Chapter 1
Twenty Years Ago
Carolin Coffin was never afraid of the dark. Not the way other kids were. Before she could even talk she was able to see things that “normal” kids couldn’t. The spirits of people who had passed never scared her. Whenever a spirit appeared, she always felt a sense of benevolence and calm.
She didn’t like calling them ghosts, but that was the easiest way to think of them. Sometimes the ghosts would speak to her mind, but mostly they were quiet.
Lin figured out pretty early that other people couldn’t see what she could, so she stopped allowing the spirits to reveal themselves. When they were coming, she could feel the hairs on her arms stand up or a coolness brush past her.
She didn’t want to be different or made fun of, so she turned away from what she could see and hear. When she felt a ghost approaching, she would push down inside herself and think of cotton balls all around her, or a cloud or some magic fog surrounding her that nothing could get through. After a while, the spirits stopped coming and she was more like the other kids her age. The last time she saw a spirit was at a neighborhood summer party when she was nine years old.
All the kids had a get-together in one of the neighborhood girl’s backyards. There was a cookout and games and when the sun went down, the girl’s parents made a campfire for toasting marshmallows and everyone sat around it in the dark swatting at mosquitoes.
Some kids started telling ghost stories and murder stories and a few of the younger kids started to cry and ran inside to tell on the ones who were making up the scary tales. The kids who were telling the tales ran inside to defend themselves.
Lin stayed by the fire. She liked looking up at the stars and watching the flames dancing and making shadows against the trees. It was quiet and peaceful without all the fussing and crying and she hoped the others would stay inside for a while.
One other kid stayed outside, too. His name was Pete and he was about twelve years old. Pete had come up from New York City to stay with a family in the neighborhood for a few weeks. He was sponsored by a group called something like the Country Air Experience. Lin liked Pete. He had a self assurance and self acceptance that many kids lacked, that most adults lacked for that matter. He never got flustered and didn’t seem to like drama and foolishness.
Pete looked across the fire at Lin. “Why aren’t you scared of the stories?”
She shrugged. “What’s to be scared of?”
“The other kids are scared.”
Lin made eye contact with Pete. “You’re not.”
He shook his head.
“Why not?” Lin asked.
“Real life stuff is the stuff to be afraid of. Not made up stories.”
“What are you afraid of?” Lin cocked her head.
“People. Some people. And the stuff they do.” Pete paused. “What are you afraid of?”
Lin didn’t give him an answer, she just poked the toe of her sneaker around in the dirt.
They were both quiet for a minute, and then Pete asked, “Being different?”
Lin’s head jerked up and she could feel her cheeks warm. She was glad that it was dark so he couldn’t see the fluster on her face. “What?”
“Being different, being alone. You want to fit in,” Pete said. “But it’s better to be yourself.”
Before Lin could think of a reply, the hairs on her arms stood at attention and a cool shiver rolled over her skin. Atoms began to swirl and sparkle, and then a small woman with a pleasant smile materialized standing two feet away from Pete. The woman’s essence shimmered and her body was translucent. The spirit gazed at Pete with a gentle look on her face, and then she turned to Lin.
Lin smiled. Pete looked just like the woman.
Pete turned his head. “What are you staring at?”
Lin’s eyes met his. She wasn’t going to say anything, but then the kind ghost woman spoke to her mind and Lin had to reveal the words.
She took a deep breath. “Your mom wants you to know that she’s okay. She’s proud of you, Pete. She said ‘let go of it and be the man you are meant to become.’”
Pete’s eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open. His head turned to his right and then back to Lin. “What did you say?” His voice was high and squeaky.
“You look just like her,” Lin said softly. “Your mom.”
A figure stepped from the wooded property line. The ghost woman disappeared into the night air like wisps of smoke from the fire. Pete and Lin both turned to the girl who had emerged from behind a tree.
“I heard you, Lin. You’re a freak,” she spat.
It was Lin’s nine-year-old neighbor, Charlene Sheldon. They used to be good friends until Lin made the mistake of telling her about the things she could see.
“You tell lies just to seem special.” Charlene had her hands on her hips. “I’m going to tell.” Her voice was haughty.
Anger boiled inside of Lin mostly because Charlene had spoiled the moment and made the ghost go away, but also because she was sick of Charlene putting her down and telling the other kids she was a freak. A resolve hardened in Lin’s chest.
Mrs. Sheldon came out of the back door of the house and called across the darkness. “You other kids. Come on in here now. The party’s over. Everybody’s going home. Come on.”
Charlene yelled to her mother. “Lin’s telling lies again.”
“Come in here. No more stories,” Mrs. Sheldon said. “It’s time to go.”
Charlene didn’t budge, but Lin stood up, dusted off her butt, and strode across the lawn to the house like she didn’t care about Charlene or anybody else. She did though, she cared a lot. Lin hurried to the back door, blinking hard to keep her tears from falling.
“Lin,” Pete called. He trotted up beside her. “Lin.”
Lin looked at him out of the corner of her eye, expecting some rude comment. She kept walking.
Pete touched her arm. “Thanks,” he whispered.
Lin turned slightly. She gave Pete a little nod.
Mrs. Sheldon eyed the young girl as if she was frightened by her, but the woman didn’t say a word as Lin went into the house to wait for her grandpa to come and pick her up.
The nine-year-old sat down heavily in one of the kitchen chairs. She was so tired of people giving her weird looks and saying mean things to her.
A few months later, Grandpa and Lin left the suburbs for good. They moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where she made a new start as a ‘normal’ kid.
That night at the Sheldon’s party was the last time Carolin Coffin allowed herself to see what other people couldn’t.
Chapter 2
Present Day
The fast-ferry let out three, long, low blares as it approached the dock in Nantucket town. The ride had taken just under an hour to cross Nantucket Sound from Hyannis, Massachusetts. For the last few minutes of the ride, Lin stood aft on the open deck, the wind pummeling her long brown hair into a cloud that whipped all around her head. Her dog, a small light brown mixed breed with a darker patch of brown on his right eye, watched his owner through the glass window of the door from inside the passenger cabin.
Lin opened the door. She reached for her rolling suitcase and swung her small duffle bag over her shoulder. “Come on, Nick. Let’s go find Viv.”
The dog wagged his little stub of a tail and they joined the line of disembarking passengers. Walking down the stairs to the dock, Lin admired the bright blue of the sky. It was a perfect early June day, with warm temperatures and a light, comfortable breeze. Tourists strolled along the brick walkways browsing the shops and a crowd of people gathered on the sidewalk to greet relatives and friends as they descended from the gangplank.
A short, pretty young woman caught Lin’s eye. She waved with vigor from under a shade tree. Vivian Coffin and Lin were cousins who shared the same birthday and had just turned twenty-nine. Viv had lived on Nantucket all of her life except for her four years away at college and a summer spent in Europe traveling with a choral group. The girls were descended from two different lines of the Coffin family on their fathers’ sides, but their mothers had been sisters whose ancestors were from the Witchard family of Nantucket.
“Carolin!” Viv called to her cousin, her blue eyes shining. Lin preferred to be called “Lin” but sometimes Viv referred to her by her formal name.
Viv hurried forward. She carried a few extra pounds, had chin-length light brown hair flecked with gold. It was cut in layers around her face. Her perfect skin was complemented by rosy cheeks and a warm, lovely smile.
Lin wrapped her cousin in a big hug while Nicky danced around expecting attention.
Viv reached into her pocket and withdrew a dog biscuit. Nicky sat down and looked eagerly at Viv, but he politely waited for the treat. Viv bent to pat the dog. “How’s Tricky Nicky?” She scratched his head and handed him the biscuit.
Taking the duffel bag from her cousin, Viv slipped her arm through Lin’s. “I’m so glad you’re here. It’s going to be so much fun with you on the island.”
Walking with her cousin over the cobblestone streets of the quaint town made Lin’s heart swell with happiness and she could feel all of the stress of the past months slip from her shoulders and fall away. Well, almost all. The past six months had been the hardest time of her life, with the sudden death of her grandfather and the discovery that her long-time boyfriend had been cheating on her. The combination of events nearly broke her heart. Lin had been feeling alone and adrift and she hoped that moving to the island would be a new start.
“I went by the cottage again yesterday.” Viv had been keeping an eye on the cottage that Lin had inherited from her grandfather. “Everything looks good. I put some food in your refrigerator to tide you over until you get to the market. The truck is going okay, but it won’t last forever.” Off and on, over the past few months, Viv had been driving the old truck that had come with the cottage to keep it in running order. “I took it in for service. I think it will make it through the summer so you can use it for your gardening business, but you’ll have to replace it after that.”
Lin thanked Viv for all of her help. After inheriting the cottage, Lin saw an online ad advertising a gardening business for sale on Nantucket. She contacted the woman and they closed a deal. The work consisted mainly of driving around to client’s homes on the island and taking care of their gardens and window boxes in addition to some lawn mowing and trimming.
The girls stopped on the sidewalk in front of Viv’s bookstore and café, Viv’s Victus. Viv sold paperbacks, hardcovers, and audiobooks, and in the small café in the back corner of the store, she served beverages, soups, sandwiches, salads, and sweet treats. Most evenings in the summer, musical groups performed in the café and Viv’s band played there on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
“How’s business?” Lin asked.
“It’s okay. The off-season is slow, but we’re coming into the busiest few months of the year, so I’m optimistic.”
The cousins parted ways after arranging to meet for dinner later in the evening. Lin was eager to get to the cottage and unpack and Viv needed to return to work.
With his owner hurrying after him, Nicky led the way up Main Street along the brick sidewalks lined with shade trees. Lin loved the old houses and mansions that lined the street. In the late 1700s, the island had been home to sixty percent of the New England whaling fleet. Considered one the finest surviving examples of a late 18th and early 19th century New England seaport, the entire island had been designated a National Historic district.
The dog turned left when he reached the memorial in the small traffic rotary.
“You remember the way?” Lin marveled at the dog’s memory. They hadn’t been on island for over six months. She waited to see if Nicky would take the turn onto Vestry Road and she laughed out loud and shook her head in amazement when the dog sauntered along onto the correct side street.
The girl and dog passed small and medium sized homes sided with weathered silver-gray shingles. Many of the homes had crushed white shell driveways, flowers spilling from gardens and window boxes, and roses climbing over white picket fences.
As they approached their cottage, Lin let out a contented sigh. She had so many happy memories of the wonderful summers spent at the house with her grandfather. Nicky gave a bark and danced around the front stoop while the young woman pulled out the key, opened the door, and stepped into the little entryway of their new home.
Thanks, Grandpa. Tears of gratitude gathered in Lin’s eyes.
* * *
Nicky napped on the floor in the living room in a pool of sunshine while Lin biked to the market. The dog perked up when his owner returned and he watched her put away the groceries. The house was arranged in the shape of a “U” with a deck in the middle built between the three sides. A huge kitchen with a center island and an old wooden dining table took up most of the left section of the house. Off the kitchen, there was a laundry room and a full bath.
On the other side, Grandpa had built a master bedroom and bath and the center of the cottage housed a good-sized living room with huge windows and a door leading out to the deck. An unfinished second floor had space for additional bedrooms and a sitting area, but Lin had more than enough space in the first floor layout.
There was a small second bedroom next to the master that Lin planned to use as her office. Before coming to the island, she’d worked as a computer programmer for a small start-up company in Cambridge and, not wanting to lose such a talented employee, the business worked out an arrangement so that she could work part time remotely from Nantucket.
Lin went around opening windows to let in fresh air. Bustling about the cottage, she put clothes away, dusted all the surfaces, and swept the wood floors in each of the rooms. She made her bed with pale blue linens that had navy blue anchors printed on the fabric. Taking two soft blankets from the closet, Lin folded them, placed one in a corner of the living room and the other on the floor near her bed. She looked at the dog. “You have these to sleep on until we can get to the store for proper dog beds.”
Nicky let out a tiny woof, tested the blanket in the living room with his two front paws, and giving it the seal of approval, turned in three circles and settled down. Lin made some tea and wandered over to the wall of bookshelves where she removed two volumes, one on the gardens of Nantucket and the other about haunted houses on the island. Lin loved crossword puzzles and anagram puzzles and she pulled some out of her bag. She carried the books and puzzles to a comfy easy chair placed next to the gas stove and she sank onto the cushion. After turning some pages of the garden book, her head rested against the back of the chair, and in two minutes, she was sound asleep.
* * *
Lin jerked awake from a small brown head pushing against her leg. She rubbed her eyes and looked about the room, disoriented. Nicky put his paws on her chair and gave a whine to indicate it was time to be let outside. Lin pushed herself up and took a quick look at the wall clock, afraid she was late to meet Viv for dinner. She let out a sigh of relief when she realized that she still had an hour before she was supposed to be at the restaurant.
Lin and the dog stepped onto the deck. Nicky ran off to the rear of the property while Lin stepped down from the deck onto the stone patio that ran the length of the house. A short stone wall stood along the edge of the patio and beyond was a bit of lawn ringed by bushes and trees.
The sun had sunk behind the wooded property line. Lin stretched and yawned and turned her attention to the field behind the neighbor’s house. A strange mist rose from the land and hung in the air several feet above the grasses. Part of the fog rode the breeze and floated into Lin’s backyard. Admiring the way the mist softened the landscape, she pulled her phone from her pocket to photograph the mysterious looking scene.
She took two shots and brought one of the photos into view on the phone screen. Smiling at how nice it came out, she used her fingers to enlarge the first photograph. A gasp escaped from Lin’s throat and her eyes bugged from their sockets. Her hand shook so violently from what she saw on the phone’s screen that it slipped from her hand and she had to move like a juggler to keep from dropping it.
An icy chill raced through her inner core. She looked at the photo on the screen again. There in the mist of her backyard, stood an old man dressed in eighteenth-century style clothing. His hair was gray and the sides hung down and touched the top of his shirt collar. Lin’s head jerked around to the wooded area behind the house, her eyes searching for the man.
No one was there. She looked back at the phone and used her finger to swipe to the second photograph. It was a lovely shot of the misty landscape. She swiped back to the first picture. Enlarging it, she brought the phone close to her eyes.
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