Holy Ghosts

Lynn got up early that morning. She was going to eat breakfast with Tommy out on the wide stone veranda beside the sparkling pool. From there, they could see the beautiful forest below and the roaring waterfalls in the distance. It was Lynn’s favorite spot in the massive mansion.

They both ordered hearty Texas omelets because they liked many of the same foods. While they ate breakfast, Lynn filled Tommy in on her newest assignment. She was going to Georgia to help a married couple repair their relationship and avoid a painful divorce. According to the detailed assignment page, the couple was destined to have a very large family, seven children to be exact. That future would never happen if the couple separated.

Tommy would be going with her on the mission. The plan was for Lynn and Tommy to pretend to be a happy couple so the troubled husband and wife might remember what love looked like and decide to stay together themselves.

With their suitcases packed and loaded, Tommy and Lynn headed toward the private airfield where the seasoned pilot was already warming up the sleek airplane and performing the necessary pre-flight checks. The pilot always insisted on doing the inspection himself. He trusted the maintenance crew, but he simply could not fly comfortably without personally checking everything first.

They planned to stop briefly in Hawaii before catching another flight to Atlanta, Georgia. Their hope was to meet the married couple at church on Sunday morning.

Lynn pulled up the couple’s photo on the Anything app on her phone and showed it to Tommy. Tommy smiled and said, “Good-looking couple.” He was right. Donna was a strikingly pretty woman with soft brown hair, and Mike was a tall, handsome man with broad shoulders. Lynn shook her head and quietly remarked, “What could people that good-looking possibly fight about? It’s baffling.”

Once they arrived in Atlanta, Lynn rented a large black SUV because she loved driving them. She always said you sat up high enough to see everything better. Tommy used the GPS to locate the couple’s church in an upscale area called Buckhead.

When they pulled into the parking lot, Tommy looked around in surprise and said, “Fancy church. They even have valet parking. Cool.”

Tommy and Lynn carefully and quietly tried to locate the new couple without drawing attention to themselves. Before officially meeting Mike and Donna Stevens, they needed to make friends around town because later they planned to meet the couple again during a vacation in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Donna had recently won a free two-week vacation from a local radio contest. Everything was included: hotel rooms, food, drinks, and stacks of free tickets to attractions around Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The trip worked perfectly for Lynn and Tommy’s mission.

Luckily for them, the church was holding a large catered dinner on the beautifully landscaped grounds that evening. It was not the usual church potluck. Long white tables were covered with elegant food trays and glowing lanterns. More importantly, it gave Tommy and Lynn plenty of time to mingle and become acquainted with Mike and Donna.

Mike and Donna Stevens had been married for almost three years. Deep down, they truly loved each other, but lately they had become furious with one another.

A few weeks earlier, Donna had come home and calmly informed Mike that she would be traveling to Florida for a weekend work trip with her boss for company training meetings.

Mike immediately became angry and suspicious. He snapped, telling her that her boss was only trying to get her alone with him. Donna became absolutely livid and accused Mike of not trusting her.

Mike fired back, “It’s not you I don’t trust. It’s that sorry excuse for a boss you have. He just wants to get you by yourself to do whatever he wants.”

People always say you should never go to bed angry, but that was exactly what Mike and Donna did that night.

The following day was Donna’s day off, so Mike secretly drove down to the arts and crafts store where Donna worked. He had met her boss a few times before when he picked Donna up after work.

Inside the colorful craft store, Mike approached Donna’s boss while carrying several clay-working kits in his arms. Pretending to be interested in pottery, Mike asked questions about beginner clay projects he could make. Donna’s boss was friendly and helpful, gladly explaining the different tools and materials.

While pretending to browse the store, Mike glanced toward the back aisle and suddenly exclaimed, “Oh wow, there’s Daryl Scruggs. He just got out of prison. I went to high school with him. Never did like him.”

Mike lowered his voice dramatically and continued, “The jury called it a crime of passion, but murder is still murder. He caught his wife with another man in their bedroom and shot the guy with his pistol.”

The truth was, Mike had completely invented the entire story. Not one word of it was true. He was only trying to scare Donna’s boss into leaving his wife alone.

Mike thanked the man for helping him with the clay supplies and casually left the store.

The next day, Donna discovered exactly what Mike had said to her boss, and she was furious beyond words. She became even angrier when she learned her frightened boss had suddenly transferred to another store in South Carolina and skipped town altogether.

When Mike returned home from work that evening, he immediately noticed two packed suitcases sitting in the hallway near the front door.

Before he could even ask about them, the beautiful crystal punch bowl from their engagement party flew across the room and exploded against the wall beside him, shattering into hundreds of glittering pieces.

“You want me to leave?” Mike cautiously asked.

From somewhere down the hallway, Donna screamed, “I don’t care what you do, but you can’t stay here!”

Mike quickly called one of his friends, who agreed to let him stay for a while.

About a week later, Mike’s buddy awkwardly sat him down and said, “Look, man, I love you like a brother, but you need to head back home or find somewhere else to stay. You know what they say gets old after three days? Fish and house guests. Seriously, I’m sorry, but my wife says you gotta go, dude.”

Mike finally worked up the courage to call Donna. Before he could even ask about coming home, Donna immediately started fussing about their upcoming Tennessee vacation. She wanted to sell Mike’s half of the trip to one of her friends for two thousand dollars.

Mike stubbornly replied, “No way. I’m going on that trip. We’ve been married three years and haven’t done anything fun. Every vacation we stayed home just to save money. I’m going to Tennessee, and I’m gonna have a blast.”

Donna coldly answered, “Well, I’m not riding in a car with you all the way to Tennessee.”