Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) (18 page)

Rachel apparently heard that Dad and I paid a visit to
the principal and wanted to know all of the details.
Zach
wanted to know how I was doing. Good question.
How
was
I
doing?
Life felt fine while inside the protective walls of the
mansion.
But I knew that the very second I stepped outside of
them, I was going to feel the exact opposite. My instinct was to
hide and never let myself be seen again.
But I had theories on
where I could find Clay and none of them included holing up
inside Rosewood for the rest of eternity. I mulled it over in my
head for a moment before texting them both back.

Once I found out that Rachel was
free to help me
execute my plan, I let Zach know that I was doing as well as
could be expected but that I needed some serious girl time. He
understood, of course, so Rachel agreed to pick me up at my
house in half an hour. The two places where I thought I was
most likely to find Clay didn’t rate very high on teenage radar
so as long as she drove and I ducked down while in the car, I
figured that I wouldn’t be seen.

When I saw Rachel’s car pulling up to the front of the
mansion, I thought that I might be hallucinating.
Would the
overwhelming stress I’d experienced today cause me to see
something as weird as what I thought I was seeing? Maybe I
was wrong—maybe I
was
crazy after all.
What else could
explain the fact that Rachel’s car seemed to be, well,
looking
at
me?

But as her car got closer, I saw that I wasn’t crazy after
all.
The headlights of her little yellow Volkswagen Beetle were
now adorned with a set of eyelashes. In that moment, I wished
that I
was
crazy. Who would do that to their car on purpose?

“OMG, Ruby! I got my acceptance letter today from
Tallahassee Institute of Interior Design! Mom and Dad were so
proud of me that they bought me eyelashes for my car!
Dad
made Zach put them on as soon as we got home. Aren’t they
just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”

Okay, so I’d started to learn the lesson that lying was
bad. Lies only seemed to come back and bite me in the rear
eventually anyway, so I told her the truth.
The honest to
goodness watered down truth.

“Well,” I said as I attempted to think of the nicest way to
tell her that I hated them as I could think of. “I would never put
those on
my
car but if you love them, then I am happy for you.”
Then, I took a small step backward and braced myself for her
disappointed yet still perky rebuttal.

“Oh, they
do
make me happy!
Whoever invented these
things must be a total super genius!
Not unlike myself, of
course. I’m officially a college girl now—sort of.” As she spoke,
she lovingly stroked the hood of her car as though it were a
living, breathing pet of some sort.

“Congrats on the college thing! I knew you could do it. I
just wish you would have chosen to do it somewhere closer to
where Zach and I are going to be.” Sudden dreaded thought.
Was anyone else from Charlotte’s Grove going to Pendleton in
the fall? Was Ohio going to be far enough for me to run away
from my Ghost Whisperer persona?

“I know, Ruby. Let’s not talk about that now, okay?
Right now I only want to enjoy this nice spring day with you
and Daisy—my two best friends.”

“Who’s Daisy?
I barely even have the courage to leave
the house with just you—there’s no way I’m letting you turn
this outing into a threesome! Text her right now and tell her
you have to cancel.” Seriously, what was Rachel thinking?

“Whoa! Turn the teen angst down a few notches, Ruby!
Daisy is my car’s new name, silly! She looks like a Daisy, don’t
you think?”

“Sure,” I replied absentmindedly. “Now tell Daisy to
drive us to the Heaven’s Gate Cemetery.

Pleased that I was playing along with her game, Rachel
politely informed Daisy of our destination before putting the
car in gear. “Which ghost are we chasing now, Ruby?”

I took a minute to explain to her the bond I’d
accidentally created
between
Clay and
me
and how
I so
callously broke it. That morning I swore I would never touch
another ghost hunt for the rest of my life yet here I was. Why
couldn’t I just let the whole thing rest? The whole point in
sending Clay into the hereafter was so that he wouldn’t follow
me around everywhere I went.
In essence, I got was I was
wishing for. Why wasn’t I happy with the outcome?
This was
seriously another case of “be careful what you wish for because
you just might get it”.

When we got to the cemetery, I practically leapt out of
the car and sprinted toward the center of the graveyard. It was
only then that I realized I didn’t actually know which headstone
was his.

“Hey, Rachel, you wouldn’t happen to know where Clay
is buried, would you?”

“No. I assumed you did—you’re the ghost whisp—.”
Rachel managed to stop herself before completely uttering the
now dreaded phrase. “Sorry, I don’t,” she replied apologetically
as she busily fiddled with her phone. “But I
do
know one
thing—my
internet
connection
sucks
here. Why can’t
cemeteries have Wifi?”

“Really, Rachel? Did you hear what you just said? That
makes absolutely no sense.”

“But it does! Think about it—if cemeteries had Wifi,
people would come visit their loved ones more often and stay
longer.
When I die, I want Wifi connected to my headstone.
Boone is already aware of that fact in case I go first.”

Okay, so maybe Rachel was less normal than I ever
imagined she was. Or it was a side effect of spending too much
time with me.
Either way, her comments were morbid in a
blonde cheerleader kind
of way.
The
thought of wireless
internet at my gravesite was starting to make some sort of
weirdly fascinating sense to me.
The eyelashes on her car,
however, still didn’t.

“Well since there isn’t Wifi here and I can’t just IM Clay
and wait for a response, I need you to help me look for his
grave.”

“Sure. I’ll start on the hill and work my way down.
Reception might be better up there.”

I rolled my eyes at her but nodded my head. The grass
wasn’t overgrown yet like it was in the fall so reading each
stone wasn’t a tough task. As I passed by Garnet’s grave, I
whispered a quick “hello”. When I found myself standing
inadvertently in the middle of Allison’s burial spot, I jumped
back instinctively for fear that I might somehow reawaken the
wrath of the wraith even though I knew that she was gone for
good. As Rachel and I neared each other, I began to lose hope
of finding Clay—if I couldn’t even find his headstone, how was I
ever going to pin down his spirit?

“No luck?” I asked Rachel even though I knew what her
answer would be.

 

“Nope. Nothing. Are you certain that this is where he is
buried?”

 

“Absolutely. But why I can’t I find him?”

“He must not have a headstone. His mother probably
couldn’t afford one. Or she took the money and bought herself
a few six packs instead.”

Now
that
was sad. Not having a grave marker was bad
enough but not having one because your mom was too much of
a hot mess to buy you one, was tragic. Even Lee’s evil excuse
for a mother made sure he was properly buried. And to top it
all off, Clay was buried in the most unkempt cemetery on the
planet.

Sudden brainwave. The first time I saw him here, I was
kneeling beside a freshly dug grave without a marker and
trying to contact its resident.
Could that grave have been
Clay’s? Even though the rest of the cemetery was an overgrown
mess, it would take at least a few months for the dirt to settle
and the grass to overtake it. That
had
to be it. That was why he
thought I was talking to him that day—because without even
knowing it, I actually
was
. I remembered the exact spot and ran
toward it calling his name.

“Clay! Clay!” I skidded through the grass and landed
right on top of his grave. “Come on, Clay,” I said as I stood up
and brushed myself off. “I was just laying right on top of you—I
know you’re armed with some witty yet foul remark for that.”

Nothing. Nothing but the whisper of the breeze and the
sound of Rachel complaining about her internet service again.
Would I have better luck at Silver Lake?
Of course, I would.
When he saw the lengths I was willing to go to to find him, he
would consent to speaking with me.

“Let’s go, Rachel. Next stop, Silver Lake.”

As we drove, Rachel spoke to her car before making
every turn.
After seeing a girl from school walking her dog
down the road, I realized that I should duck down in my seat
for the rest of the way to the lake. I had two very good reasons
to want to hide. Number one—the sheer humiliation of having
my secret revealed. Number two—the sheer embarrassment of
being seen riding around town in a car with eyelashes.

The only other time I’d been to Silver Lake was the
night Zach broke up with me because he thought I was playing
him for a fool. It was dark out then and I never really got a
good look at how big it truly was. With one look, I wished I
never had. If it weren’t for the fact that I really wanted to talk
to Clay, I would have told Daisy to bat her eyes in the other
direction and get me the hell out of there.

There wasn’t a single other car in sight—including
Clay’s Mustang. It felt so remote here—like Rachel and I were
the last two mortal souls on the planet. It was a feeling I would
rather do without. There weren’t any boats on the water, just a
few ducks paddling about.
My
intense fear of water rose
rapidly to the surface. Knowing that that lake claimed the life
of my friend made it feel even more unwelcoming. I was going
to give Clay exactly sixty seconds to show his face before I
ordered Daisy to take me home.

“Ruby! Are you cold? You’re trembling all over.
There’s a hoodie in my car if you want to put it on. If you ask
Daisy politely, I’m sure that she will open the back door for
you.”

“I’m not cold, Rachel. This is what fear looks like. I’m
scared to death of water like this.
It reminds me of what
happened to Lee and me on Destiny Bridge. Thinking of Clay
not only dying in there but also decaying in its depths for two
weeks before they pulled him out—it’s too much. I need to go
home
now
.”

“Yikes! That was a little too descriptive for my tastes.
But if you want to find Clay, you at least have to give him a
minute to appear. You need to desensitize yourself to water.
Like this.”

She grasped my wrist and began pulling me
toward
the
water. Was she completely insane? I dug my heels into the dirt
and stones beneath me and resisted her with every muscle in
my body. “You are
not
making me go anywhere near that lake!”

“Of course, I’m not, Ruby. I’m not a total idiot, you
know. But there’s a spot over here on the side that isn’t even
knee deep. You wouldn’t drown in there unless I conked you
on the head and pushed you in.”

Hoping that wasn’t an admitted statement of
premeditation, I relaxed my stance slightly. “Okay, I will follow
you as soon as you release your death grip on me.”

With a chuckle, she unwound her fingers and dropped
my arm. “You don’t completely trust me, do you?”

“Don’t be offended. When it comes to water, I don’t
fully trust anyone. I’ve heard too many horror stories of people
throwing other people into the water to force them to learn
how to swim. I’m simply not taking any chances.”

“Why, Ruby, I do declare!” Rachel drawled in a fake
southern accent, “My heart breaks at the thought that you don’t
trust me.” She dramatically clutched at her chest and began to
feign sobbing.

“That isn’t the only thing I’m going to break if you don’t
drop the accent, Miss Scarlet!” I said in a serious tone. I had to
admit one thing though—Rachel’s insane sense of humor put
me at ease every time. My hands were no longer trembling and
the sensation that I was near vertigo had diminished.
What
was I going to do when she was over a thousand miles away
and I needed her support? Texting alone simply wasn’t going
to cut it.

“You’re a beautiful mess, you know that? But you’re my
bestest friend ever!”

 

“Thanks.
I think. I’m going to accept that as a
compliment and move on.”

 

Rachel just laughed and pointed directly in front of us.
“Here. This is the spot I was telling you about.”

Before us lay a small, dark, shallow pool.
While it was
directly connected to the crystal clear waters of the main lake,
the water here was murky. An obvious line divided the two—
on one side of the line lay a beautiful shade of blue, on the other
a dark color that defied description. It was the strangest thing
I’d ever seen. It was like some invisible barrier held them
separate. Even if it wasn’t anywhere near deep enough to
drown in, this tiny pond did nothing to ease my anxiety. Even
the fish swimming inside it seemed to be moving in
slow
motion.

Rachel broke my concentration by asking how bad my
dad ripped into Principal Lascher today.
Her question
reminded me of one of my own that I had for her.

“It wasn’t too terrible—but my dad
did
threaten to call
his lawyer.
Hey, Lascher mentioned something during their
conversation that kind of puzzled me. My dad wasn’t quite sure
what he meant by it either but maybe you will. He referred to
Zach’s near-expulsion and said something about your family
had already been through enough. What did he mean by that
remark?”