Prom Night in Purgatory (Purgatory #2)(16)

“All I know is what you’ve told me,” she said, somewhat begrudgingly. “I moved here almost a year ago. I started working at the school last summer. I noticed things right from the beginning, but they seemed natural enough…I thought it was Gus.”

“Thought it was Gus doing what?”

“Gus is the janitor…the older man who visited you a couple of times at the hospital?”

Johnny nodded once.

“I thought it was Gus playing the songs from the 50s when I would work alone. One day I actually saw you in the hallway. You scared me. Then another time I fell into the dumbwaiter shaft and you saved me. I didn’t know who you were, but Gus told me that the school had a.....a ghost. He’d seen you in the school off and on for the last fifty years, ever since your disappearance the night your brother died. The first time he saw you he told the police, and they searched the school. It wasn’t until later that Gus realized his mistake. He thought you were dead…..that you were a spirit haunting the school. The problem with that theory was that I had touched you, and I knew you weren’t a ghost. I learned as much as I could about the tragedy and your disappearance, and then I came to the school and I….” Maggie gulped a little, wondering if he would think she was crazy. Probably not, considering his very existence was proof of something seriously bizarre.

“You what?”

“I went to the school and I….started talking to you, calling you. I asked you if it was you who had saved me that night. I ended up in the rotunda…the place where you and Billy...”

“Died?” His tone was caustic, like she had said something incredibly offensive. He wasn’t making this easy.

“Fell,” Maggie retorted sharply. “You were suddenly there. Just...out of nowhere...there. You talked to me for a moment. You were amazed I could see you, and I frankly was amazed as well. I have seen ghosts before…..but never like you. You could see me too; you were aware of me, and you still had a physical body. At least, it felt that way…” Maggie halted again, unsure of where to go next and needing desperately to sit down. There was a folding chair propped against the wall, and Maggie sank into it gratefully. Johnny leaned back against the door of the Camry and stared at her through narrowed eyes.

“I had a body….but no one could see me.” It wasn’t a question, but a recap.

Maggie nodded. “You said that you thought you’d been trapped between Heaven and Earth. You told me after you fell from the balcony you could see Billy lying beside you. You could see that he was gone.” Maggie could feel the grief rising in her again. But this time it wasn’t for her own pain but for his. Her voice shook slightly, but she didn’t let herself stop. He stiffened at the obvious emotion in her voice but didn’t react as she repeated the horror of what he had gone through.

“You said you could feel death’s pull. You knew you were dying. You told me you knew you had to fight it. You didn’t want to leave your mother. You didn’t want her to suffer the loss of two sons, even if you were the son....she was left with. See, you blamed yourself that Billy was dead. You were filled with guilt and pain and you fought...well...death.” It sounded overly dramatic, but there were no other words to describe what Johnny had told her. “You told me you refused to die. Then you felt a...a cracking – and there was a burst of light. The next time you became aware, policemen were there. Eventually, even your mother was there, but nobody could see you or hear you. They took Billy’s body away at some point, and you tried to follow him, but you couldn’t leave the school. It was like there was no world beyond the doors – just black. You said you were trapped there.”

“All this time?” Johnny’s voice was an incredulous whisper. “How can that be? I remember falling. I even remember what you’ve described….the feeling of fighting death. But that’s all. I woke up in the hospital like it had all just happened. I even had the gunshot wound.”

“You had no wounds in Purgatory. That’s what you called it. Purgatory. You didn’t even have a drop of blood on your clothing. Your clothes and body didn’t wear or soil; your hair was always perfectly in place. You weren’t really human – but you weren’t an angel either. You could do some amazing things, with just a thought. You told me energy wasn’t created or destroyed, it was simply redirected. You could harness energy. You could even heal! Here! Look at this.” Maggie stood and, yanking the sleeve of her purple shirt above her elbow, turned her inner arm out for Johnny’s perusal. The scar from her burn was a slightly raised pink half moon against her pale skin. “I burned myself….and you pressed your hand over the burn…and healed it.”

Johnny reached out, running his fingers along the puckered edges of her scar. His touch was light, but Maggie felt it to the tips of her toes. She missed the Johnny who loved her! Oh, what she wouldn’t give to have him back! The longing hit her like a gale-force wind, and she shuddered involuntarily. She pulled her arm away and turned from him. She needed to leave. She couldn’t do this.

“Maggie.” This time Johnny’s voice was soft, and for a moment he sounded like the old Johnny. “What else? What else could I do? How did I spend my time?”

“You said you read a lot. You even read to me, sometimes.”

Johnny raised his eyebrows and snorted in disbelief. “I hate to read. Try again, sweetheart.”