Love is Enough

"I think heaven didn't want us and the devil had his hands full with bankers and such," Gabby said. "So here we are." She scooted closer and hooked her hand in the crook of TJ's elbow. "You're rattled. That's sweet. You know, hardly any fellas care how a floozy dies."

Hannah poked TJ's ribs and asked, "Who's your sheba?" TJ looked confused, and she asked again, "Who's your girl?"

"I'm between girls," TJ said, then laughed at himself. "My last 'sheba' left to follow her job. I have friends who are girls, but no-one's stepped up to girlfriend."

Gabby stifled a laugh. "Play your cards right and you could be sittin' pretty, even without a gal of your own." She looked to Hannah and asked "How about a drink-ski? Let's go find that bottle."

"How about a drunk-ski?" Hannah answered. They faded away, and TJ found himself alone again. He tried to write, but the words wouldn't come.

2.

Monday and Tuesday were TJ's weekend, and he needed the time. His roommates both worked nights, and he used the quiet mornings to gather his thoughts. He was convinced that Gabby and Hannah were real, and now he wanted to know them better. If they were alive, then he would take them to a concert or to dinner. But how do you get to know a ghost?

TJ was manning the box office on Wednesday afternoon when Hannah and Gabby found him. He was paging through the newspaper and skimming articles about politics and violence. First he felt a cold brush on his shoulder, then another on his opposite hip, and he knew the girls were with him.

Gabby whispered close by his ear, "You didn't come see us." She sounded like her feelings were hurt, and her cold presence made him shiver.

"I didn't know I needed to do that," TJ said. "Are you going to let me see you?"

"You don't get what you don't pay for," Hannah said, and the hard tone of her voice made TJ understand. The girls wanted attention, and he wasn't giving it to them.

"Sorry," TJ said, "I won't open the dressing rooms until just before the cast gets here."

Gabby changed the subject."What are you doin'?" she asked. He could feel both girls lean over his shoulders to look at the paper.

"Nobody's buying tickets, so I'm reading the news," TJ said, "It's better on paper than it is on my phone." He thought to ask, "Do you read?"

"Pos-i-lute-ly!" Gabby said, but she looked confused. "How do you read on a phone?" she asked, then waved off her own question. "Never mind, it's one of those new things, right?

"I had to read scripts and things you know. I like readin' the dailies—especially the comics."

"I can read a little," Hannah said, "like some signs." My step-dad didn't want me in school. But I like it when Gabby reads to me."

"Why don't you read us some news," Gabby asked. "It'll be fun."

TJ shivered and said, "I'll bring the paper to the stage with me after dinner. Right now you guys are freezing me."

"Hah!" Hannah said. "You sound like another fella I knew. All them things that were supposed to happen later? They never happened."

Hannah's cold presence faded away. "You might be lucky," Gabby said. "Hannah hurts people. She can be mean when she's disappointed. I don't think she can stop herself, and she never says she's sorry," and Gabby faded, too.

The theater was dark and quiet, and dinner was done when TJ closed the house doors behind him. He couldn't believe that reading news with the ghosts would do him any good, but Hannah challenged him. He had to do something.

TJ found Gabby standing under the light at the middle of the stage. He climbed the stairs to the stage before Hannah appeared. She sat in the easy chair and chewed on her thumbnail, crossed one knee over the other, and bounced her foot up and down to some rhythm in her head.

TJ had his laptop in one hand, and the newspaper under his arm. He handed the newspaper to Gabby and said, "Can you read this for Hannah? I need to write."

Gabby glared at TJ, but she sat down right where she stood, with her legs crossed and the paper open on her lap. Hannah sat down facing her and looked curiously at the pictures.

TJ turned away and heard Gabby read, "On Tues-day, wit-ness-es in Ath-ens said two men..." He stopped and listened. Gabby's reading was painfully slow. He was skeptical. How could she read a script that way? He was standing and watching when she looked up at him.

"I'm a slow reader," she said.

TJ gave in. He went back to the girls, laid his laptop on the stage and sat down with them. "I'll read to both of you," he said.

"For real?" Gabby asked, "I guess you didn't need to write all that much, huh."

TJ took the paper from Gabby and laid it on the floor where they could all see. He read a front-page article while Gabby and Hannah stretched out on their bellies and watched. He read a police story, and then the weather, and worked back through the paper one page at a time.

The girls listened. They looked at the pictures and asked questions until TJ got tired of sitting. He stretched out with Gabby at his side and Hannah across from him and read until he reached the comics.

"You like the comics," TJ said, and pushed the page to Gabby. "You read it."

"Where's Olive Oyl?" Gabby said. "The Katzenjammer Kids, and Krazy Kat?" She ran her finger over the unfamiliar comic strips and butted TJ with her shoulder. "Mutt and Jeff aren't even here! I don't want to read this!"

"Let's see," TJ said, and opened his laptop. Hannah moved over beside him so she could watch too, and TJ searched for the old comics. "There!" he said and showed them a page of comics from 1925.

"How'd you do that?" Gabby asked then said, "Oh never mind." She looked at Hannah, then started picking her way through Krazy Kat.

Gabby needed help now and then with a word she couldn't read, and each time TJ helped her Gabby moved a little closer and felt a little warmer. When they finished the page, Gabby put her arm over TJ's shoulders and burrowed her nose under his ear until her lips touched his neck. "That was fun," she said, "But I think I'm done."

TJ ducked his head against his shoulder and laughed. He rolled onto his back to defend himself against Gabby's tickling and pulled her with him. He held her rayon-draped body in his hands and looked up at her wide grin.

"You know, a little neckin' could be free," Gabby said.

TJ didn't go there to make out in the middle of the stage with a ghost, but there he was. He put his arm around Gabby's neck, pulled her mouth to his, and explored her with his tongue. He pushed his hand up under her camisole and cupped her little tits in his hand. She was firm, and her nipples hardened under his touch.

TJ didn't see Gabby motion to Hannah, or tug her toward him. He didn't see Hannah kneel beside him. He felt her open his pants and drag them down. Her hands were warm when she lifted his balls and stroked his cock, and he groaned his excitement when she slipped her lips over its head and took him in her mouth. He needed to break off his kiss with Gabby just to breathe, but she didn't let him go. He had to push her away, and she laughed at him.

Hannah's blond head bobbed over TJ's lap and his cock traveled between her lips and over her tongue. Gabby giggled in his ear and kissed his neck. He had one tit in hand, and his other hand stroked her back under her camisole. It traveled down over her narrow waist and under her knickers.

Gabby pushed herself up on TJ's chest and watched him while Hannah pumped him in her fist. Hannah kissed his cock and slipped her tongue around its sensitive, flared edge. TJ was already past the point of no return when she took him to the back of her mouth again. He bucked, his grip tightened on Gabby's butt, and he held her against him while his balls clenched. His hot cream gushed the length of his shaft, and he emptied himself into Hannah's mouth, onto her chin, and onto her throat.

It was Gabby who tensed first, and Hannah followed. "Someone's comin'," Gabby said. Their warm bodies flashed to icy cold, and they left TJ laying flat on his back in the middle of the stage with his pants around his knees.

TJ struggled to pull his pants up and was standing again when the house door opened. Three ladies with vacuum cleaners filed through the door, and TJ pounded his forehead with the heel of his palm. He was going to have to keep the cleaning schedule in mind if he was going to have time with Hannah and Gabby.

* * * *

TJ's next opportunity to see Hannah and Gabby came the next afternoon. He didn't repeat his mistake from the day before. He waited for a moment when no-one was looking for him and went downstairs to unlock the girls' dressing room. TJ sensed the light scent he knew was their perfume even before they appeared.

"You remembered!" Gabby said. She squeezed herself against TJ and stood on her toes to kiss his cheek.

"I couldn't forget," TJ said, and it was true. "Are you going to follow me around again?"

"Maybe," Hannah said. "Unless we find some fella who's more fun."

They followed him until they found a television playing soap operas in the box office. Then he lost them. It seemed odd to TJ that he would miss the freeze when they brushed against him or when he walked through them. He took the quiet time to plan something to keep them busy—hopefully while he wrote.

The afternoon changed with a bang and a thump, and forty minutes later TJ sent Mack off in an ambulance. He had bruises and a cut on his forehead, but mostly he was confused. He had gone into the box office and before he left he turned off the TV. Then he walked head first into the edge of the door and fell. He couldn't remember how it happened. All he could remember was the chill he felt right before it happened.

TJ stood alone in the lobby after the dust settled. His anger put an edge on his voice when he asked, "Why did you do that? You know, Mack isn't just my boss, he's my friend."

"It was Hannah," Gabby said and appeared beside him. "Is the big cheese gonna be okay? She slammed the door into him."

Another moment passed before Hannah appeared. She turned away from TJ, chewed on her thumbnail, and listened.

"I think he'll be okay." TJ said. "He might be sore. He might have a concussion, but why?"

Hannah didn't flinch, so Gabby answered, "He shut off the movie box—that thing you called a TV—and we were watchin' it."

"Okay, maybe I'll put up a sign that says, 'Please leave the TV on. There are invisible people watching.'" TJ said. "Or maybe I just won't let people turn it on. I'm going to get dinner." He stopped at the lobby door, turned back, and his voice softened. "Don't go hide or anything. I have something for you."

The girls weren't around when TJ got back from dinner. He set his laptop in the tech booth and figured their curiosity would bring them out soon enough. First he downloaded some movie files into the system, then he rolled the screen down at the back of the stage. He was checking the projector when a cold touch on his shoulder made him flinch.

Hannah took shape beside TJ, and she asked, "What'cha doing?"

"I thought you might like some movies," TJ said. He looked around then asked, "Where's Gabby?"

"She's having a pout," Hannah said. "We had a tiff."

"Can you pull her out here?" he asked. "It'll only be a few minutes before I can start the show."

TJ checked his laptop and made sure his link to the media program was good. He went to stage right and turned off the light over the stage, then hoisted it out of the way. He was still alone when he found his way through the darkened house to the seat at the center of row ten, and settled down with his laptop in its usual spot on his lap.

Gabby was over her pouts when she appeared in the seat on TJ's right. She looked at the screen and said, "Hot dog! We have our very own petting pantry." Hannah appeared on his left and settled quietly into the seat beside him before Gabby asked, "What's showing?"

"What do you want?" TJ asked. "I have Ben Hur, The Gold Rush, and The Phantom of the Opera."

Gabby squealed loud enough to hurt TJ's ear. "I didn't see any of those before... well, you know," she said, "But I wanted to see them all. Can we see The Gold Rush first? I love the Little Tramp."

TJ got some notes taken while girls on both sides giggled through The Gold Rush and he got a little writing done when they fell quiet at the beginning Ben Hur. They all watched Iras try to seduce Juddah, and then the girls gasped and clutched TJ's arms through the chariot race. Gabby felt heavy on his shoulder after the race, and he found her sleeping, maybe with a little ghost drool at the corner of her pretty lips.

Hannah was quiet. She sat upright with her eyes fixed on the screen. "Do you like it?" TJ asked.

She glanced at TJ before she looked back at the screen. "I never saw a movie until I left home," she said, "And then the fellas were more interested in petting than watching." Hannah looked across TJ at Gabby then settled deeper in her seat and leaned against him. "I don't know about all that religious stuff. If everything we was told came true then Gabby and me would be burning in hell."

TJ closed his play and lifted his arm around Hannah's shoulders. She was a doll after all. She didn't even look away from the screen when she said, "I didn't hurt your friend." TJ watched and waited until Hannah looked up at him. "Gabby and me both got our problems. I hurt people because I can. Gabby lies to get what she wants. And we both need each other."

"So, what happened?" TJ asked.

"Gabby got mad and pushed him into the door," Hannah said. "She lied about it because she wants you to think she's all doe-eyed, and she knew you'd believe I did it. I went along with it, but then we had our tiff.

"It won't be the last time she lies to you," Hannah said, "Not the first time neither. Yesterday, when she was reading so slow—that was piffle. She reads about like you, but she wanted you to think she don't." He felt Hannah soften under his arm, and she said, "She wanted you to read, and we both liked it. I liked it a lot."

Gabby stirred when the music stopped and blinked her eyes at the screen. "What's next?" she asked. TJ queued up The Phantom of the Opera. Hannah liked it when he read, so he read the intertitles for both of them.

The girls squealed, clutched his hands, and buried their faces in his shoulders. Christine and Raoul fled to the top of the opera house where they might hide from the phantom, but when the camera backed out, it showed Erik clinging to the lightening rod above them with his red cape streaming in the wind. Both girls screamed.

In the end, Gabby rested her head on TJ's shoulder and said, "We're the phantoms of the theater, you know. I think I feel sorry for Erik."

TJ thought the night was a success, but he had chores to do before he could relax with his dates. Hannah and Gabby watched from their seats while he lowered the light over the stage again and turned it on. He put the screen away and shut the projector down. Then he watched from the tech booth as first Hannah faded away and then Gabby followed.

3.

The girls didn't wait the next day for TJ to open the dressing room. They seemed to be falling into their own routine for haunting the old theater. That was good, because TJ needed to cover Mack's job and his own.

He was sending his maintenance people away and closing doors when a cold hand on his chest pushed him into a closet. The overhead light came on, Gabby appeared in front of him, and Hannah appeared at his side.

Gabby stood on her toes, threw her arms around his neck, and said "We didn't properly thank you for the movies last night." Hannah slipped her hand around his waist, and they both sent shivers up his spine—not from the cold, but from their arousing warmth. "You were such a gentleman, too. I was almost disappointed," she said.

"What are we doing tonight?" Hannah asked, and TJ gave up any plan for writing.

He unwrapped Gabby from around his neck and told Hannah, "I haven't had time to think much about tonight," and he checked his watch. "Mack has a concussion and stitches, and he'll be out for another day, so I'm going to take some papers to him to sign, then have dinner. You aren't going anywhere, right?"

It wasn't until he got back to the theater that TJ thought again about doing something for the girls. He found a paperback romance in the box office where one of the volunteers liked to read, and he was leafing through it while the house doors closed behind him.

Hannah appeared on stage before Gabby and said, "A book? Does it have pictures?"

TJ climbed on stage and showed them the pages of text. "No pictures," he said. "I'll read it, and it'll be like a radio show or something."

Gabby took the sofa and reclined to listen, and Hannah sat upright in the easy chair with one of the straps of her camisole hanging off her shoulder.

TJ tossed his jacket on the back of the sofa and loosened his tie. He readied his voice for the show then read, "Chapter 1. Emily stood alone under the platform lights and watched the train pull away. The rail cars glided by, and the golden light inside showed the passengers arranging themselves. There were soldiers in uniform returning to their billets, lonely salesmen on their rounds, and women with their children, possibly moving far away. She saw Victor's hand wave through a window and quickly waved back before the car rattled away and left her in the cool, dark night.

"'It will be quiet with him gone,' Emily said. She turned back to where her mother watched, and she touched the simple diamond ring on her left hand. 'I'm sure he'll be back,' she said.

"They turned together toward their carriage waiting by the station, and together they caught their breath. They faced a tall man as dark as the night. His eyes glinted in the shadows while he took in the signs of Emily's good upbringing.

"'Excuse me, ladies,' he said, and stepped out of their way."

TJ flipped through pages to skip parts, but he read for most of an hour. Hannah's eyes grew large and Gabby smiled while they watched him pace between them, but then he had to stop to get a drink, and it was like breaking a spell. The girls tried to say in five minutes all the things they'd been holding in.

When TJ came back he left a plastic cup on the table by the easy chair and opened the book again. "Chapter 5," he said and waited for Hannah and Gabby to settle down. "It was a cold spring, and a gray one. Emily tugged her shawl around her shoulders and watched rainwater run over the window panes. Farther out, the raindrops dashed themselves on the garden wall, and past that the trees lining the meadow disappeared into the mist.

"Her sister read to her from Victor's letter. 'My love,' he said. 'I fear that my grandparents' need is greater than I anticipated. I won't belabor you with details, but my family's enterprise hangs in a balance.'

"She tossed the letter aside and stood up. 'Clearly the foreseeable future does not include Victor coming back to you,' she said, 'Nor does he invite you to him.' Emily watched her sister storm past Antoine, who played quietly at the piano. When they were alone, Antoine stood behind Emily at the window, as tall and as dark as he was that night when they first met."

TJ read through parts of four more chapters while Hannah stifled herself with both hands on her mouth, and Gabby threw herself back into the sofa. He stopped for a drink again, laughed as they babbled about the story, and didn't start again until they were quiet.

"Chapter 9," TJ said. "'You grow impatient?' Antoine asked, and turned on Emily. 'You, who daily tempts me with your touch and your smile?' He advanced on Emily who tried silently to deny his accusations, but could not.