Nora

“Did I tell you I hate camping, too?” Harold whined as his voice followed along through the forest as they tramped along under the shade of the spruce, pines and birch trees. “I was sent to summer camp every year as a kid and it was the worst time in my life! It always rained.”

“You’re not camping,” Nora reminded him. “And you don’t have a life. You’re a ghost. It doesn’t matter where you are. So relax and enjoy the ride.”

It’s not like it was raining. And if they were lucky, that wouldn’t happen until they were back on the way home, in the car or on a plane. As much as she didn’t love roughing it, Harold’s complaints weren’t helping.

“I don’t like the woods especially these ones,” he added to the list. “They are creepy. And so is that Gary guy. What are you all up to this time? Are you going to try and stuff him into another hole. I don’t think he’s going to go along with that. I think he likes it here and I don’t think he will want to go back. Just like that woman…”

As a ghost, Harold also wasn’t really that bright or had a great memory for details. But she’d had him around long enough to have seen what the group did, had done before, and could guess what they were up do. Still, it was the first time he’d spoken up about Gary in a while. That probably meant they were getting close. Changelings tended to react to their entry points in ways only the supernatural could pick up.

Luckily, Gary was far enough ahead on the trail not to hear even her side of the conversation. The group had spread out, not so they were going to get lost, but certainly they were out of sight of each other. They were walking on a well-worn path though, clear enough so none of them would wander off. Nora glanced around, anyways. There could be bears. Or snakes.

“What is it about him you don’t like?” she asked. “You said something before about his aura, right? But you’ve never explained what it is about it you don’t like.”

Harold didn’t answer.

“Come on Harold,” she said as she stepped over a moss covered fallen log. “I brought you along for a reason, for what you can see we can’t. Tell me something useful. Please?”

She wasn’t going to bring up that other reason. Frank was probably still within earshot.

It was likely the closer they got to their destination, things would start happening, that she knew. The order of how it would happen was what worried her most. This was going to be tricky again, poking holes always was, and a ghost could see things she couldn’t. Even if he was even more whiny at times out here than he would be back at the office. There were a couple other things he could do to distract her from the creepy crawlies, the distance from civilization, not to mention advise on when that damn crack in the fabric of reality they were approaching would start widening. Good that Tasmin wasn’t here. Nora would have some privacy.

“He doesn’t belong here,” Harold told her. “I told you that. He’s completely the wrong color now. Orange. It’s not a color of natural, living things, Nora.”

“That’s good Harold,” she replied. “Keep a close eye on him. He’d going to change some more, and the more he changes the closer the hole is going to be to us.”

“But it’s bad,” Harold insisted. “I’m worried about you. I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t want you to go and not come back.”

She had to grin slightly at that. It wasn’t the kind of statement of need she could expect from Frank or Benny. And it was likely she wouldn’t get it from Gary when the time came.

“You’re sweet Harold,” she replied. Despite everything he was, that kept him anchored him to the world, yes, Harold was kind of sweet. And harmless. And willing to please. “Let me know when things change with him. I’m counting on you to make sure nothing happens to any of us.”

It was a long slog through the woods to the Lake of Two Skies. Thankfully, they had pop-up tents. Hiking always left her so tired that by the time she stopped all she wanted to do was just fall down.

But, Benny and Gary had been right. They’d made it. Just.

She didn’t, couldn’t collapse, especially as Harold relayed the beginning of a cycle Gary’s aura was starting to run through. There were things to do. To get ready. Oh, and also get some food in her. Nora was starved, not to mention feeling the effects of low blood sugar. Trail mix just did not do the job at all. She shouldn’t have finished off her chocolate yesterday.

An hour later camp was all set up, the fire was going, food was cooking. Kebabs! Then, they were ready to start. The first part was Frank’s job. Get Gary in the mood. Get him to start thinking about what happened before at the lake. Reconnect him to whatever memories he’s forgotten and not go psycho on them.

A nudge, Ephram had termed it. Once Gary was mentally prepared, accepting, then they’d all be able to share his experience, his being drawn back into the interstitial. It wasn’t really a nudge at all, wouldn’t be by then. It would be quite the push. But an asymmetrical hole in reality was never an easy thing. Nor would be recovering a lost seven-year-old girl. At least not until she had a meal.