Free Darkness Exposed by Terri Reid

and then he relaxed. “Go to bed, Mary,” he said softly. “And have sweet dreams.”
    “I will,” she said, “Good-night Bradley.”
    She disconnected the call, lay back against the pillows and sighed. “I love you Bradley Alden,” she said aloud.
    Smiling, Bradley adjusted the speaker on the bedroom’s camera, she deserved a little privacy. “I love you too, Mary O’Reilly,” he whispered.

Chapter Twelve

    The house was dark, but she was used to walking through it with only the streetlights illuminating the rooms. She remembered all of those times when she woke in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep. She’d come downstairs, sit in the recliner and talk to her unborn child. Sharing her hopes and her fears. Whispering to the baby about her Bradley and the silly things he was already worrying about. Letting the baby know how special she was and how much she was wanted.
    Jeannine looked around the kitchen. She remembered finding the kitchen clock at a flea market. She could picture herself halfway up a ladder, painting the walls and working until midnight sewing the curtains. The refrigerator door was clean now, but it used to be filled with letters, take-out menus and photos. She strolled next to the counters, remembering the dishes lovingly created and the holiday feasts that were sometimes disasters, and smiled.
    Am I haunting my home? she wondered. Is this what a ghost does?
    Strolling into the living room she saw Ian sprawled on the couch, a myriad of computer screens and blinking consoles in front of him. His attention was drawn to one specific screen and as she approached to get a better look, he sat up and looked at her over the back of the couch.
    “Good, it’s you,” he said.
    Jeannine jumped back. “You startled me,” she confessed.
    “Oh, sorry,” he replied with a grin. “I’ve been following your magnetic impulses since you entered the kitchen. I was hoping it was you; not that it wouldn’t be brilliant if there was another ghost living here.”
    “I don’t know if I want a ghost living in my house,” Jeannine protested.
    Ian looked at her and raised one eyebrow.
    “Oh, yeah, I guess I am that ghost,” she said with a sigh. “Really, it’s hard to get used to.”
    “So, have you ever had any psychic phenomena in this house?” he asked.
    She put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Do you really think Bradley would allow for something like that in his house?” she teased.
    “Ach, no, I forgot whose house I was speaking about,” he replied. “No ghost would be so daring.”
    She glided closer to him, and glanced over her shoulder. “Although, I have to admit there were a couple of times when I thought I saw someone out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned no one was there.”
    “What time of the day?”
    “Usually during the night, when I couldn’t sleep,” she said.
    “Upstairs or downstairs,” he asked, grabbing a pad and pencil.
    “Upstairs,” she replied. “But it was probably nothing. Beverly Copper and her first husband had this house built for them, then they got divorced and she married Gary.”
    “Well, perhaps it was built on an old graveyard,” Ian suggested, referring to the scenario from an old horror show.
    Jeannine laughed. “Well, then I’d be sure not to turn the television on late at night.”
    Ian thought about the irony of his situation. Here he was, lying on a coach, speaking with the ghost of a lovely woman who was hovering several inches in the air and discussing a classic horror flick with him. Life was pretty damn brilliant!
    “What are you thinking?” Jeannine asked.
    “I was just thinking about the whole situation here,” he said. “It’s a little bit unusual.”
    She laughed. “To say the least.”
    “Can I ask you a question?”
    She nodded her assent.
    “How is it?” he asked. “Being a ghost. What does it feel like?”
    Glancing away from him, she caught sight of the window. Snow was falling and it