The Rockmore House

13 | Everybody Talks

On Halloween night, Kaitlin and I sat on her porch with fleece blankets over our shoulders waiting for trick-or-treaters. I hoped to get one more wear out of my costume, but it didn't hold up against the cold, so I had a blanket over my lap, too. Kaitlin had a headband with glittery red devil horns tucked into her faded pink hair. Usually she loved dressing up for Halloween, but she wasn't feeling festive. Kaitlin was easy to be with when my brain was preoccupied, because hers was usually the same.

My mind was preoccupied more than usual, because once I had Liz's last name, I had information. A healthy dose of which came from small town chatter immortalized in a Facebook comment thread. On a local Facebook group page, on November 23rd, 2013, someone had posted a tribute to the Conley sisters on the 20th anniversary of their disappearance.

Julie, the original poster, said Michelle Conley was her best friend from kindergarten until she disappeared junior year of high school. Karen said it was such a devastating loss to the community. Brenda said her daughter was friends with Elizabeth "Beth" Conley, and Beth was whip-smart and destined for great things if it hadn't been for the tragic end to her young life. Larry remembered the family from church and still prayed for them. Bud said he thought he seen the older one alive in Phoenix one winter, working as a waitress at a steakhouse. Cathy said Bud was being disrespectful. Mike couldn't believe they'd never been found one way or the other. Sharon said the parents moved away after they'd lost hope that the girls would ever return, and she heard the father passed shortly after. Brenda confirmed what Sharon had heard about the father, as she'd kept in touch with Beth's mother until about two years later, when she could no longer reach her.

There was still more research to do, but I had enough information to know that if there was anything I could do to help Liz, I had to do it. There were a lot of little superheroes out that night in capes and masks and padded muscles. I didn't look like them, but I had a superpower, and while it scared me, maybe I was meant to use it for good.

A rising breeze lifted a few leaves from the sidewalk, and they danced and swirled backward into the air, almost reaching the low limbs that they came from. The leaves' attempt at reversing their inevitable end caught Kaitlin's eye, too.

"Can you feel it?" Kaitlin asked as she shivered.

"Feel what?"

"How the veil is so thin you can almost hear our ancestors' whispers carried on the breeze."

"What veil? Are you trying out song lyrics?"

"I haven't written anything since Chloe," Kaitlin said sadly. "Nothing that I don't rip up immediately. Anyway, the veil is the invisible barrier between our world and the Otherworld. Tonight is when it's thinnest and the souls of the dead can return."

Two hockey players, a princess, and a dinosaur ran up the front walk and chirped, "Trick-or-treat!" in tiny voices.

Kaitlin brightened up long enough to chat with the kids and drop candy into their pillowcases and then she wilted again.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" I asked her.

"I believe in everything. Ghosts, saints, miracles, God, soul mates, fairies. I think life would be sad and boring if I didn't believe there was more than this. I mean, all of this can be magical, but I still think there's more that we don't see. Like, a lot more."

"Soul mates, huh? That's a lot of pressure isn't it? Having to find, like, the one."

"There shouldn't be any pressure, because it's not something you have to work to find. It's supposed to just happen."

"You watch too many romantic comedies. If people didn't have to work to find it, then why are dating apps a thing?"

"People use those apps to find all kinds of things. Not necessarily soul mates. How did it happen with your guy from the summer? How did you meet?"