Scarecrow’s Dream Read Free Page A

five dollars. Too good a deal to pass up. So you now have about thirty more movies to dive into. I did my best to choose the flicks I thought would help guide you through the culture of the last four decades.” She chuckled. “If one can label Demolition Man or Jaws as culture. Not that I care. Sly Stallone and Roy Scheider make up for any lack of brilliant dialogue.”
    “I appreciate it. Nothing like catching up on forty years of life in a matter of days. Well, catching up on other people’s lives since I don’t have one.”
    “Now, now. Quit angsting. We’re working on it and we’re still not sure how you do the things you do when you’re dead, and do you have any idea how stupid everything I just said sounds?” Addie trotted into the kitchen, returning about thirty seconds later juggling a bag of pretzels, a bag of chips, a carton of rocky road ice cream, and two large bottles of diet root beer.
    “Speaking of stupid. Or bizarre.”
    “What?”
    “A ton of high-calorie junk food and a sugar-free soda,” I told her.
    “Ah, but as you noted, it’s diet soda. Makes up for the junk food.”
    “Yeah. Right. You go ahead and convince yourself, Miss Adelaide.”
    “I do.”
    “I do love you, dearest Auntie. You take rationalization to new heights. And always have, if my memory is right.” That wasn’t saying much, however, given the gaps I had in it.
    “Yeah, yeah. Now, move over and take the mutt with you so I can see her and avoid sitting on you,” Addie suggested.
    “Will do.” I scooched toward the right side of the couch and tried to give Addie enough room. She seemed to almost instinctually steer clear of touching me most of the time, but if she accidentally got too close I seemed to give off some vibe she claimed intrigued her to no end. I was surprised she wasn’t poking at me all hours of the day and night.
    Addie set the food on the table in front of us, and then sank onto the couch next to me. “Talk about bizarre, Holly. You wanna hear the spookiest thing?” She chuckled. “No offense.”
    “None taken. Spookiest thing. You were saying?”
    “Repeating a thought from the other day but you can pat the dog and she can feel your touch. Which is actually kind of a no-brainer. Puppies are the closest things to innocence ever and I have no problem with them being able to see or exist on more than one plane or dimension. Where was I? Oh yeah. As I’ve noted on more than one occasion, I can hear you, which I’m positive has to do with our genetic makeup. For all we know there are Malone family ESP tendencies that have been dormant for seventy very odd years and only now surfacing. I always said if I lived long enough something totally out there and supernatural would happen.” She mused, “I didn’t imagine it would be my own niece.”
    “Right. Thank you so much for labeling me as totally out there. But you went off track as usual. Spookiest thing? What in particular?”
    “Oh, yeah. Sorry. I was zoning and musing about supernatural characteristics in the Malones. Anyway, you’re capable of picking things up physically, although I still swear you came sauntering through the front door your first night back among the living.”
    I started to protest but she interrupted.
    “I buy it. I mean, the whole physics of Holly Malone, ghost, not making sense. Even walking through objects doesn’t make me raise an eyebrow, and don’t start with the ‘but, Auntie, darling, I’m sure the door wasn’t locked because if I actually passed through it once I should be able to do it again’ bullshit. I’ll let that one pass. But what’s really crazy is you feel cold and heat and you eat and you sleep and do all the normal things that flesh and blood folks do. Can we say illogical squared?”
    I grumbled, “Well, since I don’t own a ghost manual for the newly departed and any of their relatives they’re haunting, I have no clue what’s going on. I’ve given up trying to make sense of