Whistling Witches

Invisible Beings

We stepped outside and I led Johanna to some benches a little ways away from the crowds — it was lunch and some kids had gone outside to go to their cars, or speak with friends. It was cloudy today, nothing like the sunshine of the previous day and stepping outside without a jacket was chilly, to say the least.

“Uhm, so,” I begun, “there is a ghost with us and his name is Mr Crinkle.” Seeing the peculiar way Johanna was looking at me (i.e. the “are you effing nuts?” look) I added to Mr Crinkle: “Can you, uh, give my friend a sign or something?”

Thankfully Mr Crinkle decided to humor me by causing a wind that blew Johanna’s hair away from her face rather forcefully. As nothing else was stirred by this wind Johanna first looked startled and confused, but then quickly caught onto the fact that it was Mr Crinkle causing it.

“I see, Mr Crinkle, you are a wind,” she said with a smile.

Thank God for best friends who aren’t put off by ghosts!

“So,” I said, feeling relieved my best friend didn’t think me a freak, “Mr Crinkle would you like to inform us of why you are here? I gather I’ll be the only one able to hear your words, but I can explain to Johanna.”

“Indeed, indeed,” Mr Crinkle said. “I just wanted to make my presence known to you, should you ever require assistance, or should I ever require help. As Josephine probably told you, ghosts normally appear as that small voice of intuition in someone’s mind. Most people aren’t all that open to that little voice though. Which means as the guardian angel of this place, I have a hard time being heard sometimes. With your help I could get through to people more easily.”

“I would be happy to help you,” I replied. “But it’s kind of weird sometimes to help people. I mean once I knew something bad would happen to Samantha if she went to the park at lunch break, but she didn’t listen to me and broke her leg.”

I was speaking into thin air. Ever so often I imagined myself seeing a bit of a glimmer in the air in front of me, but that was about it. Have you ever tried speaking into thin air? It’s quite unsettling. You feel mad as a hatter. Especially when your best friend is sitting next to you listening intently to try to figure out what’s going on.

“Yes, yes, I remember that episode,” Mr Crinkle said. “It was I who gave you the hunch. Well, I was trying to give Samantha a hunch, but that proved impossible. She was too busy obsessing about a boy. What’s his name? Jason. Ah yes, she had quite a crush on him! He is popular in this place. I think it is…well, none of my business. Not allowed to interfere and all that.”

Mr Crinkle chuckled and I could feel my cheeks turning red. I was certain the man…ghost…could read my thoughts. Then again it wouldn’t require much mind-reading to figure out I like Jason as about 60% of the girls our age are crushing on Elbert, 20% on Jason, 10% on other girls (at least statistically — even in the open-minded state of California teenage girls don’t find it that easy to come out, which I know because Jenna has had to coach quite a few) and 10% on someone else.

“OK,” I squeezed out. “Let me know if you need help giving someone a hunch again, but just so you know it’s really weird telling people you have “a feeling” they’ll have a skiing accident if they go skiing that day.”

“Quite, quite,” Mr Crinkle said, still chuckling. “I know it can put you in an…interesting…position, but it is a vital role to play nonetheless. You could end up saving lives, marriages, finances and so forth. It’s a noble part to play, even if a bit embarrassing at times. I won’t call upon you unless absolutely necessary. Besides, we aren’t allowed to interfere in most matters from this side.”

I nodded. He was right — it would be pretty cool to save lives. Less cool, of course, to go through things like the Samantha episode. I’d never been close with her, but after that it was clear I’d never belong to the “in-crowd.” I wasn’t one to draw attention to myself, everyone had always just seen me as the one with the useful aunts (because trust me, people always need either counseling, cakes, or potions and lotions), but still, one didn’t want to make enemies.

“That’s it, I think,” Mr Crinkle said. “I simply wanted to make my presence known. Chances are you will feel it anyway from time to time. I shall bid you goodbye now. Say hi to Josephine from me, have her play my favorite tunes.” And he chuckled again and then I could feel him disappear. No more glimmer in the air and it somehow felt different.

“He left,” I said to Johanna. “Told me I have to act as an in-between if he has a message he needs to deliver to someone. You can see me running into strangers houses shouting they need to evacuate before the snowstorm kills them, can’t you? I’ll be the resident lunatic of Rocky Creek. In fact, I feel like my social life is over forever.”

Johanna laughed. “Don’t be so dramatic. I mean it is kind of dramatic, but that’s a good thing. You’ll be the eccentric actress who doesn’t only act, but also predicts the future. Or at least prevents the disasters.”

Johanna looked all fired up about this. Did I mention she loves anything and everything unusual?

“You forget the Samantha episode in the park. I’ll be the woman who everyone hates, because if they don’t follow my advice bad luck will be upon them.” I involuntarily shivered. Not a pleasant thought. Or maybe I was just cold, but still. Ugh.

“Oh come on, don’t be so sour about it! Surely you’ll be thanked by a gazillion people for helping them.” Suddenly Johanna looked concerned. “You aren’t going to do this all the time though, are you? I mean you can’t just run off stage to prevent disasters every two minutes! Your career will be ruined!”

“Uhm, why does everyone suddenly think I’m becoming an actress?” After all, till that point my roles usually had fewer than ten lines.

“Because you were cast as Juliet, doh. And,” Johanna added, looking thoughtful, “it suits you somehow. Like this is what you were meant to do. I haven’t even thought about it, it’s just after you got cast as Juliet it felt right. Like the pieces of the puzzle came together, or something. You know, you love stories, always did. You love anything theatrical and dramatical, even if you aren’t very dramatical. But you have something dramatic in you. I don’t know, you tell great stories. You love those little moment that makes life funny, or poignant. It’s like you’re very theatrical, but you’re hiding it, or something. I mean don’t take this the wrong way, but you are very plain. Not your insides, but your outsides.” Johanna crinkled her nose as she looked at my checkered shirt and jeans.

She was right. I lived in a very theatrical (or eccentric if you so like) family, but I rarely drew attention to myself. Mainly because I didn’t really know who I was. I knew who my family was. But not me. And Johanna loves my aunts’ ways of expressing themselves through dress — Agatha always wear light breezy clothes, Hetty is a total femme fatale wearing whatever brings out her hourglass figure, Jenna wears whatever suits her mood and looks the most dramatical and Wilda wears Earthy kind of clothes.

“I guess you’re right. I like quirky things. But I also like hiding in comfy sweaters. People stare plenty at my aunts. They are very theatrical, or eccentric in a theatrical way. It’s not like they don’t draw attention to themselves. I’ve always been next to the center of attention, so I’ve never thought of becoming it myself. Since I was a kid people have always hung around my family to be with my aunts.”

“Yeah,” Johanna nodded. “That’s normal though. You have been growing up — it’s not like you could heal people’s warts, or sort their love life out. But I guess you haven’t been the center in attention like some kids are. But to be fair your aunts aren’t theatrical like the crazy A- (and B-) list celebrities that come here. They don’t need attention all the time and it’s not like they are into theatre, but they are very much themselves. So much so that it’s theatrical. They really go for it. I mean Hetty has gotten the whole town to celebrate some cake day she invented, Jenna is the town’s symbol for wild love, Wilda is like an herbal explosion and Agatha floats by in a cloud of white smoke, more or less. Everyone notices them, but not you. Because you don't really allow people to see you.”

I knew Johanna was right and it kind of hurt to be the invisible one, but I also didn’t know who I wanted to be discovered for being, or if I wanted to be seen at all.

“You’re right, but I’m not sure I want to be noticed. And being noticed for speaking to ghosts…well…”

Johanna laughed.

“It’s perfect, we’re in California. People will love you. San Francisco is filled with mediums, I’m sure. And if you move to L.A. you can be all the famous people’s medium. While getting famous as an actress yourself. See, perfect!”

“I’m not a medium,” I muttered. “I just deliver messages when needed, not when people ask for it. Besides, ghosts are usually not allowed to interfere in the life of the living. Which suits me perfectly. Now, let’s go eat. I’m freezing my butt off!” And on that note I stood up and resolutely walked towards the dining area before Johanna had some brilliant idea of starting my own psychic shop, complete with crystal balls and such nonsense.

***

Once we got to the cafeteria we filled our trays with salads, a hearty soup and fresh bread from aunt Hetty’s bakery. Perfect for the fall weather. Besides, I needed some comfort food — between ghosts, acting Juliet and working with Jason on the new project I felt like my world had come apart. Or maybe come together. But it was still complete chaos.

As we were scanning the crowds to find an empty table I spotted Jason and Elbert deeply engrossed in a conversation at the edge of one table. They were sitting by themselves, which was fairly unusual as people always descended upon them like hawks.

Just as my gaze landed on them, Jason looked up and a smile grazed his lips when he saw me. It was a small smile, but it was a smile. His dark brown eyes twinkled and I felt like they looked straight into me somehow. I can’t describe it. It was as if his eyes touched something inside of me.

How can you even feel that way? Like eyes touch you? As if there is some freaking connection to your soul or something. How’s that possible? How is that even allowed to be possible with a guy you don’t know and don’t even care about because you don’t know him, but you can’t stop thinking about him because doh: his eyes burn their way into your soul. Though most of the time it’s just his half smile and that infuriating desire to find out who he truly is that drives you crazy.

My interiors turned as I tried to figure out how to return the smile. It wasn’t like my body was responding as it should. I was frozen. I felt like I had to force my mouth to turn upward to return the smile, before I turned away from him.

You know the butterfly effect? A butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil and it starts raining somewhere else in the world. That’s not my kind of butterfly effect. Mine is more like, Jason smiles and suddenly a thousand butterflies I didn’t even know existed start flapping their wings in my belly, while the rest of my body goes into lockdown. If I’m lucky I might have adequate brain power to kill off enough butterflies to unfreeze myself so as to move.

As I followed Johanna on shaky legs I saw in my mind’s eye the beautiful scenario of me being on stage on a balcony saying: “Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” in front of the whole school (read: in front of Jason), as Mr Crinkle appeared to tell me I had to deliver a message to Samantha to leave the theatre before she broke another leg.

Chaos. My life was definitively turning into chaos.