Chapter 3

I arrived back at the house at 6.30 after having spent the past 3 hours at the mall watching tash try on everything possible. I hadn't bought anything but she sure did. In fact I’d be surprised if the stores had anything left.
“Maybelle can you come in here please?”John’s voice came from the dining room. I head towards the room slowly trying to hear if there was anybody else there. Wondering if the police were still there.
“Hello Maybelle.” Detective Thompson said as I walked into the room. Trying not to roll my eyes I reply.
“Hello detective.” I say “Nice of you to drop by.”
“Maybelle, where have you been? I told you to be home at 4.30 so the detective could talk to you.” John says as he indicates to the detective that is sat behind the table.
“I was at the mall with tash; the time must have just slipped by.” I say shrugging.
“Well you kept the detective waiting.”
“I’m home now so you can do the interview, right?” I say back to John
“Sure.” The detective replies taking out his little notepad & a tape recorder. “Now when was the last time you saw your mother?”
“Thursday the 18th at 9:30pm when she came to say good night to me.” The interview always started like this with the most basic questions being asked.
“You didn't see her on Friday morning before school?” He asked after I answered the first question.
“No, mum ALWAYS goes for a run at 7:30am for an hour and would return after I have left for school, I never see her on a weekday morning.” I emphasise the word always because that is the routine that has been happening since as long as I could remember. It was one that I always thought of as granted.
“And when did you notice when there was something wrong?” The detective asks looking at me over his glasses.
“I noticed that something was wrong at 5pm that night when mum didn't return home from work, if she runs late at the office she texts me to let me know but on Friday I had no text from her so I began to wonder if there was something wrong.”
“Did you voice this worry?” The detective asks me.
“Yes, I texted my best friend Natasha to say the same thing, she told me not to worry, that my mum had probably gotten tied up doing something at work that had stopped her from texting me & that was why she wasn’t at home yet. At 6:30 when John arrived back I told him about the mum not being home and he also said to not to worry.” The detective looks over to John and asks him if this was true.
“Yes, I told maybelle not to worry and that Sophie had texted to tell me that she was running late with some big contract that was coming up and she would be home as soon as possible.” John says, an air of calm over him like being interrogated by the police was normal. The detective’s eyebrows shot up in as look of surprise which he quickly covered up. This was obviously something that hadn't been said in previous interviews
“And you still have that text?” The man asks after a brief moment.
“I’m afraid I deleted the text sorry.”
“Well that’s not a problem we’ll just send it to the forensic lab and they can recover the text for us, you know just to try and narrow the time frame down a bit.”
“I’m sorry again but I really do need to keep my phone on me at all times at the moment in case I get a call from my boss, maybe in a couple of weeks I can give it to you.” John says to the detective.
“That’s too bad because it really could help us. When did you call the police?” the detective asks turning his attention back to me.
“I called the police on Saturday morning after seeing that my mum had not come home last night -you see she always leaves her shoes in the doorway no matter what & she also leaves a message for me, seeing as neither of these things happened I didn’t bother to ask John if he had had a text from mum I just called” I say before John gets a chance. The interview went on like this for another hour & a half, the same questions being asked and the same answers being given by me. Looking at his watch the detective starts to pack up.
“Time flies and I’m afraid so must I my wife must be getting worried, thank you very much for this interview I’ll let you know if I need to talk to you some more,” and with that the detective bid us a farewell and let himself out. Taking that as my cue to run away I also leave the room but instead of leaving the house I head up to my bedroom. I felt exhausted, mentally & physically, although it was only 8:30 I got ready to turn in. John had lied to the police or at least he hadn’t told them the total truth. If he had lied about this, what else had he lied about? I feel asleep almost instantly and started to dream about these strange people who I had never met.

~

The next week passed in a blur of non-activity, school held no interest to me, things at home didn’t improve, my mum never showed and to top it all off the police were now saying that they had run out of leads to pursue. One night I was heading over to my bed when I saw a book and a letter that had not been there before.
The letter was addressed to me. Maybelle it said in a cursive font. I open the envolope having given in to curiosity. Inside there was the letter but also a playing card, I turned it over and it was the Queen of hearts. I had no idea why it was there but I didn’t think about it much. I placed it down on my bedside table and then I headed over to the windowsill in my room & sit down on the cushion. The letter was in the same hand-written font as the front, it read:

Maybelle,
There is a lot you need to know about the world, there are things that you couldn’t even begin to understand but please try to have an open mind.
My name is Summer and I’m a ghost and you have the sight. I know you won’t believe this instantly and I know that this is very vague so I hope that the book I have provided will help to explain it.
When you’re ready, I’ll be there,
Xx
Summer

That’s all that the letter said. ‘The sight’ what did that even mean? I look out my window & see the stranger again, he was standing under the lamp post looking at me. Up close he had the same beautiful features as before but they were in more detail, the perfect chin also now had a perfect nose & cheek bones to go with it. He had flawless olive skin with a small amount of stubble along his jaw. His eyes continue not to stray from my window so I looked at them, they were so dark that I couldn't tell the difference from the irises & the pupils but I felt like I could see right into his soul. I blink for a second trying to remember if I had ever meet him before our first encounter a week ago and he was gone, I look up and down the street, there was no way he could have disappeared that quickly.
Thinking, I grab the book that had come with the letter from the mysterious Summer. The title was interesting: The True Ghosts. I skimmed through the book trying to find anything that could explain the stranger disappearing. There was nothing that would explain it. I sigh, another mystery to add to my list. I looked at the front cover of the book trying to find the author; at the very bottom right corner in the tiniest writing was the name: John Walker. My breath caught in my throat, my step dad – the man who had suddenly appeared in my life - had written this book.
“Maybelle, are you asleep yet?” John’s voice came from my bedroom door. I jumped, how had he opened the door without me noticing? I quickly composed myself and stuffed the book under the pillow beside me.
“No, not yet, just thinking about mum.” I reply hoping that he didn't notice my racing heart or that he doesn’t hear my heavy breathing. He had really given me shock.
“Okay, well I just wanted to say goodnight, so good night.” He then closed the door and walked down the hall. I pulled out the book and went to hide it in my bookshelf, I didn't know what I would do with the book yet or if i believed that it might be true but the one thing I knew was that I couldn't let John know I had it.