Glimmering

He hastily began rearranging the photos in front of him. Unreasoning dread swept over him. It was one thing to have deliriums brought on by illness, bad dreams of his grandfather and skeletons dancing on the lawn; quite another to consider even momentarily that Lazyland was being visited by the revenant of his long-lost aunt. An old song rang through his head, one of Leonard’s favorites—

Ain’t you never seen a disembodied soul before?

He glanced at the pictures one last time, quickly stuck them back in the album. He flipped through the remaining pages, barely glancing at what was there—a few more scratched Polaroids, some photos of an empty storefront. At the very end, he found a small stained envelope stuck to the back cover. It was addressed in blue ballpoint ink, in the same handwriting he recognized from the back of the photographs. Here the penmanship was definitely worse, drunken scrawl rather than that careful looped Palmer hand.

Mr. and Mrs. James F. Finnegan

109 Hudson Terrace

Yonkers, N.Y. 10701

For a minute he sat holding it. The postmark read San Francisco, April 17, 1968. He drew the envelope to his face and inhaled, caught the faintest spicy-sweet breath of incense. There was no return address.

Dear Mom and Dad,

There’s a bridge, lots of people are going over the Golden Bridge. I love you love you SO Much! Please don’t worry.

I LOVE YOU!

Mary Anne

And beneath the signature, in uneven block letters:

THERE IS SOMEONE HERE

He read it two, three, five times. Finally, he placed the letter and the envelope on the floor and went back through the photos, checking dates. Nothing was marked later than March 1968. He thought back to when he had found the girl in the garden, beneath the hydrangeas. Sometime in April; impossible to remember just when.

And when had Mary Anne disappeared? He could vaguely recall that it had been summer, he and his brothers fighting over the porch swing while strained grown-up voices spoke, out of sight on the porch, while the scent of charcoal billowed up from the lawn. Nothing had ever been found of her, no clothes, no body washed up under the bridge, nothing. As an adult, his sister had said once at another family cookout, she thought Mary Anne had gone out there and gotten pregnant and killed herself, rather than face her parents. He had never asked his grandmother if there was a putative date for Mary Anne’s death; never asked his father, or anyone else.

He wouldn’t now, either.

He put it all away, carefully but quickly. The letter last of all, pressed between transparent plastic membranes like something on a medical slide. He replaced the album on its shelf, shut down his computer, and left. Halfway up the drive he stared up at Lazyland’s windows, glowing like stained glass in the discordant light. Behind one of them a shadow moved, up and down, as though signaling him—

There is someone here.

Back inside Lazyland, the house’s usual dark silence had been laid siege by electric bulbs, rumble-thump of washing machine and dryer, water pounding through the pipes, lights glowing on the answering machine and coffeemaker and microwave.

And music: the television turned up so loud that Jack winced.

“Marz!” he shouted, striding into the living room and punching the volume control. “Turn it down!” Then, at Marz’s outraged look, “Jesus Christ, it’s so distorted, how can you even hear it?”

She glowered, which was reassuring—surely ghosts didn’t slouch in the middle of the living-room floor and scowl when you turned the TV down.

Jack regarded the screen with what he hoped was an acceptable level of adult interest. “Now at least you can hear what they’re saying.”

“It’s a fucking commercial,” said Marz in a venomous tone; her accent made it into a focking commairshell.

“Then you certainly don’t need it turned all the way up, do you?” Jack gave her a deliberately prissy smile, which Marz ignored. “Where’s Grandmother and Mrs. Iverson?”

“Kitchen.” Marz leaned against a pillow, gaze fixed on the television.

Jack frowned. “You comfortable like that?”

Marz twiddled her hair. He repeated the question.

“Huh? Oh. Yeah.”

He stood there for another minute, watching her watch TV, a kaleidoscopically animated commercial for some kind of soft drink. It was amazing—miraculous, almost—how quickly the world reclaimed its commonplace aspect, if only you could turn the TV on.

“Let’s see what’s on Public Television,” he suggested.

“No!” Marz shrieked, and clutched the remote to her huge belly.

“Just joking.”