The Life Of Reilly. Sue Civil-Brown

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СКАЧАТЬ as if she weren’t fleeing. This was going to be bad. Very bad. A neighbor who cared enough to save the tiniest creature from its own urges, and wasn’t offended when she shot holes in his worldview. Someone she could appreciate and also talk to. Yes, this was going to be very bad.

      To her great relief, she found her living room empty of Delphine. She plopped into a chair and drew a deep breath, taking a moment to look into every dark corner of the room, making sure Delphine wasn’t hiding in the shadows before letting out a deep sigh.

      She was alone.

      Alone was good.

      She could handle alone.

      Right?

      CHAPTER THREE

      “YOU DIDN’T HAVE ANY papers to grade at all.”

      Lynn rolled over in her bed with a groan and pulled the pillow over her head. The first roseate light of dawn was seeping between the Bahama shutters, far too early for rising. On Treasure Island, school started at ten in the morning because so many students went out early to fish with their parents.

      “Go away,” she mumbled and tried to reach for the strands of a really lovely dream she had been having. “It’s too early.”

      “You lied to get away from the nice preacher.”

      Lynn groaned again, rolled over and closed her eyes. “You’re not here. I refuse to observe you and thus the quantum wave does not collapse and thus you are not here.”

      “Don’t be silly, Lynn,” Delphine said, now a warm presence beneath the covers. “You know it doesn’t work that way. You’re not the only observer here. And if the pheromone scent under here is any indication, you weren’t the only observer last night either.”

      Lynn threw back the covers in horror. “Aunt Delphine!”

      Delphine, now sitting primly on the side of the bed, garbed in some diaphanous thing that Lynn remembered from years past, simply smiled. “I’m not going anywhere.”

      Lynn scowled. “Stay out of my bed, Aunt Delphine!”

      “Oh please,” Delphine said, patting Lynn’s foot. “I would never dream of doing something so tawdry. I may be a ghost, but I’m not like that.”

      “Pffft. Don’t eavesdrop on my dreams either.”

      Delphine put a hand over her eyes. “I didn’t see a thing, dear. But it doesn’t take a bloodhound to tell that you had some nice ones.”

      “Arrgh!”

      Lynn leapt out of the bed and headed straight for the shower. When she emerged, Delphine was buffing her nails at Lynn’s vanity table.

      “Feel better?” Delphine asked.

      “I feel less like a broadcast antenna at least.”

      “That’s good, dear,” Delphine said. “And I’m sorry. That was a bit…forward of me. You must understand that in my state of existence, privacy is simply not a relevant concept anymore.”

      Lynn found it impossible to imagine in detail, even while she could understand the theory of superposition and interconnectedness that underlay Delphine’s new experience. Still, the idea of not having a truly private thought was unnerving, to say the least.

      “You look younger,” Lynn said, giving in. Hallucination or not, she found an odd comfort in Delphine’s presence.

      “I can look any age I want to now. In fact, I don’t even have to look human. However, I’ve chosen a younger version from your memories…from back when you thought I was the coolest aunt ever.”

      “How old was I then?” Lynn asked, trying to towel the moisture from her hair and fighting a losing battle against the ever-present humidity. “Three? Four? It must’ve been before the age of reason.”

      Delphine laughed. “I always loved you, Lynn.”

      In spite of her irritation, Lynn felt a pang. “I know, Aunt Delphine. I loved you, too.”

      “Past tense?” Delphine asked, shaking her head.

      Lynn hung her towel over a rod and considered the question. It was customary to speak of the dead in the past tense and yet…“No. I guess not.”

      “Would you like to know what happens when we die?” Delphine asked, looking away as Lynn shrugged on her bra and panties. “You should wait until your skin dries, dear. It will be much easier to get dressed then.”

      “That would mean waiting until January,” Lynn said, now reaching for a pair of capri pants and a flower-print blouse. “I never really feel dry here. And yes, I would love to know what happens when we die.”

      Delphine smiled. “Nice outfit. Not what I’d have worn to teach in my day, but it’s practical here. I can’t tell you all of it—that would spoil the surprise—but let’s just say I have unfinished business.”

      Lynn shook her head as she picked up a brush. “I refuse to be your unfinished business.”

      Delphine shrugged. “Sorry, kiddo. Not your decision.”

      “Oh, God!”

      “Precisely.”

      Lynn headed for the kitchen and her prized espresso maker. How many shots? Two? Four? Twelve? How many would it take to wrap her brain around Delphine’s intrusion into her life? And why didn’t they have a Starbucks on this island yet?

      Four shots, she decided. An Americano over ice with just enough cream to take the bitter edge off. She needed to be buzzing high on caffeine to deal with this.

      “I do miss Starbucks,” Delphine sighed behind her.

      “What? They don’t have them in heaven?”

      “Don’t blaspheme, dear.” Then, “Hmmm. Ahh! That’s much better!”

      In spite of herself, Lynn whirled around to look. Her aunt was now seated at the dinette with an iced latte in her hand.

      “It’s so hot in the tropics,” Delphine remarked.

      This was too much. “Where did you get that from?”

      “I thought about it and there it was.” Delphine smiled beatifically, then sucked delicately from the straw. “Oh, that’s the best I’ve ever had.”

      “It’s not fair.”

      “What isn’t?”

      “That you get to think one into existence, but I have to make mine.” Petulance, Lynn thought. Now she was being petulant with a ghost.

      “Well, Lynn, you live in a cause-and-effect world. You have to effect the cause to cause the effect. So start brewing so we can chat before you leave for school.”

      She didn’t want to СКАЧАТЬ