Elizabeth Basque - Medium Mysteries 01 - Echo Park Read Online Free PDF Page B

was one of the more unique areas in Los Angeles. East of downtown, north of East L.A., Echo Park was a mixture of old history and new culture. My apartment building, seated on top of a grand hill and overlooking the busy streets below, was a fairly posh area. I was surrounded by original but renovated classic Victorian homes, and the streets were lined with ancient trees, some at least a hundred years old. Neighbors knew each other here, although I kept to myself more than most.
    Down below, however, lay a different Echo Park—a separate city, it seemed, crowded in places with liquor stores on every corner, gangs, drugs, and even some hookers. The lower quarters were still rich with culture, cafés, and funky thrift shops; vibrant and alive during the day. But people could get into trouble down there at night if they weren’t careful. It chilled me to the bone to think that this twelve year old knew so much about hard drugs and street life.
    “ We left before he woke up,” Carla told us. “Then Mom did freak out, like I hadn’t told her what would happen. Within a few hours, we got tipped off that people were looking for us. We had to figure out a way to lay low.”
    “ So, you were trying to break into this house…?” Julie asked.
    Carla sighed. “Yeah. It belonged to a friend of Mom’s who was out of town and she had said something on Facebook about going on vacation. When we went to the library to use the restroom—which we did several times a day because it was clean and safe—Mom used to use the library computer and look on Facebook for old friends. And see what they were up to, just for old times’ sake. I think she missed her high school years. Like, this was her only good friend from high school, long before her drug problems got bad and here her old friend was, blabbing about her upcoming vacation and boarding her dog, so we knew her house would be empty. Mom was ashamed to let her old best friend know how bad off we were. I remember feeling awful about breaking in, or trying, to the house. But it was the only safe place we could think of. Mom still had both the money and the stuff on her. We were both scared. And then, when we were trying to break in, he came.”
    The girl sat quiet, reliving the scene we all had witnessed. None of us knew what to say.
    Finally, Mack spoke. “I guess that’s all she wrote. The rest, as they say, is history.”
    Carla nodded. “I saw the light, the stairway came, after…you know.” She gingerly touched her gunshot wound. “Mom ran straight for it.”
    “But you didn’t,” I stated.
    “ No.”
    “ Why not?” Julie asked. She was apparently still a little confused.
    Carla smiled at her. “Because I wanted to find you . I wasn’t going to let this life be a total waste. I had to find you, Jules.”
    “ Jules,” she echoed softly, trying out the nickname and smiling sadly through her tears for Carla.
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    Even with the power of the remote, Carla was indeed fading in and out now. Julie didn’t want her to leave.
    “I won’t leave you, Jules,” Carla answered. “You just might not be able to see me sometimes, but I’ll stay with you as long as you want me to.”
    Julie didn’t know what to say. She was torn between her own joy of finding Carla, and doing what would be best for the girl.
    “I can stay for a while, anyways,” Carla said. “I can come to your house, if you want.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “You’re not bound? Don’t you have to stay within certain perimeters?”
    “Well, yes, and no,” Carla replied. “I know that some spirits have to stay inside a room or a building. But I don’t. Maybe because I moved around so much? And I was homeless, so where, you know? Where would I be bound to?”
    I nodded, contemplating this. Why, indeed ? Mack wasn’t bound by any building, either. As a matter of fact, I realized I’d recently come in contact with several ghosts along the streets, and though the question entered my