Authors: Jacqueline Smith
“Oh no,” Kate said.
“Don’t get me wrong, going out with him was a lot of fun, but there was nothing romantic about it.”
“Really?” Michael couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
He’d seen the way Kate had reacted to Luke and his obnoxious advances. She’d been pretty quick to tell him how “very single” she was. Now she was acting like he was just another guy. Had she really been so disenchanted by one evening? Or was that just a girl thing?
“Really,” Kate assured him.
“But you were so excited to meet him.”
“Well yeah, he’s Luke Rainer.”
“But you don’t want to date him?”
Kate raised a curious eyebrow. Michael knew instantly that he’d gone too far.
“Michael, were you jealous?” she asked, her face breaking into a playful grin.
“No,” he answered a little too quickly.
“I mean, not technically - well - I - maybe a little... I mean - “ Before he could utter another unintelligible syllable, something (or Brink) shoved him forcefully in the back. Caught completely off guard, Michael could do nothing but flail as he flew face forward into the water. He surfaced seconds later, coughing and sputtering.
“Are you alright?” Kate laughed.
“Yeah, just lost my balance,” he replied, wiping the water out of his eyes.
Behind him, he could hear Brink howling with obnoxious laughter. “Guess I’ll have to take another shower.”
“Yeah.
Can’t go ghost hunting smelling like chlorine,” Kate said with a quick grin. Michael sighed.
“Do you really want me to go?”
“I really do.
I think it will be fun. Besides, Luke told me how much you’d always wanted to.”
Oh, that Luke.
Always thinking of others. Now he really didn’t have a valid excuse not to go. Well, unless he wanted to tell her the truth.
“So will you go?” Kate asked.
He knew he should say no.
Agreeing to accompany them would be reckless, stupid. It could potentially throw a huge monkey wrench into his lifelong crusade of remaining completely anonymous. But just like with Gavin’s birthday party, he knew he would end up going with them. Just because she’d asked him to.
“Sure.
Count me in.”
“Well, look who’s finally going ghost hunting,” Luke grinned as Michael clamored into the backseat of the Lexus that he’d bought his parents for their anniversary. “You excited, Mikey?”
“Oh, I’m having fun already,” Michael remarked.
They hadn’t even pulled out of the apartment complex, and Michael was already thinking he should have backed out when he’d had the chance.
“Where’s the Ferrari?”
Kate asked from the front seat.
“Couldn’t fit all the equipment in the trunk,” Luke explained, turning the stereo up.
The theme from
Ghostbusters
blared through the speakers. Luke began bobbing his head to the beat.
“Are you serious?” Michael asked.
“What?
It’s a classic,” Luke said. Michael rolled his eyes. Kate just laughed. “So Kate, did you tell Mikey about our friend, Trevor?”
“Who’s Trevor?”
“Trevor’s our ghost!” Kate explained, twisting around in her seat so that she was facing Michael.
“How do you know his name?” Michael asked stupidly before realizing that the more
normal
response would have been, “You have a ghost?”
“We conducted an EVP session in my living room.”
“You should have been there, Mikey.
Maybe you could have told us what he looked like,” Luke remarked. Michael felt his blood freeze in his veins. He stared at Luke like a deer in the headlights.
“What do you mean?” Kate asked.
“I’m just joshin’ with him. Right, Mikey?” Luke glanced back at Michael through the rear-view mirror and grinned. Michael made a feeble attempt to laugh it off, but inside, he was fuming. Why did Luke have to say stuff like that? Why couldn’t he get it through his thick head that if Michael wanted the world to know about the ghost thing, he would have opened up about it a long time ago?
Right before they reached downtown, Luke pulled into a QuikTrip convenience store to stock up on snacks and batteries.
“You never know when a ghost is going to drain your energy or your camera’s energy, so you have to be prepared for everything,” he explained, leading Kate and Michael through the aisles loaded with candy, chips, and an abundance of other snacks.
“I’ve always loved these roadside stores,” Kate said, checking out the price on a bag of Trail Mix.
“How come?” Michael asked.
“Well for one thing, they’re full of cheap junk food,” she grinned, grabbing a bag of beef jerky and tossing it into their ever-growing pile of snacks. “For another thing, whenever you stop at them, you’re on a road trip or about to go spend the day somewhere fun and exciting. I remember in high school, we took a day trip to Waco to visit the Dr. Pepper Museum - ”
“Seriously?” Michael asked.
He wished his high school had been that cool.
“Yeah, it was awesome.
But my favorite part of that trip was stopping at the gas station right before we left and splurging on chips and candy.” She added a bag of M&M’s to their smorgasbord. “The free Dr. Pepper was good too.”
They paid for their food and 32-ounce cups of soda (or in Luke’s case, tea), and were about to head out the door when Kate told them that she was going to run to the restroom before they hit the road again.
Michael offered to take her drink and her snacks to the car.
“So are you going to tell her?” Luke asked once they were outside.
“That you like her, I mean. Not that you talk to dead people. Though if you want to ask her out, you’re going to have to tell her eventually. That’s not the kind of thing you can just keep to yourself - ”
“Do you
ever
stop talking?” Michael growled under his breath.
“Well, I do host a television show for a living, so you tell me,” Luke said.
“Pretty clever, getting her to ask you to come tonight, right? I knew you wouldn’t say no to her. I guess you’re just kind of pathetic that way. Of course, I wouldn’t want
my
girl alone with a guy like me either.”
“She’s
not
my girl.”
“Right.
Hate to break it to you Mikey, but you’re a lot easier to read than you think you are. Speaking of, way to be subtle in the car. You know, when I mentioned you being able to tell us what Trevor looked like? If I didn’t already know you could see ghosts, that reaction would have given you away in a heartbeat. Word to the wise, next time, act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Or at least remain neutral. Anything’s better than acting like I just spilled your deepest, darkest secret to the girl of your dreams. Which I guess technically, I did, but - ”
“Alright boys, let’s hit the road!” Kate interrupted, striding over to them.
“Where’re the Cheeto Puffs?”
Thirty minutes and a dozen bad 1980’s power ballads later, they’d made it through downtown (and about half the snacks) and were headed south to Waxahachie.
Michael had only been once, when a group of friends from college had decided to spend a weekend at the Renaissance Faire there.
“So what’s the plan for tonight?” Kate asked Luke once the latest 80’s classic had faded out.
“I was thinking of putting you in charge of the digital recorder since you mastered the art the other night.
I brought the SB7 also, but I usually don’t use it unless we’re getting absolutely nothing on the digital recorder.”
“What’s the difference?” Michael asked.
“Kate?
Would you like to explain it to him?” Luke asked.
“The SB7 is a frequency scanner.
It scans radio waves and emits static that ghosts can speak through. It’s also called The Spirit Box. With the digital recorder, you have stop and rewind to hear responses, but with the SB7, you can hear them directly.” Luke grinned.
“Is she not delightful?” he asked Michael.
To Kate, he said, “I should take you on as my protégé.” Kate beamed.
“So why don’t you just use that all the time?”
Michael asked, trying to pretend he wasn’t jealous of how easily Luke could make Kate smile. He reminded himself that she’d smiled for him on several occasions, but it was hard to stay optimistic when you were up against a guy who’d been featured in
People Magazine
’s “Sexiest Man Alive” edition.
“Because it’s loud and annoying,” Luke replied.
“I also brought two night vision cameras and a digital point-and-shoot. One of the night visions is a little less advanced, so I thought I’d leave that one with Mikey and let you handle the point-and-shoot.”
“Awesome,” Kate grinned.
“Wait a minute
. You want me to carry around one of your cameras?” Michael had thought they were just going to be poking around a cemetery. No one had said anything about fancy video cameras that probably cost more than he made in a year.
“Well yeah, unless you don’t think you can handle it.
In which case, I’ll pass the heavy stuff over to Kate - she’s probably stronger than you anyway - and put you in charge of the recorder and the point-and-shoot,” Luke replied with a smarmy smirk.
“Gee, thanks.”
~*~
They reached the cemetery at about a quarter past nine.
The sun had already set, but enough dim daylight remained for Kate to be able to distinguish the layout of the cemetery.
It really was a beautiful area.
After exiting the main highway, they’d driven through a few smaller towns, then turned onto a long dirt road that led seemingly out into the middle of nowhere. With only Luke’s GPS to guide them, they passed a stretch of farmland and a wide meadow bright with sunflowers before turning left onto an off road that ran through a forest. The trees were so close together that Kate couldn’t see the sky, or anything really, through their thick leaves and heavy branches. She wondered how many people had gotten lost hiking through those woods. Unwillingly, she imagined herself trapped beneath the lush, wooded canopy, unable to escape, not knowing what could be lurking just beyond the brush. The thought made her shiver.
Finally, they’d emerged from the woods and found themselves in a wide, open clearing.
Thin, wispy clouds streaked across the sky and fireflies began to dance around the edges of the forest. Crickets chirped and a cool breeze toyed with the strands of hair that had fallen loose from Kate’s ponytail. It reminded her of a scene out of a Western or a romance novel, not at all the setting for a good ghost story.
Or it wouldn’t have been, were it not for the cemetery.
Sealed off by a rusted gate, it seemed the picture perfect old Texas graveyard, with large concrete headstones and metallic words above the gate that read
Blue on et Cemet ry.
“It’s so beautiful,” Kate said to Michael, who was staring intently into the graveyard.
“Yeah,” he agreed halfheartedly.
Kate wondered what he was thinking about. Luke, on the other hand, automatically switched into professional mode.
“Alright.
Kate, I want you to grab that backpack out of the trunk. It has the point-and-shoot and the recorder, so if you would, take those out and add the batteries and whatever snacks you want. Mikey, come here. I’m gonna teach you how to work the night vision.”
Kate did as she was asked and ten minutes later, she found herself armed with cameras, recorders, and an EMF
detector, a device that Luke used to measure electromagnetic energy and monitor changes in temperature, both of which, he explained, could indicate the presence of a spirit.