Sheba's Final Oath - Part 3

My fingers slide over the bone spiritual eye that rests on the board awaiting the touch of the spirits icy answers to the questions that will carry from my mortal tongue.

I begin to ask simple questions such as,

     “Who are you?”

A defining wail encircles the room. The board and eye fly across the room in opposite directions. The board slamming against the dresser, and the eye denting the wooden closet door upon impact. A cold wind sweeps through the room, killing four of the six candles l have lit. Then, all is quiet. I relight the candles and retrieve the board and eye to try again. I ask, and the board responds.

     “Who are you?”
          ~I am keeper here. LEAVE!
     “No. Please, your name?”

There is a pause then, they eyes glides across the board.

          ~Sheba.
     “Hello Sheba. I am Rheta.”
           ~I know.
     “Of course. Care to share your age? I am 22.”
          ~I am eight.

I am shocked into silence for a moment. I did not expect this spirit to be so young, especially when she has shown such great power. She must be in terrible pain.

     “You are very young. Why do you cause so much trouble for the mortals that dwell here?”
          ~This is my home. I have to protect it. I must fulfill my oath to my father.
     “What oath would that be, Sheba? Maybe I could help you in some way.”
          ~I’m not sure you can.
      “Tell me anyways. You never know.”
          ~I was five years old, when my father became very sick. So sick, that he could not leave his bed. On the day he died, he gave me a gold and diamond studded locket. Inside was a picture of my mother, who died a few hours after I was born, and a picture of my father, who would die later that night. He told me to protect the locket at any cost, and not to sell it for anything. I gave him my solemn oath, and then he died. I was doing a good job protecting it, until on my eighth birthday. I was going to take my evening bath. I took off the locket like every night I did before my bath, when it got away from me and fell down the cellar steps. I tried to catch it, but it was too quick. I tripped on the steps and tumbled down to the very bottom and hit my head on the ground. Then everything went dark. When I woke up, I felt very light, like I was on a cloud, it felt very nice. I opened my eyes and stared into my own eyes, but they were different somehow. They would not blink, and they seemed cloudy. It took a few days, but I finally realized that I had died, just like my mother and my father. Then another fear took hold of me; the locket wasn’t with me. I panicked and began to scour the cellar for the locket. I spent days in the cellar, but I did not find it. I’m still looking for it, but now I search all over the house. I do not like the people in my home. So I try to scare them away so they do not find my locket.

The eye stops. I sit back and think on what I have just been told.

     “You poor little girl. I will help you find your locket. Come with me to the cellar.”

I leave everything in the room. All I take is the recorder and a single candle. I go to the cellar door and stare down the steps as far as I can see into the darkness. I decide I will turn on the light to avoid falling as Sheba did. I walk down the stairs slowly trying to imagine the path of the locket as it bounced down these steps so long ago. I reach the bottom. A cold spot. Not surprising, this is where Sheba died. I move farther into the cellar’s interior. I kneel down and begin looking under old dressers that are not in use, the washer and dryer the family uses here, I move baskets of toys and play mats away from the walls, and there it is. The gold and diamond studded locket stuck between where the floor and the wall join. I pry it lose. It has lost its shine. I open it and there I see Sheba’s mother and father.

     “You have beautiful parents Sheba. I bet you look just like your mother.”

I smile, close the locket and take it to the backyard. The storm has stopped and the stars are clearly visible. I walk the backyard till I come across another cold spot. A grave site. I fetch a shovel from the garage and dig a foot or so into the muddy earth. I place the locket in the whole and cover it up. I return to the room.

     “Well, Sheba. I have returned your locket. Are you ready to return to your parents? I am sure they are waiting for you. They have probably missed you so much and have been waiting a very long time to see you. What do you say, ready to cross over?”
          ~Yes. Please, I wish to see my mommy and daddy again.

I smile. I sit Indian style in front of the board, close my eyes and breathe deeply. I allow my soul to be rejected by my body. I am truly Rheta now, a spirit. I look at Fedora, technically dead, but still sitting the way I left her. I peer around the room and sitting on the bed is Sheba. She is even more beautiful and more precious then I could have ever imagined. I walk and sit on the bed next to her; she has the locket in her hands. I grab the chain and place it around her neck. I hold out my hand, and she takes it, as a portal of light opens a few feet away from the bed. She jumps slightly but I squeeze her hand and smile. She readies herself and slips off the bed. We walk through the portal together, as it closes behind us.