly.
The two made their way to the front of
the store, where Eddie was sliding a few paperbacks into a bag for the last
customer. Quickly and artfully, Lindy
materialized her hands and swiped a pad of paper and pen from the checkout
station at the opposite end of the counter.
She hurried away from the counter and to the back of the store, sinking
down in a corner where a pen writing seemingly on its own would not be
noticed. Holding the pen poised over the
paper, Lindy looked at AJ and said, “Well?”
“Um…”
AJ tried to think of how he should word the letter. He had been thinking about it constantly
since the night before, for it was the only surefire way he could think of to
get Bianca’s attention, but now that it was time to write it, he had no idea
what to say. “Start it with ‘Dear Bianca,’
I guess.”
“Ooh, good one, Shakespeare,” muttered
Lindy, quickly scribbling the words on the paper.
“Make it legible, please,” AJ said,
frowning at her untidy scrawl.
Lindy narrowed her eyes at him. “Would you rather do it yourself?” she asked
coolly, knowing full well he couldn’t.
“No,” AJ muttered, looking down.
“Okay then. What else?”
“Um… okay… how about, ‘I know this is
going to sound unbelievable, but this-‘”
“Okay, hold it, hold it, let me get
that,” said Lindy, writing quickly.
“Okay, ‘but this’ what?”
“’But this is AJ’,” AJ continued
dictating. “’I know you think I’m gone
for good, but-‘”
“Hang on,” Lindy murmured, still
writing. “Okay.”
“’But I’m not. I’m an angel, Bean. I-‘”
“Bean?”
“Her nickname,” said AJ.
“Who the hell came up with that?”
Lindy asked.
“Well… I don’t really know. Her friends have always called her that. I just kinda picked up on it, I guess.” AJ shrugged.
“Whatever,” said Lindy, bending back
over the paper. “Okay, what else?”
“’I know that sounds crazy, but it’s
true’,” continued AJ. “’I’ve been trying
to contact you for weeks.’”
“Hang on…. Okay.”
“’I just want to let you know that I
love you, Bean, and I always will. I…
I…” He wanted to say that he wanted her
to move on and stop mourning for him, but he couldn’t get the words out. The thought of her falling in love with
someone else and forgetting all about him, while he had to stay on Earth and
watch it happen, was unbearable. So
instead he said, “um… I guess just sign it then: ‘Love, AJ’.”
Lindy finished the note, scribbling
his initials at the bottom, and quickly dropped the pen. “Phew,” she sighed, de-solidifying her
hands. You owe me, dude.”
AJ broke into a wide grin. “I know.
Thank you, Lindy,” he said genuinely.
“You don’t know how much this means to me.”
Lindy smiled slightly. “No problem,” she said shortly. “So where should we leave it for her to
find?”
“How about on one of the tables over
in the café part. They always have to
wipe those down before they leave; one of them will find it. Maybe you should fold it over and write her
name on it, so Eddie won’t read it if he sees it first,” suggested AJ.
Lindy rolled her eyes, but obeyed,
solidifying her hands long enough to hastily fold the paper and scrawl Bianca’s
name across it. “Okay, let’s take it
over there,” she said, grabbing the note and heading for the little coffee-shop
area of the store. AJ tagged along
behind her, excitement coursing through him.
Lindy left the note lying on one of the tables, then de-solidified her
hands again, grabbed AJ’s arm, and dragged him over to a corner to wait.
***
