What’s Next

Jessica wakes the next morning with her hand resting over the pendant at her chest.

For a few seconds, she lies still.

Then everything from the night before returns.

Brenda.

Her biological mother.

Jessica smiles.

“Good morning, Mom.”

She pauses.

“I mean Brenda.”

That feels strange.

She laughs quietly and climbs out of bed.

Downstairs, her mother is putting away dishes.

Jessica walks up behind her and kisses her on the cheek.

“Good morning, Mom.”

Missy turns, studying her daughter’s face.

“Good morning to you. You seem cheerful.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Jessica opens the cupboard and reaches for a bowl.

“I think I might be the luckiest person on the planet.”

Her mother smiles with visible relief.

“Breakfast?”

“Just cereal. I’m meeting everyone at William’s.”

After eating, Jessica heads upstairs to get ready.

On her way back down, she hears her mother talking on the phone.

“She’s doing great, Brenda. Happier than I’ve seen her in a long time.”

Jessica stops on the stairs.

“I know. I figured you’d be wondering, so I wanted to call.”

A pause.

“Yes. Okay. I’ll call you later this afternoon.”

Jessica smiles.

Her mother is checking on Brenda.

Brenda is checking on her.

Maybe this new arrangement is going to be complicated.

But complicated does not necessarily mean bad.

Jessica reaches the front door.

“Love you, Mom. See you in a few hours.”

“Love you too. Be good.”

Jessica steps outside.

She is excited to tell the others, but there is one person she wants to tell first.

William.

After everything they have experienced together, she wants him to hear it from her.

At William’s house, William has already made a decision of his own.

Today he is going to tell Jessica about Brenda’s pendant.

He has kept the suspicion to himself long enough.

The matching necklaces might mean nothing.

Or they might mean everything.

Either way, Jessica deserves to know what he saw.

When Jessica reaches the house, she knocks and lets herself in.

“William?”

No answer.

She heads towards his room.

“Are you home?”

William suddenly appears from the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel.

Jessica stops.

William stops.

For one extremely awkward second, neither says anything.

Then William points towards the kitchen.

“I’ll be right there. I just finished showering.”

Jessica’s face turns red.

“Need a hand?”

William stares at her.

“Very funny. Go get some juice.”

Jessica laughs and heads downstairs.

A few minutes later, William joins her in the kitchen.

He pours himself a drink, then becomes serious.

“Jess, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Jessica puts down her glass.

“Actually, I need to tell you something first.”

William waits.

“The old friend my mom invited for dinner last night…”

Jessica cannot stop smiling.

“It was Brenda.”

William’s expression changes.

Jessica notices immediately.

She tells him about dinner.

About Brenda and her mother knowing each other for years.

About the necklace.

About placing the two halves together.

And finally, about Brenda being her biological mother.

When she finishes, William says nothing.

Jessica studies him.

“You don’t look surprised.”

William exhales.

“I saw Brenda’s pendant when I returned her book.”

Jessica’s smile disappears.

“What?”

“It slipped out from under her shirt. I thought it looked like yours.”

“You knew?”

“I suspected.”

“That’s pretty close.”

“No, it isn’t.”

William sets down his glass.

“I had a necklace. That’s all. I wasn’t going to tell you Brenda might be your biological mother and then find out I was wrong.”

Jessica stares at him.

For a moment, she is angry.

Then she remembers the conversation she walked in on the night before.

How complicated the truth actually was.

“You were going to tell me today?”

William nods.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you before you interrupted me.”

Jessica narrows her eyes.

“Good.”

William waits.

“Because I was about to be really mad at you.”

He smiles.

“Fair.”

The tension breaks.

William sits beside her.

“So how are you really doing?”

Jessica thinks about the question.

“I’m happy.”

“Just happy?”

“No.”

She smiles.

“I’m confused. A little angry. Still trying to figure out how Brenda fits into my life.”

She touches the pendant.

“But mostly happy.”

William nods.

“If you need anything…”

“I know.”

A knock sounds at the door.

Before either can move, Matthew’s voice carries through the house.

“William! Where are you hiding?”

“We’re in the kitchen!”

Matthew and Alexis appear together.

William looks at them and grins.

“You two are joined at the hip lately.”

Alexis looks at Matthew.

“Some people figure out what they want a little sooner than others.”

William glances at Jessica.

Jessica notices.

She says nothing.

Matthew quickly changes the subject.

“Anybody want to hear about our fishing trip?”

Alexis immediately starts telling them about the fish she caught and how patient Matthew was while teaching her.

Matthew spends most of the story exaggerating the size of her fish.

By the time the others arrive, everyone is laughing.

Soon all seven are gathered around the kitchen island.

William waits until everyone has a drink.

“We have a couple things to tell you.”

He looks at Jessica.

“Yours first.”

Jessica suddenly feels nervous.

These are her closest friends.

They have faced strange houses, unexplained voices and alleged ghosts together.

Yet somehow this feels harder.

“So… remember how my mom was having an old friend over for dinner?”

Everyone nods.

“It was Brenda.”

Sarah’s eyes widen.

Jessica continues.

She tells them about the pendant she received on her thirteenth birthday.

She pulls it from beneath her shirt.

“My mom told me the other half belonged to my biological mother.”

She pauses.

“Brenda has the other half.”

Nobody interrupts.

Jessica tells them the rest.

Brenda was eighteen when she became pregnant.

Missy and Robert eventually adopted Jessica.

Brenda left for university.

She stayed informed about Jessica’s life for years.

And now, after all that time, she has come home.

When Jessica finishes, the kitchen is unusually quiet.

Sarah finally speaks.

“That’s why.”

Jessica looks at her.

“Why what?”

“When we first met Brenda, I thought there was something familiar about her.”

She shakes her head.

“I thought I was imagining it.”

Jessica smiles.

“It’s been a weird week.”

Matthew leans back.

“That may be the biggest understatement you’ve ever made.”

Everyone laughs.

Jessica looks towards William.

“Okay. Tell them the other thing.”

William grins.

“This part is going to hurt.”

Matthew becomes suspicious.

“Why?”

“Because you didn’t come with us yesterday.”

Matthew sits forward.

“What happened?”

William explains that Brenda took him and Jessica back to the property to inspect the deteriorating mill buildings with a smaller group.

He tells them about the forge.

The unexplained bang.

The return to the house.

Then he gets to the curtain.

Jessica interrupts.

“You need to tell them about my dream first.”

She explains the part she had forgotten.

Mrs. Johnson found a sack of gold her husband missed.

She was about to take it outside when a pot boiled over.

She put the sack down.

“And I never saw what happened to it after that.”

William takes over.

“So we went back into the sitting room because I still couldn’t figure out why one curtain moved in the video and the other barely did.”

He tells them about the reddish-orange mist Brenda and Jessica saw behind him.

Jacob interrupts.

“Did it knock you over?”

“No.”

“Did it go through you?”

“I don’t know what happened. I felt this freezing chill go through my entire body.”

Jacob looks impressed.

William continues.

“The curtain that barely moved felt heavier. Brenda explained that old curtains sometimes had weights sewn into the bottom.”

Matthew is already leaning across the island.

William slows down deliberately.

“There was a small hole in the seam.”

“William,” Matthew warns.

“I pushed one of the weights towards it.”

“William.”

“It fell out.”

Matthew glares at him.

“And rolled under the sofa.”

“Oh, come on.”

Everyone laughs.

William finally gives in.

“When I moved the sofa, there was an 1862 twenty-dollar gold coin on the floor.”

The kitchen erupts.

“You found the gold?”

“How many?”

“Where is it?”

“Are we rich?”

William raises both hands.

“Calm down.”

Matthew looks personally offended.

“You found actual gold and waited until now to tell us?”

“I sent you a message saying we found something.”

“That could mean anything!”

Jessica laughs.

“The coins were hidden in the bottom seam of the curtain.”

William explains that the first curtain contained ordinary weights.

The second contained the gold coins.

Suddenly the detail that bothered him makes sense.

The weighted curtain did not move like the other one because it was carrying something much heavier.

Alexis looks around.

“So where are the coins?”

William glances at Jessica.

Jessica answers.

“They were found on historic property. We documented everything and reported it to the city.”

Matthew stares at her.

“You found gold and gave it away?”

“It wasn’t ours.”

“But…”

“You didn’t know it existed ten minutes ago.”

Matthew opens his mouth.

Closes it.

Jessica continues.

“If the coins are authenticated, they can be preserved and maybe displayed at the museum. And the Group gets credit for helping discover them.”

Matthew considers this.

“I still feel like there should be a finder’s fee.”

Sarah laughs.

“Of course you do.”

Alexis looks at Jessica.

“Wait. Brenda is a Johnson.”

Jessica nods.

“And Brenda is your biological mother.”

“Yes.”

“So if the Johnsons had never sold the property…”

Jessica sees where this is going.

“Don’t.”

“…wouldn’t the gold technically have been yours?”

Jessica shakes her head.

“If is the middle word in life. Everything could be different if something else happened.”

William smiles.

“That sounded suspiciously wise.”

“I have my moments.”

Sarah looks thoughtful.

“What about your dreams?”

Jessica turns towards her.

“What about them?”

“You dreamed about the gold before you knew where it was. And now we know you’re connected to the Johnson family.”

Jessica looks down at her pendant.

A week ago, she might have tried to answer immediately.

Now she does not.

“Maybe there’s a connection.”

She shrugs.

“Or maybe everything I learned about the house got mixed together in my dreams. I honestly don’t know.”

William nods.

Finding the gold makes the dreams harder to dismiss.

But it still does not prove what caused them.

Matthew surprises everyone.

“That doesn’t mean we get to invent the explanation.”

They look at him.

Matthew shrugs.

“It just means I don’t have one yet.”

William smiles.

“Listen to the skeptic.”

“I’m still a skeptic.”

Alexis bumps his shoulder.

“Sure you are.”

Matthew ignores her.

Jessica thinks about everything that has happened.

The apparition.

The traveller.

The EVP recordings.

Her dreams.

The gold.

Brenda.

Some things now have answers.

Others may never have them.

And somehow, “I don’t know” feels perfectly acceptable.

For a moment, nobody speaks.

Then Matthew looks around the kitchen.

“So what’s next?”

Samantha frowns.

“What did you say?”

“What’s next?”

The question hangs there.

The old mill investigation is finished.

Or at least as finished as any paranormal investigation can be.

They found the gold.

They uncovered the traveller’s story.

They gathered evidence they will probably argue about for years.

And along the way, they learned more about themselves than any of them expected.

Now they need a new mystery.

Samantha suddenly sits up.

“My dad was talking about something yesterday.”

Everyone looks at her.

“A crop circle appeared outside town.”

Matthew groans.

“Oh, perfect.”

Sarah smiles.

“What? Too weird for you?”

“I spent the last week being chased around by voices, fog and haunted curtains. I’m allowed to be suspicious of crop circles.”

William laughs.

“It’s something to investigate.”

Sarah agrees.

“We could walk out there and take a look.”

Jacob’s eyes light up.

“Maybe aliens made it.”

“Or somebody with a board and too much free time,” Matthew says.

Alexis looks at him.

“Already decided?”

Matthew thinks about it.

Then he shakes his head.

“Nope.”

He smiles.

“Not anymore.”

That is all William needs to hear.

“Let’s go.”

They finish their drinks and head outside.

Seven friends walk down the street together, already arguing about what could have created the strange pattern.

A prank.

A whirlwind.

Something from the sky.

Nobody knows.

And this time, none of them pretends to.

As they reach the end of the block, Jacob runs a few steps to catch up with William.

“Hey, William?”

“Yeah, little man?”

“Summer vacation starts in a couple weeks.”

“I know.”

“What if we went camping somewhere?”

William looks at him.

Jacob grins.

“We could hunt for Bigfoot.”

Matthew groans from behind them.

Jacob keeps going.

“Or a sea serpent.”

William laughs.

“Maybe, little man.”

He looks at the six friends walking beside him.

A week ago, the old mill was just another abandoned place with a ghost story.

Now it has changed all of them.

William looks ahead.

“We’ll just have to see what happens.”

The seven continue down the road.

Behind them, the old mill mystery is finally quiet.

Ahead of them, another mystery is already waiting.