Marlie's Mystery Man
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“Your truck was the sensation of the morning, Mr. Matthews. When I had breakfast, everybody was talking about it at The Drugstore this morning, so I walked down and looked at it, too. You could see the bull’s-eye in the windshield where your head hit. Why in Heaven didn’t you wear your seat belt?”
Caid felt his ears turn red. “I forgot,” he mumbled.
“What?”
“I forgot, dammit, just like I forgot my hat and just like I forgot the blasted papers in the first place. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.”
There was another long silence.
“Something else was being talked about in the restaurant this morning, Mr. Matthews,” she said at last.
“Caid.”
“Um, Caid. People were talking about the latest news from the hospital after the ambulance took you to the emergency room. They said…”
She paused, and Caid had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what came next.
“They said, um, Caid, that you were…on life support.”
It was Caid’s turn to be silent for a long moment. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, hell. All I know is, I’m not in the hospital, I’m sitting right here on this bed talking to you, and the only thing wrong with me is a humdinger of a headache.”
And then she just had to say it. “But no one can see you or hear you.”
“You can.”
“I can hear you, but I can’t see you. Mr. Matthews…Caid…I’m sorry to have to say this, but I—I think you died. Life support keeps the body going, but it doesn’t necessarily keep the spirit going.”
“Bull hockey. I’d know it if I was dead. I’d have seen the light or something. And why the heck would I stick around town when I could go to Paradise?”
“Maybe Paradise isn’t an option. Or maybe you just don’t know you’re dead. I mean, isn’t that kind of what a ghost is, someone who doesn’t understand that they’re dead so they refuse to go to the other side? That’s why they do exorcisms, isn’t it?”
“Exorcisms! Lady, are you crazy?” Caid sat straight up in bed, then had to grab his ears to keep his head from bouncing off. Hell, if he was a ghost he wouldn’t have this damn headache. And what did she mean, maybe Paradise wasn’t an option?
By now, Marlie was near tears. There was no easy way to tell someone they were dead and this man just kept arguing with her.
“My name is Marlie,” she said, “and I’m not the one who’s crazy here. Everyone can hear and see me just fine, thank you very much. It’s you who can’t seem to get with the program. If you’d just go on to the other side like you’re supposed to, you wouldn’t have this problem.”
“Marlie what?”
“Simms,” she said, and sniffed.
“Marlie Simms, are you crying?”
The voice from the other bed sounded very gentle. She could have liked this man, Marlie thought. When he wasn’t being stubborn.
“I’m s-sorry you’re dead,” she said wetly.
She could almost feel his instant withdrawal.
“I’m not dead. Now turn out the light and let’s get some sleep. I’m tired of arguing. My head feels like a Chinese gong at prayer time and I’m out of aspirin.”
Marlie blinked. “You’ve been taking aspirin?”
“While I had it, but I can’t say it’s done much good.”
“There’s medication stronger than aspirin,” she said tentatively. “I, um, have some in my purse. I’ll give you a couple of tablets, if you like.”
“Appreciate it.”
Throwing back the covers, she left the bed to get her purse, returning to sit on the edge to rummage through the bag in the lamplight. Naturally the ibuprofen was on the bottom so that she had to take out a few things.
“Say. Are you going to eat that candy bar?”
Startled, she looked over at the bed next to hers that appeared empty, yet was so very full of pure unadulterated male. How she knew that last she wasn’t quite certain, except that a picture had begun to form in her mind from the moment she’d picked up his hat.
“You’re…you’re hungry?”
“Haven’t eaten a bite all day. When I tried to order a meal, no one would listen to me.”
“Here, take it,” Marlie said immediately. But with no hand to give it to, she placed the chocolate bar on the far side of the bedside table. It immediately disappeared.
“I also have a couple of packages of crackers, and a granola bar,” she added, placing them, too, on the nightstand.
She heard the rustle of paper wrappings and a crumbly, “Thanks,” as if Caid was talking with his mouth full. In seconds, the crackers and granola bar vanished. Discarded wrappers appeared in the trash basket under the night table.
It was all very disconcerting, but not nearly as disconcerting as seeing the water carafe disappear and water slowly fill one of the glasses left for guests at their bedside. When the carafe reappeared and the glass disappeared, Marlie hurriedly placed two pain relievers within reach. Poof. They, too, were gone.
“Um, Caid,” Marlie said slowly, “I don’t suppose you’d consider haunting another room?”
“Not on your life. I reserved for two nights, I’m staying two nights. It’s thanks to me that you have the room at all.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.” Marlie sighed, and switched off the lamp.
“And I’m not dead.”
She let him have the last word, mainly because she was too startled to speak. Just as she plunged the room into darkness, she thought she’d seen the blurry outline of a dark head on the pillow of the other bed.
Turning over, she closed her eyes.
Nah, couldn’t be.
Chapter Three
Bright sunlight and a piercing whistle from somewhere outside caused Caid to sit straight up in bed. Lordy, he hadn’t slept this late in years. His head still hurt, but not with the splitting agony of the day before.