Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (42 page)

I smiled as he dribbled behind his back.

“Transcend. Wow. Now I know what you do all day. Read the dictionary.”

“You’re looking at a lifelong learner right here,” he said, sinking a three pointer.

We warmed up with Jesse making all his shots and me missing most of mine.

“Ready as I ever was,” I said. “Let’s see what you got.”

“Hey, I hope you know I was joking about this being Heaven,” he said, making a 20-footer. “I know you’re a prisoner here. I was just trying to lift your
spirits
. Still, this is a pretty cool set up dude’s got here.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

I put up a layup, hitting the bottom of the rim.

“So do you think he chose it because the house would be hard to find or is he trying to impress you?” he asked, scoring again.

“Impress me?” I said. “What are you talking about?”

Jesse stared at me a moment with a strange expression on his face as I dribbled. I stared back. The ball bounced off my foot and rolled out of bounds.

“Come on, Craigers. It’s obvious the creep’s in love with you.”

Jesse knew. I guessed if I had seen Nathaniel’s white energy, he had too.

“The whole thing is too weird. It makes me sick knowing he thinks of me like that. But it doesn’t matter. Let’s talk about something else.”

“It does matter,” he said as he drove around me. “It could work to your advantage.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, first off, because he’s all soft on you he might not be so inclined to throw you out into the ocean when he’s done with his experiments.”

I nodded.

“And maybe you could use his feelings against him. It might cause him to let down his guard at just the right moment.”

“Okay, I’ll keep all that in mind,” I said.

He scored again and passed me the ball. He let me dribble around him and I finally put one in. I threw my arms up like I had conquered Everest.

“Game on,” I said.

Jesse smiled and then blew past me, soaring high in the air and dunking it effortlessly. He hung from the rim for a moment before coming back down. It reminded me how good he really was. A sudden wave of sadness rushed up as I thought about it all, about how he would have gotten a scholarship and how we could have been going to a university together. About how much I really missed him.

“Hey, think fast,” he said, pulling me out of my thoughts. I grabbed the ball just before it crashed into my face.

“Thanks,” I said. “Hey, I have another question.”

“Sure,” he said.

“What’s it like over there?”

I held the ball under my arm and he pulled down his hat.

“It’s kind of hard to explain.”

We wandered over to the cart and I took a water bottle and opened it.

“Come on, try,” I said.

He seemed to be thinking of the right words while I drained half the water.

“You don’t have a body, right, so everything’s about thought and emotions. That’s how you move over there.”

“Sounds weird,” I said.

“I guess, but it’s kinda the ways things work here. You think something and your body follows. Over there the middle man’s been taken out of the equation. So in that way, it’s simpler.”

“Does it look the same?”

“Well, sometimes. It can. And sometimes it looks completely different. It’s always changing. That’s a big difference. Over here it’s always the same.”

Jesse poked the ball away from me.

“I don’t know if I’m explaining it right. It’s simple and complicated at the same time and so far I suck at it. I have a hard time moving around with just my mind, but I think it’s because I haven’t really gone over yet. I mean all the way.”

“Because you’re still an
in-betweener
?” I said.

“Yep. I’m kind of in no man’s land.”

“You must get lonely,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s like nobody in either world really sees me. It’s frustrating sometimes,” he said, bouncing the ball back and forth between his legs.

“I’m still the only one over here who sees you?”

“Just you. It’s not like I don’t try. But most people don’t see ghosts.”

I knew Jesse must have been talking about his dad.

“You know, I go and visit him sometimes,” I said. “Your dad, I mean. Over at his garage. I bring him cookies and hang out. He still tries to teach me about all the tools and tries to show me how to fix motorcycles.”

He smiled.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve tagged along with you a few times, but I stayed out of the way. Thanks for going, though. I can tell it means a lot to him.”

“Jesse, you should come out of hiding next time. Then I can tell him that I see you. I’ll even interpret for you and you can talk to him.”

He shook his head.

“This is my dad we’re talking about, Craigers.”

“Oh, I bet he’d listen,” I said.

“No way. Oh, here are some cookies, and by the way, your dead son has decided to join us this afternoon. He’s standing right behind you. Do you have anything you want to tell him?”

Jesse’s laughter bounced around the large gym, echoing off the walls.

“It’s not gonna happen. Forget about it, Craigers. Besides, I wouldn’t want to scare him, give him a heart attack or something.”

I didn’t mention that the last time I saw his dad, I was worried. His energy was stagnant and he was too pale. Losing his only son had taken a heavy toll.

“You’re wrong. He can handle it. Think about it at least, okay?”

He shrugged.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s finish this.”

He faked right and went left, leaving me guarding his shadow.

“Okay, I think that’s 18 to 2,” he said after putting in a no-look reverse layup. “Next shot wins.”

CHAPTER 23

As usual, Jesse won.

“Come on, let’s go again,” he said. “This time I’ll only shoot threes.”

I was exhausted and my arms and legs ached.

“No way,” I said. “Sorry, I don’t have your ghost stamina.”

I got us some towels and water bottles out of habit and we sat down on a bench. Jesse wasn’t sweating, but he wiped down his face and arms anyway.

“So ghosts don’t sweat, huh?” I said.

“Nope,” he said. “One of the many advantages of the afterworld. But I still enjoy a good toweling off now and then.”

I, on the other hand, had no problem working up a sweat. I ran the towel through my hair, thinking about the indoor soccer game the night Jack had taken me. It seemed so long ago.

“Hey, what are you thinking?” Jesse said. “It looks serious.”

I hesitated.

“I was thinking about the night I got kidnapped. I know it’s stupid, but I had played well.”

“I was surprised to see you there,” he said. “I don’t remember you ever playing indoor when we were in school.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I always thought it wasn’t like real soccer, but it’s actually kind of fun. I still don’t think it’s the same, but it’s nice to have something to do in the off season.”

“Well, indoor or outdoor, it’s good that you’re back on the field again.”

“Yeah, it feels right being out there, feeling your body do the things you want it to,” I said. “That kind of thing’s important over on this side.”

“I remember,” he said.

“Sorry,” I said.

“Don’t be. No regrets, Craigers.”

He took my hand and squeezed it and I stared into his eyes. I leaned over and kissed him. At first he tried to push me away, but I wouldn’t let him. He tasted good.

“No regrets,” I repeated. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.”

“That was nice,” he said, putting his arm around my shoulders. “Real nice. But we can’t be going down that road. You know that.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why can’t we make new rules for the new world that we live in together?”

He smiled, but he was still serious.

“You can’t have a relationship with a ghost. Not a real one anyway. Things just don’t work that way.”

“It could,” I said. “It could work that way.”

“No. No, it can’t.”

I knew he was right. It was just so hard, especially with him right here next to me. I would always love Jesse and I couldn’t just turn off those emotions like that.

“Okay,” I said. “No romance. I promise not to be your Demi and you won’t be my Swayze.”

“Fine. And no pottery either.”

We sat for a few more minutes, looking around at the court. I inhaled sharply as I suddenly remembered something. 

“Jesse! I forgot about Claire.”

I told him about how I had contacted a psychic online in my attempts to find him.

“You were gone for a year, you know. I was desperate.”

“Sounds sketchy,” he said.

“No, she’s really good,” I said. “Serious. Just listen to me.”

I knew the old Jesse wouldn’t have believed any of it, but the new Jesse would. He was a ghost after all. I told him all about how she had helped me with Annabelle and that maybe she could help me now.

“Maybe if you try contacting her, Jesse. Tell her that I’m on a small island in the Pacific Northwest.”

“But how will I find her? I wouldn’t know where to begin looking.”

“Listen. It could work. If you found her, if you told her where I was, she could get a message to Kate. Claire sees ghosts, Jesse. This is what she does. You just have to find her.”

“You know what the longest word in the dictionary is?” he said. “
If.
”

“Come on, are you a ghost that can’t or a ghost that can?”

“I’m not sure,” he said, smiling. “But for you, Craigers, I’ll die trying.”

My heart raced with excitement. It just might work.

“No promises, but I’ll give it my best shot. Any ideas how I can find her?”

“I don’t know. How do you find me?”

He smiled, pulling down his hat.

“I told you, you glow. When I’m on the other side, I look for your light and it pulls me. You guide me here. I don’t know how I would find someone through the internet.”

“There must be some way,” I said, still hopeful.

“Her name’s Claire?”

“Yes,” I said. “She’s a psychic and she lives in London and has two little kids.”

“All right,” he said. “Maybe some of your light has rubbed off on her. Maybe because you’ve contacted her before, I can find an old energy trail between the two of you. Hey, that doesn’t sound like I’m making stuff up, does it?”

“Not one bit.”

“Good,” he said. “Wouldn’t want you to think I didn’t know what I was doing.”

I put my arms around his neck.

“Thanks, Jesse,” I said. “It might work.”

Now I had a new plan in the works. It filled me with hope again.

Maybe I would be back home soon.

CHAPTER 24

I had to go to the bathroom. When I got back, Jesse was gone.

I was a little sad to be all alone again, but it had been a good morning. Great, actually. It had been a long time since we had been able to hang out like that and it had helped me get my mind off things.

Plus, I was really excited about Claire.

I wasn’t ready to go back upstairs, so I wandered over to the game room. And as long as I was being left alone, it was a pretty nice place to stay. It was nice too not looking out the window and seeing the island in the distance that now taunted me and reminded me of my failure.

I played FIFA Soccer 11 on Wii for about an hour and then watched the original production of
The Woman in Black.
It was one of my favorites. I was really surprised they had it since it was so obscure.

I grabbed some snacks out of the cabinet and sat down in one of the large leather recliners.

“You ghosts really are pretty frightening,” I said out loud, just in case Jesse could hear. I knew he would like this movie. We never had a chance to watch it together when he was alive.

I jumped after the scene in the graveyard and then laughed at myself. The hairs on the back of my neck were still standing.

As I finished watching the movie, I thought about ghosts. There was so much about it all that I didn’t understand and it was strange that Jesse didn’t seem to know that much either. I was confused about why he was able to walk in both worlds. And I wasn’t even sure if he was a ghost. There seemed to be such a difference between Jesse and Annabelle.

After the movie, I searched through the discs and found a recent taping of a Barcelona-Real Madrid game. I put it in and sat down.

I was struck by the difference in the line ups. Even though the game was being played in Madrid and even though the home team was the richest in the world, they still came out with a very defensive formation. It was like they were playing not to lose.

Barcelona, on the other hand, had an attacking lineup that bordered on suicide. I counted the small, skilled players. Messi, Fàbregas, Sánchez, Iniesta, and Xavi, plus crazy Dani Alves on one wing. It was insane. And fearless. Here they were in the heart of darkness, going up against the world’s highest-paid thugs and hatchet men, and they feared no evil.

And what made it even sweeter was that they won, 3-1.

“Wow,” I said as the game ended. And then something caught my eye.

He was walking across the court, heading in my direction. My breathing got fast as I heard the footsteps and squeaking on the wood.

My stomach tightened. I threw down the control and sat perfectly still, hoping he would go away.

He opened the glass door and walked in casually, sitting down a few chairs away. I refused to look at him and we sat in silence for a few minutes.

“This wasn’t such a good game,” Jack said finally.

I stared at the TV.

“I’m hoping down the line that you can somehow forgive me, Abby. I want us to be friends again. It would mean a lot to me.”

I turned my head and glared at him. He was dressed in his usual soccer attire, sporting a ridiculous black Real Madrid away jersey, like he had just walked off from the field in the hot summer sun. He smiled briefly but I looked away.

“Oh, right, that’ll happen,” I said. “I always forgive sleazebags who are trying to kill me.”