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like that before. He thought he knew as much as required about the holiday, he’d seen A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph, the Miracle on 34 th Street, and A Christmas Story. “So would people be less sad if we all knew why we were feeling sad?”
    “I think it makes it easier to deal with, that you know there are these souls hanging around that don’t understand what is really about to happen. I think if I know, if I’m prepared, when I die I won’t have to cause so much sadness. I’ll leave a present.” She smiled playfully.
    “I like presents.” Paul felt stupid after saying it. Their conversation was deeper than that, and she also impressed him. There was something very attractive about the idea of loved ones having time before they had to cross over. “Have you lost anyone recently?”
    She nodded and sipped. “You?”
    “No,” he said.
    “That’s probably best, it’s a long walk for a soul to Botetourt County from Richmond.”
    “You know where Tinker Cliffs is!”
    “I grew up in Roanoke. I know all about the Murder Hole.” She smiled and finished her cider.
    Paul stood up and offered her more.  He finished the gallon jug, filling up her glass.
    “Oh you can…” She started to offer him the last bit of cider.
    “Nonsense, I like you,” he said and the jug was empty.
    “So you’re saying I can come into your apartment and take what I want?”
    Paul smiled back at her playfulness. He stopped before sitting back down in his recliner. He thought he missed the moment to sit down next to her. She sighed and rolled her long dark hair back behind an ear. He must have .
    The floor creaked. Melinda jerked her head towards the bedroom. Paul’s gaze followed.
    “It does that sometimes,” he told her, “I think it’s the heater getting ready to kick on.”  Her gaze strayed deep into the bedroom.  Paul tried to remember if he had left any boxers lying out. But something didn’t feel right, he thought about the shadow. He turned to make sure it was still, there, of course it was going to be there, the light was still hitting it from the living room and hallway exactly as before. Only the shadow was not there.
    Paul didn’t understand. It had been there a moment ago. But now his room did feel empty, as if something had left it. But he knew no one could be there, his mind had to be playing tricks on him. He checked on Melinda and still her eyes held steady into the dark bedroom, with only the light illuminating the floor and the far wall, the far wall that should’ve had the shadow of a person sitting, waiting.
    “So these souls, like say you died today or yesterday, you only get a day to settle your things and move on? Kinda seems cheap.”
    “I think time for a soul isn’t the same as our time,” she said, her eyes never budging. Was she trying to creep him out?
    Change the subject he thought, maybe she had spooked herself talking about souls walking the Earth and getting ready to leave tonight. Girls are easily spooked, Paul reminded himself.
    “So this will sound bad, but it was kind of loud when we met and I can’t remember what you said you did for a living.”
    She didn’t answer right away, but when she did she broke her stare into the bedroom and downed the cider as if she was about to leave. 
    “I work for my Grandmother.”
    “You enjoy it?”
    Her smile creased her face, but no rosy cheeks balled. She still appeared distracted, almost as if she was trying her best not to look back into the bedroom. In fact she was looking everywhere but the room.
    “Hey want to go for a walk? I can whip us up some hot chocolate, and you know the lights and stuff people decorate Grove Avenue with this time of year are really pretty.”
    “Is that what you want to do?” she asked with a far warmer smile.
    “Sure it’s not that cold out is it?”
    “No, it sounds nice,” she said.
    Paul microwaved two mugs of water and then added the cocoa mix.  Even over his stirring her heard the floor