Echoes Between Us - McGarry, Katie Page 0,6

I then enter the bedroom with the turret and a circular window seat—something Lucy will love.

Even though the shades are drawn, rays of light peek through and highlight the copious dust particles in the air. I narrow my eyes at the rectangular-shaped object on the cushion of the window seat. I’m slow as I walk farther into the room, glancing multiple times over my shoulder as it feels as if there’s someone else in here, someone staring at me.

I pick up the stack of stapled papers on the seat, flip through it, and it’s nothing more than something that’s been printed out, but it’s wrinkled as if it’s been well read.

DIARY of EVELYN BELLAK

1918

“To Evelyn from Maidy. A Merry Xmas & a Scrumptious New Yr.”

“What’s that?” Mom says from the doorway.

“Something left behind.” I roll the paper into a tube, place it in my back pocket and open the shades. Bright, cheerful light pours into the room. “Hey, Lucy. What do you think of this room?”

She runs in, straight for the window seat, and the heaviness in my chest lessens at the sight of her smile.

“There are a few stipulations for living here,” Mom says. My stomach sinks as this is what I’m used to, the kick following the good. She walks backward into the living room, and from the look on her face whatever it is she has to tell me isn’t news she wants Lucy to hear.

I join her in the black heart of the building and cross my arms. “What?”

“We can only use the washer and dryer when the landlord isn’t, and we aren’t allowed to pester them. Not even if something goes wrong with the apartment. We have to call—never knock. The only exception is when we pay rent. We’re to hand it to them personally, and we can’t be late. And we have to do the yard work, but all the equipment we need is in the garage around back.”

Which means I’ll be doing yard work, but if that’s the worst, I can live with it. “That’s doable. Anything else?”

“Just one thing, and it’s not a big deal. Small, really.”

“What?”

“The house is haunted,” Mom rushes out, then smiles at me. “So let’s unpack.”

VERONICA

The only reason people come to live in this small town is to hide or to die.

Nazareth’s parents brought him here in seventh grade to hide. My father, on the other hand, uprooted me from our suburban, cushy, lower-middle-class, chocolate-chip-smelling home when I turned eleven for me to die.

There aren’t many of us new people in town, so I’ve always been curious which reason brought Sawyer Sutherland to this forsaken land. Is he here because he’s hiding or dying?

“It’s bad enough Sutherland is moving into your house, but now it appears he’s invading your mountain.” Leo jumps onto the crumbling brick wall that runs along the concrete porch of the old TB hospital and looks down the hill. Sure enough, Sawyer Sutherland and his band of merry friends are walking through the thick bushes and tall, green trees up the narrow path.

Leo’s right about Sutherland invading my space, but wrong on the hill being mine. Our backyard touches the property, but the hill and the sanatarium belong to the state. Leo doesn’t come here as often as I do. We spend most of our time at Jesse’s farm, but Leo’s on a countdown to college and he wants to visit all his favorite places before he leaves. The hike up the hill is killer, but the view is breathtaking.

“Fantastic.” Sarcasm in full effect. “I’m so happy he’s feeling at home.”

It’s early evening, not quite nightfall, and the sky surrounding us is full of pinks and the dark blue of evening. Behind us is the massive porch where nurses would roll out patients in their beds so they could take in the fresh air. Back in the early 1900s, thousands of people lived here as they tried to “cure” themselves of TB by taking part in a fresh-air treatment. Many lived. Many more died.

Most people in town are terrified of this building. It has been abandoned for so long that not even the windows are in place anymore, leaving gaping, dark holes for all sorts of wild animals and undesirables to wander in. It doesn’t scare me, though. To have fear for this place is to be scared of death and that is not a dread that I possess.

Leo drops to sit beside me and our legs dangle over the wall. His shoulder rubs