Survived By Secrets

12 • Finding Lawrence

Ryan rocked back on forth on his heels as he stood in front of the white doors. He had just knocked and was waiting for someone to answer. After a while Lya opened the door, her eyes squinting.

"What?" she said as she rubbed her eyes.

"I've been insensitive." He placed his hands in the pocket of his jeans. "Or at least that's what Mahlik said." He rubbed his arm. "I mean I also think I was insensitive. I know that you want to find out what happened to your mom. I was just frustrated that none of our questions were being answered."

"I get it," she said shifting her weight. "I wasn't thinking about how it feels for you to have a voice stuck in your head."

Ryan blew out a breath. "Yeah, it's not fun."

"So are we back together on this?"

"Well, yeah considering we found Lawrence," he smiled.

"What," she said, her eyes widening. "Why didn't you start with that?"

He laughed. "We didn't really find him. That's what we're going to do now."

"How?"

"He lives on the north side of town and Mahlik apparently has a plan." Ryan didn't know what it was but he already wondering about how he was going to tell Lawrence that he can see his dead sister and that his mother is in his head. Well, not anymore.

I need to know

Ryan drew in a breath as the familiar presence of Myrtle rushed through him. The feeling that never was always there as long as she was in his head. It had only been a few days since she was gone but he had already gotten used to having his head to himself. He looked up at Lya who had a concerned look on her face. "Guess who's back."

***

"Okay, what we do is narrow down the houses. I know a few people that live around here," Mahlik said. They were outside his house which was close to the north side of town. The street was quiet and the only sounds were the sounds of birds singing.

"That's your plan?" Lya asked. "There's no other way to find him?"

"No. Mrs. Davidson doesn't know the exact house he lives in. No one else does either. I've asked around," Mahlik explained.

"Yeah, the guy's basically a ghost," Ryan added. The librarian had told him and Mahlik that Lawrence kept to himself a lot.

"Well if we find him we can probably get a lot of information out of him," Lya said. With that they crossed the street and walked down the sidewalk that would take them to the northside of town. The sun hid behind the clouds, casting a shadow over the street.

"What am I even going to say? What if he doesn't believe in ghosts?" Lya and Mahlik shrugged.

"So how did you start seeing ghosts again? Were you born with it?" Mahlik asked, tilting his head up to look at Ryan.

He exchanged glances with Lya and then turned back to Mahlik. "I had a near-death experience."

Mahlik raised his eyebrows. "Really? What did it feel like?"

"Like I was near death."

"Elaborate," Mahlik rolled his eyes.

Ryan paused for a moment. He had never really talked about it that much since it happened. He went back to the feeling he had. He didn't know how to explain to someone. "Like I was floating and then there was nothing. And then I felt like I wasn't in my body. Like I wasn't..."

"On this plane of existence?" Mahlik finished. Lya looked over at him, furrowing her brows. She lowered her head as they passed a tree, its branch hanging low.