Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

that’s taboo.” She looked away. “When I started … manifesting, I thought
something was wrong with me, that I was sick. Seeing things that weren’t
there. She wouldn’t hear of it.” She laughed hollowly. “I know you probably
don’t get this, but we don’t talk about stuff like that in my family. It’s …
ingrained. She wouldn’t let me get help, to see a doctor, because for all that
she wanted to be American, there were still some things that just wouldn’t
do. After all, what would the neighbors think if they found out?”
“What happened?” Wallace asked, unsure if it was his place.
“She tried to keep me hidden away,” Mei said. “Kept me at home, telling
me that I was acting out, that nothing was wrong with me. Why would I do
this to her after all she’d done to give me a good life?” She smiled weakly.
“When that still didn’t work, I was given a choice. Either her way or the
highway. She said it just like that, and she was so proud of it, because it was
such an American thing to say.”
“Christ,” Wallace breathed. “How old were you?”
“Seventeen. Almost ten years ago now.” She gripped the countertop on
either side of her legs. “I went out on my own. Made good decisions.
Sometimes not-so-good decisions, but I learned from them. And she’s …
well. She’s not gotten better, exactly, but I think she’s trying. It’ll take time to
rebuild what we had before, if that’s even possible, but we talk on the phone
a few times a month. In fact, she was the first one to reach out. I talked it over
with Hugo, and he thought it might be an olive branch, but ultimately, it was
up to me to decide.” She shrugged. “I missed her. Even with all that
happened. It was … nice to hear her voice. Toward the end of last year, she
even asked me to come back and visit her. I told her I wasn’t ready for that,
at least not yet. I haven’t forgotten what she said to me before. She was
disappointed, but said she understood and didn’t push it. Still doesn’t change
what I see.”
“And what’s that?”
“People like you. Ghosts. Wandering souls who haven’t yet found their
way.” She sighed. “You know bug zappers? Those electric blue lights that
hang on porches and torch the bugs that fly into them?”
He nodded.
“I’m sort of like that,” she said. “Except for ghosts, not bugs, and I don’t
fry them when they get close. They’re attracted to something in me. When I
first started seeing them, I didn’t know how to make it stop. It wasn’t until…”