was.
âHi, Nikki.â
âYouâre getting good.â
âNothing to do with intuition or special gifts,â Leslie said with a laugh. âItâs late, but weâve been on the news, and I knew that youâre the one person who might be calling.â
âHow do you feel?â
âGreat. I got to help find closure for people, in a weird sort of way.â
âExactly,â Nikki said.
Leslie could picture Nikki. Slim and vivacious, with brilliant blue-green eyes. She led tours in New Orleans and loved history. She loved her city, too, and was working hard to bring tourism back to New Orleans. But she and Brent had taken time out to help Leslie adjust to life with the dead popping up now and then. What had seemed like a curse had almost become a gift with Nikki and Brent so serenely at her side.
âHowâs everything going in your neck of the woods?â Leslie asked.
âStep by step, but weâre coming back. So many neighborhoods are still in need of total rebuilding, but weâll get there. And you? Everything all right?â
âGreat. I thinkâ¦I think we may have seen the last of the reverend.â
âAh. Well, bless his heart. Soâ¦I guess youâre going to see to the details now? My history is a lot easierâI just talk about it. You spend hours brushing dust off yours.â
Leslie wondered why sheâd thought that Nikki already knew what she was about to do.
âActually,â she replied, âIâm going home.â
âHomeâ¦?â
âNew York. I was born in the South, but New Yorkâs been home for a long time now. Thereâs a new project there, a site nearâ¦near Hastings House, and Iâm going to work on it.â
âAre you ready?â Nikki asked flatly.
âYesâ¦Noâ¦Maybe.â
âThenâ¦?â
âIâm not sure Iâll never actually be ready. I think I just have to do it.â
The phone line was silent for several seconds, and she knew that Nikki was carefully weighing her next words. âLeslie, you do know that although weâve come to accept certain things and learned to use our abilities to a degree, we donât have all the answers. Youâre still fragile, whether you want to believe that or not. So be careful. And donâtâ¦donât let yourself get trapped in the past, in what was. Youâre here. Youâre alive.â
âNikki, thanks to you guys, Iâm still sane and I appreciate living. Itâs just thatâ¦you know how you feel when you lose someone, like there were so many things you didnât get to say, and you want so desperately to know that everything is all right, and of course it isnât, because the person is deadâ¦okay, now I do sound a little on the loopy side. Butâ¦I just wish I could say goodbye, you know?â
âYou canât know that youâll get that chance, Leslie, even if you do go back. Matt Connolly was an exceptional man. He did a lot of good in his days on earth. He might, wellâ¦he might never be seen.â
âI know that. I promise you, Iâm not going home because Iâm sure Iâll see him if I do. I just know I have to go on. And this is a great opportunity.â
âWant me to hop a plane on up?â
Leslie smiled. Some things were so strange. Sheâd had many friends when Matt had died. Nice people. But sheâd found that she had to push them away a bit. Politely, she hoped. It was just that she didnât really want to make their lives painful, and she didnât like people tiptoeing around her feelings. She hadnât been able to talk, really talk, to many people. But then Nikki had stepped into her life, and it had been as if sheâd known her forever.
Of course, they both saw ghosts, as did Nikkiâs husband, Brent. Nikki always found it amusing that most people accepted his ability to communicate with the dead more