The Write Dream (Storage Ghosts) (6 page)

He
answered it. He suddenly stood up straighter, the blood drained from his face.

“Frankie!
Who is it?” Grace asked.

He
made a shushing gesture with his hand. “Yes. You did? You did? You did?”

Grace
gave him a push. “Who did what?”

Frankie
turned his back on her. “Yes. Yes. I can. Now? No, it’s not a problem. Yes.
Okay. Goodbye.”

Frankie
ended the call and turned back to Grace. His eyes shone and his mouth stretched
so wide that Grace was afraid his face would split open. In a hushed tone
Frankie said, “Do you know who that was?”

“No,
tell me.”

“Guess.”

“No,
just tell me.”

“Guess,
you’ll never guess.”

Grace
glowered at him. “Tell me now or I’ll get my favourite teapot and whack you
with it!”

Frankie
stopped smiling. “That’s not even funny. I’m not going to tell you now.”

“Fine,
I’ve got things to do,” Grace said and she turned away from Frankie. She turned
back when she heard him sigh.

“Alright,
I’ll tell you. It was Sylvester Sylver! THE Sylvester Sylver on my phone! Can
you believe it? He phoned me! On my phone!”

Frankie
looked like he could burst with excitement. Grace couldn’t help but smile at
him. She said, “What did he want?”

“He
said he’s seen my website and he loves it! He really liked the videos that I’ve
put on, thinks they look professional.” Frankie paused and caught his breath.
Grace wondered if she should bring him a paper bag to breath into. He carried
on. “He asked if I wanted to see how the auctions worked from his point of
view. How he gets the details in the first place, how they have to check that
the storage fees are no longer being paid. Isn’t that exciting?”

Grace
scrunched her face up a little and shrugged.

Frankie
misread her look. “I know! It’s beyond exciting. Anyway, you’ll never guess
what Sylvester Sylver asked me. Guess, go on, guess.”

Grace
said flatly, “Frankie, will you get to the point?”

“He
asked me to go round to his home office! At his home! In his office! He said I
can video him going through his paperwork! How awesome is that?”

“Very
awesome, are you going round there now?” Grace asked.

Frankie
gave her a sceptical look. “Of course I am, what a stupid thing to ask. You’ll
be alright looking after the shop won’t you? You can close it up soon. I don’t
know what time I’ll be back.”

Frankie
grinned at her again. His grin suddenly dropped. “Do I look okay? I bet
Sylvester’s got a mansion. Do you think I’ll have to take my shoes off?”

Grace
smiled at him. “You’ll be fine. Go and have a good time. Of course you look
okay.”

Frankie’s
grin returned. “Yeah, I know. See you later.”

He
almost skipped towards the door.

Grace
called out, “What was that thing you wanted to tell me? Something about putting
my mind at rest?”

“I’ll
tell you tomorrow, I can’t keep Sylvester waiting.” Without a backwards glance
Frankie skipped out of the door.

Grace
turned to look at Marie. Marie smiled at her and said, “Your brother’s
certainly full of life.”

“He’s
a handful, you wouldn’t think he was older than me. The times I’ve had to get
him out of trouble.”

Marie
nodded. “It was just like that with me and Brian. We argued but he’d do
anything for me.”

“He
seems besotted with Sharon, almost as if he’s under her spell,” Grace pointed
out.

Marie
nodded. “He never used to be that bad. He was always under her thumb but he
used to stand up to her. I wonder why he changed.”

Grace
placed the pasta necklace on the counter. “What should we do with this? Shall I
phone Andrew and tell him about it? He could call round to collect it. Then I
could tell him about the other thing I’ve done.”

Her
stomach quivered at the thought of that. How would Andrew take it?

The
hair on her scalp prickled. She looked at Marie and said, “What was that? Did
you hear it?”

Marie
looked up from the necklace. “No, sorry, I was lost in memories. What did you
hear?”

Grace
put her head to one side and waited.

Nothing.

Marie
tapped her on the shoulder. Grace felt a chill there. Marie was looking at
something behind her.

“What
is it?” Grace whispered.

Marie
stiffened. “It’s a ghost.”

Chapter 13

Grace
spun around. “Where? I can’t see anything, are you sure?”

Marie
came to her side and pointed a few feet to the left. “I’m sure. It’s the ghost
of an old lady. She’s wearing one of those housecoat things, my granny used to
wear one for doing the housework.”

Grace
squinted and tilted her head. “I can’t see her. Can you speak to her?”

Marie
jumped, her hand flew to her mouth. “I can certainly hear her! The old woman just
said, ‘Of course she can bloody well speak to me, I’m not an idiot.’”.

Grace
frowned. “I can’t hear her, why can’t I hear her?”

Marie
looked at where the old lady was, she waited a few seconds and then said, “She
says it’s not time yet. She can only tell you her name, it’s Pearl.”

Grace
smiled at where she thought the ghost was. “That’s a nice name. Are you attached
to the old teapot? Did you give me the strength to hit someone with it a few
weeks back?”

Marie’s
eyes widened. She said to Grace, “I’m not going to repeat everything she says
because she’s using some words that are not proper.” Marie turned back to where
Pearl was and pointed a finger. “Call me a fuddy duddy if you like but I won’t
repeat them!”

Marie
pursed her lips and glared into empty space. “Yes, I have heard words like that
on the telly, and I’ve read them in books. Of course I know what they mean! No!
I won’t try using them, I don’t care if they are liberating! I thought old
women were supposed to be genteel!”

Grace
said calmly, “Marie, you need to calm down, you’re shimmering, I can hardly see
you.”

Marie
gave the air a disgusted look and turned away from where Pearl must have been
standing. Marie jerked her thumb over her shoulder and said, “She says that
she’s attached to the shop, not the teapot. But she did give you the strength
to whack that ... well, I won’t say what she called him. She’s only sorry that
you didn’t kill him, and his evil friends. Grace, what have you been through?”

Grace
waved a hand dismissively at Marie. “It’s all in the past. Can you ask her when
I’ll be able to see her?”

Marie
looked over her shoulder. “She’s gone, sorry.”

Grace
looked upwards. “I just heard that sound again, it was like something
mechanical.”

“Perhaps
it was Pearl?” Marie suggested. “If she’s attached to the building she probably
moves around it freely.”

“Maybe,”
Grace said, but she wasn’t sure. “Anyway, let me phone your son, let me try and
help you.”

“Don’t
bother, look who’s just walked through the door.”

Grace
did so.

It
was Sharon.

Marie
lifted her chin up and strode towards her. She said to Grace, “I think we’ve
got questions to ask.”

Sharon’s
eyes narrowed as she looked Grace up and down, she grimaced as if the sight
offended her. She placed her expensive handbag on the counter and pointed a
sharp talon towards her. She said, “Andrew told me where you worked, I didn’t
realise it was so shabby. Listen to me, I want those notebooks back.”

Grace
walked up to the counter and stood behind it as if using it as a shield against
Sharon’s hate. “What notebooks?” she asked, although she knew what Sharon was
referring to.

Sharon
shot her a look of scorn. “You know exactly which notebooks. Those ones that
belonged to Andrew, those that are filled with his ridiculous scribblings.”

Grace
felt Marie stiffen at her side but she kept her eyes on Sharon. “Why do you
want them?”

“So
I can destroy them! I don’t want Andrew to ever get his hands on them again. He
might start thinking he has some sort of talent, he might believe that idiotic
stuff that his mum told him about following his dreams.” Sharon snorted. “It
used to make me sick hearing her talk like that! No idea at all! She was a
useless mother, filling his head with impossible ideas.”

Marie
floated through the counter and hovered over Sharon. Sharon shivered and pulled
her jacket closer.

Grace
folded her arms. “I read Andrew’s stories, I thought they were good. Actually,
better than good. He could be a best selling author.”

Sharon
sneered. “What would you know? You just work at a junk shop.”

Grace
took a steadying breath. She heard that peculiar noise again. Her scalp
prickled as she realised what it could be. She almost smiled when she realised
where it could be coming from. She’d need to keep Sharon talking.

“I
suppose I could give you the notebooks, I don’t need them,” Grace said.

“No!”
Marie called out.

Grace
had to ignore her, she couldn’t indicate to where she thought the noise was
coming from, Sharon might see. She carried on, “I don’t know much about your
family circumstances but it seems you did a good job raising Andrew.”

Sharon
smirked and nodded. “I did. Well, someone had to, after his wishy washy mother
filled his head with so much nonsense. Hand the books over then, I haven’t got
all day.”

Grace
wasn’t finished with her questions yet. “It must have been hard for you taking
on someone else’s son. Not just emotionally, but financially and you’ve built a
successful business too. I admire you, I could never do that.”

Sharon
tossed her hair back and laughed. It was an arrogant laugh. Grace had a sudden vision
of Sharon being a villain from an old black and white movie, she would
definitely be twirling her moustache at this point.

Sharon
looked around the shop. “Are we alone?”

Grace
nodded.

Sharon
said, “I’ll tell you what I did, I’ve been dying to tell someone for years. It
doesn’t matter if I tell you, you’re a nobody, no one would listen to you.”

Grace
swallowed the insult and pasted a smile on her face. “Go on.”

Chapter 14

Sharon
began to talk. “I never liked Marie, she was unbelievably happy, it got on my
nerves. And the way Brian was so protective of her! What an idiot he was, I
soon sorted him out after we got married. Even when Marie’s husband died she
was still cheerful. Her and that little boy of hers did everything together.
She encouraged him to write those stupid tales. The times me and Brian had to
listen to him drivelling on! I could have slapped Andrew just to shut him up.”

Marie
floated back to Grace, her eyes downcast. Grace could feel her sadness, her own
heart felt heavy listening to this evil woman in front of her.

Sharon
looked upwards as if gathering her thoughts. Then she looked directly back at
Grace and said, “Do you know what? I was glad when Marie died. I don’t even
feel bad saying that out loud. I was glad she was gone, any hold that she had
on Brian was gone forever. Although, we had agreed on that stupid plan to look
after Andrew, I only agreed to it so that she would hurry up and die.”

Grace
heard a slight whirring noise behind her. She really hoped it was what she
thought it was. She nodded encouragingly towards Sharon.

Sharon
picked a bit of fluff from her jacket and dropped it onto the floor. She went
on, “We knew she had some money put away but we didn’t know how much. Brian was
too upset after Marie died to deal with the financial side of things, the
spineless wimp, so I had to do it. I got quite a shock when I found out how much
money Marie had left. I put it all in my account. I lied to Brian about the
amount, I knew he would never have the Brians to check. Now, this is the clever
part.”

Sharon
actually grinned as if she was proud of what she had done. “I made sure Andrew
could overhear what we were saying when I told Brian that Marie hadn’t left us
much money. I said it wouldn’t be enough to pay for Andrew’s upbringing. I
added that I had taken a loan out so that we could start a security business
and try to make a profit. You should have heard me! I was the perfect victim. I
said I would work day and night to make the business a success, and that I’d
take a second job to make sure Andrew went to university.”

Grace’s
smile faltered but Sharon didn’t notice. Grace said, “Do you think Andrew felt
guilty about you having to work so much? Is that why he didn’t apply for
university?”

“Well,
duh!” Sharon said. “Of course that’s why. I used Marie’s money for the
business, keeping some for myself. I need luxury items, Brian was never good at
providing for me. I don’t have to work many hours because Brian and Andrew do
so many. It’s amazing what guilt can make a person do.”