4 The Reluctant Cohabitation

"Can I speak to you alone for a second?" She said sternly to Ken.

" Okay, okay, let's do that" he tells her, and turns around "You stay here, I'll be right back."

I nod unable to say anything. After few seconds of standing in silence all by myself, curiosity got the best of me so I slowly leaned towards the main door trying to hear what they were saying.

"Why are you behaving like this?, you know very well how much I hate strangers. And you brought one to MY house?!!" She almost snarled at Ken.

"Marge I'm trying to do a nice thing. Like you did for me when I was new. You knew I needed help and you really took care of me."

"That was a long time ago. You know I can't trust her and you very well know why. You call me your surrogate family right? Then why don't you consider my feelings first before this newbie."

"I have considered your feelings. I didn't bring her here after I just met her okay?. I saw her again on the gas station today all by herself lying on a bench, she was lonely and I felt bad so I brought her here."

" And what?Suddenly that makes it okay to bring a ghost here? You know very well meeting someone twice on a day doesn't mean they are not a stranger."

"I'm not saying she is not. But she can really use our help. There are rarely any ghosts nearby let alone the decent ones, What if someone bad catches her? What if Carter finds her?"

"And how are you so sure Carter didn't find her already and send her here? Maybe he did find her first?"

"And what? He's trying to get you killed?, Come on! It's been ages, can't you just let it go? It's been really really really long time. Plus this girl can be real advantageous to us!"

"Number one, I'm never ever ever letting it go. And number two, how exactly a newbie could be helpful to me?"

"Remember when you said you could get things done more easily if you could interact with humans, well guess what she's pretty good at it. She bought a coffee today. And drank it. In a cafeteria!!"

"And you saw this yourself?"

"Yes, if you still don't believe me how about you see for yourself too. I'll show you tomorrow. Please let her stay this night."

"Don't you dare try the puppy eyes on me" she sighed. "Fine. I'll let her stay, but she's not leaving my sight!."

"Yay!" He cheered. Hearing that I quickly backed away from the door hoping that they will not find out I was eavesdropping. When they came out I was trying to appear as oblivious as I could manage.

Marge cleared her throat and looked directly at me. "You!! Come inside. And don't even dare to try anything funny. I still don't trust you. If you're staying you're never leaving my sight"

"Alright" I said softly. Honestly I could leave. I mean, what's the big deal spending the night outside, I'm already dead what could possibly happen to me. But Ken fought with his friend for me, so I couldn't deny the offer. I would have to leave this place soon though, cause it doesn't seem like Marge and I are going to get along very well.

As soon as we get inside I'm surprised by the interior design of this house. It was so ancient and elegant, it felt like as if I have traveled through time. It seemed like this Marge is from really a different era.

Marge motions me to sit in the dining table and sits face to face with me. She stares at me for a long time before finally giving me some share of the food she clearly made for just the two of them.

"So tell me Chloe, how did you die? "

"Um... I actually don't remember.." I blink

"Any suspects? On who could have killed you?"

"Actually... I don't remember anything I don't even know my name."

"So where did Chloe come from?" she asked skeptically raising her eyebrow.

" Actually I said that it's my name to the Barista, while ordering coffee. I saw it was her name, on the bracelet she was wearing. Got it on the house." I said, little proudly.

"You're sneaky." she smirked. "I like that. Although that just makes you more suspicious to me." she takes another bite of her food and then asks me. "So? Why you back here then? You don't remember anything, what could possibly be your attachment to this mundane world? You could have just moved on, you would have ended up forgetting everything anyways."

"That's the thing. I spent few minutes without my memory and I hated it. I want to know what happened to me before deciding my next step. I am going to cross that door someday, but I deserve to know what happened to me. I'll leave as soon as I find out."

"You never know, you might end up feeling differently once you do find out. How are you going to find out anyways? " she asked.

"I'm still working on that. I was hoping something would trigger my memory but till now nothing has come to my mind."

" Well you better figure out soon, your stay in my house is very limited."

I stay quiet. I know I'm not welcomed here and honestly even I'm not very fond of this hostility. I would rather leave! But she did share her meal with me, so I wasn't going to argue with her. Didn't feel like I needed food to survive but man it's delicious.

"Too bad you can't remember, could have attended your own funeral." suddenly she mutters.

Ken however freezes at her statement.

"I'll be right back" he leaves right after saying that.

What was that about I wonder.

After few more awkward conversations I was relieved when I heared Ken calling us.

"Marge, Chloe come here. You have to see this!!"

As we're already done we left to see what he was talking about. I have to say I was pretty surprised to find out a computer there. It's presence it quite ironic to its surroundings.

"Look at this!" Ken points at his screen.

"It's just a bunch of names." I say

"And?" He asks

"I dunno." I say

"This is the list of funerals taking place in the church this week." some of them died today some of them died before that. If we remove the exclusively male names it gives us the possibility of you actually being one of them." he says proudly

" THIS IS GENIUS!! I almost shout. Suddenly like something hits me, like a fragment of familiarity as I decide to approach the keyboard.

" Wait a second" After a smooth tapping on the keys I said. " Well here is their date of death. Since I went to Junction Point today let's assume I died today. Then our list becomes even quiet narrow."

"You're good! Maybe you're a tech genius? "Ken suggests.

"Maybe " I smirk. "You were not pretty bad yourself with the computer, given you died in 70s.

"Yeah, with my twenty year old appearance, I made sure I keep up. You know in case I'm ever in situations like this" he smiles

I smile back at him.

This was awesome I was finally getting somewhere. If all goes well, I might soon find out who I am. I'm so glad I won't have to deal with Marge anymore, given I find out who I am.