Spirit Eyes (7 page)

“It looks like it’s just you and me, kid,” Pearl said to her father. Ruth laughed and sat back with a chilled lemon-aid, and her new
House Glorious
magazine, as Paul took their youngest to the craft tables.

“Ruth Adler?”

She looked up to see who owned the voice and recognized the woman immediately. “Mrs. Eberstark. Hi, how are you?” She stood, feeling her muscles tremble with the effort, to shake the dear woman’s hand. She wore a black dress with a white collar, and her gray hair, combed into a bun, added to her quaint appeal.

“We’re trying to make our rounds, my husband and I,” she said in her strong German accent. She glanced about. “I remember when I came here as a young woman. Of course, things were a lot different back then. In those days, women wore dresses even to picnics and the men wore suits and ties. And heaven help the man who was seen outside without a hat. Oh, the disgrace.”

“Could you imagine that today?” Ruth laughed and gazed about at the young kids in their skimpy shorts and shirts.

She shook her head. “No.”

“It’s the girls wearing those strings they call bathing costumes and the boys with their britches hanging off because they haven’t got the brains to use suspenders, that I don’t get.” She pointed a gnarled, purple veined hand to the heavens. “Why, if I ever so much as showed my knees, my mother told me I was a loose woman and would never find a husband.” She bent her head back and let out a delighted laugh, which Ruth joined in whole-heartedly.

“You proved her wrong though, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. I married my husband and we’ve been together for well over sixty-years.”

Ruth put her hand on the aged lady’s bony back and rubbed it comfortingly. “You are very lucky indeed to have found your soul mate. You two have done so many wonderful things for this town. The beautiful portraits of you in the vestibule of city hall prove that. Plus the fact the town’s name was changed to yours.”

The smile on Mrs. Eberstark’s face seemed as if she were gazing into the long gone days of old at that moment. “It feels like only yesterday when we sat on a blanket in a very different park listening to bands play and people with torches singing songs about love of country. That’s when my Daniel reached over, took my hand and slipped a diamond ring on my finger. Of course, my hand looked a lot different back then. Smooth and white, not the wrinkled and age-spotted paw I have now.” She glanced at her hand and smiled. “He asked me to marry him and I screamed out,
yes
! Quite un-lady-like, I might add.”

“You made a wise choice with that one word.” Ruth patted her once again and adjusted the sweater that hung over the stooped woman’s skeletal shoulders.

The shrieking noise of a microphone with horrible feedback flew through the air. The mayor, back on the platform, announced the watermelon seed-spitting contest starting in five minutes.

“My dear, I don’t mean to be rude, but are you unwell? You don’t look—”

“I’ve had a very bad flu,” Ruth interrupted. “I’m still kicking it, but I’m starting to feel better.”

“Well, good, then.
Very
good.”

The old woman bid Ruth goodbye and was on her way.

Once the last remnants of the sun’s rays took any light from the sky, the magnificent fireworks display began. Pearl put her head on her mother’s lap. A brown paper bag stuffed with candy she’d managed to catch from the day’s parade lay next to her.

Lotus came up with her gang of cronies. “Mom, I’m sleeping at Jade’s house.”

“Is that a question?” she asked sarcastically.

Lotus stared at her quizzically. “Um…what?”

“I don’t care,” Ruth said. She played with Pearl’s hair in hopes she’d stay awake long enough to see the grand finale.

“Night,” Lotus said. She bent and planted a kiss on her mother’s cheek.

Ruth called after her when she turned to leave. “Wait, aren’t you going to stay and watch the fireworks with us?”

She rolled her eyes—a horrible habit Ruth knew she’d picked up from her. “Mom, please.”

Pearl, her eyes closing, had a wad of gum in her mouth and a lock of hair stuck to her sticky cheek. “Hey, kiddo. Give me that gum before you fall asleep. You’ll choke.”

This sprang her back to life.

“I’m not tired. I was just refreshing my eyes.” She sat up quickly and looked to Ruth’s left.

“Whatcha looking at?”

“Mrs. Eberstark.” She pointed to the spot right next to where they sat.

Ruth turned, but saw no one. She figured Pearl, exhausted from a day of frolicking in the sun, and half-asleep, was seeing things.

“She’s saying something to me.”

“Really?” Ruth rubbed Pearl’s pink cheek in an attempt to get her fully awake.

“Uh-huh. Like the girl at the cottage. Into my head.”

“What’s she saying?”

“She told me to tell you that she’s glad she won’t have to look at the girls in the strings anymore, the girls in those awful bathing costumes, because now she’s dead. That’s a funny word, huh, Mommy. What’s a bathing costume?”

Ruth drew in an irregular breath. “What?”

Sirens, instead of fireworks blasted in the air. A ruckus occurred by the old bandstand and Ruth stood.

“What’s happening?” she asked someone as they ran by.

“Old lady Eberstark just had a heart attack. She’s dead.”

Ruth looked down at Pearl.

“Okay,” Pearl said to no one in the empty spot where they sat.

“Pearl, stop.”

“Mrs. Eberstark is telling me something important,” Pearl said. Her head snapped back to the empty spot. “Uh-huh.” She said in a serious tone.

“Pearl, what is she saying to you?”

Pearl stared back at the spot and then up at her mom. “She told me to ignore my people. She said they are very bad and will hurt me, but that she will guard me and tell me what to do.”

Taken aback, Ruth bent and helped her daughter up gently by the arm. “I don’t care how nice Mrs. Eberstark, is—was, you only listen to your mother. Do you hear me?”

An ache, strong and penetrating, pierced Ruth’s head. Normally not one to suffer from headaches, she was shocked at its intensity.

The next day, they all sat quietly in the family room. “Dad, how long are you going to ground Pearl?” Lotus asked.

Ruth sat in a chair directly across from Paul and watched the television. For the first time in over an hour, she spoke. “He’ll keep her in her room until she tells him she didn’t see Mrs. Eberstark.”

“I’m really in no mood for one of your
I’m too rough on the kids
speeches,” Paul said without looking her way.

“What are you talking about? What you’re doing makes no sense. You
are
being too rough on her.”

Executing a quick covert glance at him lying on the couch, newspaper in his hands, she attempted to explain. “Don’t you see? She died and well, whether you want to believe it or not, Pearl can see people who have died.”

“Okay, I’ll take a seat on this insane roller coaster ride you two are on,” he said laying his paper aside. “Why in the hell do you think she’s seeing invisible people?”

Ruth’s neck muscles tensed. “I don’t know. I
just
don’t know.” She sighed. “But I don’t like it.” Once again, Ruth coughed and made every effort to stand, but couldn’t gain the strength. Her head felt dizzy and her eyes watered and grew redder.

Lotus, on the floor in front of the television, rolled onto her back, threw a soccer ball into the air and caught it. “But, Mom, you said that Mrs. Eberstark was a sweet old lady. Isn’t it good she’s going to help Pearl? I mean, since you think all of this is true.” She glanced at her father with a wry smile. She lay on her side and petted Puddles who sat next to her.

“It’s
not
true,” Paul said.

Frighteningly aware that Paul and Lotus not only didn’t believe in these ghosts, but were, in fact, attempting to trip her up in some way, she answered. “I never said it’s bad. I told her to only listen to me or Daddy, of course.”

Paul stood. “This is nuts. I’m going to go get her. I want you to know, though, if you continue feeding into this, she’s going to continue her charade. Enough of this crap.”

Ruth trembled during his uncharacteristic outburst. “Crap? I’m not the one who started all of this.”

Lotus put the ball down and sat up, scared.

Paul only made things worse. “I didn’t say you started it, but you aren’t helping, either.”

Shaken now, she was out for the attack. “You have got to be kidding me. You—you have done nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to help me with this. You, as always, bury your head in the sand and wait for it to go away.
I’m
the one who took her to the doctor, got her an eye exam, sat in with a shrink…what have you done? Guess what? Nothing! That’s right,
nothing
! This…” She threw her arms up in the air with effort. “This is not going away. If anything, it’s getting worse.” She then segued into a hacking cough.

He interrupted her. “Don’t you mean this delusion?”

“No, I don’t mean that.” Ruth took a deep breath, although her lungs felt like bursting. “She is seeing people. She is not having delusions or playing with imaginary friends. She is seeing something we can’t see, and these people are starting to talk to her, telling her secrets that she’s not allowed to share. What if that old man at the ball field told her to run into traffic, or something? What if they—”

Again, he spoke before she finished. “You’re the delusional one.”

“That’s it. I’m done.” She stood, feeling every muscle in her body quiver, and walked to the mantel over the fireplace. She put both hands on it, lowered her aching head, and tried to center herself.

“Lotus,” Paul said, “Go to your room.”

She left silently, with Puddles on her heels.

“Maybe you’re the one who needs the shrink,” Paul said.

Ruth turned quickly and yelled. “How dare you! I am not insane, and for you to even suggest it is cruel.”

“I don’t know what do!” he yelled. “I’m at a loss. Look at you. You look like death warmed over. You’ve lost at least ten pounds, your eyes are constantly watering and red, you cough all the time and have chronic diarrhea. Anytime I mention going to the doctors, you flip out.”

“I’m fine,” Ruth said.

“Oh, yeah, you can barely walk, but you’re fine. You’re fine, and Pearl is seeing ghosts, is that what you want me to believe?”

“How can you deny all of this when you said yourself she described your cousin to a tee?”

He shrugged. “Coincidence.”

“Oh, okay.” She turned and bore her gaze deeply into his. “So, I’m on my own?”

“No, I didn’t say that, but…” He walked over to her. “What did the shrink say? Huh? Remember? She thinks that Pearl is making all of this up for attention.”

He waited for her to respond, but she didn’t.

“It’s not that unusual for kids to do this type thing,” Paul said reassuringly.

Ruth, still upset, spoke loudly, her voice raspy. “Pearl…Pearl of all people. She is the most outgoing, fun, energetic child either of us has ever seen. She doesn’t need the attention. She’s got enough of it.”

He took her hand, but she pulled it away with a scowl. He reached for her shoulder and she took a step back.

“Please, let’s just let this thing burn out on its own,” Paul said. “What you’re doing is making it worse. If we simply say,
Okay, honey…that’s nice, honey
, she’ll eventually grow bored and stop.”

Fed up and tired of the fight, she acquiesced. “Okay.” She lifted her gaze to his and once again, simply said, “Okay.”

Ruth sat on the edge of her bed and called out to her youngest daughter. “Pearl, honey, can you come here?”

Her pounding footsteps crashed down the hall and stopped right outside her room.

Pearl peeked her head around the doorway. “Yes.” Her delicate eyebrows knit into an uneven line of confusion.

Ruth reached her arms out. “Come here, baby.”

She slowly walked over and leaned against her mother. “Mommy, you feel hot on your skin.”

“I just have a slight fever—nothing to worry about.”

“Okay, cuz you’re like a heating pad.”

Ruth turned Pearl’s face her way. “Sweetie. Daddy thinks we should stop talking about the people. He thinks that maybe if we do, the people will go away. What do you think about that?”

Blinking rapidly, a panic on her face, Pearl shrugged.

Ruth appraised her daughter with profound love and a keen awareness of her need to protect and guide her without upsetting her. “It’s disturbing him to see you bothered by these…people. And he believes what the doctors said.”

“Okay.”

“If these people really start to bother you, I want you to tell me. But…” she said firmly, taking Pearl’s wrists and squeezing them lightly, “if you see them and they don’t bother you, we’ll try and see if we ignore them, well…maybe they’ll leave you alone.”

“Okay.” Apprehension stiffened her young features.

She now took her daughter by both shoulders. “If the people tell you anything bad, or
do
anything bad, you are to tell me. Do you hear me?” She nodded her head lightly for emphasis. “This is very important,” Ruth pressed.

“I understand.”

A heavy sigh, and a hug later, Ruth straightened her back. “Okay, let’s start now.”

She hoped her eager smile would convey to Pearl that all was well, and all would be okay. If only she believed that herself, it might make this entire talk more convincing.

After a much too short summer vacation, school started back in early August, and kids struggled to swing back into schedule. Her spirit people visited Pearl the entire summer, but in trying to keep the peace in her home, she didn’t mention them. Occupying herself with friends, playing volleyball, having sleepovers and long bike rides, Pearl cleared her mind of their constant appearances. Mrs. Eberstark materialized the most and warned her not to talk to her people. Some days, Pearl ran past the spirits without looking, and some days she’d stop and hear what they had to say, but didn’t answer them.

Pearl loved recess, particularly if it ran over the allotted time and they got to play in the sun and fresh air longer. An energetic girl, with boundless energy, she needed to run and jump
to get the squiggles out
, as her mother told her. She hated, however, when the old man in the fancy black suit waved her over. He stood in the same spot, always by the backstop of the baseball diamond, always bringing his palm face up to his shoulder, beckoning…beckoning. She’d hoped he would be gone when school started, but no such luck. Today was no different.