Chapter 4

Viktor

    Viktor was paging through the books he picked up at the library.  They were ghost stories and religious books.  Anything and everything he could find to learn how to set his sister’s spirit free.  The librarian looked at him a little funny when he first started checking out this big pile of old and dusty books about the supernatural.  Then one of her coworkers leaned over and whispered something to her and her eyes filled with pity.  Viktor ignored it.  Everyone in town still pitied him.  Maybe they always would.

    It had been a few days since Viktor and his friends followed Nadia’s ghost to where she was killed and Viktor knew he had to free her, he just wasn’t sure how.  That’s why he went to the library in the first place.  His mom never told him the stories from the old country.  The two of them never went to church, not even before all this happened.  So it was up to Viktor to learn all  the things he didn’t know.  Ghost stories, legends, and religion.  Everything about lost souls.

    Ghosts always wanted or needed something.  There was a curse on them that had to be broken.  Some business that was left unfinished.  A message or warning from the other side.  Viktor had a notebook full of spells and prayers for the dead.  Each one capable of setting desperate spirits free.  At least according to these books, some of which were much more believable than others.

    Viktor also had notes and drawings of all kind.  Unfortunately, none of his vast collection of new information was specifically designed for a situation like this.  The closest he came to a similar situation was the story of a clairvoyant in the 1800s who held a seance for the restless spirit of a murdered girl in a mansion in England.  The story was promising, but in all of his research Viktor had also read about the tricks clairvoyants used in the 1800s to convince people they were speaking to ghosts.  So Viktor took notes about that as well.

    Next to the notes about ghosts and everything else he’d learned, Viktor had written dozens of notes about Nadia.  What she liked. What she didn’t.  Reasons why she would stay.  Reasons that kept her from going.  It had to be something important that was binding her soul to the world of the living.  Most of the stories were about ghosts who stayed to comfort their mourning family.  However, Viktor was doing fine.  All he wanted was for Nadia to move on.  For her to be able to be in heaven with their father and grandmother who were up there somewhere in the sky, living in the clouds, waiting for the rest of them.

    Mama was also moving on.  It had taken some time, but she wasn’t crying as much.  She even was able to speak Nadia’s name from time to time.  For the first few months, Mama had been unrecognizable.  A hollow person.  Now that space inside of her that had been emptied when Nadia died was slowly filling up again.  A smile here.  A laugh there.  Time spent with friends.  Time spent with Viktor.  Mama was returning to herself.  It was hard, but she was on her way.  If Nadia was here for Mama, she should know by now that Mama was going to be fine.

    If Nadia wasn’t here for a person, maybe she was here for an object, maybe her dress was in that building.  The dress was never found.  Nadia had worked so hard to pay for that dress.  If Viktor could find the dress and bring it to her grave, maybe that could free her.  At the time of her death, the dress had been Nadia’s pride and joy.  She was probably heart broken that it was gone.  Left to get stained and dirty in the old abandoned hospital.

    Maybe there was something more.  Nadia wasn’t really caught up in material things.  When Viktor dropped and broke her favorite record, she simply kissed his tear streaked face and told him not to worry about it.  Things were just things.  People were the real treasure in life.  Despite all of his reading and notes, Viktor didn’t know what brought Nadia back. It didn’t stop him though from desperately trying to find out.

    After reading up on civil war ghosts, in case they were keeping Nadia trapped in this world, Viktor got out of bed to get a drink of water.  On his way to the kitchen, Viktor poked his head into the living room. His mother was there, sitting in the rocking chair, clinging to Nadia’s doll.  Nadia hadn’t played with that old thing in years, but Viktor knew that the doll was the first thing Mama and Papa bought for Nadia with the first money they had in America.  Mama found it at a garage sale.  It looked just like Nadia with brown locks and blue eyes.

    Every time Mama missed Nadia, she would curl up with the doll in her arms and cry for her dead child.  She tried not to do it when Viktor was home, but he still knew she did it.  He would catch her sometimes in the middle of the night or when he came home too early from school.  Of course, the crying didn’t happen as often as it did at the start, Mama was much better now.  But it still happened of enough that Viktor wondered about it.  Sometimes Viktor wondered if Mama couldn’t stop crying over Nadia because some part of Nadia was still here.  Maybe if Nadia’s spirit was at rest, Mama would be too.

    Viktor walked into the room and took the blanket his grandmother had made back in the old country and put it on his mother.  She opened her eyes, just a little and smiled at him.

    “My darling boy,” she whispered in her native tongue.  “You’ll always stay with me.”

    “Yes, Mama.”

    Viktor gave his mother a kiss on the cheek and she went back to sleep again.  After watching her for a moment, Viktor crept back upstairs to his room and sat by the window.  Tonight, instead of simply watching Nadia, he was going to let her know she wasn’t alone.  Not anymore.  He was going to give her some small sign that he could see her.  That he was trying to help.

    Nadia was a good spirit after all.  Good spirits return to their grave or where they died and Nadia had done just that.  She wasn’t a bad spirit stealing his sister’s face, trying to lure him away.

    When the time drew near, Viktor went and sat by the window, reading the next book.  This one was about native Americans and the spirits they believed in.  They were in America after all, maybe some of the old Native American magic had trapped his sister here.  At the end of every page, Viktor peeked out of the window to look for Nadia.  On all previous nights, he had watched her from the darkness of his room.  Tonight, he left the lights on.  Nadia would know his room and know that he was awake.

    Viktor was just finishing a chapter when he looked up again.  There she was at the end of the street.  It would take her a while to get close, at least another chapter or two, but when Viktor finished the next page and looked up, she was standing across the street from their house. 

    The boy smiled.  Maybe seeing the light on had given Nadia hope.  Maybe she wasn’t resigned to walking slowly with dragging bloody feet after all.  Viktor raised his hand and waved.  He waved and tapped gently on the glass until he saw the darkened figure raise her head.

    Nadia then started waving back.  It wasn’t the smooth arching wave Viktor had done with his arms over his head, but it was still a wave.  She lifted one arm and in odd jerking motions mimicked what her brother had done.

    Viktor then held up the signs he had made earlier in the day.  It was just some paper with letters big enough to read if you were standing on the street.  Donny helped him test it after school by standing on the street and giving Viktor the thumbs up or thumbs down as to wether or not the signs he had made were legible from that distance.

    This one was the best.  The letters were big and thick and dark on four white pieces of paper.  One by one Viktor held up the pages in order.  WE.  WILL.  HELP.  YOU.  There were footsteps on the stairs.  Mama was probably coming upstairs to bed.  Viktor scampered to turn out his light and jumped under his covers.  He heard his mom open the door a crack and look in on him before walking down the hall to her own room.

    When his mother’s room was quiet, Viktor returned to the window.  He tapped in the old code that the two of them had.  ‘Goodbye’ and ‘love you.’  Nadia made up the code years ago.  They used to tap it on the wall their rooms shared.  Their secret code that spelled out things like “Mom’s angry” or “You smell.”  Nadia was eight when she came up with the code.  It was after she learned about morse code in school, but before Viktor was old enough to understand what that was.  He was three the first time Nadia tried to teach him the code.  All he learned was that when his sister tapped on the wall, he should tap back.  When Viktor was five, he started getting the basics.  He understood Nadia’s taps and could tap simple things back.  By the time he was eight, he was a master at it and then, when he was eleven, Nadia died.

    Viktor still tapped on the walls sometimes, but he never expected an answer.  After tapping on the window, he looked down at Nadia.  She was still standing there alone on the street.  Without thinking about it, Viktor tapped, “I love you.” one more time against the cold glass before turning to go to bed.  When he heard the pattern tapped back, Viktor nearly leapt out of his skin.  He turned around and saw Nadia there with her wild hair covering her face, tapping “I love you” on the glass over and over again.

    The sight of his sister hovering outside of his second floor window was shocking and it took Viktor a minute to remember that she was a ghost and not a monster.  Carefully, Viktor walked back to the window.  Nadia didn’t look like Nadia when she was this close.  The distance between them had obscured all of the damage to her face.  The cracks in her pale lifeless skin.  No signs of natural life in her floating body.

    “Come on.” Viktor heard her whisper in a hoarse and distant voice.  “Come on.”

    Without hesitation, Viktor rushed down the stairs and outside.  Nadia was calling him.  He had to respond.  He had to help.  Nothing would stop Viktor from following her now.

    When he got out the door, Viktor found Nadia on the sidewalk again, walking ahead of him.  For a moment, Viktor considered running back inside to put his shoes on, but Nadia was so far ahead and moving so quickly, that he would lose her if he didn’t run now to keep up.

    Tonight was different.  Nadia wasn’t the slow and lost spirit.  She was on a mission.  So was Viktor.  Viktor ran.  He knew where she was going.  He ran down the street and turned onto the gravel lane.  The stones beneath his feet hurt him.  He could feel them piercing his skin which would sometimes crack and bleed under the pressure of his weight.  It hurt but it didn’t compare in the least to the excitement he felt in knowing that Nadia needed his help.  That she still loved him and that he was going to set her free.

    When Viktor reached the old iron gate, he had to stop for a minute to catch his breath.  It was a long way to run from his house to here.  Viktor had to stop, even though he didn’t want to.  His body wasn’t able to keep up with the stubbornness of his mind, demanding he continue.  Demanding he save Nadia.

    The gate was closed this time and locked, but the gate was big and the bars were far enough apart that if Viktor sucked in his chest, he could squeeze through them.  The unforgiving metal scraped the skin off of his cheek and his chest and shoulders may have bruised, but Viktor made it through.  Nadia was waiting. Just like last time, she was standing in the door.

    Viktor sprinted towards her.  She was waiting.  She needed him to do something in the old hospital for her.  There would be no more guessing.  No more reading books in the hope that some idea, some solution would magically appear.  Once they were in the hospital together, Nadia could just tell Viktor what was wrong.  He was so close to setting his sister’s spirit free.  Viktor was almost there when he felt something grab him and spin him through the air.

    “Not tonight, boy,” a man said.

    Viktor struggled against the arm across his chest, but whoever was holding him was holding on tight.

    “Did you catch him?” another voice called.  There was a light moving in the distance and heavy breathing.

    “Got him.”

    Viktor heard the gate opening and was unceremoniously dropped on the ground once they were back on the lane side of it.  Viktor spun around and saw two guards standing there.

    “It’s the Saric boy.”

    “What on god’s green earth are you doing here?” the man who grabbed him asked Viktor.

    “My sister,” Viktor said.  “She’s trapped here.  She’s in there.”

    Viktor pointed at the large monstrosity of a building.  He was pleading with them to understand.  To acknowledge that her spirit was here.  It was a long shot and Viktor didn’t expect the men to believe him.  Grownups didn’t believe in spirits in ghosts unless they were from the old country and even then not all of them believed what they were supposed to.  Mama didn’t believe the old stories and she spent most of her life in the old land.  Viktor pleaded with the men to let him back in.  To let him help Nadia, but didn’t expect the men to respond.  At least, when they did, they responded with kindness and not disbelief and anger.

    “You were dreaming,” the man who grabbed Viktor said.  “You had a dream about your sister being here and you came running.  But your sister isn’t here.  She hasn’t been here for a long time.  You’re a good kid for doing that and what happened to your family is just plain awful, but she isn’t here.  I’m going to walk you home.  It’s not safe for you to be running around in the woods this late.”

    The security guard nodded to the other one who went back inside of the walls and closed the gate behind him.

    As they were walking, the guard introduced himself.

    “My name’s Joe Crawford.  I know your ma.  I remember your sister when she was knee high and you when you were just born.”  

    Mister Crawford paused for a while before he continued.  “Now, I’m not saying I was a good friend of your family’s, but I’m cousin’s with Merl Gorsky, so we’d end up at a lot of the same barbecues and birthday parties.”

    Viktor nodded.  He didn’t remember any of this and he didn’t expect the man to understand that he didn’t care.  He wanted to get back to Nadia, but for now he was just hoping the man would leave him at his door and not ring the bell.

    “I’m also the one who found your sister,” Mister Crawford said.

    Viktor froze and looked at the man. 

    “You did?” Viktor asked.  He knew that a guard checking the grounds had found Nadia and tackled the man who killed her.  He just never expected to meet that man, since he hadn’t come to the funeral and Viktor wasn’t allowed to go to court.

    “I did and I want to tell you not to worry about her.  Her spirits gone away.  When I caught that the man who did this, I had Samuel run inside and phone the police.  I ran after that monster and brought him to the ground.  The police showed up and said that he had been seen taking a girl from the school.  Your sister.  We started searching the grounds while he sat in of that police car swearing up and down that he didn’t know anything about her.

    “It took a couple of hours, but I found her in the garden between the rows of dried up flowers.  I knew she was dead, so I covered her with my jacket and let the officers know what I had found.  It was dreadful seeing her there like that, but her face was so peaceful.  I knew when I saw her face that she was at rest from all of the horrible things this world had done to her.  So don’t you worry about her now.  She’s at peace.  The man who did this to her, he’ll die in jail.  All you’ve got to do now is take good care of that mother of yours.  God knows she needs it more than anyone, losing your pa and sis the way that she did.  You take care of your ma and the next time you dream of your sister’s ghost, take some flowers to her grave instead of coming to this old place in the middle of the night.  It’s a dangerous place in the dark and I can’t come finding your body in the morning.  It would break my heart for your ma to lose the two of you when she’s already lost the one.”

    Viktor nodded.  He had the story completely different in his mind.  He thought that the guard had seen the man murdering Nadia and then chased him down.  He never thought it was the other way around.  He also wasn’t sure what to do next.  The guards had been there both nights, but they gave no sign of seeing Nadia.  Maybe they didn’t because she wasn’t there.  Maybe they couldn’t because they didn’t know she needed help.

    Either way, Viktor knew that he would be coming back again.

    “Thank you,” Viktor said.  “For putting your jacket on her.”

    Viktor had heard the whispers that Nadia was found naked.  That was why her new dress was gone.  She wouldn’t have wanted to be found naked.  It was nice to know that the first man who found her had the decency to cover her up before all of the other men came to look at what was left of the once lively girl.

    “It was the right thing to do,” Mister Crawford said.  “I hope that if anything like that ever happened to my daughter, someone else would have the heart to cover her up before the world came to see.”

    Viktor’s house wasn’t too far from the old hospital.  It had only taken the two of them just over fifteen minutes to walk there.  When they arrived, Mister Crawford didn’t ring the bell.  Viktor looked at him with a bit of surprise.

    “Aren’t you going to tell mama?” he asked the security guard.

    “Not this time,” Mister Crawford said.  “Do it again and I will.  But sometimes it’s better that people don’t know you’re gone.”

    “Thank you,” Viktor said looking up at the gentle man.  He opened the door and stepped inside.

    “Stay safe,” he replied.  “And take good care of your ma.”

    When Mister Crawford turned to leave, Viktor almost jumped out of his skin.  Nadia was right behind the guard who clearly couldn’t feel or see her there.  The pale girl in the white dress with blue didn’t move or say anything.  She just tapped out the pattern of “I love you” into the air and followed the guard down the street again. Viktor watched Mister Crawford for a moment.  The guard had been kind to him and to his sister. However, next time, when Viktor went to the hospital with the boys, he would be sure not to get caught.    

    Mister Crawford noticed Viktor watching him go down the street and waved goodbye, Nadia matched the man’s gesture in a jerking strange motion.  Viktor waved to the two of them, stepped inside and closed the door.