Corrie didn’t want to sit on the bed and mess up the sheets, so instead she just moved into the middle of the room, letting Edie decide where she wanted to stand. When Roe had shut the door, Corrie spoke. “I’m trying to remember the details of a vision you told us about last year. Edie thought you had them written down?”
“Oh, yeah, I do! It helps to keep track of them and I definitely started remembering them better after I started writing them down. Hang on.” Roe bent down and opened a drawer in her desk. “Do you remember when I told you about it?”
“Um… huh.” Corrie looked at Edie. “It must have been spring semester last year.”
“Don’t look at me,” said Edie, who was leaning against the wall, laughing a little. “I don’t know what vision you’re talking about.”
“Well, spring semester doesn’t narrow it down much,” Roe said, her voice slightly muffled as she went through the drawer. “Though after a while, my visions just started being teeth teeth teeth, and I’m sure you’re not asking about that one.”
“No, I’m not! Let’s see, I’m trying to remember the details. I know there was something about an old-fashioned carpet in a long hallway.”
Roe looked up, raising her eyebrows at Corrie. “So, like the second floor here?”
Corrie grinned and shrugged. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out!”
“Uh… okay, give me a minute. You guys can sit on the bed or whatever, you don’t have to stand around. Sorry it’s such a small room.”
Corrie took a few careful steps to the side and sat gingerly on the bed. “It’s a nice room! The hardwood is beautiful.”
“It’s too bad the rooms aren’t on the outside like on the second floor, though,” Edie said, looking around with a frown. “Annie’s room is nicer with the window.”
“I know,” Roe said, “but if I really want some morning light I can open my door, since there’s a window just outside. Anyway, people say that the temperature is more consistent in the first-floor rooms and they’re warmer in winter, so maybe I’ll be happier with it then.” She was flipping rapidly through a series of notebooks in various sizes. Her lips moved slightly as she skimmed the pages. Corrie couldn’t see the words, but she’d seen Roe’s handwriting in class before and it was large and loopy, so it was no wonder she had so many notebooks.
“Okay, I think I’ve found it,” Roe said, holding a notebook in the air briefly and then standing up to read the page. “A long hallway with doors, like a dorm, and an old-fashioned carpet. Not any dorm I’ve been to. Corrie and Edie are there.”
“That must be the same vision!” Corrie said eagerly.
“I think I might remember it now,” Edie said slowly.
Roe nodded and kept reading. “They are at the end of the hall, moving their hands and mouths like they are talking to someone, but I can’t see anyone else. Uh, presumably you weren’t talking to each other… Half the time I look back at these and realize I’ve forgotten to write down a detail that it doesn’t make sense without. Sorry.”
“Is that the whole vision?” Corrie said. “Could we have been talking to the ghost?”
“There’s a little more. They turn and run down the hall. There is a door at the near end, and they push it open and disappear through it. That’s it.”
Corrie felt her shoulders sag in disappointment. “That sounds like the conversation didn’t go well.”
“That’s what I thought,” Edie said. “I knew it had a bad ending.”
“But that makes sense,” Corrie said. “If the ghost is scary.” She jumped up from the bed. “Let’s try it!”
“Right now?” Roe asked, looking alarmed.
“Somebody has to do something about Annie’s sleep,” Corrie said. “And if it’s really a ghost messing with her, and we can talk to the ghost, then we ought to try.”
“But if the ghost is just going to scare us away, then we’re not going to do any good,” Edie said.
“Well, remember that my visions aren’t set in stone,” Roe said.
“That’s true.” Corrie nodded. “We’ve changed them before. So now that we know that the ghost isn’t going to hurt us—“
“Do we know that, though?” Edie asked. She was frowning very hard. “That’s what the professors say, but they also say there isn’t a ghost here at all. And we aren’t going to run away from a ghost if it’s just a little spooky. We’ve seen some scary stuff.”
“I think if you’re going to try to talk to a ghost, you need more preparation than just my vision,” Roe said.
Edie nodded. “At the very least, I think we should see if Dawn wants to come with us.”
“But in the vision—“ Corrie started, then caught herself and shook her head. “Okay, you’re right. If we want to change the outcome, then we have to change the vision. We can start by getting Dawn to join us. And Roe, if you’re up for it.”
Roe shook her head and closed her notebook, smiling. “I think I’ll leave that to you guys. I’ll be, uh, backup. Down here, in my room.” They all laughed.
Clare K. R. Miller 