A Gift of Ghosts (Tassamara) by Sarah Wynde Read Free Book Online Page A

medium. She told him that the car was haunted. He’s
been searching for another medium ever since. I bet him a home-cooked
Thanksgiving dinner that she was lying, but he insisted that she was telling
the truth. He’s not usually wrong, so betting against him was probably not one
of my better moves.”
    As they entered an examining room, Natalya shooed her brother
away, sending him to another door further down the hallway. “We’re not really a
hospital,” she explained. “I’ve got a medical degree, but I spend most of my
time on research. I wouldn’t have agreed to this, but Zane said you didn’t
think you were badly injured and our scanner is so much better than anything
any local hospital has that if you do have any minor internal bleeding, I’m
more likely to find it. We’re using susceptibility weighted imaging, with a 3T
high-field system, and the contrast is great for traumatic injuries.” Clucking
disapprovingly at the long scrapes on Akira’s arms, Natalya handed her a
flowered hospital gown.
    Akira was mystified. No one responded to the news that ghosts
were real like this. It was as if Natalya had heard the words, accepted them
immediately, and moved on just as quickly. Where were the questions? The
doubts? The demands for proof?
    Natalya must have mistaken her surprise for lack of interest,
because she continued with a smile, “Okay, I can see that you don’t really care
about my treasure. I’ll skip the tech notes. Just take everything off,
especially anything metal, and put the gown on. There’s nothing metal in your
body, is there? No pacemaker or artificial joints?”
    Akira shook her head no, and Natalya went on. “The scanner is
next door, and I’ll be in the screening room on the other side with Zane. Just
come through when you’re ready, and lay down on the table. I’ll be in to help
you get comfortable.” With that, she disappeared through the door.
    Slowly, Akira changed into the gown, folding her clothes
neatly and leaving them on the chair. Maybe she had hit her head really hard.
Maybe she was dreaming? But no, the scrapes on her arms hurt like hell, in the
way that only brush burns and paper cuts could, a stinging pain of raw nerve
ends. There was no way she was imagining that.
    The table was cold but Akira was so busy thinking that she
barely noticed as the machine whirred its way around her. The brief period
where she and Zane had talked in the car had only added to her list of
questions. She had been trying to hide her insanity for as long as she could
remember, but everyone she’d met in this town seemed to be willing to accept it
as matter-of-factly as if she’d told them the sky was blue. What was wrong with
them?
     
    ***
     
    In the screening room, Natalya watched as images appeared on
a computer screen, slide after slide showing sections of Akira’s body. Zane, on
the other hand, was watching the soles of Akira’s feet through the glass. She
had nice feet. Not that he could really see much of them from where he was
standing, but they looked nice, narrow and pale.
    “Ouch,” Natalya said in a low voice, shaking her head as she
stared at the monitor.
    “Is she okay?” Zane asked, promptly turning his attention
back to the computer screen. The images were just gray and white shapes: he had
no idea what he was seeing and none of it meant anything to him. He could be
looking at a picture of a Martian landscape for all he knew.
    “Yeah.” Natalya nodded, her lips moving as if she were
counting. “She’s fine. Now, anyway.”
    “And was she not fine before?” Zane asked. Natalya’s narrowed
eye focus on the screen was making him uneasy. He’d seen her scan people more
than once, and she didn’t usually pay much attention, just storing the records
for cross-referencing later. Of course this scan was different, since she was
looking for injuries, but if she wasn’t finding anything, why was she watching
so closely?
    Not bothering to answer, Natalya typed a few