Free Ghouls Gone Wild by Victoria Laurie Page B

asked, his voice high and squeaky again.
    “Because I know,” I said firmly. “Really, he’s fine.”
    Heath nodded his head vigorously. “Phantom symptoms,” he agreed. “Really, Gil. It was just my body’s way of reacting to all that residual energy of those grounded spirits who died from the plague.”
    Gilley still looked unsure, and I saw him reach into his pocket and pull out a small bottle of hand sanitizer. “Did M. J. have symptoms?” he asked.
    That caught me by surprise; then I remembered the ibuprofen I’d taken earlier. I knew that certain pain meds actually worked to lower my antennae a little. I told Gil about taking the pain reliever and said, “It had to have been the meds, Gil. It lowered my sixth sense just enough where the energy of the plague only affected Heath.”
    Gilley didn’t look convinced and continued to squirt hand sanitizer all over his hands, arms, neck, and face. Heath merely chuckled, Gopher started the van, and we pulled away from the scene.
    We found an all-night café a bit later and once we’d been seated and placed our order, we got back to the discussion of Heath’s phantom illness. “I think M. J.’s right,” Heath said. “I think that there were so many grounded spirits down there who died of the plague that their symptoms manifested physically on me.”
    “Can that actually happen?” Gopher asked.
    “It can,” I told him. “For example, when I’m reading for a private client, the way many of their loved ones identify themselves to me is by causing a physical reaction.”
    “Huh?” Gopher said, his brow furrowed.
    I smiled, thinking about how to best explain it. “Say I’m doing a reading for you,” I said, mentally turning on my sixth sense and hoping the ibuprofen didn’t get too much in the way, “and I’m trying to pick up on your deceased relatives. The first clue they’ll give me about who they are is a physical sensation associated with their crossing. For example, I know that connected to you there was an older man, right above you, who is making my heart beat a little harder. At this very moment, I feel a slight acceleration of my heart, and I’m pretty sure this man is indicating he had an issue with his heart. There is also a younger female connected to this male who is making me feel a little off-kilter—like a sickness of some kind, and I think it’s related to something like cancer. I get the names Bill or William and Ellen or Helen.”
    Gopher’s jaw dropped. “Whoa!” he whispered.
    I smiled. “I want to say that the heart-issue guy was a father figure. . . .” I paused for a second as I felt out the female and was surprised when I realized that she must be Gopher’s sister. “Your sister died of cancer?”
    Gopher nodded, his eyes wide and unblinking. “My older sister had leukemia. She died when I was seventeen. Within six months the strain of her death caused my dad to have a heart attack and he died on the operating table when they were doing the bypass surgery.”
    I reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “I’m so sorry, Gopher. I had no idea.”
    “It was a tough year for the family.”
    “Your dad is very proud of you,” I told him as the older man I’d brought through began to pat me gently on the back. “He also wants to know when you’re going to get around to making that movie.”
    Gopher laughed, but there was moisture in his eyes. “He does, does he?” I nodded. Gopher saw that we were all waiting for him to explain what his father meant, so he elaborated. “I wrote this screenplay in college and I always wanted to try and get it made, but over the years the timing never felt right or I was busy with other projects.”
    “Give it two years,” I told him, continuing to pass on the message from his dad, “and the project will be given the green light.”
    Gopher beamed like I’d just told him he’d soon win the Lotto. “Thanks, M. J.”
    “Sure,” I said, closing the connection and