The Invisible World

Chapter 12: Jack and Diane

"Brian, you better not be messing with us right now," Jack said.

"I promise I'm not," Brian replied. "I hear someone else in the room with us." He turned his wheelchair around to face the door. He pointed in front of him. "Right there."

But Jack and I didn't see anything. As far as we knew, he was just pointing at air.

"There's nothing there," Jack told him.

That's when I heard it. Slow, gentle footsteps entering the newsroom, just like the ones we heard in the kitchen a few days ago. Was it possible that Gloria actually followed us here?

Jack's eyebrows rose. I could tell he was hearing it, too. "What is that? Brian, don't tell me you can see ghosts, too."

Brian shook his head. "No, I can't see her. I can just...feel her presence, you know?"

"Are you saying she followed us here?"

"Well, let's see if this really is Gloria." I picked up the obituary that we were all looking at and held it up to the air that Brian had so decisively pointed at. "Is this you?"

Now came the test. If there really were a ghost in the room with us, we'd see a flying pen rising up to write an answer on a piece of paper. Just as I suspected, a Sharpie rose from Jenny's desk and uncapped itself. Directly beneath the headline appeared the word "YES."

"I knew it!" Mr. Bergeron exclaimed. "Gloria, I know why you're grieving. You were killed in a car accident, weren't you? The day before your wedding?"

"She's...confused," Brian said. "This is the first time she's ever heard of a wedding for her."

"Brian, what are you doing?" Jack whispered.

"Just trust me," Brian whispered back.

"Well, that's to be expected," Mr. Bergeron said. "Your fiance's name was George Bailey. He was a reporter at this exact newspaper. He disappeared shortly after you died into a place where people are never remembered again. All evidence that he ever existed vanished. He was even in this obituary when it was first printed. Now he's just...gone. Nothing remains of him except for your grief over not being able to tell him you loved him one last time. That's why you're stuck in the world of the living. You want to speak to him, but he's gone."

The sound of the footsteps strode forward again towards Mr. Bergeron. Brian turned himself around to keep his eyes trained on her. "She's skeptical. She wants to know how you know this void exists and that this George character disappeared into it."

"Well, we have proof that the void exists because we've had people come out of it. Look at this list." Mr. Bergeron held out the Xeroxed list of names. "These are all people who disappeared into the void." He pointed at Misty's and my names. "These two actually returned, if you'd like to talk to them. In fact, Katie's right here." He pointed at me.

"It's true," I said, wishing he hadn't gotten me wrapped up in this. "I'm on the list, and I'm here."

"Now she's asking how you know these people existed to begin with," Brian relayed. "You could have just put two fake names on a list of made-up names."

"I'm glad you asked! It's tinfoil!" Mr. Bergeron reached behind his head and pulled out the little piece of tinfoil wrapped around his ponytail to keep it up. "You don't even need a hat. Just a little bit on your head will protect you from any funny business the universe might be up to. I keep telling people that it works, but they never believe me.

"Now she's saying, 'We'll see about that,'" Brian said.

"Do you really have to read the ghost's mind?" Jack asked. "It's already bad enough that you do it with living people."