Coalescence (Camden Investigations Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

day
three months ago where she’d lost her Mom and sprained an ankle, bruised some
ribs and suffered lacerations about her skull.
    DJ ached for the same distraction she’d experienced
moments before the crash. But DJ wasn’t seeking a mere breeze to blow back her
hair. She wanted to terminate her gift. End any means of future communication
with her mother, for good. DJ didn’t know how to quit being a medium. But she
could put it on hold via distraction. Extreme focus often worked better than
opting for an oblivious state generated from alcohol. Temporary disruptions,
they would have to do.
    After the accident, she made everyone stop calling her
Doris, her Mom’s name. She had often been referred to as Doris Jean to
distinguish between the two. Her mother’s death terminated any chance of
confusion. Iris wished her sister would retain the name Doris to honor her
mother. DJ wondered, sometimes aloud in the dead of night, why everyone was so
clueless. Didn’t they realize the name along with the promise of unending
after-death conversations with Mom would only serve to accentuate each pain of
separation like a knife dug repeatedly into an open wound? Mom was gone. A name
wouldn’t bring her back. Ghost whispering wouldn’t make her whole. She was only
a shell of herself. Yet Mom refused to believe that.
    Mom refused to crossover. Tonight was no exception. She
was back.
    “I guess the dream brought you back again. Is that how it
works? Each time I think of you, you appear?” DJ’s voice was laced with
sarcasm. “You know I try very hard to keep you away. You don’t live here
anymore. Why don’t you get this?”
    Mom transferred from a wispy cloud to a more
distinguishable form during DJ’s rant. “I’ll never leave you. It’s nonsense to
think I would. Especially, since you are so capable of receiving me. I know the
accident was—” She paused to ponder. “—an inconvenience. But it
won’t keep us apart. I didn’t name you after me for nothing. We will always be
together.”
    DJ stammered with frustration. “We walk in two different
worlds. It’s not natural for you to stay in my world anymore. We will be
together when I can join you.”
    “I saw the way you looked at me on that table. You need
me now. Don’t deny it.”
    “I’m not denying that. It just pains me to have you
around as a reminder . . . a reminder that you’re not really
around. What can we do together except engage in small talk? Is this any kind
of . . .?” DJ paused to emit a sarcastic grunt. “Is this any
kind of life ?”
    As Mom approached the bed, DJ scurried backwards kicking
her blanket in front of her until she could pull it completely off the bed.
“Mom, we can’t be close like that . . .”
    Mom extended her arms as if to embrace.
    “No.” DJ hopped to her feet and began thrashing the
blanket to and fro matador-style. The pain in her ankle had nearly subsided.
She wasn’t at full dexterity to dance, but she did a pretty good job at
resisting mother’s advances.
    Yet DJ’s actions could not deter her mother’s love. Mom’s
eyes sparkled. They looked exactly as they were before the crash, which made DJ
cringe all the more. She should be hideous. Her mother refused to appear before
her youngest daughter sporting a sliced up skull.
    The caress she wanted to give to DJ would be anything but
comforting to the nineteen year old. It would have been more acceptable to see
her mother’s mutilated deformity. But in full denial mode, Mom appeared in
perfect makeup with a creamy complexion and pouty pink lips. But it was all a
fake. Just like the viewing at the funeral home. Her mother would not accept
her final image. DJ doubted she ever would.
    “Mom, leave the house. Leave it now!”
    Jumping off her bed, cowering toward her closed bedroom door
with the blanket still shielding her, DJ resisted the urge to scream. She had
heard a noise emanating from the kitchen and deducted Iris had returned from a
night of