The Old House on Drury Lane

Smiling tenderly into my eyes, the man took my hand in his and turned us to face the minister.

As I realized that we were about to become man and wife, the strangest feeling came over me, like this was what I'd been waiting for my whole life.

I heard the words being said, as though from a distance, and then I was being turned to face my groom as the minister said, "William, do you take this woman, Elizabeth, to be your lawfully wedded wife?" William smiled at me, nodded and said, "I do."

Then I winced as a horrible ear-splitting sound invaded my dream. Loud and jarring, like a warning or some kind of alarm just kept buzzing and buzzing. I opened my eyes, looked around and realized it was the radio alarm going off, and it had woken Luca up, too.

"Wow, is that ever loud," he said, blinking his eyes as I reached over and turned it off. Then he looked at me, and I guess he could see something in my expression, because I still felt like I was half-dreaming. "Andi, what's wrong?"

"I was just having the most incredible dream. It was so vivid, I felt like I was really there. I was in a church, getting married to a man in an old military uniform, that I'd never seen before. But he seemed pretty happy that we were finally about to get married. But as we started to recite our vows, the alarm went off and I woke up."

He reached for my hand. "Did it scare you?"

"No, it didn't upset me, it just felt so real that it was kind of spooky."

Once I'd dressed for work, I wandered into the kitchen. Luca had coffee brewing, and had made me another lunch.

As he put the lunch bag in my hand, I said, "Luca, that's really sweet, but you don't have to keep making lunch for me."

"If I don't, knowing you, all you'll be eating all day, is something like an apple or a yogurt." He pointed at the bag. "There's a quesadilla in there that you can heat up at work. And I also put in an apple and a yogurt, so you'll have something for breakfast."

"Thank you." I pushed up on my toes, and he drew his arms around me, and we both smiled as we kissed goodbye. I had a feeling I'd be wearing the same silly grin all day at school, now that I'd finally discovered what it felt like to connect with my super sexy housemate.

Luckily, it was a busy day with lots going on, starting with a funny Halloween play being performed by the grade six students just before lunch. Then a bit of a hectic practice fire drill after that, trying to get the kids to line up and get outside with fire alarm blaring through the hallways.

Back in our classroom the kids unwound, sitting in a circle on the carpet, enjoying story time with two fall themed books. Once they'd finished talking about the books, and what they were going to wear to go out trick or treating, it was time to go home. I was busy enough, that I didn't really have much time to think of Luca - or what we might get up tonight.

I'd grabbed my purse and put on my jacket, and I was just about to turn out the lights, when Calista the librarian, poked her head in the door. "Hey Andi, Happy Halloween!"

I couldn't help but laugh, she was just so quirky, with her long dark braid trailing down her back, playful jack o lantern earrings and long flowing skirt, with rings on every finger, including her thumbs. "I hope you have a nice Halloween, too, Calista. Though, it's not for a few more days."

She looked both ways up and down the hallway, before she stepped inside and said in a hushed voice, "You'll never guess what I've got planned for All Hallows Eve."

"I'm guessing you're planning to eat a lot of candy, because you said that you never get any trick or treaters at your place."

She chuckled. "No, I mean, after I eat the candy. I am arranging and honest to goodness séance. I heard about this woman through a friend, who can actually communicate with the dead. She's so good, she even names names. I went to see her, just for fun with my sister, and we both got chills hearing her talk about the family members we'd lost, like she actually knew them. When she mentioned that my dad fell from a height, and never made it to the hospital, my sister I just stared at each other shocked, because she was right. He fell off a ladder and died on the front lawn."

"Oh, Calista, I'm sorry. I didn't know that."

"Well, it was years ago, and it was so sad, that none of us really talk about it. But somehow, this woman just knew. She even told us about his golden lab Barnie, who never left his side, that died of old age, just before my dad passed. And since my father decided to have the dog cremated, she even knew that we'd put Barnie at his feet in his coffin. And she says they're together now, in the afterlife. It was the most incredible thing I've ever sat through, hearing her recite details like that, that no one but us would know. So, I thought if anyone else was interested, Halloween would be the perfect night to see if she could help us hear from any other family or friends that we might want to hear from on the other side."

Suddenly, the vivid dream I'd had the night before with the soldier and the wedding, flashed in my head. And before I realized what I was saying, I blurted out, "If you want, we could have the séance at my house. I'd love to meet this woman, and maybe I could hear from my father." Or maybe even the spirit that seemed to be haunting my house, though I thought I'd better not mention the ghost to Calista.

"Really? You wouldn't mind? My apartment's pretty small, and I heard you'd bought a house. So, it would be great if we could have it there."

"Yeah, should be an interesting night."

Now that I was sitting in traffic, my mind started wandering back to last night and the fun Luca and I had had, both in bed and in the shower, when we finally gave in and decided just to enjoy ourselves and forget about whatever was banging around upstairs.

Stopped at a red light, I noticed a party store, and decided to pop in and get some things for the kid's loot bags.

The moment I stepped in the house, my stomach started growling. Whatever Luca was cooking just smelled so good, I hoped it was almost ready, because now I was starved.

I came up behind him at the kitchen sink and stroked my hand down his back and gave him a little squeeze. He turned around and gave me a smile. "Hey, I didn't hear you come in." Then he leaned in for a kiss and said, "Dinner's just about ready."

"Whatever it is, it smells fantastic."

As he served it up, he shrugged. "Hope you like it. It's just cod with potatoes, tomatoes, black olives white wine and lemon."

He touched his wineglass to mine, sealed it with another kiss, smiled and said, "Enjoy."

It was so delicious I couldn't believe he made it sound like something he'd just thrown together. "Luca, you have got to teach me how to make this. I swear I could eat it every day, it's just so good."

He chuckled. "I can show you how to make it. But I'm not planning on going anywhere, so I can whip it up for you whenever you want."

I grinned at back him, glad to hear that he planned to stick to around.

After we'd had a few biscotti and some fruit for dessert, I cleared everything away, and spread my loot bag stuff out for the kids.

"What's all that?" he asked, looking at the little mountain in the middle of the table.

"It's for the trick or treaters, and for my kids at school. My kids will be dressing up in costume, and we'll have a little party, just to celebrate. And before they go home, I'll hand these out."

"I can help you with that." I smirked as I watched him carefully putting the little ghost erasers, colored pencils, jack o lantern notes pads and stickers into each bag, and taping them shut. Though all of it seemed kind of small for the size of his hands. He looked over at me. "You're not giving them any candy?"

"In case of allergies, I can't give them anything that might have dairy, nuts or anything with gluten. And some of the parents never let their kids have sugar."

He shook his head. "I remember going out with my sister, and we'd get so much candy my mother would have to dole it out so we wouldn't get sick."

"When the kids come around here on Halloween, we could always put some chocolate bars in a separate bowl and let the parents decide if they want their kids to take them."

"Yeah, let's do that. I'll pick up some on my way home tomorrow."

When we'd finished making the loot bags, I put the ones for the trick or treaters in a big bowl, and the rest in a bag to take to school.

Now that that was done, I had one thing left to do, which I wasn't looking forward to. I had to tell Luca about the séance I'd agreed to host on Halloween night.

We were sitting in the living room, finishing our wine, and I looked over at him and decided I'd better just spit it out. "Calista, the librarian at our school dropped by to see me just as I was leaving tonight."

He nodded and waited to see what else I'd say.

"Well, Calista knows a lady who can communicate with the dead, and she thought it'd might be fun to have a séance on Halloween night. And..."

"And what?"

"And I offered to have it here?" I winced.

His eyebrows shot up and he put down his wine glass and turned to look at me. "Seriously? "You want to talk to whoever, or whatever it is, that's been banging around upstairs?"

I nodded. "Maybe if we do, we'll find out why it's doing what it's doing."

"Did you mention to your friend about what's been going on in here?"

I shook my head. "No. I thought the lady conducting the séance should be the one to say if we have something going on or not. But if I tell anyone ahead of time, she might just play along, if she's already been told about our situation. Then we might never find out what's going up there."

Luca looked up the ceiling. "You ever hear the expression, 'Let sleeping dogs lie?' Before I could respond, he pointed up and said, "We haven't heard a peep out of it lately, so I just hope this little gathering you're having doesn't piss it off and get it going again."

I hoped not. Otherwise, we could have a problem that even the two of us sleeping together might not solve.

Halloween night Luca called to tell me that he was going to be a bit late, because he had to see a client about a quote he'd requested.

No idea what to a wear for a séance, I went through my closet and kept pulling out things and putting them back. I didn't want to wear anything too gloomy like black, or god forbid, devilish like red. Finally, I just threw on a denim dress with some heels and hoped the spirits would be okay with it. It's not like I'd ever dressed to meet anyone from the other side before.

When I went to turn out the light in my bedroom, I realized there were two beautiful green and white throw rugs on either side of the bed. Knowing that Luca must have put them there, I could hardly wait to thank him.

I was disappointed though, that there weren't many trick or treaters ringing our doorbell, although we had our outside lights on, and paper skeletons hanging from the trees. And Luca had done an amazing job of carving our two big pumpkins, and lighting them up with candles; one a scary witch, and the other a cat with a curly tail.

Knowing that the girls would soon be arriving for the séance, I decided to put the bowls out on the veranda, so any kids who did show up, could help themselves.

Calista said they would all have dinner before they came, but I still put out a few snacks. I had wine, soda and sparkling water chilling in the fridge and coffee ready to go, so we'd have plenty to drink.

I jumped when I heard someone banging on front door, since everyone else had rung the doorbell.

Luckily, it was just Calista and her sister Penelope, both holding two big bottles of wine. Calista pointed up the street. "Everyone's here, they're just parking their cars. By the way, I don't think your door bell is working."

I tried it and she was right. It didn't make a sound. Strange.

She looked around as they stepped inside. "Gorgeous old house, though. You don't live in this big old place on your own, do you?"

"Uh, no. I've uh, got a house mate."

Once they had all arrived and we'd introduced ourselves, I led them into the dining area, and poured everyone a drink and put the snacks around the table. I don't know why I assumed that the silver-haired lady conducting the séance would have a more interesting name, something like Ophelia or Lilith rather than plain old Shirley, but she seemed pretty friendly.

I noticed as we all chatted and got to know each other that Shirley was wearing an odd little smile as she looked around. Finally, she put her wine glass down, and looked straight at me. "I felt a presence the moment I walked in here. Have you experienced anything unusual since you moved in, Andi?"

I flinched as I nodded and told her the truth. Well, some of the truth. I didn't mention that Luca and I had discovered that as long as we were sleeping together, whatever was haunting the place, would stop trying to scare the pants off us and settle down.

"Well, I guess we should get started then," Shirley said, looking around at the five of us.

I could see Ginny, Calista's cousin was shivering as she leaned and whispered to me, "I just hope nothing jumps out at us, or I'm out the door."

"I hear you," her sister agreed.

"Should we join hands?" I asked, not really sure how it worked. I noticed she wasn't using anything like a Ouija board or tarot cards. Though, from what Calista had said, she probably didn't need any props to connect to the other side.

We all looked up when suddenly the banging started. Shirley, pointed up at the ceiling and asked, "Andi, has that happened before?"

I nodded. "Yes. It's happened a few times." I noticed she didn't even ask if anyone else was home, so she probably knew it was something other-worldly making the noise.

Everyone looked a little anxious as whatever it was, just kept on banging on the floor, like it was annoyed. Now I wondered if Luca was right, and we were making it angry.

Shirley closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating, until she opened them again and looked around at us. "I'm getting a feeling that someone is upset. Sadly, they're grieving a loss. But they're also disappointed, thinking they've been deceived. And I think she's annoyed about the deception."

I didn't know what to say, since I had no idea what any of it meant.

We all looked over when Luca walked in, smiled and said, "Hi, ladies." Coming around the table, he bent and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

We looked around at each other wide-eyed as we realized that the banging stopped, the moment he'd walked in the house.

Shirley shot me a little smile. "So, I'm assuming that this young man is your, house mate?"

Luca and I smiled at each other as I nodded and said, "He is." After I'd introduced everyone, I asked, "Luca, would you like to join us?"

Holding his hands up, he shook his head, chuckling. "No, I've got some paperwork to do. But you ladies enjoy your evening."

Once he was out of earshot, Calista raised an eyebrow. "Funny, you never mentioned that you bought a house with a man, Andi."

"Didn't I? It must have slipped my mind." Everyone laughed a little at that, but we soon got back to what we were doing, before Luca had walked in and got the banging to stop.

"I probably should have mentioned that we've figured something out about, whoever it is upstairs that's been making all the noise."

When everyone turned and looked at me, I told them that initially Luca and I had planned to sleep in our own rooms, but then the freezing rain storm happened and we ended up spending the night by the fire to keep warm. I mentioned that was the first time we noticed the banging stopped once we were together, and every time after that, the same thing happened.

"Does the name Elizabeth mean anything to you?" Shirley asked. Shocked, I felt chills run up my spine as I remembered that in my dream the minister had called me Elizabeth. I told her about the dream, and she slowly began to nod her head.

"Then I think we've identified the woman whose spirit inhabits this house. And I can feel that she suffered a loss, that she never recovered from, despite living to a ripe old age," Shirley explained.

I could hardly believe what she was saying. "The agent that sold us the house said the woman who had the renovations done was quite old when she died."

"Wow," Penelope muttered under her breath, as she topped up her wine. "This shit's getting real."

Then I remembered about the little witch and wondered if it had anything to do with our resident ghost. When I told Shirley how freaked-out I was when it seemed to have moved on its own, she surprised us with the way she smiled.

"Spirits have been known to use things like your little witch, sometimes just to scare us, but most often to make us take notice, or let us know that they're watching us, or even to let us know that they're happy with whatever's going on. The last family I worked with had a creaky old rocking chair that their spirit would rock in the middle of the night, keeping them awake, since the poor soul that owned the house before them, never had a proper burial. After I explained why it was happening, the family decided to visit their grave and say a few prayers. And after that, the rocking stopped."

Calista reached for the wine and topped up her glass. "Okay, now this is really getting spooky."

"And the young man in your dream was named William," Shirley stated, rather than asked. "He was the man that Elizabeth was destined to marry. But sadly, he died in some kind of conflict. And Elizabeth never got over the loss."

I nodded as I thought back. "In my dream, William was wearing an old military uniform."

Penelope tossed the rest of her wine, and muttered, "Should we really be doing this on Halloween?"

"You don't have to worry. No one will hurt us. We're all safe here," Shirley assured us.

Eventually, Shirley turned her attention to the rest of the group and told them things about their departed loved ones, that had them all amazed. Ginny looked pretty shocked when Shirley told her that her toy poodle Gi Gi, that got hit by a car last year was happy and playing with her grandmother, who adored her.

Ginny nodded. "My grandmother was crazy about animals. And Gi Gi got so excited whenever she saw her, because my gran loved to spoil her."

Shirley patted my knee, and smiled. "And you should know that your father is at peace, and very proud of his five daughters and the wonderful job your mother did raising you." I got a lump in my throat, just thinking about my dad. Though it was nice to hear that he was in a good place, and seemed to be watching down on us.

Then Shirley heaved a long sigh, and looked around at us. "I hope this evening has been helpful, at least for some of you. But I get a little weary connecting with so many souls, so I think I should be going now."

We all walked her to the door and thanked her. Not long after, everyone said goodnight and left, probably happy to get out of my haunted house.

After I cleaned up, I went and changed into a nightie and brushed my teeth. Though Luca was already sound asleep in my bed, I noticed that he'd turned down the covers on my side for me. I smiled when he reached for my hand and wrapped it in his, though he never woke up.

In the morning, by the time I was ready for work, Luca was already gone. But I thought the note he left me was pretty sweet.

'Sorry, I had to head out early. Your lunch is in the fridge, and the coffee's made. Hope you have a good day. And I'll see you tonight, Sugar Lips. xox Luca.'

On my way home that night, when I'd stopped to get gas, I could feel my phone humming in my pocket. When I checked the display, I wondered why Lacy, the real estate agent would be phoning me.