Free Lily Dale: Awakening by Wendy Corsi Staub Page A

“Say, by any chance is this Lily Dale place filled with people who can talk to ghosts?”
    “So . . . are you going to tell him?” Odelia asks again.
    Calla hesitates. “No. Not unless he asks.”
    Odelia smiles at her. She isn’t in the mood to return it, though.
    “Want some milk and cookies? I always have that before bed. And mango sorbet.”
    Calla shrugs and swings her legs over the edge of the mattress. “Why not.”
    “Oh, hi, Jeff. Sure, she’s fine . . . no, everything went fine . . . yes . . . yes . . . hang on a second, she’s right here.” Odelia turns to Calla, sitting at the table spooning the last bit of melting sorbet from her plastic bowl, and holds out the telephone receiver. “It’s your dad.”
    Calla knew that, of course. She knew it when the phone rang.
    So, does that make me psychic? Ultrasensitive to earthly energy vibrations around me?
    No. It’s just common sense. He wouldn’t have been able to reach her on her cell, so of course he’d try Odelia’s number.
    “Dad?”
    “How’s it going, hon? I tried to get you on your cell phone but I kept getting voice mail. I left a few messages, but I didn’t want to wait to talk to you. I miss you too much already.”
    Calla is completely caught off guard by the tsunami of emotion that sweeps through her at the sound of his voice. For a second, she can’t even speak.
    She watches Odelia dunk another pecan sandy, which turned out to be a delicious shortbread-tasting cookie, into a glass of milk.
    Then she manages to croak, “My cell doesn’t get service here.”
    “Uh-oh. Will you survive?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. “So, your grandmother did meet you at the airport on time . . . right?”
    Calla knew before she left that he doesn’t think Odelia is the most responsible human being in the world. Back in Tampa, he kept asking her if she had cash for a cab, just in case her grandmother was late—or didn’t show up at all.
    “Yup, she was there, right on time.” Calla watches her grandmother finish the cookie in two bites. “How was your flight, Dad?”
    “Late. Crowded. Bumpy.” He sounds beat. “I hope yours was better.”
    “It was.”
    “Good.”
    Oh, ick. Odelia is pouring Hershey’s syrup on another helping of sorbet. Chocolate and mango aren’t the ideal pairing as far as Calla is concerned, but Odelia gobbled up the last serving, so maybe she’s on to something.
    “So, everything’s okay there?” Dad is asking. “Other than the cell phone not working?”
    She hesitates for the slightest fraction of a second. “Definitely.”
    “What’s the town like?”
    “Small. Cute.” Haunted .
    “How about the house?”
    “The same.” In every way. She shivers a little.
    Seeing her, Odelia murmurs, “It’s getting cold in here, isn’t it? I’ll shut the window.”
    “So, you think you’re going to be okay there,” her father asks, “until September?”
    September.
    Wow, when he puts it that way, Calla isn’t so sure she’s going to be okay at all. Homesick, she merely nods before he says, “Honey?” and she remembers he can’t see her.
    “Yeah, Dad, I’m going to be fine here. I just wish . . . I mean, I can’t get online here, either. There’s no computer. So, that’s a little . . . disappointing.”
    She sees Odelia lift her head abruptly. She assumes it’s because of the computer comment, but she realizes Odelia doesn’t even seem to be paying attention to her conversation. Her head is cocked expectantly, almost as though she’s listening to something. Or for something.
    “Maybe there’s an Internet café there or something,” her father suggests as she watches Odelia set down her spoon, wearing a thoughtful expression.
    “Here? Um, no.” Where does her father think she is, in civilization?
    “Well, what about the library? Sometimes they have computers the public can use. You need to check it out.”
    Suddenly, Calla sees a shadow pass through the open doorway behind Odelia’s