Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance Page 11

  Rachel came over, her forehead creased in confusion. “What girl, Jimmy? Was there a girl out there?”

  Jimmy shook his head and then winced. “No, Rachel. Never mind. It has nothing to do with what happened here, I promise.”

  “Don’t you dare lie to me or to Rachel,” Jimmy’s mother said, nearly shrieking. “Tell her.”

  “Mom,” Jimmy said forcefully, “I swear to you that this had nothing to do with Sapphire. This was just between me and the jocks. The same jocks that have been tormenting me and the people like me around this school for years.”

  Jimmy’s mother shook her head. “That’s a lie.”

  “Look,” Rachel said quietly, ever the model of calmness, “I don’t know what happened over the weekend or who this girl is, but this was a fight between Jimmy and three football players. These kids are known to have bullied kids in this school before. He’s right about that.”

  She put a hand on Jimmy’s mother’s shoulder. Jimmy’s mom looked at her with sadness and sorrow.

  “I am going to suggest that you take Jimmy home,” Rachel said. “Just let him rest, but don’t let him go to sleep until after ten o’clock tonight. Check on him regularly. He’ll need to go back to the doctor if he starts exhibiting a change in behavior, repeated vomiting, one pupil being larger than the other, prolonged headache, or slurred speech. Those are all important symptoms to look for after a head injury. Jimmy already told me that he doesn’t think he needs to go to the hospital, and I’m taking his word on that. He isn’t showing signs of concussion, despite the blows he took to the head. He is likely to have a headache for quite a while, however. Give him some Tylenol and, after tonight, let him rest. I’ll make sure someone gets his homework to him, OK?”

  Jimmy’s mother nodded and turned to look at him again. She shook her head, just a slight movement. It was something that Jimmy could see, but Rachel probably didn’t notice.

  “Let’s go, Jimmy,” his mother said.

  Jimmy nodded and slowly sat up. The rush of blood to his head made his brains feel like they were pounding against the inside of his skull. He moaned and nearly lay back down, but he steadied himself and got to his feet. His head hurt, but the world had stopped the wild pitching and rolling it had been doing when he had first woken up.

  His mother grabbed his arm and held on as they walked through the infirmary. The principal was there, but he had his back to both of them as they walked past. He was talking loudly on the phone and his hand waved in the air.

  Jimmy and his mother stepped into the hall. Kids were standing around all over, trying to look as if they were not staring at Jimmy, but only managed to call greater attention to themselves. Jimmy felt a blush crawl from the very bottom of his feet up his body to his face and the tips of his ears. He lowered his head and tried not to look at anyone.

  His mother led him out of the building, and he watched as the tile of the school hallways changed to the concrete of the steps and then the concrete of the sidewalk. He could see the finely manicured lawn of the school out of his peripheral vision. He heard a bell sounding somewhere inside the building and wondered what time it was. What class was he missing right now, he wondered.

  When he reached their car he waited while his mother unlocked the passenger door. He slid inside, his head still pounding, but not nearly as bad as it was just a little while ago. He eased into the seat and lay his head back against the headrest. His mother got into the driver’s side and shut the door. Jimmy closed his eyes as the car roared to life and his mother pulled away from the curb. Jimmy wondered how long it would be before his mother picked up the conversation from where it had been a few moments before. It didn’t take long.

  “So are you going to tell me what happened?” she asked.

  “I would prefer not to,” Jimmy replied. “At least, not right now. Just suffice it to say that I got in a fight. The good news is I won. I sent the three jocks to the hospital.”

  There was a long silence and Jimmy knew that his mother was trying to contain her anger. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she asked. “Am I supposed to be proud of the fact that you got into a fight and sent kids to the hospital? Because that is not something I am proud of, Jimmy. “

  “No,” Jimmy said. “I’m just saying, it could have been worse.”

  “What started this?”

  “Does it matter? These guys have always made my life miserable. I’ve been beat up and tormented by them since I got here. This was just the first time I ever fought back, Mom. I just decided I had had enough.”

  They rode in silence for a time. Jimmy’s mother sighed several times, and he prepared for another onslaught. Then she just settled back. Finally even that stopped, and the silence that followed worried Jimmy even more.

  “You’re grounded,” she said as they made the final turn that would take them to their home. “For two months. No computer. No cell phone. No hanging out with George after work or school. You come straight home and you head to your room. You’ll work on your homework and then go to bed. Is that clear?”

  By that time, Jimmy’s head was starting to pound again. He wanted nothing more than to pop two Tylenol and then lay down. The punishment could have been worse and he decided he could live with it. It certainly wasn’t worth fighting over, and he figured he could send George out as his own personal private investigator. Plus, Jimmy had learned a few things about sneaking out over the years.

  “Fine,” Jimmy said. He didn’t even bother to open his eyes.

  The car pulled into the driveway and Jimmy got out slowly. His mother looked worried, but she was trying hard to maintain her angry air. She did a good job. She had had lots of practice.

  Jimmy went straight to the medicine cabinet and found the bottle of Tylenol. It was actually the store-brand version of Tylenol, but it had always worked in the past. Jimmy took three of them and drank an entire glass of water. He made his way to his bedroom and lay down. Rachel had told him to stay awake, but his body decided it knew better, and he dozed off.

  Jimmy’s eyes snapped open; someone had knocked on his door. Jimmy realized that the knocking had been going on for a few minutes, with increasing urgency.

  “Yeah?” he called.

  The door opened a crack and his mother peered in.

  “You awake?” she asked.

  Jimmy was tempted to give a smart-aleck answer, but decided his mother didn’t deserve that. She was just doing the best she could; a wave of guilt washed over him.

  “I’m OK, Mom,” Jimmy said. “I may try to do some reading or something.”

  His mother nodded. “OK. If you want to come out and watch TV, that’s fine. I’m going to make burgers and French fries for dinner. I am not in the mood to make much else.”

  Jimmy nodded and smiled. He had always loved his mom’s burgers. As a kid he had pronounced the word as “hanga-burgers.”

  “Sounds good,” he said.

  She closed the door and he eased back on the bed. He looked toward the window and realized that it was late afternoon. Clouds had come over the sky, blotting out the blue and draining the world of color. What little of the sky he could see through the slats of his window blinds was gray like metal. It would probably rain.

  Jimmy shook his head. He had never in a million years imagined that he could have a day like this. How could his life have changed so much so fast? It all came down to one thing: Sapphire.

  Jimmy closed his eyes and tried to open his mind. He wasn’t entirely sure how one opened their mind, but he tried. It turned out that just relaxing and trying hard to think about nothing accomplished it nicely.

  Sapphire? Jimmy thought loudly into his own brain. Are you there?

  He heard only silence in return. The air conditioner kicked on and created a soft hum in the background, but there were no other sounds. He heard creaking in the kitchen—probably his mother making some early preparations for dinner.

  Sapphire? he thought again. Can you hear me?

&n
bsp; Jimmy was definitely starting to feel foolish. Did he really think that the girl he had met on Friday was a ghost? Had he already decided to accept the supernatural as the only explanation for things? Had a blow to the head really made him lose all of his senses?

  Jimmy?

  Jimmy opened his eyes. He looked around the room. His mother was not at the door, and he could hear her clanging around in the kitchen again. He heard something clattering in the sink.

  Jimmy?

  As he looked around, he broke out in a cold sweat. The voice was inside his head.

  “No, no, no,” he whispered aloud. “This can’t be happening.”

  Jimmy, are you OK?

  Jimmy closed his eyes and tried to sort out his thoughts. Sapphire, is that you?

  There was a long pause. Jimmy swore that he could hear static, like a poorly tuned radio, inside his brain.

  Yes.

  Were you with me at school today?

  Another long pause.

  Yes.

  How is that possible?

  There was another long pause, and a feeling that someone or something was crawling through his head dominated him. The fingers inside his brain were urgent, but not hurtful.

  I don’t know, Jimmy. I’ve never been able to do this with anyone before.

  Sapphire, are you dead?

  This time the static in his head increased to a level that made his already sore head begin to pound. Jimmy started to feel light-headed.

  I think so. I’m not sure. It’s so confusing.

  Jimmy’s mouth felt very dry. He licked his lips and shifted on his bed. His entire world and his entire belief in what was real and what wasn’t was shifting. He was amazed how well he was taking it, all things considered.

  You don’t know what happened?

  The static reached a kind of shriek. The feeling of fingers in his brain increased and this time they dug deep. Jimmy winced.

  I don’t know, Jimmy. I don’t know.

  OK, relax, Jimmy thought. I can feel you when you get upset. It hurts.

  I’m sorry. Jimmy, I need your help.

  Jimmy felt worry wash over him. Why? What’s wrong?

  Again, I can’t explain it. I just think you can help me. You can help me figure this out and why it’s happening. I think there’s something I need to do and I think you can help me.

  Jimmy felt fear push in amidst the guilt and then worry.

  I’m in love with you Sapphire, he thought. I don’t know how that’s possible anymore than us being able to communicate like this, but I know it’s certain.

  Jimmy felt the static in his head change again. This time he felt something like joy wash over him.

  I love you, too, Jimmy. Can you come see me tonight?

  Jimmy frowned. I’ve been grounded. I got in big trouble with my mom because of the fight in school. Plus, Stan’s father looked ready to kill me. I may have made things worse.

  No, you were brave. I told you that you would be. Please, Jimmy, there has to be a way for you to get out of the house tonight.

  Jimmy sighed. I was going to go see our newspaper editor today. She’ll have more information about this town than I can find in a library. Plus, someone has been tampering with the town’s newspaper archives.

  The static changed again. Fear came back in spades.

  I have a feeling that this could be dangerous, Jimmy. It’s so frustrating. Something about this area, this town, means that things like this can happen. It’s like the fabric of reality itself is thin around Knorr. But that also seems to attract dangerous people. I only get information about what happened to me in bits and pieces. Each time we connect, another piece falls into place.

  They sat in silence for a while. Finally, Jimmy decided he could meet her.

  I’m going to sneak out after dinner, he thought. I’m going to try and see Tabitha, and then I’ll head to the bridge. I think it may be late, though. Eleven or so?

  Fine. I’ll see you then. You know what I’ll be wearing.

  Just like that the static in his head was gone. The air conditioner noise filled his ears. His head was throbbing, but Jimmy decided he could live with it. He felt excited. He felt good. However, beneath the good feelings and the lovey-dovey stuff, there was also a hefty dose of fear.

  “I’m in love with a ghost,” he whispered to his room.

  Jimmy went out into the kitchen and ate heartily with his mother an hour or so later. He and his mother had a nice conversation, and Jimmy showed no signs of having just spoken telepathically with a dead girl. He laughed in all of the right places, made insightful comments, and kept up with the conversation. By the time they were finishing their meal, both he and his mother were smiling and laughing.

  When they were done, Jimmy said that he was going to go lay down. His mother expressed some concern over that, but decided that Jimmy would know best. Jimmy even gave his mother a kiss on the cheek and thanked her for coming to get him. His mother blushed and then went about finishing up the dishes.

  Jimmy entered his room and immediately set about getting his escape ready. He stuffed the blankets with pillows and clothing from his closet. He turned out the lights and studied the results in the glow of the digital alarm clock near his bed. It looked enough like he was in the bed sleeping to fool his mom.

  After that, he just had to wait. That, as it turned out, was the hardest part. Jimmy took a seat on the edge of the bed and strained his ears to hear what his mother was doing. He heard the drone of the dishwasher and then heard the television turn on. After what seemed like days, he finally heard the telltale sound of his mother snoring away on the couch. If his mother was true to her form, she would be out on the couch until well after midnight. After that, she would head to bed, but peek into Jimmy’s room on the way to her own bed. She would not speak to him, however, just assume that he was asleep.

  Jimmy stood, grabbed a jacket and then climbed on top of the desk against the sole window in his room. He eased the window open and stepped out. It was a bit of an awkward step, but not impossible and he stretched his leg out until the toes of his shoes touched the ground. Then he eased down his right leg and stood beneath his window. The edge of the open window was at shoulder-level and he reached up and gently eased the window down.

  Jimmy stood beneath the window for a moment and let his eyes adjust to the darkness. There was little in the way of streetlights out this way and the sun was now below the tree tops. The horizon still held streaks of pink and fading streaks of orange, but mostly blue and purple were becoming the dominant colors. Jimmy looked at the cornfields across the street and then up and down at the modest houses on either side of his own. He breathed the cool air. It was a very beautiful part of the world, but things around here were always weird.

  Before Jimmy was born, a man had gone on a killing spree in these parts. He snuck into the rooms of children, kidnapped them, tormented the parents, and then murdered the child. He would then dismember the child and leave their head as a grisly torment for the child’s father to find. He was dubbed “the Boogeyman” for his ability to appear in children’s rooms in the middle of the night the way he did.

  The Boogeyman had tormented the Knorr and surrounding areas for a long time, then stopped. Then, a few years ago, a writer named Warren Hollis came to town to research the crimes for a book. Before long, there were more murders. Then a bomb had gone off in downtown Knorr that had destroyed the original offices of the town newspaper and a restaurant beneath it.

  Tabitha, the newspaper editor, had fallen in love with Warren. Together they had helped connect the dots and find the culprit and expose the story. They were married now, and Warren had taken up permanent residence in Knorr. Tabitha had opened up new offices and continued to publish the local newspaper. She also won an award for her coverage of the Boogeyman stories. Warren’s book was a big hit and there had been a TV movie.

  Much of that had happened on the periphery of Jimmy’s life. Now, he wondered if there were more stori
es about Knorr left to be discovered. Like, perhaps, the death of a young girl. And perhaps going back to the days when Native Americans wandered through these parts. Some places are just thin in spots, he thought, and Knorr appears to be one of those places. Jimmy had an overwhelming feeling that Tabitha, and maybe even Warren, would be able to provide some answers. He had this gut feeling that they knew more than they had let on in their newspaper stories and books.

  Jimmy made his way quietly around to the back of the house. He found his bike and walked it down to the road. Then he climbed on and set off.

  Like most in a town this small, he knew where Tabitha and Warren lived. He just hoped that one or both of them were home. Jimmy still wasn’t sure about Warren. He was an outsider and many still felt that the trouble only started when he showed up and started poking around. Jimmy was a bit more forgiving, but Tabitha had been here longer than Warren. She knew about the town’s history. She was a fountain of information about Knorr.

  Jimmy rode in the darkness. He knew the roads like the back of his hand and had no fear of the encroaching darkness. Of course, had he really stopped to think about it, he might have been afraid. He had already crossed over in his mind to acknowledging that ghosts and the dead could reach out and touch the living. Perhaps there were other spirits, ghosts, goblins, and creatures in Knorr just waiting to do harm to someone riding by on a bicycle.

  Instead, Jimmy thought about Sapphire. He pictured her blue gown and her green eyes and the feeling of her thoughts in his head. He blushed, warmth spreading over his body from the tips of his toes to the top of his head. It kept him warm during the entire ride to Tabitha and Warren’s home.

  He arrived after twenty minutes of hard riding up and down hills and around dark curves. The house was two stories, made mostly of wood and had a kind of homey log cabin feel about it. It was set back from the road, surrounded by trees and had a long gravel driveway. The front porch was large and there was a deck out back that overlooked more trees and woods.

  Jimmy turned into the driveway and pedalled up to a spot near the front porch. He leaned his bike up against a tree and steeled his courage. He was about to ask a bunch of very weird questions and sound like a total lunatic to the editor of the town’s newspaper. Jimmy suddenly worried that he hadn’t really thought this whole strategy through. Then he decided it was go big or go home and took a few steps forward toward the front door. After two steps a bright light speared through the darkness and pinned him to a spot on the cement walkway that led from the driveway to the front porch.