Ghost Betweens (7 page)

"Yeah, I figured the same thing." He sighed. "I feel bad about bailing on them, but how dumb were they to go in the house with her?"

"I know. Nothing we can do about it now. I don't want to think about what would have happened if we stayed." She took a deep breath. "It was all I could do to not throw up I was so scared."

Josh snickered. "I wonder if the ghosts would've slipped in it."

"The floating ones wouldn't," she said, trying to keep a straight face, "but some looked like they were actually running on the ground. Maybe they would've, and then tripped the others up."

"Now that I would have wanted a picture of."

They both lost it and started laughing hard. It felt good after the afternoon they had. When they wound down, he reached over and squeezed her hand. He did it so fast, he didn't even realize what he had done until they touched. Though it felt right, what would she think? To his delight, she squeezed back.

He started to ask her out, but before he could, she said, "We should probably exchange phone numbers. I'll call you if I hear from them, and you do the same."

"Yeah," he said. "Good idea."

They saved each other's number in their phones, and he told himself to ask, but the moment had passed. Whisper said goodbye, and hopped out of the car. He watched her walk up to her front door, and after she turned and waved, he drove off. Crap, why had he chickened out? She squeezed back. She'd say yes. But some girls did that sort of stuff with their friends, right? Damn, why did this girl stuff have to be so complicated? Why couldn't he understand them half as well as Zach?

As he entered his house, he could tell Mom wasn't home, but had been. She must've traded for a later shift at the store. He walked into the kitchen and found a note confirming that. She wouldn't be home until after ten. He groaned when she reminded him to look for a job this weekend. He'd hoped she'd forgotten about that. When he opened the fridge to find something for dinner, he got a pleasant surprise. She'd gone on a full-fledged grocery shopping trip. He inspected the freezer and cabinets, too, and found plenty of choices for dinner.

As he popped a frozen pizza into the oven, his phone buzzed. He found a text from Zach. He and Kendra were home safe and they'd see him on Monday. He sent back a quick reply, and as he put the phone in his pocket, his ringtone fired up. He checked it, and his heart started racing. Whisper.

"Hi," he said, hoping he sounded casual.

"Hey. I just wanted to let you know I got a text from Kendra. She says she and Zach are home and fine."

"Yeah. I just got the same message from Zach. I was about to call you."

She giggled. He loved hearing her make that sound. "I guess we're on the same wavelength, huh?"

"How much more blatant does the girl need to be?" a voice in the back of his mind, which sounded an awful lot like a mix between Kendra and Zach, shouted.

"Yeah, I guess we are. He said he'd see me on Monday. Do you think I should call him tomorrow, though?"

"I think so. I'll call Kendra, too. How about we talk tomorrow night? We can compare notes. And we can see if we almost call at the same time again."

"Yeah. We'll see if it's exact and we get each other's voicemail."

She laughed. "That'd be something."

"It would be. So tomorrow night, then?"

"Sounds good. Talk to you then."

"Okay. See ya."

"Bye."

He hung up and wanted to smack his head against the countertops and then throw himself into the oven. What was wrong with him? He could have offered to buy her dinner or something with the excuse of talking about Zach and Kendra in person. Two perfect opportunities in one day, and he'd let both fly right out the window. Stupid!

As his pizza heated, he headed upstairs to email Mr. Baxter a few paragraphs about their adventure. He left out the part about Zach, Kendra, and the blonde girl for now because he wanted to talk to Zach before he brought anything up. He promised some good pictures. He knew he and Whisper had plenty, and he couldn't imagine Zach and Kendra didn't capture anything, even if they weren't as creeped out.

About a minute after he sent it, Mr. Baxter replied. It was short and simple. "Great! I can't wait to see them and hear your stories first-hand. We'll talk Monday after school." He noticed Mr. Baxter had ignored his question about the farmer ghost calling him and Whisper Ghost Betweens, and how they'd talked to the ghost in their minds. Fine. He'd make sure that was answered on Monday.

He forwarded the message to Zach, Kendra, and Whisper, and then put his computer to sleep. The pizza smelled about done.

Josh wiped his hands on his shorts and stood up from the bench press. Not bad. Eight reps at 200 pounds. He could do more, but didn't need to blow anything out today. He loved early spring football. Weights on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and some sort of running exercise on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The best part was they were out of there right when the bell rang. Come football practice in the fall, they'd be on the field until early evening, usually after dark.

He stood back while Zach spotted Greg, another receiver on the team. Greg wouldn't have any trouble with the weight, so Josh zoned out for a minute. It'd been a nice day. Zach and Kendra had been their normal chatty selves, and Whisper had been extra flirty with him. He had no doubt she'd go out with him now; it was just a matter of waiting for that perfect opportunity to ask. They'd talked for an hour on the phone both Saturday and Sunday. After comparing their phone calls to Zach and Kendra, which they found quite similar--both Zach and Kendra had been in a hurry to get off the phone, but otherwise sounded fine--they'd talked about each other for the rest of the hour, and then again on Sunday. By the end of the call on Sunday, he'd felt confident about going out with her, but since they couldn't really do anything during the week, he figured it'd be better to ask in person. It was eerie, really, how well he got on with her. He'd never been able to talk with girls, except Kendra. But she was like a sister, not a real girl.

"Earth to Josh, Earth to Josh." He shook his head and saw Zach waving him over to the bicep curl bars.

"Sorry. Off in my own little world."

Zach and Greg chuckled, and as he walked over to them, he ran into Bill Jefferson, one of the starting linebackers. "Watch where you're going, Hart." He said it with a snarl on his face, but a smile in his eyes. Though they'd never been real friends, he and Bill had always been on good terms.

"Sorry, Jefferson. Wouldn't want to hurt the stud linebacker."

"I was worried more about you." This time the smile spread over his entire face and he gave Josh a light punch to the shoulder.

Zach exploded towards Bill. "What the hell, Jefferson? You trying to start something with my boy?" He cocked his fist back and clocked Bill in the face. Bill fell back, luckily away from any machines or other weights, though blood streamed out of his nose. Zach jumped on top of him, but before he could start pounding, a bunch of guys, Josh included, pulled him off. Bill, now over his shock, leapt up and looked ready to throw down for real, but too many guys were in the way. And by that time, Coach Martin was there, clearing a path to get to Zach.

"What the hell's going on here?" bellowed Coach Martin.

"He hit me," Bill said, pointing at Zach.

"He hit Josh," Zach said, now as calm as if he were in class ready to take a test.

"Bullshit," Bill yelled.

Everyone looked at Josh. "We were just joking around. I don't know why he jumped Bill." Zach looked as if they were debating which weights to lift next.

Coach Martin dragged Zach towards the door. "Jefferson, get to the nurses office. The rest of you knuckleheads should get back to lifting. Coach Roberts is in charge."

The JV football coach stepped forward and barked, "You heard Coach Martin. Get to work."

Josh ran over to Zach before he was out the door and said, "Why did you do that?"

With his free hand, Zach shoved Josh away. "Get away from me."

Coach Martin yanked him out the door, and Josh heard him say, "I don't know what the hell your problem is today, Riley, but you need to knock it the hell off if you want to stay on this team."

Something had happened in that house on Friday. Something that had changed Zach. He never did anything like this. Was Kendra affected, too? He'd have to take her aside and really dig into what happened on Friday.

"Hey, Josh," Greg called. "Might as well finish our workout."

"Yeah, alright." All that could wait until after school.

*****

Josh and Whisper arrived at Mr. Baxter's room at the same time. Before he could get a word out about Zach, she said, "Kendra got in a fight in sixth period. She hit a girl in the face and bloodied her nose."

They stepped inside, and he said, "Zach did the same thing. All because the guy was joking around with me and hit me in the shoulder. He went nuts."

"She did too. The girl told Kendra to shut up. And she was totally kidding when she said it."

At the same time, they said, "Something happened in the farmhouse on Friday." They looked at each other and laughed.

After a few seconds, Whisper pulled herself together. "We shouldn't laugh. This is serious."

Josh, with a smile still on his lips, said, "Yeah, I know. I had to fight hard not to say 'Jinx,' though."

A grin crossed her face again. "I know, me too. But what about them? Neither seem like fighters to me."

He shook his head. "They're not. Zach mouths off when he's pissed, but he wouldn't ever hit anyone. And Kendra gets in people's faces, but she's all talk, too. This isn't either of them."

They looked around, noticing for the first time that Mr. Baxter wasn't there. "Think he went up to the office?" Whisper asked.

"I don't know. Maybe he left a note."

They looked on his desk, his podium, and a few of the other tables around the room, but no note. Just as they finished exploring, Mr. Baxter walked in.

"Sorry about that," he said. "I went to check my mailbox, and I saw Mr. Riley and Ms. Phelps. Did you two see the confrontations?"

They both nodded and relayed their stories. When they finished, Mr. Baxter nodded. "They're both calm as can be in there now. Looking at them you'd think they were in the office simply to deliver a message, not find out how long their in-school suspension will be."

"There's something I didn't mention in the email to you on Friday," Josh said.

"Let me guess. About Mr. Riley and Ms. Phelps?"

He nodded. "We met a girl there. She looked to be about our age, and they both seemed to recognize her, but she doesn't go to this school. When we got close, I felt really freaked out." He motioned to Whisper. "We both did."

She nodded. "But they seemed enthralled with her. She invited us all into her house, but Josh and I declined. Zach and Kendra couldn't wait to go in, though. It was really weird."

"And you let them?"

Josh felt his cheeks burn. He'd been admonishing himself for that very thing all weekend. "I don't think we could have stopped them."

"Yeah," Whisper said. "They were going in. Sorry. We should have tried harder."

"No, no, you did the right thing. If it's what I think it is, it would have been nothing but trouble. But can you two do me a favor?"

They both nodded.

"Good. It's going to sound really weird, but trust me. I want you to go back to the farm. Don't take any pictures, and I only want you to be there about five minutes."

"If we're not taking pictures, what do you want us to do?" Whisper asked.

"I want you to turn invisible."

Josh and Whisper frowned and looked at each other.

"I know it sounds strange, impossible even, but listen. Unless I'm totally off the mark here, and I don't believe I am, you'll be able to do this with no problems. You won't actually turn invisible, only to the ghosts. Just tell yourself that you're invisible, and it'll happen. Keep repeating it, and you'll stay that way. I want you to walk around the farm for five minutes to get used to it. Don't worry about running into the ghosts. If they can't see you, they can't feel you. But stay away from that farmhouse. The girl you saw shouldn't come out, but don't tempt her. Okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Josh said, and Whisper agreed. It sounded crazy, but was it really any crazier than what they'd gone through so far?

"Let me have your camera, Mr. Hart. I'll take a look at the pictures tonight. And do you have that disc, Ms. Douglas?"

She nodded and pulled out a CD, he assumed with all of her pictures since she was using her own camera. Josh pulled his out and handed it to Mr. Baxter. "I hope Mr. Riley and Ms. Phelps are taking care of their cameras. Those are expensive."

Josh wanted to reassure him, say that both were very responsible with stuff that wasn't theirs, but after today, he didn't know what was up with them.

"What's really going on, Mr. Baxter?" Whisper asked. "You're not telling us near enough."

"Yeah. And how come you ignored some of my questions?"

He sighed. "Go be invisible today, and I promise I'll tell you everything tomorrow. Deal?"

Josh started to argue, but Whisper put a hand on his arm. "That's fine. We'll go."

"Good. And shoot me an email when you get home so I know how it went. Though I have no doubt you'll do fine."

On the drive to the farm, Josh and Whisper discussed Zach and Kendra, but then they drifted on to how each other's day was. Josh had a feeling she was anxious to talk about anything other than the strange errand Mr. Baxter had sent them on. That was fine with him; he felt the same way. Neither mentioned the sign, which this time read, "Good to see you again."

As they pulled into the dirt driveway, he figured they'd better start talking about it. "So, you think this is for real?"

"I have no idea, but I guess it won't hurt to try. If it doesn't work, we can sprint back here like we did on Friday."

He nodded. Yeah, that made a lot of sense. "But we have to take it seriously. If we don't, it might not work."