Page 63 of Paper Ghosts

“Good night, Jack,” Tug called in a singsongy voice as he disappeared around the corner at the top of the staircase. It was a testament to how used to the quirks of this house they were that neither one of them thought any more of it.

“Yes,” she said, turning off the light again. “Good night, Jack.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

It poured for hours. Sidewalks would be slick with wet leaves in the morning, the creek swollen against its banks.

Unable to sleep, Bailey held the Polaroid above her as she lay in bed. It was amazing how a single frame could hold a lifetime of longing. She could always remember feeling a lonely presence in the house, particularly when it rained like this. She used to think the house was haunted. But it turned out that she was just so attuned to Mim that she was feeling Mim’s memory of the man she loved.

It was hard to reconcile the Mim she knew as a child with the one she knew now, the one who couldn’t even entertain the possibility that the man she loved had taken her grandmother’s money. But in an odd way, Bailey thought she understood. That possibility would have given Mim a reason to hate him. But if he was dead, then he would always be the man she remembered.

She finally set the photo aside and grabbed her phone.

“Hey, Cinderella,” Theo answered.

“Is this a bad time?” she asked.

“It’s a perfect time. I can’t sleep, either. The rain is so loud on this tin roof that it sounds like I’m under fire.”

“That thing about my thinking I’m still a witch, it’s true.”

“It doesn’t always have to be that way.” When she didn’t reply, he asked, “So how’s your grandmother?”

“I actually have her to thank for this call.”

“Do tell,” he said, curious.

“She had a tragic love story I knew nothing about until recently. It devastated her, and it ruined every relationship she had with her family afterward, all the way down to me.”

“That’s awful.”

“It is. But at the same time, for all the hurt he caused her, I get the feeling she wouldn’t trade it for anything. She said true love destroys you, but it makes you grateful to be destroyed. Sometimes I think I want to feel that way, that it would be worth it. But then I look at her now and I think, would it, really?”

Theo paused. “I don’t mean any disrespect to your grandmother, but her story has the same problem fairy tales have. They teach us that the hard thing is always the right thing, like a happily ever after is contingent on misery. But you don’t have to suffer to be happy, Bailey. Sometimes it’s not hard at all.”

Coming from him, she could almost believe it. “I got married when I was eighteen,” she said.

“I got married right after college,” he parried back.

“I was drunk. It was annulled. We’re still friends.”

“Mine lasted two years. She blocked me on Facebook and friended my mother on the same day.”

Bailey laughed and adjusted the pillow behind her neck. “I wasn’t in love with him.”

“I wasn’t in love with her, either.” He sighed. “The love of my life was in middle school.”

“Wow. You peaked early.”

“I’ll never forget the moment Dakota Doss walked into class the day after she cut her long hair. I’d always had a crush on her, but that morning it was like the world around me burst into color. I was never the same around short-haired women again.”

Her smile was so sudden and wide that it made her cheeks hurt. She felt giddy. She was actually talking to a boy on the phone in her room, like the normal, decent teenager she never was. “So you have a type.”

“I definitely have a type,” he said, his voice low. Then she heard a thud on his end, followed by an ouch.

“What are you doing?”

“I was walking to the refrigerator and tripped over a gnome statue.”