Chapter 12

“How do you get inside our bodies?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know,” Edward said. “It was the only time it happened and I didn’t plan it. It surprised me as much as it did you.”

“Let’s do what we did before. I’ll run into you. You were a cloud at the time. I didn’t see you, just the cloud. Can you become a cloud again and sort of wait for me to run into you? This time I won’t fight it.”

“I never thought of myself as a cloud. But okay. Let’s try.”

Edward transformed into what looked like a cloud and whisked to the middle of the room, just hovering there. Sam walked up to the swirling cloud. He hesitated and almost reached into the cloud to see what it felt like, but he jerked his hand back. He took a deep breath and released the air. It was now or never. He jumped into the cloud.

Sam felt Edward’s presence immediately, but unlike the last time when it had been unexpected, Sam was able to concentrate on what was happening. It was like two people sharing a body. He almost turned and bolted, but this is what Ashley wanted. While he was fighting the urge to resist, the feeling changed. He felt more in control. He sensed something inside him and knew it was Edward’s spirit, but that no longer frightened him. As he stood still, the cloud around him vaporized.

“I guess it worked,” Sam said to Ashley.

“All I see is you,” she said. “Where did Edward go?”

“I think he’s inside me.” Sam looked at Agnes. “Did you see what Edward did? I don’t know what he did after I walked into the cloud, but maybe you’ll just know when Ashley does it. Are you ready?”

“I’ve been waiting for almost two hundred years,” Agnes said. “I’ll never be more ready.”

Agnes’s body became wavy and soon she was a cloud that floated in front of Ashley. Sam saw Ashley raise her hand.

“Don’t touch it!” Sam shouted. And then in a softer voice, he said, “Just jump into it and don’t fight what is going to happen. Let Agnes enter your body. Hopefully she’ll know what to do.”

Sam saw the anxiety on his wife’s face. She chewed her bottom lip, staring at the cloud a foot from her. It was no longer the shape of a woman. Just a white cloud. The nervousness on Ashley’s face turned to determination right before she jumped into the cloud.

Sam watched the cloud spin around his wife like a tornado. Ashley could be seen inside it. Her arms were at her sides, her fingers clenched in fists. Her hair whipped around her head as if there were several fans blowing inside the cloud. Then her hair blew straight up. The cloud turned to mist and evaporated. Ashley’s hair dropped to her shoulders. The cloud was gone.

Sam rushed over to Ashley and grasped her hands in his two. “How do you feel?”

“I-I think she’s inside me.”

Sam lifted her hands to his mouth and kissed the back of first one and then the other. “I hope she felt that.”

“You kissing my hands?”

“No, Edward kissing hers.”

“Oh, Sam, I love you so much.”

Ashley flung her arms around Sam’s neck and pulled him to her. Their lips met and then their tongues. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight while they kissed passionately. Sam broke the kiss and scooped Ashley up in his arms.

“What are you doing?” Ashley asked.

“I’m taking you to our bedroom,” Sam said as he carried her out of Kimberly’s bedroom.

“Why?”

“To make love to you.”

“But we’re not alone,” Ashley said.

Now outside the master bedroom, Sam said, “It’s been too long. First Kimmy was in the next bed in the motel and then she was in our bed here when she was scared. I want to hold you, to make love to you.”

“But we’re not alone,” Ashley said when they were next to their bed. She put her mouth next to Sam’s ear and whispered, “The ghosts are inside us.”

Sam plopped down on the side of the bed with Ashley sitting sidesaddle in his lap. “If a few weeks without making love to you has been so hard for me, imagine what a couple of hundred years would be like? I don’t know if Edward and Agnes can feel any of this, or even know what’s happening, but I hope so. I hope they feel the love I have for you. I believe that’s the love he had for his wife. Has for his wife.”

“So you want him to feel you making love to me?”

“No, I want him to feel making love to his wife. She’s inside you.”

“Is that possible?”

“I have no idea. But that’s the reason they are inside us. To feel each other physically by using our bodies. Will it work? I have no idea. I don’t even know if they can hear us. I let them in our bodies for them, but I want to make love to you for us. Please don’t say no.”

Ashley cupped Sam’s face in both hands and pressed her lips to his. He was about to push his tongue into her mouth when hers entered his. He swiped at her tongue. The contact sent shivers through him. He loved her so much and had missed the physical contact.

Sam dropped onto his back with his feet still on the floor, pulling Ashley down with him. Their lips never separated. Their tongues never stopped touching. The only difference was that one of Ashley’s hands went from Sam’s cheek to the back of his head to keep his mouth on hers.

Sam rolled Ashley onto her back with him on top. Now that he was fully on the bed, her body molded into his. He wanted her so much. It had been too long. He pulled his mouth off hers in order to plant kisses all over her face and neck. He couldn’t get enough of kissing her. Ashley giggled at first, but then she moaned and purred. She clawed his back with fierce desire as she ripped his shirt over his head.