The Guidance

chapter Twenty

"What happened, Major?"

"Can you see him, Kendall?" Taylor asks softly.

I nod. So does Loreen. I don't know if she can see him as plainly as I can, but I know she senses his presence.

Nathan Fair growls in my direction. He's taller than I am, but the hazards and wear of war have made him hunch over slightly. He seems dirty and sad and ... lost. Does he even know he's dead? That the war was finished a century and a half ago? How do you convey that to a spirit stuck in time?

"What do you mean, what happened?" he snarls beneath his mustache. " War's been happening, child! Death and starvation and weeklong marches. Pestilence and dysentery and blood and dismemberment. Men killing men without a thought about what the other may have left behind. Armies rising and falling. Women with no husbands returning. Babies with no fathers. Losing years of youthful days and love in your life."

Fury emanates from him toward me, and I feel each surge of his wrath hit me like a radioactive wave. I've encountered several spirits these past couple of months and none has had this amount of resentment and negative energy.

I close my eyes and try to breathe out love and understanding to him. "What can we do to ease this anger inside you? The turmoil that you've been taking out on Courtney."

He glances over his shoulder at where she sits, huddled on the ground, whimpering.

"She opened herself up to me."

"I understand that," I say, trying to be diplomatic. "But oppressing her like you've been doing isn't right. She's just a teenager and you're making her act the fool in front of the whole school."

"That was her choice."

"She didn't know any better," I plead. "She was jealous of me for a really stupid reason."

"I saw an opening and I took it."

Loreen steps up next to me. "Ask him about Ada."

Fair lurches forward, suddenly on my left, then my right, then straight on. "What about Ada? What do you know? Nothing!"

I take one of those long yoga breaths Mom's always telling about and I center my energies so I can focus solely on Nathan Fair. I've got to remain calm—and not freakin' pee my pants like I pretty much want to do. "We—my friends and I—we read Ada's diaries. They just ... end ... as if you ... just ended."

Furiously, Fair pulls his cap off and throws it to the ground. "Oh? Is that what her diary implies? Does it also say that Ada didn't wait for me?"

"Huh?"

His voice roars like the engine of a 747 whooshing away from Chicago's O'Hare. "She got married!"

I spin to face Becca and Jason. "Ada got married?"

Jason shakes his head. "I didn't read that."

"Neither did I," Becca adds.

Miss Evelyn speaks up. "Why, yes, she married. I could have told you that. The family Bible has her name as Ada Parry Kenney."

"Kenney!" Fair screams out so powerfully that I jump.

"That struck a nerve," I say as my pulse strums under my skin. "Who is Kenney, Major Fair? Did you know him?"

Becca moves her digital voice recorder in the direction of where I'm speaking. I hope she gets some of this! Taylor's taking pictures left and right. I have to ignore their investigative work and give my full attention to the spirit before me and the electrifying connection flowing between the two of us.

"Yes, I knew the bastard. His rank was colonel, but his status was weasel."

Now we're getting somewhere. "Was Kenney in your unit?"

"Aye. Colonel James Kenney from Connecticut," Major Fair explains as he strokes his beard. "At one time, I considered him a friend—before I left Radisson, that is."

While they're working, the rest of my team is on pins and needles listening to the one-sided conversation. I fill them in the best I can. I soften my voice and meet Fair's eyes with mine. "See my friend over here? That's Stephanie. She's Ada's great-great-great-granddaughter."

"Lovely child," he comments after a moment.

"What did he say?" asks Stephanie.

"He said you're pretty."

Her face reddens. "Oh. Thanks."

I face him again. "Tell me about Ada, Major. We all want to know."

This request seems to soothe him some. He takes three paces to the left and stares out of the lace-curtained window like he's reliving a precious memory. "Ada was a strong woman on the outside, but I saw into her soul, to the fragile and frightened girl. It was wartime. What do women know of war?"

I decide not to tell him that our armed forces have been letting women in since the mid-1960s and women are now going to war just like men. Not information he necessarily needs to know.

"But you were there for her. You showed her great kindness," I tell him.

"I tried." Fair's eyes are distant as he remembers the woman he loved. "Her hair was so thick and soft. Delicate ladylike hands that could dance over the piano keyboard with such care. Those hands became rough as she constantly waited on us and worked to grow any food she could in the garden for her father and sister."

I smile at him. "She mentions in her diary that you brought vegetables to her."

"That I did."

I hate to rile him up when he seems unruffled right now. However, I've got to piece this puzzle together and get Fair to move along. "Sir? Without getting too upset, can you please tell me about this Kenney guy?"

Loreen puts her hand on my arm. "The energy in the room just shifted. I feel something dark and brooding again."

"I heard a growl," Becca says.

Celia agrees. "Was that someone's stomach?"

No one fesses up.

I watch Fair fist his hands at his sides, the knuckles losing all color.

"Kenney was my friend. We fought side by side. We drank whiskey together. We celebrated the fall of Atlanta together. And we both ended up here in Radisson. Kenney knew I was in love with Ada. Hell, everyone knew. I couldn't keep it to myself. The morning that I was instructed to head east to Savannah, well, it damn near broke my heart. Hers too. She wanted to come with me. Of course, that was impossible. Kenney promised me he'd watch out for Ada until I returned. He watched out for her, all right," he says through his clenched teeth, seething.

I relay this to my team. Taylor sniffles at the sadness of the tale. Celia steps forward. "How long was he in Savannah?"

Fair hears her. "I had no sense of time without Ada. It was days, weeks, months—who knows? I wrote her constantly. Every night, in fact."

"Did you hear back from her?" I ask, careful where I'm treading.

"No. My heart was broken, thinking something had happened to her because I was gone. I trusted my fellow soldiers, but they're only men in a desperate time. I feared for her sanctity and her virtue although Kenney assured me he'd watch out for her. Had something become of him that he could no longer protect my Ada?"

My chest aches at the colossal pressure and loss of love Nathan Fair is experiencing. It's hard even to catch a good strong breath for fear the searing air won't properly fill my lungs. This is such total sadness. There really isn't a bigger word for it. Like a death ... sorrow, misery, grief ... any of these words will do.

Loreen moves her hand over her chest and doubles over with a groan. Next thing I know, Father Mass is at her side. Her face is contorted in pain and tears stream from her eyes.

"I've never felt such despair," she says between quick breaths.

"Loreen, what can I do to help?" Father Mass asks.

She doesn't answer; she grabs his hand and holds on tightly. "It'll pass. He knows I'm stronger than Kendall and he's testing me. Testing all of us."

"Come on, Major. Leave Loreen alone!" I shout out. "We're here to get to the bottom of everything."

At that, Loreen's knees collapse and she falls into Father Massimo's arms. She continues to hold his hand as her breathing returns to normal. "He showed me everything," she manages to get out. "He went crazy with worry for Ada, to the point that he went AWOL from the army."

"Holy crap," Celia exclaims.

I notice Loreen lean into Father Mass and put her head on his chest. He shushes into her hair, pushing it away from her face. She continues though. "H-h-he stole a fellow officer's horse and rode for a week to Radisson with hardly any food or water. By the time he got here, he was completely mad. H-h-he saw that Ada was married ... to Kenney. Fair took his pistol and was going to shoot Kenney, but it backfired in Fair's face and killed him instantly."

I slink away, my own knees wobbly, and sit on a nearby chair to collect myself. The team is taking in this information as Loreen regains her composure. Fair has faded away, but he's not gone. I still sense his essence plainly. I guess we all need a break.

Taylor reaches into the hip pocket of her jeans and pulls out a small pack of Kleenex. She dabs her eyes with one and then passes them to Becca.

"Are you kidding me?" Becca shakes her off and puts the headphones on. "I don't know what exactly the two of you were talking to, but the recording software is picking up shit left and right. We've probably got a ton of EVPs on here."

I will my erratic heartbeat to calm the hell down. "That's good."

Celia's face is buried in her computer screen; the light blue glow highlights her features. "The whole time you were talking to him, the barometric pressure was slowly dropping, as was the room temperature."

"It's freezing in here," a quiet and removed Stephanie whispers.

"Yeah, I feel it too," Jason adds. I can see chill bumps on his bare arms, and I know that Fair isn't far away.

I steady myself for the next wave of information and interaction. "Major? Nathan?"

Nothing.

I stare down at my feet as a swell of roiling emotion coats me in a cloak of unhappiness. I suppress the urge to cry like a baby, tamp down the hot tears that threaten behind my eyes. "You can't stay here, Major. You have to move on."

Through all of this, Courtney sits perfectly still, staring as the events unfold around her. She's quietly bawling too. Red splotches cover her pretty face, and her eyes are absolutely bloodshot. Her breathing is shallow and staggered. Is this her, or is it Fair? I can't tell anymore.

I am sure about one thing, a fact that stands at the forefront of my thoughts, though who put it there, I don't know. What I do know is that Major Nathan Fair is still stuck around the Crawford manor here on Crow Lane because he took his own life.

He has a century and a half of unfinished business that he must understand before he can be at peace. "You can't keep doing this. You can't stay around anymore. This isn't right for the people who live in this house. It's not fair to torture people because your life fell apart and you killed yourself."

"It wasn't like that," he roars.

I don't back down though. "You've got to move on, Major. Leave. Courtney. Alone."

He appears behind her and strokes her hair. "I can't do that. She invited me in. And she reminds me so much of my Ada. So young. So lost. She needs me."

I tell the team, "He says he's staying with Courtney because she reminds him of Ada."

"That explains a lot," Celia notes.

I take a step in Fair's direction. "I really must insist that you leave Courtney alone. She doesn't want you around anymore. She asked for our help."

"No, she didn't. She's just like Ada. She needs punishing. Ada has to pay for not staying loyal to me and our love. I've been waiting for so long for someone to invite me in." His voice isn't growling now; rather, it's quite melancholy, as if he doesn't actually want to hurt Ada at all.

Loreen must hear him again because she says, "The girl isn't Ada and she no longer wants you around."

Miss Evelyn bursts into the room and hands something to Becca. "I couldn't stand watching what y'all were doing so I went up in the attic to see if there was anything else I could find. This was wedged between two old trunks."

"What is it?" Taylor asks.

"It's another one of Ada's journals," Becca explains.

Celia rushes to Becca. "Let's see." She carefully thumbs through the pages. "This one's from the time after Major Fair left."

The major slides away from Courtney and makes his way to the other side of the room. I follow his every motion while Becca and Taylor speed-read the diary.

Taylor gasps at one particular entry and puts her hand to her throat. "Oh, bless her heart. She was told that Major Fair died on the way to Savannah!"

He growls, "What?"

"Give me a minute," Becca says. She's a horrendously fast reader, so we can get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later.

"I need water," I say to Jason.

"I'm on it."

Ten minutes later, Becca lets out a huge sigh. "Okay, so here's the deal. Ada Parry married James Kenney because he said Fair had wanted it that way if anything happened to him. Kenney told Ada that Fair died, and also intercepted every letter that was sent to her. She was completely miserable in her marriage with him after she found out the truth."

I'm somehow relieved to hear this. To know that the special love that Ada and Nathan shared wasn't just a fleeting thing.

Becca continues. Fair is directly behind her, listening keenly. "She was convinced that Nathan was dead, so life meant nothing to her anymore. After she agreed to marry Kenney, for safety's sake more than anything, she heard him bragging to one of his fellow soldiers one night that he had only married her for her family's land and to 'one-up that bastard Fair.'"

"I'll kill him with my bare hands," Fair snarls.

"Um, he's already dead," I say. "Anything else, Becca?"

"Yeah ... and he ain't gonna like this."

From the expression on his face, she's right. "Go ahead."

"Kenney was the one who signed the order for Fair to be sent to Savannah, away from Ada."

With that, every door in the house slams shut and I hear Fair howl to the rafters.