A Spirited Gift

“I hope not.” I saw my neighbor’s distinctive garden trellis in one of the trees as we walked by. I made a note to tell her in case she was wondering where it went.

Of course, it would’ve taken a huge spreadsheet to keep track of everything that had blown away during the storm. Just on the corner where we turned, there were two picnic table umbrellas hanging from trees. Beside them were green velvet drapes and a matching chair. We walked around a bed frame, complete with mattress. And there was a toilet. Cars were on their sides, pushed into places they didn’t belong. It would take months to get everything back to normal.

But at least most of the road on one side was clear for emergency vehicles and for people whose cars weren’t upside down in their living rooms. I hoped those people were helping others who needed it. I promised myself I would be one of them tomorrow after getting my house and shop in order today.

“This is a mess,” Kevin said. “But farther down toward Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills, they got hit a lot worse. Duck is in good condition compared to that.”

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Duck Shoppes on the Boardwalk were almost untouched. A few signs had been blown away or fallen down, but my shop was exactly as I’d left it the day before.

There was no water in Missing Pieces when I opened the door—even the window that fronted the sound was in one piece. I looked around at my treasures that I’d collected over the past few years and sighed. Everything was safe. I wished I could just sit on my burgundy brocade sofa and drink a cup of tea. It would be wonderful to feel as though everything was back to normal.

But Kevin was at the door, remarking that Wild Stallions, the bar and grill at the other end of the boardwalk, wasn’t so lucky. Their sign had ended up in their front door. “I’m going to walk down there and give them a hand,” he said. “You can stay here and take a break for a while. You’ve been going all night.”

I knew he meant well, but he’d been going all night too—like most of the people around us. I didn’t want to take a break yet. I did, but I wasn’t going to. Cody and Reece Baucum, the brothers who owned Wild Stallions, were my friends too. They needed help to get the large sign out of the doorway so they could secure the space in case it started raining again. Once it got dark, nothing would get done until tomorrow.

It took about an hour for us to get the sign out on the boardwalk and close up the doorway. Kevin hadn’t needed his tools at Missing Pieces, but they came in handy here.

We also helped August Grandin at the Duck General Store as he tried to get a large flowerpot back up again. All of the big flowerpots on the boardwalk had been tossed on their sides, dirt and flowers spilling everywhere. I scooped up the flowers and pushed them back in the soil after August and Kevin had set the pots right again.

By that time, my good friend Trudy Devereaux, who owned the Curves and Curls Beauty Spa next door to Missing Pieces, was out examining her shop. We hugged and talked for a while about the storm. She already knew about Sandi’s death. Even without phones and power, the Duck grapevine worked overtime.

“It must’ve been terrible,” Trudy said as Kevin worked to get her water-warped door open. It had swelled too large for the frame. “You knew Sandi Foxx from before, right? I thought I remembered you talking about her.”

I nodded, not wanting to give too much away before the medical examiner and Chief Michaels had a chance to do their jobs. “I had to talk to her husband about it. I’m just glad I didn’t have to explain to her little girls.”

“She had kids?” There were tears in Trudy’s eyes. She’d always had a soft heart— saving beetles and spiders from children at school who wanted to squish them. “That’s even worse. I’m sorry you had to be involved, Dae.”

Kevin gave her door a solid push, and it finally popped open. The shop seemed fine. We all walked through it to be sure.

Trudy thanked Kevin for his help as she checked her always-perfect platinum blond hair and makeup, and then asked, “So what are they going to do with her? She’s not still at the Blue Whale, is she?”

“No,” Kevin answered. “The medical examiner has her body.”

Her blue eyes widened. “You mean they think someone killed her? It wasn’t the storm?”

Kevin was used to talking with a different crowd when it came to things like this. All of Duck would be talking about Sandi’s murder by tomorrow morning.

“It’s not like that.” I tried to contain the damage. “She died outside during the storm, but all suspicious deaths go to the medical examiner. They have to check these things out.”

“What in the world was she doing outside during the storm?” Shayla asked as she joined us, no doubt on her way to her own shop—Mrs. Roberts, Spiritual Advisor—on the other side of Missing Pieces. “That was a bad storm for someone to be standing in.”

“Dae found her body,” Trudy answered. “It was terrible.”

Shayla stepped back and looked at me from head to toe. “That must be why your aura looks all smudgy. You need some rest—and stay away from dead bodies.”

“If you two wouldn’t mind”—I grabbed Shayla’s arm—“I have to talk to her about something.”

Trudy sniffed and waved us away. “I’ve only been your best friend since kindergarten, Dae O’Donnell. If you have something you can’t talk about in front of me, that’s fine. Kevin and I will go for a stroll down the boardwalk. It’s not a problem.”

Kevin didn’t look as convinced of that notion. “I want to hear more about the spirit balls.”

“There were spirit balls, and you weren’t going to tell me about them?” Trudy was outraged. “What’s a spirit ball?”

“Never mind,” I said. “Let’s all sit down in Missing Pieces and I’ll explain what’s been happening.”

“Good.” Shayla started out the door. “Then we can go down to my place and make sure it isn’t leaking. I see Kevin is prepared to work, so let’s get this over with.”

Back at Missing Pieces, I put on some tea and everyone sat down on the burgundy brocade sofa, my favorite piece of furniture even though it was too big for the shop. I constantly had to work around it to find room for my treasures.

I took a chair on the side, trying not to envy the three of them sitting in my favorite place, and explained about the seance to Trudy while the water boiled.

“That’s amazing!” Trudy said. “Do you really think your mom was trying to talk to you?”

“I don’t,” I admitted. “Other things happened after I got to the Blue Whale.” I filled them all in on the point of light that had come at me and the other odd phenomena that had occurred. “I don’t know who’s following me, but I don’t think it’s my mother.”

We all had a cup of Earl Grey tea and contemplated my recent otherworldly experiences.

“Maybe it was the storm,” Trudy said. “Maybe all those extra storm ions they’re always talking about created some kind of spectral field during the seance.”

Shayla shook her head. “That sounds good, but I knew last night something was up. I could feel it before and again during the storm. Spirit balls aren’t a normal presence, even during a seance. It takes a powerful spirit to put all its energy into producing a visible, moving light. I think we might’ve called up another spirit—maybe one related to you, Dae.”

“You could’ve mentioned that last night,” I suggested.

“You were in such a hurry to get to the conference,” Shayla fired back. “And now look what’s happened—that poor woman is dead.”

“I don’t think Mayor Foxx’s death was related to spirit balls following Dae from the seance,” Kevin said.

“But you don’t know for sure, do you?” Shayla asked. “You may be an expert on police things, Mr. Ex-FBI Man, but leave the spiritual things to me. That’s my expertise. I’m fourth generation at this. And I might be related to Marie Laveau.”

“That’s no reason to get nasty,” Trudy said. “Kevin was just stating his opinion. That’s still legal here, I think.”

Shayla humphed and sat back to drink her tea. Trudy was quiet, drinking tea with a smug smile on her pretty face for putting Shayla in her place.

“Whatever happened, it’s affected me,” I said. “I can feel that something isn’t right. And I keep seeing things in mirrors.”

“What kinds of things?” Shayla asked.

“I can’t explain it. It’s like something is there, but I can’t quite make it out. Like when you see things out of the corner of your eye.”