Jessie's Ghosts by Penny Garnsworthy

laid them on the ground up against the
wall. They looked like any ordinary paintings; one was of a fancy dining room,
with an ornate chandelier and a really long dining room table, covered in plates
of delicious looking food. Jessie counted twelve chairs around the table but
there weren’t any people in them.
    The other
painting was of an old fashioned horse and carriage, on a country road. Again,
there were no people in the painting.
    ‘As you can
see, Jessie, both paintings have something in common.’
    Jessie stared
at them both for a few seconds and then said, ‘There aren’t any people in
them.’
    ‘That’s right.
They’re part of an exhibition could Luminesque’.
    ‘So where are
the people?’ Harmony asked.
    ‘Well, that’s
the surprise, Harmony. Now I’m going to turn off the lights, just for a minute,
and you both look at the paintings very carefully.’
    The lights
went out and suddenly it was as if the paintings came to life. Jessie could
barely make out the dining room table now, but she could see people seated all
around it. She counted twelve, six women in formal full-length gowns, in a
variety of colours and six men in black suits with white shirts and bowties.
And they all held drinks in their hands.
    Harmony was
looking at the other painting - the carriage was just a shadow, but now there
was a driver, and four passengers behind him in the carriage, also in formal
dress, as if they were on their way to the dinner.
    ‘Wow,’ she
said, ‘this is cool!’
    ‘Yes, I thought
you’d like them,’ Nancy said as she flicked the light back on. ‘It really is a
most unusual method of painting. I certainly hope he’s successful. So now, even
if you can’t be here for the exhibition you’ll have an idea of what we’ll be
showing.’
    ‘Thanks,’ said
Jessie, her lips pursed as her mind went into overdrive.
    ‘Not bad,’
said Harmony as they walked back through the pottery and out into the street.
    ‘And,’ Jessie
said, ‘I think I can use this, to help my ancestors.’
    ‘How?’
    ‘Well, my ancestors
only come alive in the dark, right?’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘And these
lu-min-es, whatever they’re called paints only show up in the dark, right?’
    ‘Yeah, so?’
    ‘So, maybe my
ancestors would be able to see the lu-min-es, whatever it is, paint. Don’t you
get it?’
    Harmony
shrugged. ‘Not really. Are you going to buy one of these paintings?
    Jessie shook
her head in frustration as Nanna and Fleur appeared beside them. ‘Well, what
did you think of the gallery, girls?’ Fleur asked.
    ‘It’s okay I
guess,’ said Harmony.
    Fleur creased
her brow. ‘And you, Jessie?’
    ‘I thought it
was great!’
    Fleur smiled.
    ‘And what
about those luminescent paintings?’ Nanna said, ‘weren’t they unusual?’
    ‘Weird,’
replied Harmony.
    ‘Fantastic,’
said Jessie as they followed Fleur and Nanna back to the car.
     
    ‘You’re been
very quiet back there Jessie,’ Nanna said as Fleur dropped them at the house,
‘Are you okay sweetie?’
    ‘Yep. Just
thinking, Nanna.’
    ‘Are you
having a good time?’
    ‘I’m having a
great time.’
    After lunch
Jessie took a walk through the fruit trees and idly picked a peach she thought
looked pink enough to eat.
    What if I
could give Harold and great-grandmother a message they could see in the dark?
she wondered as she took a bite. But the peach was sour and she grimaced and
threw it down on the ground.
    What if I got
some of that paint, like in those Lumi… whatever paintings, and painted them a
message on the wall? But of course I couldn’t do that, Nanna would freak. And
what would I write anyway?
    Deep in
thought, she wandered back to the house, said goodbye to Nanna and walked
across to Fleur’s house. Maybe I could ask Fleur about it, maybe I could paint
something myself …
    Fleur was
packing some paintings into the car. Jessie assumed Harmony would be at the
computer, emailing her dad, or Kurt.
    ‘Did you see
anything you