A Beast with a Smile

After I had stormed out of my own house, where Tyler does not live, I realized that I was still in my pajamas. I was lucky I put my slipper boots on before I left the bedroom. The frigid cold wind bit at my cheeks and left me feeling cold and empty on the inside and outside. I was too stubborn to go back and face Tyler again.

I marched across the town to Applegate Cemetery. Every year I walk into this place expecting the grave to be gone like he had come back from the dead and ripped his way out to the surface, but every year my wish never comes true. Every year I walk in with false hope and only receive deceit. Shows me to believe in a world that’s extraordinary.

I remembered the girl from town square and her pet bunny; I was still not sure if it was a dream or real act of impossible, however, either way it gave me a little sliver of hope. A glimmer in a sea of darkness.

After entering the palace of the dead, you have to sign in on a log book with the groundskeeper, Nord. Nord was an extremely old man. His hair, what little he had left, was grey and stringy, giving him the mad scientist look. His gray and green jumpsuit sagged less than the skin on his neck and cheeks. His appearance had led him to be mistaken as a zombie, so much so that kids would dare each other and see who would get closest to him. No matter the stories, he was easily the sweetest person I had ever met.

I walked up to his window and rang the bell. He hobbled out from the back

“Hello, Scarlett,” he exclaimed cheerfully, but his face fell as if he remembered where we were and why I was here, “I’m so sorry to see you again,” he paused scanning my appearance, “You younglings are so crazy with your fashion choices. Going for looks more than if it keeps you warm. You’re going to catch a cold! Come here and take my coat.”

He unzipped a fluffy black winter coat and shakily handed it to me.

“Thank you, Nord, but I think you need it more than me. You are a little older. You know how dangerous it can be for you to get sick.”

“Hosh posh. I’ll be fine. I fought in the great war you know,” he said, trying to flex his twigs.

“Which war was that again?” I asked.

He looked at me and gestured for me to get closer, “The cold war” he whispered, barely holding back his laughter.

It was hard to not to smile at his joke. Because of its extreme silliness, he cheered me up just a little bit. It reminded me of the dumb jokes Scavenger used to tell me.

“You should really get in there Scarlett. The sheriff is already here, and he brought a guest this time. I think they are waiting up there for you. Come on, I’ll walk you up.”

I signed my name into the log and held onto Nord’s arm as we walked together to Scavenger’s grave. Nord’s shaky legs always felt like he was about to topple over at any second, so it was always a little iffy when we had to walk up the hill. We reached the top by the tip of a Nord hair.

I saw Sheriff Sims kneeling by the headstone. This year he brought a woman dressed in all black with a lace veil covering her face.

Nord stopped for a second to catch his breath and I walked up to my waiting co-riders of this emotional rollercoaster.

“Hi Scarlett.”

He still wore his sheriff uniform and it saddened me. Lucas Sims was let go from the department after he was considered emotionally unstable due to the loss of his son.

“Hey Sheriff,” I responded.

“You know you don’t need to call me that anymore. You know since I’m retired...err forced retired.”

“You’ll always be my sheriff…. Sheriff. Who’s this?”

I looked at the women in the all black dress, who was shielding her face from my view.

“Oh, Scarlett this is a surprise. This is the Dominica. She is the best ghost whisperer in the world and can even conjure the ghost if the signal is strong enough. I brought her here to see if she can try to talk to Scavenger and see if he’s moved on to the next life.”

Nord started laughing behind us

“Ask her if she can find the rest of my hair,” he shouted, still trying to catch his breath.

The women in the veil shifted her head a little to look at the source of her mockery.

“Oh, so we have a non-believer in our midst. It’s okay. Not a lot of people believe in my abilities. Please stay so I may show you that you are wrong.”

I was about to agree with Nord when a giant bunny and an electric girl crossed my mind. If that could happen then why not this?

Nord waddled up to rejoin the group and prepared for the whisperer to, well, whisper. All I could think about was her trying to pull Scavenger’s floating spirit out of his grave, so I could see him one last time.

“Shall I begin?” the medium questioned with a thick Latin accent.

Dominica waved her hands above the big R.I.P Freddy Scavenger Sims and chanted some quotes that sounded eerily like Shakespeare. She closed her eyes and made a typical meditation face as she gently swayed back and forth.

She stopped waving her arms and went limp. Her body still stood up, but everything above the waist hung like vines from a tree. Nord looked at me and mimed brushing his teeth and combing his non-existent hair. I agree this lady is a mental case, but still, you can’t knock it until I try it.

Dominica shot up faster than a rocket and started speaking words I recognized from my previous high school Latin classes. She looked at me with pure white eyes. Her voice was cold; she talked softly, yet every word tickled my spine.

“It is wise to not mock the keeper of the dead,” she said, sending goosebumps all the way down to my feet.

Nord seemed unaffected by the medium; he held his arms crossed, shivering from the cold. He looked at Dominica with a grin on his face and said, “Are you able to find the spirit, my master?”

“Yes. I feel his presence. Unlike your soul which is more lost than half of the people buried here.”

Nord’s smile didn’t budge, “You’re right. I don’t have a soul. It ran away when it knew a crazy lady was trying to talk to it.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but can we get on with this? I’d like to talk to my son.”

“Of course, Mr. Sims. I feel his spirit right now. I think…” she paused, made a funny face, then looked horrified, “Mr. Sims, your son is here with us now, but time is limited. It’s a weak connection. What would you like to ask him?”

Sheriff Sims’ eyes began to fill with tears, “Ask him if he’s in peace, please,” he said with his voice thick with emotions.

“Yes, he says he’s in a good place. Fluffy, white clouds and fields of grass never leave his view. Frederick only wishes you could be there to see,” The medium said, looking up into the sky.

Nord’s face began to look grim. Possibly because she just called Scavenger by a name he was never named. Lucas didn’t seem to notice that, he was lost in the thought of a happy Scavenger ghost.

“Can you conjure him? Can I see my boy?”

“Yes, the spirit is powerful enough, but it may only be for a few minutes.”

Dominica spoke more Latin rubbish and then fog began to fill the graveyard. The fog was so thick I could barely see the tip of Nord’s nose, even though he was a mere few inches away from me.

Dominica’s black dress seemed to float above the ground. Thunder cracked, and lightning flashed, destroying my retinas and ear drums. Some of the fog blew away and there was a floating Scavenger ghost in the middle of the graveyard. The blood from my face quickly fled as I looked at my best friend’s free spirit. The ghost moved his lips, but the words came from a different source.

The voice was deep and dark, yet it somehow left the lips of the Latin ghost queen.

“Hello, Father,” the ghost said to Lucas.

He broke out in tears, barely spurting out, “Hello my son,” he wiped away some of the tears, “I’ve missed you so much. I can only dream of that air conditioning unit falling on me instead.”

The last bit shot up my spinal cord. Air conditioner? Unless Lucas found his son’s missing body, Scavenger wasn’t crushed by anything.

A series of images hit me as I remembered a past I knew I never lived.

Scavenger was walking into the hospital when the air conditioner fell through the roof, crushing Scavenger.

I became light headed and fell backwards on a tombstone, pulling some electrical cable out of the ground. The fog began to dissipate with the ghost along with it.

“No! No! No!” Lucas screamed, turning his attention towards the medium, “What happened?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Sims, but it appears the ghost wasn’t as strong as I thought,” She responded hastily.

I looked at what I had tripped on and followed the cord to the source. I threw the fog machine back towards the Latin scammer along with a speaker and projector. They all shattered inches away from the grave.

“She’s a fraud, Lucas. She used the fog to blind us, so we couldn’t see the boom box making rain noises or the projector showing us a portrait of lies.”

“Get out,” Lucas demanded in a cold, flat voice.

“My bill will be in the mail.”

She managed to dodge the second speaker I threw

“The only check you’ll get is one as real as this act,” I screamed, cursing at her.

I kicked what remained of the speaker and sat down with my fellow griever.

“I just wanted to see him one more time. Just so I could tell him I loved him just one last time,” I moaned.

“The sad part is that I actually believed she could do it, but it was too good to be true.”

We both sat there crying while Nord watched over us.

“I’ll leave you two to your privacy. I’ll be up front if you need me,” he said as he walked off into the freezing weather without his fluffy coat that was still keeping me warm.

Lucas said a few words and asked for some privacy. I was ok with it because it allowed me to think about the strange things that have occurred in the past 24 hours.

Something’s not right and I need to find out the truth.

The only problem was deciding which mystery to solve first: Tiny and the electric girl or the strange memories of Scavenger’s death.

“Hey, Lucas, I’m going to head out. I’m sorry things didn’t pan out like you thought they would.”

He waved at me with eyes as red as Christmas and I headed towards town hall, which I suspected wouldn’t be in the same chaotic situation.