Yvonne stayed where she was, not inching forward at all, worried that her son would faint for another time. But of course, Tom didn’t. He gathered himself within seconds, enough for him to look at Suzanne and whisper, “Is that my mother?”
He had memorized her face from the identification card that he retrieved earlier from the hospital. Surely this was some kind of trickery?
“It’s me, I’m Yvonne Long. I’m your mother Tom,” Yvonne said softly, speaking directly to her son for the first time in 3 decades. Relief washed over Yvonne’s face. She could finally meet her son face to face. She started weeping, wiping her translucent tears with her shimmery hospital gown.
Tom looked at Suzanne, unsure of what to do. Here was a woman, no, a ghost who looked like his mother, crying in front of him. He never could stand seeing a woman cry, let alone the ghost of his mother. Tom instinctively reached out to comfort the spirit, only to find his hand phasing through her. He immediately retracted his hands and looked at them incredulously.
“You can’t touch me, Tom. I’m dead. But I wanted to tell you something before I leave for good.”
Tom shook his head, not following, “But you’re dead….”
Suzanne sat down beside a weeping Yvonne, “Tom, this is the real deal. Forget physics. Your mother only wants to talk to you.”
“You can’t be real….,” he was in denial.
Suzanne sighed. Her clients were usually divided into 3 groups; the first was what she called the runners. These people screamed, fainted, and peed in their pants before gaining consciousness and running out of the office, never coming back for good. The second were those who eagerly embraced the spiritual life. These people wasted no time in chitchatting away with their dearly departed, some would even try to fish for tips on how to make quick bucks. The third was the sceptics. This group required a lot of patience to deal with. Tom definitely belonged to the third group.
“Tom, you wore a dark blue robe after you showered this morning, didn’t you? And you kept the vial in the first drawer beside your bed,” Suzanne had to lay down the facts to convince him.
Yvonne had stopped crying by this time. She sniffled, “I saw a GQ magazine on his desk too.”
Woohoo, Suzanne thought.
Tom’s eyes went wide. “You were there?” he gasped.
“I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You see Tom, I don’t have much time left on Earth. Before I leave, there’s something have to tell you.”
Tom pulled up his knees and buried his face in them, “There’s more?”
“Your father is alive,” Yvonne said simply. “Would you like to meet him?”
Tom immediately looked up. Nothing seemed to surprise him anymore.
“His name is William Banks.”
Except for the revelation that his father was the most powerful man in New York.
Tom didn’t know how to react anymore. Either Suzanne was a professional prankster or his ghost of a mum had a knack for jokes.
Yvonne sat herself down and started telling Tom of why things were….
I worked as a cleaner at his office back then. William was already in a 7-year relationship when I first met him. I guess that’s why they call it the 7-year itch. You could see it in his face whenever he came to work after an argument with Patty. I’d pour him tea and we’d start chatting, and the more I got to know him, the more I fell in love with him. Then one day, it just happened.
He never knew about you, Tom. I left before he found out. You see, Patty knew and she came to see me. It was clear though that her family ties would bring him to higher places while I would only drag him down. So I left.
Having you was the greatest gift. But I am an uneducated woman Tom. I knew I wouldn’t be able to give you a good life. I was young and scared. So I put you up for adoption, and I am eternally grateful to your foster parents. They brought you up well. They did what I could not do.
All was silent when Yvonne ended her side of the story. Tom stood up.
“Where are you going?” Suzanne asked, standing up herself.
Yvonne just sat there looking sad. “You’re leaving aren’t you?” she asked her son.
Tom looked down at her, “Yes.”
Yvonne’s ghostly face fell.
“We are leaving together to find my father.”
Suzanne had never seen a ghost smile so widely. This was an unexpected twist. She had expected Tom to either bail out or laugh it off but he looked very serious.
And extremely sexy too. Suzanne eyed Tom’s facial features all the way down to his perky butt. And boy would she have loved to give it a squeeze.
“Alrighty then, let’s go,” Suzanne said.
Yvonne practically leapt up, filling in all the details about how she managed to see him attend his graduation and how proud she was when he was offered a position at Knewton University. If Tom was uneasy about having been stalked by his mother, he didn’t show it.
Suzanne clasped her hands together and recited a chant. The golden thread dissolved into embers of dust before disappearing into thin air. Tom looked at her with amazement but didn’t have a chance to talk to her as Yvonne chatted away.
Suzanne then led them to the doorway and opened the door, ready to escort them to find William Banks. And just as she pulled open the doorknob, there stood a little girl with red shoes.
She was drenched and water was dripping down her shoulder-length hair. Tom almost stumbled when he saw the girl. His spell had yet to wear off, and therefore he could see what no other normal beings could not. He could see that this was no ordinary girl. This was the spirit of a dead little girl.
“Hello,” she said and held out her dripping wet hand towards Tom.
D-Day-3 The black mist emerged, having made its way its up the apartment stairway, emerging at the very top floor. It slithered towards Suzanne Summer's front door and tried t
Tom dug in. There was a ragged doll that had lost an eye, a chocolate wrapper, a pink bow tie, a photo of the little girl and her mother, and a little plastic piggy bank. The girl crouched next to Tom and pointed at the piggy bank.Tom pulled it out. The purple piggy bank was semi-transparent and Suzanne could see that there were some dollar notes and coins in them.You want to give this to your mommy?” she asked.The little ghost girl nodded in excitement. Suzanne's heart broke. She recalled begging for her own mother to stay, in exchange for all the money in her piggy bank.Oh, God. She came back here just to give her mother her savings.The little girl had travelled all the way to Suzanne's apartment just so she could give her mother her savings.The ghost pointed to the photo too. In it, the little girl was sti
Tom stood at the door of Suzanne’s apartment, seemingly not wanting to leave. He held onto the door, faked a cough and asked her one more time, “You sure you’ll be okay with little missy here?”Suzanne laughed. Surely he wasn’t that attached to the little ghost girl?“We’ll be fine. Her time has come. I’ll need to send her on her way.”Tom scratched the back of his head, “Well, alright then.”He bent down and looked at the little girl. He couldn’t see her face still, her features were all a blur, probably due to the drowning, but he smiled at her nonetheless. “You take care okay? You’re in good hands.”The little ghost nodded her head silently. He looked back up at Suzanne who stood right next to them.“Yvonne’s waiting for you, Tom,” Suzanne reminded h
It was nightfall, the moon shone brightly in a cloudless night and Tom stood in front of the Banks’ residence. Unbeknownst to Yvonne and Suzanne, he had been here before. But only as a guest. He had been invited to the Mayor’s ball the last Christmas as a guest and speaker. He had even chatted with William Banks that night and had found the man to be as charming as the media had made him out to be.“You look like someone I used to know,” William had laughed as they stood by the firewall, sipping Chardonnay while a violinist strode past them playing Last Christmas.Did I remind you of Yvonne? He thought to himself. Life would certainly have been vastly different had he grown up a member of the Banks family, and not just someone who bore the same surname.But what’s past is past. I’m here to say goodbye to him.Tom stepped up to th
D-Day - 1Suzanne had just stepped out of her shower when she heard her doorbell rang. She hastily grabbed her robe and put it on before heading towards the door. On the security screen was the face of Tom Banks. She glanced at the clock on her wall. It was past midnight.Didn’t we agree to meet in the morning? She thought to herself. She turned on the microphone.“Hey, Tom!” she croaked. Great. I sound like a frog.“Sorry to intrude. But um, can I come in?” he looked like a sad puppy. A hot sexy looking sad puppy.Heck, you can do more than come in…she thought before biting her lips.“Sure. Hang on. I’ll open the door.”She hastily tied her hair in a ponytail and tightened her robe. Her worn out robe had seen better days. She wished she had on
The dawn of a new day did not make way for the glory of the morning sun. Instead, what greeted Suzanne was a heavy downpour. One she had never witnessed before. The sky flashed with lightning and roared with thunder. If she hadn’t glanced at the clock on the wall, she would have thought that it was still midnight. But the shorthand of the clock had already reached 9.She groaned and sat up, only to see a sleeping Tom on the floor. He was curled up in a catlike position, the blanket had been kicked off sometime during the night. Suzanne smiled and bent down from the comfort of her bed to cover him with the blanket gently.They had kissed and touched each other the night before but did not progress further. Instead, Tom had held her in his arms as they talked. She wished Tom hadn’t been such a gentleman.She rose from the bed and tiptoed over to her office and almost let out a scream when she saw Yv
Yvonne waved to both Tom and Suzanne before she disappeared into the rainbow with the bearded man in white. And when the last of the light from the rainbow disappeared, Tom closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.Suzanne placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?” she asked.He nodded, “That was beautiful.”He turned to Suzanne and pulled her into a warm embrace. He rested his chin on top of her curly dark hair as she nuzzled her face in his chest. “Will it be the same for everyone in the end?”Suzanne nodded, “Usually, yes.”Tom twirled a lock of her hair with his finger, “Usually?”Suzanne looked up, tiptoed, and kissed his cheek. “Some don’t get to go over the rainbow bridge. Some get sucked into the abyss.” She shuddered, suddenly feeling a sense of Deja Vu. Lightni
D-DAYIt was past midnight when Suzanne finally opened her eyes. She quickly sat up only to see Tom lying next to her, snoring softly. Lightning flashed, followed by the deafening sound of thunder. The protective seal she had weaved earlier was gone.Something’s out there, her eyes narrowed as she tried to adjust to seeing in the dark. She gripped her wand, Tom had not removed it from her grasp during her sleep. Good old Tom. She patted his head softly.She crossed her living room and went towards her front door. But before she could reach for the doorknob, the door started to rattle. The black mist started to seep in from underneath the door. It had finally come for Suzanne.What in the heavens? Suzanne had never seen nor felt such evil before.She quickly pointed the wand at the door and recited an ancient chant. The wand ext