Chapter 2

I could see Beth was working herself up to do something she really didn't want to.

"Tommy, will you take me up to that house?"

"The one on the north end of the island?" I watched as she nodded and saw she was gnawing on her bottom lip—a sure sign she really didn't want to do it.

"How about tomorrow? It's getting kind of late." I looked out the window and saw the sun nearing the horizon. "Unless you really want to do it tonight."

I saw her shudder as she shook her head. "No, let's wait, but I want to see if there's anything to what Cecily said."

"You don't really think that was Cecily Fitzhugh ... do you?"

"Tommy, I don't believe in ghosts!" Oh, really? I thought.

The next morning was a perfect day to prowl around an abandoned—and possibly haunted—building: cloudy and windy, with rain threatening.

I had pulled one of the ATVs out of the garage and grinned when Beth got on behind me. From the way she wrapped her arms around me, trying to squeeze me in half, I could tell her courage was slipping.

We'd just started up the path when we saw one of the young kids from yesterday walking toward us.

"Hi, Jimmy." I saw the twinge of irritation on the young boy's face when I said that and remembered his sigh of exasperation when his mother called him yesterday. "Excuse me, Jim. How are you this morning?"

"Oh, okay, I guess.

"Can I ask you a question? Why do people call you Tommy?"

"Because that's my name," I replied.

"Yeah, but you're a grownup. Shouldn't they call you Tom 0r Thomas? I hate it when people call me Jimmy. I'm not a little kid anymore!"

"Hmmm ... I guess everybody's always called me Tommy and I'm just used to it. But I can see how it can bug you. It's tough when people don't realize you've grown up, isn't it?"

"Yeah," the eight year old replied.

"There's one advantage of being called Tommy: when somebody uses my real name I know I'm in trouble and if they use all three of them, I'm really in trouble."

"Does your mother do that a lot?"

I just chuckled. "No, she's pretty much turned that job over to this beautiful lady here."

Damned elbow! Jim just giggled.

"Have you seen Cecily this morning?" Leave it to my lady to come right to the point when something was on her mind

"No ... I walked up to the house and it didn't look like anybody was there. I can't figure out how she could live there—it's a dump!"

"How long have you known her?"

"Just since yesterday. I was just walkin' around and she was sittin' on a rock by the path and we just started talkin'."

"So you'd never seen her before?"

"Nope. I dunno what's goin' on. What do you think? I mean where'd she get those weird clothes, and she just seems ... I dunno, different."

"Jim, I really don't know. Did she say anything about how long she'd been down here or where she lives when they're not here?" I could hear the frustration in Beth's voice.

He just shook his head. "Are you going up there?" he asked.

"Yeah, I want to see what it looks like," Beth replied.

"Are you going to go inside?" When Beth nodded I saw him shiver. "You've got more guts than I do. I'm never goin' near that place again!"

As Jim walked off Beth and I looked at each other.

"You still want to go up there?" I asked her.

"Yes I do. Tommy, I'm going to be an engineer. Engineers are rational people, we don't believe in stuff like ghosts!"

As we got closer to the old house Beth's grip started to tighten again. I stopped the ATV outside the gate and looked at the house. What had been a beautiful Victorian was now a ruin. Time and the salt air had reduced it to a shadow of what must have been a beautiful home ... a hundred years before.

As we stood just outside the gate I glanced at Beth. Her bottom lip wasn't long for this world if she kept gnawing it.

"Are you ready for this?" I asked.

"No, but let's do it anyway. Tommy, if I don't look it'll always bother me."

The gate was hanging from one hinge. I lifted it and pulled it open. The rusted metal squealed like a lost soul. I heard Beth take a deep breath. As she started up the overgrown path to the front door the brambles tugged at her jeans as if to stop her.

Half the steps to the porch were gone, the other half mostly rotted through. As we picked our way to the front door I could only think of the old horror movies we'd watched together, and started to think maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

The front door was unlocked and opened with another lost-soul squeal. Just past the entry hall was a large room—a room with wallpaper hanging down, draping the furniture against the walls. The floor, and what must have been an oriental rug, was littered with big chunks of plaster from the ceiling. As we stood there, wondering if the floor would hold us, or dump us through into who-knew what, it was obvious that nobody was living in the house and hadn't for years. Ever since 1912, maybe?

"Tommy, nobody lives here," Beth whispered as she looked around, almost as if she was expecting to see a young girl beckoning to us.

"So do you want to look around some more?"

"Well..."

Physicists say teleportation is probably impossible. I know better—one second Beth was standing next to me and the next, without so much as a yelp or the pop of displaced air, she wasn't.

I'd been looking the other way when she did her disappearing act. Out of the corner of my eye I'd seen a bird—a pigeon or a gull, I didn't know which—fly across the room and suddenly I was in the house by myself.

I looked out the door and saw my lady standing on the far side of the ATV, looking like she'd seen one of the ghosts she didn't believe in. Obviously our exploring trip was over. I wasn't spooked like my lady, but, being the gentleman I was, I didn't want to leave her out there by herself, so I backed out and carefully closed the door. Why? I don't know. Maybe to put a barrier between us and whatever might have been inside? I walked back down the path and through the gate. I didn't bother trying to close the gate.

"Are you okay?" I asked Beth as she wrapped her arms around me.

"T-Tommy, what was that?"

"Just a bird. It must have gotten in through a broken window or something."

"Oh, God, I've never been so scared." She must have been. I'd never felt her shaking like she was at that moment.

"Okay, repeat after me, 'I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks. I do, I do, I do.'"

"Dammit, Tommy, that's not funny!" she said as she beat her fists against my chest, tears running down her face. "Just leave me alone!" With that, she pulled away from me and ran back down the path.

So much for trying to lighten the mood.

I was ready to hop on the ATV and follow her, but I'd learned there were times it was just better to leave things alone. I'd learned the hard way that sometimes apologies didn't help but time would. I sat on the machine and stared at the house. What was its secret? Had it belonged to the Fitzhugh family, and why didn't anybody know the story? Eventually, I gave up trying to put my finger on just what it was about the place that made it so spooky. I'd seen abandoned houses before, but there was just something about this one...

With a sigh, I started the ATV and slowly drove back to the beach house. When I got there I saw no sign of my lady. I put the machine in the garage, walked down to the beach, and just stared out at the water. Had I seriously fucked up ... again?

Some uncounted number of eons later I felt a pair of arms wrap around me.

"Tommy, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you. It's just that this whole thing has me spooked. I mean, engineers are supposed to be rational people, not the kind that believe in things like ghosts. God, next I'll be consulting a Ouija board!"

I turned around so I could embrace her. "Beth, just because something can't be explained rationally doesn't mean you're crazy."

"I know, it's just that things like that scare me. The world's supposed to be a sane, rational place!"

It is? When did that happen?

"Beth, if the world was as sane and rational as you'd like would we be together like this? I mean the quiet, rich girl and the theatre geek? Just accept that there are some things that can't be explained by your philosophy, Horatio."

That got a giggle out of my lady. "Oh, I guess you're right. It's just that..."

I put a finger over her lips. "Remember, we're supposed to be on vacation? Just forget you're a rational going-to-be-engineer and I'll stop misquoting Shakespeare. Deal?"

That got me a nod and a kiss.

When we went to bed that night Beth cuddled back against me and pulled my arm around her. My hand found its favorite resting place cradling her breast. "Tommy, promise to keep me from going nuts about this. Please?"

I promised and kissed the back of her neck, then held her until she relaxed in sleep. Now if I could only figure out who—or what—Cicely Fitzhugh really was.

Late Saturday afternoon we were waiting on the dock as Bob nudged the buffers of the Lady Suzanne to within an inch of the dock.

"You guys ready to party?" Bob asked as we boarded.

"You bet!" replied Bath as she spun around in her brand new bright yellow sundress. Her twirl caused the dress's short skirt to whirl out and showed that she was color-coordinated right down to her panties.

Bob just looked at me and winked.

Sue came out of the cabin wearing what looked to my eye to be an identical dress, except in pink. I didn't check her panties.

Sue grabbed my lady's hand and they disappeared into the cabin as Bob pulled away from the dock and pointed the Chris-Craft's bow toward open water.

We were seated as soon as we got to the club—there are definite advantages to being with well-established locals.

When our server asked what we'd like to drink both Beth and I asked for Cokes, which got us a funny look from Sue. "What's with you guys? I mean, this is supposed to be a fun night and you guys order Cokes?"

Beth looked as if she wanted to sink through the floor. "Well ... um ... you see ... well, I'm not going to drink any more. Last time I kind of ... er..." She ran down.

"Oh," replied Sue with a knowing grin. "Like that, huh?"

Beth just examined her tightly knotted fingers and nodded.

"Hey, that's happened to all of us at one time or another," Bob said. "You just have to learn your limits."

"Nope, I'm never going to drink again!"

"Never?" Bob looked at her incredulously.

"Nope, never," she replied with a firm shake of her head.

Bob and Sue just exchanged grins.

After we looked through the menu and ordered I couldn't stand it any more.

"Have you guys ever heard of a Fitzhugh family from around here? Either William or Christopher?"

"No, the name doesn't ring any bells," Bob said as he cocked an eyebrow at his wife. "How about you?"

"No. Why?" she said, turning to me.

We told them about meeting Cicely and our adventure at the house.

"And you think this Cicely is, what, a ghost?" Bob was wearing a skeptical look, almost as if he was waiting for the punch-line of a shaggy dog story.

"I don't know what to think," I said.

Sue looked at Beth. "And how about you?"

My lady looked miserable. "I don't know what to think any more either! I don't care what Tommy says, I DON'T believe in spooks, I don't, I don't, I don't!"

It was at that moment that our server walked over and, unannounced, set Beth's plate in front of her. Unfortunately, Bob was just taking a sip of his drink when Beth let out a yelp of surprise, levitated out of her chair and just missed turning a tray full of food into a UFO.

So there we were—Bob's drink sprayed all over the table, Beth standing there with a look that was a combination of surprise and humiliation with maybe a bit of fear tossed in, leaving Sue and me trying not to look at each other, sure that we would break up in the face of unbelievable temptation if we made eye contact. Oh, and a server who obviously came from a long line of circus jugglers.

The manager was right there ready to tear our server a new one until Bob assured him it wasn't the girl's fault. Since the place was only half full moving us to another table wasn't a problem.

Re-seated and re-provisioned, we all had a good laugh over what had happened. Even Beth chuckled about her reaction as she destroyed her lobster.

"Tommy, you said Jimmy was the boy from the place west of you? I know that family has a lot of kids. Is it possible it was one of his sisters pulling your leg? I know most of his sisters are younger, but he does have one who's older."