#Wattys2015 The Ghost of James Fitzpatrick

Chapter 13

The school bus rumbled along the roads of Arden billowing gray smoke from its tailpipe. Inside, the voices of its passengers was near deafening.

Josh Netherby showed his seatmate something in his notebook that made them both laugh. Girls hung over the seats to involve themselves in every conversation made available to them on this 20 minute ride to Arden Junior High and its next door neighbor, Arden High.

Lucy Marino sat bundled in her big green army coat with a red striped scarf tucked under her chin and chatted incessantly with her seatmate, but it became obvious to Lucy she had no audience in Sarah at the moment. Her friend was daydreaming out the bus window.

Lucy looked at Sarah for a moment and decided to turn her conversation to another girl across the aisle.

Sarah watched the little houses whip by out her window, while the giant, southern cottonwood trees, whose leaves had dropped for the winter, stood protectively above the yards with bare, outstretched arms. Sarah was somewhere else. She was thinking of her bedroom. She was thinking of James.

The omnipresent Highway 70 Bridge loomed to the side of their travels in the distant. It had always stood guard at the gates of their innocent town, but today it seemed somehow menacing to her.

Sarah pictured herself standing on the edge of The Bridge with the incomprehensible drop below her, and tried to imagine how anyone could ever step from the strength of the steel beneath their feet. She was falling and heard no other sound but the wind in her ears. Her hair blew straight up from the top of her head, her glasses were torn from her face, and coming up fast was the dark, cold and choppy waves of the Mississippi River.

"Sarah!" said Lucy. She was standing up waiting for her friend. Sarah grabbed her backpack from beneath the seat and filed off the bus behind Lucy.

The walk to the front steps of Arden High was the same as every day. The kids who arrived earlier, both by car or on foot, mingled around the steps, and waited for the "bus" kids to join their ranks.

"I've gotta go to the bathroom. I'll catch up with you later," Sarah said as she peeled herself away from the small group of girls headed into the school's main hall.

Sarah walked toward the girl's bathroom and kept going until she reached the end of the hall and the door leading out to the back campus. She saw Principal Zwicki, as omnipresent as The Bridge itself, making his way swiftly across campus toward his office. He checked his watch on his wrist, but did not even glance her way.

Sarah waited for the principal to pass and began to cut a diagonal path across the side of the school and back out to the sidewalk from where she'd climbed off the school bus. She did not look back once, even when she heard the first bell ring behind her.

421 Lilac Street was a burglar's dream, except there was nothing inside worth taking. Sarah knew that even though her parents pulled the front door of their home closed and locked during the day, the windows were all left unlocked. Even the back door was left vulnerable once one gained access to the back yard, which is just what Sarah did to make her entrance.

Her dad was out of town until next Friday night, and Sarah knew her mom worked on Wednesday mornings doing bookkeeping for a florist in downtown Arden, but she called out anyway.

"Mom?" Her empty home always felt a bit strange to Sarah. She entered apprehensively and made her way upstairs to her bedroom. The door was half open, and her room was empty, as it well should be.

Sarah entered and set her backpack on the floor. She looked at her bed, which she had not made that morning, and decided to undertake the task right away. She threw whatever clothes were on the bed onto the floor and pulled the sheets and comforter into place. She arranged her pillows and stuffed animals back into their respective positions, and then took a look around her room.

She had left in a hurry this morning and it was obvious. Clothes hung from the back of her chair and out her dresser drawer. She began grabbing things as she noticed them.

"Oh my gosh, what is wrong with me?" she mumbled to herself while she picked up her things and put them back in her closet.

"There used to be a sign over that door," said a male voice out of nowhere.

Sarah screamed and dropped her armload of clothes. She turned on her heel to see James in the doorway. She covered her mouth the stifle the scream that had already escaped.

"Don't do that!" she said with wide eyes.

James stood where he was. He dared not make any sudden moves.

"I'm really sorry, Sarah. I wasn't thinking," he said.

They stood and face one another awkwardly, not sure what to say or do. Sarah reached down to retrieve the dropped clothes because she didn't know what else to do. She tossed them onto her bed and smiled at him.

"No, it's ok, I'm just a little 'on edge' as they say," she laughed at herself.

James nodded in nervous agreement, then was silent. Sarah finally spoke up.

"Oh! So what were you going to say before I interrupted you with my blood curdling scream?" she asked.

James smiled. He liked her. He could tell already. He walked further into her room and turned around to point to a blank spot on the wall above her bedroom door.

"There was a sign right there. My parents gave it to me for my birthday as a joke, or a testament to my housekeeping skills. It said 'Cleanliness is Next to Impossible,'" He smiled at the thought of the sign, but still seemed obviously awkward.

Sarah smiled back at him.

"I like that little play on words," she said, "it sounds like..."

"It's good to see you, I'm glad you're here," interrupted James. "It's nice to see you awake." They both smiled. "Oh, and not in a state of terror" he continued.

Sarah nodded. "Not currently anyway," she said.

They stood staring at one another for a few seconds.

"It's good to see you too," she finally said.

James stuck his fists into the pockets of his jacket.

"You're supposed to be at school, right? Did you forget something?" he asked.

Sarah snapped out of her gaze for a second and looked around her messy room. She nodded.

"What were you looking for?" James asked her.

Sarah took a deep breath.

"You," she said.

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