Tear the Walls Down

Josephine couldn’t have been more excited when she saw the car pull into her driveway. A new roommate! Her house was so out of the way she was surprised that anyone would want to live here.

Jo stood in the foyer holding two champagne glasses. The dainty things were a stark contrast to the house, with its peeling walls, dark corners, and creaky floorboards. She hoped her new friend wouldn’t mind the blemishes. At least, she hoped Sandra wanted to be friends. Dear goodness, Jo didn’t want it to be a case of carefully avoiding each other, waiting till one left the room so the other could enter. Jo had experienced that once in her life, and it hadn’t been pleasant­.

She was getting ahead of herself. Jo wasn’t the type to force anything.

The front door opened, and Jo jumped, a bit of champagne splattering the floor. A girl stood in the doorway with wide eyes. She was about Jo’s age, in her twenties. She had dark hair and a nose piercing, and Jo truly adored the dark flannel and ripped jeans. She was the opposite of Jo in every way, who wore bright colors and whose hair was blonde. That was quite alright. Jo loved meeting new types of people, not that she got around to doing that anymore.

“Welcome!” Jo said, stepping forward. Her new roommate still looked surprised. “You must be Sandra. My name is Josephine, but people call me Jo. Come in!”

Jo gestured with the dainty glasses into the middle of the foyer.

“Hi,” Sandra said, moving into the house. 

Jo offered her the champagne. “Care for a drink?”

Sandra took it. “Um, thank you.”

“You’re very welcome.”

Sandra took a sip and glanced around. She looked worried. Jo could understand that. Her home was a hollow, sickly thing. It was practically collapsing in on itself, like an animal preparing to die. Jo’s favorite room was her closet. She liked to sit in there and cry.

Sandra looked at the scratched floorboards and shifted her feet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know someone else was staying here.”

Jo tilted her head. “Really? I’ve known you were coming ever since you visited a couple weeks ago. I’ve lived here for ages.”

“No one was here when I—”

“Not to worry!” Jo said, covering her slip up. “I’m sorry for the confusion. I promise I’ll be a good roommate. I hardly make a mess, and I won’t sing to myself too loudly.”

Jo smiled and Sandra’s shoulders relaxed.

“Alright,” Sandra said. “Let me go get my things from the car.”

She handed Jo her glass.

“I’ll be right out to help you,” Jo said, trying to contain her excitement. She couldn’t believe it. She’d been alone for so long. The only company she got was when David visited, and even then, things got fuzzy when he came around.

Jo turned and flickered from existence and reappeared in the kitchen to set down the glasses.

Sandra screamed and fled from her new home.

Oh bother! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Jo had gotten so caught up in her excitement, she hardly thought about what she’d been doing.

She had to fix this, salvage it somehow. She could not live by herself again. From the kitchen, Jo could see Sandra running to her car. Hoping it wouldn’t make things worse, she flickered again, and in a split second stood between Sandra and her mode of escape.

Sandra stumbled to a stop and her mouth fell open to let out another scream. She fell onto her bottom, hands raised defensively. Something familiar pulled Jo’s dead heart into her stomach. She sat the exact same way when David­­—

Jo bent down and brought herself to Sandra’s level. She reached out a hand to her shoulder.

“Please,” Sandra murmured. “Don’t hurt me.”

Jo didn’t touch her. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I wasn’t thinking. It was my fault, really. I wouldn’t ever hurt you.”

Sandra looked up at her. “What are you?”

That stung a little, but Jo understood. “I’m just like you, but I am not alive.”

“You’re-you’re dead?”

Jo nodded and stood up. “I won’t stop you if you want to leave. I just wanted you to know that if you choose to stay, I wouldn’t harm you. I am a friendly ghost.”

Jo gave what she hoped was a disarming smile and moved so she wasn’t standing between Sandra and her car.

Sandra climbed to her feet. She looked pale, but there wasn’t panic plastered across her face anymore. In fact, she looked resigned.

How odd.

“I guess we can give it a try,” she said.

Jo couldn’t contain her glee. She jumped and clapped. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun!”

Sandra gave a small, wary smile.

***

Jo showed Sandra to her room. It had been cleaned and dusted, and Jo used the best sheets and comforter in the house. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about the warped walls or the draft. Jo stood nervously as Sandra walked into the room and turned about.

She looked satisfied. “This is perfect, thank you.”

Jo smiled and let herself feel proud. She felt that she should leave to let Sandra get settled without a ghost looking over her shoulder, but there was something itching at Jo.

“How come you decided to stay?” Jo asked.

Sandra lifted her suitcase up on to the bed. It bounced and the springs let out harsh squeak.

“Well,” Sandra said, unzipping her suitcase, “even though I found out about the existence of ghosts twenty minutes ago, based on you, they must not all be bad. I don’t really know you, but any ghost that offers me alcohol is alright in my book­.”

Sandra pulled out her clothes and began hanging them in the closet. Most of her clothes were dark and gloomy. 

Sandra spoke again, but her voice shook. She didn’t look at Jo. “And I’ve been through enough shit to not really care if the one person who’s nice to me is dead or alive.”

Jo wanted to learn more about what Sandra meant by that, but she felt it would be out of place to push. They’d only just met.

“I understand. Thank you for giving me a chance. I’ll leave you to get settled.”

Jo turned, prepared to flicker away, but stopped herself. She’d try not to do that when Sandra was around. She walked out and closed the door behind her. After years of loneliness--except for brief respites in the form of David—she finally made a friend. She hoped Sandra would stick around. Jo didn’t know what she’d do if she didn’t.

***

The next few days passed by in a blur, as most days did for Jo. While Sandra was out—she worked as an overtaxed waitress at the Applebee’s thirteen miles away—she spent her time going about her routine; cleaning, singing to herself, baking, reading, and trimming the garden. All in that order. Every day. She didn’t know why she did these things, it was just what she did. She hadn’t found that odd until she observed Sandra on her days off. She did different things all day, and in a different order! One day she didn’t leave her room at all. It worried Jo and she checked on her, but she had just been sleeping.

Jo couldn’t remember much about being alive, but she didn’t think she ever spent the entire day sleeping. What was the point of living then?

Despite their differences though, they got along well. Jo still thought about the conversation they had when Sandra first moved in; about her going through stuff, and why she wasn’t afraid to share living space with a ghost.

One night, Jo felt that they had gotten comfortable enough for her to ask more personal questions. She had been sorting out her thoughts and trying to figure out the best way to approach the sensitive topics, when Sandra beat her to it.

“Who is David?” She asked from behind the island in the kitchen. Jo almost dropped the tray of cookies she pulled from the oven. Jo couldn’t eat them, but she loved baking for other people, and she loved the warm buttery smell that came along with all baked goods. Next time she wanted to make an apple pie. She hadn’t made one in forever and­­—

“Jo? It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about him. I’ve just heard you muttering his name, like you were talking to him sometimes.”

Eyes closed, Jo rested a hand against her forehead and gripped the oven handle. “No, its fine. I just…”

She felt dizzy.

“Here, sit down,” Sandra said. She helped Jo to one of the stools next to the island. Sandra sat next to her.

They were both quiet for a while. Jo didn’t want to talk about David, but how did she expect Sandra to open up if she didn’t?

Jo steeled herself. “David is the man who...loves me. He comes around every once in a while. He brings me flowers.”

“That’s sweet of him,” Sandra said. There was an odd note to her voice.

“Yes. David is a very passionate man.”

Sandra narrowed her eyes. She looked like she wanted to ask more about David, but Jo couldn’t do it. Quickly, she jumped in with her own questions.

“How come you decided to move to this creepy old shadowy house in the middle of the woods? I know you mentioned that you’d been through a lot, but I was wondering if you could enlighten me a little.”

Sandra tilted her head, probably wondering if she could confide in a ghost. Jo waited anxiously. David didn’t like it when she asked questions.

Sandra seemed to conclude that she could trust Jo, and she felt warm where her heart was supposed to be.

“Well, I guess I wanted to get away from it all. I’d just gotten out of a toxic relationship, and I had get out of the city. It stunk pretty bad.”

“Toxic relationship?”

Sandra nodded. She eyed Jo carefully when she spoke. “He was pretty awful. Called me names, gaslighted me, hit me. I finally got a restraining order. I’ll have to see how it holds up.”

Jo covered her mouth with her pink-fingernailed hand. “That’s terrible. I’m so sorry to hear that.”

Sandra offered a thin smile and Jo got up and grabbed her a cookie. Sandra took it, and their conversation moved to lighter things.

***

Life went on like normal. Sandra didn’t bring up David again, and Jo didn’t question Sandra about her past relationship. They bonded over Sandra showing Jo her favorite comfort show, Friends, and Jo teaching Sandra how to care for the garden in the backyard.

Everything had been going swimmingly, right up until Sandra asked Jo why she needed to tend the garden every day.

And Jo…remembered.

Horrible. Horrible. She dropped her spade and flickered into her closet to cry. She tried to stuff the memories back into her mind like a lion tamer pushing a lion into a cage that was too small.

Jo was sitting against the wall under all her clothes, knees to her chest and arms wrapped around her legs when Sandra knocked on the door. “I’m sorry,” Sandra said. “I didn’t mean to upset you. Are you alright?”

Jo sniffled. “I’m fine. It wasn’t your fault.”

Sandra was quiet for a moment. The only sound was Jo’s sniffling.

“Can I come in?”

Jo hesitated. She didn’t want Sandra to see her this way, but they were friends now. And this is what friends did. “Yes.”

Sandra opened the door, and then sat cross-legged in the doorway.

Jo wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “I don’t know what gets into me sometimes.”

“What happened?”

Jo shrugged. “I think­­—I think I do the same activities every day because it was the last things I did on the day I died. And I just never realized it until you asked why I tended the garden so much.”

“How did you die?”

The question was abrupt, like Sandra had been waiting to ask it since she knew that Jo was a ghost. She looked guilty.

Jo’s mind blanked.

Then, there was a knock at the door. A chill washed down Jo’s spine, and she rested her head in her hands and groaned.

“Who is it?” Sandra asked as she climbed to her feet.

“It’s David. I mustn’t let him see me like this. Is my makeup smeared?”

Jo lifted her head from her hands, and Sandra stumbled back with a gasp. “Jo! Oh my God! What happened to you?”

“What do you mean?” Jo felt lightheaded, and something wet slid down the side of her cheek. She swiped at the wetness, and her hand came away red. Blood. Hadn’t that always been there? Why was Sandra so shocked? Jo’s head felt fuzzy.

David knocked on the door again. This time more forcibly. He wouldn’t be happy that Jo kept him waiting.

“I have to answer the door,” Jo said as she used the clothes above her to pull herself to her feet.

Sandra helped her. “No, you need to take care of yourself.”

“I’m dead, Sandra. There’s no point.”

This time, Sandra sounded angry. “Who hurt you, Jo?”

David knocked again. Jo flickered away and reappeared into the foyer just as David opened the door. He was a tall man with graying hair. What was he now? Sixty-three? It’s been so long since David lived with her. He held a bouquet of flowers lowered to his side, forgotten. His eyes were made of storms. Jo took a small step backwards.

“What took you so long? Whose car is that outside?” He demanded as he walked past her and into the home that they had once shared.

“I’m sorry, I was…in the middle of something.”

David scoffed. “No you weren’t. You barely do anything. Whose car is that?”

Sandra walked down the stairs, her eyes burning like coals. She looked so angry, but Jo didn’t understand why. Jo had kept David waiting, he had every right to be livid with her.

Sandra strode towards them and stood next to Jo.

David pointed at her. “Who is this?”

“This is my roommate,” Jo said, her voice small, “and she’s also my friend.”

“Friend? I told you not to let anyone into this house!”

David took a threatening step towards Jo, who shied away. Sandra pushed her hand against David’s chest. It barely made an impact, but it drew David’s anger onto her.

Sandra’s voice shook. “Don’t touch her.”

“Don’t tell me how to treat my wife.”

Sandra narrowed her eyes, and all Jo wanted was to tell her to keep quiet. This would all blow over if Jo and Sandra kept their mouths closed. David wasn’t a bad guy, he just lost his temper sometimes. The next words that Sandra said took that sentiment and buried it in the ground with Jo’s memories.

“You killed her, didn’t you?”

David’s eyes widened, turning feral like a trapped animal. It was the first time Jo had ever seen him scared. Not that she had much energy to process this new side of him; everything within her was diverted to remembering the night she’d been murdered.

David had come home angry, and Jo had been tending the garden in the backyard. He’d been upset from getting fired again, and even more upset that Jo didn’t have dinner ready. It wasn’t the first time David had physically taken his anger out on her. It all ended when David had picked her up from where she cowered and threw her to the ground. Her head smashed against the garden border. It was made of cinder blocks.

He’d never been caught.

Smack.

The sound drew Jo out of her fog. Sandra was on the floor with a hand to her cheek, David looming over her.

“Stupid girl! I’ll kill you too!”

Something broke free inside Jo and she put her hands over her ears and screamed. She screamed at herself, she screamed at David, and she screamed at what he had been done to her. But above all that, she screamed for Sandra. The woman who’d been through so much, who stood exactly where Jo stood, and stayed her ground. She put herself in front of a monster that no one would ever want to face.

The house came down around them. The animal took its last breath and died. Jo hadn’t known she’d been the one keeping it alive.

The roof fell inwards on top of David and he didn’t make a sound as he died. Jo grabbed Sandra’s hand, and with the walls collapsing, and the roof succumbing to gravity and wickedness, they escaped out the front door. 

“Are you okay?” Jo asked, once they stopped running.

“I’m good. Are you?” Sandra breathed hard. She turned to look at Jo. “You’re fading.”

Jo nodded. She knew, as soon David was no more, that her time was up. “I have to go, I’m sorry.”

Sandra looked sad. And happy. Jo remembered that emotion. Bittersweet. Yes, this was bittersweet.

“I’ll make sure that people know what happened to you. I don’t know how, but I’ll do it.”

The house settled to the ground, and all they were left with were the birds chirping. It was the first time Jo heard them since she died.

“Thank you, Sandra. You’ve been a great friend.”

“So have you. I won’t forget you.”

Jo smiled and faded away.