Chapter 6

SYDNEY,  It was unusually warm for late May

All week, Loretta Hollows had worn pants and her favorite green hoodie.

Today, she wore a sundress and her favorite thongs as she walked to Parramatta Park.

She wished she lived in a house, so she could sit in her own garden.

Maybe read a book.

But they lived in an apartment.

For now.

Her husband was doing well with work. William had recently opened a second restaurant. If things went well, they might get a house. Loretta liked that idea.

When she got to the park, she saw a young girl from her dance class. Loretta waved and received a smile and wave in return. The dance class didn’t bring in much money, but Loretta loved it. She taught twice a week while her daughter was at school.

She'd have to pick Mia up soon. In the meantime she'd relax.

She found a bench and sat.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She could smell the sun. Or, at least, she smelled what reminded her of the sun. It felt like the Mays she used to know…way back when she lived in the Northern Hemisphere.

In Australia, May was a prelude to winter rather than to summer.

She heard her mobile. The text alert sound: her daughter giggling.

The text was from the girl who used to live in their Wisconsin house. Just want to say hi!

Trisha was her sister's guardian angel, stalker spirit friend. But she also reached out to Loretta every so often. It sometimes seemed to Loretta that Trisha was simply trying to spare her feelings: Sorry I picked your sister to stalk instead of you.

Loretta was fine with the charity-messages. She liked kindness. She thought it was nice of Trisha to consider her feelings. 

She sent a friendly text back to Trisha. Then she sent a text to her mother. She sent one every day.

Her mother didn’t answer them.

Loretta had also tried to FaceTime her mom. Her mom answered twice. That was it. 

The rejection hurt.

It hadn't made her feel better when Jennifer told her she didn’t hear from their mother either.

Yes, it did mean she didn’t have to take the neglect personally. But it worried her. Was their mom angry with them? Was she in hell? Did she break some rule and was now being punished?

Had she realized, after dying, that she didn’t actually like her family much? Had they offended her during her last months? 

Maybe she was angry that Loretta didn't move back to America after the diagnosis. Loretta had gone back but only for a few weeks. She hadn't wanted to disrupt Mia's life. School and all that.

Their mother hadn't seemed angry about it at the time. She had seemed fine with the short visit. Those few days had been full of love and reminiscing.

At least, that's how Loretta had perceived it.

Even if their mother was mad; it didn't explain why she wasn't talking to Jennifer either.

Loretta got another text. This one was from a living person—her mother-in-law.

Brenda Hollows sent her a picture of their cat and dog cuddling on the couch. 

Loretta smiled. She loved getting pictures from her mother-in-law, which was good, because Brenda sent out photos almost everyday. 

The two of them were close. When Loretta first moved to Australia, William had been living with his parents, so she lived with them too. They stayed until Mia was six months old. Brenda and Tom insisted they could stay longer, but Loretta had felt bad about Mia's crying waking them up.

After they left, though, Loretta regretted leaving.  She missed them. She loved them. 

Oh! Maybe that was it.

Maybe when her mother was alive, she hadn't fully realized how much Loretta loved her in-laws. Maybe she learned in the afterlife. Maybe she was jealous and resentful. Maybe she felt replaced.

It didn't explain why she was snubbing Jennifer as well.

Oh…. Phillip! Loretta knew something that Jennifer didn't. Their mother hated Jennifer's husband. Despised him passionately. She had confessed this during a chemo session.

Loretta had mentioned it was nice of Phillip to be paying for so much of the treatment. It's not that she had really wanted to sing Phillip's praises. The guy did enough of that on his own. She was just trying to make conversation.

Her mother’s eyes had filled with fury. Then she spat. "I hate that man."

"He's helped a lot," Loretta had said. Her mother's fury scared her a bit.

"Getting help from him is like making a deal with the devil."

"Oh." Loretta didn't know what else to say.

"I hate him more than the cancer."

Loretta thought that was going a bit too far. But she didn't argue. It didn't seem right arguing with your mother when she had a terminal illness.

So yeah. Maybe it had something to do with Phillip. Maybe their mother avoided talking to them, because she was afraid she'd end up seeing Phillip. Or maybe just the idea of one of them mentioning Phillip terrified her.

Or maybe she really was in hell. She was hateful against the man who paid for most of her medical treatment. Wasn’t that kind of a sin?

Maybe hell wasn’t fire and brimstone. Maybe it was just a place where you don't have a good Internet plan.

 *** 

After Loretta picked her daughter up, she made them both a cup of herbal tea.

Usually, she made one only for herself. But today, Mia didn’t want to just help make her mother's tea. She wanted one of her own.

They used a berry mix: Bilberry for vision health, elderberry for an immunity boost, orange peel for better mucus and muscles, and red raspberry leaf for uterine health.

Well, for Mia it provided various vitamins and minerals. At this point, her uterus wasn’t doing much. 

Who knew, though. Maybe the red raspberry would help her uterus prepare for what was to happen in a few years. Maybe Mia would end up having easier periods. Less cramps.

They sat in the living room sipping their tea and talking. Loretta had heard stories of children being awfully vague when answering their parent's questions about their school day. They responded to questions with "I don't know." "Nothing." "Nothing much." "Who knows."

Mia wasn’t like that. At least not yet. She provided minute to minute details about her day; usually more about the social aspects of school than the academics. 

What child had a new outfit. What child looked tired all day. What child cried. What children made fun of another child. The teacher's mood. What toys were confiscated by the teacher. What new friendships were developing. What friendships were ending. She talked about all the fights and all the tears.

Mia rarely included herself in the stories, as if she was less the class participant and more the class gossip columnist. Loretta wasn’t sure what to make of that. Should she be concerned?

She liked hearing about everything, though. Her daughter was good at telling stories. Sometimes she worried that she was encouraging a bad gossiping habit in her daughter, but then other times, she told herself she was encouraging a talent in storytelling.

Just as Mia finished up her story about Matilda tripping on her shoelaces and getting laughed at by Ted, she heard Mia giggle. It was disconcerting, because Mia had been very serious during the story. Where did that giggle come from? What's going on? And it was kind of like her daughter had laughed and spoken simultaneously.  

For a fraction of a second  Loretta actually worried about possession. Maybe one of the spirits was taking over her daughter's body.

Then she remembered her mobile. The text alert. She let Mia finish her story and then checked the text. It was from William. Something's happening at the restaurant.

Mia giggled again. Turn on the TV.

Loretta's heart started pounding. On the TV? Really? It had to be serious. She was about to turn on the TV when she heard another Mia giggle.  Wait until you're alone. Not for Mia's eyes.

Shit. What the hell!?  Loretta was scared but also a little exhilarated. Well, she couldn’t be too scared. She knew her husband was okay. That was the important thing. 

Then she remembered other people. What if other people were hurt?

If they were dead, that was sort of alright…these days.

What about the business? What if something happened to the restaurant? What if something from the restaurant caused a mass gastro outbreak? What if they lost customers?

Loretta imagined she may have to kiss her dreams of a house good-bye. Mia had one more story to tell—one about Shelly making her father's spirit a birthday card, and Mrs. Hittle telling her that needs to be done during free time.

Shelly had cried.

After the story, Loretta politely asked Mia to go to her room.

Mia's eyes narrowed "Why? Am I in trouble? What did I do?"

Loretta laughed a bit. "Nothing. I just need to watch something on TV, and it's not for Mia's eyes."

"Is it a sex thing?"

Loretta tried not to laugh and failed. "I don't think so."

"I know about sex.”

"I know you do, but I don't know if it's a sex thing."  Also knowing about sex wasn't quite the same as seeing the sex thing. 

"Fine," Mia said. "I'm leaving." She walked to her room; then closed the door. She didn’t slam it but used more force than usual.

Loretta dug for the remote control under the couch cushion and turned on the TV.

The Disney Channel came on. Loretta doubted she'd find what she needed there.

She flipped through the channels. Which one had local news now? William should have specified a channel.

She flipped slowly until she found some local news. She saw the restaurant.

It wasn’t local news. It was national.

No, actually….international.

What the bleep was going on!?

The restaurant seemed to be in one piece. No one looked injured. It was crowded. Packed. The camera was focused on the flat screen TV that usually played sports…and occasionally Home and Away.

Now two men were on the screen talking.

Loretta looked closer. She recognized the men. They were fraternal twins who worked at the restaurant. Waiters. They also did some tech work. They had put together the restaurant's website, making it possible for people to order their takeaway online.

William had also worked with them on a commercial for the restaurant. 

Why were they on TV now? Why were so many people at the restaurant watching them?

Mia giggled.

Loretta looked at her phone.

William: Can you believe it?

Believe what?

Another giggle. This time it wasn’t William. It was her mother! This is very bad. You need to put a stop to it before it's too late.

What would be too late?

The newscaster wasn’t helping. He just talked about the restaurant and gave a brief description of Parramatta. 

Loretta gave up on the TV.

She went to a news app on her mobile. The app provided a list of the most popular international news. Number one on the list read: "Twin Waiters in Australia Contact the Living World Through Television."

But they're not dead, they're…. 

Oh. No. 

Loretta clicked on the headlines and read the articles. Zachary and Hayden McGrath had left work last night, traveled over to Eastern Sydney and jumped off a cliff. No, they weren't depressed. According to their suicide note, they were tired of being waiters and were bored with living-human technology. They wanted something more.

Something more? They had figured out how the dead could use TV's to communicate. Now they were talking to the living via the restaurant's television. Before Loretta could really process any of it, Mia came out into the living room. "You turned the TV off," she said in an accusing voice.

"Oh. Yeah." Loretta said.

"You should have told me I could come back in," Mia said.

 Loretta nodded; then apologized.

Continue to Chapter Seven 

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