My Friends Are Dead People (9 page)

“
Sit,” she said. I slowly
sat down. “I don’t know what you were thinking, not telling me
where you were – and I told you to wait for me. Head up, Jess. You
know how I can worry about the simplest things. You do this every
night. Do you want to get mugged again? Am I making a mistake by
home-schooling you? Jesse, what is going on with you?”

Oz kept quiet for a while, then
continued.

“
I don’t care right now
where you were. You’re okay, and that’s all that matters. You
should just be glad you have someone who cares. I’m going to bed,”
she finished.

“
Oz?” I said softly as I
saw movement through the window.

Charles was watching us from outside,
fogging up the glass with his long warm breaths. I turned back to
Oz, not worried about him right now. He could listen all he wanted.
Oz was standing in the hall, waiting for me to speak. Her eyes were
looking redder than before. She looked like she hadn’t slept for
days.

“
I lost your father’s
jacket,” I admitted, feeling tears roll down my cheeks. “That’s why
I didn’t want you to do my laundry or you going in my dresser. I’ve
been trying to look for it every night. I think someone picked it
up when I set it down. I’m sorry. I’ll get it back, I
promise.”

“
You’re safe, Jesse,” she
said oddly and walked down the hall.

I waited for her door to shut before going
to my room. When I stepped into the hall, I saw my door half-open.
Someone was inside, opening and closing my dresser drawers. I knew
exactly who was in there.

“
Stop following me!” I
called out as I stormed down the hall and pushed open the door.
“Get out of my–”

The werewolf slowly raised his muzzle out of
the top drawer, sensing my presence, and let out a wheezing cough.
Without looking at me once, he thumped heavily across the wood and
crawled out of my window.

“
Duma, where are you?” I
said, first looking under the bed. He was jammed into the far
corner, with the biggest eyes ever.

“
The werewolf's gone. I’m
going to Katie’s. I think she’s in trouble.”

He didn’t move. I wasn’t going to wait for
him and climbed out of the window. It only took me a minute to get
to her house. I bounded up the boxes and crawled into her room. I
could hear Sandy shouting downstairs. I hurried down the stairs,
hearing the end of the fight.

“
You’re going to do what I
say! Stay right there–” Sandy collided into me at the bottom of the
steps. “You better get out of my house before I call the
cops.”

“
Where’s Katie?” I said
just as I saw her around the corner with a cut under her left
eye.

“
Hi,” she said in a soft
voice.

“
Hi. Are you–”

“
I’m okay.” Katie came
over and pulled me out of the living room. “Going to Jesse’s
house,
mother
.”

The air was pretty chilly. The sun had set
below the horizon. Even though the dark clouds still glowed purple
and orange, we weren’t going to make it. The cross was miles away.
If we ran the entire way, it would still take a good half hour or
more. Katie was looking happy though, and that was the important
thing. And I wasn't so sure if we should go anymore anyway.

I handed Katie the witch hat, which I had
snatched from the living room.

“
Crapper, she can hit
hard,” she winced, dabbing her face. “Thanks.”

“
You’re welcome,” I said
shyly.

“
Really. She was getting
firewood.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off of her cut. It
looked pretty bad. Why did she have to go through this all the
time? Was this punishment for killing a girl? But she was a good
person. She was perfect.

“
What you thinking about?”
said Katie. “Remember what I told you–”

“
I’m not thinking about
you.”

“
You’re thinking about
me?” she said merrily. “Like what?”

“
I said I was
not
thinking about you.
Don’t you listen to me?”

“
Not really.”

I couldn’t help but keep glancing at her
cut. It was deeper than I thought at first. Germs could get in and
infect it and damage her nerves and then kill her. I felt
lightheaded. Wait, was that dirt on the tip of her cut? I got a
closer look.

“
Jesse, you okay?” she
said, smiling. “You look demented.”

I stepped back as soon as I realized how
close I was to her.

“
It’s just a cut. Come on,
let’s go.”

“
I’m not going,” I said.
“I have to find Oz’s jacket. You can go without me.”

“
Jesse!” she cried
out.

Now what? Did she think that was funny?

“
Jesse, her
jacket!”

My eyes followed hers to her mailbox. Oz's
jacket had been neatly placed on top.

“
Thank you,” I cried,
hurrying over.

“
Go ahead, kiss it,” said
Katie. “Don’t forget to thank Crapper.”

“
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.” I put on the jacket, looking down at its green leather
with a huge smile.

“
The thief must’ve felt
bad,” Katie reasoned, “and brought it back – with a
note.”

Katie pulled a piece of
paper out of the front pocket. There was only one line:
Thought this should be worn by the rightful
owner, not a high school student
.

“
Maybe the police found
it,” I ventured.

“
But they’d never drop it
off here. They’d call your house.”

“
But then who knew to
leave it here on the mailbox? . . .” I saw a smidgen of light
shining on the horizon. “Come on, let’s go!”

I ran up Pasadena as happy as a rabbit with
a carrot. Today was the best day ever. I had Oz’s jacket, new shoes
and new friends.

“
Maybe Jacoby will let me
have a pair like yours–” started Katie.

Katie and I stopped running. A block ahead
of us, Charles’s mother was crying on her porch. Her son was lying
on the grass flat on his front, dead.

“
Fifty days isn’t
enough!
” she cried to the clouds.
“
You bring my baby back! He’s not yours!
He’s a good boy! He’s done nothing wrong! You don’t have the right
to take him away!
”

I rushed away, feeling sick.

“
Was that the werewolf?”
asked Katie, finally catching up.

I nodded. Today was
not
the best day ever.
It was too much for me. Too many things had happened.

“
He’ll be okay," she
continued. "Watch this!”

Katie flung her long black hair around and
started dancing. She was really good. It looked like she was
dancing to rock music.

“
Why aren’t you laughing?”
she said, stopping. “It wasn’t funny? Jesse?”

“
What?”

“
Hey, your eyes are
watering,” she said with a smile. “I knew you were a
softie.”

“
So what?” I
retorted.

“
You’re a
boy
. You’re supposed to
be
tough
.”

I smiled. Katie could always get me out of a
bad time.

“
Why don’t we give Oz the
jacket first?” she said.

“
After,” I said, knowing
Oz didn’t check on me until eleven or twelve. “We still might make
it. It’s not completely dark yet.”

Katie and I stopped to take a look at the
beautiful view of the white cross at the top of the mountain.

“
Look at that,” she said,
amazed. “
Marvelous
spectacles
.”

“
Don’t make fun of me,” I
said testily.

“
What do you mean? I
always say that.”

“
No, you
don’t.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Twenty-Second
Trip

After three miles of running up the steep
roads of Mount Helix, we ran out of steam and walked the rest of
the way. We arrived at the summit just a minute too late, the last
rays of the sun in the west had faded. Twilight was over, and it
was now nighttime. However, Jacoby and Dorian were still waiting
under the giant white cross, watching dark clouds roll
overhead.

“
Don’t worry about it,”
said Jacoby, only giving Katie’s cut a brief look. “Let’s get
moving.”

“
Hey, Dorian!” Katie and I
said at the same time, nearly forgetting to lower our
heads.

“
Hello,” said
Dorian.

Jacoby seemed in a hurry so we kept quiet
and followed him down a narrow dirt trail with a cliff on one side.
Thankfully, it was short and soon brought us to a yellow house
sitting far back from the curb underneath a billowy tree. Jacoby
walked up the creaky porch steps and knocked on the door.

“
If Ray’s home, we’ll be
at Lin’s costume shop in a few minutes,” he said.

While we all waited at the doorstep, Jacoby
took out an old photo from his pocket and stared at it. It was a
small picture, with very few creases.

“
Who’s the photo of?” I
asked, trying to lean around him.

Katie elbowed me in the ribs. "What you
doing?" she scolded. "Can't you see it's important to him?"

Jacoby tucked the photo away as an elderly
man stepped out on the porch. This must have been Ray. He was
chubby and had a full set of white hair. I considered myself pale,
but this man was as white as mayonnaise.

“
Jacoby,” he gasped,
looking surprised to see him. “It’s been a while.”

“
Yes,” said Jacoby.
“There’s expected to be a good number of deaths this–”

“
The games are coming to
an end, aren’t they? There we go. Oh, I say, what’s
this?”

“
Katie and Jesse. I have
invited them along for the festival inspection–”

“
Jesse?
What a gift given to you. How do you
do?”

“
Good,” I said, shaking
his pudgy hand, a bit confused.

“
Did you know that Jesse
was once a powerful name in Halloween? Two thousand years ago Celts
had used your name like the Christians use ‘Jesus’ today. Your
parents must know the story. Or you were just fortunate. You can
hear that name a hundred times if you go to Ireland or France. I
once met ten Jesse’s in one day. Can you imagine? You call ‘Jesse’
and half the town turns. . . . How do you do, Katie?”

“
I’m good."

“
Ray, we can’t talk long,”
informed Jacoby.

"Yes. Where are you going first?”

“
Lin’s shop. We need to
fix Jesse up a little bit before going out.”

“
They’re not letting in
humans today?”

“
No.”

“
Well, come on in. Watch
your step, Jesse and Katie. I haven't cleaned the place in
ages.”

He shook Dorian's hand on his way in. The
living room was a mess, cluttered with piles of novels, weird
figurines, loose papers, backpacks, shoes, unopened Halloween
decorations and a pile of lamps missing shades. Ray then led us
down a long dark hallway, framed with black-and-white pictures of
dead people lying on the ground. They were the most grim pictures I
had ever seen. I hurried after Ray and Jacoby.

“
I hope none of you are
easily thrown off-balance?” remarked Ray, making his way to a red
door at the end.

I shook my head.

“
Katie?"

Katie shook her head, too.

"Good, good. You won’t hit anywhere near
nine-twenty anyway. Jacoby, have you heard of the aircraft they’ve
been testing? It’s been turning in faster times than the
Blackbird.” He stopped at the door and turned to Katie and me.
“It’s approaching ten thousand miles per hour.”

“
You’re forgetting about
the space shuttle,” said Jacoby. “That’s about
seventeen–”

“
Yes, yes, Jacoby,” Ray
interrupted. “I say, very fast indeed. And you’re forgetting about
the space probe, Helios-two. What are they clocked at, Dorian?
One-fifty?”

Dorian was staring at a photo of a woman
with a giant hole in her leg. He nodded, and Ray turned back to
us.

“
One hundred and fifty
thousand miles per hour. I say, that’s blistering.” He opened the
door and turned to the side so we could pass him by. “Pleasure to
meet you, Jesse and Katie. Jacoby, come back for some Black
Cider.”

“
Will do,” he
said.

“
Jesse, Katie,” Ray added
quickly. “Breathe deeply in and out. Don’t hold it in.”

Ray shut the door, leaving us in a backyard
overgrown with tall weeds and dead grass.

“
Jacoby, is he a
halloween?” asked Katie.

“
No. Human, just like
you.”

“
Why does he have pictures
of dead people?” I said, immediately getting a push from Katie.
“What? That’s not offensive–”

But she wasn’t talking about that. She was
trying to turn my attention to the six black creatures sleeping in
the weeds.

“
What are those, Jacoby?”
she said.

“
Welgos. They're our rides
to Lin's shop."

Jacoby walked over to one and patted it. It
lazily opened its eyes, and gave a long soundless yawn, revealing
two sets of flat black teeth and a black tongue.