The beach wasn't too crowded, and she could easily pick out Eli in his green Hawaiian-print trunks as he jumped off the raft's high dive, swam back to the raft, and did it again--and again--and again. Eventually, this other boy--tan, but painfully skinny in baggy blue trunks--started talking with him in line for the diving board. The other boy was putting his hands above his head and miming a dive. Eli was nodding.
Within a half-hour, he and his new friend were taking turns diving off the low board.
Once Eli and the other boy swam to shore, he came to her blanket. 'Mom, this is Chad,' Eli said, dripping wet and out of breath.
She shook Chad's cold, damp hand.
'Chad wants to know if I can come over to his house for dinner tonight.'
Once she got confirmation with Chad's mother, Sydney settled in for a night alone. She ate a grilled-cheese sandwich and tomato soup while watching an old Doris Day movie on cable--on the big-screen HD TV Joe had bought months ago. Then she e-mailed Brian in New York.
When Eli came home at 10:30, she asked him how his dinner at Chad's house had gone. He made a face. 'They have one of those pug dogs who wouldn't stop panting and drooling. I kept thinking he was going to keel over or something. I don't think this dog liked me. And Chad's mother made me eat brussels sprouts--and then I started to gag, so she backed off. You're a better cook, Mom. Can we get a dog?'
'We'll see.' She smiled. 'So--do you think you made a new friend?'
He shrugged. 'I don't know. He's okay. We'll see. I'm still hungry.' He ducked into the kitchen and made himself a sandwich.
They'd stayed on at Number 9 Tudor Court. Since Burton Christopher Demick's arrest for the 1974 murders of Loretta and Earl Sayers, Eli had stopped hearing voices in his bedroom. Sydney had hung the Georgia O'Keefe print on the bathroom wall again. That had been two weeks ago, and it hadn't fallen yet. She took that as a good sign. They no longer witnessed any creepy, unexplainable occurrences in the apartment. It was as if the dead were finally at peace there--and so were the living.
But when she went to bed that night, Sydney was reminded once again that she and Eli weren't completely alone. Laying there in the darkness, she sensed someone else was in the bedroom with her. She heard a sigh, and a shadow passed over her. Something brushed against the side of her face--by her ear. It felt like a kiss.
She knew it wasn't just a ghost. It was Joe.
She would let go of him soon enough, Sydney realized that. Until then, she knew he'd watch over them.
