"I've never dated a ghost," David mused, "but I'm up for it. "
"Get her time period," Stella said with a slanted look for David. "By what she's wearing. We might be able to pinpoint when she lived, or at least get an estimate. "
"Discovery through fashion. " Roz nodded as she picked up a cookie. "That's good. "
"Smart," Hayley agreed. "But I didn't really notice what she had on. I only got a glimpse. "
"A gray dress," Roz put in. "High-necked. Long sleeves. "
"Can any of us sketch?" Stella asked. "I'm all right with straight lines and curves, but I'd be hopeless with figures. "
"Roz is your girl. " David patted Roz on the shoulder.
"Can you draw her, Roz? Your impression of her?"
"I can sure give it a shot. "
"I bought notebooks. " Stella offered one and made Roz smile.
"Of course you did. And I bet your pencils are all nicely sharpened, too. Just like the first day of school. "
"Hard to write with them otherwise. David, while she's doing that, why don't you tell us your experiences with . . . I guess we'll call her the Harper Bride for now. "
"Only had a few, and all back when I was a kid, hanging out here with Harper. "
"What about the first time?"
"You never forget your first. " He winked at her, and after sitting, poured himself coffee. "I was bunking in with Harper, and we were pretending to be asleep so Roz didn't come in and lower the boom. We were whispering - "
"They always thought they were," Roz said as she sketched.
"I think it was spring. I remember we had the windows open, and there was a breeze. I'd have been around nine. I met Harper in school, and even though he was a year behind me, we hit it off. We hadn't known each other but a few weeks when I came over to spend the night. So we were there, in the dark, thinking we were whispering, and he told me about the ghost. I thought he was making it up to scare me, but he swore all the way up to the needle in his eye that it was true, and he'd seen her lots of times.
"We must've fallen asleep. I remember waking up, thinking somebody had stroked my head. I thought it was Roz, and I was a little embarrassed, so I squinted one eye open to see. "
He sipped coffee, narrowing his eyes as he searched for the memory. "And I saw her. She walked over to Harper's bed and bent over him, the way you do when you kiss a child on the top of the head. Then she walked across the room. There was a rocking chair over in the corner. She sat down and started to rock, and sing. "
He set the coffee down. "I don't know if I made some sound, or moved, or what, but she looked right at me. She smiled. I thought she was crying, but she smiled. And she put her finger to her lips as if to tell me to hush. Then she disappeared. "
"What did you do?" Hayley whispered the question, reverently.
"I pulled the covers over my head, and stayed under till morning. "
"You were afraid of her?" Stella prompted.
"Nine-year-old, ghost - and I have a sensitive nature, so sure. But I didn't stay afraid. In the morning it seemed like a dream, but a nice one. She'd stroked my hair and sung to me. And she was pretty. No rattling chains or bloodless howls. She seemed a little like an angel, so I wasn't afraid of her. I told Harper about it in the morning, and he said we must be brothers, because none of his other friends got to see her. "
He smiled at the memory. "I felt pretty proud of that, and looked forward to seeing her again. I saw her a few more times when I was over. Then, whe
n I was about thirteen the - we'll say visitations - stopped. "
"Did she ever speak to you?"
"No, she'd just sing. That same song. "
"Did you only see her in the bedroom, at night?"
"No. There was this time we all camped out back. It was summer, hot and buggy, but we nagged Roz until she let all of us sleep out there in a tent. We didn't make it through the night 'cause Mason cut his foot on a rock. Remember that, Roz?"