The Lost Soul

Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

"There's more to these headaches than meets the eye, you know Moira?" 

"What on earth do you mean, mother?" 

"I'm not sure, it's just something I can feel. I can feel it in my bones." 

"Oh mother, for heaven's sake. You don't have any bones! How can a dead woman feel anything in her bones?" 

"I'd really rather prefer it if you didn't refer to me as a dead woman. I find it dreadfully disrespectful, you know, darling." 

"Well, what should I call you then?" 

"I'd rather be called a ghost than a dead woman, if it's all the same to you." 

"Fine!"  

"If you two have finished, we were talking about my headaches," interrupted December who sat on the sofa in Rose's cottage, propped up by a couple of large fluffy cream pillows. 

"I am sorry, my darling, I do get distracted when someone calls me a dead woman," answered December's grandmother, Ruby. 

Moira raised her eyebrows and shook her head. The three of them chuckled together as Lilly and Rose walked back into the living room carrying a pot of tea. 

"Where are the boys today?" asked Rose. 

"They're with Carmelo and Jo. They offered to go help look for Jemima again." 

"Oh I do hope they find that poor girl," sighed Ruby, floating from one end of the room to the other. 

"How are you feeling, December? Have the headaches eased at all?" asked Lilly who sat on the sofa with her friend. 

"No, they seem to come and go in waves. One minute I'm fine and the next it's excruciating and I feel almost like I'm floating, you know. Like I'm having an out of body experience. It's so weird." 

"Well Mother, I guess you were right. My headaches were never like that. They were quite painful, but I don't ever remember having out of body experience-type feelings. I think we ought to get her checked out." 

"I can't very well go to a doctor, Mom... not if it's connected to my being a witch, anyway." 

"That's not what your mother was suggesting, my dear," said Ruby, drifting over to December's side. 

"Your mother was suggesting we need to head back home, to communicate with the dead." 

"Oh... can't we communicate with the dead here, Mom... please? I really don't want to go back to Washington. I want to stay with Lilly," said December, linking her best friend's arm through her own. 

The two girls gave Moira a wide-eyed look but her mother had made her mind up. 

"Nope, I'm sorry girls, but we can only communicate with these particular spirits in our own basement. To set up another purple room here would simply take too long."  

Seeing the girls' expressions, she added, "Perhaps Lilly can come with us for a few days instead?" 

Lilly's face lit up like a Christmas tree. 

"Oh, but what about school and work?" 

"It'll only be for a long weekend. I'm sure Ben will be okay with that and as for school, we'll speak to your teachers and assure them you'll catch up when we all get back," said Rose with a cheeky grin. 

"Hang on... did you just say 'when we all get back'?" 

Moira, Rose and Ruby shared a look and all three grinned at the same time.