If Catfish Had Nine Lives(102)

            “Really?” I sat up a little.

            “I think so—and I think by the ghost of Astin Reagal.” Jerome chuckled once. “I wasn’t as welcoming as you’ve been to me, though. If I remember correctly, I was scared silly.”

            “Well, your experience didn’t include an immediate, though mysterious, attraction.” I smiled.

            Even though he wasn’t in on both sides of the conversation, Jake sent me a withering look.

            “No,” Jerome said. “I suppose if my ghost had been a pretty redhead, I might have been more curious than scared. Anyway, he wasn’t pretty at all. It was a brief encounter. I was out in my fields. Corn, I think. I had much better luck with cattle than I did any crops, but I surely tried.

            “I was working away in the hot humidity and thought I saw something at the end of the row. I left the horses and the tiller because I thought maybe I’d seen a man, a hurt man. I ran to the end of the row, which bordered a patch of trees. There was a road a ways farther down and I know it used to be a path that was heavily traveled, but at the time I didn’t make all the connections.

            “The man that I saw was on his side on the ground, and I was certain I saw twisted legs and a bloody face.”

            “That’s sounds terrible.”

            “It’s why I ran. But when I got to the trees, the image disappeared. I thought I was being overtaken by the heat. Perhaps I just needed some water, maybe some food. But then I heard a voice. It said, ‘Please find me. I’m right here.’ Of course I looked around again for the man, the body, anything attached to the voice. I didn’t find anything right off, but I was surely shaken.”

            “You think it was Astin Reagal?” I asked.

            Jerome nodded. “I do now. At the time, I tried to forget it. But later on, I searched, out of curiosity more than any other reason. I didn’t find anything in the area where I thought I saw the man, but farther out, more toward where the path had been and the road was, I did find something. This all happened close to the time I died, and there were so many other things that were more important that I didn’t have an opportunity to tell anyone but Elsa what I’d found. And she wasn’t interested in the least. She was with child and not feeling well. She couldn’t have cared less about the remains of a long-dead man, even if they’d been in her own house and haunting her personally.”

            I looked up into the mirror again. I’d seen pain cross his face before, but his current memory of Elsa might have caused him to feel a whole new level of anguish. Even though he was so transparent, it hurt him deeply to experience those memories, and I could see it.

            “I think I came back this time just so I could help find the remains again,” Jerome said. “I understand that some other strange things have happened—a Pony Express ghost and a descendant of Astin Reagal in town, and now a visit by Astin too. Perhaps one thing is spurring on another, I don’t know.”

            “That’s possible.”

            “I wonder if all your ghosts were also haunted when they were alive. I’m not sure what that might mean, but it might be something you have to contend with at some point.”

            “Good question. Maybe I’ll start asking.”

            “Stop here.” Jerome seemed to need to gather himself for a moment. “Look for the trees that make a heart. Let’s go find Astin,” he finally said.

            “Look for the trees that make a heart, Jake,” I said. “Point us in the right direction, Jerome, and we’ll take credit for the discovery. Okay, I’ll let Jake take the credit.”

            We were out in the middle of nowhere; the road I’d stopped on was not used anymore, and was now a wide dirt path. Where there were woods, they were thick woods, and any open space had tall grasses sprouting from uneven ground. Jake and I both walked slowly over the tangled and bumpy earth.