Spiritual, Part 3
Click here to catch up: Spiritual, Part 1 and Spiritual, Part 2.
Message: Seven. Eight. Nine. Jennifer counted the chimes of the big old clock in the downstairs living room. She was meant to be asleep, but she was too angry. Mostly angry with herself because she wasn't any good at lying and pretending. Her mother had immediately realized that she wasn't telling the whole truth, and it was easy for her to learn the whole story — that Jennifer had broken her promise and gone back to the abandoned house in the forest. So now she was grounded. For two weeks! Jennifer hated being grounded; she was only allowed out of the house to go to school. She couldn't even play with Emily! With a deep sigh she turned around in her bed, facing the wall. She'd better go to sleep so she didn't have to hear her mother and stepfather talking and having fun downstairs.
The days slowly crept by. She went to school, she went back home, and she tried to think of fun things to do in her room. If only she hadn't followed that dog Bobby again! Then she wouldn't be stuck here. But there was something about that girl Mary that she couldn't let go of. A feeling of urgency, and a strange kind of connection. With every day that passed, Jennifer's determination grew. She wouldn't let go of this yet; she had to try and find out more about this Mary and the abandoned house. She just had to.
"When can I go out again?" Jennifer asked her mother during breakfast the next day.
"In two days," the short and snappy reply came. Her mother was having trouble with the toaster which didn't seem to want to spit out the toast.
"But tomorrow is Sunday, and I have been good all this time I've been grounded. Can't I go and play with Emily tomorrow? Please?" Jennifer made her eyes big and begging, trying to look sad and miserable. Well, that last part wasn't that difficult...
"No, you know you can't. A punishment is a punishment, and you know very well why you're grounded. Besides, if you've been good for twelve days I think you can manage two more."
Jennifer sighed but didn't try again. She didn't want to push her luck.
The Monday morning was chilly and grey but Jennifer hardly noticed. Today was the day she was free again! Finally free! She was even going to play with Emily this afternoon. If only the day would go by faster!
"My place or your place?" Emily asked after the last class ended.
Jennifer didn't answer right away. She didn't want to go home; she had already spent so much time there. But she wasn't sure she wanted to go to Emily's either. In fact, she would rather play by the house in the forest... No, it wasn't worth another two weeks of being grounded.
"Your place," she answered.
"Dad," she said later at dinner. "You said earlier that no one lives in that house anymore."
"That's right. It's abandoned since years and years." He continued shuffling pasta and meatballs into his mouth. Jennifer was just poking at her meatballs with her fork.
"And I'm not allowed to go there on my own, because it's dangerous."
"Yep."
"So why don't you go with me?" she dared to say, without looking at her mother who put her glass down with a bang.
"Why can't you just stay away from that house?! What's so special about it anyway?"
Jennifer shrugged. "I find it interesting and mysterious," she said. "And I just want to see if I can find Mary again. I wonder what happened to her."
"She might not even be real," her mother snapped.
"Hey, calm down," Jennifer's stepfather hushed her mother. "She's just curious; that's normal at her age." Then he turned to Jennifer. "I could go there with you. But you'll have to wait until Friday afternoon."
It seemed forever before it was finally Friday afternoon.
"Dad! Are you coming?" Jennifer shouted, jumping up and down by the door.
"Be patient, or we're not going!" he answered. "I'm on my way."
She led the way through the forest. Her feeling of urgency returned as they got closer to the clearing. Something didn't feel right.
"She should be right here, in this clearing," she said to her stepfather as they stepped out of the forest. There was complete silence around them, and no movement. The house was just as abandoned as before — or rather even more abandoned.
"There's no one here," her stepfather said after a few minutes. They had looked into the house through the windows, opened the door — they had seen nothing. "Come on, let's go back home."
Jennifer followed him silently, her head hanging. Why didn't Mary turn up? Was it because Jennifer hadn't been alone this time? She didn't know.
"Cheer up," Jennifer's mother said after dinner. "You haven't said a word since you got back home! What happened?"
"Nothing," she answered and fell silent again. Her mother looked at her stepfather.
"Nothing at all happened," he confirmed. "And that's the problem, I guess. She expected Mary to show up, but there was no one."
"Hey, are you alright?" Jennifer's stepfather knocked on her door.
"Yeah," she mumbled into her pillow.
"Sure?" He opened the door and came to sit beside her. She didn't answer. "You know, I have an idea," he continued. "I could help you to find out who lived in that house before it was abandoned. Maybe we could find something about a girl named Mary. Wouldn't that be cool, if we found a real Mary who actually lived there?"
Jennifer looked at him. "Seriously? We could do that?"
"Yes, we could. And we will, if you want to."
"Of course I want to!"
"Good! We can visit the archives in town tomorrow. If we find anything about Mary, maybe your mother will see that you're no weirdo, too..." He ruffled Jennifer's hair slightly and smiled. She couldn't help smiling back at him.
The archives were huge. They contained information not only about the town itself but all the fifty-zillion villages around it. It turned out they needed not only one but several days to look through the archives to find what they were looking for. And those days were spread over many weeks, because Jennifer's stepfather could only take her there in the weekends. Finally, in the middle of December, they found something.
"The house has been abandoned for 71 years," her stepfather said after reading about it. Someone named Michael James lived there, he was married twice. He died in an accident at work in 1938; he was a construction worker. After his death, his second wife stayed in that house for a little less than two years before moving away with another man."
"That's like what Mary told me. That her father died. She never told me any names, but that has to be him!"
"Looks like it, yes." Her stepfather looked at her. "He had a daughter named Mary."
"What happened to her? Did she move with her stepmother?"
Jennifer's stepfather shook his head. "I haven't found anything about Mary. Nothing more than this. I'm sorry."
Jennifer sighed. So she was back at square one. No, not really, she realized. Now she knew that it wasn't her imagination. Mary had been real, and here was the proof she could show her mother.
It was Christmas Eve. Jennifer was decorating the house together with her mother. They were almost finished, and the house was looking so beautiful. The door opened and her stepfather entered, his coat pulled up to protect him from the snow storm.
"Jennifer!" he called. "I've got something for you."
Jennifer ran to the door.
"What is it?" she asked.
He smiled and handed her a folder.
"There's your information about Mary. She's 86 years old and lives in a home for old people, called Rosary Gardens, only 9 miles from here."
Jennifer beamed. "You're the best!"
He looked a little sad. "She's got no family or relatives," he added.
It took some time, but by lunch on Christmas Day, Jennifer had managed to persuade her parents to give her a ride to Rosary Gardens. She couldn't wait to get there and meet Mary again! It wasn't until she was standing outside Mary's room, with a bouquet of flowers and some home-made Christmas cookies in her hands, that she realized that this wouldn't be the Mary she had met in the forest. That had just been a shadow from the past. This Mary would be an old lady, most probably she wouldn't even know Jennifer. What had happened in the forest might even not have been for real.
Jennifer entered the room, alone. She didn't want her parents with her. She had to do this on her own. On a chair by the window sat an elderly lady. Her elegant hair was white as snow, she had dressed up in her best clothes as it was Christmas — the dark red dress was cut in the most stylish way, and she had a silver necklace with a single blue stone in it.
"Mary? Mary James?" Jennifer asked quietly.
The lady turned to look at Jennifer. Those blue eyes that Jennifer recognized so well from the meetings in the forest looked at her curiously.
"Yes?"
Wow, Mary was beautiful, and she looked so strong. Jennifer wondered what she had gone through in her life.
"I—I'm Jennifer, Jennifer Grey." She didn't know what more to say.
"I recognize you," Mary said slowly. "Have we met before?"
"Yes," Jennifer breathed. "But that was many years ago — for you. For me, it was just a couple of months ago."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know," Jennifer admitted. "All I know is I followed a dog named Bobby into the forest one day. I ended up at an abandoned house where I met a crying girl who said her name was Mary. A week later I returned and met Mary again, only this time she was many years older and had just lost her father in an accident. And that's all I know."
Mary looked thoughtful for a short while, then her eyes widened. "So you really exist? For all these years I've thought I was crazy, that I just imagined that girl I met twice. But how is it that you haven't aged?"
"I think I can see things, people, who don't exist for real. Like, spirits. And I think that I crossed some boundary in time, in some way, when I met you in the forest. So it really did happen, only it's been in different times for you and for me. I know it sounds strange," she added. "But this is for real, at least. And those meetings in the forest have to be real as well, because we both recognize each other."
It felt strange to talk to Mary, when Mary was an old lady and not the girl she remembered.
"I know it was for real," Mary smiled. "And I'm happy you found me again."
Jennifer smiled. "Merry Christmas, Mary."
Half a year later, Jennifer kept visiting Mary regularly. And she didn't always go there alone. Emily went there with her sometimes, even though she couldn't understand Jennifer's interest in an old lady she hadn't known until very recently. But Jennifer was happier than she had ever been before. The friendship between her and Mary was as strong as such a bond can be. She had got the grandmother she had always wanted. Mary had got the grandchild she had never had. And they were both happy.