Before I could laugh in her face, she opened the book and started reading. It wasn’t her words that matched grandpa’s that held my attention; no, it was the way the rain and wind picked up outside. It was the owl that flew onto the windowsill and looked in as if staring at us before flying away again with a loud cry.
As she read, thunder shook the house, and lightning flashed across the sky. In my head, I saw everything I’d done to and with Ellie, some of which were not on that video. I recalled the way I’d moved and acted like gramps when I’d thought I was sleepwalking. The loss of time, the waking up feeling strange and not knowing.
Could this be real? How can it be? It shouldn’t be possible, and yet gramps had fallen for it. The smartest and most levelheaded person I know had been taken in. even as I fought, something tugged at me, begging me to believe to accept. “The reason you can’t remember those things is because it’s not you who was doing them, and neither is Ellie.”
“I don’t understand!” Now she had my interest because that’s the one thing I can’t seem to make sense of, the loss of time. I’ve watched that video time and again, and there’s no real memory of me fucking Ellie, of me leaving those marks on her body or fucking her so hard she can barely walk the next day.
I should have at least some memory, especially after all the glaring evidence, but there’s not even an inkling of recognition. “That’s the way the attachment works. Your grandfather and Ellie’s aunt used the time to be together with the way they were never allowed to while they were here. They use your bodies, yours and Ellie’s, as a vehicle since their own bodies are no longer viable.”
“Are you saying they use our bodies to fuck?” I said it to get a rise out of her, of course, but she didn’t even blink.
“In a way, yes, but it’s more than that. It may seem like that now because it’s still new, still fresh. From the one other couple who’ve been able to accept, I’ve learned that sexual intercourse plays a very big part in it in the beginning.”
“You must remember that these are men and women who were denied the chance to share their love for one another while they were alive. The sex is just a type of bonding, but as time goes on, just as with every other couple, things will simmer down. They just want an opportunity to share their love, to experience the things they never got the chance to, just on another plane.”
“And how long does this go on? How long does it last?”
“My understanding is that if the attachment works, it can last forever. Only you or Ellie can stop it if you choose. You have the option to break the spell.”
“And what happens then?” She didn’t answer right away, but I felt a sense of sadness coming from her.
“The book doesn’t really go into detail, but the sum of it is that the two of them would disappear forever. What happens to them on the other side, no one knows.” Her words left an odd feeling in my gut. She seemed so serious like she believed every word she said.
“And Ellie agreed to this?”
“Ellie loved her aunt very much. Once she heard their story, Jan and Hal’s, it didn’t take her long to agree. I think, though, that once she saw you and heard stories about you, she was even more sold on the idea.” That reminded me of the time we first met. Those feelings that I’d buried when I thought she’d betrayed me.
“Wait, does this mean that what I felt for her the first time we met wasn’t real? It was them?” The old lady shook her head with a smile.
“No, that was all you. Hal hadn’t crossed over as yet, so he hadn’t attached. Ellie was now going through the attachment as Jan had left not that long ago. What you two felt were Ellie and Nick.”
I can’t believe I’m actually buying into this mess. It seems too fantastical, too otherworldly, but there was so much truth in her words that it was hard to overlook. “What happens if Ellie and I don’t get together?”
“That would be a shame. I guess she could raise the child on her own….”
“Child, what child?”
ELLIE
No matter how many blankets I piled on top of me, I couldn’t get warm. The rain was coming down in torrents outside, and the wind shook the little clapboard house as if it would blow it away. I was already regretting my hasty decision to come here, I missed Nick so much already, and it had only been an hour or two.