PART 1
In my I50 years of living in the boarding house--no longer a boarding house mind you--no body of the opposite gender has ever set foot into my room. All right so maybe they have but they never paid any mind to me, Hector "Jesse" de Silva. Until now at least.
First, I only heard the voices from my seat on the window seat. Then I looked up to see two women standing in the doorway. Moreover, one of them was looking straight at me. No, no, she was not she was looking through me and out the window behind me. She was younger then the other, maybe fifteen years old or so.
"Oh Suze, not again" the older, but not that much older woman said. What could that mean? Could they see me? Of course not. I had been dead for over a century.
I watched them talk to each other hoping to learn something. And I did. The younger did not like old places. That sure would explain her attitude. I looked away from them and out the window again.
I heard the older one leave. "All right, who the hell are you?"
I looked up at her in utter surprise, then over my shoulder, half-expecting to see something- or someone- other then the window behind me but no; I looked back at her, and she was staring strait at me.
"Nombre de Dios" I exclaimed.
"There's know use calling your higher power, if you haven't noticed, He isn't paying much attention to you to fester for." She paused, looking from the chair she had straddled. "What is it, a hundred years since you croaked?"
Her voice was forceful and confident, but she spoke in a language I found difficult to understand. "What is… croaked?" I asked in a voice that sounded strange to my own ears because of lack of use.
She rolled her eyes. "Kicked the bucket. Checked out. Popped off. Bit the dust."
I still did not understand. Obviously, it showed. "Died" she clarified annoyed.
"Oh. Died." Was all I could say. "I still don't under stand how you can see me. All these years, no one ever-"
"Yeah" she interrupted rather rudely "Well, listen, the times, they are a-changing . So what's your glitch.
"Glitch?" I repeated.
Her eyes swept over my body, "Glitch," she continued to explain "Problem. Why are you still here?"
I was still confused.
"Why haven't you gone to the other side?"
I shook my head "I don't know what you mean."
"What do you mean you don't know what I mean." She snapped at me, "your dead. You don't belong here. You're suppose to be off doing whatever it is that happens to people after they die. Rejoicing in heaven, or burning in hell, or being reincarnated, or ascending to another plane of consciousness, or whatever. You're not supposed to be just… well, just hanging around."
"What if I just happen to like 'just hanging around' " I said trying not to sound too mocking.
She stood up fast "look, you can do all the hanging around you want, amigo. Slack away. I don't really care. But you can't do it here."
Amigo she had called me. "Jesse" I countered her. I had meant to say Hector. No one ever called me Jesse, except my family, or rather, my mother.
"What?"
"You called me amigo. I thought you might want to know I have a name. It's Jesse," I said to her.
"Right." She said, "That figures. Well, fine. Jesse. You can't stay here, Jesse."
"And you?" I asked, smiling at her.
"And me what?"
"What is your name" I was still smiling at her.
"Look. Just tell me what you want, and get out, I'm hot, and I want to change clothes. I don't have time-" I completely ignored her.
"That woman- your mother called you Susie. Short for Susan?" I asked.
"Susannah." she said, "As in don't you cry for me"
"I know the song"
"Yeah. It was probable on the top forty the year you were born, huh?"
Even though I still didn't know what she meant by that, I continued to smile at her. "So this is your room, is it Susannah?" I said.
"Yeah, yeah this is my room now. So you're going to have to clear out," She snapped.
"I'm going to have to clear out? This has been my home for a century and a half. Why do I have to leave it." I asked her questioningly.
"Because" I could tell, she was losing her patience. "This is my room. I'm not sharing it with some dead cowboy."
I let me foot fall heavily to the floor, angrily. I stood up. "I am not a cowboy." Under my breath added, "Debes saber major"
"Whoa. Down. Down boy" She held up both her hands.
"My family, worked like slaves to make something of themselves in this country, but never, never a vaquero-" I raged. Incensed, I pointed a finger at her angrily. But before I could continue, she grabbed it and pulled it towards her.
"Stop with the mirror" She hissed "And stop shoving your finger in me face. Do it again and I'll break it"
I hadn't realized I was making the mirror mounted on the wall shake. It stopped when I heard "Break your finger" The finger in question tingled, and I stared at it in astonishment. The mere thought of someone living… touching me, was well, unbelievable.
"This is my room." Susannah was saying, "Understand? You can't stay. Either you've got to let me help you get to where you're supposed to go, or you're going to have to find some other place to haunt. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is"
I looked at her, still unbelieving. "Who are you?" I asked, "What kind of… girl are you?" I had never met a girl quite as strong willed as this strange Susannah.
"I'll tell you what kind of girl I'm not" She said, "I'm not the kind of girl who's willing to share her room with a member of the opposite sex."
I just stared at her. As she continued to speak, then she walked out of the room.
I learned a lot about Susannah over the next week or two. Like that, she was very independent and she did not let anyone get in her way. I did a lot of observing (no I did not follow her to school. Ok so maybe…). She was trying to talk another ghost out of haunting her school. Heather, I think her name was. I knew that she was going back to face her tonight. But Heather was dangerous, more so then she even knew.
"Jeez, Why are you still hanging around? I told you to get lost." She said after she was finished being surprised.
"It's a little late to be going out, don't you think, Susannah?" I asked, pleasantly leaning against her bedpost.
"Uh, look, no offense, Jesse, but this is my room. How about you try getting out of it? And my business, too, please?" she snapped.
I kept my face and features straight, "Your mother won't like your going out so late at night."
"My mother." She glared at me. "What would you know about my mother?"
"I like your mother very much. She is a good woman. You are very lucky to have a mother who loves you so very much. It would upset her, I think, to see you putting yourself in the path of danger,"
"Yeah, well, news flash, Jesse. I've been sneaking out for a long time and my mom's never said a boo about it before. She knows I can take care of myself,"
"Can you?" I asked, not believing her. "I don't think so, querida. Not in this case."
What was that, that slipped out. Querida. It meant wanted. But I didn't want Susannah.
"Okay. Number one, don't call me stuff in Spanish. Number two, you don't even know where I'm going, so I suggest you get off of my back," she said, holding up both of her hands.
"But I do know where you're going, Susannah. You are going down to the school to talk to the girl who is trying to kill that boy, that boy you seem… fond of. But I'm telling you, querida, she is too much for you to handle alone. If you must go, you ought to have the priest with you," I said
She just stared at me. "What? How could you know all that? Are you… are you stalking me?" she asked angrily
"I do not know what that word means, stalking." I said quickly "All I know is that you are walking into harm's way."
"You've been following me," Susannah said, stabbing and accusing finger at me. "Haven't you? God, Jesse, I already have an older brother, thank you very much. I don't need you going around spying-"
"Oh, yes, this brother cares for you very much. Almost as much as he cares about his sleep," I said, almost laughing a little.
"Hey, he works nights, okay? He's saving up for a Camero!" she said, defensively.
Whatever a Camero was. I wasn't lightening up. "You" I said "Aren't going anywhere."
"Oh yeah?" she shot. "Try and stop me, cadaver breath." She turned around and stomped to the door.
Ouch.
Cadaver breath.
"Okay. Jesse. This is way uncool," she said, turning around to face me. When she realized that the deadbolt was barring the door.
"I can't. Susannah, don't go. This woman- this girl, Heather. She isn't like the other spirits you might have known in the past. She's filled with hate. She'll kill you if she can," I said, pleadingly.
"Then it's up to me to get rid of her, right? Come on. Unlock the door, now," She said.
I hesitated.
"Suit yourself," she said. She walked to the window, lifted the screen, and was about to leave when I grabbed her wrist.
"Susannah," I said softly.
She just looked down at my hand, which was clinging to her wrist. I let go. She finished climbing out of the window and jumped off the porch roof.