Ghostfinders 03 -Ghost of a Dream

these dressing-rooms. Maybe I can pick up some useful mental impressions from them.”
    “After twenty years?” said Elizabeth.
    “Time means nothing to the dead,” said Happy. “The Past is always with us, not least because most people never learn to put it down properly.”

    Benjamin and Elizabeth led the way down from the stage, then strode briskly up the long, narrow central aisle of the auditorium. They hurried along, chatting easily to each other, while Happy slouched along behind them, bringing up the rear. He didn’t mind that they weren’t talking to him; he honestly wouldn’t have known what to say if they had. Happy wasn’t one for small talk, or most other people skills. And then he stopped, half-way up the aisle, to look back at the stage.
    JC hadn’t budged an inch. He was still holding his position at centre stage, smiling broadly, and discoursing loudly on something important. Though, to her credit, Lissa didn’t seem to be nearly as impressed with JC as JC clearly thought she ought to be.
    Melody was already heading off the stage, going in search of her precious scientific equipment back in the lobby. She didn’t look back at Happy, even for a moment. Happy was used to that. He knew he was only really real for Melody when he was right in front of her. Or sometimes behind, depending on her mood…
    Happy stood in the middle of the vast, sprawling auditorium and felt very alone and very vulnerable. He didn’t like to work on his own; he preferred being part ofa team, if only because it meant there would always be someone there for him to hide behind. But JC had put him in charge of the actors, and Happy had always had a lot of respect for JC. Though, of course, he had never let JC even suspect that because JC would have taken advantage. So Happy quietly decided that he would do his job and do it well. Because he needed someone to be proud of him since he couldn’t manage it for himself. He sighed deeply, did his best to square his shoulders in a convincing fashion, and followed Benjamin and Elizabeth up the central aisle to the great swing doors at the top.
    The actors swept through the swing doors, still talking, without even glancing back to see if Happy was following. He was used to that, too. He sometimes wondered wistfully if people forgot about him when he wasn’t actually making a nuisance of himself. Which might be why he did it so often. He paused again at the swing doors, for one last look out over the auditorium. He didn’t dare open his mind for fear of being swamped and overwhelmed by all the prowling memories and emotions of past audiences, like in the lobby…but he was quite definitely picking up something. A strong feeling of being watched, observed, by unseen and unfriendly eyes. Happy stared back defiantly, and hurried through the swing doors after Benjamin and Elizabeth.

    The actors led him down a corridor or two, then took a sharp left turn into actors’ backstage territory. One whole corridor had been given over to a long row of dressing-rooms, stretching away into the brightly lit distance.Happy gave the fierce fluorescent lighting a long, suspicious look; but since Benjamin and Elizabeth didn’t say anything, he didn’t either. On both sides of the corridor, the doors to all the dressing-rooms stood open, falling back into the rooms, like open invitations to enter. Happy slammed to a halt and looked thoughtfully at the open doors. The two actors realised Happy wasn’t with them, stopped, and looked expectantly back at him as he tried to decide whether the doors’ standing open was a good sign or not. On the whole, he rather thought not because that was what he thought about most things. But after all, why would all the doors be open…
    He made Benjamin and Elizabeth stay where they were and stand still, while he slowly and very cautiously peered into the first dressing-room. He eased past the open door without actually touching it (noticing absently that it didn’t have a star on it), and looked around the room—brightly lit by a single hanging light bulb. The door was open, the light was on, but nobody was home…And then Happy almost jumped out of his skin when Benjamin and Elizabeth got impatient and barged into the dressing-room after him.
    “I told you to stay put!” said Happy, doing his best to sound angry, as JC would have.
    Elizabeth looked down her nose at him. “I have been shouted at and verbally abused by the greatest directors in the