Love is Enough

That night, TJ watched the show from the top of the balcony with Hannah and Gabby invisible beside him. They appeared when the show was over and the crowed was filing down the stairs. "Is there really a story to that?" Hannah asked.

"It's a children's story," TJ explained. "Gabby told me last night that you were up here trying to figure it out, so I brought it with me today."

Hannah rolled her eyes and said, "Last night I was downstairs where Gabby told me to wait for her." She glared across TJ at Gabby, who turned her head away. "But you can read us a story any time you want," Hannah said. "No one read me no stories when I was little."

The theater was dark and empty when TJ settled down under the light at center stage and opened the book he brought with him. It was his old copy of Dumas' The Story of the Nutcracker. Gabby and Hannah leaned over his shoulders to look at the pictures while TJ read, "Once upon a time in the town of Nuremburg there lived a very respected counselor who people called Mr. Doctor Silberhaus, which means 'silver house.'"

TJ set the book aside when he was done. He watched Hannah and Gabby talk while Hannah paged through the pictures again. TJ had a question he worried over all afternoon, so he interrupted them to ask, "What would you do if I had to leave?"

"Are you talking about Christmas?" Gabby asked. "Usually when you're not here we just sleep a lot." She watched TJ's face and his expression was the only answer she needed. "You wouldn't leave us, would you? For good?"

Hannah pushed the book aside and stood up without saying anything. She walked to where the light faded to shadows in the wings and stopped. TJ could tell from the way she stood that Hannah was chewing on her thumbnail again.

"I wouldn't leave for good if I had a choice." TJ said. "But if I'm going to do anything with my life, then I'll have to be gone sometimes. People aren't going to come here to buy my plays."

"That ain't the worst of it," Hannah said, and turned back. "Even if TJ could put us in his pockets and tote us everywhere he went, he's still gonna leave us someday. Look at us, Gabby. We ain't changed a bit since the day we died. TJ's gonna grow old, and we're gonna stay like this forever. Maybe he should have a chance to live a life that we can't give him."

Hannah disappeared, and Gabby called after her. She jumped up, faded in a frigid swirl, and left TJ alone under the slowly swinging light.

10.

TJ was rested when he went back to the theater; he'd done little more than sleep for three days. He went straight to the box office and opened the drawer to find Gabby's script. TJ expected it would be a little worn from three days' study, maybe folded and marked up, but it wasn't. It was clean and crisp. There was a little heart drawn in the corner of the page. It was a sign, at least, that Gabby had been there.

"I've got it now," TJ told his volunteer. "I'll see you after lunch." The door had barely closed when he felt cold air curl around him, and Hannah appeared beside him.

"They have a bed!" she said. The sun angled through the box office windows, and while it was weak and wintry, it still sparked in Hannah's blue eyes. She stepped close and tugged on the lapels of TJ's suit jacket. "Now we can do that mattress jig proper," she said.

"A bed on stage?" TJ asked. He had to think a second. The Nutcracker was gone, and A Christmas Carol was in until Christmas, so Scrooge's bed would be on stage, or at least nearby.

"Gabby and I slept there last night," Hannah said and laughed. "It weren't much better than a mat on the floor, but it's a real bed. We'll probably go back to the sofa downstairs when you ain't here."

The phone rang and stopped their conversation. TJ was left anticipating a hot date, and that made the afternoon drag on.

It was six o'clock when the cast started showing up for rehearsal, and ten o'clock before they were done. It all went well but for that one girl who didn't know her lines or where she needed to be.

TJ checked the dressing rooms, locked the stage door, and patrolled the entire theater before he went back to the stage. The bed was pushed back into the shadows behind the wings. It wasn't until he got close and his eyes adjusted to the dim light that he saw a sight that would have made Scrooge's old heart explode.

Gabby and Hannah waited on the bed. They'd both already dropped their camisoles and their knickers, and they smiled at TJ from within the folds of bedsheets that wrapped loosely around their bare hips.

"Have you been waiting very long?" TJ asked. He hung his jacket and his tie on a bedpost and left his shoes by the bed while Gabby described their day. He climbed onto the bed, watched their smiles, and kissed their hands and their cheeks while they peeled the rest of his clothes off and dropped them by the bed.

TJ was lying on his back between Gabby and Hannah and inhaling their sweet perfume when he remembered the question he wanted to ask Hannah that afternoon, but let slip his mind. "Did you hear what Miriam told the Trustees?" he asked.

"She told them that we were the most wonderful and energetic ghosts she'd ever met," Gabby said. She traced a pattern on TJ's bare chest with her finger tips then touched the tip of his nose. "And she told them that if you weren't here we'd just be the normal, mopey sort of ghosts."

"That last bit ain't quite what she said," Hannah said. Gabby turned away, so TJ couldn't see her expression. "She said that we get energy from you, or from being with you. She told them that we would be calm and out of the way if you weren't here. Your Trustees thought they'd fire you, but Mack argued. I like Mack."

TJ stared into darkness above the stage and felt like he was running out of time. He slipped his hand around Gabby's waist and said, "Recite your lines for me—at least what you know. We may not have much time to work on it. Mack probably can't argue with the Trustees forever."

Gabby snapped her head around to look at TJ. Her lips were tight, her eyes were wide and red, and then she was gone.

"She ain't worked a minute on her lines," Hannah said. "She drew her little heart on that page so you'd think she did."

"Oh God." TJ said. He rolled off the bed and stumbled naked into the middle of the stage. "Where did you go?" he asked. "Gabby! Where are you?" TJ looked up and bellowed into the tower over the stage. "Gabriella!" he called. He could have been heard on the street. TJ turned about on the stage and bellowed again into the dark house. "Gabriella!" he called.

The sound of TJ's voice reverberated over the empty seats and slowly faded. The theater was quiet again when Gabby said, "No-one but my mom ever called me that, and she only called me that when I was in trouble. I'm in trouble, aren't I?" Her quiet question came from above TJ, from beyond that single light overhead.

TJ stepped aside and peered up past the light. He found Gabby sitting on the catwalk with her knees drawn up and wrapped in her arms. "You said you wanted lines." TJ said. "You said you wanted people to listen to you. Did you lie to me?" he asked.

"Those weren't lies," Gabby said. "Those weren't lies, but so much else is lies that sometimes I don't know the difference." TJ heard Gabby draw a trembling breath. "I lie to you. I lie to Hannah. I even lie to myself, TJ. I think I always have.

"The truth is that there never were other girls who cheated me out of my parts. I cheated myself out of those jobs because I didn't do the work. I laid the directors, but I didn't do the work."

"Come down, Gabby," TJ said. "You can't get what you want without work. I don't know how much time we have, but we'll do it together."

"I don't know," Gabby said. "And I don't know if I can."

Gabby faded into the darkness, and when TJ looked down again he found Hannah beside him. He pulled her into his arms, inhaled the scent of her hair, and asked, "What am I doing, Hannah?"

Hannah didn't answer TJ's question. She stared after Gabby until TJ said, "Go see her. Make sure she's okay."

* * * *

"I hear you stood up for me at the Trustee's meeting," TJ said, and Mack looked up from his paperwork.

"Did your friends tell you that?" Mack asked. "I wondered if they were there." He pushed the papers away and sat back in his chair to watch TJ. "You know that what happened in the meeting is strictly confidential, right?" he asked and waited for TJ's nod. "I told the Trustees that I couldn't fire you. You do the work in your job description and more, and you do it well."

Mack shook his head, "But this can't go on. The Trustees will just fire me and hire someone who will fire you. If your friends stay out of the way, then maybe it won't come up again. If they don't, then I'll put you on administrative leave. You wouldn't be fired, but you won't work here anymore."

"Thanks for that, I guess," TJ said, and found himself staring at his hands between his knees. "Maybe it would be better if you fired me," he said. "If worse comes to worst then at least I could qualify for unemployment."

If TJ could get Gabby to do the work she needed to do, then she would be in the way—and soon. He sat down in the box office and took Gabby's script out of the drawer, dropped it in the wastebasket, and turned on his laptop. He wanted to add a few lines at the beginning to help Gabby get into it, but work between phone calls and walk-ups was slow, and it got slower after Hannah found him.

Hannah was playful. She stayed invisible, and the cringes she gave TJ by kissing his ear or his neck made her laugh. "You have to stop that," he said.

"There ain't much else to do," Hannah said, close by TJ's ear. "Gabby's being a flat tire." He could feel her chill as she leaned over his shoulder to watch what he was doing. "She's curled up on the sofa downstairs, nursing that gin bottle."

TJ sent the script to the printer and it was his turn to laugh when it clattered on and Hannah squealed in surprise. He waited for Gabby's script to print, slipped it into the drawer and told Hannah, "I have to go open up. The company's having their final rehearsal tonight. If Gabby wants to talk, then maybe I'll see her."

It was after dinner before TJ saw Gabby. He closed the stage door behind him and turned around to watch the rehearsal from stage right. He wasn't even sure yet what was going on when Blythe—the director—stamped her feet and interrupted the show. "Dammit, Zoey!" she said. "That's it."

A pretty young woman with honey-colored hair spun around, and Blythe said, "You still don't know your lines and you don't know your directions. I can't have you doing Fan." She turned to the wings at stage left and called, "Karen, take over. Let's start from the beginning of the scene."

Zoey, with her big Victorian dress flying around her, charged offstage and into TJ. He caught her—in self-defense as much as anything—but she pushed him away. Zoey stopped at the stairs down to the dressing rooms and sat down on the top step with her face in her hands. TJ stood riveted in place while she cried, and he wondered if there was anything he could do or should do.

Gabby materialized in the shadows on the landing below. She watched Zoey with a horrified expression that softened as she watched. Gabby looked up at TJ then fixed her eyes on Zoey and climbed the stairs.

"I heard the ruckus," Gabby said and sat down on the step beside Zoey. "I think I know what happened, but you should tell me."

"Who are you?" Zoey asked, and TJ caught his breath. If Zoey realized she was talking to a ghost and made a scene then he might be fired before the night was over.

"I'm his sheba," Gabby said and waved her hand toward TJ. "You know, the guy you just ran into. I'm Gabby, and that's a name, not just a description."

Zoey glanced over her shoulder at TJ and said, "Sorry about that." She wiped tears off her cheeks, looked at Gabby's camisole and knickers, and asked, "Did I interrupt something?"

"I was changin'," Gabby said. "Now tell me what happened."

"I just lost my part," Zoey said then her eyes opened wide. "I didn't even know anyone was understudying Fan. Blythe must have planned this."

Gabby seemed incredulous when she asked, "You didn't know your part, and you didn't see this comin'?"

"I guess I should have," Zoey answered. "But I had work and finals." She looked up at Gabby and admitted, "And parties, and plenty of time to learn the part. I screwed up."

"I've been right where you are," Gabby said, "And I didn't fix it right. You gotta do the work. Learn the part! You can understudy, and maybe your director will think better of you. You might even get a chance on stage."

Zoey laughed. "I don't think Karen's going to give me my part back," she said.

"You never know," Gabby said. "She could get stuck in the john before some show, and it'll be up to you. Now go on."

Zoey pulled herself together, and Gabby stepped up to TJ. "It's hard to watch someone do what I did," she said, and her breath trembled when she sighed. "Is that script still where you left it?"

TJ pushed Gabby back against the wall and said "It's waiting for you. I'm waiting for you."

Gabby tugged on TJ's lapel and smiled up at him. "Hannah can have you to herself for a while," Gabby said. "I'm gonna be busy."

On Friday TJ found the script worn and folded in two. On Saturday he found it marked and underlined. After the matinée on Sunday, when the house was dark and quiet, TJ found two folding chairs and arranged them on the stage.

TJ took his jacket off and draped it on the back of one chair. He laid his tie over the jacket, and then he sat with Hannah while Gabby stood in front of them to deliver her monologue.

Hannah chewed on her lip and clutched the edge of her seat from fear that something might go wrong, and TJ held his breath. Gabby turned away from TJ to start then turned back. Her voice and her body grew more tense with each line, and she drilled each word into TJ.

At the end, Gabby turned away again, and left TJ with his heart pounding. He jumped from his chair and wrapped Gabby in his arms while she squealed and tried to duck away, and Hannah laughed and clapped her hands.

TJ turned Gabby around to face him, and the light over center stage gleamed in her eyes when she looked up. He wasn't going to have much more time with his ghosts, and while that thought wrenched at his gut, what he told Gabby was, "You're going to be a star!"

Gabby laughed, slipped her hands around TJ's neck, and pulled their mouths together. He could taste her excitement on her tongue and feel it in her breath.

TJ broke their kiss and looked around to find Scrooge's bed, and then took Gabby by the hand and pulled her behind him. He stopped there and lifted Gabby's camisole over her head. He tossed the camisole aside, slipped his hands into her knickers and pushed them down until they fell to the floor.

Gabby squawked, "What are you doin'?" when TJ pushed her toward the bed with his hands on her hips. She fell back, and her pretty butt bounced on the mattress.

TJ laughed at something he remembered Gabby telling him. He knelt in front of her and said, "Do I have to spell it out for you? I'm gonna French you." He pushed Gabby's legs apart and lifted her knees until she fell back laughing. TJ kissed her feet and the inside of her smooth thighs. He dragged her skin between his teeth, and each kiss moved his lips closer to her center.

Gabby caught her breath when TJ pushed his nose into the dark curls between her legs, and she released it when his tongue traveled up along her pussy lips and over her hood. She knotted her fingers in TJ's hair and held him tight against her. It was just her reaction to the rush that coursed through her, but TJ could hardly breath.

TJ inhaled Gabby's excitement. He thrust his tongue into her slit and tasted her musky juice. He slipped it along each side of her trigger and over it, faster each time, and he listened to the sounds and felt the involuntary twitches that told him that Gabby's orgasm was close.

Gabby's voice came in garbled groans and pants until she caught her breath and released her grip on TJ's hair. Her body went stiff in his grip for just a moment as her climax took her, then she stiffened again and then a third time. Each spasm was stronger than the last, and then she went soft and gasped for breath.

TJ released his grip on Gabby and found Hannah on the bed beside her. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he climbed up over Gabby. He cupped his hand behind Hannah's head and pushed his tongue into her mouth. She broke the kiss and rasped in his ear, "Finish Gabby first. Then I'll get mine."

TJ looked down at Gabby's relaxed body. She laughed and asked again, "TJ! What are you doin'?" when he picked up her knees and arranged her on the bed.

"Hannah thinks you're not done yet," TJ said. He crawled between Gabby's legs and pushed himself up, so he could focus on her smile, "I think she's right."

Gabby knew exactly what TJ intended when he guided his cock between her thighs. She pushed his hands away and did the job herself. She lifted her knees and arched her back while TJ thrust into her. He had the head of his cock inside her body, and then half his throbbing shaft, and then he pushed his hips against her thighs with his whole length pulsing inside her.

TJ clenched his teeth and held his breath. His excitement almost overwhelmed him. When he moved again, he ground himself against Gabby. He slipped out of her and in again, watched her close her eyes and felt her close her legs around him.

Gabby urged TJ on. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gasped into his ear. TJ's mind was blank but for the sensations from Gabby's body that drove him into her, faster with each repeated thrust.

He slammed himself into Gabby when he came, and she held him in her arms and in her legs. He kissed her face, he kissed her ears, and he released himself. TJ roared into the catwalks, and his burning essence coursed the length of his cock. He forced himself as deep into Gabby as he could reach, and he erupted inside her—once, twice, again and again.

TJ was empty when he rolled away from Gabby and into Hannah's arms. It was after midnight before the ghosts were done with him, and then he laid with Gabby pressed against his side and Hannah asleep on his chest.

"What's next," Gabby asked and stroked her hand over TJ's shoulder. He lifted his head and looked at her, hoping she wasn't talking about sex. "I mean with my show," she said.

TJ relaxed back onto the pillow and said. "First I'll take my weekend." He was going to be busy. There were phone calls he had to make, things he needed to store or sell, and lists to check off. He didn't want to tell Gabby any of that. "We'll rehearse when I get back, and work on your delivery. Then I'll arrange it with the theater company so you can have a full house right before their show. Maybe Saturday," he said.

11.

Gabby had a natural gift, or that's how it seemed to TJ. He knew his own words, but when she delivered them they became her words. He sat in a chair on stage, and Hannah leaned over his shoulder while Gabby practiced her lines. She talked to him as if he were a character in the play, and he corrected each distracting movement or flat intonation.

Gabby got better each night, and each night in Scrooge's bed Hannah pulled TJ close and asked questions. Mostly she asked, "Why do you have Gabby say those things about you?"

"Because I need to hear them," TJ said.

When Saturday came, TJ brought a book with him that he left in the box office, and then he made sure everything was ready. The lights were set, and the crew knew what they needed to do. TJ told Mack, "You should be there," but he didn't tell him any more than he told the stage crew. No-one knew what was going to happen.