A Guide to the Other Side (20 page)

“I'm sorry,” I said. “I had no idea.” My hands were sweating.

“You should be sorry,” she said. “It's great you've actually been blessed with a gift and all, but a girl's gotta eat. I'm gonna have to downsize soon, you know, and the real question is how can I downsize from something that's already as tiny as a closet?”

“Wait, what do you mean that I've ‘actually been blessed'? Are you saying you're—”

“Not like you,” she said. “Mmm, nope. I just give good advice. This is way more fun than having to use my psychology degree.”

“Are you really admitting to me you're a fraud?” I asked. “You really sit here and let people pay you for tricking them into thinking you can communicate with their loved ones?”

“I wouldn't go that far,” she said. “My gift is more . . . intuitive. I could feel from the second you walked in that there was something different about you, but once you said your name, I wasn't going to sit here and let you embarrass me.”

“So you've got intuition,” I said. “An empath, right? I could feel that. I could feel the tingle in my neck when you were speaking. That's real, at least.”

She raised her eyebrows and let out a laugh after a few seconds. “You playing?”

“No,” I said. “I could feel it.”

“From the horse's mouth!” she laughed, clapping her hands together. “My auntie was right. She's obsessed with you, by the way, one of those Baylievers. Psh. Before you were born, though, she was always saying I was special, that I knew too much. I always just thought I was a good actress.”

I thought of that tingle in my neck and wondered if it had maybe been a regular itch. I blocked out that thought. She was the only person in town who could help me. “I need your help, Madame Nadirah.”

  *  *  *  

Madame Nadirah did not like anything I had to say. She didn't like the Sheet Man, she didn't like knowing my dead twin followed me around, she didn't like hearing that the dead twin had been ghostnapped, and she really, really didn't like knowing that demons were actively floating around the city.

“Those things aren't standing outside my shop, right?”

“No, and that's another reason why I trust you—they wouldn't try to influence a gifted person who had so much positive energy. It wouldn't work. That's why they leave you alone and stick to the frauds.”

“Baylor, I just told you fifteen minutes ago I'm a fraud.”

“You say that, but you're wrong. You've managed to keep this store open this long.” I looked around the room. “You couldn't have done that if there weren't
something
here. I know you're my best bet for entering the dimension where the Sheet Man resides. If you can't help me, no one in this city can. Well, except for my baby sister, Ella, but she can't speak English yet, so for now you're it.”

She sighed, twirling a curl around one of her fingers. “Fine,” she said. “Fine, I'll help, but if something goes wrong, if one of those little demons swoops in and gobbles you up, don't say I didn't warn you.”

“I'm not worried,” I said excitedly. I reached into my backpack and pulled out the talisman. “I'm taking this with me.”

“What could that be? Looks like a blind carpenter's last try.”

“It's a talisman I made to stop the Sheet Man,” I said.

“You make talismans?” she asked, nonplussed.

“Not regularly,” I said. “This was my first time.”

“Oh, Lord.” She shook her head, still looking dubiously at the talisman. “Baylor, neither one of us knows what we're doing here. Even if that
thing
can protect you, how do you plan on getting to the dimension where the Sheet Man resides? Do you have a map you forgot to mention?”

I didn't want to admit I wasn't sure about that, either. I had an idea, though. I once asked Aiden what he saw when he shut his eyes, and he said everything was black, but sometimes weird purple and green squiggles and shapes would dance around aimlessly.

But for me, when I close my eyes, I initially see black, and then it's almost as if I mentally walk forward a few feet, and the black dissolves away, letting me see exactly where I am in its pure state, with flowing energies and auras and unfiltered spirits. I assumed if I focused my energy on the Sheet Man and Kristina's energies, I'd be led the right way.

“I just have a feeling,” I said, hoping I sounded more confident than I felt.

  *  *  *  

We spent a few minutes going over the basics and coming up with the necessary protections. Then we got started.

“Lie down, child,” she said, her voice losing its edge and taking on that breathy quality. “Get comfortable.”

I sprawled out on the floor of the tiny back room and placed my head on the cushion. She flipped the black lights back on.

“Really?”

“Hey, you said I had intuition, and this is where I feel it the strongest. If you can have a talisman with an egg, I can have a room with some black lights.”

“Fine.” I shut my eyes.

She placed four sage candles around me, two by my wrists and two by my ankles. As she lit each one, she recited the phrase we came up with: “Let the fire shackle this body to the earth. Let my spirit keep him safe.”

With each candle I imagined a fiery handcuff shooting out from the wick and wrapping itself around my wrist or ankle. This ritual was to make sure I wouldn't be trapped in some other dimension while my body lay vulnerable in Madame Nadirah's shop. Otherwise, I'd be easy prey for an insidious, sneaky Insymbio to take over my being.

Once she was done lighting the candles, she placed her hands over my fast-beating heart and recited another phrase: “Let his soul find the path to healing. Let his light expel the darkness.”

I felt secure and at peace knowing my body was protected and Madame Nadirah was keeping watch. I let my mind calm down and thought of nothing but Kristina and the Sheet Man.

Kristina, if you're there, if you can hear me, if you can feel me, then lead the way.

It felt daunting. Although I was lying still and motionless, I was overwhelmed by how tired I suddenly felt. Kristina was so far away. How would I be able to find her?

But slowly the black faded away, and the room materialized back into view. It was quieter, grayer. Madame Nadirah had disappeared, and I could feel an energy lifting my spirit. The feeling of exhaustion had vanished. I pushed myself up and cautiously stepped out of my body and into another dimension, hoping I wasn't making a terrible mistake.

I walked outside the shop, talisman in hand, and saw no one. The only things in this particular dimension were most likely me, the Sheet Man, and Kristina.

Strange shadows floated by me, and I wondered if they were shadows of spirits, somehow reflected into this new dimension. The only question now was where to find the Sheet Man. I felt like there was a good chance that he would come to me if I was exposed for long enough.

I walked up the main road, back to Central Square, and saw the massive structure where the demons had been reclining. The demons were gone, but two large shadows were in their place. I kept my distance. I didn't know if I had any protections from them in this dimension, and I didn't want to test it.

I walked the square once, then headed down the deserted road in the direction where I lived. There was a chance he could be at my house, but it was a real shot in the dark.

“Sheet Man!” I called out. “Kristina!”

Nothing.

Everything around me looked duller and lifeless. It was almost like the city I'd grown up in, but through some bizarre, groggy filter; the spark that made it colorful and lively was gone. It seemed like joy couldn't possibly exist here, like a permanent winter.

“Sheet Man! Alfred! Alfred Parker!” I called out. I had nothing to lose, right? Since I was the only one making noise in this dimension, I figured the sound would carry to wherever he was.

“Kristina!”

A fierce wind picked up, howling in my ears. I looked around, wondering which direction I could expect to see him coming from, when an odd flicker appeared in front of me, as though this dimension offered poor reception.

After several flickers, in and out, Grandpa Bosco burst through in a shower of blue sparks, his body outlined in blue light.

I hadn't seen him since he disappeared with Kristina to the Beyond more than five years ago, and boy, did he look pissed off to see me.

“What in the Almighty are you doing here, Baylor?” he growled over the wind, grabbing my arm. It was the strangest feeling, like I'd gotten the chills but only in the area of my arm where he was holding on to me.

“Grandpa! What are you doing?”

“Getting you out of here!” He was dragging me back in the direction of the square, his thin hair whipping around in the intensifying wind. “That Tommy told you to come here, didn't he? Darn it, Baylor, just because we're ghosts doesn't mean you can always assume we're right.”

“But, Grandpa, Kristina is trapped in here somewhere,” I said, trying to pry his hand off my arm, but I couldn't penetrate the blue energy surrounding his body.

“I know that, you dimwit,” he said. “But she's dead. She can be here and not be harmed. You, on the other hand, are very much alive, and if something happens to you, you could be stuck in this limbo forever.”

“I've got the talisman, Grandpa, I'll be fine.”

“Do you think the Sheet Man is the only entity in this dimension?” he said, his eyes wide and grave. “You've got one talisman, but what if another demon attacks you after you've already used it? You can't imagine the kinds of creatures that have been banished to this dimension.” His grip tightened as the blue light seemed to intensify. “Bam. You'd be done, Baylor, with no chance of ever entering the Beyond, and frankly, we can't have that.”

“If I don't do this, I might never see Kristina again!” I was banging the wooden bowl against his hand, but he didn't seem to notice.

“You'll see her again,” he said. “You will. I wouldn't let my granddaughter languish over here otherwise. But it's part of her journey, not yours.”

“What? Really?”

“Really,” he said. We were nearly back in front of Madame Nadirah's by now. “Baylor, don't you ever come to this dimension again, do you understand me? It takes an enormous amount of energy for a spirit like me to cross that barrier, and I won't be able to rescue you again. Not for a few years at least.”

“Okay,” I said, only just realizing I was crying. “I'm sorry. I won't. It . . . it was good seeing you, Grandpa. I hope you're doing okay in the Beyond.”

His eyes lightened for a moment. “I don't mean to sound so harsh, Baylor. It's a treat to see you, you've gotten so tall!” He half smiled. “I just need to make sure you're safe. I'm learning a lot, buddy boy. I hope to be able to visit you soon.”

I could feel his grip loosening, but I didn't want him to let go.

“One more thing, Baylor: Tell your dad to stop worrying. He made the right choice.”

Before I could ask what he meant, he tossed me through the door of the shop, and I zoomed back to my body in fast-forward motion, the shop blurring around me as I soared past the books and candles, into the room with the black lights, and onto the cushion, where I suddenly gasped and rocketed up.

Madame Nadirah was standing over me, her palms still over my heart.

“There you are,” she said. “You'd gone away for a little while.”

I looked around, trying to breathe and swallow at the same time, but instead choking on phlegm.

“Did it work?”

“No,” I said, my body shaking and my arm still tingling from where my grandpa had had his iron grip. “Well, yes, it worked, but I didn't do what I wanted to do. My grandpa entered the dimension, yelled at me for being there, and brought me back here. I didn't want to come back yet, but he told me I could get trapped over there forever.”

She was massaging my shoulders now and clucking her tongue.

“Child, if there's one thing I know in this life, it's this: When your granddaddy tells you to run, you run.”

AFTER ONE LONG, DAZED BIKE
ride home I sneaked past the family room, where I could hear everyone hanging out, and called Aiden from my room.

“I saw my grandpa,” I said. “The first time in five years.”

“That's pretty cool.”

“Yeah.”

“So did you find Kristina?”

“No.”

“Oh,” he said. A silent moment passed. “J texted me while you were doing your stuff.”

“What did she say?”

“She asked if she could borrow my speech notes tomorrow, she thinks she might have missed something.”

I blinked. “That's all she said? I thought you were going to tell me something good about the dance.”