Chapter 38

ATLANTA, A miracle happened in the morning.

Jennifer sang Leonard Bernstein's "Hallelujah" while she poured herself a bowl of cereal. 

Phillip gave her a compliment!

"It's wonderful to have a wife with such a beautiful voice," he said as he came over and squeezed her.

She could hardly believe what she heard. She was so in shock that she stopped singing.

Phillip put his hand gently on her chin and turned her face toward his own. He kissed her, and she tasted orange juice.

What was happening?

Oh, who cared! It was wonderful!

He pressed against her and cupped her breast with his hand. She felt his hardness against her stomach.

She looked around, making sure Taylor wasn’t too nearby.

"I believe Taylor's busy exercising," he said.

Oh yeah. She was out for a walk. Good. 

He got back to kissing her. Then he took her hand that was resting on his back and moved it downward and towards his front.

She loved his hardness.

He unzipped his shorts, and she reached in to find his...wonderful thing. 

He groaned as she gently squeezed and stroked.

All was going well until she remembered Trisha. What if she was watching?

Jennifer pulled her hands out from her husband's pants.

"Don't stop" he said in a husky voice.

"Sorry," she said. "I was just thinking. What if someone's watching?"

"Who'd be watching?" he realized what she was talking about and laughed. "Oh. You mean an EB?"

She nodded.

"I think by now we'd know if we had one in this house." He cupped her breast again and directed her hand back to his crotch. "And it's a bit ignorant to think we should all stop making love simply because there might be perverted EB's watching."

He was right.  She was being foolish. And Trisha was respectful about privacy. She wouldn't stick around to watch.

Jennifer got back to work. She did some more with her hand. Then he lowered his shorts and she got on her knees.

 *** 

They took it to the bedroom.

Jennifer clung to Phillip as she had her orgasm. She loved him so much. She wanted to stay here all day like this.

It wasn’t going to happen, though. She understood that. He had to work.

But there was some good news.. He had told her he was working from home today. So maybe there would be time later for more of this. He'd need to take a break at some point.

"I bet you’re counting the days until Arthur comes home," Phillip said as he pulled away from her and climbed out of bed.

"I am," Jennifer said. Then she counted the days in her head. It was six days, including today. “It would be wonderful to have him in the house again. "How long do you think he'll stay?"

"I don't know," Phillip said. "I can open doors for him but then it's up to him. He might not get the part."

This made Jennifer curious. "Do you think he's good enough?"

"He's not bad," Phillip said. "But, unfortunately, it's a competitive business. There's a lot of people who are better. It's just the way of things. The important thing is he'll be home. Won't it be wonderful to have all our children here again?”

"Yes," Jennifer said.

He looked down at her, lying in the bed. "Are you going to get up, or are you planning to sleep all day?

She decided it would be nice to have more. "Why don't you come back in here with me."

He looked annoyed for a moment but then that look quickly vanished. "You know I'd love to, but I have a lot of work to do."

" I know."  She reached out and grabbed his hand. She pulled him to her, trying to get his face near her own.  He resisted, and all she could manage was to get his forearm near her mouth. She gave it a peck.

He blew her a kiss; then pulled out of her grasp. "I need to get to work."

 ***

Phillip was in his office downstairs, so Jennifer felt it was safe to talk to Trisha upstairs in her office.

She wouldn’t be heard.

Well, wait. No. Taylor was probably back from her walk.

Was she?

Jennifer walked upstairs. She had to pass Taylor's room to get to the office.

The door was closed.

 Jennifer knocked.

"Come in!" Taylor said.

Jennifer opened the door, and stepped in to find Taylor doing exercises with a medicine ball. Phillip had bought it for her a few days ago.

"Are you liking that?"

"Yeah," Taylor said. "It's great."

"Are you doing okay?" Jennifer asked..

 "Yeah."

 "Are you excited about Arthur coming home?”

"Yeah. Are you?"

 Well, this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. But Jennifer was satisfied that she at least made the effort. And at least they weren’t fighting like some mothers and daughters often do.

"I'll let you get back to it," Jennifer said.

"Okay," Taylor said cheerfully.

Jennifer gave her daughter a small wave; then went into the office.

She closed the door and decided to stop being paranoid about Taylor hearing her. She probably wouldn’t; and if she did, why would she pay attention? Jennifer had talked to Trisha before when not alone in the house. She hadn’t been as nervous then as she was now. Why?

Jennifer thought about it and came up with the answer: Secrets grow as they age. The fact that they had an EB in their house was initially a small secret, but now that Jennifer had kept that from her family for so many months, it had turned into quite a big secret.

How would she manage to explain her secrecy?

Anyway, she was still worried. Yet now, at least, she didn’t have to worry about not having an adequate enough reason for her worrying.

***

She FaceTimed Trisha. 

Trisha was full of smiles. "So…" she giggled.

Jennifer blushed. "You didn't…."

"Of course not! I left after the first kiss began."

 "Good."

 "You're blushing."

"Well, I can't just turn it off!"

"So did it go much beyond kissing?"

The blushing continued. "Much beyond," Jennifer said.

Trisha laughed, and Jennifer laughed with her.

Then Trisha stopped laughing. She put her fingers on her lips, motioning for Jennifer to be quiet. 

Jennifer assumed it was Taylor she worried about.

"I hear something." Trisha said. "I'll be right back." She vanished from the screen.

Jennifer was left alone.

 ***

Jennifer expected Trisha to come right back, so she just sat there staring at the screen. Waiting.

But she didn’t come back right away.

Jennifer used the time to check her email.

There were photos from Brenda, her sister's Australian mother-in-law. That woman was always sending photos. Yes, Jennifer enjoyed seeing pictures of her niece. But come on. Enough was enough.

We have…. Mia at the restaurant!  Mia next to the famous TV twins! Mia playing Apples to Apples! Mia wearing the sweater I knitted for her! A Selfie of Mia and me. It was somewhat sweet but also a little pathetic. Some people shared a bit too much.

There was an email from Loretta.

G'Day Sis! I just saw this article yesterday. Someone sent me a link. It's from a few weeks ago, so I'm assuming you and Phillip have already seen it. Then again, if you did, you would have probably sent me a link. How did we both miss it? Anyway as you will see, Mom has been busy! 

Jennifer clicked on the link and found herself on a website called Together At Last! Together Forever!  She skimmed the page and read that her mother was worried about some type of evil thing. Phillip should probably know about this.

 *** 

Jennifer screamed when she went downstairs, because her husband was lying facedown on the floor. 

He quickly lifted his head.

She stared at him as he pulled himself into a sitting position.

"Why are you screaming?"

"I…uh…thought something had happened to you."

He laughed and took her hand. He pulled her down, so she was sitting on the couch. He stayed on the floor, so she was looking down at him. "We're doing an exercise."

"Exercise?" And who was we?

"There's something I need to explain to you," he said. "And I think you're ready now."

"Okay."

He got up and sat next to her on the couch.

She decided then that if he was sharing with her, she should share with him. "Phillip, I have something to tell you too."

He looked surprised. "All right? You go first."

"I have an EB. I mean we have one. She stays here. She's been with me since I was a child. She was murdered in our house in Madison. She contacted me on Twitter in the very beginning. I was going to tell you, but I don't know why I didn't. I'm really sorry. It's just…."

He laughed. "That's all?"

Jennifer was very relieved he wasn’t angry "

That's fine," he said. Then his jovial expression switched to a stern one. "I don't know why you felt the need to keep it a secret. It's not exactly reasonable of you. But let's let bygones be bygones."

"Thanks," she said, feeling relieved and somewhat stung at the same time.

"Now I'll tell you my news."

"Okay."

"I'm sure you've been dying to know more about what I announced at the picnic." 

"Yes!" she said.

"Well...how can I best explain it?"

"I don't know."

He thought for a moment. "There are certain people in the world who are gifted. I mean spiritually." He chuckled a bit. "It turns out you're married to one of them."

"Wow. "Really? That's great!"

"They call us Yanjaeloss."

Yan what? Well. Whatever. She kept listening.

"Some of the traits we have are high intelligence, intuition. A lot of times we're successful. I won't deny that the majority of my success comes from working very hard. But having these certain special gifts will often lead us in the right directions. Does that make sense?"

Jennifer barely understood him, but she'd get it eventually. She nodded..

"What I've learned is that the reason the internet–gift happened is because of the Yanjaeloss. Recently, when some of them died, they caused an opening."

Jennifer was completely lost, but she tried to hide it.

"Let me backup," he said. "Another trait of the Yanjaelos is that we're a sort of…I guess the best way to describe it is….Well, we're gate openers. There's a wall between the living and dead. We can break through it, and we can break it down for everyone else."

"Oh." That's the best Jennifer could do in terms of a response.

"Other Yanjaeloss have broken down the first wall. Now it's up to me to break things down further." 

"That's why you were lying down?"

"Yes," Phillip said.

"Well, what's that about?"

Phillip looked tense for a moment. "It's just part of it." 

"Oh." She got the sense that he himself might not know what it was about. The tension faded from his face, and he grinned. "You know. I just thought of something."

"What?" 

“Well, I presume it's because you live with me that you got in touch with your EB friend so early on."

Oh! Wow. She smiled at Phillip. "That's pretty great. I guess I should thank you then."

"No," he said. "I don't need thanks. I'm just happy to know I brought you some happiness. You know seeing you happy is my inspiration for everything."

 He was so sweet. She reached over and kissed him. He kissed her back but not as passionately as before. 

"So, what's your friend's name again?"

"Trisha," she said it somewhat shyly—almost giggling.

"Hi there, Trisha!" Phillip called out. Then to Jennifer "Do you think she's here now?" 

A giggle burst out of Jennifer.

He smiled at her. "Well, Trisha. I'm glad to officially welcome you to the Jenson family!" Then he said to Jennifer. "Imagine this…if you can. Soon we'll see your Trisha right in the room with us. We won't have to use a computer screen."

"That's amazing," Jennifer said. "And wonderful."

"Yes, wonderful." 

She was very thrilled. That being said, there was a tiny part of her that was a little bit not…thrilled.  There was something about having Trisha as her secret friend. Now that it was out in the open… Well, she felt like she had lost something.

"It's going to be great," Phillip said. He puts his arm around Jennifer. She rested her head against his shoulder. Then she remembered the article. She started to tell him about it. He looked preoccupied. He didn’t seem to be listening which hurt her a bit, and it didn’t seem very fair.  She always listened to him.

But…no. 

She understood. He was busy. He had a lot on his mind 

"So what do you think?" she asked, mostly to see if he had listened at all. But also, she wanted his opinion.

"About?"

"My mom."

"And this Arcide thing?" he said.

Oh! So he had been listening. More than she thought.

"You know what I think?"

"What?"

"I think your mother hates me for some reason. Why? I'll never understand. I was never anything but kind and generous to her. Maybe it has something to do with jealousy. Your father left her, and maybe she hates that her daughter has a stable marriage."

Jennifer almost gasped. She had never considered that before, but it made sense.

"I hate to say this, but I can now understand why your father left. Though I can't support the fact that he also abandoned his daughters."

Jennifer nodded, touched by his words.

 "I also think she was very jealous of my success. Her business never really went anywhere. There are those who fail and hate to see others succeed. They're horribly spiteful."

"You're probably right," Jennifer said.

"As for the Arcide, I think it's a figment of your mother's imagination. A way to get back at me. Or at least it's an exaggeration." He paused for a second and sighed. "Oh, and Jennifer. I really hate to say this, but maybe your mother just wants to be free of all of us. I know it's a very painful thing to consider, but some people see death as a way to get away from the living. For them, it's not a blessing to be able to return and communicate."

It did hurt a bit, but Jennifer appreciated Phillip's frankness.

"Instead of admitting she's like her ex-husband in terms of abandonment, she created a reason for not wanting to communicate." Phillip pulled Jennifer close and kissed her cheek. "It's okay, though. You have me. You have so much. And you never know. One day your mother might come to her senses."

 ***

Later when Phillip was asleep on the couch, Jennifer went upstairs and FaceTimed Trisha.

"Did you hear?" she asked.

"Yes," Trisha said.

Jennifer couldn’t tell if Trisha was okay with it all. "I mean Phillip knows about you now. I hope you don't mind. I just thought it was best we don't have secrets."

"It's fine," Trisha said; though she didn’t seem overjoyed.

 "Good!" Jennifer said.

"About before," Trisha said.

"What?"

"Remember I heard noises."

"Oh yeah." Jennifer had forgotten about that. 

"There were a lot of EB's downstairs with Phillip."

Jennifer wasn’t  surprised. It made sense. He had been doing that strange lying down exercise and said they were working on something. The "they"must be EB's. "Yes, they're working on a big project." 

"Okay," Trisha said. "I just wanted to make sure." She thought for a moment; then said. "Oh! Does this involve the thing that Phillip was talking about—you being able to see me without the computer?" 

"Yes," Jennifer said.

Trisha didn’t say anything. She looked nervous, picking on her lips with her fingers.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. Nothing."

Jennifer wasn’t  in the mood for this. Trisha was being too coy. Melodramatic.  Jennifer was not going to bite. "Well, I should get to bed," she said.

"I don't know if I trust those EB's," Trisha said.

"They're fine." Jennifer assured her.

"Well, some of them had a scent."

"A scent?"

"They stink."

When Jennifer didn’t respond, Trisha asked, "Wait. Do I smell?"

"Not at all," Jennifer said.

 Trisha gave a small laugh. "Good. For a moment I got worried. Maybe all of us smell? You know." 

Jennifer smiled at her friend. "You don't stink. No need to worry."

 ***

 Jennifer was almost asleep when Phillip came into the room.

She opened her eyes and watched him for a moment. Then she whispered. "I love you."

"I love you too." He came over and kissed her on the forehead.

She realized she wanted more than that and told him so.

"Honey. I'd love to. But I'm exhausted. It's been a really long day."

 Jennifer was stung by the rejection, but she tried not to show it. "That's fine. Maybe tomorrow then."

"I look forward to it," Phillip said. She watched him walk away, into their bathroom. He turned on the bathroom light which also brightened their bedroom.

She had lost her sleepiness and figured she'd just wait until he was back and the lights were off to try to sleep again.

Or…maybe he'd change his mind and make love to her.

She heard the buzzing of his electric toothbrush; then the sound of him gargling mouthwash. 

She thought about his tongue in her mouth. She laughed quietly to herself, thinking about how she had hated French kissing when she was young. She couldn't understand the point of this tongue-wrestling. But then she met Phillip, and her feelings had completely changed.

Phillip came into the room. "You look happy," he said.

"I was just thinking about how much I love you."

 "And I love you." Phillip said. "Isn't it wonderful to know that we never have to give up this love. We're together forever."

"It's wonderful," Jennifer agreed.

He climbed into bed with her. She cuddled in close to him and was disappointed to find only softness against the back of her thigh. She resisted the temptation to try to change that.

"Speaking of eternity and all that," Phillip said. "How's Trisha? I assume you spoke to her this evening."

Jennifer found herself still bothered by the fact that he now knew about Trisha. She wished she hadn't told him. This feeling was wrong of her, though. He had a right to know. It really wasn’t nice for women to have secrets from their husbands.

"Does she know about the upcoming developments?" Phillip asked.

"Yeah," Jennifer said.. "She heard."

"I bet she's really excited about it."

 Jennifer then thought of what Trisha said. It was nothing, probably. Still, in the spirit of stopping the secrets, she should tell Phillip. "So—" she said.

 "What?" 

"Trisha happened to see some of the people you were working with this afternoon."

"Did she?"

Was he angry? Annoyed? Jennifer couldn’t tell. "Yes, I hope that's okay. She wasn't snooping. She's not like that. I think she just heard noises and wanted to check it out."

Phillip laughed, somewhat harshly. "And that's not snooping?"

"I'm sorry," Jennifer said quickly. "You're right. It was inappropriate. I'll have a talk with her. She needs to understand that you have important work, and some of it's very confidential."

Phillip laughed again; this time not harshly. "Relax! Hey, you know it's not a big deal at all. It's reasonable for her to be curious."

"Are you sure?" Jennifer asked

"Trust me," he said.

"Okay." Should she bring up the smell? Yes, she probably should. It might mean something. It was doubtful, but you never knew.. "Trisha said some of the EB's had an odor. I think she's worried. Well, I mean. Maybe you should just be aware of it. It's probably nothing. But…."

"She wanted to warn us."

"Yes." 

"Well, you can tell Trisha to relax. I already know about the smell."

"You do?"

 "Yes, I can smell them myself. That's the thing about us…Yanjaeloss. We can perceive things that other living entities cannot. Some Yanjaeloss can actually see the dead. Did you know that?"

Jennifer wondered how she would know that. She hadn’t even known what a Yanjaeloss was before today. 

"And most of us can at least smell–not all EB's. But some of the more powerful ones have a slight odor."

"Oh. I didn't know that," Jennifer said. She was learning a lot today.

 "Just as there are extra powerful living people, there are also extra powerful people in the spiritual world. Does that make sense?"

"Yes. Definitely." She was starting to get it now. Probably.

"That's the miracle of partnerships. You take powerful people, put them together, and you achieve the nearly impossible." Jennifer noticed then the softness against her leg had turned hard. He pulled away a bit. She pulled him back and turned around to kiss him. 

He didn’t resist.

Continue to Chapter Thirty-Nine

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