Unfinished Business An Angela Panther Novel (A Chick-lit Paranormal book) (The Angela Panther Series) (27 page)

“What’s going on?” Steve asked. “Is there more information about what happened?”

I shook my head. “I need to tell you something, but I’m not really sure how to do it."

Chris stared at me, her eyes cloudy and sad. “What is it?”

I took a deep breath and spoke softly. “Taylor wanted you to know how sorry she was,” I told them.

Chris cried, and honestly, I’m not sure she even heard me, but Steve, he did. “What do you mean?”

“Steve, Chris, I don’t really know how to explain this, but I’ve talked to Taylor and she wants you to know she’s sorry and she loves you.”

Steve bowed up and came up close to me. Jake was in the kitchen and saw through the door. He stepped out, moving Steve gently out of my personal space.

“Steve, listen to my wife.”

“It’s okay. Steve, this is really hard for me to say, and probably harder for you to hear, and you can decide to believe it or not, but all I ask is that you listen to me. Can you do that?”

He nodded and Chris wiped her nose with a tissue.

I took another deep breath. “Okay, you both know that my mother died recently. Well, on the night she died, I saw her, and since then, I’ve seen her spirit many times, and have talked to her too. And it’s not just her I see now. I’ve seen other spirits, other people who have passed, and I saw Taylor.”

Steve shook his head and Chris cried.

“Steve, before the doctor came in to tell you she was gone, she was in the room with us. I saw her standing next to you. She told me to tell you that she was sorry, and that she loved you. And she told me to tell Emily she was right, that she shouldn’t have taken the pills. Then she told me she was going with her grandma and she was gone, but she was okay. She was smiling.”

Steve looked away, his expression one of disbelief and frustration, but Chris seemed to believe me. She stopped crying. “Is she here now?”

I stilled for a minute, trying to see if I could recognize any of the signs Linda taught me to look for. “No, I don’t think so.”

Steve bowed up his chest and attacked me. “Angela, what the hell are you doing? You see ghosts? That’s a bunch of bullshit and you know it.”

I stepped back and prepared to respond, but Jake was on Steve like white on rice.

“Listen, Steve, I can’t imagine what you’re going through and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy but I know my wife and I’ve seen what she can do. She’s the real thing, so calm down and let her speak. She’s trying to help you.”

“Honey, it’s okay.” I motioned for Jake to move away and he did, but the look on his face showed me he was still on guard and I appreciated that.

Steve didn’t say a thing, but Chris did, and when she spoke, I saw a touch of light in her eyes. “Angela, do you think you can talk to her? Maybe if you talk to her, she’ll come back? I talk to her all of the time, but I don’t feel her. I just want to make sure she’s okay. Please, Angela, can you try?”

I shuffled my feet. “Um, I’ve never done that before, but yeah, sure. I can try.” I looked over at Steve who just stared at me. “You going to be okay with this?”

He nodded curtly.

Even though I didn’t have a clue what to do, I closed my eyes and focused as hard as I could on Taylor. I forced myself to create an image of her in the clothes she wore the day she died, and the harder I tried, the clearer the image became. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I felt a cold brush of wind sweep over me. “Taylor."

“Tell them I’m here."

I opened my eyes and there she was, standing between her parents, a soft white glow surrounding her.

“It worked. She’s here.”

I could tell Jake heard the excitement in my voice but he kept quiet.

Both Chris and Steve stared. “Where,” Steve asked.

“She’s standing in between the two of you.” I glanced at Taylor, still wearing the same clothes she had on at the hospital and made a mental note to try to die in something comfortable, yet classy. I knew it wasn’t the first time I’d thought that too.

Her mother spoke. “Taylor, baby. Are you okay?” She started to cry.

Taylor smiled at me. “I’m fine. Tell her I’m fine and it’s beautiful there. I’m with Grandma and Grandpa. And Max. Tell my mom that Max is there, too.”

I repeated Taylor’s words. She fell back into Steve, whose eyes teared. “Max was Chris’s dog. He died over twenty years ago,” he said.

“Mrs. Panther, can you tell my daddy that I’m okay? He doesn’t have to change the house anymore. Stevie isn’t going do the things I did. He’ll be okay. Tell him not to worry.”

I told Steve and watched as his face softened. “I just thought if I took away all of the doors and made the space more open, I could watch over him. I can’t lose him, too.”

Taylor smiled at me. “Tell him he’s not going to. Stevie is going to grow up and live a long, happy life. Tell him I’m sorry for disappointing him. I just wanted to fit in, to be popular, but I should have been more like Emily. She never lets anyone pressure her.”

I repeated Taylor’s words to her parents, leaving out the part about Emily. She wanted them to know she would always be there and that every time they saw a butterfly, they were seeing her, and then she said she was going back to be with her grandparents and disappeared.

“I always said she was my little caterpillar and that one day she’d blossom into a beautiful butterfly,” Steve said.

Chris hugged me, and Steve, while still hesitant, apologized to both Jake and me. We made arrangements to help manage the crowd sure to be at the wake. A teenager should never die, but when they did, the whole city mourned. We all expected the wake to be packed.

And it was.

Jake and I were both hesitant to let Emily go to the wake but knew she’d push back if we said no. We knew it would be a double-edged sword and it was. She cried continuously, and after an hour, Jake decided to take her home. I stayed to help direct people in and out. The kids wanted to stay, hang out, and talk about Taylor, but with the help of the funeral home, we were able to keep the crowd contained and the drama to a minimum.

I never saw Taylor at the wake, but Ma showed up and I watched as she hovered between groups of kids, shaking her head often. I got her attention and gave her the head shrug for
follow me
and walked into a small office just outside of the visitation room.

“Are you snooping?”

“Hell yes, I’m snooping. How are we gonna get the real story if I don’t? It’s not like these kids are gonna tell any adult what really happened, you know.”

Ma was one smart celestial being. I hadn’t thought of that. “Good point." I saluted her. "Keep up the good work.”

We both went back to our assigned duties.

###

T
hat night I made Emily a cup of hot cocoa and snuggled with her under her covers.

“Mom, do you think Taylor is in Heaven?”

“Yes, honey, I do.”

“But she was doing something bad when it...when it happened, so what if she’s not?”

“Em, honey, I don’t think it works that way. Just because Taylor made a mistake doesn’t mean God won’t let her into Heaven.”

“Yeah, but that was a big mistake, and she didn’t have time to say she was sorry to God.”

“I think God gives everyone that chance, honey, and I don’t think he expects any of us to be perfect, including you and Taylor. And you know what? She wouldn’t want you to worry about her. She’d want you to be happy and live your life. She’d want you to continue on, for the both of you.”

“Yeah, she would. She gave me a hard time for not doing drugs, you know, but I just couldn’t. I was too scared. I knew it was wrong.”

“I’m so proud of you, Em. You made the right choice and I really don’t think Taylor was mad at you. I think maybe she was a little jealous because you were so strong and so smart about it and she wasn’t. Sometimes when we feel jealousy or feel bad about ourselves, it comes out as anger toward other people. Taylor loved you, Em. I think now, if she could, she’d tell you that you did the right thing by saying no.”

Emily snuggled into me. “I really miss her. I don’t know what I’m gonna do without her.”

I pulled my daughter into a hug, and squeezed her extra tight. I could feel her crying softly on my shoulder. “Emily, you’re going to be fine, I promise. It’s not going to be easy but I promise you, you’ll be okay. Stay true to yourself, continue to make the right choices, and do it for you and for Taylor. She’d want that. I know she wouldn’t want you to make the mistakes she made, so be strong for the both of you. You have other friends, and in time you’ll connect with someone the way you did with Taylor. Just give yourself some time and you’ll be okay.”

“I love you, Mom.”

I swallowed back the lump in my throat. “I know honey. I love you too.”

T
he funeral was a somber, sobering event. If tears could flood a cemetery, this one would have been knee deep in water. Chris screamed as they lowered Taylor’s coffin into the ground. I felt helpless and wished I could offer something, anything, to take away that pain.

I didn’t see Taylor anywhere but I sensed she was close by. I spoke to her quietly, asking her to help her mother find the strength to move forward and a few minutes later saw a butterfly fly past Chris. She saw it too and for a split second, I saw a tiny bit of joy in her expression.

Emily handled the funeral much better than the wake. She cried, but decided to focus on supporting the people around her, and even sat next to Chris, hugging her during the service. Emily may drive me to the brink of insanity, but she made me proud. She was far too young to have to deal with the emotional responsibility of death yet she handled it better than any adult I knew.

As we walked to our car, Ma appeared next to Emily and smiled at me. “She’s a good egg. She gets that from our side.”

I suppressed a giggle and Ma shimmered away.

Only a select few attended the after funeral luncheon at Taylor’s house. Several kids hung around outside, talking and supporting their friend in their own way, but they never tried to come in, and were surprisingly respectful of the family’s privacy. Brennan and the little snot didn’t show up. I knew Jake was watching for them, and I shuddered at the thought of what he would have done had they made an appearance.

I helped Chris’s parents put away the food and downed two Diet Cokes in the process. Big mistake. I drove the whole way home having to pee like a racehorse. I decided I would invent something for a pee emergency like this and be rich. As soon as I got home I ran to the bathroom to pee.

Ma appeared in front of me. “Ah Madone, these kids.”

“Cheese and rice, Ma, how many times do we have to talk about this? A sign, Ma. Give me a sign. Besides, can’t you see I’m taking care of some personal business here?" I zipped up my skirt.

“I gave birth to that body, I can sure as hell see it sittin’ on the pot.”

Couldn’t really argue with that. “Fine. Spill it.”

“Spill what?”

“Ma, you snooped at the wake so I know you were snooping at the funeral and you wouldn’t be here if you didn't have something to tell me, so go ahead, spill it.”

“I don’t know what this world is coming to, Angela. I’m glad I’m dead because one day those kids out there are gonna be running this world and it’s gonna fall apart. They’re not smart, you know. I feel bad for you, you’re gonna have to rely on them to take care of you when you’re old. You’re screwed.”

I fiddled with my eyelashes in the mirror. “Oh boy, Ma. Who peed in your Frosted Flakes?”

Ma growled at me. “They had another party, Angela. A pill party, in Taylor’s honor. Can you believe that? But I put a stop to it, I did. No more kids are gonna die on Fran’s watch, that’s for sure.”

Oh boy.

“Ma, what did you do?”

“Why do you always gotta assume I did something bad? Maybe what I did was good. Maybe I saved another kid from killin’ themselves, ya know?”

“Well, did you?”

She threw her hands up in the air. “Hell if I know. I can’t watch all of them, all of the time. Pfft. I’m only one celestial being, ya know.”

“I know mother, trust me, I know.”

“But I did make sure no one took any pills after I got there. That big bowl of them? It didn’t last long on that table. I feel sort of bad that the table broke. Wasn’t expecting that, actually, but at least the kids got scared off and I don’t think any of them are dead so that’s good.”

“What do you mean the table broke? And where was this party? Do you know who the kid was that had it?”

“Madone child, slow down with all the questions. The table, that was an unfortunate mishap, but it was ugly so that’s okay. I’m sure the parents won’t miss it. Who has glass tables in their family room anymore anyway? I thought those went out of style in the ’80s?”

“Ma, you had a glass table before you moved out of your house.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Only old people kept theirs because we couldn’t afford to buy those new wood ones with the fancy legs like you have. These people? Their house was nice. They had all kinds of expensive stuff. I felt like I was floating in a museum, the stuff was so nice. They could afford a nice wood table. Cherry, maybe, or even pine, but glass? Blech. It was ugly.”

“Stay on topic, Ma.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. So the table, well, it kind of exploded, but like I said, it was an accident.”

“Exploded?”

“Yeah, you see, when a celestial being like myself builds up the energy to move stuff, sometimes that energy misfires and breaks stuff when you just wanted to move it around a little, you know?”

“No, Ma. I don’t know. I’m not a celestial being, and I can’t make things move without using body parts so I need a little more detail, and please, be specific.” I could feel the stress building in my shoulders. I feared that by the time she finished telling me what happened, I’d look like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

“Chillax, Ang. I was being specific. Like I said, I accidently blew up the table instead of tossing the pill bowl in the air. So it scared the kids a little when the table glass went flying in pieces all over the place. They all ran out and that poor Evan boy, the one who had the party, he was screaming his lungs out when that table went flying like that. I gotta admit it was pretty darn funny to watch. Little snot, trying to make the girls take two and three pills at a time. If I weren’t such a good celestial being, I’d have tossed him flat on his ass because let me tell you. He deserved it.”