"Jinxed again," Roger murmured, getting an elbow for his troubles. He and Sarah had known of the word gobsmacked, but had no clear understanding of its meaning until they saw Debbie's expression. She had gone completely white as soon as she'd seen Joe's ghost stand up.
"Yes Debbie, it's me," he said gently. All of the events of the long, busy, tiring day finally caught up to her and the dam that held back her emotions collapsed. Roger and Sarah moved quickly to catch her and all but carried her the short distance to the two-seater couch. Joe sat on the other seat and put his arms around her as best as he could as she cried and raged incoherently for about five minutes. Roger snagged the box of tissues from its spot on the kitchen counter and handed it to her and she made loud and liberal use of them, dumping them into a wastebasket that Sarah had liberated from the powder room. Meanwhile, John's and Jeannie's embraces of their respective former partners were cool and comforting as Debbie's raw emotion spilled into all four of them.
"What ... what happened to you, Joe?" she was finally able to ask. "How did you come to be this way, and how did you come here with these other two?"
"There's not much to tell, surprisingly enough," he replied. "I felt something go very wrong in my head as I was sitting in my chair on the patio. Then I was suddenly standing next to myself, and then you came out, saw what had happened, and totally freaked out. I couldn't do anything to help. You and the kids couldn't see or hear me. I had to watch from the sidelines and couldn't comfort you as you ... as you ... cried yourself to sleep." He had to pause so they could both regain their composure.
"It was the same with me," said John to Sarah, unsuccessfully trying to brush away her tears. "I was sitting right there," he pointed at the two-seater couch, "and suddenly I was standing next to myself seeing the end of the game on the TV and my body just sitting there, not moving. I could not make you see or hear me, no matter what I did. All the love and support that you got from everyone at the funeral, and at the special tribute they did at the school, was nothing like what I tried to get to you. I have been hanging around the town ever since, trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing with myself."
"Roger, I never doubted that you loved me, from that first tentative kiss on our first date until the moment I, or at least my body, died," said Jeannie softly as she looked into his eyes. "You have a picture of me on your dresser so that it's the first thing that you see when you wake up and the last thing that you see when you go to sleep." Roger had to grab one of the rapidly depleting stock of tissues. "I was there in the morgue when you had to identify me. The body of the man who'd killed me was on the next table, and I know that if you'd had the power then that you have now, you would have incinerated it with the glare you shot at it. I walked with you for these past five days and dreamed with you to help you with starting to let me go. I saw you rescue that little fox and then ran with you as you just made it to the bed and breakfast when the storm hit."
"Debbie, I hitched a ride in the car when you drove here," Joe continued. I couldn't let you go, even if I couldn't figure out how to communicate with you. I met John a day after you got here, sitting out on his front porch."
"You would have scared the crap out of me if I'd had any to lose," John replied with a laugh. "There are not many of us non-corporeal entities, as I like to call us..."
"Still the windbag, even after death," said Sarah with a teary smile that showed all her love, and the others laughed. "Though I suppose that you really aren't dead, are you?"
"That's the thing," he replied. "I do not know why or how we still exist as we do. I've seen other people die as I've gone around the town over the years. Their spirits would leave their bodies, and they'd often be confused, not realizing what had happened. But then they would meet someone that they knew and would walk off and fade away. John and I don't know why that never happened to us."
"So here we are, stuck between our former life and the afterlife, whatever form that takes," Jeannie concluded. "We have been speculating that it's either your continuing love for us and not letting go that's been keeping us here, or else there's something else going on."
"It could be partly us, and partly you not wanting to let go," said Roger thoughtfully. "None of us was ready. Your deaths were total surprises. Would I be wrong in guessing that once you'd realized what had happened, your reaction was essentially "Now what?" The ghosts shook their heads. "So now that you've finally chosen to reveal yourselves to us, we all have to decide whether we should be trying to send you on to whatever comes next after death or to try to bring you back to the corporeal world."
"Chose to reveal is not entirely accurate," John retorted a little sharply, as Roger had hoped he would. "Until the past few days, we have not been able to reveal ourselves. We think that the same thing that is affecting the three of you has also been affecting us. Magic is returning, and we appear to be magical creatures now that can somehow tap into it and draw enough power to allow us to finally be seen and to interact with the real world."
"Expect to hear reports of the others in our condition in town appearing and scaring people," Joe added dryly. "Something big is happening here, and we all are on the front lines."
"So, how exactly did you manage to get the energy you must have needed to keep yourselves alive?" asked Debbie, having recovered enough to be coherent again.
"Please tell us that it hasn't been through sexual energy," Sarah muttered suspiciously. None of the ghosts would meet their gazes. Roger laughed loudly, startling them.
"We came in here all ready to tear each other's clothes off and give you guys a good dinner, but by being here and talking to us you lost out."
"Not by much, Roger dear," purred Jeannie, tracing a shimmering finger across his chest. "We can absorb other forms of energy that people radiate, including lust, which all three of you were broadcasting like search lights."
"Last night's love bomb that you and Roger set off at the park was like a low-yield nuclear weapon. The energy wave itself was enough to nearly fry our circuits, and then when everyone in town started either humping or wanking like mad, we all had the equivalent of a ten-course meal!" said Joe, perhaps a bit more enthusiastically than was necessary, earning an elbow from Debbie that passed through him with no effect.
"We need not mention the neighbourhood-wide love bombs you released this afternoon," added John with a smirk. "Or that there's been a run on Trina's and she's practically sold out of everything. She wants to talk to you about more 'Good Vibrations' vibrators, the next time you come by," he added, the smirk having transformed into a grin. Roger rolled his eyes and made a face, making them all laugh.
"Human sexual energy comes in a wide variety of flavours," Jeannie said, "and you are correct Roger in that the energy generated from love is the strongest of them all. But as we found out this afternoon as you three were making love so intensely, lust generated by love is very intoxicating."
"The whole damned neighbourhood was overrun with drunk ghosts," complained Joe. "Including us, I might add. And let's avoid the topic of the debauchery..." Sarah and Debbie perked up noticeably, while Roger ostentatiously stifled a yawn.
