Book One: Towering Pines: Ghost in the Hall

Prologue

October 30, 1984

Scott stood overlooking the campus with the Toms River glaring at him from across the football field.  From fifty feet up, the moonlight glared into his eyes so brightly that he could barely see anything else.  This was the third night in the last week that Scott found himself here.  After evening inspection and lights out, he put his head down on the pillow and began his nightly ritual of counting backwards from 100 in French to fall asleep.  As usual, the last thing he remembered was reaching quarante cinq and then he fell into a deep sleep.  The next thing he knew he was standing in this spot at exactly the same time each night.

Scott Paulsen’s return to consciousness found him gazing out over the moonlit campus.  His eyes moved from port to starboard taking in Dodge Hall, the tennis courts, the football field and the finally he could see the gym through the towering pine trees.  With a startling suddenness the wind hit him hard in the face and he couldn’t breathe.  He blinked his eyes quickly; the wind died down and he was able to inhale deeply.  He looked up into the moonlight and stared for a long minute.  And then his eyes were inexplicably drawn down to the reflection of the moon on the Toms River.  Paulsen gazed into the blue-white coloring of the moon on the water as the waves moved slowly in and out of the light.  And then, just as it had done on the previous nights the placid water began to darken and turn red.  And just as the water had turned red as blood, the moon repeated the trick.  Paulsen looked quickly from the water to the moon and back.  He couldn’t believe it was happening again.

“Jump Scotty.”  The ethereal voice came to him from nowhere and everywhere all at once.  This was the third night in a row the voice came to him, but it had happened before his sleepwalking.  He had heard it in the firing range when it told him to put the barrel to his chin and then he heard it at the waterfront when it told him to jump in and stay under the water.

“Come on Scotty, jump.  You can do it.”

On the first night that he found himself on the roof of Reingold Hall, when the voice spoke to him he ran as quickly as his feet would take him.  He shot through the door and down the stairway, slamming into the wall at the landing and then burst through the door into the hallway.  When he slid to a stop in front of the door to room 509 he stopped himself.  Scott stood absolutely silent with his eyes pressed shut.  When he opened them he stared at the door for another long moment hoping no one had heard him making all that noise.  He slowly turned his head from side to side listening for any sounds.  He didn’t hear a thing, but as he reached to push the door open something shot down the hall out of the corner of his eye.  It startled him so much that he was frozen.  Scott couldn’t move.  He swallowed hard and turned his head to the left where he saw the movement, but there was nothing there.   Wit a quick push the door opened and being very careful not to wake his roommates he slipped into the room and into his bunk.  Lying in his bunk he turned his face into his pillow and realized that he was soaked with sweat.

Last night, the second night that he found himself on the roof of the old building the voice called to him again after a few minutes of staring over the edge.  This time he wasn’t as startled and turned quickly – hoping to find the culprit who had been harassing him over the past month… but there was no one there.   He walked slowly towards the large ventilation duct that sat in the middle of the roof.  Scott walked all the way around it but still could not find anyone.  Finally he had walked to each corner of the roof and looked down but did not see anyone before returning to his bunk.

But tonight was different.

“Do it.”
The moon was full and the entire landscape around him was awash in red.  That had not happened before.  He could feel the beads of sweat trickling down his forehead and stopping at his eyebrows for just a moment in spite of the cool October air blowing up from the ground.

“You want to jump.”

The voice was being more persistent tonight.  It had not spoken to him repeatedly before.  Yes, tonight was different because Scott knew what the voice wanted him to do and he knew why.  He had found the picture left under his pillow.  He saw the words written on the back in nearly formed block letters.   He had looked in the 1945 yearbook and seen the dedication.  He understood when his dream last night had shown him.  Then the voices came to him as if they were all around him.

Here beneath the towering pines, by the river blue

Farragut will ever stand, alma mater true

Scott began to mouth the words along with the choir of voices.  He was mesmerized until the voice came back to him and jolted him back to the ledge.

“You must!” the voice hissed in his ear.

And now that he understood the entire story, Scott Paulsen knew that he could indeed help the voice.  He could stop it’s suffering and torment for these past forty years.  He also knew that was not the first one to have been chosen by the voice to help.  But he knew that he would be the last one to have to do it.

Tomorrow was October 31^st and the morning reveille would be met with a big Halloween surprise.  

Scott Paulsen thought he knew how to put an end to all the madness.  He thought he had to jump and that would end the vicious cycle.  But there was only one way to find out.

So he jumped.

Chapter One

September 25, 2004

The gymnasium at Brick Township Memorial High School was rocking with the chants of students and parents.  It was so loud that no one could hear anything else within the building.  Liam could feel the energy from the exuberant crowd coursing through his body as the team gathered in the doorway of the locker room ready to charge out onto the floor for the second half of the most anticipated basketball game of the year.  When the Mustangs played their cross-town rivals; the Brick Dragons it was always the most anticipated game of the year.  And this year the pre-season invitational tournament meeting was not only in Memorial’s gym, but it was the tournament championship game.  Liam had 22 points so far and the Mustangs were up by 3 at the half.  Liam knew that this was it; this was his chance to make a big impression on the college scouts.  This was the season that all the top college scouts would be watching him, preparing to court him and get his early commitment to their school.  He was the top high school basketball player in the state of New Jersey if not the whole east coast and this was only his junior year.  His teammates were bouncing up and down getting charged up to finish the battle.  But not Liam, he stood stock-still waiting for the coach to give the go ahead.  And when the coach gave the signal the Brick Memorial Mustangs charged out onto the court minus their number one point guard.  Liam took a deep breath and walked slowly behind his teammates.  If you didn’t know Liam, it might appear that his lack of enthusiasm was meant to upstage his teammates or that it meant his head wasn’t in the game.  But it couldn’t be farther from the truth.  When Liam’s foot hit the court the light blinded him for a moment, so he squinted for just a second.  But when he opened his eyes his vision was blocked by a swirling sea of golden hair followed by a deep scent of lavender.  He focused his vision just in time to feel the firm yet soft embrace of his girlfriend, Ashleigh Sommers. 

“Good luck, baby!” she purred and then she released him before she bounced back into formation with the rest of the cheerleaders.  Liam smiled as he watched her yellow and green skirt swinging across the court.  He made mental note to try and find out who designed those uniforms.  He wanted to send them a Christmas card of thanks.

But now it was game time.  Now it was time to refocus and get in the zone.

He strode onto the court towards his position with the swagger of confidence for the tip off to begin the second half.  About five feet from his position he was greeted by two Dragon players, Seth Rogini and Tom McNorton who had been unsuccessfully double teaming him the whole first half.  There had been some pushing and trash talking, but it was all part of the game.  Liam smiled at them but they stood still, blocking his way.

“What’s up boys?”  Liam remarked, mocking them a little.

Rogini and McNorton looked each other and laughed.  But Liam could see the ref coming onto the court from the officials’ table.  He had to get into position quickly or he’d be offside.

“Excuse me gentlejerks,” and Liam faked to the left and then moved swiftly to the right to go around them.   Liam was in such a rush to get to his position; he didn’t see Seth put his foot out and stumbled over Seth’s size 12’s.  And with a light push from Tom, Liam went down hard.  He landed on his shoulder and felt it move in a most unnatural way.  The pain shot through his shoulder and down his arm.  He put his hand on his shoulder as he rolled onto his back cringing in pain.  Within moments, Coach Rollins was at his side asking if he was OK.  But Liam pushed him away and got to his feet.   He glared at Rogini and McNorton while they laughed and turned away.  Liam’s gaze drifted off court and Ashleigh who was looking right at him with concern playing deeply in her bright blue eyes.  Her pinkly painted lips mouthed, “are you alright?” but before Liam could answer the ball was in the air.

Almost immediately the ball came his way and he his focus shifted back to the game.  For the rest of the second half it was all he could do keep his head in the game and push the pain out of his mind.

With less than a minute left, Liam had only put four more points on the board in the second half.  With his injured shoulder his shots were off and without him the Mustangs lead had evaporated.  They were now trailing the Dragons by two.  Coach Rollins called a time out and tried to rally the team into a frenzy for the last minute of the game.  The Mustangs had to try and stage a come back victory but their star guard was hurt.  He could barely lift his arm high enough to dribble to ball, let alone take a shot.  And to make matters worse, every time he would run by McNorton or Rogini they would purposely jab at his shoulder or bump into him sending a jolt of pain through him.  Throughout the second-half, his good-natured attitude towards the two had quick deteriorated to anger with each push, poke and prod.  He was one push away from going postal on the two of them.  Liam thought that he needed to find a way to channel that anger for Rogini and McNorton to play through the pain.  He needed to focus for one last three pointer.

“I want the ball,” he said matter-of-factly to Rollins.  Rollins looked at him, evaluating his fortitude.  Then he seemed to make a decision.

“OK,” Rollins began.  “Here’s the plan to get the ball to Liam…”

Todd inbounded the ball to Jimmy who moved the ball into the Dragon side of the court.  Liam crossed the key, stopped and pivoted trying to shake the defender but failed.  He looked through the bodies and saw Jimmy push the ball over to Stan at the top of the key.  The Dragons double teamed Stan and forced him to pull up his dribble and look for help.  The Dragon’s double team left Liam open at the far corner of the three-point line.  After a second Stan saw him and swung the ball out to him.  Liam felt the ball hit his injured hand like a shot of electricity through his arm and up his shoulder and he winced before he looked up at the clock to see there was still 35 seconds left, too much time to take the shot.  He had to make a quick decision to move the ball or put it on the floor.  He dropped the ball once and pushed it over to Stan.  Stan took the ball over his head and waited for Liam to shake the defender in the corner.  Liam looked at the clock as two defenders swarmed him, twenty seconds.  Liam head faked to the left and crossed in front of the basket effectively losing both defenders leaving him wide open in the corner again.  Stan dribbled up the middle and hit Liam with a bounce pass.  Liam caught the ball with his good hand and set his sights on the hoop.  His teammates were gone.  The crowd was silent.  The only things Liam was aware of were the hoop and the clock ticking down from ten.  Liam lined up the shot, nine, deep breath, eight, up and… just as the ball rolled from the tips of his fingers Liam felt something plow into his injured shoulder.  The pain was so intense that before Liam hit the hardwood he had already blacked out.

When light overcame darkness again Liam felt like he was hung over.  His vision was blurry at first but slowly returned to him.  Out of the corner of his eye he could see Dragon players jumping up and down in celebration but he couldn’t hear anything.   Liam couldn’t remember where he was or what had happened.  He saw people starting to gather around him, they were talking to him but he wasn’t sure what they were saying.  He looked from face to face, watching lips move but he just couldn’t make it out.  His head rocked back and forth in frustration trying to tell them he just couldn’t understand what was going on.  He must be at a game but he couldn’t remember.  Then Ashleigh broke through the crowd with a look of terror on her face.  As soon as she saw him looking at her, she smiled and wiped a tear that Liam couldn’t see from her face.  She threw herself on top of him in what seemed a bit overdramatic, even for her.  Her act of worry and concern wasn’t helping him.  Sometimes Liam wished Ashleigh would just go away.   Right now the dangling of her blonde hair into his face made him want to shave her head.  But as she pushed away to look into his face all he could do right now was stare up into her blue eyes and hope that she could read the annoyance in his eyes.  Apparently she could not.

Then all at once, his senses returned to him.  First he was overwhelmed by Ashleigh’s cries of relief and then he heard the indecipherable chatter of his teammates.  He tried to push Ashleigh off him but was held back by an intense shock of pain the shot through his shoulder and down his spine causing his face to seize.

“Are you ok baby?”  Ashleigh yelled in his ear over the cheering of the crowd.

And now Liam’s memory came back to him.  He remembered where he was.  He remembered why the game was important.  And most important: Liam remembered why his shoulder felt like it had ten knives stuck into it.

“Get…off…me…NOW!” Liam shouted through clenched teeth.  Ashleigh’s face froze in shock and surprise.

“What did you say to me?”  Liam responded by shoving her off him with his good arm and she fell back into the group.  Fueled by uncontrollable anger, Liam rolled onto his good shoulder and pushed himself up to his knees… slowly.  Stan came up next to him and helped him to his feet.

“Hey man, you alright?  I can’t believe the stupid ref didn’t call a foul on that.  Rogini hit you like a linebacker!  Coach is arguing with him now… ”  Stan was pointing somewhere but Liam didn’t look.

“What?”  Liam looked at Stan in disbelief.  He couldn’t believe that Rogini did that to him and that no foul was called.  The realization hit him that the game was over.  And the Mustangs lost.  That was the straw the broke his back.  Liam quickly located where Seth Rogini was standing across the court near his bench high fiving his teammates.  He ran across the court, pushing through people and not even noticing the faces as he plowed past them.  He couldn’t hear anyone or anything, he couldn’t see anything except Rogini’s self-satisfied smirk.  He didn’t even feel the pain in his shoulder as he picked up the folding chair and hit Rogini in the back of the head with it.   Rogini fell like a sack of potatoes to the ground.  So, when Liam hit him the second time he felt it a little bit in his shoulder when the chair connected with the side of his head.  And as the chair hit him a third time and the blood splattered into Liam’s face reality came back to him.  He dropped the chair as if it weighed two hundred pounds staring at Rogini numbly as hands he could not feel pulled him away.