Chapter Fourteen

CeeCee, Gina, and I drove to my house, where they and I were to discuss the wonderful life of a mediator, and blah, blah, blah.

Really, what was there to talk about? I mean, it's no picnic. Unless, that is, you got a boyfriend because of it. Jesse was enough to make up for all the crap I'd been through.

So, when we got to my house, we ate dinner with the rest of the clan (since skipping a meal is completely inexcusable for Andy), and we even offered to clean up afterward, even though it was Brad's week to do it. After we finished cleaning up, we found David, who was in his room making a model of the solar system while he was allowing the glue his DNA model (made of Tinker Toys) to dry. He was always doing stuff like that, even though he fully had a girlfriend.

"David," I said, looking into his doorway.

He looked up at me. "Oh, Suze. What is it? Do you need help with another measurement?" he asked.

"No, not exactly." I swallowed. Hard. It was now or never, I told myself. "You know about Jesse, and the ghost…well, I'm going to explain it all -everything- to you, Gina, and CeeCee."

He got up. "I wouldn't normally…intrude…but I would really like to know," he said.

He followed me to my room, where Gina and CeeCee were waiting for me. I closed the door behind me as I walked in.

"Okay," I said, sitting down on my bed and staring at the lace canopy. "Here is the long-overdue explanation."

"About damned time," Gina said, but she was laughing when she said it. She and CeeCee were sitting on the daybed, and David was sitting on the window seat.

I took a deep breath. I was scared. What if they thought I was a psycho? Then I remembered that they would probably understand. I mean, they had pretty much figured it out for themselves, with the exception of Gina who'd overheard my conversation with Madame Zara. Maybe they wouldn't think I was psycho. Maybe. "I am a mediator. I talk to the dead. I help the unhappy dead move on to wherever it is we're supposed to go after we die." It was really weird saying that to people who were alive. Usually, I would have recited that little speech to people who were, um, dead. "I saw my first ghost when I was two. I didn't know I was a mediator until I was six, when my dad died. Any questions so far?"

They all shook their heads. I went back to staring at the lace canopy on my bed. "I was probably the only mediator in all of the five boroughs. I mean, I saw enough ghosts there to have mediated half the population of Brooklyn, or at least that's what it felt like. Because of the dead people- who were, by the way, never happy- I was routinely late for school, missing from school, beat up, nearly killed, and always in trouble. I've even been brought home by New York's finest. Because I was always so weird- well, I couldn't be normal because of the mediator thing, you know- my mom dragged me to therapy, and I'd have to sit and lie to the therapist about all of my weird behavior, trying to convince the therapists that I wasn't crazy. I couldn't exactly tell them the truth because who would believe a girl who says she can see and talk to the dead?

"So then Mom met Andy, and they got married, and my mom was convinced that it would be a completely new start for us, and we'd be happy living in California. I didn't believe her. Especially not after I got here and there was a ghost in my room."

"It was Jesse, wasn't it?" CeeCee said.

I nodded my head. "Yes."

"Okay, enough about that. Skip to the part where he became alive," Gina said, becoming impatient.

"Whatever," I said. "But first I have to tell you about Paul."

"Paul? What does he have to do with it?" David asked, confused. This was not good. David was never confused.

"Paul," I said, "is also a mediator. He and I met at the Pebble Beach Hotel and Golf Resort when I used to work there. He was in cahoots with the ghost of the woman who'd ordered Jesse's death and the guy -Diego- who actually killed Jesse." Dammit, I thought. I'd forgotten to explain how Jesse had died. But really, who could blame me? Sometimes, it was a lot -too much, even- for me to process, and it was my own life! "Jesse actually died," I said by way of explaining the situation, "because he didn't want to marry his cousin" -ew- "Maria de Silva. He was staying in this bedroom here in this house when he was on his way to break up with her, and then Maria's boyfriend Diego killed him because Maria didn't want Jesse to embarrass her by dumping her. Maria was also angry with me because I hadn't told Andy not to dig in the backyard to put in the hot tub. That was the body Brad found, by the way. It was Jesse's body, I mean. Anyway, Maria was mad at me, so she had Jack -Paul's younger brother- exorcise Jesse. Then I had Father Dom exorcise me so I could get Jesse back. Then Jesse kissed me. But Paul was still trying to keep me away from Jesse. So he moved to Carmel the next school year."

"What a jerk," Gina commented. "No wonder he has such a clingy girlfriend. He probably prides himself on the fact that a girl actually wants him."

"So that was….that was why you didn't like him at the beginning of the school year!" CeeCee said quietly.

Doc remained silent the whole time. I don't know if he was trying to process it all or if he just had nothing to say.

I explained to them all that Paul had told me about Dr. Slaski and shifters in Ancient Egypt. I told them -painstakingly- about the moves Paul had put on me in his bedroom, and about the fight between Jesse and Paul on the night of Brad's party. They listened, asking questions whenever they needed to, and I explained the best I could.

Then came what I cared to discuss the least: How I'd nearly lost Jesse again because of Paul Slater.

"Paul had never told me about the time-traveling thing. Not until he'd planned to use it. He was going to go back to -to- the night Jesse died and save him from Diego. He -in a way- made a mistake by telling me because deciding whether or not to allow him to do it was the most difficult decision I'd ever made. I mean, I wanted Jesse to have a full and happy life like he'd deserved, but I also wanted to keep him with me because I loved him. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Eventually, I decided that I would stop Paul. I mean, Jesse didn't want to leave -he had actually accused Paul of lying to him- but Paul was going to go anyway because…because Paul wanted me." I took a deep breath. I was shaking all over. I hated even thinking about that night, but then, there I was telling the only three non-mediator people who'd ever understand it. "So I went to stop Paul. But he tied me up in the barn. You know, there used to be a barn in the backyard, but it burned down, and that was my fault. You see, Paul had me tied up in the hay loft, and I made noises, and Jesse found me. He untied me…and when I saw him, so warm, so alive, I decided that I could never allow him to die, no matter how much I loved him. So I started telling him all about Diego's plan to kill him. He didn't believe me, at least not right away, but I convinced him. Then Diego came; they fought, and Jesse killed him." Way to go, Suze, I thought. Tell your best friends and your stepbrother that your boyfriend is capable of homicide. It was justifiable, but it was still, you know, murder. "Then the barn caught on fire because I knocked over a lantern in the hay loft, and Paul got out, all by himself. But Jesse -who didn't even know me because he technically hadn't met me yet- stayed behind to save me. And I got scared, so I shifted home and accidentally brought Jesse's body with me. Then, Paul and I took his body to the hospital…and…and…Jesse came to say good-bye to me, but his soul got sucked up in his body…and…and…he was alive."

David handed me a tissue from my nightstand. "Here," he said.

I hadn't even realized I was crying. I guess I'd been too busy releasing pent-up thoughts and feelings that I hadn't noticed the tears that pricked me behind my eyes.

"You know," Gina said quietly, "you could turn this all into a movie."

"Lifetime Channel," CeeCee said.

I smiled. "Yeah. Lifetime Channel."

I hadn't wanted to explain it all to them, but all in all, it was just a brick in the wall, or however that song went.

David excused himself quietly -well why would he want to stick around when there was so much feminine emotion in the air? Then CeeCee, Gina, and I sat around exploring Gina's new CD collection. It turned out, that even though her last boyfriend was a pothead, he liked some pretty good music. Among the Cds in her collection were bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, The Offspring, and Zwan. I kind of liked some of the Smashing Pumpkins, Zwan, and Nirvana stuff (at least not the really heavy or offensive stuff). The Offspring was good, too, but some of their lyrics, CeeCee pointed out, were prejudiced against women.

"Do you think Jesse would like any of this?" Gina asked. She had been telling CeeCee and me how she now saw that Jesse had every right to be a little boring (at least to her) because he was not exactly twenty-two years-old: he was actually a hundred and seventy years-old. Of course a hundred and seventy year-old guy would be a little boring to a twenty-year-old girl.

"I don't know. I think he might go for some of the softer Pumpkins stuff. He'd almost definitely like Zwan. Maybe he'd like some of the softer Nirvana stuff," I said.

"I think he would," CeeCee said. "He doesn't have much of a problem with movies," she said, referring to how I'd once told her how sick I was of watching The Godfather.

"Now…onto more important matters," Gina said. "Have you gotten into bed with him yet? I mean, would a guy his age know how to…how to please a woman in the twenty-first century? I mean, carnal acts probably weren't so recreational then. I mean, women were probably taught to lie back and think of baby-making and making her husband happy."

"Gina!" I said, turning red.

"Ha! I knew it!" Gina said.

"Actually, that would be a 'no," I said. "I've tried, I really have. But no. He says no."

"But why?" CeeCee said.

"I don't know. He used to say nothing below the neck until the honeymoon, now it's just nothing below the waist. I'm working on it!" I said.

"Well here," Gina said. "Take some of these Cds over to his place later on this week and see how he likes it."

"Okay," I said. "You know, Gina, we need to find you a boyfriend. Not Brad or Jake -a real guy."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I have a date with Jake tomorrow night," she said.

"So Cee, how are things with you and Adam?" I asked.

"Dreamy still. He's a perfect gentleman, and funny as ever. The other day, he told me he'd marry me, but he said he'd have to kill his first wife first for the insurance money in order to pay for our wedding," CeeCee said. "I told him that it wasn't such a good idea. Besides, he'd have to pay for the honeymoon, not the wedding."

I cracked up. "Typical Adam," I said.

"Yeah. Well, I have to go home so I can go to bed and be halfway alive at work tomorrow," CeeCee said. CeeCee was doing an internship for her schoolwork that summer. She was going to be a journalist.

I glanced at the clock. It was almost ten-thirty. "Yeah, you'd better go. Gina and I have to work tomorrow anyway."

I mentioned that, right? I mentioned that Gina and I were working together at the Pebble Beach Hotel and Golf Resort, right? I was working there so I'd have money for stuff like extra clothes and make up, and Gina was working there so she could earn a little extra cash too and so she wouldn't be bored while I was at work.

So CeeCee left and Gina and I went to bed.