Seven Turns: A Ghost Story/A Love Story

Cally spent the rest of the morning typing her handwritten notes into her word processor application, and felt pleased with herself for having finally got some real work done. She felt so much better by lunch time, she went ahead and created a blank file titled “Chapter 1,” and typed the first sentence into it.

“Why do questions you ask a ghost always begin with ‘Why’?”

She chewed her lip, rereading it. The phrasing seemed a bit awkward, but it was a start. She decided she deserved some lunch, and was delighted to realize she actually had an appetite again.

While she perused the sticky note on which Katarina had written instructions for forwarding the phones to voice mail, the phone rang, and the incoming number appeared to have an out-of-town area code. Cally decided she ought to go ahead and answer that. “Vale House – how may I help you?” Her mind went back to when she had first heard Bethany say that to her, on the other end of the line. It seemed now like it had been years ago.

The caller was a man wanting to make reservations for two on Friday night. Cally fumbled open the register and saw Friday was still completely open. It was the day after the paranormal investigators were slated to arrive, but she was sure they would not be staying more than one night, so she went ahead and scheduled the couple.

“Do you allow pets?” he asked. “We have a small dog.”

“I don’t see why not,” Cally said, hoping she wasn’t breaking one of Joan’s rules, and then decided not to care whether she was or not. “After all, we have cats.” She looked through the screen door at Cyndi Lauper and Doctor Boojums sunning on the porch railing. “As long as it stays on a leash,” she thought to add.

She concluded the call and forwarded the line to voice mail before it could ring again. She had promised Katarina she would join her for lunch, hopefully with Bethany, but Cally couldn’t see any sign of her from where she sat. She stood and stretched, and went through the dining room to the narrow hallway leading into north wing and, presumably, the kitchen.

The hallway ended in a T, and she stopped there, looking left and right. Never having been to the kitchen, she chose right and proceeded hesitantly toward an open door near the end of the hallway. As she drew near it, though, she heard a television playing and saw the knee of a man seated in an upholstered chair near the door. “Oops,” she said softly. “That must be the Captain’s room.”

She tiptoed away and tried the other direction, toward the back of the house, and knew she must be right when she came to a pair of swinging doors with small square windows and brass push-panels. She pushed one side open to find herself in a wide, brightly lit industrial kitchen, complete with massive built-in refrigerators and wide cooktops. Nobody was present, at the moment, but the remains of the loaf of bread from breakfast lay on the butcher-block work table in the center of the room. Cally headed for this.

Ignacio came dashing in through a door that led outside to the back garden. In his arms he cradled a colander overflowing with fresh lettuce, radishes, and scallions. “Looking for lunch?” he asked.

“I thought Kat might be here,” she said. “But if she’s busy I can just make myself a sandwich. Maybe I could use some leftover sausage from breakfast?”

Ignacio left the bowl on the work table and dug in one of the refrigerators, pulling out an armload of cold cuts, cheeses, and pickles.

“No, really, I only need a little something,” Cally insisted, but he ignored her and began cutting off slabs of bread and assembling a platter of thick sandwiches.

“Katarina is upstairs,” he said as he slathered the bread with mayonnaise. “We can all join Bethany for lunch. If we can get her to eat something, it might help her feel better. Here.” He handed Cally a pitcher of iced tea and a stack of tumblers.

Cally thought the mountain of food might intimidate Bethany rather than pique her appetite, but she followed him as he carried the tray out through the swinging doors into the hall. She headed toward the dining room, but Ignacio opened a doorway just short of it. This opened onto a narrow stairwell.

“Be careful,” he said, going up ahead of her. “This is what is called the backstairs. We’re not supposed to use it. Insurance and all. There’s no railing,” he pointed out, “and no room to build one. But it’s the shortest way from the kitchen, so we use it all the time anyway.” He balanced the tray on one hand and opened the door at the top of the stairs with the other. “Kat thinks it’s haunted.”

He grinned and stood aside so Cally could step past him. She found herself in the upstairs hallway, diagonally across from the Rose Room. “And now you know all the secrets of Vale House,” Ignacio said, grinning.

The hallway was filled with sunlight because the doors of the Hydrangea Room and the Wisteria Room had been propped open. Katarina was inside the Wisteria Room, stripping the bed and piling the sheets in a basket. As Cally looked in, she thought she had figured out one of the sources of “mysterious footsteps” in Vale House, anyway: the Wisteria Room shared a wall with the back stairwell. Just a short time ago, that would have been all the explanation she required.

“Is Miss Bethany awake?” Ignacio asked Katarina.

“She is!” Katarina left her work to join them. They crossed the hall and Ignacio knocked softly at the door of the Daffodil Room, which stood partially open. Ian May was inside, seated in the yellow-chintz upholstered chair beside the bed, and Bethany was sitting propped against a pile of yellow and green throw pillows, smiling up at something he had said.

“We’ve brought lunch!” Katarina announced. She cleared several daffodil-themed knickknacks to one side of the dresser so Ignacio could set down the tray.

“Oh, I don’t think I could eat,” said Bethany. “But the tea looks good. My mouth is so dry.”

“It’s probably the pain medicine doing that,” Katarina guessed.

“I don’t know,” said Bethany. “It’s not doing very much for the pain! Foster thinks the dose needs to be adjusted. He’s called Doc for me and says he’ll be bringing me a new prescription in a little while.”

Katarina patted Bethany’s hand as Cally set a glass of tea on the night stand doily next to the nearly full pill bottle. The doily was bright yellow with green trim. Ignacio took a small, daffodil-patterned tray from the top dresser drawer and piled one of his heroic sandwiches on it. This he placed proudly on Bethany’s lap. She looked at it the same way she had looked up the stairs from the wheelchair that morning.

Ian stood up. “Well,” he said, smiling gently at Bethany and patting her hand, “Foster should be back from the pharmacist soon. I hope the new medicine works better.” He glanced at Ignacio. “Let’s let the ladies talk,” he advised.

Ignacio wrapped two sandwiches in napkins and followed him out the door. When they had gone from view, Bethany allowed her cheerful smile to collapse. “Oh, my!” she said. “What a mess this all is!” She regarded the sandwich through slit eyes and said again, “Oh, my!”

“Maybe I can get you some soup instead,” Katarina offered. Then she grinned mischievously. “Or maybe just some tacos!” Bethany started to laugh, but then cried out in pain. “Oh, don’t make me laugh!”

“Oh, dear,” Cally said. “It’s your ribs. I broke one on a swing, once, when I was a child, and laughing was the worst. I’m so sorry you have to go through this.”

“It’s not so bad,” Bethany said. “I just hate having to put you both to so much work.” She flipped the top slice of bread off the sandwich and eyed the lettuce. “Joan must be treating you both awfully now. And probably complaining about using a guest room for me, too!”

“Don’t worry,” said Katarina. “I’m sure she’ll instruct you to send an itemized bill to yourself as soon as you’re able to work again.” Bethany started to laugh, but remembered and stopped herself in time.

“Oh, but, Bethany, guess what?” Cally said. “I booked a guest for Friday night, all by myself!”

“Congratulations!” said Bethany. “I’m so glad you’re here. You’re a godsend.”

“Well, I don’t know if I did it right,” she confessed. “I’ll get Kat to check my work later.”

“Doc says I should be allowed to get up and walk around in a couple of days,” Bethany said. “I’ll be more use then.”

“Doc can say what he likes,” Katarina snorted. “We won’t let you do any work until you are feeling completely better!”

Cally nodded her agreement. “Don’t worry about us, we’re fine. And what can we get for you now? How about something to read?”

“Maybe Ignacio can bring the small TV from the Azalea room for you,” suggested Katarina.

“No, thank you. You’re both too kind...” Bethany picked the lettuce off the sandwich and ate it. Then she nibbled at some of the cheese. “I think that medicine is starting to kick in now,” she said. “My ribs still hurt, but I’m feeling really sleepy.”

Katarina said, “Good, you sleep. Sleep is the best medicine.” She headed for the door. “I have to get back to work, but you be good! Doc specifically said not to try standing up on your own. The medicine will make you dizzy, and you don’t want to fall again! Call me if you need to get to the bathroom; I’ll come and help.” For emphasis, she moved the yellow phone on the nightstand closer to Bethany.

Bethany nodded her promise, but pushed the remains of the sandwich away. “I think that’s enough for now. Thank Ignacio for me.” She lay back and closed her eyes.

“And stay hydrated!” Katarina called from the hallway. “Doctors’ orders!”

Cally demonstrated her agreement with Katarina by refilling the iced tea glass on the night stand.

“Well at least now I’ll have time to give you that interview I promised you,” Bethany said.

Cally sat in the chair beside the bed and put her hand on Bethany’s arm. “There’s no hurry about that,” she said. “But, Bethany, I was wondering... Do you remember anything? About when you fell? Do you know how it happened?”

“I honestly don’t,” she said. “I remember getting home with the envelope for Ian. I sat down to put it into the filing cabinet, and I do remember noticing Ian still had not signed any of the papers I had put out for him to sign off on before I left.” She smiled at this. “Then the next thing I remember, I was lying in a big mess on the floor and everyone was making a fuss all around me and calling an ambulance.”

Cally smiled and shook her head. “I think I must have filed all the things you left out for Ian to sign. They were all over the floor. I’ll try to dig them out again. If you could just tell me...”

But Bethany’s eyes were fluttering open and shut, and she was not really listening. Cally stood and brushed Bethany’s silvery curls back from her forehead, careful not to get any hair into the ointment covering the stitches over her temple. “Never mind, I’ll figure it out. You just rest. Kat is right: sleep is the best medicine.”

“Oh!” Bethany’s eyes flew open and she tried to sit up, forgetting that this was painful for her to do. Between gritted teeth and gasps of pain, she said, “And there was also. Very important. Ian has to sign it and get it back to the lawyer...”

Cally thought she knew what Bethany was talking about. “If you mean Ian’s will, don’t worry, I found it and gave it to Ian. It’s safe and sound in his study.”

She laid back, though her face was still twisted with pain, and let out a deep breath. “Good. Maybe Ignacio can take it... back into town. When it’s all signed.”

“I’ll remind Ian to sign it,” Cally assured her, but she hesitated to promise to put it into Ignacio’s hands, after what Foster had said to her the day before. “I’ll make sure it’s all taken care of.”

“You’re an angel.”

As Bethany drifted off to sleep, the cats came in and leaped onto the bed. Cyndi Lauper took up a station near Bethany’s feet and Doctor Boojums lay down beside her knees. They both regarded Cally as if to say “Don’t worry, we’ll handle it from here.”