CASPER 2: GET AN AFTERLIFE!
Chapter 1: If It Looks Like a Ghost...
The room was dark. Kelli squinted, trying to force her eyes to adjust faster. Get Lost Luke, her crazy blonde fairy guide, was supposed to meet her here before they went to a party. She strained her ears but heard nothing. Maybe he was hiding behind something, waiting to ambush and scare the crap out of her. That was one of his favorite games. The more her eyes focused, the more she realized she was NOT where she was supposed to be. She flew around in crazy circles, then came to a halt in midair, clapping her hand to her forehead. "Where the hell AM I?" she wailed to no one in particular. She could finally make out three strange looking beds with even stranger looking names: Fatso, Stinkie and Stretch. Had she traveled back in time to the Italian mobster days? Was this one of their hideouts? She hoped to heck it wasn't, or she'd have to split through the nearest wall faster than you can say "86".
There was a tall, plain rocking chair over by the window that gave her the creeps. It was outlined in the ambient light that spilled through the equally as tall dusty window and moved slightly in the breeze that came in gentle puffs through a break in the glass. Whoever lived here needed to clean up...preferably with a wrecking ball. Either that or it had been abandoned for a LONG time. She looked over at Stinkie's bed and wondered why there was a big oven-like vent over it. Was it some kind of personal tanning bed? Or did this person work in a cow yard on a regular basis? Maybe they had irritable bowel syndrome. She could almost see the rancid gas wafting up from the bedsheets and winced. The other two's beds were also custom made to fit their names. She went over to the window to get her bearings and looked out. She saw a sweepig expanse of hills sloping down to an ocean sparkling in the moonlight.
"Where am I?" she asked the night, more quietly this time.
* * *
Casper was behind on his chores.
It was all his own fault, he knew; he'd recklessly spent the whole day
haunting the Frogger machine at Tory's Arcade in the Plaza (nobody ever
played Frogger, so they never noticed anything was odd). Sure, he'd
broken his old score, but now he was in trouble.
The Trio could be home any minute – although conceivably they might not
be home for days. Casper wasn't taking any chances. Casting a quick
glance out a window at the setting sun, he zipped about the manor,
strewing dust and stretching cobwebs. The Trio liked their home very
desolate.
When the downstairs was in proper disorder he floated up to the second
landing and directly into his Uncles' bedroom – where he froze in shock.
"Oh – I'm sorry!" he stammered, backing up in surprise. There was a
beautiful lady ghost in the room, which was odd enough in itself but
made moreso by the fact that she was unnaccompanied. "Are you, er..."
Casper didn't know what to say. "Are you...waiting for someone?" Maybe
it was some sort of blind date. She was definitely too pretty for it to
be a prank!
At first, Kelli was so startled by the small ghost's voice and appearence that she shot up into the air and bounced off the walls, literally. She landed on Stretch's bed and sat up, rubbing her sore head. "Who are you? Do you live here all by yourself?" He was a ghost, that was obvious...but the most mild mannered, polite one she'd ever met. She thought of the big dark house and felt sorry for him. She also had a feeling he wouldn't be able to help her get where she wanted to go. At least she remembered the way back home, if not the party.
"My name's Casper." The small ghost was gazing at Adara intently, if not
shyly. "And no," he shook his head with a smile. "Do you think all these
beds are mine? I just came up here to make them. They belong to my three
uncles." He paused. "I gotta finish my chores before they get home. But
what are you doing here?"
"Three uncles and they make YOU do all the work?" Kelli raised an eyebrow. "That dosen't sound right. If I was doing this place, it would get a MAJOR makeover. It's a cool house...it's got potential. Love the design..." She was floating around at this point, inspecting the structure. Maybe next time I'll check out the rest of it." She paused in front of Casper with a guilty look. "OH! I didn't answer your question, did I? I'm on my way to a party with some friends, and I got lost." She said, deciding not to tell him the nature of those friends...or her true state of being...just yet. He looked like a nice kid...but she wasn't so sure about his uncles.
Casper put his hands politely behind his back. "How lost?" he wanted to know. "It's only..." He paused. "Well, I think you must be pretty lost," he confessed at length. "See, my uncles are kinda...territorial. They don.t let any other ghosts haunt anywhere in town. That's why I don.t have any . " He stopped midsentance, then resumed quickly, "So I don.t think your party could be anywhere near here. You must have gotten pretty mixed up."
Kelli smiled and said, "Ok, you got me. I'm a ghost...of sorts. I'm trying to join my friends in the fairy realm because we're having a party. But I gotta get there before I wake up. Long story. And I don't wanna be around when your uncles get here either, from the sound of it.
"In the fairy realm??" Casper wasn't expecting /that/. "Well, you're
definitely lost, then. I certainly don't know of any way to get to the
fairy realm from here. In fact – "
He was interrupted rather rudely at that moment by a howling from
downstairs that shook the whole house. Dust filled the air. A shrill but
booming voice sounded out: "CaaaasPER!! Where are ya, ya little
washrag?? Come down here NOW!!"
"Uh oh!" Casper looked around. "You'll have to get out of here! Quick,
before it's too late!"
Adara gasped at the unexpected company, and her first instinct was to listen to Casper and bolt for the nearest window...she'd worry about finding her friend and her way later. But then...she didn't like the bossy sound of this guy's voice. It sounded like he pushed Casper around like this all the time. Well, if he wasn't gonna defend himself, SHE would.
"Whoever this guy is, I'm not gonna let him treat you like that." She drew herself up to her full height and braced for a conflict.
When Adara didn't leave, Casper found himself hovering in the center of
the room, at a loss for anything else to do. "Uh," was all he was really
able to contribute.
A very wide ghost suddenly poked his head into the room via the floor.
Casting about quickly, he spotted Casper. "There you are," he remarked
in a deep bass. "Kid, you'd better – " Then he noticed the other
occupant of the room. He blinked several times. "Whozzat?" he blurted at
last.
Kelli startled, then repressed the urge to laugh. She also had the urge to ask this crazy charachter if his name was Marshmallow Man. She hovered in front of Casper and said, "Dosen't anybody ever knock around here? Who are YOU?"
The big ghost, still halfway through the floor, shrugged. "I didn't hear
/you/ knockin' before you started pokin' around in /my/ bedroom," he
pointed out. He jabbed a thick forefinger towards the rooms' middle bed.
"There's my nametag," he said. "Who're you, the Amway Lady? I knew we
shoulda put up some'a them No Soliciting signs – "
At that moment he was yanked back down through the floor and replaced by
another ghost, this one with a large nose and prominent overbite. "Who
you yakkin' at in here, Fats – " A double-take. "Woah!" exclaimed the
new ghost. "Casper! Who's your date?"
Kelli's eyes narrowed at Fatso's 'Amway Lady' reference, and she was in the middle of blurting out "and who are YOU, the Stay-Puf'd Marshmallow Man?" when the new ghost's appearence stopped her sentence in its tracks. She smirked and said, "I think this kid's a little young for me, pal. I'm not into jailbait."
The bucktoothed ghost grinned and floated up into the room. "Suit
yourself," he remarked, circling Kelli. Reaching Casper, he seized the
small ghost by the arm. "Stretch wants to see ya downstairs," he said.
Swiftly rolling Casper up into a ball, he pitched the boy out the door,
where he could be seen bouncing down the stairs.
"So," he breathed on Kelli, invading her personal space shamelessly (and
incidentally giving away his name), "you sellin' encyclodepias
door-to-door or what?" He eyed her appreciatively.
She made a face and leaned away. "If I WERE a salesperson, I'd be selling breath mints." she half joked. "I don't have to guess what YOUR name is." She threw her head back to Stinkie's bed and rolled her eyes. "Jeez, I've REALLY made a wrong turn tonight...I'm having a nightmare...a horrible nightmare. Somebody PLEASE wake me up..."
Fatso reappeared in the room in time to hear Stinkie say leeringly "Want
me to pinch you?" The big ghost rocketed over and punched Stinkie into
the nearest wall. "I apologize for my brother," Fatso said, turning to
Kelli. "He's special." Stinkie peeled off the wall and lay twitching on
the floor. "I'm all right..." he said weakly to no one in particular.
A voice – the same one that had yelled for Casper earlier – could be
heard getting nearer. "You'd better not be lyin' about this chick,
S'more-Fodder," it was grumbling. The voice's owner arrived in the
doorway, a very tall, thin ghost with violet eyes. He was gripping
Casper by the back of the neck, and looked highly irritated. But when he
saw Kelli, his expression changed. "Well whaddya know," he murmered to
himself. "The kid's on the level." He released Casper and floated
forward, looking at Kelli closely. "You must be lost," he said
dramatically, pointing to the ceiling. "Heaven's up thattaway." He gave
her a sly wink.
She didn't know whether to be disgusted, flattered, or just plain amused. Her mouth twitched with the effort of containing a laugh or a sneer, she didn't know which.
"You must be the infamous Stretch." she finally managed, her mouth turning up into another smirk. "And you're never gonna get to Heaven unless you let the kid go." ::Hm:: she thought to herself. ::Let's see what he makes of THAT:: She had to admit he was the best looking and smartest of the three...as good as ectoplasm could look, anyway. "Sorry I crashed your party. I was trying to get to my own. And I"m long overdue." She turned to go through the ceiling. "See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya."
But in a flash of white, Stretch was in front of her. "What's your
hurry, Beautiful?" he wanted to know, putting his hands behind his back
giving her another good, long look. In an instant, he was flanked by
Fatso and Stinkie. "Yeah," chimed in Fatso, "you never told us why you
stopped by in the first place." Casper, meanwhile, was sneaking towards
the door. The Trio ignored him.
"You guys don't get out much, do you?" Kelli said in annoyance, trying to get out of the corner they'd painted her in. She caught Casper's exit out of her periphial vision and hid a smile. "And I didn't 'stop by'. I made a wrong turn...for the worst, from the looks of it." She scowled at Stretch. "If you don't move, I'm gonna tie you into a pretzel!"
At this, Stretch looked amused. He cast brief glances over his shoulders, signalling Fatso and Stinkie to back off. "Have it your way, Dollface," he said cavalierly, floating off to one side and gesturing grandly to the ceiling. "Perhaps next time you drop by unannounced you could at least bring a bottle of wine."
"Bring some cheese, too," added Stinkie brightly.
"Ooh, ooh, and some of those little finger-sandwiches," nodded Fatso.
Stretch scowled and whomped them both on the head.
Now, she actually laughed out loud, throwing her head back. "Oh WHY didn't I think to bring a bottle? It would have been good for breaking it over your HEADS! In your DREAMS, Plastic Ma--!"
But she never got to finish her sentence. As if an alarm had gone off, Kelli disappeared into thin air.
She awoke in her own bed, in Friendship Maine, slowly as if she was under anasthesia. ::I'm gonna kill my guide next time I see him:: was the first thought on her mind. He'd probably gotten distracted by some girl fairy and forgot all about meeting her. She wished she was in a permanent spiritual state so she could go there in the daytime, too. But it was an ethereal realm so you had to be in your spirit form to go. Next time she met him she'd half jokingly ask him to change her into a fairy herself. She was going to HAVE to learn the way over there on her own. That was another request she was going to make, that he show her directions if she got lost again. Memories of where she'd just been flooded her groggy mind. If only it HAD been a dream, Kelli bemoaned. She'd ended up in strange places before with strange people, but never met anybody THAT crazy. They were certafiable. But that ghost kid had been a sweetheart. Still..all things considered, the uncles had been funnier than hell and very....interesting. She had a morbid curiosity to find out more about them and the kid. Most of all, why they were there. Despite the shock of last night, she wanted to return...if only to teach them some manners about how to treat a lady. Then something dawned on her. She knew that house. She'd been so disoriented looking at it from the inside in the dark that she hadn't realized where she'd been. But the turret like walls, and the rolling expanse of marsh leading to the sea...hot damn, it was Whipstaff Manor! Right across town! NOW what? What if she ran into the ghosts in THIS state and they realized she wasn't a ghost? She had to run errands in town today. Then she realized they probably didn't leave the house in the daytime and felt stupid.
Just as she was putting on her shoes, Luke materialized from nowhere and scared the crap out of her, knocking her onto her bed. He laughed uproariously, his wild, sticking up blonde hair flopping back and forth madly. "Scared ya, didn't I?" he said triumphantly, giving her a playful punch, which Kelli dodged. "Piss yourself?"
"You wish." she scowled. "Where the hell WERE you last night? I spent the night at a haunted house fighting off overly-amorous ghosts while you partied up with your winged weenie friends."
Luke pretended to smooth his hair and said defiantly, "You mean my distinguished collegues. And I DID go looking for you, but you'd already wandered off so that wasn't MY fault." He pouted like a little kid. Kelli rolled her eyes, but smiled.
"Ok, we make a deal. From now on, stick by me until I go to sleep, then we won't be two ships that pass in the night."
"Oh great, now that means I'll have to watch you twitch and mumble like a lunatic till then." Luke joked. Kelli kicked him in the butt. "OW! Well, same to YOU, dogface." With a teasing, but equally as hearty kick, he disappeared. She shook her head. That was as loving as Luke had ever been, but they were still best friends. She only hoped he would make a convenient appearence next time she went back to that mansion.
She got dressed, ate breakfast, and went to the store for some much-needed food.
"God, Dad, I hope nobody from school sees me here…" Kat scowled as she
helped Dr. Harvey push the flatlined station wagon into the Safeway
parking lot.
"Cheer up, kitten," murmered her father, putting his back into it. "If
you see any of your friends, you can call them over to help."
"Well. I guess we can use all the help we can get."
"/I'm/ helping!" blurted a voice from an empty space to Kat's left.
"Thank you, Casper," replied Dr. Harvey graciously. "We can always count
on you to be helpful."
"Hello, Mr. Psychiatrist?" hissed Kat. "You want to /not/ be seen
talking to invisible people in public?"
With a final lurch, the car was brought to rest in a handicapped spot
("Poor old girl qualifies for a plaquard by now," was Dr. Harvey's
comment). "I'm going to phone a mechanic," stated the doctor, heading
for the payphones.
"I'll be inside, okay Dad?" Kat entered the Safeway and wandered over to
the magazine rack. Casper followed her, but remained wisely invisible.
The store wasn't crowded, for which Kelli was more than thankful. She had a splitting headache, and the faster she could get to the Advil, the better. She was also starving. She was so intent on her mission that she was walking with her head down and didn't see the teenage girl walking toward her. She bumped right into her. After a quick recovery, she said clumsily, "I'm sorry! I didn't see you!"
And here Kat did something she shouldn't have. "Casper!" she blurted,
turning quickly towards Kelli, her hair sweeping into her eyes. "Watch
where you're floating – " And then she saw that she had actually been
bumped into by a flesh-and-blood human being. "Oh!" she exclaimed,
reddening. "I'm sorry. I – I thought you were my...little brother," she
recovered quickly. "He's always poking me and...stuff." She glanced
around herself nervously as if she expected Casper to appear and cry
out, "Hey!" but of course, he didn't.
As soon as Kelli heard "Casper" she knew who was with the girl. For one thing, little brothers didn't float. "It's ok." she explained with a knowing smile. "I'm used to things that go bump in the night." With that, she turned and walked off toward the produce aisle.
Kat didn't get it. She watched her walk away, then turned back to the
magazines in disgust, rolling her eyes in a 'Okay, /she's/ crazy' sort
of expression.
But Casper got it. He nudged the teen. "Kat!" she hissed. "I /know/ that
lady! I met her last night! Only…she wasn't a ghost then." He took off
after Kelli so quickly that he missed Kat's incredulous exclaimation.
"Psst!" said a pyramid of oranges when Kelli happened to pause beside
it, "are you the lady who was at my house last night?"
At first, she startled and jumped at the unexpected voice, then looked around until she saw the eyes peeking out from the oranges. Looking around nervously and thankful nobody was around, she then giggled when she recognized Casper. "Hey, cutie! Whatchya doing here? Shopping for furniture polish?" she teased. "Yeah, cuff me and take me in. I'm one and the same. Just more solid in my daytime form. Who's that girl you're with? I think she thinks I'm insane. Then again, most teenagers think EVERYBODY's insane over 30...it's good to see you again. I thought ghosts only went out at night though."
"Not me," returned Casper, staying in the pyramid of citrus. "I mean, I
used to, most of the time, until Kat and her dad came to live at my
house and now I go out with her because she mostly goes out in the
daytime, because /she's/ not a ghost, you know – " He interrupted his
babbling to point a barely-visible arm back in the direction of the
magazine rack. "That's Kat over there," he added, rather unnecessarily.
"And since her dad's a psychiatrist I'm sure she's better versed at
spotting an insane person than most. She's just, like you said, a
teenager. It's good to see you again too, but kinda weird. I really
thought you were a ghost. And so did my uncles. What's your name?"
"She...she LIVES there?" Kelli glanced nervously at the still-perusing Kat. "I'd better be careful not to let her see me in my astral form then. Besides, I don't think she'd be too thrilled with me making an unnanounced appearence in the house with her in it. I'm suprized we didn't wake her and her dad up with all that racket. And my name's Kelli. Funny, my parents were going to name me Kathleen when I was born but then they changed their minds. But I think I'd better explain how this whole ghost-but-not-a-ghost thing works. See, I have psychic abilities, and I can send my astral body out at will. I'm like a ghost only with an invisible leash attached to my body. My energy self gets pulled back when my body's ready to wake up. Of course, I can dream without leaving my body, but I've learned how to go higher than the dream state and actually become conscious. I found one of my best friends that way who I hadn't seen in years. So how come you're a kid ghost and you've been in that house for so long? I thought kids immediately went to Heaven when they died."
"Could you meet me at my house tonight?" Casper said quickly. "I could talk to you more then. Ghosts don't need as much sleep as the
living, and I get awful lonely at night while Kat's asleep..." His blue
eyes looked towards the magazine rack, where Kat was now nowhere to be
seen. "Uh oh. I gotta go!" And he's gone.
::Poor kid:: thought Kelli throwing some potatoes into her shopping cart. Maybe she should put on the big seduction scene for the Boyz, tease the hell out of them then disappear. She pictured herself appearing in a doorway like Kim Basinger with her hair blowing in slow motion in My Stepmother is an Alien. But nah...that would be too easy. Better to play the hard to get femme fatale. And of course, she never knew when Luke was gonna show up. He always appeared unexpectedly though, and it was no good calling him, because he came on his own terms or none at all. Then she thought of it...a duel with the Trio...in Poker! That is, if they played it. She'd have to ask. Whoever won went on a date with her. Kelli laughed to herself. It was perfect. She'd go hang with the fairies some other night. She finished her shopping and went home to prepare.
* * *
"Did you see what happened back there?" Kat said to her father as they got into the car. "She'd be perfect for you dad. She's a total basket case." The station wagon rolled unevenly along on its spare doughnut tire as they slowly left the parking lot. James smirked. He was used to his daughter's unceasing sarcasm.
"Now Bucket, I'm sure she was just suffering from some kind of post traumatic stress syndrome." he said in his ever-calm voice. Anybody else saying the same thing would have been accused of being a smart ass.
Kat rolled her eyes. "Dad, I think she saw Casper."
Dr. Harvey was curious. "What makes you say that?"
"Because she said something about things that go bump in the night...right after I blurted out his name." She leaned on the open window frame and turned away in embarassment. James chuckled.
"Don't worry about it Kat." he assured her, patting her knee and having to jerk the wheel to avoid an irritated motorist he'd been getting too close to. "It's probably just a coincidence."
Kat didn't comment further and continued staring at the window. She wasn't convinced.
Chapter 1: If It Looks Like a Ghost...
The room was dark. Kelli squinted, trying to force her eyes to adjust faster. Get Lost Luke, her crazy blonde fairy guide, was supposed to meet her here before they went to a party. She strained her ears but heard nothing. Maybe he was hiding behind something, waiting to ambush and scare the crap out of her. That was one of his favorite games. The more her eyes focused, the more she realized she was NOT where she was supposed to be. She flew around in crazy circles, then came to a halt in midair, clapping her hand to her forehead. "Where the hell AM I?" she wailed to no one in particular. She could finally make out three strange looking beds with even stranger looking names: Fatso, Stinkie and Stretch. Had she traveled back in time to the Italian mobster days? Was this one of their hideouts? She hoped to heck it wasn't, or she'd have to split through the nearest wall faster than you can say "86".
There was a tall, plain rocking chair over by the window that gave her the creeps. It was outlined in the ambient light that spilled through the equally as tall dusty window and moved slightly in the breeze that came in gentle puffs through a break in the glass. Whoever lived here needed to clean up...preferably with a wrecking ball. Either that or it had been abandoned for a LONG time. She looked over at Stinkie's bed and wondered why there was a big oven-like vent over it. Was it some kind of personal tanning bed? Or did this person work in a cow yard on a regular basis? Maybe they had irritable bowel syndrome. She could almost see the rancid gas wafting up from the bedsheets and winced. The other two's beds were also custom made to fit their names. She went over to the window to get her bearings and looked out. She saw a sweepig expanse of hills sloping down to an ocean sparkling in the moonlight.
"Where am I?" she asked the night, more quietly this time.
* * *
Casper was behind on his chores.
It was all his own fault, he knew; he'd recklessly spent the whole day
haunting the Frogger machine at Tory's Arcade in the Plaza (nobody ever
played Frogger, so they never noticed anything was odd). Sure, he'd
broken his old score, but now he was in trouble.
The Trio could be home any minute – although conceivably they might not
be home for days. Casper wasn't taking any chances. Casting a quick
glance out a window at the setting sun, he zipped about the manor,
strewing dust and stretching cobwebs. The Trio liked their home very
desolate.
When the downstairs was in proper disorder he floated up to the second
landing and directly into his Uncles' bedroom – where he froze in shock.
"Oh – I'm sorry!" he stammered, backing up in surprise. There was a
beautiful lady ghost in the room, which was odd enough in itself but
made moreso by the fact that she was unnaccompanied. "Are you, er..."
Casper didn't know what to say. "Are you...waiting for someone?" Maybe
it was some sort of blind date. She was definitely too pretty for it to
be a prank!
At first, Kelli was so startled by the small ghost's voice and appearence that she shot up into the air and bounced off the walls, literally. She landed on Stretch's bed and sat up, rubbing her sore head. "Who are you? Do you live here all by yourself?" He was a ghost, that was obvious...but the most mild mannered, polite one she'd ever met. She thought of the big dark house and felt sorry for him. She also had a feeling he wouldn't be able to help her get where she wanted to go. At least she remembered the way back home, if not the party.
"My name's Casper." The small ghost was gazing at Adara intently, if not
shyly. "And no," he shook his head with a smile. "Do you think all these
beds are mine? I just came up here to make them. They belong to my three
uncles." He paused. "I gotta finish my chores before they get home. But
what are you doing here?"
"Three uncles and they make YOU do all the work?" Kelli raised an eyebrow. "That dosen't sound right. If I was doing this place, it would get a MAJOR makeover. It's a cool house...it's got potential. Love the design..." She was floating around at this point, inspecting the structure. Maybe next time I'll check out the rest of it." She paused in front of Casper with a guilty look. "OH! I didn't answer your question, did I? I'm on my way to a party with some friends, and I got lost." She said, deciding not to tell him the nature of those friends...or her true state of being...just yet. He looked like a nice kid...but she wasn't so sure about his uncles.
Casper put his hands politely behind his back. "How lost?" he wanted to know. "It's only..." He paused. "Well, I think you must be pretty lost," he confessed at length. "See, my uncles are kinda...territorial. They don.t let any other ghosts haunt anywhere in town. That's why I don.t have any . " He stopped midsentance, then resumed quickly, "So I don.t think your party could be anywhere near here. You must have gotten pretty mixed up."
Kelli smiled and said, "Ok, you got me. I'm a ghost...of sorts. I'm trying to join my friends in the fairy realm because we're having a party. But I gotta get there before I wake up. Long story. And I don't wanna be around when your uncles get here either, from the sound of it.
"In the fairy realm??" Casper wasn't expecting /that/. "Well, you're
definitely lost, then. I certainly don't know of any way to get to the
fairy realm from here. In fact – "
He was interrupted rather rudely at that moment by a howling from
downstairs that shook the whole house. Dust filled the air. A shrill but
booming voice sounded out: "CaaaasPER!! Where are ya, ya little
washrag?? Come down here NOW!!"
"Uh oh!" Casper looked around. "You'll have to get out of here! Quick,
before it's too late!"
Adara gasped at the unexpected company, and her first instinct was to listen to Casper and bolt for the nearest window...she'd worry about finding her friend and her way later. But then...she didn't like the bossy sound of this guy's voice. It sounded like he pushed Casper around like this all the time. Well, if he wasn't gonna defend himself, SHE would.
"Whoever this guy is, I'm not gonna let him treat you like that." She drew herself up to her full height and braced for a conflict.
When Adara didn't leave, Casper found himself hovering in the center of
the room, at a loss for anything else to do. "Uh," was all he was really
able to contribute.
A very wide ghost suddenly poked his head into the room via the floor.
Casting about quickly, he spotted Casper. "There you are," he remarked
in a deep bass. "Kid, you'd better – " Then he noticed the other
occupant of the room. He blinked several times. "Whozzat?" he blurted at
last.
Kelli startled, then repressed the urge to laugh. She also had the urge to ask this crazy charachter if his name was Marshmallow Man. She hovered in front of Casper and said, "Dosen't anybody ever knock around here? Who are YOU?"
The big ghost, still halfway through the floor, shrugged. "I didn't hear
/you/ knockin' before you started pokin' around in /my/ bedroom," he
pointed out. He jabbed a thick forefinger towards the rooms' middle bed.
"There's my nametag," he said. "Who're you, the Amway Lady? I knew we
shoulda put up some'a them No Soliciting signs – "
At that moment he was yanked back down through the floor and replaced by
another ghost, this one with a large nose and prominent overbite. "Who
you yakkin' at in here, Fats – " A double-take. "Woah!" exclaimed the
new ghost. "Casper! Who's your date?"
Kelli's eyes narrowed at Fatso's 'Amway Lady' reference, and she was in the middle of blurting out "and who are YOU, the Stay-Puf'd Marshmallow Man?" when the new ghost's appearence stopped her sentence in its tracks. She smirked and said, "I think this kid's a little young for me, pal. I'm not into jailbait."
The bucktoothed ghost grinned and floated up into the room. "Suit
yourself," he remarked, circling Kelli. Reaching Casper, he seized the
small ghost by the arm. "Stretch wants to see ya downstairs," he said.
Swiftly rolling Casper up into a ball, he pitched the boy out the door,
where he could be seen bouncing down the stairs.
"So," he breathed on Kelli, invading her personal space shamelessly (and
incidentally giving away his name), "you sellin' encyclodepias
door-to-door or what?" He eyed her appreciatively.
She made a face and leaned away. "If I WERE a salesperson, I'd be selling breath mints." she half joked. "I don't have to guess what YOUR name is." She threw her head back to Stinkie's bed and rolled her eyes. "Jeez, I've REALLY made a wrong turn tonight...I'm having a nightmare...a horrible nightmare. Somebody PLEASE wake me up..."
Fatso reappeared in the room in time to hear Stinkie say leeringly "Want
me to pinch you?" The big ghost rocketed over and punched Stinkie into
the nearest wall. "I apologize for my brother," Fatso said, turning to
Kelli. "He's special." Stinkie peeled off the wall and lay twitching on
the floor. "I'm all right..." he said weakly to no one in particular.
A voice – the same one that had yelled for Casper earlier – could be
heard getting nearer. "You'd better not be lyin' about this chick,
S'more-Fodder," it was grumbling. The voice's owner arrived in the
doorway, a very tall, thin ghost with violet eyes. He was gripping
Casper by the back of the neck, and looked highly irritated. But when he
saw Kelli, his expression changed. "Well whaddya know," he murmered to
himself. "The kid's on the level." He released Casper and floated
forward, looking at Kelli closely. "You must be lost," he said
dramatically, pointing to the ceiling. "Heaven's up thattaway." He gave
her a sly wink.
She didn't know whether to be disgusted, flattered, or just plain amused. Her mouth twitched with the effort of containing a laugh or a sneer, she didn't know which.
"You must be the infamous Stretch." she finally managed, her mouth turning up into another smirk. "And you're never gonna get to Heaven unless you let the kid go." ::Hm:: she thought to herself. ::Let's see what he makes of THAT:: She had to admit he was the best looking and smartest of the three...as good as ectoplasm could look, anyway. "Sorry I crashed your party. I was trying to get to my own. And I"m long overdue." She turned to go through the ceiling. "See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya."
But in a flash of white, Stretch was in front of her. "What's your
hurry, Beautiful?" he wanted to know, putting his hands behind his back
giving her another good, long look. In an instant, he was flanked by
Fatso and Stinkie. "Yeah," chimed in Fatso, "you never told us why you
stopped by in the first place." Casper, meanwhile, was sneaking towards
the door. The Trio ignored him.
"You guys don't get out much, do you?" Kelli said in annoyance, trying to get out of the corner they'd painted her in. She caught Casper's exit out of her periphial vision and hid a smile. "And I didn't 'stop by'. I made a wrong turn...for the worst, from the looks of it." She scowled at Stretch. "If you don't move, I'm gonna tie you into a pretzel!"
At this, Stretch looked amused. He cast brief glances over his shoulders, signalling Fatso and Stinkie to back off. "Have it your way, Dollface," he said cavalierly, floating off to one side and gesturing grandly to the ceiling. "Perhaps next time you drop by unannounced you could at least bring a bottle of wine."
"Bring some cheese, too," added Stinkie brightly.
"Ooh, ooh, and some of those little finger-sandwiches," nodded Fatso.
Stretch scowled and whomped them both on the head.
Now, she actually laughed out loud, throwing her head back. "Oh WHY didn't I think to bring a bottle? It would have been good for breaking it over your HEADS! In your DREAMS, Plastic Ma--!"
But she never got to finish her sentence. As if an alarm had gone off, Kelli disappeared into thin air.
She awoke in her own bed, in Friendship Maine, slowly as if she was under anasthesia. ::I'm gonna kill my guide next time I see him:: was the first thought on her mind. He'd probably gotten distracted by some girl fairy and forgot all about meeting her. She wished she was in a permanent spiritual state so she could go there in the daytime, too. But it was an ethereal realm so you had to be in your spirit form to go. Next time she met him she'd half jokingly ask him to change her into a fairy herself. She was going to HAVE to learn the way over there on her own. That was another request she was going to make, that he show her directions if she got lost again. Memories of where she'd just been flooded her groggy mind. If only it HAD been a dream, Kelli bemoaned. She'd ended up in strange places before with strange people, but never met anybody THAT crazy. They were certafiable. But that ghost kid had been a sweetheart. Still..all things considered, the uncles had been funnier than hell and very....interesting. She had a morbid curiosity to find out more about them and the kid. Most of all, why they were there. Despite the shock of last night, she wanted to return...if only to teach them some manners about how to treat a lady. Then something dawned on her. She knew that house. She'd been so disoriented looking at it from the inside in the dark that she hadn't realized where she'd been. But the turret like walls, and the rolling expanse of marsh leading to the sea...hot damn, it was Whipstaff Manor! Right across town! NOW what? What if she ran into the ghosts in THIS state and they realized she wasn't a ghost? She had to run errands in town today. Then she realized they probably didn't leave the house in the daytime and felt stupid.
Just as she was putting on her shoes, Luke materialized from nowhere and scared the crap out of her, knocking her onto her bed. He laughed uproariously, his wild, sticking up blonde hair flopping back and forth madly. "Scared ya, didn't I?" he said triumphantly, giving her a playful punch, which Kelli dodged. "Piss yourself?"
"You wish." she scowled. "Where the hell WERE you last night? I spent the night at a haunted house fighting off overly-amorous ghosts while you partied up with your winged weenie friends."
Luke pretended to smooth his hair and said defiantly, "You mean my distinguished collegues. And I DID go looking for you, but you'd already wandered off so that wasn't MY fault." He pouted like a little kid. Kelli rolled her eyes, but smiled.
"Ok, we make a deal. From now on, stick by me until I go to sleep, then we won't be two ships that pass in the night."
"Oh great, now that means I'll have to watch you twitch and mumble like a lunatic till then." Luke joked. Kelli kicked him in the butt. "OW! Well, same to YOU, dogface." With a teasing, but equally as hearty kick, he disappeared. She shook her head. That was as loving as Luke had ever been, but they were still best friends. She only hoped he would make a convenient appearence next time she went back to that mansion.
She got dressed, ate breakfast, and went to the store for some much-needed food.
"God, Dad, I hope nobody from school sees me here…" Kat scowled as she
helped Dr. Harvey push the flatlined station wagon into the Safeway
parking lot.
"Cheer up, kitten," murmered her father, putting his back into it. "If
you see any of your friends, you can call them over to help."
"Well. I guess we can use all the help we can get."
"/I'm/ helping!" blurted a voice from an empty space to Kat's left.
"Thank you, Casper," replied Dr. Harvey graciously. "We can always count
on you to be helpful."
"Hello, Mr. Psychiatrist?" hissed Kat. "You want to /not/ be seen
talking to invisible people in public?"
With a final lurch, the car was brought to rest in a handicapped spot
("Poor old girl qualifies for a plaquard by now," was Dr. Harvey's
comment). "I'm going to phone a mechanic," stated the doctor, heading
for the payphones.
"I'll be inside, okay Dad?" Kat entered the Safeway and wandered over to
the magazine rack. Casper followed her, but remained wisely invisible.
The store wasn't crowded, for which Kelli was more than thankful. She had a splitting headache, and the faster she could get to the Advil, the better. She was also starving. She was so intent on her mission that she was walking with her head down and didn't see the teenage girl walking toward her. She bumped right into her. After a quick recovery, she said clumsily, "I'm sorry! I didn't see you!"
And here Kat did something she shouldn't have. "Casper!" she blurted,
turning quickly towards Kelli, her hair sweeping into her eyes. "Watch
where you're floating – " And then she saw that she had actually been
bumped into by a flesh-and-blood human being. "Oh!" she exclaimed,
reddening. "I'm sorry. I – I thought you were my...little brother," she
recovered quickly. "He's always poking me and...stuff." She glanced
around herself nervously as if she expected Casper to appear and cry
out, "Hey!" but of course, he didn't.
As soon as Kelli heard "Casper" she knew who was with the girl. For one thing, little brothers didn't float. "It's ok." she explained with a knowing smile. "I'm used to things that go bump in the night." With that, she turned and walked off toward the produce aisle.
Kat didn't get it. She watched her walk away, then turned back to the
magazines in disgust, rolling her eyes in a 'Okay, /she's/ crazy' sort
of expression.
But Casper got it. He nudged the teen. "Kat!" she hissed. "I /know/ that
lady! I met her last night! Only…she wasn't a ghost then." He took off
after Kelli so quickly that he missed Kat's incredulous exclaimation.
"Psst!" said a pyramid of oranges when Kelli happened to pause beside
it, "are you the lady who was at my house last night?"
At first, she startled and jumped at the unexpected voice, then looked around until she saw the eyes peeking out from the oranges. Looking around nervously and thankful nobody was around, she then giggled when she recognized Casper. "Hey, cutie! Whatchya doing here? Shopping for furniture polish?" she teased. "Yeah, cuff me and take me in. I'm one and the same. Just more solid in my daytime form. Who's that girl you're with? I think she thinks I'm insane. Then again, most teenagers think EVERYBODY's insane over 30...it's good to see you again. I thought ghosts only went out at night though."
"Not me," returned Casper, staying in the pyramid of citrus. "I mean, I
used to, most of the time, until Kat and her dad came to live at my
house and now I go out with her because she mostly goes out in the
daytime, because /she's/ not a ghost, you know – " He interrupted his
babbling to point a barely-visible arm back in the direction of the
magazine rack. "That's Kat over there," he added, rather unnecessarily.
"And since her dad's a psychiatrist I'm sure she's better versed at
spotting an insane person than most. She's just, like you said, a
teenager. It's good to see you again too, but kinda weird. I really
thought you were a ghost. And so did my uncles. What's your name?"
"She...she LIVES there?" Kelli glanced nervously at the still-perusing Kat. "I'd better be careful not to let her see me in my astral form then. Besides, I don't think she'd be too thrilled with me making an unnanounced appearence in the house with her in it. I'm suprized we didn't wake her and her dad up with all that racket. And my name's Kelli. Funny, my parents were going to name me Kathleen when I was born but then they changed their minds. But I think I'd better explain how this whole ghost-but-not-a-ghost thing works. See, I have psychic abilities, and I can send my astral body out at will. I'm like a ghost only with an invisible leash attached to my body. My energy self gets pulled back when my body's ready to wake up. Of course, I can dream without leaving my body, but I've learned how to go higher than the dream state and actually become conscious. I found one of my best friends that way who I hadn't seen in years. So how come you're a kid ghost and you've been in that house for so long? I thought kids immediately went to Heaven when they died."
"Could you meet me at my house tonight?" Casper said quickly. "I could talk to you more then. Ghosts don't need as much sleep as the
living, and I get awful lonely at night while Kat's asleep..." His blue
eyes looked towards the magazine rack, where Kat was now nowhere to be
seen. "Uh oh. I gotta go!" And he's gone.
::Poor kid:: thought Kelli throwing some potatoes into her shopping cart. Maybe she should put on the big seduction scene for the Boyz, tease the hell out of them then disappear. She pictured herself appearing in a doorway like Kim Basinger with her hair blowing in slow motion in My Stepmother is an Alien. But nah...that would be too easy. Better to play the hard to get femme fatale. And of course, she never knew when Luke was gonna show up. He always appeared unexpectedly though, and it was no good calling him, because he came on his own terms or none at all. Then she thought of it...a duel with the Trio...in Poker! That is, if they played it. She'd have to ask. Whoever won went on a date with her. Kelli laughed to herself. It was perfect. She'd go hang with the fairies some other night. She finished her shopping and went home to prepare.
* * *
"Did you see what happened back there?" Kat said to her father as they got into the car. "She'd be perfect for you dad. She's a total basket case." The station wagon rolled unevenly along on its spare doughnut tire as they slowly left the parking lot. James smirked. He was used to his daughter's unceasing sarcasm.
"Now Bucket, I'm sure she was just suffering from some kind of post traumatic stress syndrome." he said in his ever-calm voice. Anybody else saying the same thing would have been accused of being a smart ass.
Kat rolled her eyes. "Dad, I think she saw Casper."
Dr. Harvey was curious. "What makes you say that?"
"Because she said something about things that go bump in the night...right after I blurted out his name." She leaned on the open window frame and turned away in embarassment. James chuckled.
"Don't worry about it Kat." he assured her, patting her knee and having to jerk the wheel to avoid an irritated motorist he'd been getting too close to. "It's probably just a coincidence."
Kat didn't comment further and continued staring at the window. She wasn't convinced.