Chapter Eight
“Please tell me what just happened in my apartment.” I took a long sip from the glass of red wine the bartender handed to me.
“I can tell you what I believed just happened, but I can’t be sure until I study it more.”
“I sound like a science experiment.”
Andjela cocked her head in confusion. Slowly, a smile appeared on her lips that tonight were painted deep red. “I don’t mean you, just your whole situation. Besides, I don’t think the educational system considers what I do a type of science, but I understand the humor.” For a moment, I thought I saw sympathy in her face. “I guess I need to work on my sense of humor. I have been told that before.”
“I imagine in your line of work, it’s hard to have a sense of humor.”
“Oh I don’t know. My parents were in this line of work, and they had a very keen sense of humor. I guess it just didn’t pass on to me.”
“Your parents did this?”
“If you mean did my parents work with spirits, yes, they did.”
The bartender came over and handed Andjela the chocolate martini she ordered. She placed a fifty-dollar bill on the bar and told the bartender to keep a running tab. She took a slow, pleasurable drink of the brown, creamy liquid and sighed. “Chocolate and alcohol. You can’t get any better than that.” She lifted her glass to me.
I laughed. “And you say you don’t have a sense of humor.”
“I wasn’t being funny. I like chocolate and alcohol. The combination is good for relaxing you, and I would say we need a little relaxing, wouldn’t you?”
“Okay, then.” I called the bartender over and pointed to Andjela’s blissful beverage. “I’ll have what she’s having.”
“Now you get it.”
“So tell me what you believed just happened.”
Andjela looked forward, not at me, as she explained her theory. “I believe there are other spirits who don’t want Matthew to be successful in getting his message to you.”
“I knew it. I could have sworn I heard more than one distinguishable voice in the whispers, but they were never aggressive, only a sense of calm urgency, if that makes any sense.”
“Yes, it does. You see spirits are never alone. There are always several of them, should I say, swirling around, but I don’t believe the hostile spirits were there when it started.”
The bartender placed a chocolate martini on the bar in front of me. I took a swallow and immediately felt the velvety, smooth liquid that was sliding down my throat begin to relax me. “Wow, this taste pretty good. It just might do the trick.”
“Of course it will, just like I told you.” She wasn’t being smug. She was just being matter-of-fact. This fascinating, thought-provoking, and definitely out of the ordinary woman was capturing more of my attention with every sentence.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. Please, go on.”
“You weren’t interrupting me. I’m glad the drink is helping. As I was saying, there is always more than one spirit at an occurrence, whether that occurrence is physical, visual, or audible. I like to say they are like spirits. In other words, they all have the same agenda as far as the emotional state of their existence.”
I gave Andjela a questioning look.
“Um, how do I explain this.” She touched her head with her fingers and appeared to be thinking. After a moment, she put her hands down and continued. “The spirits that first appeared to you were all in the same state—as you said, calm but urgent. Something happened between then and today. Spirits of another emotional state appeared. Their agenda is malicious. Sometimes we can find out the reason for the aggression, and often we never find out. But what we do know is that these malevolent spirits will do what they can to prevent Matthew from getting his message to you.”
“I don’t understand why. Like I said, I don’t know any other people who have died except my parents, and other than Matthew’s family, I don’t think there’s anyone else who’s pissed at me or have ever wanted to hurt me.”
“I don’t know if they are out to harm you or just scare you, but it doesn’t have to be anybody you know. There are angry spirits in the world that aren’t attached to anyone or anything else other than their own anger. When they sense good spirits, they latch on and try to destroy or defeat the virtuous. It is because of their anger that they interfere, and it is their anger that is fueled by their interference.”
“Great. Sounds like a no-win situation.” I sighed. “So there’s no motive for these ghosts to scare me. They’re just plain miserable for no reason other than to be miserable.”
“That’s pretty much it as they say, ‘in a nutshell.’” Andjela took another sip of her martini. “I do love this mix of chocolate and alcohol.” She turned to look at me, smiled and nodded to my drink. “Come, come, drink up. You will feel better.”
I obliged. The martini did feel good going down, and as we talked and drank I actually felt my body relax. My brain was another matter. I tried another approach to calm my mind. I took the plunge. “You said your parents were in this line of work. Did you inherit this ability from your parents?”
“No, I was adopted.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say next. If it was a good adoption, maybe I could have said “That’s wonderful.” But if it was a bad adoption, saying “I’m sorry” didn’t seem to cut it. I took a larger drink of my martini hoping maybe I would slip into a drunken stupor and wake up tomorrow morning in my bed to find all of this was just a really bad nightmare.
“It’s okay. I have great parents.” Still, I was stumped for conversation. I think Andjela sensed it because she didn’t wait for me to say anything. “My parents worked in a travelling circus in Romania.”
This got more bizarre by the minute. Had I just heard her say a traveling circus in Romania? “Really?”
“Really. Evaline and Raegan.”
“Lesbian parents? Back then?” I clapped my hand over my mouth embarrassed at my assumption.
“It’s okay. Yes, lesbian parents, but they were, as you would say, ‘in the closet.’”
“You like to use idioms, don’t you?”
Andjela’s eyes lit up. “Yes, I do. When I came to this country, it was one of the things I found unique. ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,’ ‘close but no cigar,’ and I love ‘break a leg,’ which actually means good luck. My parents and I had a lot of fun learning and using these sayings, but no one seems to use them anymore. They seem to have been forgotten as many things have in this country. Rather sad.” She took another sip of her drink and seemed to revel in its taste. “So good. Anyway, my parents did readings and predictions in the circus, and every sometimes they helped someone deal with spirits, like what you’re dealing with now.”
“So are you from Romania?”
“I guess so. I’m not really sure. My parents found me.”
“Found you. Where?”
“I was a newborn when they found me in a box behind their tent. I was wrapped in torn pieces of blanket. They were finished with work for the evening. The circus troop was going to move to a new location the next day and they were busy packing up. They heard rustling behind the tent. Evaline found me and brought me inside. They went to the town the next day and asked around about a missing baby. No one claimed me. No one even admitted there was a baby missing, anywhere. The town was very poor and most people couldn’t afford to take care of multiple children. In fact, the circus only stayed for two days because they weren’t making any money.”
Andjela emptied her martini glass and signaled to the bartender. “In those small towns, even the authorities turned the other way when it came to lost and found babies. So, they kept me. Years later, they went back to the town and searched once more for anything that might give them some information about my birth. They came up empty. So they unofficially adopted me.”
“Wow, so you really don’t know where you’re from.”
“If you mean geographically, no. But
I know my life started somewhere in Romania with Raegan and Evaline, and that’s all I need to know.” The bartender set another chocolate delight in front of Andjela, who proceeded to drink with a satisfying look on her face.
“Don’t you find it astonishing that you have the same gift as they, and you’re not even blood related?”
“I will be honest. I did at first,” she answered as she looked off into space. “But the more I look back at my past—how I was found, who found me, where—well, it all makes sense. You see, Evaline is from Romania. Her name means ‘light.’ Raegan is from Ireland, and don’t ask me how the two even found each other. They are as far apart as night and day, yet as connected as Siamese twins.” She chuckled. “Anyway, Raegan’s name means ‘spiritual strength.’ And my name means ‘messenger.’”
I was fascinated listening to Andjela’s story. This stuff only happened in the movies but here I was living it. The combination of Andjela’s story and the chocolate martini had me almost forgetting the earlier events in my haunted apartment.
“The connection between all three of you and the meaning of your names…” I mulled it over in my mind, finally asking, “Did they name you Andjela?”
“That’s another piece of the puzzle.” She leaned over and nudged me. “Another idiom, I believe.”
I laughed.
“There was a note attached to the box. The piece of paper said ‘Andjela is foretold to bring you understanding through transcendental contact. Keep her safe.’”
“I have to say this. You didn’t make this all up to take my mind off my apartment, did you? Really does sound like one of those B movies to me.”
Andjela looked a little hurt as she pondered her answer. “I’m not sure what kind of movie you’re talking about. Hopefully not horror.”
“I didn’t mean…” Andjela looked at my mortified face and started laughing, loud and long, and it was such a fun laugh I had to join in.
Through her giggles, she said, “I guess I do have a small sense of humor. Look, I know it sounds, uh, strange, but it’s the truth. That’s the reason I don’t often tell my story because even the people I help don’t often believe me.” With a tone of disappointment in her voice, she said, “I really thought you might.”
“Foot in mouth,” I said angry at myself for possibly hurting the feelings of the one person I really believed could help me, but she was smiling.
“You said an idiom. Was that for my benefit?”
“Yes, and to scold myself. I do believe you, Andjela. Really. I have no reason not to, and I have plenty of reasons why I should. So, I would really like to hear the rest of your story because it totally intrigues me. I deal with the dead almost every day but I never thought about the spiritual side of it. I always believed when they died, they died. And that was that.”
“And now?”
“The dead don’t always just die.” I took a sip of my drink. “Is that an idiom?”
“I don’t know, but if it isn’t, it should be.” We laughed again. “I thought you worked with the dead because of the strong feelings I got not only from the spirits in your apartment but from you yourself. What do you do?”
“I own a funeral home.”
Andjela banged her hand on the bar, making me jump and almost fall off my barstool. “Well, that explains it,” she said loudly. “I knew it had to be something like that. I thought a hospital, or a morgue, but a funeral home? You’ve probably always had all sorts of spirits swirling around you.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. Just because they don’t appear doesn’t mean they aren’t there. They’re always there. They just never show themselves until there is a reason.”
“I know Matthew trying to tell me something is his reason, but what about the ones tonight?”
“Anger. Remember? That and a just and honorable spirit to interfere with is all they need.”
“How did they find Matthew?”
“You work at a funeral home. As I said, lots of spirits floating around. At some point, someone who passed through your establishment had an ‘ax to grind.’” She giggled. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice this type of conflict in your life before. Do you ever remember anything strange happening to you since you started your business?”
“No, never.”
“My turn to say wow. Wow.” She sat back in her chair. “Because my mothers and I were so linked to the spiritual world, like you are, we had it around us all the time. We sensed it; we knew it. They showed themselves to us often through noises, things moving. It got pretty…normal, I guess you would say.”
“I’m sure you realize that most of us would not find that normal.”
“Oh, of course not. Most people don’t ever interact with spirits. But Quinn, I believe something in you, for whatever reason, has now made the spirits aware of their connection with you. She stared hard at me, “It is strong with you.”
On the last statement, Andjela’s voice got deep and serious. She sounded like Yoda from Star Wars. I almost choked as I held my laughter in. I didn’t want to insult her again so I turned away from her searching the bar.
“Bartender,” I called. “I’ll have another.”
Realizing the martinis were starting to do more than relax us, I suggested something to eat to soak up the alcohol. We moved our martinis and our conversation to a table and ordered stuffed potato skins and a cheese and avocado dip with chips. I asked Andjela to tell me how she got involved in her line of work.
“Things started to get a little worrisome for my parents in Romania. Two women in a circus doing palm readings, séances, and other spiritual undertakings was one thing. People didn’t think about lesbianism. They were safe. But when I came along, questions were raised if the circus stayed in one place too long. They tried the ‘single mother and child and her sister’ for a while, but eventually people talked; the rumors followed them and grew into ugly gossip. For our safety, they decided to leave the circus and Romania and move to somewhere where the persecution wasn’t so bad. They came to the United States. I was twelve.
“Until then, I helped out in the spiritual tent. I kept things clean and in order, but it wasn’t enough for me. My parents told me recently they knew of my talent but waited for it to evolve on its own. They didn’t want to force me into this kind of life. ‘It’s not easy,’ they said to me, but I didn’t care. Even as a child, I felt a pull. I just didn’t know what I was being pulled to, you know?”
“Actually, I kind of do. I had a job at a factory after college. I didn’t like it. I always felt a pull toward something else. Who knew it would be working with dead people?” The waitress put our finger food on the table, and we both dug in. We definitely needed food to add to the next round of chocolate martinis that came immediately after.
“It’s funny how things work out. Now here you and I sit. You work with dead people, and I work with their spirits, and it’s brought us together. Kind of cosmic, don’t you think?” Her eyes twinkled.
I leaned on my elbows and stared at the little star of sparkle in her green eyes, accentuated by her long eyelashes and red lips that seemed to puff out a tiny bit as she got a little more under the influence of the vodka. She was enigmatic. She was magical. I didn’t really believe in fate or destiny, but Andjela walking into my life was beginning to put a fault line in that belief as well.
I hadn’t felt this good since before Matthew was diagnosed with cancer. This moment, at this table, sitting across from this extraordinary woman, made me forget the past year, and if just for that moment, I was actually enjoying myself.
I indulged in a bite of a potato skin, my mind working fast to one-up her on the platform of idioms. “Definitely cosmic...meant to be...blessing in disguise.”
“Great minds think alike.”
“Icing on the cake.”
“It’s a small world.”
“On the same page.”
“Spitting image.”
“Damn!”
??
?I don’t believe that one is an idiom,” Andjela said straight-faced, and then we broke out into uncontrollable laughter again.
“Anyway, the spiritual events seemed to be stronger whenever I was around, and at about the age of ten, I was in the tent while they were doing a reading for a man whose wife disappeared, left him with two children. She had been missing for about a year. The man came to our tent the day our circus set itself up outside of his town. Many people knew of us from all the rumors, so they were beginning to steer clear whenever we were around except for the ones who desperately needed our help.
“Raegan was reading the Tarot cards. Evaline and I were sitting in the corner. Suddenly I said, “Look for me two miles west of town by the creek.” The man looked up at me. His face turned ashen. He got up and left. I guess normal parents would have scolded me for interrupting, but my parents said nothing.”
“Why did the guy leave and why did you say that?”
“I didn’t. She did, and I think he knew it.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I’m not following.”
Andjela explained. “His wife said it. Remember the meaning of my name and what was on the note left with me the day they found me?”
“Your name means messenger, and I believe the note said something about you would bring understanding with…” I looked at her for the rest of the sentence.
“It said, ‘Understanding through transcendental contact.’”
“Whoa. Oh, my god!” I leaned back in my chair and took a serious, long look at Andjela. I would swear to this day there was a dim glow around her. “It’s all true.”
“Make no bones about it. It’s as true as I’m sitting here.” She had a wide grin on her face.
“You’re really not pulling my leg?”
“Good one.”
“Thanks.” We both drank the last of our martinis as my mind began to try and unscramble everything I’d seen and heard tonight. I decided not to even try. If I really stopped myself and faced the slamming doors, the coldness, the fog, and on top of it all the presence of a mystical woman who not only understood it all but lived it every day, my head would pop. So I asked the only thing I could that wouldn’t put my tired brain over the top. “So, Andjela, what do I do now? I have to go home at some point. Will it be okay?”
“I don’t think you should go home tonight. You can stay with me.” She must have noticed the apprehension on my face because she quickly added, “I have a guest bedroom that is plenty comfortable. I’m too tired and probably on the verge of drunk to do anything about your situation tonight, and I don’t feel comfortable letting you go home.”
I started to protest.
“Please, for your safety. I have an extra toothbrush.”
I smiled uncomfortably.
“Oh you know, the ones the dentist always gives you after a cleaning. I never have the heart to tell them I don’t need another one, so I throw them into a drawer in the bathroom.”
I relaxed. “Okay. But I have to go to work tomorrow. Chaz will kill me if I miss another day. Literally.”
“I’ll take you home first thing in the morning. You can let him know you’ll be a little late. Is that agreeable?”
“Are you sure you’re all right to drive?”
“Oh yes. It takes a lot more chocolate martinis to do me in. Besides, I told the bartender light on the alcohol, heavy on the chocolate.”
My slightly drunken stupor had me giggling. Finally, I relented. “Okay.”
The waitress came over and dropped the check off. Since Andjela put a fifty down on the bar to cover our drinks, I tried to pay for the food. She agreed to let me pay half. While she settled the bill, I called Chaz.
“It’s late, darling. I was in the middle of a sex dream.”
“Was it a good sex dream?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m a little miffed that you interrupted it. Is everything okay?”
“Yes. I’ll explain tomorrow. I’ll be a little late, but I will be there.”
“You better. Now I’m going back to sleep. I want to know how this dream ends. Goodnight, darlin’.”
“Goodnight, Chaz.”