“I don’t think you should get your hopes up. He tells me the only reason he’s going is that he has a small property of his own out there and needs to check on it. Doesn’t exactly sound like he’s a man in love, if you ask me. But watch out, Amanda, with all this hanging around Rudebecca-for the first time, you’re starting to act like her.”
She told herself that it was natural for someone who had been so very ill to be a little cranky as he recovered. She should see it as a sign of his returning strength, remember what it was like when he didn’t seem to have any fight left in him, and be glad. She discovered she felt hurt anyway.
“I guess I’ll be going,” she said, and moved to the door.
She opened it, then heard Ron say, “Mandy-Mandy, don’t.”
He hadn’t called her by that childhood name for years. She turned and saw the look of contrition on his face. He was holding a hand out to her. She went back to his bedside and took his hand. He drew her into a hug. “Don’t be angry with me,” he said. “I’m not myself these days, you know I’m not.”
“Shhh. I’m not angry with you. Really I’m not. I’m not myself, either-not getting enough sleep lately.”
They heard the sound of footsteps, and Tyler stepped into the room, saying, “Ron, I wondered if-”
He saw the two of them embracing and quickly said, “Forgive me, I didn’t realize you had company.” He withdrew, apparently not hearing Ron call after him.
Ron looked at Amanda and shrugged. “Stay a little while, okay?”
“Sure,” she said, returning to her chair.
“You said you haven’t had much sleep,” Ron said. “Ghosts bothering you?”
She glanced at the door, making sure it was closed. Ron was the only one she ever talked to about the ghosts. “They seem to be agitated by something. Maybe because I moved into my parents’ bedroom. Although-”
“Although what?”
“They don’t seem unhappy when I’m in there. I mean-they never look happy, but they seem at ease. They don’t linger. Actually, they’re more likely to hang around when I’m outside, or in the car-they show up in the car every time I’m on the way up here.”
“You’ve seen them here?” he asked curiously.
“No, not yet. They vanish before I’m through the front gate.”
“I keep thinking they’ll reveal themselves to me one of these days.”
“I don’t blame you for not believing in them. I’m pretty sure I’ll get over the guilt at some point in my life-”
“You did not cause the car accident that killed your parents and your aunt and uncle!”
“No, I didn’t,” she agreed, not wanting to revive an old argument. “Anyway, like you, I’m not completely sure they’re real. I see them more often in times of stress, after all.”
“Well, you’re not exactly right about my not believing in them. I keep an open mind. Besides, I know that at least in the moments you’re seeing them, they’re real to you. That’s real enough. They don’t threaten you or try to harm you, right?”
“No, never. They startle me, they make me uneasy, but other than the ‘boo!’ factor-you know, after eight years, they don’t really scare me.”
“There’s some purpose to their appearances,” Ron said. “Whether it’s in your imagination or not.”
“I wish they’d get around to telling me what it is so they could go on to wherever they’re going.”
They talked for a while longer, until she saw that he was tiring. So she left, telling him she’d be back to see him soon.
She didn’t see Tyler Hawthorne again that day, or on any of the other occasions when she visited before leaving for the desert.
Ron’s health continued to improve.
The four ghosts came to her room every night, but she was convinced she had made a good choice in relocating. She had never kept the room as a shrine to her dead parents, but until now, she hadn’t made it her own. It was much larger and sunnier than her old one. She could see Tyler Hawthorne’s house from the room’s small balcony.
Despite their increased attention, it wasn’t the ghosts who scared her or robbed her of sleep. Every night, even from upstairs, she heard a dog prowling near the house in the hours after midnight. She tried watching from the balcony, to see if she could catch a glimpse of it, but it remained hidden in the shadows below.
She didn’t tell anyone about it, not even Ron, knowing he was quite worried enough about her seeing ghosts. There wouldn’t be anything he could do about the dog anyway.
She began to look forward to the weekend. Her cousins would be snide, the ghosts would follow her, but she could get away from the dog.
9
Julio Alvarez saw the black Mini Cooper stop before the cemetery gates. It was just after midnight, a time when visiting hours were long over, although if you were the night watchman for a cemetery with its share of movie stars and other famous permanent residents, you never knew who might try to sneak in after dark. But Julio knew this visitor, and unlocked the gates and pulled them open. The driver of the car rolled down the window as he pulled through.
“How are you this evening, Julio?”
“Fine, Tyler. And you?”
“Fine. Thank you for admitting us.”
“Tyler, I owe you so much for-”
“No, no you don’t. Not a thing. I’ll just park over there, all right?”
Julio gave it up. The man would never accept his thanks. “Sure, Tyler, wherever you like.”
Shade didn’t wait for Tyler to open the passenger door-he bounded out of the driver’s side as soon as Tyler was out of the car. Once out, though, he was perfectly calm and well behaved.
“Hello, Shade,” Julio said, giving him soft scratches around his ruff. “I know you want to get to work, so go on.”
Tyler thanked him again and walked off with the dog.
Julio watched them for a few minutes before locking the gate again. Most of the time, the last thing you wanted running around in a cemetery after dark-okay, second to last to a high school kid on a dare-was a dog off leash. They pooped. They peed. They dug. They rolled around in the mud on top of the new graves.
This dog never did any of that. He patrolled the place as if he had some kind of duty. Tyler had explained that he was a cemetery dog, and Julio supposed there must be darned few of them, because he had never heard of the like. Not that he mentioned these midnight visits to anyone. Would have cost him his job.
This dog wasn’t like any other dog Julio had ever met. Shade had an ability to find graves that needed a little work or had been damaged. It was as if he took that as a personal affront. Well, so did Julio.
Tyler carried a flashlight, but there was nearly a full moon tonight, so he didn’t use it. He walked patiently beside Shade, who was never so happy as when he was working. Tyler didn’t understand all that went on with the dog, despite their long companionship, but he was aware that Shade sensed things in a cemetery that Tyler could not.
The dead were lost to Tyler, but he did not think this was true for Shade. At times, Shade would stop in a cemetery and stand very still, as if he saw something or someone Tyler could not see. Usually, whatever it was would hold the dog’s interest for a time, then he would move on.
On rare occasions, he would growl. Though few things frightened Tyler these days, a growl from Shade always sent a chill down his spine.
Shade seemed to dominate whatever it was, though, for after these encounters he would step a little higher on his toes, as if exhibiting a kind of dog pride in a job well done.
Tyler found himself thinking of Colby again, of his odd visit. He wondered if he had failed to hear the real message, if Colby was growing lonely and could bring that up only by accusing Tyler of it. There were serious differences between them, ones that made Tyler unwilling to spend a lot of time with him. In truth, Shade was a better friend.