Ghosts

Chapter 1

"Hey Potter, come give me a hand with these boxes, will ya?"

"I'm here, calm down." I say meeting Pacey halfway up the rickety ladder to the attic.

He hands me a stack of boxes and I carry them to the livingroom. I move a box marked "Baby Clothes" to the side and the box beneath it takes my breath away. I immediately recognize my mother's neat handwriting in black marker on the top. "For my girls" is written in her print over the top.

"Earth to Jo," I hear Pacey say from the doorway.

"Huh?" I ask stupidly.

"I said, "I'm about to carry these boxes outside, is there anything else you need to go out?'"

"Oh...no...that's it I think."

"What's that you got there Jo?" he asks gesturing toward the box sitting in front of me.

"It's from my mom."

"Well, are you going to open it?"

"Pace, I can't...will you?"

"Sure." He walk over, picks up the box, and sits down in the chair across from me.

I watch as he cuts the tape and lifts the lid.

"What's in there Pacey?"

"Letters...a lot of letter addressed to different people. Mostly you and Bessie."

I quickly cross the room and sit on the floor in front of the box.

"This one here...it has your name on it, Pacey." I notice as I'm looking through the box," And here's one for Dawson, and one for Mitch and Gale, there's even one addressed to my dad."

I can't believe it. There has been a box full of letters from my mother all this time. As we inventory the box I find many letters addressed to myself and Bessie for different events in our lives...marriages, births of our first children, my prom night, my graduation day, letters to our future husbands and to my suprise there are letters for Pacey and Dawson. The letter addressed to Gale and Mitch do not surprise me as much because I know Gale was my mother's best friend.

"Pacey..."

"Yeah..."

"Will you open this letter for me and read it to me? I just can't."

"Sure, Jo."

He slips his finger under the flap and gently opens the letter with "To my darling, Josephine. Open this letter first" written neatly on the front. He begins reading...