Free Resonance by Chris Dolley

that's not saying much. A lot of the girls think they live with me."
    "They do?"
    "Spooky, right? Way I see it, when you die your memory gets wiped. But it doesn't always work. Some memories stick. Others start to resurface after a time. But the mind can't wait so it starts filling in the gaps by borrowing stuff from wherever it can.
    "My girls fastened onto me. Probably because I'm a medium. They liked my name so they took it. They liked my house so they took that as well. And they borrowed other stuff. Like chunks from my life. I say I had an Uncle Louie in Minneapolis and some of the girls say, 'Hey, I had an Uncle Louie in Minneapolis too.' But not all the girls, some still had memories of their real families so they didn't need mine. That's cool," she shrugged, "I'm a sharing person."
    Graham could see another possibility. Something he'd never dreamed of. Something he could barely imagine.
    What happened to all those threads that unravelled? Could they still exist somewhere, independent of the world they'd been pulled from but somehow still coherent, still able to support life?
    And was that where Annalise's spirit guides lived? Were the dead and the unravelled somehow mixed together?
    His mind felt heavy and slow. So much was happening all around him. The dead, the unravelled, two hundred Annalises popping in and out like Cheshire cats. Why hadn't fate picked someone brighter? Someone used to thinking on their feet? Not someone mired in inactivity, someone who took five minutes to lock a door and couldn't sleep if he thought a picture was hanging crooked.
    Here was a chance to discover so much and yet he could feel the opportunity slipping through his fingers. He wanted everything written down. Something solid he could put down and come back to, like a jigsaw puzzle, something he could walk around and study for days or weeks, dipping into and out of whenever he felt like it. Not something he had to react to immediately. The spoken word was like water cascading through his fingers—he was drowning one minute and dry the next.
    "Of course, you could stop this any time you like," said Annalise.
    "What?"
    "You're the key. Somehow you can stop this resonance wave. So, go ahead and do it. Once you do, it's over. No resonance wave, no reason to kill you, right?"
    Graham shook his head. If only it could be that simple.
    "How can I stop something I don't understand?"
    "Beats me," Annalise shrugged. "I'm a medium, not a psychic."
    She looked at her watch. "Time to go. My B and B locks its doors at eleven thirty. Can you believe that?"
    "You're going?"
    "Why, Graham." She put her hands on her hips. "What kinda girl do you think I am?"
    Graham reddened and hurriedly looked away. Annalise grinned and punched him playfully on the shoulder.
    "But what about the people who planted the bugs? What if they send someone round tonight to find out what's happened?"
    "No problemo. Annalise Twelve's outside watching the front door. If anyone starts anything she'll stop them."
    Graham glanced towards the drawn curtains and wondered what on earth was on the other side.
    "How?" he asked, turning back to Annalise.
    "She's got it worked out real good. Anyone so much as walks though your gate, she's gonna start heaving bricks through your neighbor's windows. The street'll be crawling in neighbors and cops within a minute flat. Who's gonna dare touch you with that many witnesses?"
    "She can do that?"
    "You ever see Poltergeist ?"
     

Eleven
    Graham set off for work the next morning, wondering if Annalise Twelve was watching. Was she floating, invisible, above the trees or crouched down between the parked cars? And who else was watching him? Was that Kevin Alexander who sat in the parked car over the road?
    He tried to settle back into his old routine of counting paces between the landmarks but found it hard to concentrate. Part of his mind was analyzing faces—was that woman familiar, hadn't that man passed by on the other side of the road ten