"TALES OF GHOSTS"
about Love and Death from the Land of Mists
a collection of short stories
in the “Playing Another Reality” series
"BROKEN MIRROR"
11. DISEMBODIED
I am Italian and my husband Daniel is Russian, although he speaks Italian very well. Daniel hesitated to move to Italy with me for a long time, he wanted us to live in Russia, but I was categorically against it, and he gave in. We got married in Rome. My parents gifted us a small house by the sea, where we settled.
One evening, lounging in the kitchen, I heard that female voice for the first time.
“Chiara!”
I looked around and found no one.
“Chiara, can you hear me?”
I jumped up from the chair and, without turning off the light, ran into the bedroom, where my husband was peacefully snoring. Ducking into bed, I apparently hugged him so tightly that he woke up.
“What’s happened?”
“Nothing!”
***
In the morning Daniel went to Rome, from time to time he visited different cities to delve into the archives, since he was interested in history.
Having finished all the household chores, I sat down in the chair and turned on the TV, but less than five minutes later, the screen went dark.
“It’s something wrong with electricity, probably,” I thought, and at the same moment I distinctly heard yesterday’s voice!
“Chiara!”
I jumped up like scalded, “No, it can’t be true!”
“Chiara, please don’t be afraid of me!”
“Who is there?” I whispered, looking around.
“I don’t mean you any harm, just… I don’t have much time left!”
“Where are you?” I tried to determine where the sound was coming from, but I couldn’t.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s important that you HEAR! What luck!!!”
I rushed to the door to get out of the house.
“Chiara! Don’t leave! Please! We can’t talk there!”
However, I slammed the door and headed towards the sea. Who had lived in the house before us? What the hell was going on? I nervously glanced at my watch to return home when Daniel would be there for sure.
In the evening, I dared to share my glitches with my husband. Oddly enough, he didn’t laugh at me.
“Why don’t you talk to a ghost?” he asked.
“Do you believe in ghosts?”
“Rather yes than no. I had my own one, I’ll tell you later.”
***
The next day, my husband left me alone in the “talking” house again, but nothing supernatural happened, and I calmed down. However, at night, when Daniel was already asleep, and I was still reading a book, the same voice suddenly rang out!
“Chiara! Help me, please, and I will stop appearing to you!”
“Who are you?” I asked in a whisper, afraid of waking my husband up.
“Come out into the kitchen, let’s talk, and I’ll explain everything to you.”
I was tormented by doubts.
“Listen, girl,” said the voice, “I can get angry, and then…”
…the lights in the room went out.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Let’s talk. Just turn on the light!”
The light came back. I got out of bed and obediently went to the kitchen.
“You are very beautiful!”
“What do you want from me? Who are you?”
“I am a woman, like you, just invisible.”
“If you were a woman, I would see you!”
“And if I were a man, then you wouldn’t?” the voice laughed. “You think I’m dead, but in such case you wouldn’t hear me, Chiara… One never dies.”
“Well, let’s get agreed: you are a woman’s ghost. Okay?”
“Okay… So many years have passed! I don’t remember well what happened. You know, over time, the memory is gradually erased. I need your help.”
“Did you live in this house?”
“No, this house has nothing to do with me. I’ve called you even before your moving here, you didn’t hear me. However, like most people. I think it’s because of the location of the house, which predisposes us to communicate here. You can hear me better! Are you not afraid of me anymore? How glad I am to be heard!”
“What can I do to make you disappear? What’s your name?”
“They called me Veronica. Highly likely, I had another name.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t remember…”
“So what can I do for you?”
“What to do?.. You have to… Lord, what’s happened to my memory? I’ve almost forgotten everything!”
“Why do you say you don’t have much time left?”
“I’m about to return to Earth, to incarnate into the body of a child, but then I’ll instantly forget everything happened before… Ahhh! I remember!!! I need you to tell my son what happened!”
“And what exactly to tell?”
Veronica fell silent, apparently remembering. At the same time, I noticed a light breeze passing through the curtains, stirring them up in waves.
“Hey, are you here?”
“Yes, sorry! It’s hard for me to concentrate…”
“Let’s try this way: I ask questions, and you remember the answers, okay?”
“Okay! Let’s try! Ask!”
“Are you from Italy?”
“No, I’m from somewhere in the north. Maybe I came here from France.”
“Do you remember your death?”
“It was very painful and quick!”
“Did you hang yourself?”
“No! Imagine! I’ve met some ghosts of hanged people, they have a blue neck. They often wrap it up with a neckerchief or a scarf not to be caught in eye. If you could, you would see that my neck is white, and there is neither neckerchief nor scarf!”
“What a lucky I am not to see you!” I exhaled in relief, but Veronica fell silent. “Don’t be offended! Let’s go on! Have you been stabbed?”
“No, Chiara, the versions with wounds can be immediately discarded, my body has no injuries. It’s the same as it was before I died.”
“So you died on your own. Some disease?”
“No! I told you, it was instantly!”
“Well, perhaps you are a drowned woman. There is the sea nearby!”
“No, I am not! And there was no sea.”
“And what was there?”
“Some kind of a building, I entered it. The entrance way. I ran up the stairs…”
“Anyway, you didn’t jump out of the window, otherwise you would have got marks on your body, right?”
“Yes… You’re right…”
“What happened before you entered the building?”
“I don’t remember… I remember even before that… A park… Foggy… I’m going to a small house for some reason. There’s an old man there. Anyhow, I’m not going to him!”
“And to whom?”
“Another man was supposed to come. I knew him. He used to come in the park, too. And then the old man says that his body was found in the park. They shot him, or he did it himself.”
“Did you know the dead man?”
“Yes… He was from our group…”
“What kind of group?”
“I don’t remember… There were five of us.”
“Are any of you still alive?”
“No. Definitely not. I was the last…”
“And when it all happened, do you remember?”
“No…”
“Well, were kings ruling then?”
“No… But I caught the last of them!”
“Did you die during a war?”
“No… But we could smell it in the air… I seem to have known that it was coming… Almost no one knew, and we did…”
“What did you do then? Did you work? What job did you have?”
“Yes, I worked… All five of us, as if together…”
“In Italy?”
“And here also, yes…”
“So what were you? A cook? A weaver?”
“No!” Veronica laughed. “Not of that kind…”
“Well, if you’re from the north, not from Italy, and you’re talking with me now in Italian, and you came from somewhere in France, then you probably knew at least two languages, French and Italian. Right?”
“Yes. Although now I can communicate in any language, like all ghosts. Anyhow, I knew Italian and French. And my own language as well…”
“Which one was yours?”
“I don’t remember…”
“And your son, he stayed… where?”
“At home … I couldn’t go back to him, none of us could…”
“Of those five?”
“Yes… I was told so… But we were all…”
“Killed?”
“They were, yes… I wasn’t!”
“And you didn’t die on your own, did you?”
“I didn’t want to die like them… Then I came to my son, later, but he didn’t hear me! I had to find someone who can hear… I searched for a long time, but in vain. Then I found you…”
“Aren’t there enough clairaudients in the world? I would have searched someone in the country where your son remained…”
“No, I remember exactly the one I needed was YOU. But why?..”
At that moment, we heard footsteps on the stairs, and my husband appeared.
“Chiara! Did you look at the clock? What are you doing here?”
I spread my hands, letting the unfortunate ghost know that our conversation was temporary over.
***
In the afternoon, when my husband left me alone again for the next archive (I tried to ask him what he was looking for there, but Daniel, a rather introverted person, said only that he needed materials for his book), I sat in the same chair in the kitchen.
“Veronica, are you here?” I asked.
“Yes, Chiara, hi! Thank you for helping me! During the day you won’t hear me as loud as at night. I have almost no time left… I feel it!”
“Do you know who you’re going to incarnate into?”
“Not yet…”
“Listen, don’t you remember still why you’re communicating with me and not with someone else?”
“Everything I remember, I’ve already told you. In fact, I found you a long time ago. However, I’d tried to make you hear me for so long that I forgot why it was you I needed! I’m sorry… I’ll try to remember!”
“Okay, let’s get back to our investigation! Do you remember anything else?”
“The man found dead in the park! I’d seen him shortly before. I told him I had to go to the city to meet with one of our group, and he said that it was dangerous.”
“What city were you supposed to go to?”
“I think, it was Rome. I remember also… He put something in my hand before we said goodbye.”
“What did you put in? A letter?”
“No, something very small!”
“Did you have to give it to someone?”
“No… It was for me… Just in case…”
“What kind of case?”
“As the last resort if…”
“If what?”
“If there, in Rome, I knew that the game was over…”
“What game?”
“That’s what he said. He didn’t seem to have anyone left at home. There, in our country.”
“God bless the man! Did you go to Rome to a woman or a man?”
“To a woman…”
“What was her name?”
“I don’t remember… It wasn’t her name anyway. It’s just… that’s what they called her. Do you understand?”
“Not well enough. So what did he give you as the last resort? What did you do with it?”
“I put it in my bag.”
“What else was there in the bag?”
“I don’t remember…”
“So you went to Rome, right?”
“Yes… It was raining… Foggy…”
“Did you meet that woman?”
“No…”
“Why?”
“I don’t remember… Oh, she didn’t come!”
“And who came?”
“No one…”
We both fell silent. I thought that it would take an eternity to figure out the whole story, and I would have time to turn into a ghost myself.
“Chiara, I remember! A newspaper!!! I bought a newspaper from a boy on the street! And it said about her. That she had been murdered!”
“And what exactly was written there, do you remember? Try to remember what month it was? And I’ll try to find that newspaper to clarify something at least somehow. Finding a newspaper is not a big problem. My husband is digging through the archives. He is writing a book. I’ll ask him.”
“I don’t remember the month. I remember that the message was on the last page, on the left. A little note without photos.”
“What the hell story! Okay. Tell me then, what happened after you read the news?”
“I turned around. I saw a man. I’d often seen him before. Then I walked fast. And he followed me. And then I entered the…”
“Was he following you on purpose?”
“Yes, he had to kill me.”
“But you were not killed, were you?”
“Of course, I was not!”
“So what happened after your entering the building? Come on! Remember!”
“… The stairs… It’s dark… The windows are large… I run up, he is following me… I reach into my bag and take out what my friend gave me in the park, and… I swallow this capsule…”
“Great! Finally! You got poisoned!” I exclaimed joyfully, and Veronica fell silent, but the breeze ran through the curtains. “Listen, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you! Let’s keep remembering!”
“I returned home to my son, tried to tell him everything, but he didn’t hear me.”
At that moment, the front door opened, and Daniel appeared on the threshold.
“Chiara! Are you already boring?”
“Yeah, boring, of course!” I thought, and the spiritual session was interrupted.
***
At night, when my husband fell asleep, I went back to the kitchen. I wanted, by all means, to unravel that ghostly story.
“Thanks, Chiara!” I heard a familiar voice.
“Listen, you’re always talking about your son. Were you married?”
“Yes… They shot him. Even before my death. I didn’t know it when I was alive. I found out later…”
“Do you remember anything else about your husband?”
“No. Although… we met with him, already being ghosts. He told me where to look for our son…”
“Where were you buried?”
“The body was buried, not me!” Veronica exclaimed indignantly.
“Listen, let’s agree, you won’t be offended by my words! I’m not a ghost to know how everything is arranged there, at yours, am I?”
“Okay… Although you yourself were a ghost before incarnation, and then you forgot everything! I was buried in Italy. I don’t remember where. The grave has long been overgrown. There are no identifying marks… You know, ghosts fall into two categories: some adore their graves, and the others don’t. For example, I didn’t like cemeteries even during my earthly life.”
“What a blessing! One task less, there is no need to look for your grave! So it means that you lived on the eve of the war, worked at a strange job in a group of five people, knew two foreign languages, came to Italy from France and couldn’t return home to your northern country where your son had been left and your husband had been shot. All five of your group were killed in Italy. Correct?”
“Four were killed, and I poisoned myself!”
“What happened to your son? Did you visit him afterwards, didn’t you?”
“I wanted him to know the truth about us. That I didn’t leave him. I loved him very much! He was very small then…”
“How old was he?”
“He seemed to be five. He was put in an orphanage, and the orphanage was evacuated.”
“So, there was definitely a war in your country. And where is your son now?”
“I don’t know… I don’t remember…”
“Well, you want me to find your son and report that his parents were killed, to retell what you remember, right?”
“Yes… I love him very much! I wanted to go back, but if I had done so, he would be killed too, just like us, you know?”
“I don’t quite understand. What for? Even more I don’t understand how to find him!”
Footsteps on the stairs were heard. The sleepy husband came down to the kitchen and took a seat across from me.
“Chiara, what’s going on?” he asked calmly. “Who are you talking to?”
“Tell him, maybe he will believe it!” Veronica suggested.
“With a ghost. You told me to do it!”
“And who is your ghost here? Can you see the ghost?”
“No, I can’t, I just hear. This is a woman. She was killed…”
“Chiara! They didn’t kill me!!! Don’t tell lies!”
“Or rather, they were going to kill her, but she swallowed the poison.”
“And what does she want from you?” my husband asked thoughtfully.
“She wants me to find her son. I told you the truth about my ghost. Now tell me about yours!”
“I’m looking for my parents,” Daniel confessed, sighing heavily. “Ask her how can I find them there?”
“Have you heard it?” I turned to Veronica.
“Certainly! Has he ever seen them at least once in a subtle body?”
“Have you seen them as ghosts?” I asked Daniel.
“Yes, I have. I was a kid, about five years old. My father came to me first. He kept silent all the time. I thought he was alive. I tried to hug him, but he immediately disappeared. The last time my father said that my mother loved me very much, but she would never return from Italy so that I could live. And then I saw my mother. She was saying something, but I didn’t hear anything. Afterwards we were moved to another town, away from the war. Since then, I saw neither my father nor mother. Anyhow, keeping in mind that my mother had lived in Italy, I learned Italian. And now in the archives, I’m looking for newspapers of that period. I think, sooner or later, I will definitely find at least something to find her trace.”
I sank into a chair, speechless. The curtains fluttered in waves.
“Chiara, I remembered why I wanted to talk to you!”
…They talked until the morning. It was my pleasure to act as an intermediary. And then she disappeared. Forever. Although… nine months later our daughter was born. We named her Veronica. I think I know whose soul incarnated into her body…
February, 1994