down there. Painted the porch ceiling blue, they did—you ought to paint the ceiling at the theater blue, there, Vivien Leigh. Mebbe that’ll keep them ghosts away.”
“That’s an interesting idea,” Vivien replied, and felt Liv brush against her left arm. She had a feeling her twin was laughing.
“Anyway,” said Iva, raising her voice in an effort to be heard over Maxine, “as I was saying, a ghost means a soul is not at rest—usually because some wrong has been done to them and they need to set it right before they go off to the afterlife. So we need to find out if someone died on the grounds of the theater, and then we can determine how to make things right.”
Vivien was more than a little concerned about all of the “wes” in that speech, so she demurred. “I’ll definitely check into that. But I haven’t heard anything about anyone dying at the theater, so I don’t know.”
“Maybe it’s built on a Native American burial ground,” said Juanita. “And that’s why it’s never been a successful business. You ever hear about any ghosts before this, Maxie?”
“Not a one. But who knows? Wicks Hollow’s kinda like that Hell Mountain thingy from—what’s her name? That skinny blond girl with the stick?”
“You mean Buffy?” said Ricky, surprising all of them. “What?” he demanded when everyone stared at him. He was just not the target audience for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “I liked that show. She kicked some serious butt.”
“And it’s the Hellmouth,” said Juanita. “I swear, Maxine, you say the wrong things on purpose just for attention, don’t you?”
“Memory ain’t what it used to be,” grumbled Maxine. “Don’t need to be mean about it. At least I can see and hear all right…unlike some other people around here. Juanita,” she added in a stage whisper.
“All right, then,” said Jake, standing purposefully. “We’ve got to get going now.”
“Oh, but wait—I wanted to tell you one more thing,” said Iva.
“What’s the hurry, Elwood? Sit back down,” said his father. “Always running off and leaving me. Did I tell you he took over two hours to get me dinner last night?” He cast a sly wink at Vivien, who giggled at the consternation and mortification on Jake’s face.
“Come on, take a load off, son,” said Hollis Nath, who was sitting very cozily next to Iva. He was a little overdressed for hanging around outside on a summer afternoon, in creased slacks and a suit coat, but he didn’t seem uncomfortable at all. “What’s the rush? Where’s the fire? Have a seat, Elwood.”
“I’ve got steaks sitting on the counter defrosting,” Jake said weakly, but he sat.
“Anyway, I wanted to tell you that when the ghost—it was a female, did I tell you that?” Iva began.
“Yes, I believe you did,” replied Vivien, deliberately avoiding Jake’s attempt to catch her eyes. Inside, she was still giggling.
“All right, so when the ghost was talking to me—well, she wasn’t really talking, she was just sort of…leading me, I guess you’d say—”
“Leading you to the stairs where you might have fallen down into the pit,” Vivien said darkly, and had the pleasure of seeing Hollis straighten up.
“What’s this? You didn’t tell me about that, Iva! Now that puts a whole different spin on things. Maybe you shouldn’t be messing around with this supernatural business if you’re going to be in danger—”
“Now, darling, please don’t get your boxers in a twist,” said Iva in her prim voice as she patted his knee. “I was in no danger whatsoever. I knew exactly where I was all the time, and if Vivien wouldn’t have stopped me, I was going to go down the stairs—they led to the orchestra pit? Very interesting—and see what she—the ghost, was trying to tell me.”
“I heard music,” said Maxine, wresting the group’s attention from Iva.
“So did I,” Iva snapped. “That’s what I’m trying to tell her—”
“I didn’t recognize it until we figured out that—”
“—it was from The Nutcracker.” Iva was fairly shouting to be heard over her friend. She stopped and glared at Maxine, who glared back and adjusted her thick glasses.
“Took you long enough to spit it out,” Maxine muttered.
“We’ve been sitting here all afternoon trying to figure out what it was,” Juanita said in a modulated voice. “Everyone was humming it—some of us better than others”—she looked Maxine—“and that’s what we wanted to tell you.”
“Did you hear music too, Vivien?” asked Iva.
“Maybe.” Vivien thought she might have, but she’d been so anxious and freaked out that she hadn’t