Giving Up the Ghost (2 page)

“Oh! Good morning!” I said.

“Yes, I know, I know. I feel the way I look,” she said drily, tapping her teaspoon lightly against the china cup and laying it down in the saucer. “At my age, beauty sleep is of utmost importance. But bad dreams are keeping me awake. I don't like the energy in the house. Something is amiss.”

I opened a cabinet and grabbed a bowl. As I poured out my cereal, I thought about the weird, creepy dream I'd had just before waking up. It was the first time I had dreamed about the white-haired lady, but I had definitely been having odd, fragmented, vaguely frightening dreams for a while now. Lady Azura had been talking about her bad dreams for weeks too. So far I had hesitated to mention my dreams to her, but maybe it was time.

And I felt the strange energy in the house too. Lady Azura had been teaching me to listen to all my senses, and while I'm not totally sure what that means, I have noticed lately that I can kind of pick up on vibes sometimes. And the vibes in our house were different lately. But somehow I wasn't as bothered by it as Lady Azura was. Maybe it was because my birthday was coming up, so it was hard for me to stay in a gloomy mood.

I always looked forward to my birthday, with an irrational, little-kid excitement that I really ought to have grown out of by this point. Maybe it was because my dad was the same way. His birthday is in June, and we've always done something really fun on each other's big day. Last year I got to take the day off from school, and we went deep-sea fishing. We hadn't caught anything, which I was secretly relieved about, but we'd seen whales. My dad brought a cooler onto the boat with lunch, and then he surprised me with a little cake, with candles and everything, in the middle of the ocean. That was one of my happiest days I could remember before I moved to New Jersey. I had been wondering what we would do this year to celebrate.

Lady Azura's voice pulled me out of my reverie. “Have you been feeling it too, Sara? The negative energy?”

The white-haired woman's face was etched in my memory. I paused, midway through slicing my banana onto my cereal. “Well, actually, yeah. Kind of. Just last night—”

We heard a loud crash in the hallway outside the kitchen. The sound of breaking glass.

I dropped the rest of my banana beside my bowl. I bounded across the kitchen in three steps and banged open the swinging kitchen door.

“Stay back!”

It was my dad. He was standing frozen in the hallway, in the midst of at least three broken picture frames. They'd fallen off the wall and shattered.

“There's lots of broken glass,” he said.

“I have shoes on,” I said, pointing to my Converses and turning back toward the kitchen. “I'll grab the broom. You stay there so you don't track any little pieces of glass.”

I guess I must have sounded take-charge and convincing, because he did as I ordered and stayed put.

Lady Azura had risen from her chair and walked toward the kitchen doorway in her high-heeled mule slippers. She peered down the hall at my dad, her brow furrowed. I couldn't tell whether it was a look of concern or annoyance. I was used to reading her face when it was fully made-up.

“What happened?” she demanded of my dad, as I gently edged past her, carrying the broom, dustpan, and kitchen garbage can.

“I don't know,” said my dad, taking the broom from me and shooing me away. “I'll take care of this,” he said to me. “Go finish breakfast.”

I ignored him and carefully stooped down to pick up the large pieces of glass, which I dropped into the bin.

“I was just walking down the hall—careful, honey—thinking about the presentation I have to give today,” he said. “And the pictures seemed to jump off the wall. I don't think I even touched them. Maybe it was the vibrations from my footsteps?”

Lady Azura's frown deepened.

“I'm going to be late if I don't get a move on,” my dad said, glancing at his watch. “Are you sure you can clean this up, Sara? Are you okay on time before school?”

“It's fine, Dad. Go. Good luck with your presentation!” I said, looking up from the floor to give him a quick smile. Lady Azura had retreated back to the kitchen.

A few seconds after the front door had closed, I heard another crash. This time it was a thud, heavy footsteps, and then the sound of my father saying a bad word. Before I had time to react, the front door slammed back open.

My father stood there, breathing heavily. Now it was his turn to have an annoyed look on his face.

“Whatever is the matter now, Mike?” asked Lady Azura. I heard a slight hint of exasperation in her tone. Evidently my father did too.

“I just tripped over the front porch chair, which
someone
left directly in the way,” he growled in an angry voice I seldom heard him use.

Lady Azura sniffed haughtily. “Well, I certainly didn't leave the chair there, if that is what you are implying.”

My dad held up a paperback book. One of Lady Azura's romance novels. “This was on the chair,” he said, placing it on the table next to the door.

Maybe you shouldn't be such a bull in a china shop.

I'd heard what Lady Azura was thinking.

I hope you aren't getting forgetful. First sign of senility, maybe?

I'd heard that, too. My dad's thoughts.

My head started to throb. It was too early in the morning to listen to family drama.

“I might get stuck working late again and may not be back until after supper's over tonight,” my father said as he closed the front door.

I hastily finished sweeping up and tied up the bag. I was going to be late to meet Lily at this rate. I grabbed my backpack, then picked up the garbage bag and headed out the door. “Bye!” I yelled. “I'll grab something to eat at school!”

I heard a muffled reply from Lady Azura in the kitchen.

After dumping the garbage into the bin, I hurried down the front pathway and turned onto Seagate Drive to meet Lily.

I glanced quickly back at the house. It looked the same. The weathered gables. Pale-yellow siding with burnt-orange trim. The huge covered porch. I caught a glimpse of two of the spirits—our spirits, the ones that belonged in my house. The old woman sitting on the porch, knitting. And a young boy in a cap, scampering around on an upstairs balcony. Everything looked the same as it always did. But I couldn't help sharing Lady Azura's feeling that something was not right.

I thought about how I, too, hadn't been the same recently. My ability to read people's thoughts had grown stronger in the past few weeks. I wasn't at all sure that this was a good thing. It made me feel guilty to hear what people were thinking. Like I was eavesdropping. Intruding. What would be next? X-ray vision? So I could see them in their underwear?

I wondered if my powers were strengthening because I was getting older. I thought about how awful it would be if someone else could read
my
thoughts. I often had fears, or annoyed feelings about other people, that passed quickly. But what if someone tapped into my mind at the very moment I was thinking something terrible?

Lately I felt like I worried all the time. In addition to worrying about my new power, I worried a lot about my dad and Lady Azura. Things had been really tense between them lately.

I was beginning to think Lady Azura was right when she said the energy in the house was bad. What I didn't know, though, was what to do about it.

Chapter 3

Lily was actually there waiting for me as I arrived in front of her house. I must really have been running late, because Lily is almost never waiting somewhere before I am. She's “chronically tardy,” as some of our teachers like to say. She was practicing her ballet leaps across the sidewalk, her long brown braid flapping behind her.

“Hey, you!” she shouted as I approached. “How does my cabriole look? I've been working on it!”

I grinned. “Awesome. Probably even more awesome if I actually knew what a cabby-whatever actually is.”

She rolled her eyes and linked arms with me, panting slightly from all that jumping around. “Come on. We have to get moving! Do you realize you are actually late, missy? That might be a first for you.”

“Yeah, sorry. Lots of drama in the house this morning. Don't ask.”

She laughed. “Multiply that times five and you have
my
house this morning.”

Lily had three brothers and a sister. And more cousins than I could count on my fingers and toes.

“So. We have to talk. About Saturday,” said Lily as we turned onto Ocean Grove Road.

My heart sank. I hoped she wasn't going to suggest having some huge birthday party for me.

“What
about
Saturday?” I asked warily.

“I was talking with Miranda and Avery,” she said, “and we were thinking about throwing a big party.”

“Oh, now, Lil, hold on. I don't—”

“For Jayden.”

That stopped me. I blinked at her.

“Oh! For . . . Jayden?”

“Yeah, because he'll be leaving just after spring break, and I guess there's no other time to have a going-away party before he leaves, because he has so many relatives to go see and stuff. So we thought Saturday would be the perfect night for it.”

“Um, yeah. That sounds great,” I said.

We walked in silence for a few minutes. The warm March breeze smelled salty and hinted at summer. The leaves were just starting to bud on the trees. I thought about Jayden. He'd told me he was moving to Atlanta when we were at the semiformal dance a few weeks back. Well, actually I'd read his thoughts first. And
then
he'd told me.

Jayden was my first-ever boyfriend. My first-ever kiss. On the cheek, but still. No one knew about the kiss except Lily . . . and Jayden and I, of course. As first boyfriends go, I thought I had definitely won the coolest-first-boyfriend prize. He was really cute, with shaggy brown hair and big brown eyes. Skin the color of caramel. Athletic. Funny. Nice. And I didn't feel shy when I was with him, which was how I usually felt with practically everyone else. He made me laugh. He seemed to genuinely like hanging out with me. So of course I was upset that he was leaving. Of course it made sense to throw a party. But still. It was a little confusing. Did Lily forget Saturday was my birthday?

“Is there, uh, anything I can do? To help with the party?” I asked. I felt awkward asking. Like I was butting in or something.

“Nah, I think we're all set,” she said. “It's going to be at Scoops. Uncle Paul even said he'd close it for us specially, so we could have the place all to ourselves, which is pretty awesome.” She bounded down the sidewalk, skipping a square of sidewalk with every leap.

“That
is
awesome,” I agreed, trotting to catch up with her. We passed a bunch of closed storefronts. My backpack bounced uncomfortably on my back. It seemed to be a rule that all middle-school textbooks had to weigh at least ten pounds each.

We walked in silence for a minute or so. Should I say something? I decided I would.

I tried to make my voice sound as casual as I could. “Oh, and by the way, it's, um, well, Saturday is my birthday. No big deal or anything, but just thought I'd mention it.”

Lily stopped leaping, her arms windmilling so she wouldn't fall forward. She smacked her brow and turned to me. “Oh. Jeez,” she said. “I totally forgot! I am the worst friend ever!”

“No, you're not. Really, that's fine,” I said quickly. And I meant it. At least, I thought I did. The last thing I wanted was a big party for
me
.

But she shook her head and waved her hands, looking really annoyed at herself. “How did I forget your birthday? Lame, lame, lame. Well, we should at least sing ‘Happy Birthday' to you.”

“No, no, do not.
So
not a big deal. You should make the party about Jayden. I don't want my birthday to be a big event when the party is about him.”

Lily looked at me for a moment and then nodded, looking reassured. We resumed our fast-paced walk-trot to school. We were almost there. Lines of buses parked in the semicircular driveway disgorged kids, who streamed up the stairs and into the building through the wide double doors.

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” she said finally. “But here's what I'll do. How about if we ask some of the gang if they can meet at Scoops on Sunday afternoon? Just a little get-together, no big deal or anything. We won't even call it a birthday celebration or anything.”

I smiled. “Sure. That sounds great.” But I felt a little let down. Part of me was happy Lily wanted to do
something
for my birthday, but another part of me felt a little disappointed that my birthday didn't seem like a bigger deal to her. I mean, I know I said I didn't want it to be a big deal, and I meant it . . . but I meant it in terms of everyone else. Shouldn't it be a kind of big deal to Lily, my best friend?

But I had no clue about how normal kids celebrated normal birthdays with their friends. Being in a friendship group like this was still new to me. What did I know? I asked myself. Maybe this was just the way people did birthdays around here. I felt a little ashamed of myself for doubting Lily.

Suddenly Lily's thoughts cut into mine. I could hear them.

. . . so much to think about for the party on Saturday . . . hope the Sunday thing satisfies her . . .

Quickly I forced myself to block her thoughts. I squeezed my eyes closed and pushed them away, almost like I was creating a force field around myself.

It actually worked. Her thoughts faded.

“Hey, you okay?” asked Lily, her dark-brown eyes wide with concern. “You look like you're trying to blow up a balloon or something. Your eyes are scrunched up, and your face is all red.”

I realized I had been holding my breath. I let it out quickly. I had to learn how to do this without making a spectacle of myself.