Read Online Never Can Say Goodbye by Christina Jones - Free Book Online

with lots of sugar? Then we’ll get you away from all these people, OK?’
    ‘It’s not the crowds that bother me.’ Maisie sighed softly, eyes closed and still adopting the dramatic head-smiting pose.
     ‘Not these living people in here, sweetheart. They don’t worry me. They’re not calling to me.’
    ‘Aren’t they? Oh, good.’
    Maisie opened her eyes. ‘No sweetheart, they’re not. It’s not the living, sweetheart. It’s the dead. Ghosts, sweetheart. This
     shop is full of them.’

Chapter Six
    Bloody hell, Frankie thought. This is all I need.
    With a gentle groan, Maisie, still leaning backwards against the door, closed her eyes again and slowly slid sideways.
    ‘She’s fainted!’ Frankie looked wildly round the still-staring shopful of people. ‘Someone do something, please.’
    ‘Ah, it often happens with Maisie. I said she had her troubles, didn’t I?’ Brian, still carrying cardboard boxes, lumbered
     towards them, dropped his cargo in a heap and elbowed Frankie out of the way. He grabbed Maisie’s shoulders. ‘Stand back,
     gel. I can deal with this. My old ma knew how to deal with faints. Head between the knees, that’s what she needs.’
    Brian tightened his grip on Maisie’s shoulders and jerked her head forwards.
    ‘Brian!’ Frankie yelled. ‘Not like that!’
    Too late. Brian quickly had Maisie bent double and was trying to force the cauliflower head somewhere midway beneath the voluminous
     raincoat.
    ‘Head-between-the-knees,’ Brian panted. ‘Head-between-the-knees.’
    ‘Brian! Stop!’
    Brian continued to thrust Maisie into a forward-bend gymnastic contortion.
    The shop watched the manoeuvres in shocked and silent awe.
    Frankie whimpered. She definitely wasn’t insured for this, was she? ‘Brian! You can’t! No one can bend like that! You’ll kill
     her! I mean, if you’re going to do head between the knees, surely she should be sitting down first. Oh, Lord.’
    Maisie gave a little scream and suddenly fought back.
    ‘There you go, gel,’ Brian puffed, straightening up with a triumphal smile. ‘That brought her out of it. Always works, that
     does.’
    The shop gave a ragged round of relieved applause.
    Maisie looked around her with vaguely blinking eyes. ‘What happened? Did I make contact?’
    ‘Only with Brian,’ Frankie said, mightily thankful that Francesca’s Fabulous Frocks didn’t have a death on its hands before
     the official opening. ‘Are you feeling a little bit better now?’
    Maisie shook her head. ‘No, sweetheart, I’m not. I’m still all of a flutter. I’m afraid I can’t stay here, sweetheart, and
     neither should you.’
    ‘What?’ Perplexed, Frankie shook her head. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’
    ‘Spirits, sweetheart. Presences. The souls of the dead.’
    The shop was gradually returning to normality. Frankie wished she was.
    ‘Is she OK?’ Dexter, followed by Lilly, clambered across the pile of boxes. ‘Did she have some sort of funny turn?’
    ‘Ah.’ Brian nodded. ‘She did. She often does. That’s why shedon’t get out much. Her troubles make her a bit of a social piranha. It causes a lot of problems, see? Maisie’s a medium.’
    ‘She’s never!’ Lilly gawped. ‘She looks like a large to me.’
    ‘A medium.’ Brian looked pityingly at Lilly. ‘You know, gel. Communes with the dead.’
    Dexter laughed.
    ‘It’s no laughing matter.’ Maisie did the back-of-the-hand head-smiting thing again. ‘They’re not laughing, the spirits in
     this shop, sweetheart. They’re unhappy souls.’
    ‘Bloody hell,’ Frankie groaned. ‘This is lunacy. Maisie, this is a perfectly normal shop. It’s old, yes, but with no dodgy
     history. It was never an old hospital or a church or built on some prehistoric graveyard. There aren’t any spirits here. There
     never have been. Anyway, I don’t believe in ghosts.’
    ‘Oh, I do,’ Lilly said happily. ‘And you must do, Frankie. You’ve seen the film. We watch