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The Promise
~*~
Ms. Johnson stared at them as the candlelight revealed their faces. There was no doubt—she didn’t look happy… at all.
“I should’ve known…” She grumbled, eyeing them.
Kevin stepped forward in front of his younger brothers.
“We’re so, so sorry Ms. Johnson,” he tried to apologize. “We just wanted to know…”
Ms. Johnson held up a hand to silence him. She nodded her head towards the foyer.
“Downstairs, to the library, all of you,” she ordered.
Joe looked at his older brother before moving. He wasn’t too sure that was a good idea, but Kevin pushed him ahead.
“We asked for it, Joe,” Kevin whispered to him as they slowly made their way down the stairs. “We have to do what she says.” Kevin deep down wasn’t too sure about the whole thing either, but they were in Ms. Johnson’s house, and under her rules, so they had no choice but to obey her.
The storm had ended, and the ghost of Mrs. Scarlett was gone. Joe tried running it over and over in his head why he could hear her—and she could see him—but nobody else could for some reason. Maybe this house made people go crazy. Maybe he didn’t hear or see anything at all, it was just his imagination. But that still just didn’t seem right.
“Kevin…” Joe whispered to his brother, the darkness of uncertainty written on his face. “What’s going on here?”
Kevin looked over at Joe and saw the somewhat frightened light in his eyes. He quickly put an arm around his brother.
“I honestly don’t know little bro,” Kevin admitted. “But hang in there.”
When they finally arrived at the library they all walked in. Ms. Johnson switched the light on dim—the power was apparently back. She motioned them to the couch and chairs.
“Sit down,” she ordered. By her tone, the boys knew they were safer to obey. They all sat. Joe took a seat next to Nick, and looked over to see his younger brother paler than he’d ever seen him. He didn’t look well.
“Alright,” Ms. Johnson said, standing over them. “Start explaining.”
“Maybe we should be asking you the same question,” Joe growled, upset with how she was handling things. “Why were you down in the foyer watching Mrs. Scarlett? Hmm? And why are the lightning storms making her appear? Why not tell us that?”
Nick put a shaky hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“Joe… stop.”
Ms. Johnson’s face began to turn a slight shade of red.
“This is my hotel, and you have disobeyed my rules. So I think it’s rather you, Joe Jonas—and your brothers here, who should be explaining things.”
“But if you don’t start explaining what’s going on,” Joe fumed, “We might assume you’re up to something you shouldn’t be. We’re Redmond Jonas’s sons. We don’t settle on anything till we know the truth.”
Ms. Johnson eyed him for a moment.
“You may think I know everything that’s going on, boy, but I don’t,” she said. “I don’t know why the lightning storms make her appear—or why we have these storms so often. It happens—that’s all I care about. I watch Mrs. Scarlett because… she’s my relative—who wouldn’t want to see what she’s up to?”
“Well… why are you so upset we saw her then?” Nick asked.
“That’s the whole reason I brought you in here,” she said, her voice calming. “Since this is my hotel I ask you to please not tell anyone of this. If they find out…” she paused a moment.
“If they find out?” Joe pressed.
“I could loose my customers. Nobody’ll want to come if they know there’s a real ghost walking around. Don’t you see? I’ll loose everything I’ve worked for.” Her anger slowly faded into an expression of fear. The boys realized she was right. They were dumb to think she was doing something wrong.
“We’re sorry, Ms. Johnson,” Kevin said. “If there’s anyway we can repay you for what we’ve done, tell us.” He sighed and looked at his brothers. “It was wrong of us to snoop around your hotel, and we’re very sorry. We promise we won’t do it again… and we won’t tell anyone about it either. You have our word.”
She finally sighed with relief and smiled.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’m sorry to keep you here, but I had to explain this to you. I hope I can count on you boys to keep your promise.”
The boys nodded.
“You’re free to go back to your rooms then,” she said, opening the library door.
“Goodnight, Ms. Johnson,” Kevin said walking out. Nick followed him. Last came Joe. He glared at her but said nothing… and she watched him closely as he walked away. Better watch that one, she thought to herself.
_______________________________________________
Next morning was bright and clear—as always. But the boys didn’t wake till lunchtime. They were exhausted from the night’s events. Nick was the first to wake—then Kevin got up. Joe finally awoke, but he was groggy and did nothing but stare at the wall for half an hour.
Kevin finally went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
“You okay, bro?” he asked, worried about his brothers odd behavior.
Joe blinked a moment as if he’d just come out of a trance. He nodded in reply.
“Well… you look a little rough, so I thought I’d just ask. And… I heard you last night. You sounded like you were having a nightmare.”
Joe nodded and looked down at his feet.
“I hope it’s not bothering you. You know dreams aren’t real. But… I’m surprised I didn’t have a nightmare about the ghost last night too…”
Joe looked at him.
“Ghost?” he asked. “Kevin… I had a nightmare about a giant bullfrog chasing me…”
Kevin blinked for a moment.
“How…” he stammered. “You had a dream about a frog?”
“Yep,” Joe said getting off the bed, very serious. “It’s been a bad dream of mine for years. That frog creeps the living daylights out of me.”
Kevin had to laugh.
“After what happened last night—you dream about a bullfrog. Joseph… sometimes you amaze me.”
Joe rolled his eyes and nodded. That’s always how it was.
They all slowly got ready for the day. It seemed to take for hours just to get their teeth brushed. As they finally got the last thing on their list done—there came a knock to their door. Joe got it… and was surprised to find a young girl standing there with a cleaning cart. She was a cleaning maid. She looked up at him, her eyes ice blue. Suddenly he was wide-awake.
“I’m here to clean…” she said, a look of exhaustion written on her face. She looked as though she’d been doing this all morning. Well, Joe thought, I guess if I had that job, I’d think it sucked too. He grinned at her, but she didn’t grin back. She rolled her eyes. “Can I please come in?” she asked frustrated. She wasn’t in the mood to socialize obviously.
“Sure…” Joe said, feeling stupid. He moved to the side to let her through. Then he ran into the bathroom where his brothers were fixing their hair. “Hey,” he said to them. “The cleaning girl’s here, so we should probably scat.”
“Is she cute?” Nick asked him with a smile.
Joe slumped against the wall and sighed.
“Man… you have no idea,” he said.
The boys exited the bathroom and walked to their door to leave.
“We’re gonna go so you can clean in here,” Kevin said to the girl.
She gave a weak grin and nodded, then got back to her work.
But before the boys could leave, Joe stopped them.
“How long have you worked here?” he asked the girl suddenly.
She looked up at him, surprised.
“A year,” she answered bluntly. Joe could tell she was trying to avoid them for some reason.
“So you know Ms. Johnson fairly well then?” he added.
“Maybe.”
Joe sighed. Couldn’t she elaborate just a little more?
“Well, then I wonder if you could answer a question for us that we’re kinda confused by,” Joe said. Kevin suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Joe stop,” he said. “I know where you’re going with this, but we promised Ms. Johnson…”
Joe ignored him.
“We were wondering,” he went on, “if you knew why Ms. Johnson is so interested in Mrs. Scarlett Glen?”
The girl’s eyes suddenly widened with a look of horror, and she rushed away from them and began to make one of the beds.
“Hey! What’s the matter?” Joe cried, confused. “What’s so hard about my question?”
She suddenly turned to them, her eyes beginning to tear up.
“Just stop, OK!” she cried. “You don’t know what you’re getting into! Quit trying to investigate this, alright? If Ms. Johnson finds out you’re doing this, she’ll…” she suddenly stopped. She turned away from them and began making the bed again. “Just go,” she said in a broken voice.
Joe was shocked by her sudden behavior, and it took his brothers to drag him out of the room. The walked down the hall in silence, but when they reached the stairs Joe looked at Kevin.
“What did she mean by that, Kevin?” he asked. “I don’t get what’s going on. It’s beginning to scare me. I wish we could at least tell dad or something…”
“We’ll only tell him if something really bad happens,” Kevin said. “We’ve got to try keeping to our promise, Joseph.”
“But… I don’t know,” Joe said. “I just have this odd feeling there’s more Ms. Johnson’s not telling us…”
_______________________________________________
Meanwhile, Ms. Johnson watched and listened to them on a hidden camera as they entered the foyer. She wasn’t happy.
“That kid’s getting in too much,” a rough man’s voice said behind her.
“And that’s exactly why we have to do something about that boy, Hedgeman,” Ms. Johnson said, swiveling around in her chair. “We need to distract him. If that doesn’t work then… you know.” She sighed and looked back at the screen of the TV. She studied the boys for a moment. “There’s also something else about him…” she said watching Joe. “He has some connection with Scarlett. If she can see him, I wonder if he can hear her…”
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