Chapter 18

Jackie listened on Sunday evening as I recounted our plans. We had talked about them before, several times, including the previous day, and not much had changed. When I finished, I reviewed my day. Telling her about my day took all of about a minute and a half. The high point was that my nearly nonexistent medical skills seemed to be working since the blister hadn't bothered me all day.

"And your girlfriend hasn't been back," she said.

"No. Haven't seen her or the other one."

"That's good. I'm beginning to get a little jealous." She was joking. I think.

"Of a ghost?" I asked, suddenly feeling defensive and not knowing why.

"A female ghost and I said I don't think she's a ghost." She giggled. "I've read about them."

"She's," I began. "I don't know what she is. For starters she's over three hundred years old and you're right, she isn't a ghost.”

I spent a minute telling her what I had noticed when I squeezed by her. She made a soft noise into the phone.

"Yeah," said Jackie. "An older woman."

She finished with a laugh.

"A lot older," I agreed.

She was quiet for a second. "Do you have the tape recorder close by?"

I sat at the table. "Right in front of me."

"Let me hear it again."

I played the tape one more time.

"She has such a lovely voice," said Jackie.

I admitted that Mary had a nice voice. However, what concerned me was the strange message more than the voice. If her appearances weren't such a shock, I think I might have taken more notice of the tone.

"True," Jackie said. "I don't think she's like that, if you know what I mean."

"Not threatening? How can you know?"

"Women's intuition," she said. "She sounds like a little lost girl just wanting to go home."

It took me a minute to digest her last comment. I was having difficulty changing my entire opinion and attitude about Mary. Knowing she wasn't the one wanting to kill me helped, but it still didn’t make it easy. It was hard trying to come to terms with the fact that I was dealing with a woman who was centuries old, had been hanged as a witch and now was back in flesh and blood form.

"I don't expect it's easy," Jackie said. "You thought she was after you to kill you. It's understandable that you were leery of her. And Frank, she's only centuries old if you pay attention to the calendar. She's a young woman."

"She isn't exactly a little lost girl though," I said.

Jackie chuckled softly. "Bad choice of words. We've talked about all this."

I started to tell her about the plans again. She stopped me, reminding me we had reviewed those just minutes before. They weren't elaborate or intricate. They weren't much at all. It’s hard to plan when you’re missing half the information you need. We would look for a shallow area on a river or creek and hope enough remained to let us determine with some confidence we had found Danielsford.

"Rivers change course," she said.

"Yes they do."

"They also grow larger."

"They can do that too, over time," I replied.

"And they can dry up."

"Are you trying to encourage me, or discourage me?" I asked.

She laughed. "I'm just saying it like it is."

"I'm aware it won't be easy," I said. "And we both know that three hundred years is an awfully long time."

"I think I said that before. Or did you?"

"One of us did, maybe more than once, plus I've thought it quite a few times."

Our conversation drifted to her day. It was busy. We began discussing the future and my relocation to Woodstock. By the time she begged off, saying she had work to finish, we had run out of things to talk about.

It was eleven at night and I was wide-awake. I think the anticipation of the coming day was working on me. Now, though, it was bedtime, and I knew I would never get to sleep.

I picked the tape recorder off my bureau and slowly wandered out of the bedroom into the kitchen. Part of the last pot of coffee remained.

"Waste not, want not," I mumbled, poured a cup of the bitter smelling brew, took a sip and grimaced.

I ambled into the living room and flicked on the television. Settling into the chair, I began channel surfing. The television didn't fail me. It worked its magic. I was soon asleep.