A Haunted Marriage & The Cookie Baking Poltergeist

Chapter 15: Fire Purifies

    "They should call this road the Long Island Distressway instead of the Long Island Expressway," Michael whispered to himself as he sat in his Honda Civic, in the midst of the usual mid day traffic jam, due to everyone making their after work exodus from New York City at the same time. Michael looked through the windshield and could see exit 44 about a mile in the distance. But in this much traffic, reaching that exit could take over an hour.

    I don't miss driving in this madness at all. Upstate is nothing like this.

    After tapping the brake pedal, Michael looked to see if there were any police cars present before reaching for his cell phone on the passenger's seat.

    Still nothing from Julia. I left her five messages today. I am probably wasting my time driving all the way down here to a woman who has already served me with divorce papers.

    Michael reached into the front pocket of his suit jacket to make sure that he didn't forget to bring the divorce papers with him. Every time Michael touched those papers it felt to him as if he was touching something radioactive. Michael jerked his hand from his jacket and placed it back on the steering wheel where it belonged.

    Michael gripped the steering wheel so hard that flecks of the wheel's foam coating came off in his hand. "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS f*****g TRAFFIC," Michael yelled before making a fist and punching the passenger seat so hard his cell phone bounced into the air.

    I need to calm down. There is no hope of salvaging this marriage if I arrive at my mother-in-law's and Julia sees me like this.

    Michael turned the knob to locate a radio station that exclusively played classical music. The radio knob stopped on 101.1 FM. Michael hummed aloud to the rhythm of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. As Michael's humming intensified, he darted his Honda to the right lane after spotting an opening in the traffic.

    The right lane opening extended all the way to exit 44, so Michael sped up to fifty-five miles per hour so he could reach the exit ramp within one minute. The exit ended at a traffic light. A road sign stated "Syosset" one mile. When the traffic light arrow turned green, Michael skidded on through so fast that he nearly hit a black pickup truck in front of him. Michael jammed on the brakes at the next light to come to a complete stop. This gave him time to glance back down at his cell phone once again.

    Still nothing from Julia. I should just turn around and head on back upstate. Damn this light is taking awhile to change.

    Turning his neck to the left, Michael gazed upon a rectangular, brick structure with the sign, Bob's Bar and Grill hung in red lettering above its glass front door.

    Julia used to love the burgers in that place. I was partial to the chili. We spent many of our dating nights in that place before she went back home to her mother's. Happier times for both of us. Bob's is the first place we told each other that we loved one another. How the hell did I screw this up so badly? I think I am going to turn around now and go home. It's hopeless.

    HONK, HONK, HONK

    Michael jerked his head up and saw that the traffic light had turned green. He headed north on route 5 for two miles before coming to a ten foot wood sign set behind four rows of bushes. The sign read, "Leisure Village" in yellow lettering cut out from the wood behind.

    Michael turned right to head into the main drive of Leisure Village.

    This place does not look all that different. That same ugly sign in front of a complex with equally hideous condominiums.

    Michael drove on at thirty miles per hours past four tan two story concrete building. Four brown doors with their own numbers were attached to each building. Each building was named after a different tree. Michael passed by the Oak, Palm, Pine, and Ash Courts before reaching the farthest condominium building at the extreme rear of the complex, Redwood Court. 2 Redwood Court to be exact.

    s**t, I don't see Julia's car anywhere. I should knock on her mother's door anyway to find out where she could be. Hopefully my mother in law will talk to me.

    Michael parked in the closest spot he could find in front of Redwood Court. He tucked his cell phone in his pocket before jerking up the parking brake.

    A silver mailbox sat at the front of a concrete walkway that led to 2 Redwood Court. Michael slammed his car door shut before heading up the walkway, passing rows of shrubs adorning each side. Michael's paced slowed, but his heartbeat became faster the closer he came to 2 Redwood Court. Michael held his fist in the air for one minute before mustering up enough courage to knock on the door. After knocking twice, no one answered so Michael turned to walk back to his car.

    After taking two steps, the door to 2 Redwood Court finally opened to reveal Michael's mother in law, Denise Curtain.

    Wow, she looks a lot older. I haven't seen her in five years.

    Denise Curtain, age seventy two, was dressed in a pink bathrobe with pink matching slippers. An inch of gray roots were sprinkled through her dyed blond hair.

    "Hello Denise. It's nice to see you," Michael whispered. He reached out his arms to hug his mother in law.

    Denise back up two inches to avoid his hug. "Michael what the hell are you doing here? What I should really do is call the police and tell them that you physically assaulted my daughter. I support her decision to divorce you. You have never been right for her. My mother's intuition told me that from the beginning."

    And my male intuition always told me that you were a b***h who micromanaged her daughter's life. No wonder why Julia's father left them. But I have to keep my cool right now.

    "Look. I know I f****d up. But I need to see my wife. Where's Julia? She won't answer my messages."

    "Do you blame her? You physically abused her."

    "Actually I don't. But I need to talk to her. Is she here?"

    "No. I don't know where she is and if I knew I wouldn't tell her anyway. You would just probably punch her again. You're lucky you're only getting a divorce instead of jail time."

    "Well when she comes back, could you tell her that if she wants to talk to meet me where our journey started."

    "And where's that?"

    "She will know. I get you being mad at me but please tell her," Michael said before he jogged back to his car. Michael pulled out of the parking lot to drive to the first place that he gazed upon Julia Curtain nearly ten years before.

                                                                                    #

    This place looks just that same as when I met Julia, Michael thought.

    The ground floor of the Hofstra University Library contained two rows of ten foot rectangular tables, each with eight brown plastic chairs. On the left side of the tables stood a tan wood counter with two young students checking out books to their fellow students. Ten years ago, one of those check out students working in the library was Julia Curtain.

    Michael sat in the same exact chair at a table where he first gazed upon Julia Curtain ten years before. When I first met her she was dressed in a denim blouse with jeans to match. Her curly hair hung down to her shoulders and I loved the pink lipstick. She had that aura then and I just had to go over and talk to her. We were both Juniors. It took me twenty minutes of staring at her just to get enough courage to walk up to her to check out my book for literature class, The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy. I made sure to get on her line so she would be on the one to check out my book. I felt at the time that was the best decision I ever made.

Michael tucked his head into his chest and looked up occasionally at the sliding glass doors to see if he wife decided to meet him. Michael glanced down at the cell phone on the tabletop. I've been here for an hour already. She's most likely not coming.

    Michael kept looking at the glass sliding door revealing one Hofstra student after another holding their cell phones tucked into their respective chests. No sign of his wife. Michael placed his head in the palms of his hands with his elbows resting on the tabletop.

    A tap on the shoulder forced Michael to raise his head. A head that now stared at the face of Julia Blake. Julia was dressed in a black skirt with a white blouse. She wasn't wearing her wedding ring. Julia walked around the table and took a seat opposite Michael.

    "I don't know why I am here Mike," Julia whispered.

    "Maybe because you still believe in us," Michael whispered.

    "But I don't. You're still wearing your ring. You f*****g hit me Michael, again. You crossed the point of no return. I am sorry you drove all this way, but I want you to go back home and answer those divorce papers."

    "A day doesn't go by that I don't want to take back that night at the Victory Motel. I am sorry. I know I f****d up and I am a d**k, a d**k most of the time lately," Michael said as he sobbed into his hands. "But my home is not a home without you in it. Please reconsider. I will do anything, beginning with going to marriage therapy and anger management class. Therapy has helped out a lot of other people, why not us?"

    "It's over Michael. We both need to move on. We're not right for each other."

    "But we can be. I came here today because this was my way of getting a time machine to travel to a magical time when we were crazy about each other."

    "That's the past Michael. No one can recapture that."

    Michael picked up his cell phone and showed Julia the photo of the from the Saratoga Battlefield, the one of them dressed as colonialists. "Remember these two. They were fighters. We just need to fight a little harder. Giving up on us, going through with this divorce, to me is like becoming some sort of traitor. I took a vow to stick with you through good times and bad. We need to try a little harder. In your favorite movie Casablanca, Victor Lazlo and Ilsa were able to survive World War Two together."

    Julia wiped a tear from her right eye. "I don't know Michael."

    The sun came out from the clouds and cast its light onto the table where Michael and Julia sat.

    "Let's go outside to talk some more. Just outside in the courtyard."

    Julia got up and walked to the library's front sliding door. She made her way around the concrete walkway to the library's courtyard, a yard containing two benches, two garbage cans surrounding a dirt mound with mums planted. Julia sat on the only unoccupied bench and Michael sat on that same bench, just on the opposite end.

    "By the way Michael, just so you don't forget, this home you want me to return to his haunted."

    "That's right. I told you this already but it's worth retelling. When I was ten, my father came home from work one day and beat me and my mother with his belt. He had just been laid off. He made me watch him beat my mother before he hit me. The next day, my mother took me to a new home to live with my grandmother. I never saw my father again. I don't want to be chased out of another home, even by some sort of poltergeist we have residing there. I have been researching ghosts since you left. I had someone come over to our home that said that we have the ghost of Frances Pine inhabiting our basement. To get rid of her, we need her to meet back up with her grandson, Jacob Pine. I met Jacob too. He's a remarkable young man and he is willing to come over for some sort of séance we have to conduct to help our resident spirit move on. He lives with his foster family in Saratoga Springs. His parents died in a car accident. And according to this ghost exterminator, us patching things up will help this ghost move into the light."

    "I don't know Michael I think it's over. That's terrible about this Jacob."

    "Look, for the past few weeks I hated you. But the fact that I drove two hundred miles to see you means that I still feel something for you. You're not worth throwing away. I just had to keep having the obvious false hope that you still felt something for me too. I am sorry I wasted your time," Michael said getting up from the bench. He paced back and forth in front of one of the garbage cans.

    "Michael wait. I will come home and give this marriage another go, but we have to go to therapy and anger management like you said."

    "Done," Michael said

    "I will come back within a few days. My mother won't like it, but maybe we are worth fighting for."

    Michael reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the divorce papers along with a lighter. "I hope you won't mind." Michael lit the papers on fire, before dropping them to the ground and stamping the fire out with his foot. "Remember fire purifies. I can't wait for you to come home."

    Julia got up off the bench and hugged her husband.