Free Minnie Crockwell - Will Travel for Trouble 01 - Trouble at Happy Trails by Minnie Crockwell Page A

but I had been a little put off when Nick had offered me a job instead of dinner. Oh, to be twenty-five again!  
    No! And go through all that heartache again? No!
    I assume you do not wish me to make comment?
    “No thanks, Ben. I’ve got my own little conversation going on over here.”
    Yes, I see that…or rather hear it.
    I looked at my watch. Almost 9 o’clock. A glance out of one of the windows revealed twilight was settling over Spokane. I lowered the shades and turned on lights.
    “Well, that appears to be it for the day,” I said. “No more excitement. But I’m still keyed up. I think I’ll take a stroll around the park and check out the other RVs. Wanna come?”
    Where else would I go?  
    I grinned as I stepped down from the RV. I lowered my voice to a whisper.
    “Well, you might want to hang out in the RV? Or do something else?”
    You still have much to learn about ghosting, Minerva. Ben chuckled. I loved it when he laughed.
    No, my place is with you , he continued. If I might speak frankly, I did actually try to leave you once within the first week of meeting you.
    My heart dropped to my stomach at his words.  
    “Was it me? Was I so awful?”
    No, no, my dear. It was not you, but I could not understand the odd compulsion to be with you. I did not know you. We had no obvious connection. Why then did I follow you around like a puppy?
    I turned toward the front of my RV and rounded the front to walk down the lane.
    “No, not a puppy, Ben!” He sounded a bit frustrated. Was he unhappy? Did I have the power to let him go? How?
    Absentmindedly, I eyed the various motorhomes, trailers, fifth wheels, trucks and cars tucked into the sites as I walked.
    No, I am not unhappy, Minerva. But I did wonder at the inexplicable force that kept me bound to you.  
    “So you tried to leave? How?”
    I simply left. I returned to Cape Disappointment. We were at that time some 100 miles from the Cape.
    “What happened?” A dog barked from a nearby motorhome.
    I could not breathe. I know that sounds foolish since I do not actually breathe, but the sensation was as if I had been struck in the chest and became winded. I could think of nothing else but your welfare, your safety, your health, your happiness.
    “Oh, Ben. I’m so sorry. I don’t know how you got stuck with me either. I’ve never even heard of a ghost god-parent.”
    Ghost god-parent?
    “You know…like fairy godmother?”
    Ah! A parent. Well, I am certainly much older than you, that is certain, but my bond to you is not that of a parent.”
    “If it helps, I couldn’t imagine being without you either at this point, Ben.”
    Ben was silent for a moment. I rounded a curve in the lane and eyed the row of RVs housing Sally’s trailer. I skipped that lane and moved on to the next.
    “Ben?”
    Yes?
    “You didn’t finish your story. What happened? Why did you come back?”
    I had no function, no purpose at the Cape. Before I met you, I do not believe I had even existed as I am now. It is not as if I haunted the grounds of the Cape for the past several hundred years.
    I heard him sigh.
    I returned to you, and the pain in my chest eased. I could breathe again. That is how I know I am bound to you.
    Now, I sighed. Ben had such a lyrical way of saying things, almost romantic.  
    I turned down another lane. The air was comfortably cool but not chilly. The park was quiet except for the occasional bark of a dog. Everyone seemed settled in for the night. Through the occasional open windows, I could see the flickering lights of televisions in a few of the RVs. I rounded the next bend in the lane and passed by the entrance to the RV park near the office.
    “ I didn’t kill him.” A harsh male voice caught my ear, and I gasped and looked around for the source.  
    Quickly, Minerva, tuck yourself behind that tree. I obeyed Ben and ducked behind a large oak tree.
    Who is it, Ben? I asked him silently. Where is he?
    It is Jim Brothers, and he is speaking to Sally.