“This might sound crazy,” he admitted. “But I… I saw my father last night.”
19
Silence followed as Clara tried to think of the right things to say. Fear followed. Ezra couldn’t have seen his father. His father was dead. But he looked terrified, which terrified Clara. Either he truly believed he saw his father, which meant his mental health was even worse than Clara feared, or he realized how crazy this was and didn’t know what to do about it.
Clara didn’t know what to do about it. She was usually so in tune with her husband. They were similar enough that typically they knew how to best support each other. But this was a private struggle she couldn’t quite relate to.
“What do you mean?” she asked slowly. “Like, you had a dream about him or…”
“Not exactly,” he replied. “I uh… I guess it could’ve been a dream. It had to be, right? I know he’s dead, I get that. But it didn’t feel like a dream. It… it couldn’t have been a dream. I’ve never had a dream so realistic before. So much like a memory.”
Ezra paused. He was convinced it wasn’t a dream. He knew he saw his father. He knew how Clara would react, but he couldn’t pretend that he thought it wasn’t real. As irrational as he knew it appeared from the outside, he had seen his father. He cast away the mask and decided to take the plunge into the truth.
“I know it’s crazy, but I saw my father last night in our living room. I spoke to him and he told me he was disappointed which, of course he did. I wouldn’t expect anything less from him.”
Though that wasn’t entirely true. He was still surprised a ghost would use the time they had to talk to their child to tell them how disappointed they were.
“He also told me I made a mistake in getting this bed and breakfast,” Ezra continued. “He said we were in danger or something. Like there’s things going on we don’t know about and can’t comprehend yet.
“Maybe he was just trying to make me feel bad, make me regret coming here. It does seem like something he’d do. It makes sense he’d be upset with me for spending the money on this place when it doesn’t fit the kind of lifestyle he preferred to live. He would be the kind of person who’d try to bully me into making a different decision. Maybe he was lying.
“However, it was odd because he said there was no way out now. And if his goal was purely to change my mind, you’d think he’d tell me to leave immediately. He didn’t say we should sell the place or anything, and he seemed genuine about his worry. Especially near the end of our conversation.”
Ezra thought about the I love you. It really hadn’t seemed like his father was there solely to scold him. He wasn’t great with emotions or dealing with his children in a kind manner, but it didn’t seem like he was there solely to be cruel.
“I don’t know,” Ezra shrugged. “It got to me, obviously. And I worry because it seemed like more than a scare tactic. It seemed like the insults were an afterthought. Like he was there genuinely to warn me, and I worry we made a huge mistake in coming here. I worry I put you at risk.”
Clara was at a loss as she looked at her husband, who was clearly shaken up by all of this. He was caught trying to figure out if his father was bluffing or if there was something to be worried about, and she couldn’t relate at all. His dilemma was absurd to her. It didn’t really matter what his father’s intentions were because there was no way he had actually spoken to Ezra. He was dead. She wasn’t sure how to get this across to her husband without sounding rude or making him feel bad.
“You didn’t put us at risk,” she assured him, deciding to confront the easiest thing first. “I wanted to come here just as much as you did. Despite your father’s old-fashioned notions, we’re a team. We have equal say in what we do. We’re meant to protect each other, take care of each other. If anything does go wrong, it’s on both of us, not just you.
“I don’t foresee things going wrong here though. It’s a beautiful property with great prospects. We’re doing everything we can to set up a great opening night and if we work hard, we can make this a success.
“Sure, it’s unfortunate and unnerving that children were killed here. But we don’t have a connection to them. We’re not going to be targeted the same way. There’s no need for us to worry. We’re safe here.”
Ezra could see where she was coming from. Clara was being rational, reasonable, and that’s exactly how he wanted to be. It was a bit more difficult to convince himself of that though. Something deeper protested.
“I know that,” he said. “But what if… what if the house is haunted? What if it’s a place that’s particularly prone to allowing spirits to… I don’t know, interact with the world of the living in some capacity. That could be why I saw my father. And if he’s able to materialize here, what if there are other spirits in the house?
“I obviously don’t know how all this works, or even if it’s plausible. But if this house is a hotbed for spirits, it could be allowing less pleasant ones to break through. What if a spirit was messing with the light and the stove? What if a spirit did get into Lyla and Richard’s minds? They could’ve influenced them to kill their children and…”
Ezra couldn’t continue because that thought terrified him most. Though he didn’t believe in the paranormal, he’d seen plenty of movies, and seeing his father had opened his mind a little
