CHAPTER THREE
“Are you sure you don’t want to change your mind?” Jess’s mother asked for the millionth time. “Our last family vacation before you go off to school?” Her eyes darted away from Allison, who had officially become Jess’s new roommate.
Ignoring her mother’s repeated plea for Jess to leave with them, Jess plunked her suitcase down on the bed closest to the window. Allison sat on her own bed, absently staring into space, her suitcases still untouched against the wall.
The room was a good size, plenty big enough for two girls to share, which Jess thought was saying something. She unzipped her suitcase and pulled out several pairs of shorts and placed them in one of the dresser drawers. “Nice room.”
“It used to be a playroom for the Silers’ daughters,” the maid who had shown Jess and her mother to the room informed them. “If there’s nothing else…”
It was close to five o’clock, and Jess imagined the woman wanted to finish her chores before leaving.
“No. I’m good. Thanks,” Jess replied.
“There’s a nightlight in the bathroom, and one for the room, should you need them,” the maid added.
“Thanks,” Jess replied, as anxious for her to leave as she clearly was. For that matter, she was also ready for her mother to leave.
The maid nodded as she briskly walked across the room to the door. “Take care. Sleep well. My shift’s ending and I must be going.” Her mother opened her mouth in protest, but the maid was already out the door and halfway down the hall.
With the woman gone, her mother examined the room as though everything about it might be part of some test. She paid particular attention to the lock on the door.
“Mrs. Hirsch has the keys,” Allison informed her.
“Mrs. Hirsch?” Jess’s mother inquired.
Allison nodded. “I think she’s the head housekeeper or something. She was here, right before you came up. She said she’ll be living here with us. She’s staying downstairs on the second floor with Dr. Brandt and the guys.”
Allison wiped at her red, watery eyes, an indicator she’d been crying before Jess showed up. She still couldn’t believe the way Allison’s aunt had acted. Jess glanced at her mother, who was busy checking the window latch. “I’ll be fine, Mom. Really. Okay? Every couple of days the maids come in, and there’s Mrs. Hirsch. She’ll be here the whole time. Allison and I will be nice and safe up here—alone. Right, Allison?” Jess wanted to bring up that she was eighteen after all, but decided against it.
“Alone,” Allison muttered morosely. Whatever had happened between her and her aunt must have been really something. Allison’s shoulders were slumped and her hair needed brushing. She hardly seemed like someone to be afraid of—instead, she was more like someone who needed a friend.
Her mother stood, hesitating. “Well, if you’re sure…”
Jess gave her mother a hug. “Yes! I’m sure. Paul will think you’re staying, too, if you don’t hurry up. One month, Mom. It’s just one month. I’ll be home before college starts. We’ll have plenty of time together then.”
Her mother managed a weak smile. “Don’t forget to put your phone on charge. You’re always forgetting—”
“I’ll put my phone on charge,” Jess sighed. “I promise. Now, go before Paul comes up here looking for you.”
“One month. Unless you call us before then. Maybe I should go find Mrs. Hirsch. I’d like to at least meet her before we leave.” Her mother straightened her blouse and left, leaving Jess alone with her sullen roommate.
Allison stared after Jess’s mother for a moment, making the silence between them seem awkward. Jess got up and went to the window. The Red Room, as the sign on the hallway door indicated, had been aptly named. The wall with the window had been painted a vermillion red. The curtains matched their bedspreads, white with red vines. The room overlooked the back lawn.
“Moms,” Jess said, turning away from the window. “What she really means is she’s going to tell Mrs. Hirsch that I’m prone to imagination and...” Jess faltered. She didn’t know Allison well enough to tell her she’d been on medication for a supposed nervous breakdown. Not that she agreed with the doctors. They just didn’t understand. But maybe Allison would.
Jess sighed and flopped onto her bed, deciding that nothing she had to say could come close to the embarrassment Allison had suffered downstairs. “No one believes me. Not even when I told them about a small candy box with some money inside it that Grams had stashed in a dresser drawer before she died. Mom said I must have just forgotten that Grams had already told me or something.”
“At least she loves you,” Allison replied. “Your mother is here. Mine isn’t. My father, either. They had me put away for a while. A mental hospital.”
Wow, Jess thought. Allison went one step further than she had. That had to be rough. A mental hospital? When Jess had been seeing the psychiatrist, she’d worried that he would recommend a mental hospital for a short time, too. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Allison stated without raising her head. “We’ve never been close, even before all this. My parents are traveling, so I’ve been staying with my aunt and uncle the past week. But, they’re all afraid of me.” Allison began picking at her fingernails, which were already too short.
“Well, I’m not afraid of you,” Jess said. “I think people who are different than us are afraid, sometimes. But, I’m sure they’ll come around.”
“I’m classified as borderline schizophrenic,” Allison announced casually. “Unless you want to consider the full-on alternative to that diagnosis. Anyway, we’ve got some real family issues going on. But who doesn’t, right? Looks like you’ve got some issues with your mom. But it’s nothing like the relationship I have with mine. So, you really think I’m like you?”
Jess shrugged. “Well, sure. I mean, we’re all here for the same reason, right? An experiment on the paranormal. Ghosts.” Jess didn’t want to address the schizophrenia diagnosis, which she found a bit disconcerting. But given her own experience with psychiatrists, she decided to give Allison a chance.
“You see ghosts?” Allison asked, almost as if she was relieved.
Jess nodded. “Yeah. Do you?”
Allison stared blankly at her, making Jess wonder if her new roommate was on some major meds or was really just that strange.
“It used to freak me out,” Jess continued. “But I’m sort of used to it now. Sorry about your family. Like Dr. Brandt said, it’s because they don’t understand. I mean, it’s sort of creepy.”
“I’m afraid of me,” Allison blurted out, tears beginning to stream down her face again. “I thought it might all be over, but this place! I’m... I’m scared. Terrified, actually. I think my family wants something to happen to me. I think they want me put away somewhere permanently. Not that they cared before this, but now? This place?” She shifted her position on the bed, and took a steadying breath. “Sorry. TMI, right? I don’t know you, and you probably don’t want to hear all this. But I don’t have anyone to talk to usually, and I feel like I’m all alone. Sort of. I mean, I don’t think we’re really by ourselves here.” She swiped at her cheeks and let out a halfhearted laugh. “I sound crazy.”
Allison might be afraid, but she was hardly crazy. She’d been through a lot, apparently. Still, weren’t they all considered a little crazy, as Allison had put it, for believing in ghosts and stuff to begin with? Jess shrugged. “Well, yeah. A tiny bit. Which means you’re probably at least as sane as I am. So, we see ghosts. Looks like we’ve got something in common.”
Allison managed a weak but genuine smile. “Sure. Ghosts. I guess a few ghosts wouldn’t be all that bad.”