Relentless: Three Novels (3 page)

“I can’t believe you put up living with Tori for six months. I would have killed her.”

“I almost did. Well, not really. We just screamed at each other. I couldn’t take Matt bullying Trenton. And Matt is older, bigger, and has no self-discipline. We were all cooped up in this small apartment. Things were bound to take a turn for the worse.”

“Oh, wow, he was bullying Trenton? Poor little guy.”

“Yeah, I told Tori a few times about his behavior, but she just brushed it off. We had several blow-ups about it.”

“Surprise, surprise.”

“I know. Right? But Tori did help us and our new cottage is very cute. The landlord even gave us some furniture and he’s really helpful. Ray came over today to see if anything needed fixing or any furniture needed to be rearranged.”

“That was nice of him. Maybe Missy and I will stop by this week.” She paused. “Are you interested in Ray?”

“Bite your tongue, girlfriend! I just got a divorce! It’s just me and my little man. Besides, you know how jealous my ex can get. I don’t want any trouble and I won’t have Trenton lying for me if I want to see someone. At this point in time, it’s just best to not start anything with anyone.”

“Nonsense. You are so young to just cut yourself off from men.”

“I am single and I plan to stay that way! No relationships!”

“Woohoo! That just means more men for me,” Elizabeth said.

“You’re so bad,” I said, laughing. “Come over and bring Missy but leave my landlord alone.”

“Is he cute?”

“Shut up!” I said. “He’s handsome.”

“Aha! I knew it.” Liz was so funny.

“But yeah. That would be great if you two came over. Trenton would love to play with her. I think he is extra lonely at the new place. He’s starting to make up imaginary friends again.”

“Missy does that, too. It always happened though after she watches the DVD movie of
Drop Dead Fred
.”

I laughed. “I don’t think Trenton’s seen that one. As dumb as it was, I know I loved it as a kid.”

“It’s on all the time at my house. It’s Missy’s favorite now.”

“Why don’t you and Missy come over for dinner Wednesday night?”

“Yeah, we can do that.”

“Great.”

“Mom, Mom!” Trenton ran into the kitchen. “Matt’s opening his presents. Come watch. I want to see if he likes our present.” In a stage whisper, he said to Elizabeth, “We got him a Wii game at the dollar store!”

“Shhh!” I said to Trenton and laughed. “Okay, be right there, Trenton. I’ll talk to you later, Elizabeth.”

“See you on Wednesday at your place. I’ll bring the dessert.”

“Oh, thanks, what are you making?”

“Cake pops?”

“You rule, girlfriend.”

Chapter Four

Monday morning came before I knew it, and I was back at work. I didn’t have too many complaints. I loved my teaching job. My fifth graders were awesome and we were mostly in synch as a class. The kids knew what I expected, and I knew what to expect from them. Teaching this age was what I had wanted to do since I could remember. Sometimes it was challenging, but in a good way. This week’s big challenge was a long-division game with little prizes and team competition.

It was also nice having my son go to the same school where I taught. He was only in kindergarten and went to school for a half day. So, in the mornings I would drop off Trenton at his babysitter’s house and she would take him to afternoon kindergarten at 11:30 a.m. That worked out great because we could go home together three days a week and we would tell each other about our days.

We lived a simple life for the most part, just me and my son. Since my divorce, my life was filled with Trenton and work. It was sometimes a little boring and lacking in adult conversation and sophisticated company, but I never missed my old life. There were always teachers to talk to at work, but it was always shop talk. Sometimes, I just wanted to talk to an adult who was not a teacher, but not one of my old high school girlfriends who had never evolved.

The last couple years of my marriage had been so horrible. There had been so much fighting, so much stress and so many tears. I was just relieved to get Trenton away from all of that. And me, too. We were happy, just me and my little man. I think he was happy to have my extra time and attention and occasionally, bunking in with me during a storm or if he had a bad dream. I liked to think the divorce had made me a better mom. Likewise, I hoped that my ex was learning to be a better dad.

Trenton saw his dad on Monday and Tuesdays. Those were his days off. He would pick him up from school on Monday afternoons and bring him to kindergarten on Tuesdays and pick him up. Then on Wednesdays after school, Trenton would come home with me. I liked having a little break from him. This schedule gave me time to catch up on all my homework. Like every teacher I knew, I always fell so behind on grading papers. So, I made this my time for doing that. I parked in the teachers’ parking lot and headed into school. I said hello to a few of the other teachers as I unlocked my classroom.

Halloween was not too far away so all the classrooms were decorated in Halloween décor. My classroom was a little bare, compared to other classrooms. I wasn’t too fond of Halloween. I didn’t quite understand what exactly was being celebrated. Trenton called it a “candy holiday,” which made me laugh because that was about as honest as it got for a little kid. I still managed to hang up a few pumpkins and skeletons to fit in.

Today, I would be teaching the children about Christopher Columbus. This was one of my favorite topics to teach. I loved American history. Each year, I tended to overload the kids with information. This year, I’d decided to scale back a little.

After work, I went through a local drive-thru for an early dinner. I normally tried to stay away from fast food. But I didn’t have Trenton with me tonight, so I figured,
what’s the harm?
I ordered a hamburger and a large diet Coke. I figured I would still be somewhat good by leaving out the fries. The girl at the window handed me my order and I drove home.

As I pulled into the driveway, the cottage looked different. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. But it was different. It was as if it was alive, gleaming with life. The only thing I could think of was that maybe all of the stuff in there made it brighter, happier. I walked to the doorway holding my purse, school papers and the fast-food bag. I turned my key into the lock, but it was already unlocked.

I panicked and wracked my brain, trying to remember if maybe I forgot to lock it. I had been in such a rush that morning that I couldn’t quite remember whether I had locked it or not. I searched the house to see if anyone was there, or find out if anything was missing. Nope. The house was exactly how we’d left it. I made a mental note to make sure to lock the door before I left.

I took a seat at the kitchen table with my hamburger and diet soda. I tuned on the television in the living room for background noise. I didn’t like silence. It made me nervous. I was used to Trenton’s chatter.

With the sound of Dr. Phil’s voice on the TV, I unwrapped my hamburger and took a bite. I enjoyed the taste of the hamburger, and before I knew it, I had eaten the entire thing. I threw away the wrapper and opened my folder of papers to grade. I had a math test, a science test and 25 book reports to grade. At the very least, I would be busy for a few hours.

I started with the book reports since they usually took the longest. I was surprised that more than half of the kids had used Harry Potter books for their reports. I was a fan of the book series, and loved the movies. They were long books and I was impressed, but I hoped they weren’t just watching the movies and then writing book reports.

An hour and a half later, I had finished grading the book reports, occasionally smiling at what the kids thought of certain books.

I got up to stretch my legs.

Suddenly, I heard a banging coming from Trenton’s room. I turned off the television and listened again. I heard the banging once more. I rushed into his room and opened the door. The banging stopped and there was nothing there. I looked around to see what was causing the noise. I couldn’t find anything. I shut the door and went back to the kitchen. That was weird, I thought. Maybe it was coming from outside, perhaps a shutter banging against the cottage in the night breeze or...I ran out of other things that it might have been.

I sat back down and started grading the math tests. As I approached my second paper to grade, the banging continued. This time, it was as if it was coming from my bedroom. I got up and ran to my room. I opened the door and turned on the light. The banging stopped once more. I was starting to get very annoyed. I turned off the light and shut the door. I started up once more on my papers.

I finally finished grading papers at a quarter to seven. My eyes were so tired, that I went straight to bed. I woke up at 3:30 a.m. with the strange feeling that something was wrong. I jumped out of bed and frantically called my ex-husband to see if everything was okay. “Hello,” I heard him growl into the phone.

“Frank, Frank, is Trenton okay?”

“Jesus, Jodie what time is it?”

“Frank, I have this horrible feeling that there is something wrong.”

“Jodie, have you been drinking?”

“Me? You know I don’t do that. No, just let me know if he’s okay.”

“Trenton’s fine. In fact, he’s sleeping right next to me. I was reading him a story and he conked out.”

“Okay, good.” Without saying goodbye to Frank, I hung up. I could not shake off this uneasy feeling. I decided to make some tea. I opened my bedroom door and walked into the kitchen. That’s when I saw her. She was in the kitchen, crying hysterically. Her skin was bone-white and…I could see through her. I recognized right away that this woman wasn’t among the living.

I was too scared to even scream. In fact, it took me some long minutes to catch my breath before I collapsed in tears.

Chapter Five

On my way to work the next morning, I dialed Elizabeth’s number. I told her I needed to talk to her and asked her if we could meet for lunch. I didn’t have cafeteria duty that day, thank goodness. Elizabeth agreed to meet me at a little hole-in the-wall Chinese restaurant next to my school. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to tell her. I was still quite shaken up from what I had seen. My heart was racing as I replayed over and over in my mind the crying ghost and how she had vanished, when I, too, had begun crying.

Had I really seen a ghost? I didn’t even believe in the things. How did I manage to see one? What I had seen early this morning went against all my beliefs on the afterlife. I kept asking myself if I had imagined it. Perhaps I had awakened in such a state of panic that I thought I saw something that wasn’t there. I still didn’t even know why I woke up that way. It was as if the lady knew my same feeling. I tried to push the memory away, but it kept coming back.

I needed to talk to Elizabeth. She was the type of person who would be able to rationalize things.

When lunchtime finally came, I got to the Chinese restaurant as quickly as I could. I was relieved to find Elizabeth sitting at a table waiting for me. I took a seat next to her at the table.

“Jodie, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

“You couldn’t have put it better.”

“What? You mean you saw a ghost?” Elizabeth began to laugh. “You don’t even believe in that sort of thing.”

She handed me a menu. A waiter came over with a teapot and little cups.

“I know I don’t believe in it, but the strangest thing happened. I woke up around 3:30 a.m. in a huge panic attack. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I felt terrified. I even called Frank to check on Trenton.”

“Wait,” Elizabeth stopped me. “You called Frank at that hour? Did he go postal on you?”

“Liz, that’s not the point. Frank said Trenton was fine, but I still couldn’t get over this feeling of dread. I went to the kitchen and I saw a woman, a ghost…crying.”

“Jodie, that’s crazy, do you realize that?”

“Yes, I do.” I began to laugh. “In the light of day, it sounds pretty stupid.”

“If I didn’t know better, I would think Tori’s drama queen tendencies had rubbed off on you.”

“I know, right? I don’t know what happened. I probably just imagined it. After all, ghosts don’t exist right?”

“Well, apparently they do, and you saw one last night.” Elizabeth broke out in laughter again.

“It’s not funny,” I said, but I laughed anyway because Liz was making funny faces and rolling her eyes. “I’m losing my mind, Liz! Have some sort of care for my sanity.”

“Look, if you really think you saw something, I have an old friend who’s a ghost hunter.”

“Really, who?”

“Her name is Margaux Thompson. We went to college together. Well, anyway, she hunts ghosts and is good at it.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thanks. I’ll let you know if I change my mind.”

“How about if I come over after school and check the place out for you? Poke around in all the dark corners and see what slithers out,” Elizabeth joked.

I shuddered. “You don’t have to do that. But you can come over to hang out.”

“Yeah, I could do that. Missy’s spending the night with my mom tonight, so I’m all alone.”

“Same here. Trenton is with Frank.”

“Okay, it’s a date.”

“Girl, we have not had a sleepover since high school.”

“You’re overwrought. We will not be watching scary movies at the sleepover,” Elizabeth said.

“Don’t worry. I’m so over those old
Halloween
series movies,” I said, shuddering.

* * *

I wasn’t in a hurry to get home that afternoon. I didn’t want to admit it but I felt a little frightened of my own home. I decided to stop by a local Halloween retail store to pick up a cute costume for Trenton. It had been on my “to do” list for days, so I figured now was a good time.

I walked into the large store to search for a pirate costume, his first choice. The children’s costumes were located in the front. I rummaged the racks through Batman, a racecar driver and Mickey Mouse, but no pirate. I asked the lady at the counter if they had any pirate costumes in a size 6X.