Hunter's Redemption. Eleni P Sianis

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СКАЧАТЬ her of the situation. To date, Mason hasn’t used the code.

      When dinner is over, Mason tells Hannah that he had a few more chapters to read for history class and went back upstairs. As if he hasn’t missed a beat, Wesley reappears in Mason’s room and transports them back to the Pickwick Club. He continued his story.

      “Adrian ran ahead into the club, but aah couldn’t get in, and after a few minutes of trying to make my way through the people and falling plaster, the ceiling collapsed, the floor gave way, and two sidewalls caved in. Aah barely made it back outside when the whole building came crashing down. Aah panicked and prayed in frozen fear that Charlotte made it out from a back door somehow, but aah never saw her again. Charlotte and Adrian were among the forty-four people who died that night. The lead singer, Johnny Duffy, died too, leaving behind two little daughters of his own.

      “The City of Boston blamed the collapse on the rigorous dancing and banned the Charleston dance rather than looking at the structural integrity of the building or occupancy levels. It took some time before it was revealed that a fire had occurred three months before and badly damaged the floors above the club. The building should never have reopened after the fire. Rainwater pooled on the roof, and the building collapsed. The city employees involved were indicted on various charges, but all were acquitted.

      “Clara was only eighteen months old when her mamma passed. She has no recollection of her and knows her only from the movies she starred in. Clara watched those films over and over again as a little girl. In my grief, aah took Clara on a ferry ride where we could be on the water, away from the world. The ferryboat stopped at Peaks Island. Aah raised Clara, your great-grandmother, right here in this house.”

      Mason was stunned. It was quite an incredible story revealing that Charlotte’s daughter was his great-grandmother. So Wesley was his great-great-grandfather? It was a lot to take in, and Mason realized that Hannah had never told him much about their family history other than that their family had been in Peaks Island and the East Coast for decades. Hannah was an only child of a couple who tried for many years to conceive a child and claimed it was a miracle when Hannah was born to her mother at age forty-five. Mason remembered his grandparents but did not know much about family members who lived before they did.

      “Aah have plans fo-wah a new movie, Mason. Aah have big dreams fo-wah you.”

      “Why do you want to help me, Wesley? Why aren’t you resting peacefully in the ever after? Your story was sad, but you made a mistake in choosing me. Hannah is the one who tries to help souls with unfinished business. I am not interested in hanging out with the dead. My mom is the one you should talk to. Thanks, but no thanks.”

      “That’s why aah want you, Mason. It’s that fire you have inside. Hannah is soft and sweet, not movie director material.”

      “Wait, so you want me to be a movie director? Oh my god!” Mason starts laughing. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe I am talking with a ghost who wants to turn me into a movie director, and I haven’t even graduated high school yet.”

      Wesley went on, “Look here now, you think you want to be an author, right? Well, many people do too but very, and I mean very, few people actually succeed in getting a book published and actually make a living off of writing books. You have a creative mind and can imagine all kinds of stories…you need to use that creativity and channel it into making movies. That’s where the fame and fortune lies.”

      Mason is excited by the idea of being a famous movie director. Flashes of himself as a famous, adored, and envied movie director enter his mind, and he revels in the daydream for a few seconds, but he is quickly pulled back into the reality that he is still in his own bedroom and, what’s worse, he is talking to a ghost. Maybe he is a freak after all. Mason decides he had had enough of this craziness.

      “Let me show you…” Wesley begins to explain, but Mason yells, “Enough!” And with that, he lets his anger build up inside him. With the energy from his anger, Mason raises his hand and makes a pushing motion. Wesley falls backward and disappears.

      Alone in his room again, Mason feels a quiet unease and then like something is crawling on his skin. It is the feeling of shame and disappointment. Mason has always envisioned himself as someone famous. If he were famous, he would be able to prove himself as someone to admire, rather than someone to taunt. But trying to achieve fame as a movie director via a ghost’s advice just confirmed his weirdness. He turns his attention back to YouTube. He types in “I’ve Got No Roots,” and Alice Merton’s music video pops up. As the music begins, he raises the volume and dives into the images on the screen, trying to forget about Wesley, Charlotte, and the entire story he had heard only minutes before.

      CHAPTER 3

      VERSUS

      People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.

      —Søren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard

      The next day, Mason comes down for breakfast in his favorite H&M sweatshirt and jeans. Hannah is scrambling eggs, frying bacon, and cutting up some cantaloupe. Mason always looks forward to these big breakfasts. He has a sip of his mom’s coffee and internally debates telling her about Wesley but decides he doesn’t want to get into it. He figures Hannah would want to summon Wesley’s spirit back, and Mason really didn’t care to see him again.

      “Good morning, Mason.” His mom hugs him tight, and he squeezes her back. She smiles widely. “I’m so proud of you, Mason.” She holds a letter in her hand. “This $25,000 academic scholarship to Boston University is such a tremendous accomplishment.”

      Mason looks down and then lifts his gaze to meet Hannah’s. He pauses a few moments before replying, “Mom, you know I don’t want to go to Boston University. I want something else, something different.”

      Frustrated, Hannah answers her son sternly, “Mason, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Life isn’t a game. You can’t turn down a scholarship because you want to do something else but don’t know what that something else is. You can’t just throw it away! You’re not making any sense!”

      Mason rises from his chair, pushing it backward that it almost falls, and storms out of the kitchen. Sitting alone in his room, he recalls how sad and defeated his mother always appeared when she had to pick up Mason from the school for fighting with other kids. Mason put his mother through a lot, but this is his life, and he can’t let his guilt get in the way of his goals. He can’t just do what Hannah wants to appease her for the burden of raising him as a single mom.

      When Mason was a little boy, his days were filled with days at the beach, nights catching fireflies, and finger painting with his grandparents who lived with him in the house on Peaks Island. But when they died, Mason was suddenly alone with his mom in a town where many people considered Hannah an outcast because of her work as a medium. When his grandparents were alive, Mason always felt he had their support and protection. They were well respected with the neighbors and would never allow anyone to speak negatively of Mason or Hannah. In particular, Mason’s grandmother was known to have a sharp tongue and never hesitated to tell someone to mind their own business when they inquired in a negative way about Hannah being a medium, and her quiet, oddly serious son.

      One day, when Mason was about nine years old, their neighbor, Ms. Langely, was trimming her boxwood bushes. When she saw Mason’s grandmother sitting in the backyard with her usual afternoon iced tea, she walked over still wearing her wide brimmed hat and gardening gloves and asked, “Honey, what is going on with all those people coming and going from your place lately?”

      Knowing СКАЧАТЬ