Chapter 13

Tag Team

“Did somebody order a cavalry?” Rachel shouted, charging into the room. She brandished a large wooden cross. Gran was right behind her. The old woman still had on her kitchen apron, and she had Chowder tucked under her arm. Mary came into the living room and stared at them in disbelief.

“What are you guys--?” she stammered.

“No time for explanations,” Gran said. “Have you found the anchor?”

Mary held up her hand with the locket.

Gran approached her with her hand outstretched. “Okay, now we have to destroy it.”

“You won’t get rid of me!” Ricky snarled.

“Wanna bet?” Mary asked the thin air.

“Yeah.” A force shoved her against the wall. Her head cracked against the wood paneling. Mary wondered if her brain was becoming black and blue from all these bangs she kept taking. Her arms fell listlessly to her sides, and the chain unraveled from her fingers. The necklace pooled to the floor.

“The anchor...” Her voice slurred in pain. It slithered across the floor and under the couch. Rachel jumped after it.

“We’ve got to find a way to destroy it,” Mary said as she slid down the wall. Gran rushed to her side and bent toward her.

“Take my hand.” She reached to take her outstretched hand, but as their fingers grazed, Ricky threw Gran away from her and flung the old woman into a chair. Mary watched in alarm as an electrical cord snaked out and wrapped around her, tying her to the chair.

“Somebody, tell me what’s going on!” Kyle screamed again from his corner.

Mary ignored him and staggered up unsure of her balance. “Rachel, have you got the locket yet?”

“Almost,” Rachel grunted. She was stretched out full length on the floor with her arm under the couch.

She lurched over to Gran and tried to tear off the loops of cord binding her, but they wouldn’t budge

“Don’t worry about me. Take one of the pouches from my pocket. Stuff the locket into it. It should weaken him.”

Mary nodded and took one of the pouches.

“I don’t understand. Why do you women keep defying me? She defied me too. I gave her everything she ever needed. Who got her this house? Who paid the bills? Who put food on the table? It sure wasn’t her.”

Mary made her way to Rachel, talking to the air, “And Julie should’ve just sat there while you beat her night after night without even a whimper.”

“That’s right.”

“It’s official. You don’t get any smarter with death. You’re still as stupid as when you were alive.” She knelt and tapped Rachel on the shoulder to give her the pouch. Rachel took it in her free hand while she still reached under the couch for the locket.

“Mary, you shouldn’t provoke an angry spirit anymore than he already is,” Gran warned.

“You’re mad she went on, aren’t you, Ricky? You’re mad that she left you here all alone. When she saw her chance to leave you, she did.”

“She didn’t leave me. I kept her here. Close to my heart.”

“Stop denying the obvious, Ricky. She’s gone. She left you. I don’t hear any voice but yours.”

“Mine’s the only one you need to hear.”

Mary looked around nervously. Ricky was getting angrier. She didn’t want to know what he might do next. “Rach, hurry up with that locket.”

“Got it!” Rachel popped up from beside the sofa. She fumbled with the pouch to stuff the locket inside.

“No, you don’t!”

The sofa lurched into Rachel and knocked her down. The locket flew out of her hands.

“No fair,” Rachel wheezed. Mary dove for the locket but missed it and landed on her stomach. The locket slithered into the hallway toward the bedrooms.

“This is my house! I make the rules!”

“No!” Mary cried. She needed to destroy the locket now before more than just property damage and bruises happened.

“Arf! Arf!”

“Chowder, go get the locket! The locket! Go! Fetch!” She didn’t know if Chowder understood what she was asking, but she had to try. Chowder barked again from the direction of the hallway.

“Mary, did you just ask the dead dog to get the locket?” Rachel asked. She tumbled over the back of the sofa and landed on the cushions with an oomph.

She got up and went toward the hallway. “Well, why else did you bring him?”

The locket came streaking out toward her at about six inches above the floor. She squatted down, and Chowder ran straight to her. She took the locket. “Good boy,” she murmured.

“Rach, throw me the bag!”

She threw the small pouch of herbs to her, but in midair, it did a right angle and flew into the kitchen.

“Interception!” Kyle giggled from his corner.

Mary gave him a ruthless glare, and he shut up. She was running out of patience and stamina. She looked down at the locket in her hand. ‘He’d kept her here. Close to his heart.’

She pried the locket open with her fingernails. When she opened it, a cold blast of air hit her in the face. Inside was a lock of blond hair.

“You’ve imprisoned me long enough, Ricky,” said a new voice. It was female and not happy.

The room started to fill with kinetic energy. A windstorm began that knocked over vases and tore pictures off the walls. From the overturned wastebasket, bits of paper swirled in the brewing maelstrom.

“Mary, what’s happening?” Rachel yelled.

“She’s unleashed another spirit,” Gran answered from her chair.

“Another one?”

“I put up with your abuse for three years, Ricky.”

“Everybody meet Julie, Ricky’s former wife.”

“Baby, I only wanted you to love me.”

“Does that mean she’s on our side?” Rachel asked.

“And in my foolishness, I did but not anymore. Time for payback.”

“You could say that,” Mary said.

The chaos in the room escalated. The floor began to shake, and the furniture began to slide around the room. As much as Mary wanted to give Julie a chance to get her due at Ricky, she really didn’t want the ghosts to destroy the house in the process.

“Mary, watch out!” Gran shouted as her chair came barreling toward her. Mary jumped out of the way and the chair hit the wall with a resounding thud.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, the chair took the brunt of it.”

“Do you have any ideas?” she yelled over the howling wind.

“Remember how I told you to never put tinfoil or silverware in the microwave?” Gran called.

“Yeah,” she answered in confusion.

“Well, this once you can.”

“You mean?” she said, comprehension dawning in her.

“Do it, before this gets anymore out of hand.”

“I don’t see how that’s possible,” Rachel yelled. She was crouched beside the sofa shielding herself from the winds with a cushion.

“Do you really want to find out?”

“Good point. Let’s nuke’em.”

She struggled to her feet and began to hobble toward the kitchen. Rachel got up and put her arm around her waist to help her walk. They fought their way to the kitchen. ‘Oh goody, the kitchen,’ Mary thought with a grimace. Taking one step was a mini-battle. The winds felt like they’d gotten to class four hurricane status. It was amazing that the windows hadn’t shattered yet. Kyle huddled in a small ball, staring wide-eyed at the chaos around him. Mary didn’t spare him more than a glance as she and Rachel made their way into the kitchen.

“I just want to know one thing, Ricky. Why did you kill me? Why did you decide to come home that day and put a bullet in my head?”

“Like you don’t know. Did you think you could get away with cheating on me? I knew, and I decided to put a stop to it.”

“Cheated? Who would I cheat on you with? One of your buddies? They were worse than you, and their wives had the restraining orders to prove it.”

“Not one of my friends. That Paul that kept calling here all the time and one time came to the Police Department to pick you up. You spent the night with him, and don’t you deny it!”

“Yes, I spent the night with Paul, and God, I wish I had slept with him, but I didn’t. Paul was helping me. He was my psychiatrist, you bastard.”

“Do you think this will work?” Rachel yelled. They were almost to the microwave.

“No, but it’s our only option!”

“Then now or never.” Rachel staggered to the counter. She wrenched open the microwave door and got out of her way. Mary hurled the locket inside and slammed the door shut.

“How long?” she asked.

“Does it matter?”

“Right. Time to go, Ricky,” Mary called. “You too, Julie,” she said to herself as she punched in 9999.

The cook light came on, and sparks began to go off inside the microwave,

“Mary, get—” Gran shouted.

“Nooooo!” Ricky screamed.

Julie let out a long sigh. “Free at last...”

The protective glass exploded outward. The two girls dropped to the floor. Small slivers of glass fell onto their backs.

“—out of the way,” she finished. The wind suddenly stopped, and everything in mid-air hung motionless a half second and then dropped. Gran untangled herself from the electrical cord as it fell limp.

“Is that it? Did we kill them? Again?” Rachel asked in disbelief as she helped Mary to her feet. Mary was having a hard time standing up. She couldn’t put any weight on her bad ankle. It appeared to be already swelling.

She looked at the wreckage in the kitchen. Sometime during the battle, the fridge had been flung open, and food and drink hurled to the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. All the cabinets were open and a few of the doors still swung slowly back and forth. But it was silent. Gloriously silent.

Until the smoke detector went off.

She jumped back and hit the counter awkwardly, banging her elbow and shifting to her bad ankle.

“Kill it!” Rachel screamed and grabbed a rolling pin.

“Oh God.” Mary laughed and collapsed back to the floor. A happy invisible dog instantly besieged her.

Gran calmly came into the room, reached up to the smoke detector, and wrenched out the battery. The incessant beeping stopped.

Kyle staggered to his feet and looked at the wreckage in horror. “What am I going to tell my parents?”

This sent Mary into another fit of giggles.

Rachel stepped over to him and grabbed his shoulder. “You could tell them the truth. A homicidal ghost tried to kill a girl from school, she saved your life, and in the process, destroyed your house.”

“We’ll help you clean up,” Gran said, bending over and looking under the sink for cleaning supplies.

“I am not doing the microwave,” Rachel declared.

“Could we go to the hospital first?” Mary pleaded from the floor.

“Why?” Rachel asked.

“So I can get my whole body X-rayed.”