Offline

by Donna Cooner

  “Like falling in love?” I asked. I noticed Isco glance my way, and I tried to keep my gaze on Luna.

  She nodded. “Yep.”

  “So we all need to, I don’t know, fall in love or eat chocolate or run around the block a few times instead,” Caitlin said, matter-of-fact.

  “Or we could just have more successful real-life interactions, right?” Jennifer spoke up from the corner.

  “We could, but think about this. You interact in person with maybe a hundred and fifty people total, but this …” Luna waved the smartphone at the group. “This device allows you to increase that to a potential of over four billion people. All capable of giving you that jolt of dopamine.”

  Cait frowned. “Even I couldn’t run that much.”

  “I know some of you have already committed to the vow. So how is it going so far?” Luna asked. She sat back down, ready to take notes on her computer.

  There was an awkward pause, but Luna let it go on until finally one of the fashionista freshmen broke the silence.

  “Okay, I’ll go. My name is Kiyana.” She gave a half wave to the group. A few waved back, some just smiled. “I’ve only been off ChitChat for one day, and it’s been super tough for me. Much harder than I thought it would be. I feel anxious. I’m scared I’m missing out on everything. I used to know what people were doing and where they were.”

  “Were you invited to go do things with them before?” Luna asked, typing furiously.

  “No. I just saw it on ChitChat.” She shook her head. “I know. Saying it aloud makes me realize how silly it sounds. But that’s how I feel.”

  Davis spoke up. “It’s not silly. I feel that way, too.” He looked around the faces, meeting eyes. “I bet a lot of people here do.”

  A few nodded, obviously surprised by the superstar quarterback’s admission.

  “So how did that make you feel when you saw on ChitChat they were excluding you?” Luna asked, typing away.

  “Not great,” Kiyana said. “But I knew about it. Now they are still excluding me and I don’t even know about all the amazing things they are doing.”

  “Which is worse?” Jennifer asked from the corner. “Having imaginary online friends or no friends at all?”

  Everyone looked at her, but no one answered the question.

  “It’s not just about being left out,” Ben said. “It feels so isolating. Like I can’t share even the good things with anyone. I used to have … like, an audience. Now nothing.”

  The other fashionista with the pink sweater sighed. “Exactly.”

  “I get these nasty comments sometimes,” Ben said. “Most of the time they’re from random cowards who don’t even know me. I try to ignore them, but they get into my head, you know?” He looked around the circle.

  More nods.

  “I get that, of course,” I told Ben.

  But of course I’m also back on social media, I thought. Nobody here knows that I’m a liar.

  Guilt made my eyes sting. I blinked hard.

  “When you are on social media, do you feel supported?” Luna asked the group.

  Caitlin shook her head. “I feel competition. But it’s like a game where I don’t know the rules and I can’t win no matter what I do.”

  Several people nodded.

  “This isn’t easy for any of us,” Luna said. “We’re happy to have you all decide to try this with us.”

  “Don’t get me wrong. I think the offline vow sounds great and all,” I said, twisting a strand of my hair around my finger like I always did when I was thinking hard. “But how do we know we’ll actually keep our promise?”

  Because I’m not.

  “Of course we’ll keep our promise!” Caitlin leaned into the circle to drape her arms around each of the shoulders next to her. Now was the time to inspire teamwork. “We’re us.”

  “If we’re really going to do this, we need some accountability,” Luna said.

  Isco looked around the circle of faces. “I agree. We have to do something public. Something that holds us accountable to everyone, not just to each other.”

  “Maybe we don’t have to tell the whole world,” I said. “Maybe we can just tell each other.”

  I glanced away and accidentally looked right at Isco. He offered his usual half smile, but I looked away quickly, not wanting him to see my panic. I squared my shoulders and focused back on the brainstorming session. I felt my teeth clench but managed a smile just in case he was still watching.

  “No,” Caitlin said abruptly. “We need something very public.”

  The faces around the circle got much more serious. The stakes were suddenly higher, and the only sound was the murmur of conversations in the rest of the room and the occasional rattle of the blender.

  “I know.” Caitlin snapped her fingers excitedly. “We sign our names to a poster by the office and everyone in school sees it.”

  “That’s good!” Isco said, and Luna started typing.

  I could see Luna’s brain buzzing with possibilities. “Once we all make a public declaration, maybe other people will want to join us. And then … we do some kind of big gesture to recognize participants.” Her eyes gleamed with excitement. This was definitely the story she’d been looking for, the one that would get her the editor position. “It could take over the whole school.”

  Ben jumped in. “The Fall Festival,” he said firmly. “That’s the place. Maybe it’s a ceremony, and we give out certificates to everyone who kept the vow?”

  I kept my face neutral. Jameson was singing at the Fall Festival and I was determined to not be anywhere near that stage when it happened.

  “I love that idea!” Luna said.

  Lizzie, the other freshman fashionista, frowned. “There’s only about two weeks from now until the Fall Festival and the vow is supposed to be for a month, right?”

  “So maybe everyone just vows to stay offline until the Fall Festival. Even if it’s only a couple weeks instead of a full month,” her friend suggested.

  “Good.” Luna nodded. “The Fall Festival will be perfect. I can even bring Annie and Caitlin up to talk about the month-long commitment to give a sense of what’s possible.”

  She looked around expectantly, and the group smiled back at her, nodding. Everyone but me. I felt the rapid beat of my heart. Now I was going to be a liar in front of the whole school, not just to my best friends. I glanced over at Isco. He was still watching me, leaning back in his chair now like he was at the movie theater. It was obvious he was enjoying the show.

  “Maybe that will inspire some to continue after the Fall Festival,” Davis said.

  Ben nodded. “At least it will give everyone a chance to try it out even if it’s only for two weeks.”

  “Two weeks is a long time,” Caitlin said.

  No one said anything. They were obviously thinking about how difficult it had been for just a few days.

  “The list,” Luna said. “We can all pick an activity to do together.”

  “Like what?” Davis asked.

  Luna pulled up the list on her computer and began to read aloud.

  “Wait,” Ben said, pointing at her. “Let’s do that one—be a tourist in your own town. I heard of the ghost tour they have in Old Town and I’ve always wanted to go. Let’s all do it together tomorrow night.”

  Davis nodded. “I’m in.”

  Heads nodded around the circle. Being together might actually help us all.

  I spoke up suddenly, breaking the silence. “If people ask us why we are doing all this, what do we say? What’s the point?”

  Jennifer looked around the group slowly, meeting the eyes of each person in turn. “To be happier,” she said quietly.

  Our feet are planted in the real world, but we dance with angels and ghosts.

  —John Cameron Mitchell

  The man in the black top hat and red cape stood in the doorway just off the square. The chalkboard beside him said that the next tour would start in ten minutes, so I knew I was in the right
place, even if no one else from Team SO had shown up yet.

  The evening air was crisp, and I was glad for the blue jean jacket I’d pulled off the coatrack when I left home. Not sure of the appropriate attire for ghost hunting, I’d decided comfort was critical. I wore soft fleece-lined leggings under tall leather riding boots, a gray sweater, and a red scarf bright enough to hopefully scare away the dead.

  “Boo.”

  I turned to see Isco standing behind me wearing jeans and a black hoodie.

  “Hey,” I said, caught a little off guard. But then I smiled, glad he was here. He gave me one of his brilliant smiles back.

  Luna came around the corner, trailed by Davis and Ben. She wore a simple white tee and jeans, topped off by an ankle-grazing sweater duster and a black camera strapped to her chest.

  “What are you going to do with that?” I pointed to the camera.

  Luna shrugged. “Well, I didn’t want to bring my phone … but I need to document our group’s first real outing for my story.”

  I nodded. Right. The story. I felt a flash of guilt, thinking of my phone tucked away in my crossbody bag. At least it was turned off.

  “Anyone else coming from Team SO?” I asked. Caitlin had opted out of tonight’s choice of activity, saying ghosts really weren’t her thing. Jennifer had said it was her sister’s birthday, and there was a family dinner she had to attend. I wasn’t sure about the two freshman fashionistas.

  Davis shook his head. “Lizzie and Kiyana had plans, but they promised it didn’t involve anything online.”

  “So I guess it’s just us,” Isco said.

  A middle-aged couple walked over to join the ghost tour. The man was no taller than my chest and had a long, thin ponytail that almost reached his waist. His companion, a woman, was much taller than him and spoke in a heavy accent that I thought might be Swedish. Or German. I couldn’t tell.

  The guide with the top hat looked around and then down at the list in his hand. “I think we’re waiting on two more people.” He had a slight British accent, but I thought it might be part of his act.

  “Sorry we’re late.” A man holding a little kid by the hand approached the group. The boy was about six or seven and happily finishing an ice cream cone from the Ben & Jerry’s across the square. I shot him a quick smile.

  “No worries. We’re just ready to leave now.” Top Hat Man introduced himself as Jeeves, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. The British accent was definitely fake. “If you’ll all follow me this way, our first stop is just around the corner.”

  The man with the ponytail and his companion were eager. They stepped into line right beside Jeeves and began asking all sorts of questions about the town. Obviously tourists. The father and son were the next to follow, the man trying to wipe off leftover chocolate from the boy’s cheeks with the hem of his shirt while they walked.

  “Hey, Annie!” Luna called to me from the back of the line. “Over here.”

  I turned just in time as she clicked a picture with her camera. I scowled at her, but she said, “I have to document the beginning of our tour, right?”

  I sighed. At least I knew the picture wouldn’t wind up on ChitChat.

  “Do you even know how to use that thing?” Davis asked Luna, nodding toward the camera.

  She shrugged. “How hard can it be?”

  “I think there are a lot of photographers in this world that would disagree with you,” Davis said with a grin.

  I glanced around and quickly realized the purpose of Jeeves’s tall hat as I saw it disappear around the Starbucks on the corner. It was the only thing that stood out in the crowd of people.

  “Come on.” I tugged at Isco’s arm. “We’re going to be lost before we even get to the first stop.”

  We caught up just as Jeeves disappeared inside a campus apparel shop. I followed the small procession through the bright green pom-poms and racks of T-shirts featuring ram heads, the local university’s mascot.

  “Have you ever been in here?” I turned to ask Isco.

  He shook his head. “But if I knew it was haunted, I would have come.”

  “It’s not haunted,” I said firmly. I didn’t believe in ghosts, even though the idea did leave me with a tingle of excitement.

  “Did you know that in a recent poll, forty-five percent of the people interviewed believed in ghosts?” Luna asked, obviously enjoying himself. “Thirty-two percent even think ghosts can hurt living people.”

  “How do you know that?” Ben asked.

  She shrugged. “I do all kinds of research for stories. Some of it sticks around.”

  Jeeves stopped at an open space near the back of the store and waited for the group to gather around him. He waved his gold-tipped cane theatrically, gesturing toward the ceiling. Everyone looked up, and I sucked in my breath. The ceiling was a huge stained-glass dome of brilliant greens and blues. Definitely from a different time.

  “We’re lucky the renovators of the Avery Building decided to keep this beautiful ceiling intact,” Jeeves said. “The fascinating part is that it is an acoustic marvel. If you stand in the center”—Jeeves motioned—“and whisper, you can hear the sound all through the room. Go ahead and give it a try.”

  The little boy went first. “Captain America,” he whispered, and we all marveled at how clearly the sound traveled.

  “Cool,” Isco said to me in a low voice. “But we are here for the ghosts.”

  Jeeves hadn’t heard him, but he did launch into the ghost story then.

  “The ghost that inhabits this building,” Jeeves announced dramatically, “is named Clark.”

  Clark? Isco mouthed at me, and I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I knew we were both thinking that “Clark” wasn’t a very ghostly sounding name. I felt a strange sense of connection to Isco then, and I glanced away. I looked back at Luna, Ben, and Davis, who were cracking up, too. I held a finger up to my mouth to shush them.

  “He was fired from the bank next door and died soon afterward of mysterious circumstances,” Jeeves went on, ignoring our antics. The tourist couple and the dad and son hung on to his every word. “Right after this store opened, employees often reported hearing music turning on, lights flickering, and doors slamming when no one was present. One cashier even tells the story of looking up to see a man standing under the dome here, right about closing time. But when she walked over to see if he needed help, he disappeared.”

  “Duh duh duh.” Isco added the musical notes to the end of the story in dramatic fashion, and I smiled, elbowing him in the side. Even though the story was silly, I couldn’t help but feel a little creeped out.

  The tour moved on to the Museum of Art next. Jeeves explained that it was built on top of an 1860s cemetery and supposedly haunted by a ghost named George. The guy with the ponytail asked lots of questions about dates and exhibits, then would repeat the answers loudly to the woman he was with although there was no indication she didn’t hear the first time. In fact, each time he repeated the answer, she responded, “I heard.” It was so annoying that finally I wandered off to the side to take a closer look at a beautiful yellow mask that resembled a fish I saw on a ChitChat travel account.

  “Having fun?” Isco said, joining me.

  I thought for a moment, then said, “I actually am. I have to confess I didn’t know much about the history of our town.”

  “But you don’t have any questions?” He rolled his eyes toward the guy following Jeeves around the room.

  I laughed, then covered my mouth with my hand. “I think they’ve all been answered. What about you? Are you enjoying our field trip?”

  “Actually, I’m terribly disappointed,” Isco said, and I looked at him in surprise. “We keep hearing about all these ghosts, but where are they? Why haven’t we seen any?”

  I just shook my head and rolled my eyes. “Maybe some will appear at some point.”

  “They better,” Ben said, walking over to us with Luna at his side.

  “Come on. Jeeves is leavi
ng,” Davis said, reaching for Ben’s hand. He tugged him along, and Luna followed. Isco and I brought up the rear.

  The last stop on the tour turned out to be the most surprising. Jeeves held up his hand as we gathered around him on the sidewalk outside Old Firehouse Books.

  “You may not know that there is a series of tunnels and rooms right beneath the sidewalk where we are standing,” Jeeves said.

  We all looked down at the unassuming bricks under our feet.

  “Cool,” Ben said, and Davis grinned at him.

  “If we head inside, we’ll find an entrance.” Jeeves motioned to Salus, a natural soap shop, behind him. I had passed this store about a million times and even bought coconut bath bombs there for Luna’s and Caitlin’s Christmas stockings. But I’d never noticed the stairs on the back wall before. Jeeves led everyone over to the top step and flipped on a flashlight that he pulled from his duster coat pocket. “Stay close.”

  The tourist couple and the dad and son eagerly followed Jeeves down the steps, and Luna, Ben, and Davis went next, whispering and giggling.

  “You first,” Isco said, waving a hand to usher me down into the darkness. I headed toward the flashlight’s glow, following Luna step by step and feeling Isco close behind. We quickly left the soap smell behind, crowding into a small space in the basement at the bottom of the stairs.

  Jeeves reached over and flipped a switch on the wall, illuminating a string of white lights that revealed a narrow stone tunnel. I gasped. It was as though we’d suddenly descended into another place and time. Now this was cool.

  I shivered. “This is going to give me nightmares,” I whispered.

  “Same,” Isco admitted, but he was grinning.

  “Remember that thirty-two percent of people think ghosts can hurt people?” Luna asked.

  “You’re not helping.” I narrowed my eyes at her.

  The man with the ponytail gave us a dirty look. “Shhh,” he hissed.