They drove up to Pauline's apartment on Witch Hill Road, overlooking Gallows Hill Park. The apartment was small but scrupulously neat, with framed fashion designs on white-painted walls, and yuccas in tasteful white Portuguese planters. Harold was still smarting form all those glass cuts, but all of them had been clean, and only one of them, on his shoulder, was actually bleeding.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmroVTxgkjW
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"Would you like some wine?" asked Pauline.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡMzmMmtt9QT
Harold sat down stiffly on the beige corduroy sofa. "I'll have a large Scotch if you've got it."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡMTYAFkcHB1
"Sorry," she said, coming in from the kitchen with a large frosted bottle of Zely Blanco. "Everybody I know is a wine-drinker."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡkEOIC1orWo
"Don't tell me they're vegetarians, too."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡIV63FFZJYW
"Some of them," she smiled. She set two tall-stemmed glasses down on the table, and sat down beside Harold. He took the bottle and poured them both brimful measures. At that moment he felt that if he had to drink wine, he might just as well drink lots of it.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4AF6sFx8Pt
"How much do you think the Hawthorne will charge you?" Pauline asked.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ttvO4fTxp
"Couple of thousand, I'm sure. Those plate-glass windows much cost a fortune."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7iB4CvUQnt
"I still don't really understand what was going on."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8uOx5OD9Hm
He raised his glass in a silent toast and swallowed half of it almost right away. "Jealous wife," he told her.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡj8eluXjwnl
She stared at Harold uncertainly. "You told me your wife was...."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡUYSdfL4pzZ
"She is," he said, assertively. Then, more quietly, "She is."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8l2JnfN9vY
"Then you mean to say that what happened to night---that was her? Your wife? She did that?"copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡDDzKAAGjcd
"I don't know. It's a possibility. It could have been nothing more than a freak gust of wind. You remember that high-rise in Boston, with the windows that kept falling out? Maybe the same thing happened at the Hawthorne."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1da7wkr2rk
Pauline frowned at him in total non-comprehension. "But if your wife is dead, how could it have even a possibility that it was her? You're telling me that she's a ghost, too? Your dead wife is a ghost?"copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡC5oWp7o9iH
"I've seen her, yes," he admitted.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡrplS6ilaae
"You've seen her," said Pauline. "My God, I can't believe it."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡiLNDMyM6qg
"You don't have to. But it's true. I've seen her two or three times now, and tonight, when we were making love, I saw her again. I looked at your face and instead it was her face."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡOMXFhoe91Q
Pauline took a drink of wine and then looked at him levelly. "This is getting very hard to play along with, you know that?"copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡSMw8w2ZRmx
"It's not any easier for me."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡBXgVU0P2V5
"Do you know how often I've been to bed with a man, almost the moment I've met him, the way I did with you?"copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡklGaaT5lQY
"I wish you'd quit trying to justify yourself," Harold told her. "I went to bed with you just as quickly. Just because you're the woman and I'm the man, does that make any difference?"copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡgr8rxKEoWI
"It's not supposed to," said Pauline, a tad defensively.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡGs9ORxplrU
"In that case, don't let it."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡr6pO841sd5
"But now you've put me in a weird position."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡTIoFbySpRm
"Weird?" Harold asked, picking up his wine again.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTkC7Bjm7D
"Well, weird, yes---because the first man I've ever picked to pounce on---the very first man ever---and he turns out to have some obsession with his dead wife. And the windows of his goddamn hotel room blow in."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2X0uILLesA
Harold stood up, and walked stiffly across the patio doors, which overlooked Pauline's narrow third-story balcony. Outside, geraniums trembled in the vibrant night wind. Beyond, he could see the smattering of lights that was Witchcraft Heights. It was past 2:00 in the morning now, and he was tired and shaken beyond argument, beyond reproaches. His ghostly reflection in the dark glass lifted his wine, and drank.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡeMcmd5AeKK
"I wish I could say that I'm obsessed with my wife," he said quietly. "I wish I could say that I'm suffering from hysteria; that I've never seen her or heard her anywhere else except inside my mind. But she's real, Pauline. She's haunting me. Not only the cottage where we used to live, but me, as a person. That's another reason why I'm going to go diving tomorrow, even though I don't want to. I want my wife to be put to rest."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡM7j0nlhYVu
Pauline said nothing. He came back from the window and sat opposite her, although she wouldn't look at him.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡqyZfMUFEdZ
"If you want to forget we ever met, that's okay by me," Harold told her. "Well---it's not exactly all right. It'll upset me. But I can understand how you feel. Anybody else would feel the same. Even my doctor thinks it's nothing but post-bereavement shock."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡQUbtUWlxR0
Harold hesitated, and then he said, "You're a very attractive person, Pauline. You do exciting things to me. And I still stand by what I said earlier on---how amazing it is that two people can work up a storm together only minutes after they've met. We could both have a good time; you know that. But I have to tell you that Nancy's spirit is still around me, and that there may be danger, the way there was tonight."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡgW1HU4WXHI
Pauline looked at Harold, and her eyes were glistening. "It's not the danger," she said, with a catch in her voice.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oGQFgnx3M
"I know. It's the image of the ex-wife."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡP05kFKVFsm
"I had that before. I had an affair with a married man when I was 17. A banker. His wife wasn't dead, curse the luck, but she was always there. Either on the telephone, or in the back of his mind."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡbaulxBrDkq
"And you definitely don't want to go through it again."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡxe77eQGXCr
She held out her hand to him. "Harold," she said, "it's nothing against you. It's just that I'm feeling threatened. And there's one thing that I've always promised myself, ever since I began working on my own. Never to let anyone threaten me, no matter how."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡLUxaAy9YaU
Harold didn't know what to say to that. She was right, of course. She may have thrown herself at him like a sexually-deprived tigress, and he may have thrown himself back at her like an equally sexually-deprived tiger. But she was under no obligation to accept me as a lover with all of the problems he was carrying with him. All the demons, the fears, and the might-have-beens. To say nothing of the unhealed wound of his recently-killed wife and their unborn baby.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ15oPMpU0Tq
"All right," he told her. He let go of her hand. "I don't like what you're saying, but I can understand why you're saying it."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡVpSB4dMocF
"I'm sorry," she told him. "I don't think you have any idea how much you attract me. You're just my type."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡUoCJPHf5fC
"Nobody with a ghost on his back can possibly by your type. He can't be anybody's type. Not until he's been exorcized."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡOvj2YKapFL
Pauline sat and looked at him for a while in silence, and then got up and went into the kitchen. He followed her, and stood in the doorway, while she took out eggs and muffins and coffee.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9FbesAT9tV
"You don't have to cook me anything," he said.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡAuwPh8p1xA
"Breakfast, that's all," she smiled. She broke the eggs into a basin and began to whip them up.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡHbkVmLWZE0
"Have you thought about exorcism?" she asked him. "Getting a priest around to lay your wife to rest?"copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡAtBrU4HD1w
He shook his head. "I don't think it would work. I don't know, maybe it might. But I think the only way that any of these ghosts in Ol' Spithead are going to get any peace is if we find out why they're so restless, what makes them appear."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡndNkGxkQX0
"You mean like raising the George Badger?"copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡzxYi86GnAe
"Maybe. Michael seems to think that's the answer."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡMxny3MqvKR
"And what do you think?" asked Pauline, taking out a pan and cutting a little sunflower shortening into it.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0SMqPCQz34
He rubbed his eyes. "I'm trying to keep an open mind. I don't know. I'm just trying to stay sane."176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoCVZnMGYNt
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She looked at Harold kindly. "You're very sane," she said. "You're also a beautiful lover. I hope to God you can give your wife some peace."copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡnO02zrK2gO
There was no need to answer that remark. He watched her scramble eggs and toast muffins and perk coffee, and thought about nothing but sleep, and tomorrow's dive. The cold waters of Lobster Back were out there now, restless as the ghosts of Ol' Spithead, waiting for the dawn.copyright protection172ＰＥＮＡＮＡfZssgOyNTA
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