Part One: The Girl in White

One


“The Grant House,” Tom Singer said.  “Built in 1879 and recently renovated into a modern home, while keeping within the Historic Preservation Society’s guidelines, mind you.”
Felix climbed out of the car and walked up the gravel path to the house.  It was freshly painted, yellow with white trimming.  The windows were all shuttered and closed, except one upstairs.  
Felix bit his bottom lip.  Would mom have liked it?
Jack ran to the porch and jumped onto the swinging bench.  “A swing!” he cried as he rocked back and forth.
Mickey, with a bag over her shoulder, fingered the tip of her braid.  Her dark brown hair was immaculate, like always.  “They only fixed the house?  What about the yard, dad?”
Tom shook his head.  “A bit of gardening won’t hurt you and Felix now will it?  Maybe Jack would even like to help,” he said as he climbed the stairs to the porch and fiddled with his key chain.
Mickey gave Felix a meaningful glance, and he frowned.  The grass was long and knotted with weeds.  Unruly bushes twisted themselves around the porch.  To the right, before being lost to the forest, an ancient hedge of over grown rose bushes grew wild and unforgiving.  Jack helping was even less absurd than dad calling it ‘a bit of gardening.’
“How much land is ours?” Mickey asked and plopped next to Jack on the swing.  
He giggled and tried to make it rock with both of them on it.
Tom frowned and pushed up his wire-framed glasses.  “Umm, everything from the drive way up and around.  There’s a fence to mark it off, I’m sure.  The realtor said something like twenty acres.”  He checked his pockets and sighed.  “And I don’t have the key.  We’re going to have to wait for Ms. Carlton to arrive.”
“But I have to pee,” Jack said.
“You don’t have to touch yourself every time you have to pee,” Mickey said and sighed.  “Go in the bushes.”
Felix kicked some gravel with the toe of his tennis shoe and looked back at the road, hidden by the trees.  Yeah, this was a lot different from Chicago.
“You gotta pee too?” Jack asked as he unzipped his pants and aimed at the bushes, smiling up at Felix.  
Jack had her smile.
“No.”
Tom rested his hand on his Felix’s shoulder.  “What do you think?”  
“It’s fine.”  Felix looked back at the house.  Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw someone move in the upstairs window.  A girl wearing white.  But when he looked full on no one was there.  It must have been a reflection.  He shook his head.
“Good,” Tom said and smiled, his crow’s feet crinkling.  “I think we’ll be happy here.  It’s a change, huh?”
Felix nodded.  Was change even the right word for it anymore?  Mom was dead.  The two-year anniversary would be in three months and they couldn’t even visit her grave now.  Dad had a new job, a researcher and professor position with a tenure track.  Of course he couldn’t pass up something like that.  So he uprooted all of them out of the city they’d lived in their whole lives, away from their friends and their house, and here they were.  A new house.  A new town.  A new life.  Change didn’t encompass that.  This was more like a total rehaul of everything they knew and loved.  Wash away the old and bring in the new.  Like mom never even existed.  Like she’d never lived or-
Felix took a deep breath.  Nothing was going to be the same.  Ever again.
Not only did dad move them away from everything they knew, but he moved them to a small town Mickey called ‘the back country.’  He even bought a house without their consent.  
Felix couldn’t believe it as they drove through town.  There was a Main Street that ran right down the center.  All the side streets had names like Maple Road and Pine Cone Lane.  In all it was smaller than Bughouse Square.  He’d spotted a little restaurant, the school (one building for all grades), and the post office, but that was it.  When they wanted to go shopping they had to commute to the college town forty-five miles away where dad taught.  At least Mickey had a driver’s license.
Felix slumped on the front steps and put a piece of cinnamon gum in his mouth and chewed.
He was about to complain when a little blue car pulled up the driveway.  An older woman climbed out, probably in her fifties, wearing a suit that his grandma would have worn.  Giant shoulder pads and everything.
Mickey snickered, and Felix stood up.  It took her long enough.  
Jack twitched in his sleep on the porch swing.
“Mr. Singer how long have you been here?” she asked and smiled.
“Only about half an hour.  I tried you on my cell, but I couldn’t get a signal.”
She nodded and produced a key from her purse.  “I know, but that’s the price you pay to live in such a beautiful place.”
Tom smiled and hurried to the door after she’d handed him the key.  
“Well, here we are,” he said.  The door opened easily, even if it did squeak, and Mickey, Felix and a sleepy eyed Jack wandered inside.
The floors were wooden and dark and a thin layer of dust covered everything.  It was in good shape for a house of its age, although beyond the fresh paint it still smelled old.
Dad would buy a place like this, Felix thought.  
After Ms. Carlton left, Tom took them all upstairs.  “I’m afraid you and Felix will have to take the two smaller bedrooms in the front.”
Mickey sighed.  “Why?”
“They have their own private balconies and we don’t want Jack to fall,” he said and turned to Felix.  “Perfect for your telescope, huh?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Felix said.
Mickey took the larger of the two, and Felix took the one she’d left.  It would fit his bed, dresser, desk and bookshelf, and that’s all that mattered.  Plus, the balcony was good for his telescope.  At least he’d be able to see more stars out here in the backcountry than he could in the city.  Mom would have liked that.
Soon the moving van arrived and Felix spent the rest of the day unpacking.  He wasn’t sure how many times he heard his dad say ‘careful’ but felt confident it had been in the hundreds.
That evening, when he was finished, Felix came down the stairs and walked into the living room.  Mickey lounged on the couch while Jack sat on the floor playing with blocks.  The windows were open to air the house out, and Felix looked into the twilight.  There were no street lamps and the darkness came from the woods and enveloped them.
“Oh, I didn’t see you,” Mickey said and glanced at him.  “There’s no TV.  Dad says we’ll have to get satellite if we want anything way out here in the back country.”
Tom laughed as he walked in the front door, a screwdriver in his hand.  “I’ll have it installed by the end of the week.  Anything else I need to do?”
“Do the washer and dryer have to be in the basement?”
Tom nodded.  “Afraid so, that’s the only place with the hook up.  It’s not so bad down there.”
“If you’re a rat,” Mickey said and frowned as her stomach groaned.
“I’m hungry too,” Jack said and pushed over a tower he’d just built.
Felix nodded.
“Right, dinner,” Tom said and a frown wrinkled his forehead.  He’d gotten more wrinkles since mom got sick.  “Do we have any sandwiches?”
Mickey put a pillow over her head.  “Ah, why can’t we just order pizza?”
Felix frowned.  Pizza sounded good.  Mom never would have moved them to the middle of nowhere and then not had any hot food for dinner.
“Boloney!” Jack cried and ran into the kitchen.  Mickey rose from the couch as if she were a queen.  Felix followed them both.  Boloney?  He could hardly wait.
When they were done with their cold boloney and mustard sandwiches, Tom smiled sheepishly.  
“I suppose we’ll take a shopping trip tomorrow,” he said.  
Mickey nodded and threw her crust into the garbage.  “I hope so, dad.  You gonna come?”
“Yeah,” Felix said and finished the last of his root beer.  
“Good,” Tom said, “we’ll make a day of it.  Oh, will you put Jack to bed, Mick?”
Mickey rolled her eyes but nodded, and Tom walked upstairs.  Avoiding parental responsibilities like always.  Felix scowled.
“Come on, little man,” Mickey said and pulled their little brother away.
Felix sat alone at the small breakfast table.  The floorboards creaked as they walked above him, and he sighed.  No one had even bothered to tell him goodnight.  It was like he didn’t exist at all.  
Felix stood and rinsed off his dishes.  Then he looked at the backdoor, right next to the stove.  He hadn’t even seen the backyard yet.  Was it as bad as the front?  There was only one way to find out.  He opened it and stepped outside.
Darkness pressed on him.  The only thing that seemed tangible was the house behind him, solid and light.  The sky was awash with countless stars, all suns of their own solar systems, all at unimaginable distances from Earth.  Why couldn’t he be out there away from everything?  He was already alone so he may as well be alone somewhere different.  Somewhere shining in the sky, looking down.  
Felix squinted into the darkness.  It was no good.  He’d have to wait until tomorrow to see what kind of ‘gardening’ it would take to get the backyard into decent condition.  
He was about to go back inside when something cut through the darkness.  Something white.  He took a step further into the backyard.  There it was!  Something was moving through the grass.  What had his dad said?  There were animals in the woods.  Wolves.  Mountain lions.  Maybe even bears.  He snorted.  You didn’t have to worry about that kind of stuff in the city.
Felix hurried inside and slammed the door behind him, locked it and took a deep breath.  Then he shut and locked all of the downstairs windows, just in case.  
When he went upstairs Mickey was in her room with the door shut, and Jack was trying to play quietly in the dark even though he was supposed to be in bed.  Felix shook his head and let his little brother be.  Dad should be the one to deal with it, not him.
He barely got undressed before he fell into bed, exhausted.

It was dark, but the digital readout from the clock was shining in his eyes.  2:48.  He scowled and rolled over in bed.  The house moaned and creaked.  Jack would probably be afraid, but he could sleep with Mickey if he got scared because he still peed the bed at times.  
Mickey would be pissed.  Felix almost smiled.
The floorboards creaked like someone was stepping on it.  Felix scanned the room.  The two windows on either side of the balcony door bathed the room in a lighter darkness than the rest of the house.  He squinted into it, but no one else was there.  
Another footstep.  Loud.  Unmistakable.  The click of shoes on wood.  
Felix sat up.  What was that?  He held his breath.  The footsteps stopped.   Letting out a breath, he shook his head.  It was stupid to be scared of an old house settling.   
He laid back in bed and pulled the covers higher.  Movement on the balcony caught his attention.  Someone wearing white.  
Mickey?  Jack?  Mom?
The door handle turned as if it were in slow motion.
Felix froze.  His heart stopped, and his mouth hung open.  The door creaked open, and a girl looked at him.  Even in the darkness he could see her perfectly.  She gave off a soft white glow.
The girl, in a white old-fashioned dress and black shoes, walked into his room.  Her hair was long, blonde and a large white bow sat on the top of her head.
And she was transparent.
A ghost.