Teenage Ghost

     “I wish she would hurry up.” Jarzon hugged Brenda closer to him.
     Emily laughed, “You should have picked a better costume.”
     “What made you decide to be a caveman anyway?” Josh chided playfully. “You wanted to show Brenda your pecks?”
     “You’re just jealous cause I have some.” Jarzon shot back.
     Lore and Jennifer walked up towards the crowd, he has his arm around her. They were dressed as elves from a popular fantasy movie. It was a couple costume. Lore carried a leather ruckus sack over his left shoulder, and now held Jennifer’s hand with his right.
     While everyone was watching the approaching couple, Vi pushed the door open so everyone could enter.
     Janus walked past in a skin suit, he called himself a Shadow. Brenda and Jarzon walked past next, followed by Lore and Jennifer. Josh who was dressed as an old school vampire walked past without even saying hi to Vi. The last to walk through was Emily, dressed as her favorite gothic book character. Vi rolled her eyes as Emily walked past.
     The group began to walk to the middle stairwell. Vi fell in beside Josh glaring at Emily to move aside. Emily moved away and walked closer to the front of the group.
     “So.” Vi said. “Are we over or what? Is this it? You like Emily now?”
     Josh glanced over at Vi, “I was afraid to tell you this, but fine. Yes, I do like Emily better. She’s less…. Complicated.”
     Vi let out a breath of quick air. “Whatever.” she waved her right hand in the air as if it didn’t matter. She walked to front of the group and pushed open the stairwell door. “We’re going to the mid turn around platform and setting up there.” she called to them as she began walking up the first flight of stairs.
 
     “So are you going to help me or not?” Eartha complained to Jeff.
     Jeff rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh.
     A man in his late forties sat down at the table and looked at Eartha with his sad brown eyes. He’d lost his daughter ten years before to an overdose, every year he searched for her on Halloween. The only day when the veil between the living and the dead was it’s most opaque.
     Jeff had some limited uses today. He could make lights flicker, and the temperature drop ten degrees or more. He couldn’t make himself be heard or seen though, not by anyone other than Eartha.
     “I see Shandy in the distance.” Eartha said as she gazed into the crystal ball. “Come dear child and speak to us, your father misses you.”
     Jeff sighed again and began to make the lights flicker.
     The man sat up straight and the few hairs he had seem to stick up on end. “Shan, Shan!” he called out to her. “Please you have to forgive me and your mother. It was a mistake to let you go to that party. We did not know there would be drugs there. Please Shandra you have to forgive us.”
     “She says it’s not your fault. You should live your life in peace with no regrets.” Eartha said without looking up from the crystal.
     “We knew Carla for fifteen years.” he began to sob. “We trusted her.”
     “He’s not telling the truth.” Jeff said.
     “What do you mean?” Earth said out loud.
     The man put his hands to his face and began to cry louder, “She was my daughter’s best friend.”
     “His daughter’s not dead.” Jeff said looking at him with disapproval. “I’m standing on this side I can see everyone that’s here. His daughter’s not dead, neither is Carla. Which is what he’s going to say next.”
     “What do you mean?” Eartha said in a slower, deeper voice.
     “She dead! Carla is dead too!” the man cried out loud.
     “There’s a spirit here who says he does this every year, then he sues the phony psychics for emotional duress. Distress? Anyway he takes you down for being a fake. You’ll loose your shop.” Jeff said.
     “This spirit says her name is Shandy, and she is not your daughter.” Eartha looked up from her crystal ball accusingly at the man. “She says your daughter is not dead, and neither is Carla.”
     The man stopped his sobbing.
     “Why are you here?” Eartha questioned sternly, then stood up. “I’m calling security.” she started to walk away.
     The man grabbed her wrist before she could leave the room.
     Jeff made the temperature drop twenty five degrees instantly.
     “No, I’m sorry.” he said quickly and tossed 40 dollars on the table. “I don’t want any trouble. I’ll go.”
     He let go of Eartha and left the shop.
     “This is my busiest time of year.” She said to Jeff. “So thank you, and thank you to your friend there whoever they may be.”
     “You can’t tell?” Jeff asked.
     “No. I can only see you.” Eartha set up the table for a new reading. “What is your friends name?”
     Jeff seemed a little concerned when his new friend said her name was Shandy. “She says her name is Shandy.”
     “How very convenient.” Eartha muttered. “I wonder if it’s true.”