Cold Spring Ghosts

Chapter 19 Powder

Snapping back, I stand up, look at Daddy again.

Two men walk up to Daddy, hand him two small black boxes.

"Mrs. Hale and the young lady's ashes — do we inter them now?"

My hand touches one of the boxes lightly. In that instant, I feel something stirring inside me.

The feeling is like the time Mommy and I were at the beach and got caught by a wave.

In an instant, I knew — me and Mommy were inside those boxes.

"How can such a small box hold Emma and Mommy?" I ask.

I look through the box, see white powder inside.

I pull my head back, look at Daddy: "Emma and Mommy turned into powder."

Daddy can't answer me, but I notice that when Daddy sees the ashes, his fist at his side clenches tight.

"Mr. Hale?" One of the men asks when Daddy doesn't respond.

This time Daddy doesn't hesitate, says in a hoarse voice: "Bury them."

The urns go under the headstones at Sleepy Hollow, fast, all of it.

After it's done, they step back behind Daddy.

A wind picks up. The blue sky is suddenly covered by dark clouds.

The wind howls, whips up fallen leaves. A rain is coming.

"Let's go back," Daddy says, looking at the sky.

Hearing Daddy's words, I cling to Mommy's headstone, don't want to leave.

But thinking of how my body wouldn't obey before, I quickly chatter at Mommy's photo, say a lot.

When people start leaving, I think I'll have to leave too, sobbing as I say goodbye to Mommy.

But then Daddy pulls out an umbrella from somewhere and stays.

The rain patters on the umbrella.

Daddy's voice sounds unclear through the rain.

I lean in to listen. He's saying: "Vivienne, I'm sorry. I love you."

"Genevieve and I..." He pauses, then says: "I have my reasons. I don't love her."

After he says this, Daddy is silent for a long time.

The rain gets heavier, his clothes get pretty wet.

He just looks at Mommy's photo, and just when I think he won't talk again, I hear: "I'll bring you back."

I stare at him: "Daddy, you can bring Mommy back?"

I don't quite understand.

"Mommy's turned into powder, how can she come back?"

Even though it seems impossible, hope rises in my heart.

"Can Mommy really come back? When she does, can I see her?"

My heart pounds.

I rack my brain for information about Mommy, tell Daddy: "Mommy was taken away by a bad man called the Whisper Man."

"Mommy said she went somewhere very far away."

"Mommy's bubble isn't here."

I tell Daddy everything I know.

Even knowing he can't hear, I can't stop talking.

I circle around Daddy, trying to figure out why he said that.

But after he says it, he goes back to being silent like before.

The rain gets heavier, like a huge curtain, blurring everything outside the umbrella.

Daddy takes one last long look, then turns and leaves.

I let my body follow Daddy, but my eyes never leave the headstones.

When I can't see them anymore, I turn and quietly follow Daddy.

Just after we leave, the dark clouds part, and a beam of light breaks through and lands on the headstone.

A woman sits on the headstone, posture elegant, like a swan.

Her back straight, shoulders relaxed, head tilted slightly, watching the two figures leaving.

And this woman is — Vivienne.