"My name is Melinda Gordon." "I'm married." "I live in a small town, and I own an antique shop." "I might be just like you." "Except that from the time I was a little girl," "I knew that I could talk to the dead." "It's all right, honey." "Earthbound spirits, my grandmother called them." "They're stuck here because they have unfinished business with the living." "And they come to me for help." "In order to tell you my story, I have to tell you theirs." "Are you serious?" "Tonight?" "Yes, I've been dying to see it." "Are you kidding me?" "I would love to." "Thank you so much." " I'll call you if the chest comes in." " Okay." "Thanks." "Yeah, we haven't been to a movie in, like, six years." "All right, maybe it's been more like a month." "No, it's a great idea." "It is." "I'll close up early." "You know, I'm sorry to cut you short, but I have a little bit of a situation here." "Yeah." "I'll see you at the house, bye." "Hey!" "Do you really think that I can't see what you're doing?" " First, no skates in the store." " They're Heelys, not skates." "All right, no wheels on your feet allowed." "And no shoplifting." "I was gonna pay for it." "You just didn't give me the chance." "They're $275 apiece and the register's that way," " not out on the street." " Whatever." " What's your phone number?" " Why?" " I'm calling your parents." " You gotta be kidding me." "Nope." "Look, my mother's sick." "Real sick." "And this would really upset her." "Do you really think that I'm that out of it?" "Do you really think that I'm so unhip that I would fall for that?" " Yeah." " What's your name?" " Ned." " Ned, give me your phone number, or I'll take you and your Heelys down to the police station." "I am so sorry." "He has never done anything like this before." "No, it's fine." "I just thought that you would want to know." " I was gonna pay for them." " Ned." "It's not like he doesn't have a ton of this stuff anyway." "He's got signed guitar picks, Keith Moon's drumsticks, old tickets stubs." "None of it stolen, by the way." "He will never come back in here again, I can promise you that." "I'm gonna go wait outside." "You don't have to do that." "I mean, he's welcome." "Just with shoes minus wheels." " You have kids?" " No." "No, not yet." "Well, they're great until they become teenagers." "And then you realize you're just being paid back double for all the rotten things you did as a teenager." " He seems like a good kid." " He is." "He is." "It's just been a little tough lately, you know." "He's been so moody." "He doesn't talk." "He hardly sleeps." "It's just like his whole life is this big secret all of a sudden." "Anyway, you have to get back to work." "So do I." " I'm Delia Banks, by the way." " Melinda Gordon." " Nice to meet you." " You look familiar." "I run the real estate office on the other side of the square." "Well, I'll see you at Village Java." "Every chance I get." "Thank you." "And I guess I'll see you around campus." "Can you see us?" "You know, this was fun." "We should do this, like, once a week." " Yeah, just not the same movie." " I liked it!" " So did I." " I saw you sleeping." "I was burning certain scenes into my memory." "Yeah, well, you're tired." "You worked your ass off this week." "Hey, I had a shoplifter today." "Shoplifting is something I just don't associate with antiques, you know." "I think I'm just gonna take this Chippendale dresser and stuff it under my jacket." "Yeah, right, it was Grateful Dead backstage passes." " At least he had good taste." " Yeah, he was a kid." "I called his mother." "Something no thief worth his salt wants to have happen." "Delia Banks." "She's great." "She sells real estate in town." "Yeah." "Yes?" "Well, I just thought maybe I hit something on my way here." " An animal?" " No." "More like someone who used to be alive and now isn't." "Is that what we're calling ghosts now?" "Yeah, I got bored of calling them ghosts." "Wait a minute." "You tell me about the shoplifter, but you don't tell me about the ex-living person?" "Well, there won't be a lawsuit." "Sometimes I think a lawsuit would be easier." "What happened?" "Do you really want me to tell you about every single ghost I run across?" "Or run over." "Absolutely not." " I prefer to be on a need-to-know basis." " Good, then you drive." " Hey." " I'm not a thief." "Glad to hear it." "Shouldn't you be in school?" "What, are you gonna call my mom again?" "Can I ask you a question?" "If you're not a thief, then why did you steal those backstage passes?" "I don't know." "It just felt like I should have them, not you." "Your mom says you have a lot of that stuff." "You collect it?" " What about your dad?" " What about him?" " Where is he?" " In the ground." "Oh, that must be hard for you, for your mom." "He liked old things." " Look, if you want..." " I gotta go." "Want to check my pockets?" "Jim?" "Jim?" "What is it?" "What?" "Okay." "It's need-to-know time." "Wait." "So September 29th doesn't mean anything?" "No, other than the fact that it's next Friday." " Perfect." "The day somebody died?" " Well, it could be any of those things." "But until this guy talks to me, we can only guess." "What?" "I don't know." "It's just..." "Another..." "Another formerly alive person in our house." "Why can't our home be off-limits?" "I don't like it any more than you do, trust me." "Maybe this guy doesn't know where he is or what's going on." "It's like he doesn't actually want me to see him." "It's some kind of hide-and-seek game he's playing." "Sometimes spirits have a kind of amnesia, and they need time to figure things out." "Maybe he's hoping that this date will spark something." "Well, it certainly sparked something." "Is this because I was in the shower?" "Are you afraid that..." "Mel..." "Mel, it's just about boundaries." "They don't belong in our home." "I'm sorry that I have to burden you with this." "Hey, it's no burden." "I'm just used to having Andrea to puzzle these things out with." "Babe." "I know." "Who are you?" "I'm not sure." " What do you want?" " I don't know." "Do you know why you came to me?" " You can help me." " How?" "How did you die?" " Were you hit by a car?" " I think so." "I don't remember everything exactly." "What does September 29th mean?" " Don't you know?" " No." "Then I don't either." "Do you have a family?" "Does someone know what happened to you?" "I had a wife." "In Eastwick." " Maine?" " She may not know." "Will you tell her?" "Well, I'm sure you had ID on you." "The police have probably called her by now." "I was no good to her." "I hurt her." "I have to say I'm sorry." " Do you remember her name?" " Donna." "Donna Ellis." " And what's your name?" " I think people called me Mac." "Well, Mac, Eastwick is not exactly around the corner." " So, I don't know that I..." " You have to find her." " See her." " Why?" "It's important." " Are you open?" " I'll be right with you." "I took a guess." "Mocha latte?" " Works for me." "That's so nice." " Consider it a peace offering." "I think my son paid you another visit the other day." "Man, he's good." "We were talking the whole time." "Yes, it makes a mother proud." "Sorry, I didn't mean to make light of it." "No, no, I'm so grateful that you're not upset." "Honestly, I don't know what his problem is." "He mentioned that his father had passed away." "Three years ago." "It has been really hard on him." "For you, too." "The shoplifting helps a lot." "Good to know." "I don't mean to pry, but you lost your partner recently, didn't you?" "Yeah." "She was like a sister to me." "Well, I am right across the square, so if you ever need anything, or you just want to grab a cup of coffee..." "Thanks for bringing these back." "I tried to make Ned do it, but you know..." "I know." "Does he ever say that he can feel his father's presence?" "Presence?" "Like he's around." "You know, watching over him." "He doesn't say it." "But I think he does." "Sometimes I do, too." "Or at least I wish for it so badly that I think I do." "I just wanted to thank you." "I know it sounds crazy, but he asked me to go to Maine." "Maine?" "As in New England?" "Yeah, and you know what's crazier?" "I think I should do it." "Wait, you know, this is one of the reasons why" "Mr. Alexander Graham Bell was so excited about his new invention." "Because you could just pick one of these things up" " and call people, instead of..." " You know what?" "It's hard enough to do this in person, never mind on the phone." "How're you gonna find her?" "Well, he gave me a name and a town..." "And there's that other little invention, the Internet." "I don't know, I just think it's a long way to go for a ghost, or a being who no longer occupies the visual world." "Well, that's true, but to be honest with you," "I kind of want to get this guy crossed over." "There's something off about him." " Besides being dead?" " You are hilarious." "It's like he's holding something back." "And you know what?" "Either I do this thing or I don't do this thing, but I can't just say "local calls only."" "Well, I think there should be some metaphysical frequent flyer miles involved." "I'm gonna drive." "It's pretty up there this time of year." "Maybe you should come with me." "A change of scenery." "I'm back on Sundays, starting tomorrow." "You should go." "You're right." "It'll do you good." "I'll call you a million times." " Yes?" " Oh, sorry." " Are you Donna Ellis?" " Yes." "I was hoping I could talk to you for a minute." "Sure." "About what?" "About your husband." "And please accept my condolences." "Condolences?" "I'm sorry, what is this about?" " Well, I assumed you knew..." " Knew what?" "Your husband..." "That your husband passed away." "What?" "What are you talking about?" "You didn't know?" "How?" "When?" "He was hit by a car." "I'm so sorry, I thought that..." "Where is he?" "Where is he?" "Michael?" "Michael, you're okay!" " I'm fine." " Wait." "That's your husband?" "This woman came here and she said that you were dead!" "That you had been hit by a car!" " No, I'm sorry, I..." " Why would you do that?" " What's wrong with you?" " It was a mistake, I guess." "I don't know what to say." "I just don't get it." "I had the right name, and I had the right address." "Well, maybe he's confused." "You said sometimes they don't know what's happening." "No, I think this guy knows exactly what's happening." "I think I'm just being played." "Conned by a ghost?" "That's not gonna look very good on a résumé." "Sure, laugh at my misery, but you should have been here." "It was the most embarrassing moment of my life." "Why is this guy manipulating me like this?" "Look, just come home." "Come home." "I'll be off by breakfast time." "No, it's getting late and I'm too stressed to drive." "I'm just..." "I'm gonna try to get a room, and start fresh in the morning." "Okay." "Just call me before you go to sleep." "Okay." " Excuse me." " Please leave me alone." "I can't tell you how sorry I am about that." "It was an honest mistake." "Okay." "Look, I don't know who you are or what your problem is, but if you don't leave me alone, I'm calling the police." " Understood?" " Do you know a man named Mac?" " Do you mean my ex-husband?" " Ex?" "I thought he was your husband." " Has something happened to him?" " Yes." "I'm sorry, he died." "He was hit by a car." "I came a long way to tell you that." " Why?" " 'Cause he wants you to know." "He feels really bad about the way that he treated you, and he wants to apologize." " You're speaking in the present tense." " Yes." " But he's dead." " Yes." " Who the hell are you?" " He wants to say he's sorry." "It's what he needs to have closure, so that he can move on." "I can help you talk to him if you'll just let me." "I need you to stay away from me." "Even if I believed any of this," "Mac put me through hell in our marriage, and I have nothing to say to him, and I don't care what he has to say to me." "Nobody's seen her for three, four days." "She don't answer door, she don't answer phone." "Nobody else is asking around for her, so I use key just to check up." "She's gone." "One, two days probably." " Heart attack?" " Think so." "Wanna go downstairs and call this in, and I'll get going on paperwork?" "Yeah, okay." "Have a nice trip." "She's mine." "Leave her." "Come on." "Talk to me." "You think this is funny?" "Making me tell that poor woman that her husband is dead?" "Let me in on the joke, pal." "This doesn't mean that I believe any of this, but just by chance, if it's true, I thought I should hear what he had to say." "I'm glad you came." "Come in." " Where the hell have you been?" " I'm sorry?" "Nothing." " So how does this work?" " Tell her she looks good." " He says you look good." " Wait, so he's here?" "Like, now?" "All right, if he's here, then why don't you ask him to tell you what happened to our marriage?" "He said that you were married three years ago, that you moved to this town together in the same house that you live in now, and then you divorced him a year later." "Ask him why." " I don't remember." " He says he doesn't remember." "I remember." "He was obsessed with another woman." " Wait, he cheated on you?" " No, not like that." "That would have been almost easier." "Instead, I had to compete with the memory of his ex-girlfriend." "I didn't realize how hung up on her he was." "It was like he just couldn't get her out of his mind." "He was constantly comparing me to her" " and talking about her." " I tried to make it work." "He said that he tried to make it work." "Bull." "You just went through the motions, Mac, and sometimes not even that." "I don't even understand why you wasted your time with me." "Do you know how he ended it?" "I told him that, you know, maybe we should take some time apart so that he could figure out what or who he really wanted." "And he just said, "Okay, let's get a divorce."" "Just like that." "Like it was nothing." "You should have just gone out and found that girl and just figured it out." "But instead you used me." "You made me feel like I didn't count for anything." " I did find the girl." " What?" "I did find the girl I was in love with." "Who I'm still in love with." "I should have never let you go." "Kyle?" "Kyle McCall?" "Did you just call him Kyle?" "No one's called him that since college." "We all called him Mac." "Tell her." "Tell her you know me." "Tell her you're the one I never got over after we broke up." "What?" "What's he saying?" "That he's sorry for the way that he treated you, and he hopes that you can forgive him." " Right." "You can do that?" " She's not really the forgiving type." " I can't believe you!" " Okay, this is just too weird." "I've got to get out of here." "And if this is real, which I highly doubt, tell him that I don't forgive him." "He was an idiot then, and he's probably still an idiot now." " You played me!" " You're mad." "I could never stand to make you mad." "Why didn't you tell me who you were?" "Why did you send me to your ex-wife?" " Don't you know?" "Can't you see it?" " See what?" "You just don't understand." "Damn it!" "Kyle McCall." "You told me about this guy." "You went out with him in college." " You said he hurt you." " Yeah, that was an understatement." "Kyle was the first guy that I thought I was really in love with." "Believe me, I did not trust easily." "We were together for a whole year in college." "He was complicated." "One of those tortured souls you think you can save." "And I thought if I opened myself up to him, if I took a risk and told him my secret, it would show how much I believed in him, in us." " You're kidding, right?" " No." " You really believe you can do this?" " Kyle, I do it all the time." " See dead people." " Yes." " Talk to dead people." " Don't say it like I'm crazy." " You're thinking it, aren't you?" " What?" " That I'm crazy." " I didn't say that." " Well, I can see that you're thinking it." " What am I supposed to think?" "That I wouldn't lie to you and that I'm not crazy." "Stuff like that." " Do you talk to ghosts a lot?" " More than I want to." "Like, every day?" "Once a week?" "Third Tuesday of the month?" "I try not to speak to them unless they speak to me." " And what do they talk about?" " All kinds of things." "Mostly they need help." "I have to help them cross over into the light." "Yeah, I knew it was too good to be true." " What?" " You." "Us." " I thought I'd met the perfect girl." " Kyle, wait." "I know that you don't believe me, but please don't walk away." " Just talk to me." " Yeah." "Maybe when I'm dead." "That was it." "Never called me." "Never came to see me again, after a year." " Still hurts?" " I guess." "A little." " First cut, and all that." " Now he wants a second chance." "I guess that explains the talking corpse I had to deal with last night." "I'm sorry, Jim." "I wish that you never had to deal with any of this." " Keeps things fresh." " You were my second chance." "I mean, you know that, right?" "I never thought that I was gonna be able to trust anyone again after Kyle." "And then there was Jim." "You're not going to break into song right now, are you?" "I might." "Mel, what are we gonna do about this guy, though?" "I don't know how much longer I can keep my sense of humor." "I'll get him to cross over and out of our lives, I promise." "All right, can you tell me what the hell it is with these passes?" "Dude, these are mine, from my collection." "Dude, I bought those at a trade show in Philadelphia." "I know." "I know." "My mom, she sold my whole collection after I died, and it got spread out all over the place, and this is the last of it." "You've been tracking the whole collection?" "Each and every single piece meant so much to me." "My mother, she never got that, so she sold it to some guy, he sold it to another guy and..." "My collection!" " What's your name?" " Jamey Barton." " You heard of me?" " No." "Why are you still here?" "I gotta make sure this stuff gets to the right people." "People who care." "People who know what it means, you know." "So that's why you attached yourself to Ned." "And here I thought the whole time it was his father who was haunting him." "Maybe I'm losing my touch lately." "You see, I hang out at concerts, and I try to get, you know, a feel for the kids." "And then I try to get the right kid a piece of the collection." "Well, you'll be happy to know Ned has been a real trouper about getting these passes." "That's my boy." "You're making him a thief." "It's not like I can just slip him the cash, can I?" " How did you get him to do it?" " Well, I wait till he falls asleep." "And then I whisper in his ear all freaking night long." ""Steal the passes, dude." "Steal the passes, dude."" " It's how I used to remember lyrics." " Yeah, well, he's not going to steal the passes from me, and you have to leave him alone." "You're messing with his energy." "He doesn't even know why." "It's time for you to go to the big arena in the sky." "No can do." "I mean, he's the one for these passes." "He understands." "I can't go anywhere until the last of my collection is in the right hands, so... 3:00 already." "Note to self." "I gotta keep better track of time." "He's getting out of school right now, so I gotta skate." "Come on, Kyle." "We have to talk about this." "I can't help you if I don't know what you want." "You could have told me how great it is to be dead." "Go anywhere I want, no travel time." "No one can see me." "Well, almost no one." "I've had more fun being dead so far than the entire time I was alive." " What do you want?" " I was on my way to see you, you know." " The day I died." " Why?" "I saw you on the news." "All I can say is that people in this town are strong." "They're survivors and we'll be okay." "Hey, what's with you and this chick, Melinda?" "Like you're obsessed with her." "I wanted to see how things turned out for you." "Things turned out pretty good for me." "I see that." "Not so much for me, though." "And how is that my problem, Kyle?" "Look, I made a big mistake the day I let you go." "I didn't realize that right away." " You moved on." " But I didn't!" " You married Donna." " Yeah, another mistake." "Donna looked like you." "I thought maybe somehow I could turn her into you." "It was a disaster." "That's why I wanted you to meet her." "So you could see that I was just trying to recreate you." " You affected every part of my life." " You affected every part of my life." "You made me feel like a freak and that I didn't deserve to be loved." "I gave you everything, even the one secret that I never wanted anyone to know, and you threw me away." "It was so easy for you." "You want to talk about a ripple effect?" "I'm sorry." "I really am." "I was stupid, I had no idea what I was throwing away." "Don't tell me you didn't think about me once in a while." "Remember how we used to make fun of the Space Needle?" "Remember that movie theater in Queen Anne?" " The Uptown." " The Uptown." "Right." "How many rainy afternoons did we spend there?" "Watching the worst movies ever." "I used to hate coffee until Seattle." "You made me try every kind." "And you convinced me to stop wearing socks." "You thought my feet looked sexy in sneakers without socks." "Remember that book store in Pioneer Square?" "None of that matters now." "But it does." "It should." "I remember the first day I talked to you in class." "The way you looked at me." "Those eyes..." "I remember thinking to myself," ""Now I know what it's like to really be looked at."" "No one's ever looked at me like that since." "It's over." "You made your choice, there's no going back, and I'm happy now." "I found a man that I love more than I ever thought was possible." "But it's not over." "We can be together now." " Like it was supposed to be." " Are you listening to me, Kyle?" "I'm happily married and you're dead." "September 29th is the night we broke up." "And September 29th is gonna be the night we get back together." "Are you going to be late tonight?" "I don't know." "Friday nights can be a little heavy." "Well, tonight would be a good night to be late." "Why?" "Because it's September 29th, and he's got something planned." "I just don't know what." "Well, I should be here." " This guy feels like trouble." " It's my deal, okay?" "I have to solve it, and besides, he's really not that bad of a guy." "He would never hurt me." "Mel, you and this guy, is there..." "I can't believe I'm asking this about a ghost." " Is there still something between you?" " What?" " I heard you last night..." " Jim, he's dead." "There was a time in my life when that meant case closed, but then I met you." "One or two laughs with Kyle McCall, dead or alive, will never compare to what we have." "There was more depth on our first date than I ever had with Kyle." "The problem is he doesn't get that." "All right, be careful." " Call me if you need me?" " Yeah." "Ned, it's no big deal." "You just gotta go in there and take those passes." "Technically, it's not even really stealing because those passes are mine." "In the big picture, we're like, one, you know, so..." " That was harsh." " They're yours." "Righteous." "Why?" "Sometimes, my job is about making sure that the right people end up with the right things." "Something tells me that whoever owned them would want you to have them." " Seriously?" " They're not for free." "I need some help at the store, on Saturdays, after school, for, let's say, a month." "I don't know." "Is that like, minimum wage, or..." "All right." "Don't push it." "Okay." "So, thanks." " Slickly done, I must say." "Slickly done." " Thank you." "That is one bright light." "Yeah, the ultimate all-access pass." " Do you hear that?" " Hear what?" "Check, check." "Check one." "Check two." "Kyle!" "Stop it!" "Leave my husband's stuff alone!" "You can't just go through my house like this!" "Kyle, you have to stop doing this, all right?" "You cannot just erase Jim by getting rid of everything that he owns." "But obviously, one of us has to go, and it's not going to be me." "Not this time." " Jim is not going anywhere." " I love you, Melinda." "You have no idea what love is." "Well, I'm here, and he isn't, so that's a good start." "He's not here because he loves me." "I asked him to give me some space and he gave it to me." " Yeah, how is that love?" " That's just part of it." "And it's not the greeting cards and sunset and flowers part." "That's easy." "That's not real." "It's about doing the things that you don't want to do, the stuff that makes you mad, the stuff that you do without even being asked." "It's about having a friend and knowing when to shut up." "You know, I can't tell you what love is." "I can only tell you what it isn't, and this is not it." "Yeah, but you're wrong, Melinda." "I will never forget the look in your eyes when you walked away from me." " What look?" " Relief." "You were relieved." "To not have to risk being in an honest relationship." "To not have to give anything up." "To be able to blame somebody else so you could be safe." "That's a lie." "Your ex-wife told me that you did exactly the same thing to her." "The first time that she called you on the way you treated her, you left." " Just like me." "You call that love?" " Yeah, but I missed you every day." "I knew I had made a mistake." "That's because you had already thrown me away." "I could be imaginary." "Was I that forgettable?" "I hated myself for it." " I wanted to call you 100 times." " It would've been too late." "You did what you did, I saw what I saw." "There was never any going back." "Now I'm starting to hate being dead." "Why?" "Because the answer to everything is, "Too late." ""Too late to fix the mistakes." ""Too late to catch up with the things you missed." ""Too late to make things right with the people you hurt." ""Too late to love you the way he does."" "The beauty part of my job is, Kyle, it's never too late." "You wasted a trip." "I have nothing to gain by talking to him." "Look, maybe you don't have anything to gain." "Maybe you just have something to lose, a little piece of anger or bitterness or disappointment." "He hurt me so much." "You know what?" "He hurt me, too." "But you know what happened?" "I got stronger." "I met the perfect man for me." "I found a beautiful place to live." "And you, you're married again." "I saw how much you loved your husband when you thought that he was dead." "I mean, would you really be this happy if you were still with Kyle?" "Would I?" "Transformation." "Sometimes, it turns out to be better than you could have imagined." "He just wants a chance to say that he's sorry." "He's right behind you, and he's ready to do that." "I screwed up, Donna." "I was scared." "I took the easy way out." "I'm so sorry." " He knows that he screwed up." " You son of a bitch, Kyle." "Didn't you know how much I loved you?" "What I would have done for you?" "How could you..." "How could you just throw that away?" "I'm glad you're happy now." "You're better off without me." "He's glad that you're happy now." "You're better off." "Yeah, well, I guess we'll never really know." "I know." "He knows." "Can I go now?" "Time to cross over." "You ever think I'll get a second chance?" "To come back here again and do this right?" "It's really nice to think so." "You were never forgettable."