Nathaniel nodded and went back to his work, though noticeably a bit tenser than before. Ezra was tense too. His thoughts went back to the night before, when the lights turned off but he and Clara insisted they had nothing to do with it.
Perhaps it was just because it was an old house. Perhaps issues with wiring and electricity were to blame for the lights turning off and the stove turning up. But the knob was turned on the stove. How could wiring effect that? The knob couldn’t turn by itself.
There had to be a rational explanation for it. Ezra was rational enough to know that. He just wished he could think of what that rational explanation was, because an irrational explanation kept poking at his mind.
Ghosts.
Clara’s friend had mentioned ghosts and he thought it was silly, he knew it was silly. Ghosts weren’t real and yet…
Strange things were happening. Things that weren’t easily explained away. So, what if her friend was onto something? What if there were ghosts in the house?
Shutting off the lights was innocent enough. He wasn’t worried about a ghost that would do something like that. But turning up the burner on the stove…
That was terrifying.
They kept an eye on the stove as they finished up their work, and the knobs didn’t even wiggle. Ezra kept watching, waiting for something to happen, hoping for an explanation. He couldn’t find one.
He let his passion take control once more, but it was still at the back of his mind. The strange things that had happened since they arrived had taken hold and wouldn’t let him go anymore. Not until he could figure out what exactly was going on here.
16
“You should’ve seen it,” Ezra said as he tried to wrap his mind around the earlier incident. The cool air was helping to relieve some of the tension, but that uneasy feeling was difficult to shake. “It was ridiculously hot. Someone could’ve gotten seriously hurt. The pot is ruined of course, and I know I didn’t turn it up like that.”
“That’s crazy,” Clara said as they tied on their ice skates. “I’m glad you caught it when you did.”
After a bit of nagging, Clara had convinced Ezra to buy himself a pair skates to go out on the ice with her. It was his first time, and she considered waiting on it when she noticed how stressed he was. Upon second thought though, she thought it might be the best time for him to try it. Sure, it could possibly be harder for him to focus with stress fluttering around his mind, but she reasoned it might help him ease up on some of those nagging thoughts and anxiety. She hoped he’d be so focused on not falling that he gave his mind a break from everything else. It seemed like he could use it.
“Me too,” Ezra replied. Since it happened, his mind had plenty of time to brew up all sorts of crazy ideas. They were crazy though, so he wasn’t sure if he should voice them to Clara. He needed someone to give him another explanation though.
“It got me thinking, and I know this is going to sound ridiculous, what if there is some truth to the stories?” he asked, uncertain of how he should best word it without sounding crazy. “Some weird things have been happening lately, and I can’t come up with a good explanation for it. I mean, two people were killed in the house. What if…”
He couldn’t continue and she didn’t need him to. Clara was surprised by his reaction; he was never the kind to jump to supernatural explanations and she wasn’t sure how she should react.
It did seem silly to her, but she didn’t want to invalidate Ezra’s worries. As difficult as it was for her to believe it, she saw how real this felt to him. So, they paused the conversation as she helped him out of the house. The sudden wobbliness of his legs brought Ezra’s mind into focus, while the familiar, smooth feeling of blades on ice helped Clara think clearer.
With the stress of his father’s death, followed by such huge changes, Ezra was bound to be more on edge. Ghost stories certainly wouldn’t help with that, and she wished she never told him what she heard at the book club. He needed someone to be gentle and calming right now. She took that into consideration as she found the kind of words she wanted to say.
“I can see why that would come to mind,” she replied. “You were already dealing with a lot before we moved here. Struggling with that feeling of your father watching over you was bound to add to your fear after what you’ve heard about the house. The strange occurrences lately only feed further into that narrative that something abnormal could be going on here.
“However, I don’t think ghosts are the answer. I suspect faulty electricity was behind the random light shutting off in our room last night, though I agree it doesn’t explain how the knob on the stove got turned to high. I still think there’s a reasonable explanation for it though. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nathaniel had something to do with it.”
“I get why you’d think that,” he admitted as he took baby strides on the ice. His feet wobbled, so he took it slow. Careful. It was like learning how to walk again, which proved to be a great distraction. “That was my first thought too, but he said he didn’t touch it and he seemed genuinely honest. Plus, most cooks know not to cook caramel on high.”
Clara pondered this as her strides grew longer, effortlessly floating across the ice. She did a wide circle at her preferred speed, then made her way back to him, giving her a little more time to think
