Grasping at Eternity (The Kindrily) (27 page)

She shoved her phone in her back pocket and crossed her arms over her chest. “Nobody.”

The sour smell of old ice cream in the dumpster made my stomach turn. Or maybe fear had prompted the sudden desire to heave. “You said my name. If you’re going to talk about me, at least have the guts to say it to my face.” My brother used that line on a bully when we were kids, so I knew I
sounded
strong, but I felt like a terrified seven-year-old.

“It has nothing to do with guts. My conversation was private.”

“Why do you hate me so much? I’ve never done anything to you.”

“Never say never.” She laughed. Harmony—whom I’d hardly ever seen crack a smile—actually laughed. Then she took off her sunglasses. “But I don’t hate you, so spare me the theatrics.”

Faith appeared in the doorway. “You two are missing cake and ice cream.”

Harmony and I continued glaring at each other. If I looked away first, I’d lose. My heart hammered between my ears. I had no idea why this confrontation felt so important, but I’d stand my ground no matter how much she intimidated me.

“What’s going on?” Faith asked.

Harmony looked away. I let out the breath I’d been holding.

“Maryah’s newly attained adulthood has made her brave and delusional.”

I stepped forward, clueless as to how my nerve got so strong. “You were talking to someone about me.” I looked at Faith. “She said I wouldn’t believe something.”

“Harmony?” Faith questioned, but she glanced around like she expected to see someone else. I looked around too. Who were we looking for?

“This is pointless. I’m going inside.” Harmony pushed past Faith and left us standing in the alley.

“What did I ever do to her?” I asked Faith with frustration.

“Let me talk to her. I might know what this is about, and if I’m right, she’s only trying to protect you.”

“Protect me? I don’t need her protection.”

“Maybe not, but you have it anyway. Come back inside. Literally, there is cake with your name on it.”

Harmony left before I had even a bite of cake. It’s nearly impossible to ruin my appetite for chocolate, but she managed to do it. When the party ended, Faith insisted that I go home. She promised to come over after she and Shiloh cleaned up, and I made her swear to give me answers about the Harmony weirdness.

∞

Luckily, I had the house to myself. Faith and Harmony were on their way over. At least there wouldn’t be an audience like there was at my last fight. I was scared, but confident that Faith would make sure Harmony didn’t hurt me too badly. It couldn’t hurt any worse than my fight with April. Could it?

They found me in the backyard feeding the fish. I wanted to stand up and act tough, but instead I continued to sit there, skimming my fingers in the icy water and watching the bright red and orange bodies swim around.

Faith squeezed my shoulder. “Let’s go inside. It’s cold out here.”

I glanced at Harmony, imagining the damage she could do. Not wanting my blood splattered all over Louise’s house, I said, “No, I’d rather do it outside.”

Harmony looked different. No glasses. No scowl. She almost looked concerned—an emotion I didn’t know she possessed. “Maryah, are you sure you want to do this?”

No. I didn’t want to fight Stinkerbell, but I didn’t want to be treated like a doormat anymore either. “Do what?”

Harmony grunted. “Demand the truth.”

Truth? Right. The whole point of this was to find out who she was talking to about me. Maybe the truth wouldn’t involve fists. “I’m sure.”

Faith sat down Indian style. Harmony plopped down next to her.

“Ma-Ma, you’re going to think we’re crazy when we tell you this,” Faith began, “but you have to hear us out until the end.”

I nodded.

She giggled and leaned in close to me then whispered, “Harmony sees dead people.”

“Very
Sixth Sense
-ish of you,” Harmony said.

I watched them both with confusion. “What?”

Faith wriggled up onto her knees. “Harmony has a gift. She can communicate with souls who have died, but haven’t crossed to the Higher Realm. Some ask her for favors or to relay messages.” She sounded so chipper about it. This had to be a joke.

“Really?” I asked with amusement.

“Yes, really,” Harmony said.

Then it occurred to me, Harmony wasn’t the joking type. “You swear?”

“On my life, and the lives of everyone I love.”

I wasn’t sure how much that really meant, but if she was serious…“Doesn’t that freak you out?”

She bent one leg up and picked at the sole her boot. “Rarely.”

After Faith’s
Sixth Sense
comment, all I could picture were half-mangled bodies groaning and clawing at Harmony for help. The images in my head weren’t pretty, and for a moment I thought I had some insight to her dismalness. I’d be the same way if dead people followed me around. “Are they scary looking?”

“I don’t see their bodies. Only clouds of light, or dark. It all depends.”

“Tell her Harmony,” Faith urged.

“Tell me what?”

Harmony raked her fingers through her hair. Some purple pieces stuck straight up. “Remember, you have to hear everything then you’ll have proof.”

I nodded again.

“In the alley, I wasn’t on the phone. That’s something I do in case people see me talking to what appears to be no one.” She took a quick breath. “I was talking to your parents.”

The hair on my arms stood up. My mouth opened, but no words came out. If she was lying, this was the cruelest thing Harmony could ever do to me.

“They love you and miss you and all that jazz. Your dad says he’s sorry, blah blah blah.”

“Harmony,” Faith whined.

“Ay dios mio, Faith! You know I’m not good at emotional translations. Just let me do this my own way!”

I wasn’t sure if I believed in ghosts, and even if they were real, I’d sense if my own parents were hanging around. “I don’t believe you.”

Harmony’s head snapped up to look at me. “I told you wait until—”

“If it’s true, ask them what Mikey called me.”

“Seriously, I’m getting to the part where…” Harmony’s eyes jumped to the empty space beside me. “Okay! Okay. Ry. Your mother is
screaming
that Mikey called you Ry.”

Goosebumps spread over my entire body. I hadn’t told anyone he called me that.

My parents were actually here? Contacting Harmony? Some hopeful yet really scared part of me wished it were true.

A thousand questions ran through my mind. “Where have they been? Why didn’t they say anything sooner?”

Harmony cracked her neck and said to Faith, “Told you this would be complicated.”

“Come on,” Faith insisted. “She’d do it for you.”

Harmony sighed. “Don’t be mad at me, but they’ve been hanging around since you arrived here. They won’t cross over like most souls do by now.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I shrieked.

“You have to understand, Maryah. Once souls find out I can hear them, they don’t shut up. They follow me everywhere and won’t leave me alone until I find all the people they want to contact. It’s exhausting. It was next to impossible to be around you when you first arrived. Your parents constantly talked to each other about you, and what they thought of our kin—family. So many times I wanted to give them a piece of my mind, but I knew if I did, they’d never leave me alone. Most of the things they said were meaningless, typical parental stuff, but today at your party, they were discussing something I couldn’t ignore, so I spoke up.”

I was stunned to hear Harmony say so much.

“Your mom says you have her jewelry box. There’s a gift for you hidden inside of it.” My mind raced, picturing every piece of jewelry in the box. Was she mad that I put River’s necklace in there? “She says you have to pry the bottom of the box open. You’ll understand when you find it.”

“I don’t understand,” I mumbled.

Harmony threw her hands up and looked at the empty air beside me. “Sarah, did you drop this kid on her head?” A warm shiver ran through me as Harmony focused on me again. “I told you, once you find it, you’ll understand.”

Faith sprang to her feet. “Let’s go find it!”

Harmony got up and they both looked down at me.

“Ma-Ma, come on!” Faith urged.

“No…I can’t.” I stared at the pond. My mind flashed back to the peculiar fear I had. I thought something awful would happen if I opened the jewelry box. That feeling was back stronger than ever.

“What are you talking about?” Faith asked. “It’s a gift from your mother. Don’t you want to see what it is?”

I shook my head. “I have a bad feeling about it.”

Harmony stared into space for a few seconds then said, “Sarah understands. She wasn’t sure if she should give it to you. She wants you to follow your instincts and if they tell you not to open it, then don’t.”

“For crying out loud,” Faith whined. “How anticlimactic is this?”

I fought back tears. “Harmony, can you tell them I love them and miss them?”

“Trust me,” she said. “They know.”

“Is Mikey with them?”

“Mikey crossed to the Higher Realm a couple weeks after you came out of your coma.”

“Oh,” I uttered, disappointed but also relieved. “That means he’s okay, right? Is the Higher Realm like Heaven?”

“They’re basically the same place,” Faith assured me.

How the heck did she know anything about Heaven?

“Maryah,” Harmony said, “your dad is asking if there’s anything else you want to say before they…leave me alone. We made an agreement that if I helped them communicate with you this once, they wouldn’t bother me again.” Harmony sounded guilty and rightly so. This was my last and only chance to talk to them?

“Why won’t they cross over?”

The thought of them lingering in some in-between world didn’t seem right. They should be with Mikey in Heaven, or whatever it was called.

“They want to make sure you’re okay before they do.”

A tear streamed down my cheek. “But I want
them
to be okay. They should be with Mikey.” My voice cracked. “I can’t stand the thought of them in some kind of purgatory.”

“Aw, it’s nothing like that,” Faith said. “They aren’t suffering by hanging around.”

“How do you know?” I snapped. “Do you have a psychic power too?”

She bit her lip. “Um, well—”

Harmony interrupted. “They’re proud of how far you’ve come since that night. They’ll cross over soon. Your dad says until then, they’ll give you space.”

My ears began buzzing and a headache tugged at my temples. I wasn’t sure if I could handle any more talk about ghosts. It felt strange to have Harmony—who up until a few minutes ago I thought hated me—acting as a mediator between my parents and me.

“I want to be alone,” I announced, standing up.

No one argued. Faith and Harmony stayed quiet as I walked into the house.
 

I wondered if my parents followed.

Maryah

I felt eerily haunted, like my parents were watching my every move. I kept saying things out loud like “I love you, but if you’re here, can you leave me alone for a minute?” This new theory that my parents could be lingering at all times left me thinking through every move I made.

Dinner with River was out of the question, so I called and cancelled. Instead, I sat on my bed staring across the room at my mother’s jewelry box—unable to bring myself to go near it. What could my mother have hidden inside? I looked at the clock. 8:18pm.

I crept toward my dresser where the box sat. My fingers traced the ridges in the wood before I opened the lid. Slowly, I removed each piece of jewelry then flipped it over to examine the bottom. It didn’t look like it had been altered, or that anything would fit in the tiny space between the outside and the inner lining. I carried it into the kitchen and set it on the counter.

Was I really going to do this? Damage my mother’s jewelry box just because Harmony claimed she could talk to dead people?

I scanned the room expecting to see a camera crew jump out and tell me it was all a joke. But there were no cameras. I was alone and the house was so quiet I could hear the wind outside. I pulled out a knife and tampered with the bottom of the box. I tried a few different knives, stabbing at the glued seam, but the seal couldn’t be broken. The more frustrated I got, the more determined I became. My fear disappeared. I’d open the bottom of the box even if I had to take a hammer to it.
A hammer
.

I grabbed the box and headed out to the garage.

After digging out a flathead screwdriver and a rubber mallet from Anthony’s toolbox, I placed the screwdriver along the seam and pounded away. Another failed attempt. I threw the screwdriver across the garage in frustration and looked at the heavy steel hammer hanging on Anthony’s wall of tools. I shuddered as I pictured myself destroying the box. What if the object hidden inside was fragile and I broke it? What if there was nothing hidden inside at all?

Two seconds later my destructive vision became a reality. One powerful swing and the bottom of the box splintered. After another hit, the rest caved in. Using the claw side of the hammer, I pried away the remaining wood.

There, taped firmly to the next layer of the box, was an envelope with my name written in my mother’s handwriting. My hands trembled. Two things terrified me: what the envelope might contain and that this meant Harmony wasn’t lying—she could talk to ghosts.

I shook my head, trying to gain control of my thoughts, and whispered into the stillness, “Okay Mom, no turning back now.”

 
I climbed into the Desoto, carefully opening the envelope, and removed several sheets of paper.

My Precious Maryah,

If you are reading this letter it means you are not eighteen yet and something tragic has happened to me. Tell your father and Michael that I love them both dearly, and thank your father for keeping his promise and giving you this letter. If you choose to tell him what you learn, please tell him I’m sorry for keeping it a secret.