Chapter 2: I See Dead People

The next morning, I was up early, going through my seabags. I ditched the hospital gown in favor of a pair of jeans, a wrinkled, white western shirt and my tan ostrich skin cowboy boots. I found my cellphone and my billfold with my debit card and some cash.

After breakfast I shouldered the two seabags and walked out of the hospital. The doctor had given me his card just in case any ‘symptoms’ returned. He made a list of what I should watch for.

In front of the hospital, I was met by a taxi driven by a black woman. She had a funny haircut.

“Joe Keene?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’m Wilma, Scarlett’s friend.”

She opened the trunk of the cab and I threw my bags in. Then she opened the back door for me. There sat Scarlett!

As I got seated, she grabbed me! We hugged and kissed for about a minute. We separated and I stared into those green eyes. Then we started to kiss again, more passionately this time.

“Enough! I don’t want a cop pulling me over thinking I am transporting a crazy man! Wait until we get to my place!”

I sat back in the seat grinning. I started to say something when I looked in the rearview mirror. I was alone in the back seat!

“What the hell...”

I turned to look at Scarlett. She was sitting next to me! I looked back at the mirror. No Scarlett!

Scarlett’s hand touched my face.

Joe, I’m a spirit, a phantasma, a ghost.”

“You can’t be! You’re so real. I can touch you; you touch me. We made love! Wilma, you can see her, right?”

“Joe, I’m a medium. I see and talk to dead people.”

I found myself touching Scarlett’s hair as I looked into her eyes. My mind was running about 100 miles an hour when I noticed we had parked in front of a shop in a strip mall. The sign on the window reads, “Madam Wilma—Medium to the Stars. She sees all, she knows all.”

Scarlett waited by the front door as Wilma opened the trunk of the cab. After I retrieved my bags I asked, “You drive a cab on the side?”

“It helps pay the bills.”

When we were inside Wilma said she needed to continue her shift with the cab and left us alone.

Scarlett moved close and whispered in my ear, “She has microphones hidden everywhere. Tell me you want to go to lunch and we’ll go somewhere and talk.”

“I’m starved. Let’s walk down to the restaurant on the corner and have lunch.”

We locked the door and left. Scarlett would not let me hold her hand as we walked down the street to an Applebee’s. She said it would look weird. I am still trying to wrap my head around this ‘ghost’ thing.

The hostess led me to a table and Scarlett said for me to ask for a booth.

I did and was seated. Scarlett sat across from me.

“What would you like to eat?”

“Spirits don’t need to eat.”

“Cheap date.” I thought.

I ordered and as we waited, I asked what it is that she needs me to do.

“Joe, I, or we I should say, live in a house that was built almost 200 years ago. It, along with a section of land, has always been in my family. But sadly, our family has died out.”

“What do you mean?”

“Captain Merrill, my grandfather, died from wounds he received at the Battle of Shiloh. One of his sons was in the U.S. Calvary and was killed during the Indian Wars somewhere in Arizona. Another of his sons was with General Pershing during the Mexican Expedition and was killed near Colombus, New Mexico. His youngest son, my father was kicked by a mule and died. I had a cousin die in France during WW1. My son died in WW2, on an island in the Pacific.”

“Wait a minute. Your son died in World War 2? That would make you almost 100 years old!”

“I am 105 to be exact. I died giving birth to my second baby. He died with me.”

“You were married?”

“Of course I was. You don’t think I was a...”

“I’m sorry. Of course you were married. Where is your husband?”

“In hell. He was a gambler, a womanizer and a drunk. He was killed when he was caught cheating during a card game at a whore house in Memphis. I was pregnant with our second baby at the time.”