upload

“Don’t worry about it,” I shot back quickly. I really preferred not to tell him that Virginia was the one who had killed him in the first place. Instead, I swallowed hard and asked, “Why are you here? Why did you come to see me, Harold?”

“I don’t know,” he answered as his blue light pulsed yet again. I wondered if the color he’d taken on was a coincidence or if it was something more of a mood ring. Would evil ghosts glow red? Magical ones green? Interesting to think about, but not what was important at the moment.

“Do you have unfinished business of some kind?” I asked after licking my dry lips.

“It’s hard to remember much in this form,” he said in that jarring echo of his. “But give me a moment, and I’ll try.”

While I waited for Harold to collect his thoughts, the two cats slowly moved out of the hallway and came to stand beside me in the kitchen.

“What does it want?” Merlin asked, swishing his tail so hard it thwapped me in the leg.

“A talking cat!” Harold exclaimed in fright and zipped back toward the sink.

“Yes, he’s a talking cat, and you’re a ghost. Which seems scarier to you?” I asked, tilting my head to the side in disbelief. “Besides, you just saw him talking in the hallway. You also watched him summon lightning, remember?”

“Oh, I think I do.” The blobby blue Harold bobbed back over to us, coming dangerously close to crashing into Luna this time. “And this one threatened me!” the ghost cried when he recognized the white cat.

“I have a name. It’s Luna,” she hissed, arching her back at him.

“Eek! A talking cat!” Harold screamed and raced about the house.

Oh, boy. This was going to take a while.

I needed to take charge here, or we’d be at this all night. “Harold, you came for a reason. I know you’re having a hard time remembering, so I’ll ask some questions to see if that helps. Okay?”

He bobbed up and down, which I took to mean he agreed.

“Is this about how you died?” I ventured carefully.

“I was poisoned.”

“Yes, that’s good, Harold! Yes, you were poisoned.” Oops, my voice sounded all high and babyish like it did when I talked to Merlin—before he started talking back, that is. When I’d still assumed he was just a regular fuzzy wuzzy. Even though Harold seemed harmless, there was nothing fuzzy or wuzzy about the ghost before me.

“Well, you don’t have to sound so happy about it,” he booed.

“Oh, trust me. I’m not happy about it.”

Sigh. I might as well tell him the truth and get it off my chest. He’d forget it in a few seconds any way. “I’m sorry, too. You were murdered because someone wanted to hurt me.”

“But she avenged you,” Merlin added, hopping up onto the table to get closer to the talking blue orb. “She risked her own life to punish those who hurt you.”

“So my killer is now dead?” Harold wanted to know.

I shrugged for lack of a better response.“Um, yes and no. The mastermind is still on the loose, but the one who pulled the trigger is definitely dead.”

“No, I wasn’t shot. I was poisoned,” he insisted in another wailing echo.

“Right.” No tangents, no metaphors. Straight simple language. “Does your visit have anything to do with your daughter? Kelley?”

“My daughter,” the ghost mumbled and then flashed bright cerulean and shouted, “Kelley! Yes, I wanted to thank you for helping her.”

I smiled. Harold would have been a good dad if he’d been given more of a chance. “Of course I helped her, she’s my friend.”

“But you gave her your one wish. You didn’t have to do that.”

My jaw would have hit the floor if it could reach.“You couldn’t remember that cats can talk, but somehow you both knew and remembered that my cat brewed a potion which I then gave to Kelley so her biggest dream could come true?”

The blue blob tilted to the side.“Memory is strange as a ghost. It comes and goes.”

“Well, you’re welcome for helping Kelley. She wants to do your legacy proud. You have a very good daughter there. It’s too bad you didn’t get much of a chance to know her.”

Harold’s hue turned dark like midnight. “It is too bad.”

“Tomorrow is the grand re-opening of the coffeehouse. She kept the name,” I informed him. “To honor you.”

He brightened once more.“Would you please tell her I’m proud of her?”

Well, this was sweet and all, but I really needed to get some sleep since I was scheduled to work a double shift tomorrow.“I’ll see what I can do. Thank you for the visit, Harold. Was that all?”

“Wait!” The ghost raced around the kitchen before returning to face me. “I have a warning to deliver from the other side.”

“That might have been a good thing to start with,” Merlin said snippily.

I shushed him, then softened my voice to speak to Harold.“What is the message?”

His voice grew deep and clear, changed.“Seeds that have been sown will soon bear dangerous fruit.”

I gasped.“Harold? What does that mean?”

He spun slowly as if surveying the room.“What does what mean?”

“The message you just gave me,” I pressed. Please remember, please rememb—

“I don’t remember,” he said and then flashed out of view.

19