Love In The Wrong Dimension (Romantic Ghost Story) by Anette Darbyshire

excitement, Jemma had completely missed the most important part of the funeral – her burial!
    As she watched her friends getting into the entourage of cars parked along the road, Jemma didn't want to leave them. Somehow, the finality of today was making her feel uneasy, like she wasn't ready to let go just yet.
    “ Do you mind if we tag along?” she asked Tom.
    “ Of course not. I'm hardly in a rush to go anywhere,” he grinned. “I heard someone say it's at your Aunt's house, let do our Star Trek thing and beam ourselves over there.”

Chapter 5
     
     
     
     
    “ I'm bored,” sighed Jemma, as she watched Jack empty the washing machine. Watching his mundane chores around the house, day in and day out, had become her only source of entertainment, and it was becoming depressing. She knew what he ate for breakfast, how he stacked the dishwasher and which brand of toothpaste he used. Even though she had been tempted, she had drawn the line at watching him in the shower. Some things were meant to be kept private!
    It was less than a month since her funeral and, already, Jemma felt that she had been dead for an eternity. She couldn't eat or drink, she couldn't have a bath and even reading a book proved futile, as she couldn’t turn the page. Tom was hardly ever around, Max was creepy and Susie, although she was a lovely girl, was only nine! She needed a distraction, something to keep her occupied until she figured out how to leave this dimension that was keeping her prisoner. She had been so determined to leave at first, but, without realising it, she had settled into something of a routine and her plans had somehow become something she would think about the next day, and the next.... She had gladly accepted Tom’s invitation to stay with them, she couldn’t face being on her own at the flat, watching Alice cry herself to sleep every night.
    Susie jumped down from the kitchen table, “Well, today is Saturday and X Factor is on tonight – Jack loves the X Factor, so we can watch that with him. He also likes to watch the Eastenders omnibus on a Sunday afternoon, so that'll kill a couple of hours tomorrow.”
    “ So our only entertainment is eavesdropping on someone else's TV programmes? I can hardly wait,” grumbled Jemma.
    “ Oh, it's not that bad,” grinned Susie. “I often amuse myself by winding Jack up, I keep changing the TV channel in the middle of a programme. Trouble is, he's got used to it now and just tells me to go away. I'm better at touching things than people, I don't know why. I'm great at knocking things off shelves and stuff!”
    “ How do you manage to even do that? Whenever I try and touch anything, my hand just passes through to the other side.” As if to prove her point, Jemma clenched her fist and tried to knock on the kitchen table but, as usual, her hand went straight through.
    Susie laughed and gently flicked a teaspoon into the sink.
    “ How can you do that?” frowned Jemma.
    “ It’s easy, but it takes practice. As I said, I’m better at touching things than people because it’s actually a lot harder to touch a living person. I’ve been here for twenty years and I still can’t touch people properly. Tom says it’s because I’m a child, it’s so annoying. Anyway, I’ll show you what to do and then you can have a practice while we’re out haunting. You basically use the same technique that you use for touching the living, you just do it in a slightly different way. You still need to focus all your energy on whatever it is you want to touch, but instead of concentrating on a person, you direct all your energy to a specific point on whatever it is you want to touch. Like this.” Susie stared for a moment at the table before clenching her fist and gently knocking on it. “You try it. Knocking on something is a bit hard at first, so try moving that cup over there.”
    Jemma focused all her energy on the cup and concentrated as hard as she could on moving it. Suddenly, the