JEALOUSY IN DEATH

37.

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37. Desiree

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Desiree didn't know where to start from. If Bobo was saying the truth and spoke to his dead mom, it only meant one thing. He was talking to a ghost. What did ghosts say? She knew absolutely nothing about that realm and most importantly, she didn't believe in ghosts.

When Letty came in on Wednesday to clean the house, Bobo and his dad were out. Desiree waited for her to be done with cleaning before approaching her.

"Letty, I want to talk to you."

"What? What is it?"

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

Letty laughed. "Yes."

"Why?"

"For no particular reason, I just know they exist and when I was a kid my mom told me some stories."

"Do you still remember them?"

"Sure. Let me see, there was one she said about her mother, that is my grandma. She told me that when she died, all the family members went to the family house and in the middle of the night, someone kept banging on the door, like insistently. When they checked the peephole no one was there but the knocking continued until daybreak."

"Do you think it's true?"

"I don't see why she'd lie. That was like her signal to show them that she wasn't happy dying and leaving her kids alone at such young age."

"Your grandma died at what age?"

"Fifty something, I think and she had kids that were teenagers. She died from an unknown ailment."

"She was grieving as a ghost. So do you think they can feel?"

"I do, and there's another one she told me of her neighbor. She said the lady died at childbirth and people said she came to visit her baby every night whenever he cried."

"Was there proof?"

"She just said the baby was always giggling and smiling in the middle of the night and he was never hungry. If you're familiar with babies, you'll know they eat two to three times from night till morning but it was different with this baby. Strange, I know but somehow he always had a full belly within that hour."

"These two cases were all mothers, are there male ghosts?"

"Of course, I think when some people die untimely they become ghosts and wander around familiar areas where their love ones would be present."

"Okay."

"Are you writing a book about ghosts?"

"No, I was only curious."

"Okay, there's something I have also heard people say. Someone once told me they come with a certain chill."

"A drop in temperature?"

"Yes. Some show themselves while others don't but you always feel their presence if you're intuitive enough."

"Have you had any personal experience?"

"Just dreams but it could also be malaria symptoms." Letty laughed and Desiree joined in. "I could ask around if you want more proof but I believe they exist."

"Your stories were convincing, thank you."

"Alright, I'll be on my way."

Desiree went to the guest house and got a jotter. She made a note of all the weird things that'd ever happened to her since she began working for Lucas. She wrote about the smoke, the chill, the oven glitch, the missing key and the jammed door. The chill was the only one that stood out, Letty had talked about that. The rest seemed farfetched but they had happened to her so they were real.

She decided to call her mother. If Letty had stories about ghosts, then her mother should know one or two things about them also.

"Daughter," her mom said as she answered the call.

"Maa, how are you doing?"

"Great. I just came back from a beach hike. Do you want to hear about it?"

"Yep, tell me everything."

"There's this environmental sanitation challenge going on around the world. We pick trash lying around and dispose them properly. So, I went to the beach near my hotel this morning and picked plastics and bottles. Some of the locals wanted to join in and I shared garbage bags to them...I'll send you photos."

"Maa, that's so impressive and I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, sweetie. You can join the challenge also. We have to keep the ocean and environment clean. A whale died recently because it had injected tons of plastic. Do you know how awful that must have been for the poor thing?"

"That's sad."

"It is, baby girl. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Maa, I want to ask your take on something."

"I'm all ears."

"Do you believe in the existence of ghosts?"

"Of course, they exist. You have to know the world isn't just black and white, the grey areas in between hold a lot of unbelievable things and that includes paranormal events."

"Have you had a personal experience?"

"Yes. I dream about your father every time and we talk about you."

"Mom?"

"I'm serious. He died at such a young age and I'm sure he must have been restless leaving me and three kids behind."

"Is this why you never wanted another relationship? Because you still felt him?"

"I suppose. We loved each other so very much and I couldn't see myself having that kind of connection with another person."

"You're so sweet, but you know he would have wanted you to move on."

"I know, dear. It's just that the ways of the heart are complicated. Maybe, I never moved on because no man made me feel that same way."

"So you're saying, you would have moved on if someone ignited a similar feeling in you?"

"Yes."

"Okay, love you, mom. Go rest, I'll talk to you later."

"Love you back, darling."

Desiree got her pen. She'd never had any weird dream but maybe she couldn't because she didn't know the woman. Lucas was never going to tell her anything about his wife and she wasn't going to ask. Her phone rang and she saw a call from her old boss.

"You bitch, you got me fired. I have kids to feed and you said those things about me," he ranted.

"You're lucky I didn't tell them how you made sure no one hired me. Get off my phone, loser."

She ended the call and blocked his number when he called again. He was the least of her worries, she had bigger fish to fry. She was going to talk to Bobo again, it was hard for her to believe he truly spoke with his dead mom. She heard the car drive in and she left the guesthouse. Bobo ran out of the car and headed straight for her arms and she caught him as he jumped.

"Dee, we went shopping."

"How cool is that? What did you get?"

"New clothes and shoes and dad got me a new set of uniform."

"That's great."

Bobo got down from her arms and went to the house while she went to help Lucas with the shopping bags.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey, too."

"How was your day?"

"Fine. You went shopping."

"Yea, Bobo needed some new stuff."

"You're a great dad."

Lucas smiled. "Just doing my job."

"Okay, let me help you with those."

"No, I've got this."

"Lucas, you're acting weird."

"I know. I just feel bad."

Desiree stood on tiptoe and pecked him on the lips. It was hard to keep resenting him when he felt so much guilt.

He smiled and his eyes shone as he stared at her. "Now I feel wonderful. Thanks for turning my mood around."

"Yep, let's get out of the sun."

Desiree helped Lucas with the bags despite his protest and they went in together. He asked her to drop them at the foot of the stairs while he carried the bags to Bobo's room. He came downstairs with his son and Bobo dropped a case on her lap.

"What's this?"

"We got it for you, open it."

Desiree opened the box and saw a silver chain wristwatch with flowery designs on the chain. "It's so beautiful, thank you."

"We got the same for grandma."

"I'm sure she'll like it."

"Yup."

Lucas was by the cooker making spaghetti and Desiree listened to Bobo as he told her about a new game he recently downloaded.

Author's Note

There's a challenge currently going on all over the world. It's called the #trashchallenge. People basically go to public places like beaches, sidewalks, fields to pick waste that were carelessly/improperly disposed. I'm imploring anyone reading this chapter to join in on the challenge. It doesn't matter if you come across this book two to three years from now. There's simply never a wrong time to save the planet and take care of the environment.

If you can't join in on this challenge, be mindful of how you dispose your waste especially plastics because they do not decay and the few that do take more than hundred years. Let's all make a conscious effort to save the planet by recycling or properly disposing waste products. If you want to learn more about #trashchallenge go to twitter and search for the hashtag or go on Google. You can start from your immediate surrounding. Feel free to share this challenge with friends and family members, together we can make the earth a CLEANER place.

THANK YOU!