Ghosts of Infinity: and Nine More Stories of the Supernatural Read Online Free PDF

divine spirit. Why was it that my formerly smooth skin was now ravaged by acne, she asked, peering closely at my face. And why hadn’t I come to church sooner?
    In her presence, the afternoon took on a soft sepia shade. In spite of myself, I asked about the house. How did she feel about losing it? The catch in the voice, the lump in the throat, all mine.
    “That house has been a burden to me ever since I set foot in it, all those years ago.” Lola Concha sighed. “I’m glad to let it go.”
    “Who built that house?”
    “Nando’s father did. Built it for his older brother, who never was to inherit it, because he died of influenza during Peacetime, in that very house. Nando’s parents also died there, shortly before we got married. Nando himself too.”
    “Must be why all these spooks are there, because of all these dead people,” I said, forcing a laugh, which earned a serious look from her.
    “No, these are not the spirits of the dead, but demons trying to trick us,” Lola Concha said solemnly. “We think that they are earthbound souls, but the Bible tells us it’s all the devil’s handiwork.”
    “But I won’t deny that many strange things happened in that house,” she added.
    “I hear they’re still happening,” I said slowly. When she said nothing, I turned to her, looking her full in the face.
    “Just who is that ghostly woman?”
    Lola Concha nodded slowly. Having loosened a string, she seemed determined to unravel the entire garment.
    “They said she was the ghost of one of the mistresses Nando’s father kept. The old man liked women, and shortly after I came to live there, a story went around about a maid who had committed suicide in one of the rooms because the family hadn’t believed that she was carrying the old man’s bastard in her womb.”
    “They said she was the reason I had such a difficult time conceiving, with one miscarriage after another when I was in the pink of health, why I had a difficult labor with Norman, and why I lost him soon after. They said it was the woman’s way of taking revenge.” There was a faint shudder in her voice.
    “But we were still happy, you know, even if we had lost all those tiny angels. Nando, there wasn’t another man in the world like him. He wanted to be a judge and run a hacienda, too. Talk about ambition. I used to lose so much sleep because he’d be detailing his plans for our future nonstop until dawn. I didn’t mind so much because I loved him. He took me to the city, away from the town in the foothills where I grew up. There I was, a mountain girl, married to a promising attorney. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined it.”
    “And how good he was. He hadn’t a vice, would rather stay home with me than drink and gamble. I am certain to this day that he never touched any woman other than me. He wanted a stable of sons, ten if possible. When I had troubles with my pregnancies, he would drop his work and stay by my side.”
    “Even in that house, we were in paradise. He wanted to sell it and move into a house of his own design, because he knew that the strange goings-on frightened and bothered me. He was always telling me to bear it a little longer, because pretty soon we’d have a new place of our own.”
    “With Norman’s coming, I thought the dark days were finally over. But I was wrong.” Lola Concha paused.
    “It’s the ghost, isn’t it?” I bit out. “It wouldn’t let you be.”
    At the corners, her lips trembled. “No, hija, not even a demon can be as powerful as a war.”
    “Nando had been a cadet corps officer in his younger days and when the war came, we couldn’t avoid the draft. How I cried the day he went off to duty. Norman was so young and I was afraid to leave him, so I couldn’t even see Nando off at the pier.”
    “For two years I had no word of Nando, nothing at all. It was so hard to get by—I had to sell most of the furniture, the antiques, and my mother-in-law’s jewelry just to be able to get