Page 15 of Shenanigans

“Hi, my name is Kandi. What’s yours?”

“I’m Erma. Erma Dutton. Is this a mortuary?”

“It is.”

“Oh, dear God. Am I dead? I don’t feel dead. Am I dead?”Erma began to weep.

Jana shot me a worried look. “Who are you talking to?”

“Her.” I pointed at the old lady.

“There’s no one there. Did you hit your head?” Jana held up two fingers. “How many fingers do you see?”

My stomach sank. “Two. You can’t see her?”

“No.”

Tammy eyed me like I was a few fries short of a Happy Meal. “Ain’t nobody there, honey.”

Crap. The last thing I needed was another supernatural power. I reached out cautiously and touched Erma. A chilling cold wrapped around my fingers. I jerked my hand back. Yep. I was talking to a ghost. “Remember when I told you my great grandma Anastasia had been a famous medium. I think I’m getting her power to talk to the dead.”

Jana rubbed her forehead again. “Why now?”

“Grandma Hester said her mother had gotten her ghostly powers around her twenty-fourth birthday. Mine is coming up.”

“What’s the deceased’s name?”

“Erma Dutton.”

Jana grabbed a clipboard off the wall and scanned it. “James just brought her in. She died from a heart attack and the attending physician signed the death certificate.”

Tinkerbell barked.

“What?”

Arf. Arf. Arf. Arf. Arf. Arf. Arf.

“Are you sure?”

Arf.

With an aggravated expression, Jana asked, “We don’t speak dog. What did she say?”

“Tinkerbell said there’s a light following Erma around.”

“Get her to go to it. We’ve got enough problems as it is,” Jana growled.

A bit of an understatement.“Do you see a light Erma?”

“Yes.”A brilliant smile lit her face.“Harold!”

“Go to Harold. He’ll show you the way home.”

“I’ve missed you so much.”Erma vanished.

I let out a sigh of relief. “She passed over.”

Tinkerbell barked joyfully and did a happy dance.

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