We spent some time small-talking our way to the one question we knew Orly had. Apparently, Esther had missed the entire ghostly scene in the stable, so she had no questions about it, but Orly did. Vivienne was in jail, so no one was listening to much of the strange stuff she was spouting. And Jake had been so worried about Esther that he hadn’t appreciated the fact that he got to see three ghosts at once—even more if you counted all the horses. He said he would think on it and appreciate it someday.
But Orly. We were sure Orly wanted the truth, and he finally came around to asking the question.
“Betts, Miz, what happened? Y’all said you would tell me,” he said after the plates with the burgers and fries had been placed on the table.
“Orly, we’ve been chatting, and we’re hoping you’ll be all right with the story that we want to tell you,” Gram said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Orly said.
“Broken Rope has a glitch somewhere. We hold on to our past a little too much. It can bite us in the behind sometimes, surprise us, you know,” Gram said.
“Not really, but go on,” Orly said.
Esther just listened, her eyes wide and curious.
Gram sighed. “Sometimes, the past just demands that things be worked out, and that glitch in Broken Rope allows weird things to happen. In fact, they happen more than we’d sometimes like. That’s what went on in the stable. Some things from the past needed to be worked out.”
“I see,” Orly said doubtfully. He turned to me. “You kissed that man who saved your life. Who was he?”
“An old friend,” I said carefully.
Orly nodded. He looked at Gram, at Jake, at Esther, and then at me. He smiled. He was a lot like an older version of Jerome, I thought. I liked him. Gram really liked him. He liked Gram.
“Well, I’ll tell you this much, the only reason I’m not going to ask any more questions is because what you are saying is making sense. It looks like I had to come to Broken Rope to work out some things from my past. I’m awful heartbroken about Norman, but there’s something about what you’re telling me that makes me think I just might get another chance to know the boy. Maybe that’s all I need to know.” He looked at Gram.
“Can’t be sure, Orly, but anything is possible,” Gram said gently.
“That’s good enough for me. Let’s eat.” Orly winked at me.
I patted my pocket with my lucky coin, the one from Jerome’s long-ago treasure, the one I found the first time I met him and now kept with me always. I pulled out my phone and texted Cliff, telling him I was excited to see him later. He still hadn’t asked to know more about the distraction between us, but if he ever did, I was ready to tell him everything.
Orly wasn’t the only one heartbroken about Norman; everyone was. But Gram, Jake, and I were going to do our best to enjoy the new people in our lives, even if they weren’t ghosts.