Slave: The Ghost of Cambria - Book Two

Chapter Ten

Kristen arrived at the Paso Robles Target department-store parking lot with a shopping list written by Tony, composed of various rodent extermination and prevention items. Having used a flashlight to better investigate the living room coat closet, he declared there were no droppings in sight. That wasn't exactly great news. Tony trusted Penelope's instincts that the house had unwelcome pests, and the lack of visual evidence made it likelier that the rats were exclusively inside the walls. Attempting to do battle against an embedded infestation could mean thousands of dollars in repairs. The first thing Tony did was to contact the local Terminix branch to schedule an appraisal appointment.

But Kristen had rather spectacular doubts as to the cause of Penelope's aggression. Kristen believed her Husky could sense Valon; she clearly knew when the ghost was in the house.

After Kristen let Penelope out in the morning, she returned to bed with the explicit goal of allowing Valon to return to her. The woman suspected the ghost could only come to her when she was asleep and dreaming. Though Kristen could still see the ghost after awakening, he'd never arrived without first communicating through her dreams. When she returned to bed, Kristen again experienced the dream about Pamela and Bobby Hill. The same sequence played, allowing Kristen to sooner realize that she was dreaming as it played out. And again, Kristen had awoken with Valon lying beside her on the air mattress.

When Valon again attempted to speak to her, the words wouldn't release from his mouth, as if his throat was sealed and could not push the breath forward to create a sound. At that moment, Penelope's vicious barking had erupted from the back yard, and Valon disappeared.

The experiences left Kristen determined to communicate with the ghost. While the dreams were vivid and deeply impactful, Kristen knew she couldn't remember everything in them. Fragments refused to be recalled, and her conscious assemblage of what Kristen did remember often felt incoherent. She still couldn't quite remember the dream of when Valon had been alive in the house. He had been anxious to hold something stolen, some piece of jewelry. As much as Kristen tried, she couldn't recall why it was so important to him or what had happened to it.

Kristen's mind thought of nothing else as she parked her car, staring aimlessly forward. Her mind hit wall after mental wall in its attempt to recall the details. She couldn't have said how long she'd sat there pondering before a dark image distracted her.

Kristen looked to her rear-view mirror to see a black lifted Ford F20 truck with knobby tires park in the space directly behind her in the lane. Kristen soon witnessed a very short woman practically jump down from the relatively lofty height of the driver's seat. The landing of the four-foot-tall woman next to the nine-foot-tall vehicle prompted Kristen to let out a grunt of laughter.

Back to the present task at hand, Kristen rose from her sedan and made her way into the driveway lane to begin her walk toward the department store doors. A last glance toward the truck resulted in Kristen spotting a bumper sticker on its rear fender. The solitary label was for the Wait, Whaaatpodcast, which Kristen planned to contact by email. When her eye had rested on the spot long enough, Kristen noticed that the short was staring at her.

"I love that show," Kristen smiled with embarrassment.

"Oh, really?" the little Asian woman's eyes lit up. "Thank you! That's my show."

She didn't quite comprehend what the woman had said in response, but Kristen immediately remembered the lady's face from the cover-art of the comedy program. Her's was one of the two faces staring out in mock terror behind the show titles.

"Are you serious?" Kristen asked her.

"Yeah, I'm Elaine," the middle-aged woman pointed quickly to her sternum with a bright grin.

Kristen's mouth dropped for a moment, and she approached.

"Can I buy you a coffee? I really want to talk to you about something?" asked Kristen.

The glimmer in Elaine's eyes dimmed for a moment of apprehensive hesitation.