Disclaimer: The Meditor series, characters and some of the plot belong to Meg Cabot, not me.
I opened my eyes just a little. Taking a glance around my surroundings, I saw a lot of crates. Silence. And then I heard muffled sounds, cursing very colorfully in all languages, among which I could only recognize the English, French and Spanish ones. Wow, that thug must be like a linguist. I was trapped in this disgusting musty dark place, with my hands and feet bound together. Yuck. This was so not what I imagined my "mission" would end up like. I mean, I have been in worse situations than this, like cuts all over my body and being trapped under the collapsed breezeway of Junipero Serra Mission Academy. But this was definitely not my idea of fun.
When I started out to bust this smuggling ring, I had been very careful, according to my own standards anyway. Then my mom had to call me on my brand new cell phone and it rang. The result? Those thugs got me and I am trapped. Remind me to put my phone on silent mode forever. Blame that Sergeant Simon. He has the surname as me, Susannah Simon, known as Suze. That was why I even agreed to help him in the first place. The sergeant was dead, killed by this international group of smugglers when he had almost busted them. Then he found me, told me, and entrusted me with this dangerous mission.
And I definitely could not tell the police. I mean, can you imagine me telling the police, "Hey! The ghost of Sergeant Simon appeared to me and told me about this international smuggling ring and their headquarters is at the deserted warehouse at 6 Ring Road." As if I would do that. That would guarantee me either a one-way pass to the mental asylum or at least, a lifetime pass to some therapy centre. So I decided to investigate it myself and then tell the police everything based on my own observations.
"Ring round the mulberry bush" , as I called this operation was strictly a secret. Don't laugh, I couldn't think of any other name. And it had been playing on the radio when I was ing. Oh sure, I told Father Dominic and Jesse, who are both mediators like me, and their reaction was to insist on telling the police everything Sergeant Simon had said. So I said 'no thanks' and ducked out of the room, escaping the lecture.
Did I mention that this ability to see, talk to and touch ghosts, as Father Dominic had so delightfully called a "gift" is like a curse for my life? I could have done really well without it. I can imagine it, no people labelling me a freak, no detentions for skipping lessons to help ghosts, and a normal life, like the average teenager. But, on the other hand, if I did not have this ability, I would not have been able to talk to my dad since he died quite a few years ago till the day of the Winter Formal-when he moved on to the Great Beyond after seeing me truly happy. And of course, I would not have met Jesse either, and that would be hell.
Jesse, Hector de Silva, was actually a ghost. To cut the long story short, I travelled back in time to save his life some 150 years ago, but accidentally brought his body back. His soul got sucked into his body and he kind of came back to life in this century. Jesse is the hottest guy in all of Carmel undisputedly, though he can be quite outdated and traditional at times. But who can blame him? He had come from the century before. But he is getting hip with the lingo now. Oh, and the hottest guy on the planet is my boyfriend! Jesse and I are dating and the whole Carmel population is so jealous…
One tiny voice was nagging in my mind while euphoria was rolling off me in waves. Snap back to reality, Suze Simon! I did get too engrossed in my thoughts there for a while. At least it got me distracted from the situation I was caught in. That's when I saw a glimmer of light, more like a ghostly glow. Sergeant Simon materialized right in front of my eyes.
Using his ghostly telepathic powers, he untied my ropes. "Thanks. You have no idea how sore my limbs are," I whispered, stretching my limbs slightly. Attracting attention by talking to thin air was not a good idea. "Oh, no problem, I got you into this in the first place." He shot a smile at me. I was kind of pissed actually. He still had the nerve to smile when he got me into this? He was so going to get it. But well, I needed to get some help first.
"Sergeant, can you help me to inform Jesse?" I had a hunch he was not going to be pleased, but I still needed help.
"Ok, sure." And he dematerialized with a glow. The crook was still swearing in a thousand different languages, or from what I could tell from his tone. I was curious and strained my ears. All I could manage to catch were "police" and a few "oof" s here and there. From what I gather, there was a fight going on and the police found out about this smuggling ring. Sergeant Simon couldn't have been that fast. I doubt that even Jesse in all his glory could be that fast either.
But one voice was strangely familiar. I admit, I was still a bit groggy from being knocked out. A club from behind hurts a lot, trust me. But I would recognize that voice anywhere and anytime. "Jesse?" I shouted from my hiding place. He couldn't really had been that fast, could he? "Querida? Hang on, I am fighting those thugs, of course with some help from S.S" he replied. I could hear a few of "Where did that come from?" shouts of surprise. Ha. Smirking, I knew the cool benefit of having a ghostly friend. Serve them right. "Oh, and I called the police already. They should be here any minute!" Jesse yelled between kicks, punches and blocks.
I had definitely no idea that Jesse could fight so well. It was not really that much of a wonder. I mean, just look at those muscular abs of his. Oh well, I guess I could always admire Jesse later. Now, I think I could help a little with the crime busting. Jumping up and stretching my numb limbs again, I ran to help Jesse knock out my kidnappers. Revenge is sweet…We made a great team. The kidnappers were out cold soon, hand and feet bound. Though of course, we had loads of help from our sergeant friend. He had a lot of pretty good moves. I would bet that it was part of his training.
The moment I got myself to stop panting heavily, I glanced as Jesse, who was also quite breathless himself, still shining in glory. I felt myself falling into the deep dark pools of his eyes, like always. I smiled. "Querida, are you OK?" I was grinning so hard by then that he asked why I was smiling. "Oh, it's nothing. And I am OK. I wouldn't mind kicking some more pieces of filth." Jesse laughed at that and put his arms around my waist. I leaned against his shoulders, feeling a sudden urge to kiss him. I was beyond lucky that Jesse was there to save me. And I really felt kind of guilty about not telling him about "Ring around the mulberry bush".
Jesse must have been pretty worried about me, because then he kissed me right on the lips. And he was definitely not a fan of public displays of affection. He still thinks it is wrong, somehow. Soon, we were so absorbed in a deep, passionate kiss that we were completely oblivious to the surroundings. You know, like those kind of exaggerated and cliché movies. But this is reality. We were engrossed in our own little world.
It was the peak when we heard a slight cough and pulled away. Jesse raised his scarred eyebrow and I was swooning all over him again. We looked around for the source. And we saw those smugglers looking thoroughly disgusted with us and Sergeant Simon looking a bit out of place. Oops. That was a great big mistake; both of us were blushing like tomatoes, and I smiled sheepishly at Jesse.
But before neither of us could say anything, the Carmel police barged into the warehouse. The present sergeant of the police had only taken a short glance at the bound crooks and ordered his subordinates to arrest those smugglers. Then it was those normal boring procedures of the police taking our particulars to contact us for further procedures, like testifying. I stole a glance at Sergeant Simon and caught a look of his sorrowful face. The poor person, it was supposed to be his job, well, at least before he got killed.
The police drove off and I walked over to Sergeant Simon.
"Hey! Are you alright? I was afraid you would like cry out or something like that," I said jokingly to him, to comfort him.
"Susannah," Jesse warned me with a stern face. Yeah, yeah, I was just joking. But I did not tell him that. It would just earn me more of those stern looks when all I wanted to do right now was to give him a great big kiss for saving me. Seriously, Jesse had a lack of humor. I turned to the sergeant and asked him, "Okay, Sergeant, you got your dying wish to nab those smugglers. What are you going to do now?"
"Actually, Suze, I think I'm going to move on soon. Could you please help me deliver a letter to my family? I placed the letter on your dressing table. I trust you, and thank you for all your help." And with a shimmer, he disappeared, moving on to the Great Beyond.
"Come on, Susannah. Let's get back to the car and get you home. But you better find a way to explain your bruises and cuts" Jesse held my hand and guided me through the door. "Jesse, seriously, do you think that the police won't go knocking on my house doors and get me to testify against the crooks?" I mean, reporters would also know the story, and it will get on the news right? Though I was not a big fan of publicity, I could not deny that.
"All right, querida, you should be right. I am still not very sure about this." Jesse replied with some uncertainty in his voice. Today's law might have been quite different from the 1800s. I was quite sure of that. A whole century and a half, and if the laws didn't change, it would have been too weird.
"Jesse, I am quite sure about this. And could we please go to your apartment first, please?" I put on my puppy loving eyes, hoping it would work. I wanted to get some nice private time, and neither this disgusting place nor my home with my mom and Andy was the perfect place to do it. His apartment was the best place to hang out together with the least interference, maybe except for Father Dominic.
My ruse worked since Jesse agreed. So, I got into his car, well, actually not really his car. He had not earned enough to buy one yet. But Father Dominic gave him money to rent one. Oh, did I mention that Father Dom had gotten the apartment for Jesse. Basically, he had set up everything for Jesse with help from the church, I would think.
Anyway, when we got to the apartment, I just plonked down on the couch, relaxing while Jesse went to get his gigantic first-aid kit and helped dress some of my wounds. He must had been a born doctor because he was done quite soon. "Okay, Susannah, let's talk." I braced myself to kiss him, because, well, usually the term "talk" meant "kiss" in our scenario. But it was obviously not the case this time since he started on a long boring lecture on the dangers of facing dangerous criminals on my own. That was what hanging too much round Father Dominic does to a person. Not that Jesse wasn't traditional in the first place.
It was getting really boring and I tuned him up, lust building up every moment I looked at him. When he actually paused to take a breath, I interrupted him. "Can we continue where we left off?" I asked sweetly. And without waiting fro a reply, I practically pounced on him, planting a kiss on his lips. That shut him up. And we engaged in making out for the next ten minutes, and him finally stopping when we got too close to second base.
I thought of something and asked him how he knew I was there. Well, I turned out that he had actually seen me take a taxi to the warehouse, which was quite close to his workplace, the Carmel Historical Society. Since I had told Jesse about the case, he had known that the smuggling headquarters was there and guessed what I was about to do. Then, he totally skipped work, and on the pretext of a family emergency, got out of work, trailed me, called the police and rescued me. That was the jist of it. I count myself fortunate enough. At least I was somehow far-sighted.
When Jesse drove me home, I got bombarded with questions by Mom, Andy and my three stepbrothers. I had told them I was going for a morning walk, and came home covered with bruises and cuts. They were obviously suspicious in the first place. Me, the late sleeper going for a stroll? Haha. Not to mention me coming back with Jesse. Jesse was bombarded as well. I basically did most of the answering, because my story did not involve any dead ghosts, since none of those people understand anything about my special ability. Cooking up a story was actually kind of easy, just exclude all the paranormal parts and that's it.
Jesse, I think, was too much of a gentleman to lie. Him and his 1800s manners. Though he kind of lied to me quite a few times, but it had been for my own good, or so he thought. And he was a bit awkward about me going to his apartment. He was pure enough and I think I convinced my mom that he only tended to my wounds there. Obviously, I excluded the naughty part. It would have been bad...
I got away with the whole thing, since my mom did not ground me at all. She might have been even a little proud. It is not often I really do something good that I can tell her about. I mediated ghosts, sure. But I would never tell her. Honestly, it was for her own good too. Maybe little white lies work.
But for some odd reason, after Jesse left for work, my eyelids kept twitching all through the afternoon, until I switched on the television to watch the evening news, to look for mention about the smuggling ring.