by Aiden Thomas
Julian arched an eyebrow and pointed at himself. “Ghost, remember?” he whispered.
“Shh!” Yadriel hissed, flapping his hands at Julian uselessly. “Hide in the—”
The bedroom door swung open.
Maritza leaned against the doorjamb.
Yadriel let out a breath and clutched his chest. “Jesus, Maritza!”
“Good morning!” she greeted cheerily. Her eyes swept back and forth between the two of them—Julian lying on the bed, Yadriel clutching his jeans. Her dusty-rose-painted lips curled into a smirk. “How was the sleepover?”
Yadriel dragged her into the room and slammed the door closed behind her. “You’re going to get us caught!”
“Chill, Yads!” She laughed, crossing the room to sit on the dresser.
Julian was on his feet. “Going to school is a waste of time!” he repeated, as if Yadriel had forgotten.
“No, it’s not,” Yadriel said as he snatched a clean pair of underwear and a fresh binder from the dresser. “I’ve got a math test—”
Julian scoffed.
“And unlike you and your friends, I actually care about my grades.” Yadriel closed the drawer with a snap and spun to face Julian.
“Then you gotta take me with you!”
“No way, we are not taking you to school with us.”
“You can’t just ditch me here!” Julian whined.
Yadriel clenched his jaw, his patience wearing thin. “Look—” he said, rounding on Maritza for some backup. There was a highly amused look on her face. “We’ll take a vote!”
“That’s not fair!” Julian scowled.
Yadriel ignored him. “Maritza.”
She arched an eyebrow in response.
“Do you think that Julian should stay here while we go to school?” he asked, sounding perfectly logical and even-tempered.
“Of course she’s gonna side with you!” Julian objected, gesturing wildly. “No voting!”
“Actually.” Maritza thoughtfully twisted a pink curl around her finger. “I think he should come with us.”
Julian blinked, arms still aloft. A satisfied smile broke across his face. “Well, you heard the bruja!” He sat down in the desk chair and locked his hands behind his head. “I’m going!”
It was Yadriel’s turn to splutter. “What?!” He shook his head at Maritza. He must not have understood her correctly. “You’re not serious.”
She shrugged. “I mean, it makes the most sense, Yads—”
“Traitor,” he hissed.
Maritza looked like she was trying not to laugh. “Mira! We’ve got to take him with us.”
Julian grinned.
“If we leave him here, he’s going to get caught,” Maritza reasoned. “He’s too loud and can’t be trusted not to get in trouble while we’re gone.”
Julian’s grin quickly vanished.
Yadriel groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face. “We can’t—”
“If he stays here, he’s one hundred percent getting caught by Lita,” Maritza pointed out. “She’s a Cuban abuelita who’s got nothing better to do than hang around the house and pick up after a house full of boys.”
Yadriel didn’t want to admit it, but she had a point. By the time he got home from school almost every day, his room was straightened up, or his laundry cleaned and folded on his bed.
Well, at least today Lita would have plenty to keep her busy.
He looked over at Julian, who appeared hopeful, though mostly desperate. Logically, Yadriel knew Maritza had a point. He knew it was dangerous to leave Julian at home unsupervised, but still.
“Maybe we could just leave him in the cemetery,” Yadriel tried, which was met with another series of groans from Julian.
“Yads,” Maritza said firmly, standing upright and frowning at him. “What’s the deal?”
Heat clawed up Yadriel’s throat. “I don’t want to take him to school.”
“But why?”
“Because of what happened with Lisa!” he lashed out.
Maritza’s shoulders sank. “Yads…” Her expression softened to a look of pity. It made his skin crawl.
Meanwhile, Julian was looking around, annoyed. “Uh, should I know who Lisa is?” he asked, voice edged with impatience.
“She was a dead girl who haunted my elementary school,” Yadriel snapped at him.
Julian’s thick eyebrows shot up toward his buzzed hair.
“Except I didn’t know she was dead,” he went on, words spilling from his mouth. “So I was just the weird kid who was talking to himself, who also lived in a cemetery and had no friends!” Yadriel clenched his hands into fists at his sides, turning to Julian. “There, is that a good enough reason?” he demanded.
Julian leaned back. “Oh,” he said, his voice awkward and small, cheeks turning red.
“Yads,” Maritza said gently, moving to touch his arm, but Yadriel quickly twisted out of her reach.
“I’m going to get dressed,” he said. He went into the bathroom with the clothes clutched in his arms. When he closed the door behind him, he let out a long breath, trying to exhale all the tension from his shoulders. Yadriel closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the mirror, letting the cool glass soothe the throbbing in his head. It’d been a long time since he’d thought about Lisa.
When he was only seven and just starting to understand what the brujx were and how they were different from everyone else, he was friends with a little girl named Lisa. They would play together during recess in the field and hang out during free time in class. Lisa loved to play with the stuffed animals. Her absolute favorite was the floppy-eared spotted dog. Yadriel told his parents about her and always drew pictures of them during art. When other kids in class started teasing Yadriel, he didn’t understand why.
A couple of weeks later, his teacher had a meeting with his mom and dad. When they got home, they asked him about Lisa.
Even now, sometimes Yadriel could be looking at someone and not realize they were a spirit. If he wasn’t paying attention, it could be easy to overlook. When he was little, it was even harder to spot.
Lisa had passed away the year before from an extreme case of the flu over the course of just a couple of days. It had been sudden and unexpected. The floppy-eared dog had become the tether to her spirit.
Yadriel remembered being inconsolable in his grief, crying and clutching his mom and refusing the comfort of his father, thinking he was going to kill Lisa. As Camila rocked him in her lap, rubbing his back in slow circles, Enrique tried his best to explain.
His dad told him that Lisa was already dead, but that was okay. They didn’t force peaceful spirits to cross over. He told Yadriel he had actually helped Lisa—now that Enrique knew about her, he could check in on her and make sure she was okay. If she started to get “sick”—the word he used when Yadriel was little to describe spirits who turned maligno—then he could help her cross over to the other side. It would be painless, and she would be happy.
But when Yadriel went back to school the next day, there was no unknowing that Lisa was a spirit. His classmates were making fun of him because, to their eyes, he was talking to himself and playing with an imaginary friend. Yadriel decided to ignore Lisa. She followed him around; sometimes she would get angry, but mostly she would just cry.
Eventually, Yadriel stopped seeing her. Even now, he didn’t know if she’d crossed over on her own, or if his dad released her spirit. He never went near the floppy-eared dog again.
The idea of bringing Julian to school stirred up all the bad memories of Lisa. What if he slipped up? What if someone caught him talking to Julian? The last thing he ever wanted was to draw more attention to himself.
Yadriel let the mundane tasks of getting dressed, washing his face, and styling his hair calm his frayed nerves.
When Yadriel opened the door, Maritza was standing with her hands on her hips, staring down at Julian. He sat with his hands in his lap and his chin tucked to his chest. They both looked up when
Yadriel walked in.
He crossed his arms. He was calmer, if a bit embarrassed.
“We talked it over and came to a compromise,” Maritza said.
“She threatened to put a curse on me,” Julian supplied.
Maritza shook out her curls and continued on, as if Julian hadn’t said anything. “Julian says he’ll behave himself and not cause any trouble.”
Yadriel’s skepticism must’ve showed, because she added, “Or he’ll suffer the consequences.”
Julian squinted up at Maritza. “I don’t know if I believe she can do that.” Then, to Yadriel. “Can she do that?”
“Probably best not to push your luck and find out,” Yadriel said.
The corner of Julian’s lips pulled into a smirk.
“Deal?” Maritza interrupted.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Julian stood, waving her off. “I’ll keep my hands to myself, no ghost stuff, no being a nuisance, blah, blah, blah. Now can we please go? I’ve been trapped in this room long enough!” Yadriel could practically feel Julian’s pent-up energy come off him in waves.
Yeah, leaving him here alone would definitely end in disaster.
“All right,” Yadriel sighed in concession. Julian’s face lit with a bright smile. “Just one second.” He grabbed his backpack and pulled out the mezcal and his portaje. “Last thing I need is to get caught by campus security with alcohol and a knife in my backpack.” Yadriel wrapped his portaje in a T-shirt and stuffed it into the bottom of the drawer in his bedside table. It was the only place he knew Lita’d steer clear of.
“Okay, let’s go.” Yadriel opened the door, but before Julian could step through, he held up a finger. “You two sneak out the front door while I distract Lita, okay?”
Maritza nodded. “Let’s go, dead boy,” she said to Julian.
He pretended to look offended, but he held his tongue for once and silently followed her down the stairs. Maybe he was a little worried about getting cursed.
SEVEN
Downstairs, Lita’s Tejano music blared from the kitchen. “I’ll meet you outside,” Yadriel whispered.
Julian gave a salute, and Maritza ushered him toward the door while Yadriel went into the kitchen.
He was met with the smell of rice and beans cooking on the stove. A metal espresso maker perched on a burner, filling the air with the smell of brown sugar and coffee. Loud music poured from a boom box propped on a chair, the old speakers giving it a tinny edge. Every morning, Lita woke up, brewed café cubano, and made food while she listened to the same CD over and over again.
The normal routine felt strange in comparison to the very abnormal events of the last twelve hours.
Lita stood at the sink, washing dishes. Her operatic bellowing along with the song made Yadriel flinch. “¡Como la flor!”
The song echoed back.
“¡Con tanto amor!”
“Morning, Lita!” he called over the noise.
“Vas a estar tarde a la escuela,” she sang. For as old as she was, Lita’s feet were still quick enough to keep step with the music, her hips swaying in time.
“I know, I know,” Yadriel said. He made to grab some food, but Lita caught his wrist and pulled him to her with surprising strength. Holding him tight, she danced and continued to croon loudly. Yadriel cringed but let her drag him around the kitchen table for the length of the chorus. At least there were no witnesses this time.
Singing and dancing around the kitchen used to be a group activity led by his mom. It always involved laughter and, of course, whiny resistance from him and Diego. Though Yadriel secretly enjoyed it and had just put on a show so his brother didn’t think he was a dork.
But now, the close proximity and Lita’s tight embrace felt suffocating. He squirmed until Lita finally released him.
Yadriel grabbed the wooden spoon and scooped up some rice and beans. He took a large bite, but as soon as it touched his tongue, sharp pain lit up the cut. Eyes watering, he forced himself to quickly swallow it down. He was starving, but he also needed to hurry and get to Maritza and Julian, so he dug through the Tupperware drawer. He could eat on the way to school.
On the counter sat a small, ancient TV showing the local Spanish news station. Yadriel paused, staring intently at the screen and reading the marquee and list of upcoming topics. The box next to the news anchor showed a live car chase through downtown. For Los Angeles, live car chases were about as reliable as the hourly weather update.
There was no mention of Julian or park muggers.
Okay, maybe the latter happened a bit too often to make it into the top new stories, but shouldn’t a missing teenager raise some kind of alarms? He hadn’t even gotten an AMBER Alert on his phone. Hadn’t someone reported Julian missing by now? His friends? His brother?
And what about Miguel?
“Ay!” The sharp snap of a dish towel against his butt made Yadriel jump. “Get some food and hurry up!”
“Where’s Dad and Diego? Still out looking for Miguel?” Yadriel asked, yanking out a small, orange-stained Tupperware.
Lita sighed heavily, bobbing her head. “Sí, been looking all night.” She tutted, waving a hand through the air. “Todavía nada.”
Still nothing?
Yadriel frowned as he scooped some food into the Tupperware. How was that possible? Had the search dogs not picked up anything, either? How could Miguel die in their own neighborhood without anyone seeing or knowing at least something? Yadriel had so many questions he wanted to ask, but Julian and Maritza were waiting for him, and Lita was shooing him again.
Lita handed him a spoon and smiled a tired smile. “Here, now, go to school, and be careful, ¿claro?”
Yadriel forced a smile. “Yes, Lita.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek and headed out, the sound of Lita’s singing followed him down the path. He didn’t see any brujx. Maybe they’d moved their search to beyond the walls of the cemetery.
Maritza and Julian waited for him by the main gate. Maritza scrolled through her phone, leaning against a weatherworn statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe as Julian paced back and forth.
When he saw Yadriel, Julian’s bright smile cut dimples into his cheeks.
Yadriel’s stomach did a little flip that he did not appreciate.
“We good?” Julian asked, dragging Maritza’s attention away from her phone.
“Yeah, let’s get out of here before someone sees us,” Yadriel said, casting another furtive glance back toward the cemetery.
“Yes!” Julian agreed. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”
Maritza opened the gate, and Julian rushed out as if he were being released from custody on good behavior.
“Don’t wander off!” Yadriel called after him.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” he said, leading the way down the street.
Yadriel scrubbed at his eyes, and Maritza fell into step beside him.
“Wow, you look like shit,” she said with a small laugh. “What happened?”
“Julian happened,” he grumbled, watching Julian’s back as he led the way, hands tucked into his pockets and whistling to himself, seemingly without a care in the world.
“So the sleepover went well, I take it?” Maritza smirked.
“There was very little sleep involved,” Yadriel murmured. When Maritza giggled, he shot her a glare. “Because he wouldn’t shut up.” He got a spoonful of rice and beans and blew on it before taking a large bite. It stung the cut on his tongue, but only a little.
A beat-up Honda full of teenagers drove by, music blaring from the crappy speakers so loud that each beat of the bass sent the license plate rattling. Across the street, a woman dug through recycling bins, pulling out cans and plastic bottles.
“Pretty sure spirits don’t sleep.”
“I’m gathering that.” He just had to summon the most difficult spirit possible, didn’t he? He was tired and frustrated, and the closer they got to school, the more tension worked its way into his shoulders.
“And he doesn’t seem t
o be the ‘sit there and be quiet’ type,” Maritza added, eyeing Julian up ahead.
“Definitely not.”
Julian wandered along, his head swinging this way and that, turning whenever something on the street caught his eye. When he came upon a beer bottle lying on the sidewalk, Julian ran up to it and swung his leg like a soccer player looking to score a goal. But his foot went right through it, knocking him off-balance and sending him tumbling through a lamppost. He landed on his back, a surprised look on his face before he broke out into laughter.
A laugh bucked in Yadriel’s chest. Did Julian just have zero impulse control? It was almost endearing. But only almost.
He gave a small shake of his head as Julian stood up and continued down the street. Yadriel toyed with the St. Jude pendant around his neck, considering the reckless boy ahead of him. He really seemed to not have a care in the world, didn’t he? Especially for someone who had just found out he was dead less than a day ago. As someone who was filled with anxiety nearly every waking moment, Yadriel didn’t understand it at all.
Julian was certainly a conundrum.
“I bet he’s a Scorpio,” Maritza said.
“Jeez, Itza, not that zodiac stuff again,” Yadriel groaned.
“Left!” he told Julian when he got to the end of the block.
Julian veered right.
“Your other left!”
Julian turned on his heel. “Got it!”
“It’s astrology, and it totally makes sense!” Maritza continued. “His big, obnoxious Scorpio energy is invading your cozy Cancer safe space!”
Yadriel didn’t know about all that. What he really wanted was to find out what happened to Miguel, satisfy Julian’s demands so he’d let Yadriel release him, and get a good night’s rest. His heartbeat felt like a ticking clock, counting down the seconds as Día de Muertos neared.
“Have you heard anything about Miguel?” Yadriel asked, steering the topic toward something useful. Maybe she’d heard news Lita hadn’t yet, though that was doubtful. Abuelitas somehow got word out even faster than teenagers with cell phones.
Unfortunately, there was no news to tell. “Mom said my dad went with Julio and his dogs to try to track down his body, but they just kept wandering around the cemetery.”