October 2023’s short story of the month

My options were dwindling by the minute. Right or wrong, I had to do something I couldn’t just wait this one out. I told my secretary to cancel all my appointments for the afternoon and slipped out the back door and into the alley. And sure enough, waiting for me there was another ghost with a list of demands.

“Okay, fine,” I said. “Follow me to my house and join the others. We’ll talk there.”

The ghost shrugged and followed me to my car.

At my house, the ghost drifted to join the others who were waiting for me to come home.

I stopped on the top step before opening the door.

I turned to face them all. They were lined up in the yard, most just milling about. Some were sitting on the porch swing or leaning against the porch railing.

“Okay. I see you all. I’m going to talk to you one at a time, so please be patient.” I moved to open the door and stopped again. “And please give me a minute. I need some coffee before we tackle all of this.”

I made the coffee slowly. I was in over my head. The problem with being able to talk to ghosts is that they all wanted my help. In order to help them though, I sometimes had to do some illegal things. When I’d been younger and my “power” had started, I’d helped them all, no matter what they needed.

I had to work hard to get my life back on track after several run-ins with the law. Law school had been challenging, and I’d avoided trouble for most of my life since then.

For the most part, if you ignore them, the ghosts will just go on about their business and bother someone else. Most of them liked to stay near people they knew anyway. However, once I spoke to one, the others found out and spread it around. And then, just like before, I would be swamped with a herd of ghosts who wanted my help. They were hard to ignore in mass.

The current gaggle of them on my lawn was my own fault. About ten days ago, I’d spoke to one when I’d walked across the cemetery after attending the funeral of a client.

As soon as I said, “Nice hat,” I wished I’d kept my mouth shut. She, of course, followed me home, and since then, one or two more had tracked me down each day.

The very first ghost I’d helped had been stuck in our place of existence for revenge. I helped. I shouldn’t have, but I did. It involved cutting some brake lines on a car. Not one of the proudest moments of my life, but that ghost had been able to rest in peace afterwards. Didn’t everyone deserve a chance to pass on? That’s how I reasoned it to myself.

I took a deep breath and poured my coffee. I settled at the kitchen table.

“Okay. One at a time,” I said to the empty hallway. Before long, the ghost from the cemetery appeared.

She stopped as she came into the kitchen and looked around. She didn’t seem impressed.

“It’s still a nice hat.” I watched her finally stop judging my house and make eye contact with me. “Why don’t you tell me what you need.” I pulled out a notebook and prepared for her to launch into her story.

The story was the most important part. Each ghost seemed to hold onto only one memory. They would recite it exactly the same way every time. For some reason, it was the only thing they clearly remembered, and it was always the key to figuring out what they needed to do to move on.

I waited for the ghost in the hat to start, but she stood with her hands folded one into the other and tapped her foot like she was waiting for me.

“Um, okay, well why don’t you tell me about yourself,” I said.

She nodded. “I was supposed to be buried in my diamonds.”

After that one sentence, she stopped talking. “Do you care to elaborate?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“Okay, so you expect me to help you because you were buried in the wrong jewelry?” I asked with a skeptical look on my face.

“I need those diamonds,” the ghost said.

I wasn’t actually that surprised. Greed was another common reason ghosts didn’t cross over. Usually the only requirement was for them to see the item again and they would find closure. Sometimes I had to put the item in their grave with them, and that got into a whole lot of issues. Opening graves was not my favorite thing to do.

“Do you know where the diamonds are?” I asked. At the same time, all I could think was that I hoped they were just sitting in her house in a safe or jewelry box.

“If they weren’t buried with me, like they were supposed to be, that means one of my sisters has them,” the ghost answered.

Well, damn it. This was going to be overly complicated. I rubbed my face in frustration. Why did I get involved?

“Okay, any idea which sister? I mean, how many do you have?”

“Five,” the ghost answered.

I sat back in my chair. “You have five sisters?” I asked in disbelief.

She nodded.

“Right, well. Let me talk to the others and see what they need, and I’ll circle back to you. This might take some time.” I made some notes on my paper. How was I going to figure out which sister and get the diamonds? Maybe I could just find the diamonds and then point the ghost toward them. She could haunt that sister for all eternity. It would save me a lot of trouble.

Most of the other ghosts had simpler demands. A few of them just wanted to leave messages to apologize to their loved one. Those were easy. I created fake emails at an internet café and made it seem like the deceased wrote them before they passed. In some cases, I would type letters and drop them in the mail from the post office closest to where the ghost had lived so their loved ones just assumed the letter had been delayed in the mail.

There was a couple who wanted to go to their favorite place again. They usually disappear as soon as they set foot on the place. The only reason they needed my help was they couldn’t remember how to find it.

I took care of the others in a routine manner and within a few days, I only had two that still needed my help. One of them was the ghost in the hat. She’d spent the whole week sitting in my living room waiting with her hands folded in her lap.

The other ghost had arrived that morning. All he wanted was to play basketball with his kid brother one more time. I was still working on how to accomplish that. I could direct him to where his brother was, and I could watch, but there wasn’t a way for him to actually play. I’d explained it to him, but he wasn’t giving in. I told him I’d think about it for a few days.

That left me with the hat ghost.

“Okay, it’s your turn again,” I said as I sat across from her in the living room. “Any idea where to start?”

At first, she just shakes her head, but then she gets a look in her eye like she’s thought of something. “Actually, we should start with Gertrude. She is most likely to have them. She was with me when I passed.”

“Well, that is actually helpful. Does she live around here?” I ask.

The next evening, I’m sitting outside her sister’s house trying to think of an excuse to knock on the door. I’m hoping I’ll get lucky, and she’ll just be wearing the diamonds and save me a lot of trouble.

The ghost in the hat hasn’t been helpful at all. She won’t tell me what would get her sister to answer the door.

I am tired of sitting there, so I grab an empty package from my car and act like I’m delivering it to her. I printed a fake label with her name and address.

I ring the doorbell and wait.

A woman who looks a lot like the ghost opens the door. “Can I help you?” she asks.

“I think I got this by mistake,” I say as I hand her the fake package.

“Okay. Thank you,” she says and closes the door.

Back in the car, I look at the ghost and try to hold in my anger. Her sister wasn’t wearing the diamonds, but I recognized her sister.

“You should have told me your sister is the mayor’s wife,” I yell as I drive us back to my house.