The Magic Cottage

GHOSTS

AND THAT'S NOT all. That wasn't the end of it that night.

I awoke later and it was very dark in the bedroom, shadows blending into deeper shadows, odd bits of furniture becoming more than they really were, transformed into sinister shapes that lurked rather than just stood.

Midge was sitting up beside me, and it was either her movement or the tension she gave out that roused me, because she hadn't reached for me, nor called my name.

Alertness sprang at me, not bothering with creeping up, and I pushed myself onto my elbows. Midge's arm was stiff and unyielding when I touched her, the skin roughened by goose bumps.

"What is it?" I whispered urgently, not knowing why I'd whispered.

She didn't answer right away.

I was grabbing for the lamp switch when her voice stopped me.

"They were here," she said breathlessly. "Oh, Mike, they were here."

I turned back to her and held her in the darkness.

"Who were here? What are you talking about?"

She shivered in my arms.

"I sensed them both." There was a shaky kind of awe in her whisper. "I felt I could almost reach out and touch them. They were here in this room."

"Midge, who the hell are you talking about?"

I heard her weeping, but there was no sadness in her voice when she spoke again.

"My mother . . . my father. They tried to speak to me. They need to, don't you see?"

I held on to her and my flesh prickled as much as hers.