Ghost Story

Chapter 1- Siren Bells

Kari remembered hearing the sirens. At the time, she hadn't thought much of them. There was nothing special about them. Their apartment building was located off of a major road in a busy city so she was well used to hearing them flash by on the street twenty stories below. Sometimes she heard them daily. You had to ignore them, Kari always thought. It would be too much to bear if you spent time wondering what was happening or who was hurt. Still, Kari distinctly remembered having that "what if" feeling. She ignored it, of course. There was no way the sirens could be headed for someone she knew. Someone she loved…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The alarm clock blared. Kari slammed the off button as she woke up slowly from her dream. In the real world now, she couldn't remember a single thing her dream had been about but she lay in bed for several long minutes trying desperately to find it again. It had left her with a warm, fuzzy, pleasant feeling in her gut, and though she had no clue why, she didn't want to let it go.

Sighing, she gave her ceiling one last long look before dragging herself out of bed. She squinted as she flipped the lights on in her bedroom and then in the hallway to her kitchen.

The electronic light on her coffee maker blinked 6:04 as she turned it on and headed to her bathroom to begin getting ready for work.

Her morning routine was exactly the same everyday. Shower, dress, brush her teeth, brush her hair, smear some makeup on her face to cover the circles under her eyes and the hollowness of her pale cheeks. Kari never strayed from her routines. They made her feel comfortable, they made her feel safe.

She poured the remaining coffee into a travel mug and set off to work, like she did every morning. Her office building was exactly seven blocks from her apartment. Sometimes she counted the steps, but today she let herself be distracted by the bright blue of the sky. It had rained the past three days so the sunshine felt wonderful on her face. It made her think of her dream and again she was plagued to remember just what it had been about.

Kari struggled a lot to remember things.

There had been an accident, the doctors told her when she woke up in that empty hospital room almost a year ago. She had hit her head and damaged her memory. It could come back one day, the doctors had told her, but she didn't count on it.

It had been a year and Kari still barely knew who she was. She only knew that her name was, in fact, Kari because it was engraved on the silver heart-shaped bracelet she had been wearing when she woke up in the hospital. Everything else was blank.

Oh, she could read and write and solve math problems - that part of her brain was fine. Where her family was, who had given her the bracelet, and even things like what her favorite food was were lost to her.

Sometimes she'd fantasize that her loved ones were out there looking for her, but she'd long since given up hope of being found. The doctors couldn't tell her any more than she already knew. No one had seen Kari arrive at the hospital. A nurse had told her that it was as if she had somehow just appeared on a gurney right inside the doors of the emergency room entrance.

Kari reached the front door of the office building at exactly 7:52. She was in the elevator by 7:53 and stepped off onto the twenty-third floor by 7:55. She always made sure she was at her desk well before 8:00. She worked as a personal secretary for an important businessman.

Although it wasn't her dream job, if she even knew what that was, Kari was extremely grateful for her work. Her boss, Don, had taken a risk hiring a girl with no references or credentials and she would never forget it.

Just as she was thinking about him, he walked past her desk on his way into his office. He smiled at her like he did every day and they traded good mornings.

As soon as his door closed behind him, Kari's only friend Joanie stepped out from behind her cubicle and sighed.

"You know what my favorite part of this job is?"

She took a seat on the corner of Kari's desk but Kari barely looked up to ask her what.

"Staring at that cute butt."

Kari looked up then, confused, until she saw her friend gazing back toward Don's closed door. Choosing not to think about her boss's behind, Kari simply shook her head at Joanie.

Taking the hint, Joanie headed back to her cubicle, calling over her shoulder. "How many hours 'til lunch?"

"Four," Kari called back to her. Although she loved Joanie, there were many areas where they disagreed. Their job, for one. It seemed no matter the day or hour, Joanie was always counting the seconds until she could leave. Kari, on the other hand, enjoyed working. It gave her a sense of purpose and unity with her coworkers. She wouldn't go so far as to say family, but they were a team, and Kari took that seriously.

Second, was Joanie's infatuation with every man she met. Kari hadn't dated since the accident, nor did she entirely wish to. It wasn't a matter of self-confidence, she knew without a doubt that she was beautiful. Having lost familiarity with her own reflection, she was able to look at herself without bias to know that she was pretty. To Kari, her decision to avoid dating and relationships had more to do with a feeling, not unlike the one from her dream, that maybe she'd already found her true love. She supposed one day she'd have to let go of that as well, but like her dream feelings, she'd struggle to hold onto that as long as she could.

By the time lunch did roll around, Kari was almost dreading the gossip hour with Joanie. The conversation turned almost immediately, as it did every day, to Joanie's most recent conquest.

"Oh my gosh, Kar, he's so hot."

"Where did you meet him?" Kari asked while picking at her lunch.

"At the gym. He has an amazing body. And he plays guitar, how sexy is that?"

Kari just smiled at her friend, awkwardly unsure of how to contribute to the conversation.

Then Joanie's voice took on a familiarly mischievous note. "You know, Kari," she said slyly, "his roommate's really cute too. And single. I was thinking we could double. Are you free this Friday?"

"I don't think so, Joanie."

"What do you mean?" Joanie pouted. "You never have plans."

"I just…don't think I'm up to it."

"Kari, please, just give him a chance. I met him last night and he seemed super nice. You need to get out there Kari, you know, move on with your life."

What life? Kari thought in her head. She didn't say it out loud though because she knew it would upset Joanie. Instead she told Joanie that she understood. "I just need to move forward at my own pace."

Joanie only rolled her eyes. "It that case, I guess we can double forty years from now. I'm sure we'll both still be single then, although if we're in wheel chairs I don't know how easy it'll be to get from our nursing homes to a movie theater."

This brought a smile to Kari's face, which pleased Joanie enough to stop pressing the issue. Even when their friendship frustrated Kari from to their lack of things in common, deep down Kari knew Joanie was only trying to make her happy, and Kari knew she was lucky to have a friend like her.

Even though Kari had brushed aside Joanie's remarks about dating and moving on, she contemplated her friend's advice hours later, while she was riding a stationary bicycle at the gym. Looking around, she wondered how girls like Joanie could pick up guys in places like this. With sweat rolling down her face and her hair sticking to the back of her neck, she felt exhausted and the very opposite of sexy.

Glancing around at the male proportion of the gym's clients Kari noticed a few macho boys about her age in the corner lifting weights. They switched to the heavier sizes as soon as they saw her looking, as if trying to compete or show off. Disgusted, Kari focused back on her cycling.

To her, the gym was a place where she didn't have to think, where she could get lost in the exertion and forget about everything else in her life. More importantly, she was there because she wanted to be there not because she felt like she had to improve herself for other people.

Besides the trio in the corner, the only other man there was an after-worker like herself, and he was probably about twice her age. Thankfully he didn't seem to notice her looking in his direction.

After the gym she picked up some carryout and headed home like she did every night. Her evening routine was similar to her morning one. After kicking off her shoes and transferring her dinner from the takeout box to a plate she ate on the sofa while watching the evening news. The most important part of her routine, however, was checking her answering machine.

"No new messages," it recited to her like it did every night.

Sighing, she washed her dirty dishes, changed into her pajamas, washed her face, brushed her teeth, and made sure she was tucked into bed by exactly 10:00.

At 10:01 she started to cry like she did every night. It wasn't her routines, it wasn't her job, it wasn't Joanie that upset her. She cried because every day made her want to scream at the top of her lungs. This wasn't the job she was supposed to be working at, Joanie wasn't the friend she was supposed to be confiding in, this wasn't the bed she was supposed to be sleeping in. How could she ever move on with her life when none of it was right? And how was she supposed to fix it?