The ghosts watched in nervous anticipation as they saw Mike asleep on the bed, arms and legs sprawled out, just wearing underpants.
"Should someone wake him?" Pat asked, breaking the silence.
"No," the Captain answered firmly, twisting his stick behind him, "It's best to break it gently."
"Alison will be back from that sleepover soon," Fanny pointed out, "It's too dangerous for her to come in."
Before anyone could say anything else, Mike groaned, kicking his legs and pushing himself up, dozily. As soon as he saw the seven and a half ghosts standing in front of him – Humphrey's head sitting on Alison's vanity set – he stared in a mixture of shock and delight.
"You're here," he pointed with a shaking finger, "I see you!"
Then he broke out into a wide smile. "I can see you!"
He jumped from the bed and started shouting, "Alison! Alison, I can see your friends!"
But as he reached for the doorknob, he saw his hand go through it. Pausing, he tried again. Looking back at the ghosts, a horrific chill went through his spectral form as he realised.
"Sorry." It was the only thing Pat could think of.
As Alison drove into the grounds, she saw Robin frantically waving his arms and yelling. Stopping the car and getting out, apologising quickly to her friend, who wondered what on Earth she was doing, Alison walked up to Robin.
"What is it, Robin?" she asked. When she saw his saddened expression, her heart sank. "Has someone moved on?"
"Worse," Robin twisted the tips of his fingers together, as Alison saw, at the front of the house, a police car and an ambulance.
Alison started running up the drive, screaming her husband's name. Both Robin and her friend called for her to come back to the car, but Alison was deaf to the world.
When she reached the building, the ghosts had started crowding around the front door. Just as a policeman began pulling her back, Alison saw the ambulance crew taking a body bag into their van.
Alison just sank down, incoherently wailing, gripping hard, unable to think of anything except Mike.
The Captain explained to Alison as she sat in her car, now parked in the front yard out of the way of the gate. The carbon monoxide detector had been broken for weeks. When Alison had left, it had started acting up.
Julian had felt it first; weird considering that he was the most recent ghost. Since the ghosts all had a sixth sense as to when a person would die, they would feel drawn to the dying body. Robin didn't stay on the scene anymore because he had felt it so often that he barely noticed, but he always seemed to be at least in a nearby room.
They apparently also sensed when a ghost would move on, as Robin explained once to Alison, but he didn't notice anymore.
Julian had started looking up the stairs as the others played 'Sing Your Favourite Song From Childhood'. He called out, saying that something seemed wrong. The other ghosts followed and then they knew that death was near.
Running to the bedroom, they saw Mike falling asleep as the invisible gas seeped up.
The ghosts tried their best. Robin tried flicking the lights on and off to try and wake Mike. Julian pushed at the window latch and tried calling the ambulance. But Mike passed not long after he fell asleep.
The ghosts stayed by him until past dawn, wondering when he would wake. Waking and becoming a ghost was a luxury none of them had felt. Julian had said something about being cross that while he didn't have underwear, Mike was wearing nothing but underwear, but they ignored him.
Alison thanked the Captain and stood up, wiping tears from her eye with one hand.
"Alison," the Captain looked down at the ground, unsure of what he could say to help her in any way, "if you need to – take some time away – we understand."
Alison just blinked with wet eyes and responded, "Thank you, Captain. But I don't know what to do." Her voice started to crack. "I don't know what to do."
Until the house could be deemed safe Alison was staying at Barclay Beg-Chegwin's. He stopped being his rowdy self when he noticed how miserable Alison was. He might be a prick but he knew when not to be arrogant.
The only thing Alison did was stare out of her window, up at Button House. Imagining Mike inside, scared, confused.
He needed help and so did she, but different kinds of help.
"Should I talk to her?" Pat asked Mike as he glumly sat on the sofa.
"No," Mike looked up suddenly, "No, thank you. I mean, I finally get to see all of you, but it's not –"
The other ghosts all solemnly looked away, unsure of what exactly they should say.
No-one had the right words for this circumstance. Of course, they were used to death. They were even used to seeing people they knew die.
Robin had seen and walked among the living for ten thousand years. He, Humphrey and Mary had seen Annie live for a few years and die here. Then they saw Kitty grow from a scared, adopted toddler, only adopted by Lord Higham in protest against the wickedness of slavery, into a young woman. Then the ghosts had seen Fanny turn from a young woman into the sour old mule she was now but would never admit it. And after that was lonely, cold Heather Button.
But they had all expected Alison and Mike to grow old here, with their children. They didn't think that Mike would die only four years after he moved in.
"It's food club tonight," Pat placed a comforting hand on Mike's leg, "It's all right if you want us to skip it."
"No, that's fine," Mike sighed, wishing his final meal hadn't been noodles.
Then he asked, "How many of you are there? I mean, I know Alison said that there were other ghosts that moved on, but how many –"
"There are ghosts in the basement," the Captain said at last.
Taking him down there, Mike's eyes widened when he took a good look.
Slowly he raised his hand and muttered, "Hi."
"Hi." The basement ghosts all replied back. Mike wondered if he would ever get used to seeing those boils.
"Do you – ever come up from here?" he asked.
"No," Nigel shook his head, "We prefer being together."
"And you all – like it down here?"
"Oh, yeah," another spoke up.
Then after Mike had asked all of their names, he wondered if he could stay in here if he couldn't bear to see Alison alive. No, he told himself, if Alison wanted to see him, he would stay upstairs. But what if Alison never wanted to see him again? Could he live – well, not live – with that?
Mike blinked and then murmured, "Right, well, I'd better go back. Goodbye."
"Goodbye," they chorused as the Captain followed Mike back up.
Then Mike asked the Captain, "How do living people cope with –"
He paused, not sure of what he could say. The Captain nodded and only replied, "They react in different ways. I'm not sure if the fact that Alison can see you makes things better or worse."
Alison could finally come back after four days. The first thing she did was sit on the sofa and wait. Placing her head in her hands, she listened eagerly for signs of anyone – even Thomas trying to woo her, as insensitive as it would be – coming.
Soon Kitty came into the room. "Alison," she began asking, "Do you want to see Mike?"
Looking up, Alison answered, "You know what? I think I do."
When she went upstairs, she saw Mike in their bedroom, sitting on the bed. The fact that she could never touch his hand, never hold him again, was too much for her and she burst into another flood of tears.
"Alison, please, don't," Mike tried to comfort her, but it was only making it worse, "Please don't cry."
"I can't help it!" Alison sobbed, looking up finally. "You're dead!"
"I know," Mike hung his head, "But Alison, please, promise me that – this won't ruin your life."
Alison nodded, her throat sore and empty. "I'll try."
Mike automatically held his arms out for a hug and then felt himself go through Alison.
Pat, Fanny and Julian were watching as Mike came through the door and heard Alison coughing loudly.
"You smell of gas!" Alison cried.
"I guess we've found your ghost power!" Pat cheerfully grinned.
Not that it was much comfort for Mike.
When the lawyer finally came, he sat down in the sitting room with Alison. He was going over numerous papers, what she could do now. Mainly changing wills and that thing.
He was partially through reading when Fanny, talking about how the solicitors had come around when she died, about how George didn't seem to care, the wife-killing unmentionable, with Pat trying to calm her down and the Captain being stoic about this when Alison burst out loud, "Will you be quiet for one minute, Fanny!"
The ghosts stared at her anxiously, looking between Alison and the solicitor, while he simply stared at her as if she were crazy.
Alison couldn't bear this pretence anymore. Not now that Mike was gone. Haunting this house forever, or until he was sucked off. She looked the solicitor directly in the eye and sat up straight.
"I can see ghosts. I've been able to see them since I arrived here."
The solicitor was caught between pity and worry, thinking that perhaps Alison was grieving too much to make any sense and he should come back another time.
But Alison, guessing what he was thinking, held her hands out and begged, "Please! I'll prove it!"
"Miss Cooper, I think I've been here long enough –"
"Please!" she tried again. "Hold your fingers behind your back. I-I'll ask the ghosts to count them."
"Alison, what are –" Fanny began, but Alison turned to her, wide-eyed and silently pleading.
Fanny sighed, "This is worse than the Grey Lady rubbish." But she went behind the solicitor's back anyway.
"Two." She replied.
Alison parroted the answer. The solicitor looked a bit pale, but not quite convinced.
Then he asked, "If I hold my papers open – since this is your case, I won't be breaking breaches of trust – and ask the ghost to read it, will that be enough?" He didn't entirely believe her, but was willing to listen to a widow.
As Alison turned her back and the solicitor walked with the file into the hallway and sat on the stairs, Fanny read the page out loud and Alison slowly repeated what she had said. The solicitor came back into the sitting room, eyes wide and seeming rather shaken.
After an endless silence, he asked Alison, "How many are there?"
A quick introduction later, with Mike still upstairs because he didn't want to cause Alison any more grief, the solicitor was convinced that Alison had a gift.
Well, anyone would after seeing the light go on and off and the word 'Twat' appearing on a fogged-up mirror.
He slowly asked, eyeballs darting about the room as if expecting to see invisible people walking towards him, "I hate to ask this, Miss Cooper, but –"
"Mike's here," she responded quickly, tearing it off like a plaster.
The solicitor slowly asked, "And you're fine?"
Alison pursed her lips softly before answering, "I think so."
The solicitor said that her gift – for lack of any better word – would be revolutionary. Alison contemplated the fact that she could go all over the world, help archaeologists and the police forces, help send many ghosts beyond.
But Mike...Mike would still be here, lonely without her.
Alison talked it over with the other ghosts after the solicitor had left, alone in her bedroom.
Eventually Fanny was the one to tell her, "Alison, let your heart guide you. Don't be held back." Fanny, thinking of how she could have been wonderful if circumstances were different, didn't want her sole living relative to end up as miserable at Button house as Fanny was in the afterlife.
"I'll still help you," Alison gabbled, "I can have people come and change pages and television channels and – maybe Barclay could do it!"
"I'd love to see that ponce do hard work for once in his lazy life!" Julian sniggered.
Pat asked Alison, "Are you sure you don't want to stay?"
Alison's eyes were watery with tears as she forced an answer. "I – I love all of you and I want – I want to help you feel as if you're making the most out of this situation, but –"
"But seeing Michael as a ghost is too much to bear." The Captain nodded in solemn understanding.
"You're the family that I've always wanted," Alison stood up from her seat, "Which makes this all the much difficult for me to do. You and Mike – you're what I always wanted."
The Captain took a step forward and looked deep into her. "But you can't always get the person you wanted."
Kitty burst out crying. Thomas held his hands behind him and looked down. Robin stared at the whole situation, trying to remain strong.
When she left, the ghosts noticed how quiet it was.
Of course, like Alison said, someone came every day to turn pages in a book or set up the television. If something was wrong then Robin or Julian would alert them, occasionally Mike when he became confident enough to behave like a ghost.
They weren't sure how long they stayed at the house, watching people came day after day. The only thing they knew was that sometimes whoever came would talk out loud from paper how well Alison was doing. Soon these people became grey-haired and their children took over, the ghosts having watched them from childhood.
Eventually a car drew up outside Button House. At least, they thought it was a car. As soon as they crowded around outside, the driver stepped out and opened a door.
The spitting image of Alison came out of the back seat.
"Alison?" Mike asked, even though he knew she couldn't be his wife.
"Miss?" the driver asked her. She looked down at a clipboard he was holding in one hand. Two small girls had climbed out of the back seat and were pulling suitcases.
"You're not supposed to hyphenate it," the woman took a pen and wrote, "It's 'Mary Annie'. No hyphen."
The ghosts glanced at the woman the second she looked up.
For a brief second she seemed to stare at them. Then she sported a large smile, confirming their thought.