Regardless, one way or the other I found myself standing in front of her before I realized I didn't have the slightest idea what I was going to do next. There was no question that she was looking at me now, appraising me as she stood there, seeming to me all magical and wistful in the moonlight. I watched the corner of her mouth start to upturn at the realization that my silence was stretching on too long, so, feeling stupid and put on the spot, I blurted out the first idiotic thought that reached my lips.

“Excuse me,” I stammered. “I know this is going to sound like a line, and a bad one at that, but I just had to come over and touch you to see if you were real.”

She smiled at me in the pitying sort of way that pretty girls smile at obviously drunken idiots who give them creepy lines at one in the morning, but having already committed myself, I reached out with one finger to carefully and respectfully touch her shoulder even as my brain prepared itself for her to scream . . . or to kick me . . . or both.

What my brain wasn't prepared for though, was for my finger to pass without resistance through her shoulder and touch the cold stone behind her.

“Oh, crap . . .” I whispered. “I forgot how drunk I was. I should have known that was going to happen!”

Her smile became kind. “You really should have,” she softly agreed in a dulcet contralto. “It's not like we haven't played this scene before.”

“Um . . .” I stammered like the idiot I was. “Sorry . . . but you see, I . . . I . . .”

“'Never can remember anything about the ghosts you see by the time you sober up,'” she finished for me. Her smile got kinder. “I know. You've told me before.”

“Fantastic,” I swore. “I meet a cute girl in the park at night who's not creeped out by me, and not only am I blowing it, this isn't even the first time I've blown it, is that what you're telling me?”

“Well . . . yes,” she admitted with the sound of suppressed laughter further enriching her voice. “But if it makes you feel any better, I hardly think you can compare me in any way to a live girl in this otherwise exact same circumstance.”

Page 2

Previous ~ Index ~ Next