3 Ghosts of Our Fathers (11 page)

“That’s what Daniel said they
would do,” Steven answered.

“Then Daniel is off in one of a
billion different moments. When you remove the parasites, he’ll lose his
ability to move to different moments. He’ll be stuck in whatever moment he’s in
when you remove them.”

Roy and Steven looked at each
other. It seemed plausible.

“We’ve got to bring him back to our
present moment,” Eliza said, “
then
remove the parasites. Any other way
and you’ve just trapped him in oblivion for the rest of his life.”

“And another problem,” Roy said,
“is that he’s comatose. He can’t drink anything.”

“I can inject it down his feeding
tube,” Eliza said. “Once it hits his stomach, it’ll be as though he drank it.”

“OK,” Steven said, “let’s suppose
we have him all salved up and we’re ready to go with the protection. All we
need to do is find a way to bring him into the present, and once he’s here,
Eliza shoots the protection down his gullet. The insects emerge and he
recovers. The only thing we need is a way to bring him to the present.”

“What would pull him back from
wherever he is?” Eliza asked. “There must be a way.”

“Let me keep scouring the book,”
Roy said. “I’ll start looking for something time-related, things about other
dimensions, the present tense, that kind of thing. See if something turns up.”

“Can either of you think of anyone
who might have ideas about this?” Steven asked. “Someone else with some
expertise that we might be able to bring in to help? What about the directory,
Roy?”

“I’ll check it,” Roy said. Roy
flipped to the section of his book that listed out the various people he and
his progenitors had come across over the years.

“Unfortunately, Daniel was the
best time man I know,” Eliza said.

“What about Dixon?” he asked Roy.

“Dixon’s specialty is patterns,
not time,” Roy said.

“Albert?” Steven asked.

“I don’t mind trying Albert if we
can’t find something on our own,” Roy said. “He’ll charge to hook us up.”

“Isn’t it worth paying?” Steven
said. “Daniel’s life is on the line here.”

“Oh, I don’t mind paying,” Roy
said. “It’s not that. I don’t know how much Eliza might have in savings, but I
guarantee you Albert would cost us more than you and I have combined, son.”

“Why don’t we go about getting the
materials we’ll need for the salve and the protection,” Eliza said, “and think
more on this. Let Roy have some time with the book. Something might emerge.”

“All right,” Steven said, not
entirely sure he was willing to drop the possibility of using Albert.

“Roy, will you transcribe out
those two recipes?” Eliza asked. “We can get started on them.”

Roy turned back to the pages on
parasites and asked Steven for a pen and pad of paper. When he was done he
looked over the list.

“The protection recipe is simple
enough,” he said. “Ingredients are all common. In fact I think my own
protection would probably work, but let’s make this up as directed in order to
be sure.” He handed the list to Eliza, who looked it over approvingly.

“This recipe for the salve,
though, will be a little more challenging,” he said. “All the ingredients are
easy enough, except one: ghost matter. I don’t have any, never have. Do you
Eliza?”

“No,” she said. “Never cared to
have it around. Too volatile.”

“Jurgen dealt in ghost matter,”
Steven said. “Maybe…”

“No way,” Roy said. “I’ll go
collect it from a ghost myself before I deal with that ratfuck again.”

“Well,” Eliza said, “that might be
what we’ll have to do. Go collect it. Anyone know a place where we can get
ghost matter?”

Steven, Eliza and Roy all smiled
at each other. It was a light moment in an otherwise rough day.

“I’ll go,” Steven said. “Eliza,
you’re the only one who knows how to keep Daniel going, will you stay here with
him?”

Eliza nodded. “I’ll call Claire
and ask her to meet you at Mason Manor. If you want her along, that is.”

“I would love to have her help,”
Steven said. “Dad, will you stay and keep working on the present moment problem?
Even if I bring back some ghost matter, it won’t do us any good if we can’t
figure out how to pull Daniel back to us.”

“I’m on it,” Roy said.

“By the way,” Steven asked them,
“do either of you know how to collect ghost matter?”

Steven was an hour outside of Salem
when he got the call from Roy.

“It’s good news,” Roy said. “I
think we have a method to bring him back to the present.”

“That’s great!” Steven said. “What
is it?”

“Well, it’s rather extreme. And
it’ll change things for Daniel, permanently. But it might save him.”

“Tell me what it is, Dad.”

Roy sighed. “The book calls it a
fusing. It’s like a possession. I ran across it entirely by accident, since
being in the present is just a side effect of it. If we fuse another soul to
Daniel’s, his soul will be returned to the present for the process. We’ll be
able to drive the parasites out while that’s happening.”

“Fuse a soul?” Steven asked.
“What’s the impact to Daniel of that?”

“He’ll be possessed, so to speak.
His body will host two souls, his own, and the fused one.”

“Any way to un-fuse it once it’s
done?” Steven asked.

“Not that I’ve found,” Roy said.
“I think it’s a one-way ticket.”

Steven thought about this. Daniel
was unable to voice his opinion in the matter. Perhaps it was something Daniel
could live with, even find valuable to his studies. Then again it might make
him miserable for the rest of his life.

“What does Eliza think?” Steven
asked.

“She’s for it,” Roy said.
“Anything is better than the state he’s in now.”

“I can think of some states that
might be worse,” Steven said. “We’d better fuse the right soul; he’s going to
be stuck with them for a long time. How do you even find a soul for this?”

“Ghosts are candidates,” Roy said.
“They’re usually sticking around for a reason. I thought I’d try Sam, see if
he’d agree to it. They seemed to have a rapport and have common interests. I’m
going up there today and talk to him, present the idea to him.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Steven said.
“How does it work once we’ve got a candidate?”

“Too long to explain over the
phone. This is long distance. I’ll tell you when you’re back. Good luck down
there.”

Steven didn’t want to get into an
argument with his father over flat rate mobile phone calls. Roy had grown up in
an era when every minute on a phone was expensive, and old habits die hard. He
let it drop.

“I’ll let you know how it goes,”
Steven said, and hung up.

-

The stretch south of Portland
seemed endless to Steven. When he finally pulled up to Mason Manor, it was
close to 10 p.m. He recognized Claire’s Volkswagen in the parking lot. Claire
was a friend of Eliza’s who lived nearby. She had helped Pete and Sarah deal
with the ghosts in the manor before.

The rest of the parking lot was
full; the place must be packed. He smiled as he walked to the entryway.

Pete and Sarah met him at the
door. Pete took Steven’s bag from his shoulder and placed it on his own. Steven
and Roy had helped Pete and Sarah rid their establishment of an invader that
was killing their guests, and in the process had come to discover that the
manor was thoroughly haunted. The ghosts became a tourist attraction, and Pete
and Sarah’s business had been saved from bankruptcy. When Steven called, asking
if he and Claire might get rooms for the night and do a little exploring in the
manor’s basement, Pete and Sarah immediately agreed.

“Steven, come in,” said Sarah. “We
were just visiting with Claire in the sitting room.”

They walked into a beautifully
furnished room adjacent to the entryway. Claire rose from a loveseat and walked
over to Steven, shaking his hand.

“It was good of you to come,”
Steven said.

“You don’t have to twist my arm to
get me to visit this place,” Claire said, her curls bouncing around her head as
she talked. “I love it here.”

“The parking lot looks full,”
Steven said to Pete and Sarah.

“We’ve been running ninety
percent,” said Pete, smiling. “Ever since you and Roy solved our little
problem.”

“I hope Claire and I aren’t
kicking someone out of their rooms,” Steven said.

“No,” Sarah said, “we had two
left, so it worked out perfectly.”

They all sat down in the
furniture. “I’ll take this along to your room when you’re ready to go up to
it,” Pete told Steven, setting his bag down by the chair he sat in.

“I’m worried,” Claire said to Steven.
“Eliza didn’t sound good on the phone. She said this was quite urgent.”

“I’m afraid it is,” Steven said.
He relayed Daniel’s condition to the group, and then backtracked and gave them
the whole story. Pete watched him intently as he told the story, looking as
though he was witnessing the most riveting movie he had ever experienced.

“I normally wouldn’t have anything
to do with collecting ghost matter,” said Claire, “since I think it’s a
disgusting practice and very disrespectful to the ghosts. But for Daniel I’m
willing to try.”

“Is this dangerous?” Pete asked,
his voice rising. “It sounds like it might be dangerous.”

“I’m hoping we can find a willing
ghost,” Steven said. “I’ve never done it before, but I’ve had the process
explained to me. The ghosts here had been harvested before, and they weren’t
happy about it. I’m hoping we can find one who’ll be sympathetic to our cause.”

“How do you intend to do it?”
Sarah asked.

“The basement,” said Steven.
“They’re plentiful down there. Claire and I will go down, one of us will enter
a trance and see if we can communicate with one of them. If we find a willing
donor we’ll collect the material and I’ll be on the road back to Seattle first
thing tomorrow morning.”

“Steven is making it sound simpler
than it is,” Claire said. “Few things irritate a ghost more than having its
matter removed. Even if they’re giving it up willingly, ghosts are very
unpredictable and can change their minds on a dime. This will be tricky.”

“I’ll have to defer to your
opinion,” Steven said, “since I’ve never done it before. I just know that if we
don’t get some, we’ll never be able to revive Daniel. He’ll be comatose
forever, until his body gives out.”

Claire looked down at the floor
and nodded her head. “We’ll find a way to get some,” she said. “Somehow.”

“Pete,” Steven said, “I don’t know
how long this might take. If you don’t mind, I’d like to unpack and then get
started with Claire. Hopefully we’ll be done quickly, and I’ll meet you all for
breakfast.”

“Of course,” Pete said, rising from
his chair and grabbing Steven’s bag.

“Really, I can carry the bag,
Pete,” Steven said.

“Are you kidding?” Pete said.
“After all you’ve done for us, you’ll never carry a bag in this establishment.
I’ve got your key right here. You’re in the north wing.”

Steven smiled and turned to
Claire. “I’ll meet you back here in fifteen minutes? And we’ll get started?”

“I’ll be here,” Claire said.

-

When Steven saw the room Pete was
taking him to, he let out a groan.

“Something wrong?” Pete asked.

“No, it’s just this room,” Steven
said, “I know what happened in it. I met the ghost.”

“I’m sorry, Steven, I didn’t
know,” Pete said. “It’s the only room left.”

“Don’t worry, Pete, I’ll deal with
it,” Steven said. “You’re doing me a huge favor just putting me up.”

“What happened in this room?” Pete
said, opening the door with the key and walking inside.

“There’s a ghost in here who
wanders the room, moaning about a man – her husband, or lover, I don’t know –
and after she works herself up into a frenzy, she pulls out a revolver and
blows her brains out. They hit there,” Steven said, pointing to the spot on the
wall where he’d seen the apparition’s blood splatter.

Pete stared at the spot Steven was
pointing at. It looked fine, without a blemish. His face slowly lost color as he
imagined the event. “Oh no,” he said, “is it going to keep you up all night?”

“No,” Steven said, “I doubt I’ll
see her, unless I go into the River.”

“The River?” Pete asked.

Steven sighed. He was tired, and he’d
slipped up and said too much.

“It’s a way of seeing things
differently. A flow of things you don’t normally see.”

“Oh, your gift,” Pete said. “It
has to do with your ability.”

“Yes,” Steven said. “That’s how I
saw her in the first place. If I don’t go into that flow, I probably won’t see
or hear her at all. It really isn’t a problem, Pete. It just creeps me out a
little, knowing what she does in here.”

“It creeps me out too,” Pete said.
“That’s not one of the stories in
The Ghosts of Mason Manor.
Maybe I
should have the author contact you, so we could list it in the next edition.”

“Sure, Pete,” Steven said, wanting
to unpack and get back down to Claire. “Next edition. I’d better get a move on
if I’m going to meet Claire.”

“Oh yes, here’s your key, good
luck to the both of you. I’ve left the basement unlocked. I’ll see you both at
breakfast in the morning, right? Seven a.m. in the dining room.”

“Yes, I remember,” Steven said.
“Thanks for your help, Pete. See you then.”

Pete left the room and closed the
door. Steven placed his bag on the bed and removed a thin object wrapped in
leather. He tucked it into his back pocket, grabbed a flashlight from his bag, double
checked that he had the room key, and left the room to return to Claire.

-

Steven and Claire descended the
stairs into the basement. The manor was silent; all guests had turned in for
the night.

“I’ve met a couple of the ones
down here,” Steven said, “and they’re intense. One was a little girl who killed
her parents. The other was a man with an ax.”

“Hmm,” said Claire. “Neither
sounds promising.”

“No,” Steven said, leading Claire
to the spot where Roy had gone into a trance and Steven had seen the portal.
“We could use some new ones. How should we do this?” Steven removed the leather
pouch from his back pocket.

“Is that it?” Claire asked.

“Yes,” Steven said. He unwrapped
it. It looked like wooden tube, about an inch thick. On one side there was a
hole in the tube. Next to the hole a rock was worked into the wood. The rock
was thick with minerals that looked like crystals.

“Nasty device,” Claire said. “I
had hoped to never use one.”

“I’m thinking maybe the way to do
this is for you to conduct the trance, see if you can find a willing donor,”
Steven said. “Once you find them, I’ll collect the matter.”

“By scraping them with that
blade,” Claire said.

“Yes, I believe that’s how it’s
done, based on what Roy told me.”

“How will you know if you’ve
collected enough?” Claire asked.

“Roy said if I filled half of this
tube we’d have enough.”

“Can you imagine if I asked you to
fill half that tube with your flesh?” Claire said.

“No, I can’t,” Steven said. Claire
was starting to get on his nerves.

“It’s barbaric,” Claire said.

“It’s for Daniel,” Steven said.
“Trust me, I wouldn’t be down here otherwise.”

Claire shot him an unhappy but
resigned glance and placed her hands at the side of her head, her fingers
touching her temples. Steven realized she was starting her trance. He watched
silently as she rubbed the sides of her head as though she had a headache.
After a while her head began to tilt, and she abruptly opened her eyes.

“The ghosts here are far too evil
to talk to,” she said. “None of them are going to help us. Let’s try another
room.”

They walked together to the next
room. The basement was a series of open rooms, housing the water heaters and
furnaces of the manor. It also held Pete’s workshop. They walked up to it, and
Claire stopped to try a trance again. She went through the same routine. After
several minutes, she spoke.

“Steven, I think you should see
this.”

Steven entered the flow and saw
Claire in her trance, surrounded by a thin membrane. Claire pointed to a man
who was strapped to a wall. As Steven watched, another figure materialized,
holding a metal rod. The end of the rod was glowing red, as though it had been
resting in a fire. The man brought the glowing rod up to the body of the
strapped man and pressed it into his flesh. Steven saw it sink deeply into the
man’s skin. The strapped man let out an ungodly howl.

“Where’d you bury it?” the man
with the rod asked. “You’ve got a lot of skin left to burn off, Williams, and
I’ve got all night.” He raised the glowing end again and held it by the man’s
face. The strapped man turned his head from the heat, and the man with the rod
touched it to the strapped man’s ear. It sizzled and turned black under the
rod.

Steven turned his head away.
None
of these people are going to help us,
he heard Claire think.
They’re
degenerates.

Steven exited the flow and Claire
came out of her trance.

“We’ve got to keep trying,” Steven
said.

“I’ll try the whole basement if
you want,” Claire said, “but I’m not hopeful.”

They moved to another area and
Claire went into a trance again. She was only in it a minute when she abruptly
opened her eyes and began walking into another area.

“What’s wrong?” Steven asked.

“A woman,” Claire said. “Extremely
evil. I can’t be around that.”

Steven sighed. He didn’t know if
Claire was telling him the truth or exaggerating. He followed her as she
rounded a corner. Steven recognized the area as the spot where he, Pete, and
Roy had dug up some gold through a hole in the wall. He shined his flashlight
on the wall and couldn’t see where the hole had been made.
Admirable patch
job,
he thought.

Claire closed her eyes. Once again
her hands went up to her temples, and she rubbed. This went on for several
minutes before she began to cry.