The Dream Jumper's Promise

Chapter 18

Jamey called Katie to see if it was safe to sneak into Tina’s house. “Is Tina at the shop?”

            “Has this got something to do with her birthday tomorrow,” Katie whispered.

            “It’s her birthday?”

            “Pepper is doing a surprise party at her house with her parents and friends. Didn’t you get invited?” Katie sounded upset.

            He hadn’t but he didn’t care. The most pressing issue was to attempt contact with a dead man, not get an invitation to a birthday party. “Call my cell if she leaves the shop, will ya?”

            The house was quiet, except for the noise from the squawky bird next door. Some days the thing sounded like a baby crying and after what Tina had said about wanting a baby, he had to think the bird noises were disturbing to her.

            The bedroom door was closed when he rounded the hall corner and gently laid his palm on the door. No one inside. He opened it slowly, just in case. Her bed was neatly made and the room had a floral scent, maybe lavender. It was impossible to be in this room and not think of the intimate dream from the night before, but knowing that Hank might be around, Jamey refrained from staring wistfully at Tina’s bed.

            The room wasn’t large but the book shelves had enough nooks and crannies that a lingering spirit might find the room appealing, from what he knew about ghosts. Tina’s shelf, along one wall, was filled with ornaments as well as novels and travel guide books. He’d brought a pad of paper and a marker in hopes that Hank might be able to communicate through automatic writing. The Sixth Force testing and training he’d done might come in handy.

            “Hank? If you’re here I need to talk to you.”

            He sat in the armchair and listened to the bird squawk. A minute passed until Jamey felt the room drop in temperature. A flutter of cool air whispered past his forearm. “Hank?” Jamey laid the tablet of paper on his lap. “If you can push a paper off a table I’m assuming we can write something. Are you Hank?”

            He uncapped the black marker, wrote a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and held it loosely over the paper.

He waited to feel the marker move. He waited. And waited. Then it did. Slightly. Just a fraction to the side. He stared at the paper for several seconds. Nothing more. Was it too heavy? The room remained chilly. A good sign. “Can you point to yes or no? Or write something?” Nothing budged.

            He retrieved a pencil stub from Tina’s bedside table. Once he leaned the tip of the pencil on the paper, it began to move and write, ever so lightly, almost imperceptibly. He held it under the lamp and there it was, plain as day.

            ‘H,’ it said. The penmanship was not his. “Are you trying to tell Tina where your body is?”

            The pencil moved in jerks then rested near the letter “Y”.

            “In a cave?”

            The pencil didn’t move.

            “We can’t find the site. Do you know where this cave is?” Immediately the pencil slid to the word ‘yes’.

            Jamey’s heart beat hard against his rib cage. God dammit, this works! “Can you give me a hint?” He drew a rough sketch of Maui and waited, the pencil resting above the map. Nothing.