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  All three of them enjoyed their bacon cheeseburgers and fries. Jim added mustard to his which made Calli cringe. “Ooh, how can you ruin a perfectly great burger with that yellow stuff?” She was enjoying the teasing that was going back and forth between them. “I’ll have you know that mustard was invented for the gods and maybe goddesses!” The twinkle in his eyes just added to the lighthearted mood of the evening. Roger seemed too quiet and Calli thought he looked a little pale. She didn’t want to worry, but knew she’d better keep a close eye on him. Everyone ordered Mildred’s famous apple pie with ice cream. How did she keep up with everything? Her kolaches were always a hit at the farmers market and now tonight she’s serving fresh pie. When did she have time to sleep? The restaurant was filling up with the Saturday night crowd; the music was only going to get louder. “Looks like it’s time for us old folks to go home.” Roger said it with a smile that Calli felt was forced. “I’m not admitting to be old but I am ready to go home. Thanks for joining us Jim, this was fun!” On the drive home, Calli relived the day, taking note about how Jim had made her laugh, helped her with the booth and was not even a tiny bit irritating even once. She was totally amazed at her continued transformation of her opinion of Jim. Life sure has surprises lined up for us. Next she turned her thoughts to her grandfather, he was her main concern. She hoped that he just needed some extra rest and that there wasn’t anything major going on with his health. He was her rock and her foundation.

  Parking the van in the driveway, Calli looked for Roger’s car. He should have gotten home before she did. Bone tired, she climbed the steps to the front porch and sat down, determined to wait for him before she poured herself into bed for the night. After about half an hour of star gazing she began to worry. Just where was Roger? He hadn’t said anything about stopping off anywhere. Should she go looking for him? Not that he was a teenager and needed to be checked up on. Her imagination started to see car accidents or flat tires or any number of dreadful events that could be keeping him from returning home. Maybe she should call Jim and see if Roger had said anything to him before she’d gotten to the restaurant. “Hello, Jim, this is Calli. Roger isn’t home yet and I was wondering if he mentioned anything to you about stopping somewhere tonight before he came home?” She tried to keep the concern out of her voice but he caught it just the same, “Why, no, he didn’t say anything to me. Are you worried?” Calli hesitated, not wanting to get him involved if there wasn’t anything to be fretting about, “I’m just concerned. He usually beats me home from the Burger Barn. And he’s not here yet and it’s been almost an hour now.” Realizing how long it had been, Calli then knew it was time to take some sort of action. “Well, I’ll hop in my car and drive back to the Burger Barn and then come over to your house. He might have a flat tire or something. I’ll keep you posted. Don’t worry; I’m sure he’s just fine. He could be ‘cating’ around you know!” Jim was trying to help relieve some of the worry he heard in her voice. “Thanks, I’ll stay here by the phone. Call me if you find him along the road.” Calli hung up the phone and started pacing the porch, there was no way she could admire the stars tonight.

  Calli jumped when the phone rang, she’d been concentrating on praying and sending good vibes to her grandfather and asking her grandmother in heaven to bring him home safely. Not to her home in heaven but the one here on earth. “Calli, I found him. We’re waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Meet us at the emergency room. And please don’t speed; I’m sure he’ll be alright. He seems a little disoriented and not making much sense. As far as I can tell, he just pulled over along the side of the road and maybe fell asleep or blacked out. I’ll stay with him.” Calli ran to her van, jumped in and then remembered to take a deep breath before she gunned it into high gear and raced down the road. Forget the ‘no speeding’ this was her grandfather and he’d better be okay.

  Chapter 12 Going Home Calli slammed the door on her van and raced into the emergency room waiting area. She had seen the ambulance pull away as she approached the hospital. She knew that her grandfather was there now and hopefully okay. Looking quickly around the waiting room she saw Jim pacing. He hurried over to her and gave her a hug. “I’m so glad you found him. I was beginning to be frantic waiting for him to arrive. What do you know? You said he wasn’t making any sense. How did he look?” Calli pelted him with questions until he finally sat her down in a chair and grabbed her shoulders. “Let’s just wait until the doctors come and tell us what’s going on. I don’t know the answer to all your questions and if I thought I did I’d tell you immediately. I can imagine how scared you must be right now. I know that I’ve never liked being in emergency rooms, I always feel so helpless. We know they are taking good care of him. Do you want me to get you anything? Or to call anyone?” Jim was trying to be as cool and calm as he could be for her, but his own memories of times in the emergency room were flooding back to haunt him. He had to focus on her, the rest was history, history that he didn’t want to remember or speak about ever again. Calli seemed to calm down a bit but still had Jim’s hand in a death grip, “I think it would be good to call Sally. She would want to know and might even come down here to wait with us.” Jim nodded and pulled out his cell phone, “Do you know her number?” Calli punched it in and waited for it to connect. Jim handled the call, knowing that she would probably start crying if she had to give her friend the details. He was doing his best to remain cool and calm, unlike all the other times he’d been in a hospital in the past. “Sally says she’ll be right over. Just as soon as she lights a prayer candle for your grandfather. I thought she worked at the county offices? Is there something about her I don’t know?” He was hoping to get her mind off Roger and talking about other things. “She’s an alternative healer, uses life force energies to help people heal. I really don’t know much about what she does other than when I was deep in depression after Cal’s death, she brought me back to life, which I will be eternally grateful for.” Jim agreed with a knowing nod. He’d been in that pit of depression himself, only he hadn’t had the good fortune of having a best friend who was a healer.

  A nurse approached them asking if she was Calli? “Your grandfather is asking for you and the doctors are with him now but said it is okay for you to be there in the room with him.” Jumping up from the chair and almost knocking Jim out of his chair, Calli followed the nurse to her grandfather’s room. There were machines hooked up to him and leads and an IV. She’d never seen him look so pale or old. The doctors were talking amongst themselves and her grandfather smiled as she entered the room. “Oh, there you are! Thank God! I was hoping they’d let you in here. I’m feeling a little foolish right now. I’m not sure why they have all these wires hooked up to me, and they’re taking my blood pressure every 30 seconds, or at least it seems like that.” Calli leaned over carefully and gave him a hug amongst all the wires and leads and tubes. “I’m so glad that Jim found you. I was getting worried. What happened? Can you tell me or would you rather rest a bit? I can just sit here beside you and hold your hand.” Calli was relieved to know that he was here and that they were monitoring him. A nurse came in and put a tube around his arm, searching for a vein. “Here comes Dracula looking for my blood.” Calli laughed; at least her grandfather still had his sense of humor. “I’ll only take a couple pints and leave you enough to live on.” She smiled as she put the needle in his arm. “This won’t take long and I’ll be out of your hair. Then you can relax a bit.”

  The doctors left the room and Roger relaxed. There was just him and Calli there now. He turned to her and sighed, “You probably aren’t going to believe me about this, but I swear it’s the truth. As I was driving home I saw a shooting star, just like your grandmother and I watched for every night, always making wishes and laughing about the ones that came true and those that didn’t. We had a check list going, checking off the ones that came true and waiting for the others to manifest likewise.” There was a faraway look in his eyes, like he was actually back on the front porch with his
wife making wishes together. “We always thought it would be our destiny to pass over at the same time, because neither one of us wanted to be without the other. But fate had other plans and now I’m here without her. Calli, I miss her every day, and when you’re not around I talk to her and sometimes I hear her answer me.” Calli nodded her head like she understood, even though she didn’t at all. “….on the way home I stopped along the side of the road because I’d seen a shooting star and I wanted to make a wish. That wish was for my grandfather to forgive me for being such a dumb young man and not coming back to be with him more. I’ve always thought if I’d come around more, he would have lived longer and wouldn’t have been so lonely. Having you here with me sometimes makes my guilt even bigger. I so love being with you and growing the vegetables, and going fishing and just having your company in the evenings. Tonight when I watched how you and Jim were having so much fun teasing each other, I got melancholy and wished that I’d moved to heaven when June did.” Tears were streaming down Calli’s face; she squeezed his hand, “I’m glad you didn’t leave when grandmother did. I wouldn’t be the successful woman I am today if you hadn’t been around teaching me and encouraging me, accepting me and most of all loving me.” The moment seemed to last a very long time, each of them knowing that the bond they had was special.

  “After I made my wish for my grandfather to forgive me, the strangest thing happened. I saw him sitting in the passenger side of my car, grinning from ear to ear. I immediately blinked my eyes several times, thinking I was seeing things and that my old eyes were playing tricks on me. But he just kept being there grinning. Then there was a strange glow around him and I heard him talking to me. Not out loud but inside my head. I knew it was his voice, I’d recognize it anywhere. He talked for quite awhile, reminding me of all the good times we’d had together, the fishing, the gardening, learning to ride horses, so many good memories. That’s how I knew it was him and not a figment of my imagination. Anyway, as he got to the end of his tales, he made the strangest request. He asked me to honor the bees and get the bee hives out of the machine shed and set them up again down by the pond. He also told me that if I wanted to live as long as he did I’d better get those bees making honey and bee pollen and propolis.”

  As Calli watched her grandfather tell his tale, she sensed a glow about him, almost like a halo you see in pictures of the saints. His story was way beyond Calli’s experiences and she wanted to believe him with all her heart, but how could all this be true and how could it happen? She was one who needed the physical, I can touch it and see it proof. This was way out of her realm of reality. As he continued the glow became brighter and the room felt different. “…so, when we have some time between harvesting I want to get the hives out and teach you how to be a bee keeper. What do you think?” Calli was almost speechless but knew this was important; she remembered her encounter with the two little honey bees leading her to the machine shed and the abandoned hives, plus her grandfather story about his encounter with the bees. “I think that’s a splendid idea. As soon as you feel good enough we’ll make it happen. But first I want to see what the doctors say.”

  He waved his hand in the air, “They don’t know what happened to me. I heard them talking. I’m a puzzle to them. Everything seems normal and so soon as Dracula comes back with my blood test results; I’ll be able to go home. I didn’t have a heart attack like they thought, I didn’t faint like Jim thought, and I didn’t black out or go to sleep. I was in what your friend Sally would call an altered state; I was communicating with my grandfather on another plane.” Calli wondered where he came up with all this information, she’d never heard him talk like this before, he was always the down to earth, joking, practical grandfather everyone loved and adored. What is all this about and why now and what do the bees have to do with it?

  His doctors came back into the room with the test results. “Every test we’ve run has come back in the normal range. You are in perfect health for a man your age. We can’t find any reason to keep you here overnight and since there is someone living with you it seems safe for you to go home now. We’ll get the discharge papers in here, sign them and you’re free to go. Stay well and we hope not to see you again.” As they left the room, Calli looked at her grandfather; his color was back to normal. Having them tell him he was okay seemed to do the trick. She excused herself to go back to the waiting room, knowing that Sally would be there by now and both she and Jim would be wondering what was happening.

  When she saw Sally she burst into tears, they hugged until Calli was able to stop crying. “He’s okay, they are sending him home. All the tests came back normal. But…” She didn’t know if it was okay to talk about what her grandfather had told her in front of Jim, she knew Sally would understand. Jim seemed just as eager to hear the story as Sally, so she proceeded to tell them everything that her grandfather had told her including the appearance of his grandfather in the car. “That explains to me what he was saying when I found him. It didn’t make sense to me then but after hearing you tell me what happened, it makes perfect sense. I’m sure it frightened him. I know it did me when it happened for the first time.” With that said, Sally and Calli looked at Jim in amazement. “Did you say when it happened to you for the first time?” Calli was making sure that her hearing was any good; after all it had been a very stressful night. “Yes, that’s what I said. It’s a very long complicated story which I’ll be glad to tell you another time. The most important thing right now is to get your grandfather home and resting in his own bed. I’ll be glad to come over and help you.” All three of them agreed to return to the farm and together make sure Roger was set for the night. This had turned out to be a very long day and Calli was ready to go home and not think about ghosts or spirits or communicating with the dead.

  Chapter 13 Clean Up The rooster had been crowing since before dawn, Calli pulled the pillow over her head and tried to get back to sleep. It had been very late when Jim and Sally finally went home, knowing that Roger was sleeping and Calli was calmer. She had tossed and turned most of the night finally drifting off to sleep just a couple hours before dawn. Lucky for her the pillow had done the trick and she fell back into a deep sleep, one that she needed.

  The smell of bacon frying drifted up the stairway and brought Calli back from her dream. She was grateful it wasn’t the marrying Jim at the church dream; instead she was at the pond fishing with her grandfather and his grandfather. Oh, my, how did that happen? She’d never met Roger’s grandfather, she’d seen pictures – how did he get in my dream? Shaking herself wide awake, she jumped in the shower and hoped to wash away all the crazy ideas that were floating through her head. Talking to ghosts, seeing dead people, this was like a horror film and she was in it. After drying her hair, she put on her gardening clothes; digging in the earth would solve all of this nonsense about spirits and such.

  Roger was in the kitchen drinking his coffee; his breakfast eaten long ago. Calli noticed how happy he looked, and maybe even a bit younger. Part of her wanted to talk and get all this nonsense out in the open and out of her consciousness and the other part of her wanted to escape to the garden and work with real things, plants, bugs, weeds, things she could touch and see. “How did you sleep?” She finally was willing to talk, munching on the bacon and waiting for her eggs to finish cooking. “I slept like a baby. At least that’s what it felt like. I’m sure I don’t remember what sleeping like a baby was way back then, but the saying describes my night. How about you?” He didn’t want to broach the subject of last night and his communication with his grandfather anymore than Calli did. “Well, after Sally and Jim left, it took me awhile to get to sleep, probably all the adrenaline running through my veins after being in the emergency room. But I’m fine this morning. Think I’ll spend some time in the garden, checking on everything and planting a few more rows of spinach for the fall.” Any topic to get away from ghosts and spirits would do this morning. “That sounds like a great idea. After I read the morning paper and
finish my coffee think I’ll go out to the machine shed and drag out those old bee hives. When you’re done planting would you like to help me?” He almost was holding his breath, hoping that he hadn’t frightened her too much last night and praying that she’d come along on this journey willingly. It seemed to be the salve that would finish the healing of the wound from his grandfather’s death. “I’ll see how the day goes. Catch up with you later.” Calli left the kitchen without even noticing that her eggs were done cooking. She was in such a hurry to avoid the topic of bees and ghosts that she’d forgotten to eat them.

  Gathering her tools and seeds, she found an empty row and started hoeing like there were nuggets of gold buried and if she dug deep enough she might find them. The sun was bright and the birds were singing. The wind was quiet, just a gentle puff of a breeze every now and then. Calli felt herself relaxing into the rhythm of the earth and the connection to the soil. She looked at the rich soil they had created with all their composting efforts. Roger really did know how to build the perfect soil for their garden. Patting the earth gently over the newly sown seeds, she looked up at the sky, noticing that the white puffy clouds were creating pictures. As a child she used to lie on the grass and decide what kind of animals were in the sky. Suddenly she was buzzed by a bee. Then another one came zooming by her head. Oh, my, are those two little pesky bees back, the ones who led me to the bee hives? She was determined to ignore them and finish planting the spinach. The next fifteen minutes became a ducking and swatting battle for Calli’s attention. The bees seemed to create new flight patterns with each fly by. Calli finally threw down her gardening gloves and started yelling at the bees. Of course, that didn’t matter to them; they just kept up their dive bombing attacks. Finally they landed on the bee balm, the same one that they had sat on before. Calli walked over and stared at them, trying to figure out what they wanted. Ignoring the fact that she knew perfectly well, what they wanted. It had been long enough since she left the kitchen and her grandfather was probably headed for the machine shed right at this moment. This was a losing battle, she knew that she’d have to go there sooner or later and the bees were just the messengers. Putting everything away, back in the tool shed, she surrendered to the fact that she was going to have to face Roger and the bee hives and his grandfather’s ghost. What a difference last night had made in her feelings towards becoming a bee keeper. When it had been her idea and her grandfather was hesitant, she was almost driven to make it happen, to help her grandfather heal by getting the bee hives out and working again. Now, after learning that his grandfather had been communicating with Roger asking him to get the hives out, she had flipped 180 degrees, not wanting anything to do with the bees or ghosts. What is the matter with me? What am I afraid of? As she continued the questioning in her head, the bees started buzzing around her again. Okay, I’m going. See you at the machine shed. She trudged unwillingly across the yard and saw her grandfather sliding the old door back revealing the broken pieces of long forgotten equipment. She knew that the hives were in the corner and Roger was going to drag them out whether she wanted to participate or not.