The Old Man Returns

That night, Jacob lies in bed thinking about what Brenda told him to do if the old man visits again.

At some point, without realizing it, he falls asleep.

A noise from the corner of his room wakes him.

Jacob opens his eyes. For a moment, he is confused. He has only been asleep for about half an hour.

Then he sees him.

The old man stands in the corner of the bedroom.

And he is moving towards the bed.

Jacob freezes.

His heart pounds so hard that it seems to fill the room. Tears gather in his eyes as he pulls the blankets over his head.

For a few terrifying moments, everything Brenda told him disappears from his mind. All he can think about is the old man getting closer.

Then he remembers.

Still hidden beneath the blankets, Jacob begins to say the Lord’s Prayer.

When he finishes, he stays exactly where he is.

One minute passes.

Then another.

After about five minutes, Jacob slowly lowers the blanket just far enough to see into the room.

The old man is no longer beside the bed.

Jacob raises his head and looks towards the doorway.

Nothing.

He pulls the blanket away from his face and wipes the tears from his eyes.

Something feels different.

The heaviness that normally accompanies the old man is gone. The room feels lighter. Peaceful.

Jacob’s heart gradually stops racing.

He lies back against his pillow and turns onto his side.

“I’m finally rid of him,” he thinks. “The old man is gone.”

A smile crosses his face.

Within minutes, he is asleep again.

At William’s house, William lies in the recreation room reading the book Brenda loaned him.

He originally intended to skim through it to see what it was about, but the lessons quickly capture his attention.

The first exercise teaches the reader how to relax the body. William begins following the instructions, visualizing energy flowing into his body from his toes and slowly moving upward.

Before he gets very far, he falls asleep.

Across town, Jessica is still puzzled by the image she saw during Brenda’s visualization exercise.

Her mother was talking to a stranger.

Jessica lies in bed trying to remember more. She is certain the stranger was a woman because she remembers seeing a skirt, but everything else is unclear.

The one detail she remembers perfectly is her mother smiling.

Jessica turns the image over and over in her mind until sleep finally takes over.

The other members of the group are already in bed.

Everyone except Matthew.

Unable to sleep, he grabs a cold drink and steps into his backyard.

The summer night is clear and warm, with a gentle breeze moving through the darkness. Matthew stares up at the stars and thinks about what Brenda said.

Keep an open mind.

He is still trying to figure out exactly how to do that.

A shooting star streaks across the sky.

Matthew watches until it disappears.

“I wish I could be more open-minded.”

The words are barely out of his mouth before he smiles and drops his face into his hands.

“Now you’re wishing on shooting stars,” he mutters. “What’s next? Believing you’re psychic? Believing everybody is?”

He takes a sip of his drink.

“I know Brenda said to keep an open mind, but how are you supposed to do that when you don’t have anything to tell you what’s real and what’s fantasy? I don’t want to be gullible. I want proof so I know something is real.”

He looks back towards the stars.

“That vision I had at Brenda’s was probably just me imagining the river because I’d rather have been fishing.”

Matthew remains outside for a while longer, staring into the night.

Eventually, he becomes drowsy enough to go back inside.

The next morning, William wakes suddenly in the recreation room.

He bolts upright when he realizes he fell asleep during the exercise.

Then he remembers something Brenda has said during relaxation exercises: don’t do them lying down unless you want to fall asleep.

William heads upstairs.

His father is sitting at the table with toast and coffee when William appears from the basement.

Mr. Rogers looks up in surprise.

“Good morning. Want some toast?”

William feels completely rested, which makes him certain he must have overslept. Since he is usually the one struggling to get out of bed, seeing his father still at home confuses him.

“No thanks, Pops. I’ll grab some cereal. What time is it?”

His father checks his watch.

“Six-thirty. Why are you up so early?”

William looks just as puzzled.

“I don’t know. I woke up, so I figured I might as well get out of bed.”

Mr. Rogers smiles.

“There might be hope for you yet.”

He returns to his newspaper while William gets a bowl of cereal. After breakfast, William washes up and gets ready for school.

At Jessica’s house, seven o’clock arrives before she finally rolls out of bed.

The moment she opens her eyes, she reaches towards the nightstand.

A pen and sheet of paper are exactly where she left them.

Jessica had hoped she might wake during the night after another dream and write down whatever she remembered.

The paper is blank.

Disappointed, she puts everything back and heads for the kitchen.

She pours herself a glass of orange juice. As she closes the refrigerator, her mother hands her a plate stacked with pancakes, strawberries and whipped cream.

Jessica stares at it.

“What’s this for?”

Her mother only smiles.

Jessica sits down and begins eating.

When she is about halfway through the pancakes, her mother places a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry I was riding you the other morning about joining another club or sport. I just want to make sure you’re doing what you want and not missing out on something because your friends aren’t involved.”

Jessica looks up at her.

“Mom, you’ve met my friends. You know none of them would treat me differently if I wanted to do something without them.”

“I know, dear. I just want to make sure you know that too.”

Jessica nods, then looks around.

“Where’s Dad?”

“He had an early flight this morning.”

Jessica finishes breakfast and goes to get ready for school.

Jacob wakes feeling better than he has in a long time.

For once, he is not exhausted after a night spent fearing the old man.

The visitor never returned.

Jacob gets out of bed with a spring in his step and heads towards the kitchen.

“Good morning, Mom!”

His mother turns towards him, surprised by his enthusiasm.

“Well, aren’t you wide awake and chipper this morning? What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing.” Jacob smiles. “I just think my sleepless nights are going to be over from now on.”

He sits at the table and looks out the window while waiting for breakfast.

A little later, the group begins arriving at school.

William, Jessica and Jacob are already gathered beneath the big tree when the others approach.

Jessica and William have heard what happened during the night. Jacob told them how the old man appeared again, how he said the Lord’s Prayer, and how the figure disappeared. More than anything, he told them how different his room felt afterwards.

Matthew notices Jacob’s unusually cheerful mood.

“Why are you so happy on a Friday morning?”

Jacob grins.

“I think life is going to be better from now on.”

Matthew, still tired from his own restless night, gives him a doubtful look.

“Don’t tell me you’re falling for all that stuff Miss Waters fed us last night.”

Alexis immediately responds.

“Way to keep an open mind, Matt.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Matthew asks. “Because some lady tells me to be more open-minded, I should suddenly believe everything I see and hear? My brain doesn’t work like that.”

William’s expression hardens.

“Jacob told us the old man came back last night. This time he tried what Brenda suggested, and the old man disappeared. Maybe for good.”

Samantha steps over and gives Jacob a small hug.

“That’s wonderful, Jacob. So it really helped?”

Jacob turns red from the attention.

“Yeah. At first I was so scared I forgot what I was supposed to do. But when I remembered and tried it, everything became peaceful. I’ve never felt the room that calm before.”

Matthew still looks unconvinced.

“So you did what you were told and everything is roses now. Did you ever think maybe the whole thing was just in your mind?”

William has had enough.

He steps closer to Matthew and lowers his voice.

“Whether it was real or not doesn’t matter right now. Jacob is happy, and he believes things are going to be better. Just because you don’t believe something doesn’t give you the right to tell him he’s wrong. Either support him or leave it alone. I’m not putting up with this today.”

Matthew looks at Jacob.

“Sorry, bud. I’m just cranky because I barely slept last night. I kept trying to figure out how I’m supposed to open my mind to all this paranormal stuff, and it kept me awake most of the night.”

He glances at William.

William gives him a small nod.

Alexis touches Matthew’s hand to get his attention. When he turns towards her, she holds out a deck of playing cards.

“Brenda said we should learn to pay attention to our gut reactions. Why don’t you try it with these?”

Matthew takes the cards.

“How?”

“Take a card without looking at it and ask yourself whether it’s red or black. Don’t overthink it. Pay attention to whatever sensation you get in your stomach, then check whether you were right.

“After a while, see whether you notice a difference between the feeling you get when your first impression is right and when it’s wrong. Then try the deck again.”

Matthew frowns.

“What would count as proof? I’d think you’d need at least seventy-five percent right.”

“Not exactly,” Alexis says. “With only two choices, chance should put you somewhere around fifty percent over time. One unusually high or low result by itself doesn’t prove anything. You’d have to repeat the test enough times to see whether there was a real pattern.”

Sarah nods.

“It’s like Miss Waters said. If there really is something to these abilities, you’d have to practise before you could expect to get good at them.”

Matthew cracks a small smile.

“Thanks, Alexis. I’ll try it.”

Then his expression becomes more thoughtful.

“What Sarah said makes some sense. If you never exercise something, it doesn’t get stronger. And I don’t remember ever exercising my imagination much either. Even when I was little, I didn’t have imaginary friends or anything. Most of my toys were educational. Not much fantasy.”

Jessica looks concerned.

“Just because your parents are academics at the university doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have been allowed to be a kid. Imagination is the reason people invent things. If nobody imagined something better, nothing would ever change.”

“I know. I’ve heard that before.” Matthew looks down at the cards. “My parents wanted me to be their little whiz kid. That’s why I make sure I get at least one B on every report card.”

Everyone looks at him.

“They want me to be like them,” he explains. “I want to be myself.

“When I first started school and saw other kids using their imaginations while they played, I didn’t understand what they were doing. I grabbed a book and started reading instead. It took me a while to understand the whole fantasy-world thing.

“I guess that’s part of why I wanted to hunt ghosts with you guys. You’re fascinated by the paranormal, but you’re afraid of it too. I’m not afraid—not because I’m brave, but because I’ve never really believed there was anything out there to be afraid of.”

William looks at him.

“Maybe working with the cards will help you loosen some of those walls a little. You don’t have to stop thinking logically. Maybe you just need to leave room for things you can’t explain yet.”

Matthew nods.

“I hope you’re right, bro. Trying to treat everything logically in an illogical universe isn’t easy. And it definitely isn’t much fun.”

The conversation shifts back to the old mill.

“What’s our next step?” Jessica asks.

“We should get everything ready for tomorrow,” William says. “Make sure the camera batteries are charged and bring spare batteries for the recorders. We should probably go over everything we collected during the last investigation too.”

“Sounds good,” Jessica says.

They agree to meet at William’s house that evening, then head to class.

At lunch, while everyone else talks about what is happening in their lives, Matthew sits off to one side with the deck of cards.

His first attempt gives him a result close to half.

So does his second.

Now he is trying again, growing more frustrated with every card.

Alexis notices his expression and walks over. She rests a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t try so hard. Just let the sensation come to you.”

Matthew looks up.

The moment he realizes it is Alexis, a warm feeling settles in his stomach.

He smiles.

“I guess I could use some help.”

Alexis sits beside him and takes the cards.

“I’ll hold each card. You look at me and tell me the colour.”

Matthew is more than happy to look into Alexis’s blue eyes.

She begins turning through the deck.

“Red.”

Another card.

“Black.”

Another.

“Black.”

Matthew stops trying to calculate the odds. He simply watches Alexis and answers with whatever colour comes to mind.

Before he realizes it, the deck is finished.

“We’re done,” Alexis says.

“Already?”

She begins separating the cards.

Matthew looks at the smaller pile and sighs.

“Twelve right. That’s terrible.”

Alexis laughs.

“No. Those are the ones you got wrong.”

She points to the larger pile.

“You got forty right.”

Matthew stares at the cards.

“Forty?”

He had been so focused on Alexis—and on the warm sensation in his stomach—that whenever the feeling became stronger, he simply said whichever colour entered his mind.

Alexis grabs the cards with one hand and Matthew’s hand with the other.

“Come on. Let’s tell everyone.”

Matthew is still too stunned by the result to react to much of anything.

He does, however, notice that he has no desire to let go of Alexis’s hand.

They walk over to the others.

Sarah looks at them.

“So, how goes the training?”

“Awesome,” Alexis says. “Matt got forty correct.”

Jessica’s eyes widen.

“Forty? That’s a lot better than chance for one run.”

“I’m as shocked as everybody else,” Matthew says. “I don’t know what changed. When Alexis held the cards and I looked at her, I seemed to read them better. Maybe I was trying too hard before. This time I just went with my first impression.”

William closes the book Brenda gave him.

“Or maybe you were picking up what Alexis was thinking. You know—telepathy.”

Alexis’s face turns red.

She immediately releases Matthew’s hand.

“I hope you can’t read everything I’m thinking. That would be way too weird.”

She studies him.

“What colour am I thinking of?”

Matthew looks at her.

“Red.”

Alexis relaxes.

“Nope. Green.”

“I played the odds,” Matthew says. “A lot of people pick red when you ask them to think of a colour. Don’t worry. I have no idea what goes through your pretty little head.”

William laughs.

“I don’t think there’s a man alive who can tell what a woman is thinking.”

Jessica looks at him.

“Bet you can tell what I’m thinking.”

William immediately stops laughing.

“Shut up?”

Jessica smiles.

“See? You can do it if you try.”

The warning bell rings.

As everyone heads back towards class, William reminds them that he and Jessica finish earlier than the others.

They agree to meet at his house that evening.