I See You

A soft thin wind made the fog on the water dance and curl into different random shapes in the early dim morning. This is my favorite time to come out.

I guess, anytime there is fog on the water I get a little excited. This is when I can see her and I think she can see me.

Her beauty is beyond comparison, she goes by the name Eve. I have watched her grow and blossom into the woman she is today, but time is different here.

Eve keeps her walnut brown hair pulled up in a, I believe she called it a messy bun?

When it is down it flows past her shoulders. She looks magical when the wind blows through it

She was once a thin petite young woman in her youth. After forty-five years time has made her a little more robust in certain areas. Time has sketched its fingerprints into her skin like a wind would shape and wear down stone. But time has only added to her beauty. It has only enhanced her magnificence.

Her voice carries over the water, I love the raspy angelic sound it makes. Sometimes she sits on the porch, but I like it best when she sits close to the water in one of the two wooden cedar chairs her father has made her.

Her best friend since middle school Sherry often sits with her, they talk about random things over drinks.

I love to hear their conversations. It makes me feel alive. No, those are not the words I am looking for. It makes me feel, in general. I’ve been here for quite a while. I can not tell you for how long. I have watched the world around me change and people come and go. I watch Mrs. Laralee grow up. Eve’s beauty came from her favoring her grandmother over either of her parents. I watched Laralees mother before her, before that, there was nothing. Only this small lake I call home. I am not sure what I really am. I suppose I am some kind of lake spirit. That was what Laralee called me before.

I miss our conversations when she was alive. Eve, Mrs. Loaralee’s doppelganger has not quite mastered her gift. I do swear she has seen me on occasions but may have just shrugged it off. Thinking I was a form of some kind of strange hallucination brought on by stress or whatever.

The living do not pay attention like they used to. You could kill yourself trying to get their attention with all these silly talking boxes and gadgets in their hands now.

Eve wasn’t like this though. She only carried her mug of coffee to the water's edge in the mornings.

One particular morning before the sun had made an appearance, I watched as the light came on in the windows of the small blue and white house. After a while, she appeared at the concrete stairs of the back porch. The smell of fresh-brewed coffee escaped lightly carried on the air as she came out.

This day her hair was pulled up in that messy bun. Her light pink nightgown flowed as she made her way down the stairs holding two oversized coffee cups in either hand to the two hand-carved wooden cedar Adirondack chairs her father had made her.

She set them on the small matching cedar wooden table that sat in between the chairs before sitting comfortably in.

Eve watched over the waters looking deep into the fog. Looking directly at me. I noticed her gaze never moved. Only smiling when Sharry came walking out from around the front of her house down to where she was.

Sherry lived right down the road. The two had become best friends meeting on the school bus as kids and becoming inseparable ever since. They were in each other's life when they both began to date. They supported one another when Eve’s husband passed and Sherry's husband cruelly left her.

Meeting beside the lake in the early morning hours became a habit that just seemed to happen. Neither could tell you when it began. I could tell you Eve had been coming to the lake since she was a small toddler escorted by her grandmother.

“Grandmother always said the fog in the early morning hours was cleaner and clearer. This was when she claimed to have seen ghosts.” Eve spoke as Sherry took her place picking up her coffee cup.

Sherry giggled before taking a sip of the contents.

“It’s true,” Eve said, sitting up from her chair and looking at her friend.

“I’m not saying it’s not, I am saying Mrs. LoraLee liked the spirits as well as seeing them,” Sherry smirked, looking straight before glancing over to her friend and then down at her coffee mug where she started gently blowing.

Eve took in a breath and let out a sigh before relaxing and settling back into her chair. She reached over to the table picking up her overly large black coffee cup resting it against her chest, “She really did love the drink didn't she.” Eve spoke staring into the fog.

“Oh darlin, I didn't mean to upset you. Everyone knew Mrs. LaraLee could talk to ghosts. I was just kidding.” Sharry spoke softly.

“You mean everyone knew she was a nutter-butter who had no business being out here alone after Papa passed.”

This comment enraged me. Laralee was many things but not some crazy..nutter butter! She was kind and sweet and just so wonderful.

“You know she helped my mom after my dad passed. Mrs. LaraLee Helped a lot of people. She was a really good person.” Sharry spoke.

I felt calmed by these words. Laralee had the right to adulation, not condemnation.

“I wonder if she is still out here sometimes,” Eve replied, cocking her head to the side watching the fog dance and spin

I swear she was looking at me again. I could feel her longing and loneliness. We were the same, she and I.

“I don't know if that is a good thing or not? It's a little scary to think of that.” Sharry said, glancing at her friend.

“I don't know, it would be a little poetic. I think that's something she would have wanted.” Eve had turned her gaze down to her coffee and away from me.

“Being stuck as a ghost? That would be some bull. After all, she has done for everyone in town. She deserves some peace and quiet and most of all rest.” Sharry sounded more offended as she spoke.

“I look for her in the fog. She told me that it was better than any crystal ball or cards.” Eve said, taking a sip of her coffee. She was quiet for a moment looking at the still water and the now thinning fog.”

“ Well?” Sharry asked

“Well, what?” Eve spoke looking over to her friend.

“Have you seen her? Have you seen anything?”

“I have seen..”.Eve paused taking another drink of her coffee before looking over at her friend with wide eyes. “I have seen...Fog.”

“ You bitch, you scared the shit out of me!” The two giggled.

I would never call someone out of their name but I agreed with Sharry on this. Even though it was a joke it still kind of broke my heart because it confirmed Eve had never seen me as I had wanted to believe.

“Grandma loved the spirits. She said anyone could see them if they really wanted to.” Eve spoke.

I so wanted her to see me!

Sherry broke the long silence, “I‘ve seen a ghost before.”

“Shut up. You did not!” Eve quipped.

“No for real. I think it was after Jeffery.” Sharry spoke somberly now.

“Oh, I’m sorry for your loss. Your brother was really nice.”

“Yeah, I miss him.” There came a long silence again. Eve looked over to see Sharry who was looking off into the distance for a moment, she placed her hand on Sherry's knee. Sherry smiled, wiping tears away from her cheeks. She took in a deep breath and continued. “We left the funeral and did the wake and all that mess. You remember. Maranda Jefferys girlfriend had to go back to the house and she did not want to, she just couldn’t.” Sharry continued.

“Oh, I don't blame her,” Eve spoke.

“Yeah. I told her I’d ride with her and we could just go grab a couple of things and she could stay with Levi and I. As we pulled up to the house there was Jeffrey standing on the porch.” Sharry watched over the water into the fog.

“No,” Eve spoke in shock.

“Yeah, standing there as clear as you are to me now.”

“Did Maranda see him?” Eve’s eyes were wide as she watched her friend intently.

“Yes! It was crazy and strange. It was just a split second, but she could have told you, it was him standing there looking back at us.”

“Oh my God! What did you do?”

“After we both confirmed we both saw him, Maranda broke down crying and refused to go into the house. I told her we could buy whatever she needed and we got away from there as quickly as we could.” Sharry spoke looking down into the black coffee.

“But she went back, that's... where they found her wasn't it?” Eve asked.

“Yes, ma’am she did. I think she just loved that fool so much she wanted to be near him again. The more I think about it. That thing looked like my brother but it wasn’t. If it were him he never would have let her join him. That thing was evil.” Sharry seemed to growl.

“Grandma LaraLee said some ghosts were, some were just lost, most were crazy. Whatever happened to the house? You rent it out, don't you? Have you...heard anything from the tenets?” Eve twisted in her chair.

These were hard questions to ask but the two were close friends and they did that to one another. Asked hard questions others would seem to find crasp or rude.

“Girl, we sold that haunted-ass shack. I never wanted to go back to it after Jeffery splattered his head across the living room walls. Then Maranda went and cut her wrist. That was a big nope for me.” Sharry placed her coffee on the side table.

The two sat quietly for a long moment neither not knowing what to say next.

“Laralee knew,” Sharry finally spoke again. “She always knew,” Sharry spoke in a half-whisper. She warned momma a week before. She told mom she saw it in a dream. I don't know if she believed her, but then, it happened.”

Eve set back in her chair and stared over the water into the fog. “She was born with it. I don't know if I would call it a gift. I mean she did, but it seems more like a curse than a gift to me.”

“I agree, I would never want that gift. How do you think, well I don't guess you would know, but if you had to guess? How would you think someone would be cursed like that?” Sharry asked, adjusting herself in her chair.

“Someone must have fucked up really bad down the bloodline somewhere, '' Eve half giggled.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Sharry giggled back, picking up her coffee and taking a drink.

I guess, now that I think about it. The two would have to be right. Seeing spirits would be a curse. The thought made me hate myself. Here I am wanting the attention of this woman. Why?

She could not help me. We could never be anything. It did not make me stop from wanting her attention.

Sharry placed her empty cup of coffee on the table. She had finished her coffee and the morning sun was blindingly ablaze in the sky signaling it was time for her to get to her daily duties. “Are you coming for breakfast?” She asked Eve as she began to walk away.

“Yeah, give me a minute, let me get changed and I'll be over,” Eve called out as she stared back into the fading fog.

“I have a confession,” She spoke.

There was no one else around. I wondered who she could be talking to? I could never think of a time she had talked to herself. I was stunned when I realized she was looking directly at me. I question again, could she see me? No, we had already established this. She was nothing like her grandmother. She was neither gifted nor cursed.

“Grandma Laralee was correct. The morning fog is the best time to see you, Eli. I am sorry if I offended you.” Eve stood up collecting the two mugs from the table. She turned towards me again. “I see you.”

“Can...can you hear me?” I asked.

“Yes,” Eve responded nonchalantly before walking up to the house, disappearing within the doorway.

I found I was extremely excited. Finally, I knew I would not be alone again. Finally, I would have another to talk to. She could see me! Eve could talk to me. Then I found myself wondering how long she had been able to do this?