Free The Waiting by Hunter Shea Page A

wandered off for a bit. Why don’t you walk me to my car and I’ll make sure I get everything to the office?”
    “Sounds good. Let me get my coat. I have to head out to the store anyway.”
     
     
    The air was unseasonably cold and damp. It felt like the dead of winter, not mid-fall. Louisa pulled the zipper on her leather coat as high as it could go, took Brian’s medical forms and dropped them in an accordion folder she kept in her back seat.  
    She wasn’t sure how she was going to break the news to him or how he would take it, but she couldn’t leave and not say anything. He needed to understand what was in his house and why.  
    The direct approach would have to do.  
    “Brian, I hope you don’t mind if I tell you something very important.”
    She saw the color drain from his face and had to address the alarm in his expression.  
    “It’s nothing bad about Cassandra,” she said, and his chest deflated.  
    “You scared me for a second there.” Vapor tailed from his mouth in winding wisps.  
    Louisa gathered her resolve, took a breath and said, “I just saw the boy.”
    His eyelids lowered and she could see his jaw tense. His lips pulled tight and he leaned against her car.  
    He’s seen it too!
    When he didn’t say anything, she continued, “I watched a boy leave the room while you and Alice were looking for the paperwork. Brian, that isn’t a guardian angel.”
    He looked down at the cracked sidewalk and said, “I know. I’ve seen him a few times. There’s nothing angelic about him…or it . I haven’t told Alice because I don’t want to bring her down.” His eyes locked with hers and she could see the fear and sadness behind them. “Do you know what it is?”
    She nodded. An older woman pushing a metal cart walked between them, on her way to the markets along Katonah Avenue.  
    “In my country, we call what’s in your house a bhoot . They’re trapped souls. For one reason or another, they can’t move on to the next phase of death. I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to be afraid of him. That boy, you only see him because he suffers. He can’t harm you or Cassandra. Maybe one day, when you’re both well, you can help relieve him of his pain.”
    Brian snorted. “That sounds crazier than seeing a ghost boy walking around the house. How the heck can I help the suffering of a trapped soul?”
    Louisa placed a reassuring hand on his arm. “I understand how you feel. To you, this is the stuff of bad movies and TV shows. In my culture, bhoots are common. There is so much suffering in India, and some souls can’t shed the pain they endured in life. This boy is either attached to the house or one of you. Maybe he sees something in you or Alice or Cassandra that feels comforting.”
    Brian’s stare was far away. “He keeps going to Cassandra. Ever since I started seeing him, things have been happening to her life support machine. You say a bhoot can’t harm us. I’m not so sure.”
    “A bhoot is incorporeal, Brian. That boy is not part of the physical world. It’s frightening to look at, but when you realize what you are seeing and what he really is, there’s no need to fear him.”
    She didn’t feel comfortable not telling him the entire truth, but he was in no state to hear about the varied aspects of the bhoot . It was true that the vast majority of bhoots were as harmless as they were formless. There were also stories of bhoots , shades of evil people, who were malicious, eager to strike out at the living. Sometimes it was directed at a person who they felt had wronged them in life, other times, they took nefarious pleasure in terrifying anyone in their sight.  
    The chimera of the boy could not be this way. Children, even the naughty ones, were innocent by nature.  
    An icy gust of wind swept through the narrow street like the rushing tide of a tsunami. The chill cut through her heavy coat.  
    Brian’s mouth opened slightly, then closed again. She could see