A Spirit's Touch

Thirteen. The Aftermath

CRASH!

"Fuck!" Judith hissed at the smashed glass scattered across the kitchen counter. At least four glasses lay shattered from her near-drunk clumsiness. "I'll deal with that later," Judith pulled out a saved shot glass and searched under the counter for a bottle of vodka she had kept for special occasions such as this one.

Judith double-backed and at least pushed the broken glass into a neater pile. Once satisfied she proceeded to neck three neat shots.

Judith re-entered the front room and reached for the letter to read it over again. "Kimi Sanderson," she said in a mocked voice. "What a name. "Sounds like an Asian stripper."

The now drunk woman paid no attention to the ghost in the room who attempted to comfort her with an embrace. Judith moved away from Jersey's reaching arms and continued to pace back and forth.

"I'll kick that prick where it hurts if he thinks I'm going to attend this crap!" With the wine in hand Judith drank and drank until the bottle was empty and another one started.

Judith lost sense of what she was doing and drunkenly mumbled profanities about her ex to Jersey before curling up in a ball and crying herself to sleep.

Jersey could see she needed to vent and release the built up anger and so left her alone to get the anger off her chest. The spirit left the house to stand on the doorstep to allow Judith the space to cool off. They particularly did not enjoy the sound of things being thrown or smashed but decided whatever damage was done could be rectified when the upset woman went to bed.

Instead, Jersey tried to close off their thoughts and focused on watching the windows of the houses across the street. They were particularly fond of the house opposite and three doors up. Mr William Cole was a child of ten when his parents first moved to the house; he was now in his seventies and had regular visits from his new younger family. Jersey often wondered if he would still be there when he did eventually pass away.

Several hours passed and all seemed quiet in the house. Jersey returned inside and found Judith sleeping peacefully on the sofa. She was surrounded by shattered glass, pieces of china and little figurines she kept on her book case were broken and chipped and scattered across the floor.

Not the ideal situation Jersey wanted to come back inside to. The spirit knew it had several hours of cleaning to do. The first task however, was to get the drunk and depressed woman up to her bed, then the damage could be properly assessed.

***

The curtains were thrown open and Judith quickly threw her arm up to protect her eyes. She immediately regretted the sudden movement as the pain in her head shot across her body, reminding her that she was very much going to feel the worst of terrible hangovers.

"What the?" She grumbled as the sunlight filled the room. Jersey did not appear to be in the room, they had drew back the curtains and disappeared from the room to allow Judith time to work out her bearings.

It took several moments for Judith to realise she was wrapped up in her bed. She raised the covers and checked herself. The t-shirt, bra and underwear she was wearing the night before were still present. The rest of her clothes had been removed and neatly folded and placed on the side unit.

It was a small comfort to know that Jersey did not take advantage of her being drunk and only did what they could to help her get comfortable.

With her head spinning, Judith reached for her glasses and checked her phone. She was annoyed when she saw it was barely half past nine and frowned loudly to the air, she hoped Jersey was around to recognise her frustration.

Judith tried to sit up but was met only by the spinning room and a sudden need for the toilet. Ignoring the soaring headache she made for the toilet as quickly as possible and threw her head over the bowl as the first wave of vomit erupted.

Once satisfied she could leave the bathroom in some comfort and no longer required its needs, Judith took a very slow trot down the stairs to switch the kettle on. A black rubbish bag lay propped up against the front door and Judith felt some of the broken objects inside

"Shit, what did I do last night?" The front room was surprisingly clean, well it would have been surprising in any other house. Judith was aware Jersey would have cleaned up her mess despite any protests either of them might have had.

She noticed a few of her ornaments that she had collected recently were missing and suddenly recalled throwing them against the wall in her head. The memory caused more pain to her thundering headache.

"Fuck..." She whispered hoarsely. She did not intend to let herself lose control the way she did.

"I'm sorry. If you can hear me, Jersey, I am sorry." Judith meant the words, she had no right to treat Jersey's home the way she did. "Please forgive me, I've been a fool."

Judith entered the kitchen and flicked the switch on the kettle, she was surprised this time to see it had been boiled recently and was still hot to the touch. It did not take long at all to boil again.

With coffee made and painkillers taken, Judith curled up into a ball under her penguin blanket on the sofa and closed her eyes. She caught a glimpse of the engagement letter on the fireplace before her eyes shut firmly.

After a few minutes passed, Judith was acutely aware of another presence in the room and could feel the air shift as Jersey entered the room and placed a glass of water on the table before taking up the seat next to her.

"I'm sorry, Jersey," Judith whispered before slowly drifting off again. She suspected Jersey would wake her again, if only as punishment for the trouble she caused the night before. No contact came though and Judith fell asleep next to the patient ghost.

Jersey was not sure what they wanted to do regarding the situation with Judith taking her anger out on the house but they wanted to let the living woman recover and rest before anything was done.

The spirit did know however, that Judith was going to pay with her body once she was fully recovered. They were sure of that

***

Word count- 13472