“Yes, Mother.” She wanted to sink right through the floor, just vanish and be swallowed up by the sandbar beneath her house.
“Well,” Roxy continued, “Rainbow felt that it was better that way. She wasn’t beholden, she said. It gave her freedom. Yes, certainly it gave her freedom. Freedom to cook all the meals, and do all the laundry and cleaning, because poor, dear Walter was exhausted after a day of slaving in the financial mines.”
“He was a toad,” Jake commented.
“Exactly,” Roxy said approvingly. “But of course, Rainbow didn’t ditch him. He ditched her.”
“But why?”
“Well, all along he’d been treating her psychic abilities as if they were some amusing child’s game. Patting her on the head like a puppy,” Roxy said sourly, “until she made a prediction he couldn’t ignore. Then he said she was too creepy, and he moved out.”
“Definitely a toad,” Jake said, with even more emphasis than before.
“Well, you seem to be a little better,” Roxy observed bluntly. “At least you’re not claiming to be creeped out by the chair on the ceiling.”
“Creepy isn’t the word I’d use. Perplexing is more like it. What’s creepy is … well, I hate to say this out loud, because I’m not real comfortable with the feeling.”
Roxy leaned forward avidly, and even Rainbow watched him intently.
He shrugged. “I keep getting the feeling I’m being watched.”
“Ooooh,” said Roxy with delight.
“Really?” Intrigued, Rainbow forgot about the grief her mother was putting her through. “How often?”
“It comes and goes, but it’s been pretty persistent since I moved in.”
Roxy looked at Rainbow. “He’s got a touch of ability, doesn’t he?”
“Maybe.”
Jake looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know about that. I mean—well, I always know when someone’s watching me, but I don’t think the feeling is that uncommon. Most people seem to sense it. This is different only because there’s nobody there.”
Rainbow felt her opinion of Jake rise two or three notches. It couldn’t have been easy for him to admit he was feeling watched, particularly to this crew, with their automatic bias about the probable source of the feeling.
“I wasn’t going to say anything about it to anyone,” Jake said. “But then there’s that chair on my ceiling.”
“It does kind of make it interesting,” Gene remarked. “The feeling could be dismissed, but not with the chair hanging up there.”
“Joe’s chair,” Rainbow said quietly, and Jake’s blue eyes met hers, conveying a whole mixture of conflicting feelings.
“Joe’s chair,” he agreed quietly.
“Well, that does it,” said Roxy. “I have to go see this chair right now.”
Jake took Roxy and Dawn in his car, and Gene rode with Rainbow in hers. It was nearing sunset, and the sky was streaked with vermilion clouds.
“Where were you all day?” Rainbow asked her uncle.
“Well, I had to film a spot for that environmental group this morning. I actually had to stand in the middle of a bunch of alligators.”
“I’d have been scared to death!”
“Nah,” he said with a grin. “They’d been fed right before filming, and none of them seemed to want to move a muscle. Besides, I’m bigger than anything in their usual diet.”
“I still would have been scared. I like alligators, but in their proper place.”
“Well, they’d have a proper place if people would stop draining wetlands to build new houses.” “True.”
“And after the filming, Nellie and I had lunch together and then went to the mall. It was too damn hot to do anything outside.”
She glanced at him. “Nellie, hm?”
“Now, don’t go getting any ideas. I just met the woman. She likes my Tshirts, though.”
“That’s a definite mark in her favor.”
“I certainly think so.”
“You would,” Rainbow said on a laugh.
The condominium parking lot was full, and it looked as if most of the residents were out on the side patio. When they stepped out of their cars, they could smell the delicious odors of a barbeque.
“I wonder if the ghosts are flipping out again,” Rainbow said, as they got out of the car.
“No, this was a scheduled event,” Gene said. “Nellie invited me, but I thought I ought to come home and spend a few minutes with you before I dashed out again.”
Rainbow looked at him with amusement. “Really, Uncle Gene, I’m a big girl. I won’t be crushed just because you prefer Nellie’s company to mine.”
Gene winced. “I deserved that.”
But Rainbow went off into a peal of laughter that let him know she’d only been teasing. They joined the other three and crossed the parking lot toward the building entrance.
Nellie saw Gene and waved him over.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he called to her.
“Bring everyone along with you,” Nellie called back. “We need some fresh faces.”
Paradise Towers was rarely noisy, but tonight it was utterly silent. If any of the residents remained indoors, they must have been reading or sleeping.
The elevator carried them up to Jake’s floor.
“If the building were settling,” Gene remarked, “at least if it were settling enough to throw things around, the elevator wouldn’t be working.”
‘“That’s what I thought,” Jake agreed, “but I contacted an engineering firm anyway. They’ll be out tomorrow to look it over. Better safe than sorry.”
“It’s a waste of money,” Roxy said bluntly. “If my daughter says this place is haunted, it’s haunted.”
“Not everyone agrees with you, Mother,” Rainbow said drily.
Roxy shrugged. “So what? People have been disagreeing with me my entire life. It hasn’t kept me from being right.”
From the corner of her eye, Rainbow saw Jake struggle to suppress a grin. She certainly couldn’t blame him. Roxy could be utterly outrageous.
At the door to Jake’s apartment, they eagerly clustered around. In fact, Jake was the only one who didn’t seem eager. Rainbow noted the way he hesitated before putting his key in the lock.
He caught her watching him and gave her a rueful grin. “I can’t make up my mind what I want more— to find the chair still on the ceiling, or to find it back where it belongs.”
She nodded sympathetically, and without stopping to think about it, reached out to lay a reassuring hand on his arm.
As she did, she saw the leap of fire in his gaze. She snatched her hand back as if she’d been burned. He shouldn’t be able to make her feel like this with a simple look. He shouldn’t be able to deprive her of breath and turn her knees to water, and start a pagan drumbeat in her blood!
She tore her gaze from his and forced herself to look down at his hand and the key that still hesitated right in front of the lock.
He shoved it in, turned it, and pushed the door open. Reaching in, he flipped a switch, filling the living room with light, then stepped back to let the others enter before him.
“My heavens!” Roxy exclaimed in a tone of utter ecstasy, “this is wonderful.”
Rainbow, peering over her mother’s shoulder, saw that a floor lamp had joined the chair on the ceiling.
“Oh, come on,” Jake said, crowding in behind them. “Not another one!”
All of a sudden the door of the apartment slammed shut behind them and all the lights went out.
Ten
For a long moment, no one moved, or even breathed. Then a babble of voices broke out and people started bumping into one another as they tried to move.
“Everybody hold still,” Jake said. “I know where there’s a flashlight.”
He eased his way past Rainbow and Roxy, then held his hands in front of him as he tried to remember the exact layout of the furniture.
“Why is it so dark in here?” Dawn asked. “Th
ere ought at least to be light from the windows.”
“The curtains are closed,” Jake replied.
“Why?” demanded Roxy.
“Because,” Jake explained, with just the faintest hint of exasperation in his voice, “this unit has a beautiful view of the Gulf.”
A moment passed before Roxy said, “What in the world does he mean by that?”
“It has a western exposure, Mother,” Rainbow explained. “The sun must make it unbearably hot in here in the late afternoon.”
“Oh.”
“This place cooks like an oven if I don’t draw the curtains,” Jake said, then swore. “Damn! How did that table get there?”
Just then the lights came back on, and the five of them blinked in the sudden brilliance. Jake stood in the middle of the living room, his shins against a coffee table that appeared to have moved three feet in the few brief moments of darkness.
“Oh!” said Roxy, “this is wonderful! Wonderfull”
“That’s a matter of opinion,” Jake said irritably. “Furniture moving in the dark is not something I’d call wonderful.”
But Roxy ignored him, sailing into the center of the room with her hands clasped in delight. “I’ve never seen anything like this!” she said. “Never! Imagine the forces it must take to keep a chair and a lamp on the ceiling.”
“The lamp’s a new addition,” Rainbow said, approaching it cautiously.
“It sure wasn’t up there when I left earlier,” Jake admitted. He looked almost glum as he stared at the dangling furnishings.
“Remarkable,” said Gene, his voice lacking its customary amusement. “Has anyone taken pictures?”
“Who’d believe them?” Dawn said prosaically. “Those could be fastened to the ceiling by bolts or something. That’s what everyone would believe.”
“You don’t need engineers,” Roxy said, turning to Jake, her eyes alight. “You need the Association for Psychical Research.”
“I don’t think so,” Jake said, looking horrified.
“Don’t be so narrow-minded,” Roxy scolded. “Can your science explain this?”
“Not yet,” Jake said.
“And it never will, unless it takes an open mind on the subject.”
“It’s true,” Rainbow told Jake. “Here we have evidence of something that can’t be explained by ordinary physical laws. It deserves further examination.”
Jake gave her a half smile. “Even if I brought in a team of scientists, could anyone guarantee that chair and lamp would still be on the ceiling by the time they arrive? Murphy’s Law, you know.”
“He’s probably right, Rainbow,” Roxy said. “It’s a message meant for him, anyway.”
‘Tor me?” Jake looked uncertainly at the chair.
“Well, of course,” Roxy said tartly. “It’s on your ceiling! It certainly isn’t directed at the Secretary General of the United Nations!”
“Oh.”
Gene, meanwhile, had crossed the room, and now gave the chair a gentle nudge. As if it were on skates, it sailed a few feet across the ceiling. “Fascinating,” he remarked. “Absolutely fascinating.”
He gave the lamp a little nudge, and it too sailed across the room, stopping beside the chair.
“Well,” said Gene, “it certainly isn’t bolted or glued in place. Now, a large magnet on the floor above…”
Jake came over to stand beside the chair, shaking his head. “Imagine how big it would have to be. And I doubt there’s enough metal in the chair for a magnet overcome the pull of gravity anyway.”
“You’re probably right.” Gene poked at the chair again, putting it back out of the way in its corner. Jake pushed the lamp and it stopped in its original position beside the chair.
“You know,” Gene said, “it’s interesting the way that lamp always stops next to the chair.”
“Yeah.”
“We need videotape,” Dawn said suddenly, “videotape of the chair and lamp moving. That’d be proof.”
Jake shook his head. “I don’t know if I want proof of this.”
Rainbow looked at him in amazement. “Why not? A tape would prove we haven’t all lost our minds.”
“It’d prove nothing except that someone found a way to rig this setup. Or that someone knows how to do special effects.”
“Oh.”
Roxy and Dawn sat on the couch. Jake and Gene stayed where they were, studying the chair.
“What does Mustafa say, Mother?” Rainbow asked.
“He’s being suspiciously quiet—which probably means he’s up to something.”
“What could Mustafa possibly be up to?”
“I don’t know.” Roxy shrugged as if it were of no consequence, but Rainbow didn’t believe it for a minute.
“Who is Mustafa?” Jake asked.
“One of my guides.” Roxy twitched her caftan with one hand, and reached up to straighten her turban. “He’s usually very helpful.”
“He’s usually very talkative,” Dawn said bluntly. “Getting him to be quiet is the problem most of the time.”
Jake looked uneasily from the ceiling chair to Roxy. “I’m having trouble with this,” he said. “Somebody help me here.”
“I don’t know. I don’t seem to know anything anymore.” Jake sat with a thump on the wing chair and put his chin in his hand.
Rainbow started to feel sorry for him. This had to be very tiring, after all. It was so alien to everything he believed.
“Now, don’t get into a funk,” Roxy said, in her usual perfunctory manner.
Jake straightened. “I’m not, I’m thinking.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you got into a funk,” Roxy said magnanimously. “It’s … overwhelming.”
Jake snorted and looked at the chair. “Actually, I’m underwhelmed. Just for the sake of argument, if that chair really is a message, what’s it saying?”
Roxy shrugged. “It would be helpful, I suppose, if the ghost had written a note.”
Almost in spite of himself, Jake felt a smile began to creep across his face. “That’s asking for a bit much, isn’t it? I mean, here we have a chair and a lamp on the ceiling, and we’re asking for notes?”
Roxy waved a hand. “Why not? It never hurts to ask. Besides, ghosts are the most annoying creatures. They never do anything in a straightforward manner.”
Rainbow spoke. “What isn’t straightforward about a chair on the ceiling? How much clearer and more believable can you get if you want to send a message that ghosts are here?”
“True,” said Roxy.
Jake looked as if he’d just swallowed something unpleasant. “Still,” he said finally, “if there’s any other message, it’s escaping me.”
Rainbow turned to him. “Then you admit there are ghosts here?”
Jake hesitated, then shook his head. “I’ll allow I’m reluctantly considering the possibility, but I won’t be convinced until I’m absolutely positive there’s no other explanation.”
“Such as?”
“Oh, I don’t know. What about a gravitational anomaly?”
“Then why aren’t you floating beside the chair?” Rainbow countered.
He gave her a sour look as Gene chuckled.
“She’s got you there,” Gene said.
Jake nodded and gave Rainbow a look of respect. “You don’t leap to conclusions, do you?”
“No.” She smiled too brightly. “In spite of your initial impression, I can be a critical thinker.”
“I never said you weren’t!”
“Right. However, I do think critically, I did go to college, and the only difference between the way you and I think is that I allow a greater range of possibilities than you do.”
“Still,” he argued, “I’m not convinced there
isn’t an explanation that fits within the laws of physics.”
“The laws of physics don’t necessarily rule out paranormal experiences,” Rainbow shot back. “The problem with science is that by emphasizing experimentation as the only way to prove anything, it totally disregards eyewitness reports! Look at ball lightning.”
“What about ball lightning?”
“It’s been reported throughout recorded history, but since science can’t duplicate it in a laboratory, they’re still arguing about whether it really exists! Well, it’s the same with paranormal experiences. An extraordinary number of people claim to have them, but science shrugs it off, pointing to the fact that these people can’t duplicate the experience in a laboratory setting. So? Nobody is claiming that paranormal experience is as reliable or commonplace as speech, and most laboratory testing overlooks the emotional factor that exists in most paranormal events.”
He spread his hands, not exactly agreeing, but not exactly disagreeing, either.
“Then,” Rainbow continued, on a roll now, “we have that magician what’s-his-name who claims that because he can reproduce a paranormal event through ordinary means, it indicates that it was nothing but a fraud to begin with. That’s the worst case of faulty logic I’ve ever encountered!”
Jake nodded. “I have to agree with you there.”
“Why?” Roxy asked.
“It’s quite simple, Mother. Finding one way of reproducing a result does not mean it’s the only way. Consider. If I throw a soccer ball into the net, does that necessarily mean someone else couldn’t kick it into the net? Or conversely, just because I didn’t— or couldn’t—kick the ball into the net, does that mean no one else could?”
Roxy nodded, impressed. Gene applauded silently.
“You’re right,” Jake said. “You’re absolutely right. You know I don’t believe in paranormal events, but I’ve always been troubled that scientists have fallen prey to that kind of thinking.”
“When they do that,” Rainbow finished off roundly, “they’re not being scientific. They’re being debunkers. And they’re clothing their personal prejudices in the religion of science.”