The Chronicles of Harold the Healer Ch. 07

"That's Healer Lakash and Ms. Blandford," Marcie observed, pointing the two out as they were approaching and mounting the steps to the gazebo. He moved his arms and hands and said something, then Brenda stepped forward.

"Ladies and gentlemen, both spectral and, uh, fleshy," she said, clearly audible over the din. Lakash had cast the Amplify spell. She got a ripple of laughter as everyone in the park quieted. "Since it's the last day on Earth for the ghosts who are here, we thought that we would make it special and give you a farewell party." There was an enthusiastic round of applause and the ghosts shyly murmured their thanks. "You may have noticed that a lot of people have been talking to you and asking you about yourselves, like your names, what you did when you were alive, that sort of thing. We are doing this so that we can collect it and put it in a Book of Remembrance." Kim Blandford replaced her in the circle.

"Many of you have expressed your sadness at how the lives of your friends moved on after your deaths, and that as they died, you were forgotten and you've been drifting around not knowing what to do with yourselves." The ghosts all murmured and nodded. "Two of our girls had the idea to write your stories down in a book. Marcie Parsons and Donna Jackman, are you out there somewhere?" The girls jumped and waved excitedly, and Leila cast a bright white Mage Light above them. "Thank you for the wonderful thought, dears!" There was another round of applause that got them blushing.

"We even have a large number of visitors from the Argosy Federation," said Lakash, taking his turn. He then repeated it in Argosian, and the ghosts, who were clustered around where Harold and Dana were, all cheered and waved. Leila could see that they had all been boosted. She looked behind her and saw Mark and Stella scurrying into the park. She waved and they spotted her and waved back, then she turned off the Mage Light. "Their trip here is a story unto itself." The townsfolk briefly talked to each other in surprise before hushing again. "If there are any of you who have not told your stories yet, please approach someone and start talking. There isn't much time left before the storm arrives."

"We don't know what will happen when it does come," said Brenda as Lakash hurried down the steps to join Kim, who had suddenly spotted a ghost at their bottom, had run down them and had exploded into tears. "If the Wild Hunt is truly coming with it, we are in for a show few have ever seen." The sky in the northwest was starting to get darker and a cool breeze suddenly rustled through the trees. With the sun gone, the ghosts were free to move around as they wished, and the park became a confused scene as those who wanted to be remembered sought out anyone with a pen or pencil and paper. Leila, Marcie, and Donna made their way to Harold and Dana. The crowd of ghosts politely made room for them and the girls looked around with eyes as wide as saucers. Leila recognized Macy Struli from both the Diner and her occasional trips to the hospital, and they nodded to each other. There were two other Argosian women who were looking very downcast and dejected. The tattoos of a snake wrapped around a sword on their left arms strongly hinted at military background.

"Harold Moser," she said, hands on her hips and a fake Severe Expression on her face. "We've been married for only a day and you are still surrounded by women." That got some chuckles from the five of them, and some more from the ghosts when one of the women translated. Leila had not been all that interested in languages and had forgotten most of the Argosian that she'd learned in Mage School.

"Hi, Leila," Harold replied. He looked tired, as did Dana. "Leila, please meet Lieutenant-Colonel Malia Campanella and Sergeant-Major Giuliana Vella, both retired from the Argosian Army and reluctant ghost herders."

"We were supposed to lead them all the way to town, but we went on ahead once we were on the main road in," said Malia, looking even more dejected. "We were really tired and unwell from sea sickness and didn't realize that they would be slowing down as daylight approached."

"When we fell asleep in Macy's, the God who was behind this whole trip came to us in our dreams and let us know in no uncertain terms that we had, uh," Giuliana hesitated, seeing Marcie and Donna, who were all ears, "screwed up big time and had let him down. Without the timely intervention of Harold and especially Dana and Mark, there would have been a disaster."

"We have been apologizing to anyone who will listen to us," Malia continued miserably. One of the ghosts patted her shoulder and said something that sounded sympathetic. "When we get home, we will have some major penance to do."

"We hope that your God will take into account that your charges have forgiven you," said Dana. "I was pretty angry when I finally caught up to you," she continued and they cringed a bit, "but we did manage to get them here. Your God may have been expecting too much, given that it was at the last minute, and that you were pressed into service with no training or even information on what the ghosts needed. I hope that our Goddess lets him know that." They nodded, still downcast. She could see that they had been used to success and good results in their careers, and this event really bothered them.

"Where did Harold go?" Leila demanded suddenly, looking around. "Damn that man!" Marcie and Donna giggled, and even more at her hard stare.

"All five of us have, uh, strong connections to him," Macy offered, noting that once again the girls appeared to be all ears. "Maybe we should get some of the ghosts to talk to you."

"Yes, please!" said Marcie and they quickly got their notebooks, pens, and ink bottles set up.

"If you'll excuse me, I have a husband to find. He seems to have Masked himself, the rotter." Leila slipped away into the crowd and, after excusing herself, so did Dana. With Malia assisting Marcie and Giuliana assisting Donna, and Macy keeping an eye on things, the girls started getting stories from far away in both distance and time.

Harold had expertly Sneaked his way through the crowd, holding onto the draining Mask spell for a minute and knowing that at least Leila would be after him soon. He made his way to the gazebo, where he saw Lakash and a ghost doing their best to comfort a weeping and shaking Kim Blandford. "That must be her late husband," he said to himself as he scurried up the steps.

"Hi, Brenda. I have a few words to say, if you don't mind?" he asked the surprised Mayor.

"Go ahead, Harold. If you can calm down this bedlam, the more power to you." Fred smiled at him as she continued breastfeeding the baby. Harold bowed politely and stepped into the ring that defined the zone of the Amplify spell that Lakash was still maintaining.

"Ladies and gentlemen, both living and post-living," he boomed out. The big crowd both in the park and beyond its borders slowly quieted down. "We don't have a lot of time before the storm and its hoped-for Wild Hunt arrives, and it occurred to me that you ghosts should spend the last few minutes..." A distant grumble of thunder made him pause. "Dancing. Grab a partner, two partners, whatever you need. Please." He stepped out of the circle and asked, "Lakash, if I may take the spell?" Lakash Moto, his left arm around a calmer Kim, and Harold made some gestures and he assumed control. "I will move the Amplify spell over the band so that we can all hear them." The dozen band members whispered among each other, just as Marjorie and Sam Turner appeared from somewhere, both looking a little flushed. Marjorie sang with the band, along with the band leader, and they had done so yesterday at the wedding. The band had set up on the side of the gazebo opposite the steps. It took a couple of minutes for the ghosts and people to rearrange themselves.

"Take the last dance with Greg, Kim," said Lakash softly. "We can dance later, all you want."

"Thank you, Lakash," said Greg. "This means everything to me. To us."

"Get down here, you rascal!" Leila ordered from her position on the ground at the north end of the structure, getting some laughs from the others on it. "You will be dancing with me!"

"Yes, dear," he replied meekly, getting more chuckles, obediently joining her.

"Are you ready?" he asked the band members, and the band leader nodded and raised his conductor's wand. Harold positioned the circle about five feet over their heads. Another grumble of thunder came from the darker northwest sky and another cool breeze rustled the leaves of the trees.

"One, two, three," said the band leader, and they started the introduction to a familiar, romantic song. Mark and Stella appeared out of the crowd, dancing close as if they'd been doing it all their lives.

"Young love," said Leila with a loving smile as Harold gave his son a thumbs-up, which was returned with a smile of his own. "There's nothing like it." Then, Marjorie and the band leader began to sing in a beautiful harmony.

"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when. But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day." Harold smiled at Leila as they moved easily together, just as they had yesterday, but she could see that there was sadness behind the smile.

"I cannot count the funerals that I've attended or officiated where this song was sung," he said as the crowd danced around them, and another rumble of thunder, more urgent this time, filled the sky. "If there was ever a time to play this song, this is it."

"Come on, everyone! Sing with us!" Marjorie ordered. The dancers, spectral and non, did.

"Keep smiling through, just like you always do, 'til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away." Leila's voice was a clear alto. Harold did not sing because he could not. At the moment, the blue skies were not winning the battle. The darkness was advancing like a solid wall and the wind was cold and smelled of rain. Lightning scrambled up the cloud face like a demented spider, leaving deep booms that seemed to rattle the crowd's diaphragms.

"We are going to get very, very wet," said Harold. "Oh, the musicians!"

"Already on it, Dad," said Mark. He took Stella's hand and they ran over to the band, told Marjorie, Sam, Caroline, and Ted to come close, and quickly cast a Ward to cover them.

"I always get wet when you're around," said Stella with a hot look over a rumble of thunder. Snickers and knowing looks made her realize that the thunder hadn't been quite loud enough and she turned red, as did Mark.

"Mama! Papa!" said Marcie. They turned around to see Giuliana finish escorting her through the crowd, at which time their daughter charged to give Leila a big hug, then her father. "The Argosians talk funny, but they're nice and had very interesting stories to tell us."

"Melia took Donna to her parents," Giuliana explained before they could ask.

"But when it rains, my notes will get all wet," she said sadly.

"But I'll know we'll meet again, some sunny day," the dancing crowd sang, and the band finished with a flourish, receiving very enthusiastic applause.

"Please bring the Amplify circle here," said Stella, looking like she had an idea. With a few gestures, Harold did. "Ladies and gentlemen, the storm will be here any moment. If you have any notes or papers that you don't want to get wet, please pass them forward towards the Marvellous Magwitch Band area. A Ward has been set up so that they will be kept safe and dry." It took five minutes for all of the papers to be hastily passed up, and they made two large stacks. The wind was blowing steadily from the west and the first fat drops of rain began to fall. Lakash hastily ran to the gazebo and cast a Ward to protect its occupants. There was a bright flash of lightning from deep within the advancing clouds, soon followed by booms of thunder that seemed to rattle the soul. A large chunk of cloud seemed to detach itself from the main body of the storm and moved ahead of it.

"Is that them? Is that the Wild Hunt?" asked Marcie, sounding more disappointed than anything else as she and her parents, Mark, Stella, and Giuliana huddled together, bracing themselves for the rain. They felt Dana as she made her way through the crowd and joined them. More chunks of darkness detached from the cloud and they all began to swirl and change into what looked like people wearing crowns of lightning on jet-black horses with fiery eyes.

"How far away are they?" asked Mark. "They must be huge if we can see them." A bright flash of lightning illuminated one of the leading figures, which raised what looked like a horn to its lips and blew a long, deep, mournful note that sounded like it was the thunder that had been captured, smoothed and stretched out across the sky. He didn't know what the others heard, but Harold's mind recalled the sound of a foghorn he'd heard on the Northlands coast, high in a lighthouse that warned the ships away from the rocks, and of the ghost of a woman waiting on the cliff for her husband who would never come home. The horn blew again, longer this time, and everyone felt their souls reaching out for it.

"It's the Call Home," he said. There were now ten figures on horses in colours that ranged from purest white to deepest black galloping all over the sky, darting in and out of the advancing cloud wall, their laughter booming like thunder. What appeared to be a woman on a white horse caught a lightning bolt in her hands, shaped it into a ball, and flung it at a man on a black horse, who ducked as it shot across the sky like a meteor before exploding with a heavy concussion, making those on the ground flinch. There were occasional spatters of rain, but no downpour yet. "The Third Call, the Last Call, is what will take the ghosts home." After a few increasingly anxious minutes, and only after the figure on the white horse seemed to remind him, the figure with the horn lifted it to his lips and blew.

The Third Call sounded both mournful and joyful at the same time, and seemed to reach deep inside them and to last forever. As the Call blew, the ghosts began to rise into the sky, with expressions of mingled astonishment and relief, waving goodbye and calling out their thanks, with the people down below waving and calling back to them. They formed a glowing cloud that rose and danced like fireflies in a summer's night, like fallen leaves on a windy autumn day, like the fat flakes of winter's first snow. They passed by the riders, streamed into the advancing black cloud mountain and vanished from sight.

There was a collective sigh from the people on the ground as they finished waving at the ghosts. Or maybe it was the sound of the rain finally arriving, driven by a blast of wind and a roar of thunder, instantly drenching everyone and generating a rush of motion as they hastily moved to get out of the park and away from the trees that provided shade on the warm days, and possible targets for lightning during storms. Dana threw up a Ward just in time to keep the little group of herself, Marcie, Harold, and Leila from getting wet.

"This is amazing!" Caroline exclaimed as buckets of rain washed off Mark's Ward.

"The best part is that the Ward uses the energy from the wind and water to power itself and it costs me next to nothing," Mark replied. "It was my Dad who figured out how to do that." The three groups waited for ten minutes under their magical shelters while the storm raged around them until the worst of it had passed, leaving a deserted park with a lot of leaves from the trees on the trampled grass. By the time the musicians had packed up their instruments, it had completely stopped and the Wards were released. John Martin descended from the gazebo and retrieved the papers, one stack of which was transferred into Fred's strong arms.

"We'll stop by the Town Hall to drop these off," said Brenda, now holding baby Samuel, who had fallen asleep despite the activity of the storm. "Thank you for protecting them, Mark."

"There are some interesting stories here," said Sam, who, along with the others in their Ward had been reading some of them by Mage Light to pass the time. "We will want to preserve them."

"We want to help, too, Ms. Jaggers," said Marcie. "We want to put them together for our big end of the year school project."

"That's a great idea, Marcie," Brenda replied with a smile. "We will contact the school tomorrow and figure out how to do it. We will probably have to rent out the Community Centre for a few days so that there will be enough space for everyone to work."

"If you don't mind, we'll go home with my parents," Stella said to Dana.

"By all means," she replied. "I'm sure that my son will be in good hands," she added with a wink, making them both blush and her parents and grandparents laugh. They turned to walk south as the band members and others from the gazebo dispersed.

"Enjoy your retirement, Lakash," Harold said.

"I had the chance to say goodbye to Greg," Kim replied with a sad smile. "He was good enough to give us his blessing." Lakash smiled at her fondly.

"Healers never really retire. But I will do my best," Lakash replied. "I now have something to look forward to. Someone to look forward to."

"Are all you Healers silver-tongued rascals?" they heard Kim ask as they walked eastward through the park in the direction of her house.

"What should we do for dinner?" asked Harold.

"If I recall," mused Leila as she tried to remember what the heck she had bought this morning, "I was going to make beef stew, but there's no time for that now. Dana, please join us."

"Thank you very much, Leila," the Engineer replied as the party of Harold, Leila, Dana, and Marcie left the park and began to walk north on Main St.

"If nothing else, we can chop up the beef and fry it in some oil with some onions and boil some of whatever potatoes or turnips you have," Harold suggested as they were approaching Macy's Diner. "Basic fare, but it will get the job done. You love turnips, don't you, Marcie?" he asked in a wheedling tone. "All girls love turnips! They'll make you big and strong!" He put on a patently fake smile and flexed his biceps. He was not astonished when she made a face and stuck out her tongue.

"Blecch! Nobody can make a turnip taste nice!" she declared, making Dana and Leila laugh. There were lights on in Macy's behind the drawn shades and the Closed sign, so they continued walking, with Harold breathing a quiet sigh of relief.

"Sadly, I have to agree," he replied. "But they're full of helpful nutrients. Someone out there must have a good recipe for them. Maybe the Cartwrights have a turnip cake?"

"I can't see how that would be a best-seller," Dana commented as they passed the bakery, "especially when there are so many other yummy temptations available." The bakery was closed for the day, which was just as well, since they were getting hungry.

"It's a wonder I don't weigh 300 pounds with that place so convenient!" Leila stated emphatically. "And they are totally unrepentant with their evil delights!" The others laughed. The town was closing up for the day as it usually did at about this time.

"I think that we did the right thing today," said Harold as their house became visible. "I don't know what it would be like to be trapped between this world and the next, but I can't imagine liking it."

"We did, Papa," said Marcie as they went through the gate to the backyard and headed for the kitchen door. "The people I talked to today all said how glad they were to be crossing over." Leila unlocked the door and they entered the kitchen, closing it behind them.

"I'll get the windows opened to air the place out," Harold volunteered once their boots were off and he had put his staff in the corner near the table.

"I will help," added Marcie.