Brighter, a supernatural thriller by V. J. Chambers Read Free Book Online Page B

really, they're your dishes."
    It was a vicious argument. A never-ending one. Once they had argued about the dishes so violently that Heather had locked herself in the guest bedroom and slept there.
    Heather had known that marriage wasn't a picnic. But she'd thought that the problems she and Rick would face would involve finances or fidelity or something important. She hadn't realized that the thing that made marriage so difficult was its sheer domesticity. All the little things. Things that she never thought mattered. All these things were suddenly big things. Dishes. Laundry. Lawn care. Marriage was a game of, "Well, I did this, so why haven't you done this?"
    But sometimes she felt so guilty. If she could just get better at dish washing, there wouldn't be any tension in her marriage. She felt like she was causing the problem. She wished to be different, to be better. Vowed to change. After all, someday she would have children, and if her children didn't have a clean parent, how would they rebel? They couldn't just not clean their rooms. So they'd turn to drugs.
    The phone rang.
    Rick and Heather looked at each other.
    "I'll get it," said Heather, even though Rick was closer to the phone.
    "Sorry babe," he said. "My hands are messy."
    "If you used a plate, they wouldn't be," she said sweetly. She swept the phone off its receiver. "Hello?"
    It was Ramona. She and Ramona used to be inseparable. They had been until Heather had met Rick, she guessed. She wondered if Ramona had ever quite forgiven her for that. One day she and Ramona were thick as thieves. The next day, all she could think about was Rick.
    But pre-dishes-obsessed Rick had been pretty amazing. Gorgeous, funny, smart, and completely into her. She'd known, as cheesy as it sounded, the first time she'd seen him. She'd told Ramona. "I'm going to marry that guy." Now she sometimes wondered what in the hell she'd been thinking, but that was the way that life worked. It snapped you in the face like a broken rubber band and left welts.
    "What's up, Ramona?" she said to the phone.
    "I need to tell you something," Ramona said.
    Ramona sounded upset. Lately, Ramona only called her when she was upset. They never did anything fun together anymore. "Hey," said Heather. "Why don't you come see me? We could hang out. Rick built this neat patio on the back of our house and I set up—"
    "I can't. I'm totally hung over. I think getting in a car would make me throw up," said Ramona.
    Ramona never came to visit her. She didn't like to leave Elston. She didn't like to go anywhere that wasn't walking distance from her apartment. Heather knew this because Ramona said it a lot. Not in conjunction with visiting Heather, but in reference to anything else, like, "I was going to go see that movie, but I don't like to leave Elston. I don't like to go anywhere that's not in walking distance of my apartment."
    Heather sighed. "Okay. That's cool. What about next weekend, then?"
    "Maybe," said Ramona. "I'll call you okay?"
    "Okay," said Heather, knowing there was about as much chance of Ramona calling her to come over as there were cows flying over the moon. "Cool. Sorry I interrupted you. What did you want to tell me?"
    "I think I saw a ghost," said Ramona.
    Heather sat up straight in her chair. "A ghost? Of who?"
    Ramona began to tell her about seeing Angelica after she was already dead. Heather listened intently. When Ramona was finished, Heather was quiet for a couple seconds. Then she said, "Are you jerking me around?"
    "No!" said Ramona.
    "Why didn't you tell me this before?" asked Heather.
    "I should have," said Ramona. "You're into ghosts and all."
    Ramona always said it like that. Heather was "into ghosts." Like it was a band or something. "I'm interested in paranormal phenomena," said Heather. "That doesn't necessarily mean ghosts."
    "You know what I meant," said Ramona. "But I didn't tell anyone. I just kind of wanted to forget it happened. But then last night I had a conversation with