Through a Lens Darkly
Chapter 6
@copyright 2009 Heather Amaral and Jean Hontz
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"Was this even your house?" Alicia
eventually hissed from the three foot hole she was standing in, shovel in hand
and dirt caked up to her knees.
They were digging in the perfectly
preened backyard of an old Charleston house, one Alicia had to break into for a
flashlight and digging supplies.
Well, "they" digging wasn't exactly
right, since Etienne was just a ghost and couldn't actually help. But he was
providing moral support. "No, it was not my house, but the owner's wife was my
lover. Quite lovely, she was. A bit jealous, which made things tricky."
"I bet," Alicia snorted, sending
her next shovel full of dirt and roots through the specter standing above her.
"So how'd you manage to get your stash buried in her garden?"
"Seemed like a good idea at the
time," Etienne replied, his lips quirking up in a slight smile. "I wanted
something to finance a retreat if necessary."
"Well, I promise to pay you back
when I can." She said, wiping back a stray hair that escaped her ponytail.
"That's if I don't go to jail for trespassing first." She mumbled the last part
as her shovel came down on something hard.
"That sounds hopeful," he said,
floating down for a closer look. "Should be a small strongbox. There will be
papers that will no longer be very useful, and some coins."
Alicia crouched down and resorted
to scooping the dirt away with her hands until her fingers raked against the
metal ring on one side and tugged the box out onto level ground. She sighed,
rattling the old lock before she stood and put the business end of the shovel
against the bulk of the thing.
"Hope you weren't too fond of that
lock," she said before bringing the shovel down hard; the lock fell away.
"I'd like you to keep the papers
for me. Who knows, I might find them nostalgic. I suppose the amount won't seem
like much now," he added frowning.
"Sure thing, darling." Alicia took
the one oilskin bag that felt like it had papers in the bag she'd brought along.
But when she picked up the second bag and felt its weight she gave a pause. "How
much did you put away?" She asked curiously, pulling the draw string open to
look inside with wide eyes.
"A hundred pounds in gold coin. It
was a lot of money then," he added. "No idea what it might be worth now."
Alicia pulled out one of the gold
coins and held her flashlight up to the fat glittering disk to see the old
English design and year pressed into it. "I think you can easily double that
price for each."
"Well, then," Etienne replied,
"you have enough to effect an escape?"
She snorted. "I could live in the
Bahamas on this."
The crack of a shotgun going off
made Alicia duck into the hole she'd dug, fumbling madly with her flashlight to
turn it off as the beam bounced around in the tree above her.
"Ah, the alarum is raised. And I
can't kill them?"
"No, ya can't!" She hissed,
finally clicking off the light. "We're trespassing on
his
property."
"Whoever's out there better climb
out before I shoot right at that hole you're hiding in!" Came a gruff shout from
the now lighted porch.
Alicia glared up at the ghost. "It
doesn't mean ya can't distract him."
"Do what he says. Trust me."
He didn't give her much of a
choice, as she felt herself lifting upward into the air. Coils of fog or smoke
swirled around her figure, and she felt cold. The air around them became icy
and the guy with the shot gun gaped at them, obviously seeing something other
than a grubby girl with a ghost swirling around her.
A wind picked up and the fog
around them suddenly changed course and rushed toward him as if it were reaching
out to pull the man into itself.
The man's eyes widened, the hands
holding the shotgun shook until he suddenly turned tail and ran back in the
house, the audible sound of locks sliding into home as Alicia started to shake,
arms wrapping around herself to fight off the cold.
"Oh sorry, cold is generally quite
effective," Etienne explained dropping her to the ground softly so her feet felt
solid earth. "I suggest we scarper," Etienne added, "before he decides to be
brave. Allons-y!"