Page 6 of Ghost Town I Do

Everyone else in the place faded away, everyone but Anna. Rain wouldn’t stop this. Her mother’s glares wouldn’t slow him down. They didn’t need the beach or his mother’s minister. So what if a few ghosts watched. Secrets? Everyone had them. Anna knew who he was and what he could do, and she loved him anyway.

When Anna reached the altar she handed her bouquet to Olive, and then she reached for him. Colt smiled as he took her hands in his. While it stormed outside, all was right in his world.

Tuck’s grin remained wide as he performed the simple ceremony without a hitch, and finally declared Colt and Anna husband and wife.

The newly married couple kissed and turned to face the crowd. The guests all stood. Their smiles were real. They’d put on their Sunday best and braved the storm to see this wedding happen. Before him stood a nice, well-dressed crowd — some damp, others dry — made up of family and friends, new and old. The living and the dead.

Colt’s eyes were drawn to the spirit who stood alone at the back of the room. Gerald seemed more solid than usual. His suit fit a bit better. Maybe there were fewer wrinkles on his slightly-less-haggard face.

The ghost took a deep breath…

Shit. The last time Gerald had made a sound it had been a scream that shook the walls and rattled the windows.

That’s not what happened this time.

Gerald was a tenor, a very good one. He sang “Ave Maria” flawlessly, as if he were on stage in a 19th century opera house, as if he were performing for a rapt audience. Too bad only Colt could hear.

But…

Heads turned toward Gerald; there were a few audible gasps. Nina placed a hand over her heart. A couple of women dropped back into their chairs as if their legs had given out from under them. The rain stopped; a sliver of sun broke through the clouds, and then other spirits began to appear, one after another. Some flickered in and out, came and went in a matter of seconds. Others remained a minute, maybe two. The visiting ghosts came and went, a few as solid as the living guests, others misty, as if they fought to be here.

Maude appeared, standing close by a man who looked very much like Tuck. Anna’s brother and father stood against one wall, at peace with one another at last.

Nina Miller sat down hard, then stood again. “Jack? Donnie? How is this…”

Colt’s own parents appeared, together, not far from Maude and her Phillip.

Tuck gasped. “Is that my… grandmother? My grandfather? Wow. He does look like me.”

Gerald’s voice filled the room not just with music but with magic. Magic that allowed more than one person present to see not just him but their own lost loved ones, come to Colt’s wedding to wish him well, to celebrate, and to get a glimpse of those they’d left behind.

Mac uttered a curse word that had a few disapproving heads turning in his direction.

Colt turned his head to see the ghost of a beautiful, dark-haired woman looking up at Mac, reaching toward him with a ghostly hand. Mac went completely white. The unshakeable man was shaken.

The other ghostly visitors were silent, but this one whispered, “Find our girl, Joe. Find her. She needs…” Before that sentence was finished, the ghost who’d appeared to Mac vanished.

Mac swiped at the empty space where the spirit had been for a few seconds, and said, “She needs what? Dammit, Kylie! Where is she?”

Anna grabbed Colt’s hand and squeezed hard. “Holy cow, is this what it’s like all the time?”

He looked down at her. “Kinda, but usually not so much all at once.”

Everyone in the place saw a ghost, a lost loved one, a friend, lover, parent, spouse. You’d think they might move toward the spirits, but they did not. Shock ruled. They gasped, whispered, and listened to Gerald sing with the voice of an angel.

As the last of the ghosts began to fade away many of the wedding guests turned their attention to Colt, not in judgement but with surprise and maybe even a new understanding. In a matter of seconds they knew his secret. They all knew. They understood why he stayed close to home and talked to people who weren’t there. Ghosts. The lost ones. The trapped.

"Ave Maria” came to an end, and on the final notes of the song the few ghosts who remained, including Gerald, faded away. Some of them would be back, he assumed, but maybe Gerald had moved on at last. Time would tell.

He didn’t realize he’d been squeezing his bride’s hand too hard until she leaned into him and whispered, “I love holding your hand, but maybe not so tight.”

He looked down at her as he loosened his grip. “Sorry. You saw…”

“Yes.”

He knew the answer, and still he asked, “Everyone saw?”

“I’m pretty sure they did.”