Chapter 13: Hurry Baaack…

"Oh, God," Clarisse whispered as the color drained from her face. Slowly and silently, she backed away from the group. She leaned against a wall, suddenly feeling weak, and slid all the way down until she was sitting on the floor. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she put her head down and cried, moaning softly, "No, no, no, no..."

Adam didn't seem to notice his weeping wife. He glared at George. "Oh, don't sound so happy about it!"

"I'm not happy about it at all!" George shouted back. "I want you to live as much as you do!"

"Come off it! You've been ogling my wife since she stepped in, haven't you!" Adam shouted, a finger pointed accusingly at George.

"Well, not exactly since she stepped in," George mumbled. "More like forty seconds before she kicked me..." he added thoughtfully. With a frustrated cry, Adam tackled him, knocking him down to the ground. Each man traded punches back and forth until they wound up with their hands around each other's throats, rolling around on the floor, shouting obscene threats.

"Clarisse and Adam are a very aggressive couple," said Gus.

"Shouldn't we step in?" asked Phineas.

Ezra shrugged. "Nothin' better to do," he said as he rolled up his sleeves. "C'mon, Dust, let's get the newbie. Phinny, you and Gus grab George." It was in vain, however, as the four just got pulled into the scuffle. The yelling and fighting drowned out Clarisse's sobs and prevented anyone from noticing the two ghosts who had entered the room.

Little Leota scowled and glared with hate at Clarisse, but when she noticed the mortal was crying, the look of malice vanished and was replaced with concern. "Miss Meanie Head?" she asked as she approached Clarisse.

Emily looked from Clarisse to the fighting dead men and frowned. "Oi!" she yelled, trying to get their attention. "George Edward Gracey!" she screamed shrilly, causing a nearby mirror to crack. The ghosts stopped in mid-brawl and stared at her, frozen. "Oops," she muttered to the broken glass. "That's seven years bad luck." She cleared her throat. "I came down here when I heard the commotion going on a few minutes ago. I assumed it had to do with that-that skanky psychic!" She balled her hands into fists at the memory of Leota. Quickly, she regained her composure and smoothed her hair back. "But," she said sweetly with a smile, "I leave my little attic, and what do I find?" She frowned. "I find that my former husband-to-be and a man have gotten into a brawl over some living, mopey red head!" She gestured to Clarisse, whose shoulder was gently being shaken by Little Leota.

Adam, finally noticing that Clarisse was upset, let go of George's collar and ran to her side. The others tried to retain as much dignity as they could as they dusted themselves off. George cleared his throat nervously as he tried to think of a way to talk himself out of the mess. Meanwhile, Little Leota was looking for her mother. "Where's mommy?" she asked. "She's not in her room."

"Yeah," asked Emily. "What happened to the hussy?"

As George, Ezra, Phineas, Gus, and Dustin attempted to explain what had happened, Adam was trying to comfort Clarisse. "I know this is bad," he said softly as he held her close, "but maybe I can leave, now that that woman's gone. I could haunt the house. We wouldn't have to worry about people coming to our door and trying to sell things anymore; I could scare them away." He tried to force out a laugh and failed.

Clarisse sniffed and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "It's not just that, Adam," she snapped angrily. "We--" She stopped and looked at the ghosts. They were still trying to explain what had happened to Little Leota and Emily. The dead child looked as if she was in shock.

Not wanting to chance them hearing her, Clarisse whispered in Adam's ear. Eyes growing wide with surprise, he cried out, "When!"

"Oh, in about eight and a half months, I'd expect," she replied with a weak chuckle.

"No, I mean, when did you find out? Why didn't you tell me?" he stammered.

"I went to the doctor's yesterday. I wanted to think of a special thing for us to do when I told you the news, so I planned to have a candle-lit dinner tonight. But now that's going to be cancelled." She started crying again.

"Oh boy," Adam sighed, leaning against the wall. "Me, a daddy." He couldn't stop himself from smiling or hide the twinkle of excitement in his eyes. "Well, that explains some of the bizarre mood swings you've been having. Wow, I guess I shouldn't have dropped you, huh?"

"I told you I was fragile," she joked tearfully.

"What do you mean she's gone!" Little Leota screamed at George. "How could you let that happen to my mommy!"

"Look, I'm sorry!" he shouted back. "But she was a bad person! And you have been misbehaving, too, young lady!" he said sternly. He bit his tongue, shocked at his own reaction. Little Leota looked up at him with tear soaked green eyes. Suddenly, she wrapped her arms around his legs and hugged him tightly and sobbed into his knees. Not quite knowing what to do, he put a hand on her back and said soothingly, "It's going to be okay."

"If you ask me," said Dustin with a smile to George, "it seems as if you have plenty of people you need to devote your love to here, sir, rather than trying to woo someone else, hmm?"

"Well, thanks for that little nugget of moral joy, Dustbin," Ezra quipped.

"You know," Phineas said thoughtfully, "I thought we'd actually get through a day without having to learn some lesson."

Emily put her hands on her hips. "I for one am glad that someone around here has a little bit of common sense." She smiled at Dustin. "And I'm not surprised it's an Englishman. It's so refreshing to see someone else from my home country here."

"Likewise." He blushed and scratched the back of his head.

Grabbing his arm, she pulled him aside to chat with him. Snippets of her quick speech were lost, but Dustin saying, "And I couldn't even tell rat poison had been added! That's how bad the tea is here!" and their following laughter could be heard from one corner of the room.

"Crazy teabag suckers deserve each other." Ezra grinned and winked.

"All's well that lived happily ever after," Gus cried gleefully.

"Not exactly," said Phineas, pointing to Adam and Clarisse. With her husband's arms wrapped around her, she was still crying. Her tears rained through his shoulder and down to the carpet, making a puddle. "I don't think," he continued, "that's something we can fix."

Someone knocked at the door. "Who could that be?" George muttered as he answered it. Standing on the other side of the thresh hold, was a man in his mid forties with thinning light brown hair, and wearing jeans and a brown jacket. He took one look at the ghosts and started to run in the other direction.

Adam looked up at him and a look of rage washed over his features. "Duncan, get back here right now!"

The man stopped, one foot in the air, and turned around. "Adam..." he groaned sadly "Oh, geeze, it wasn't a dream. I really did it." With an apprehensive look at George, he fearfully dashed past him and into the house. "I don't know what happened! I remember coming in here this afternoon to see if you needed any help!" He wrung his hands nervously. "And then, I found this room with this woman in it and--and she said some weird words to me---and I remember climbing onto this beam after you--and then I--I put this noose around your neck, and there were these ghosts helping me and--and I told Henry to call you, Clarisse, because there had been an accident, and the ghosts chased everyone away and--Adam I'm so sorry! I don't know why I did it! And now you're dead and a ghost and..." He wrung his hands again. "These dead people are watching me!" Eyes bulging in fright at the hitchhiker's he screamed, "You guys are scaring me! Stop grinning at me like that!"

"You didn't do it on purpose?" asked Adam.

Duncan shook his head with a mournful expression. "No, I would never. I couldn't take you away from Clarisse; she loves you too much. I don't know why, exactly, you're an immature punk most of the time, but I wouldn't kill you. It was like I was hypnotized or something, like I was walking in a dream. A few minutes ago, the feeling went away and I could think again. I rushed back here to see if it really happened, and if it had, if I could help."

"What do you mean, 'help'?" Clarisse asked curiously.

"Um, well, my grandmother had this book that she gave to me of magic incantations and rituals, and I think there was a spell in there for putting a soul back into its body. But the death has to be recent. I want to fix this."

"What are you waiting for?" Clarisse grinned. "The ladder should still in the gallery. Hurry up, let's get him--er, his body!"

Adam grabbed her hand before she could run into the secret room. With a smile, he said, "No more straining." Then he quickly kissed her and ran through the wall, followed by George, Ezra, Dustin, and Gus.

Duncan reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a little black book. "Still don't know what you see in him," he muttered. "Okay," he opened the book to a marked page. "We'll need a vial of chicken blood, white chalk, orange sand, and water mixed with sea salt and sage." He closed the book and looked up to see that all of the requested items were on the floor. Phineas was just closing his bag. "Where did you...?"

"Just some stuff I always keep on me." The ghost grinned.

"Don't drop it!" came a yell from inside the gallery. "I don't want to go back into my body with bruises! No, don't, stop!"

THUD!

"Thanks a lot Gus! Now I'm gonna have a bump on my head the size of a golf ball!"

About ten minutes later, they were all standing on the front porch of Gracey Manor. Little Leota and Emily finished drawing an intricate pentagram design on the wooden terrace, and George and Adam placed the body on top of it. Walking around the perimeter of the circle, Duncan sprinkled the two vials of liquid around the outside of the drawing and recited the spell as Clarisse sprinkled the sand over Adam. Within seconds of finishing the incantation, a small wispy silver tornado that was hardly half of Little Leota's height, appeared over Adam's body.

"Hey, what's tha--" before Adam could finish the question, the tiny whirlwind sucked him in, pulling him back into his body. As soon as it vanished, the now mortal Adam sat up, gasping for air. "Oh, my head!"

Clarisse hugged him, knocking out the oxygen he had tried so hard to inhale. "Glad to have you back, hon'."

"Glad to be back," he grinned, embracing her.

Duncan shut the book with a snap. "Good ol' Grandma LeRoch." He looked about nervously. "Say, she isn't here, is she?" he asked George.

"Dunky!" a female voice with a thick New Orleans accent called lovingly. "Come give your ol' granny a kiss!"

Stifling a scream, Duncan raced off the porch, jumping clear over the stairs. He stumbled as he hit the dirt, and then bolted for his car. His dead grandmother was right at his heels. "You haven't been eating my specially made horse radish stuffed sausage gumbo twice a day, have you, Dunky? I'm gonna have to keep a closer eye on you, boy! Don't you run away while I'm talking to you!"

"So," said Adam as he and Clarisse walked back to her car, "how about...Adam Parker the second?"

She scoffed. "And how do you know it's a boy, Mr. Ego? What if it's a girl?"

He thought about it for a second. "Melody."

Clarisse pondered it. "That's not too bad. I see your love for music never wavered."

"Speaking of which, I was thinking about quitting my construction job and maybe teaching band class at your school..."

"Cute couple," chuckled George as he watched them drive away. He looked around the porch. The others seemed to have vanished, except for Little Leota.

She tugged on his sleeve. "Let's play a game," she suggested with a smile.

"Like what?" he asked as they went back into the house.

"Ooh, we could play horseshoes in the graveyard, or go bike riding, or jump rope, or play a board game..."

In the graveyard, two ghosts sat on the hearse's bench. "Where to?" Dustin asked Emily. "With the curse broken, we're free to go anywhere!"

"Oh, I have some relatives in Manchester I would just love to visit!"

Rolly leisurely started trotting out of the cemetery. The driver and the bride didn't even notice the three stowaways until Ezra, Phineas, and Gus started up a round of "Merrily On Our Way to Nowhere in Particular!" It wasn't long until Dustin and Emily joined in.

And they all "lived" happily ever after.

A/N: "Merrily On Our Way to Nowhere in Particular" was a song from the movie, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad.

We had a lot of fun collaborating on this story, and we hope you had fun reading it! Happy haunting, fellow ghost fans!