The Girl Who Looked Beyond the Stars

by L B Anne

  “Don’t call your mom!”

  Chana jumped up and ran in place. “We have to do something!”

  I jumped onto her bed. My eyes frantically searched her room as if the answer was right there, but I just needed to find it. “Okay, okay. Let’s go with what you were doing. Mr. Tobias. Let’s go with that.”

  “How do you know something is not going to pop out of thin air and take you right now?”

  “It could’ve done that already.”

  Chana grinned. “I know what this is. It’s Theodore playing a practical joke on you. He’s such a numbskull, as my dad would say. This has his name written all over it.”

  “It’s not Theodore. I told you, you’re the only person I’ve told about this.”

  “Oh, right.” Chana read the message again. “If you lose your life, you will find it? That could mean if I kill you, then you’ll find life—in a grave! Mom!”

  I covered her mouth with my hand. “Stop calling your mom. Calm down.” I took a few deep breaths. “I really don’t think I’m in danger.”

  Chana looked at me unbelievingly. “You question everything, but this is fine with you?”

  “Why now? Two weeks after the sighting? I don’t—” Images from last night’s nightmare flashed through my mind. It was all connected somehow. “Let’s just check out Mr. Tobias,” I continued, trying to sound as sure and calm as I could.

  Although Chana’s mom’s French toast smelled like pure vanilla sunshine, I didn’t bother eating breakfast. I dressed quickly, leaving Chana at the table pouring syrup over my portion as well as hers, and went home to get my bike.

  “You just spent all night with her. Haven’t you seen enough of Chana?” my mom asked.

  “Never,” I said as I lifted my leg over the seat of my bike. I looked up seeing Dingy, the little boy next door, looking out the window at me. He waved and I nodded my head up toward him.

  “I’m going to talk to your dad again about you needing a sibling.”

  “It’s too late for that,” I yelled behind me.

  As I rode up the street, my pocket vibrated. I looked at my phone.

  ON THE WAY

  Why does she always text in all caps?

  At the end of the block, I turned left and saw Chana pedaling up the hill. I smiled, relieved that I finally had someone to share this experience with. Though I didn’t know why she rode all the way to me. We would have to double back past her house to get to Monroe Street, where Theodore lived.

  Now here’s the thing about our town, it’s hard for kids to do anything without getting caught.

  We live in Muskegon, Michigan. If you hold your right hand up, with your palm facing you, that would be the shape of Michigan, a mitten. Muskegon is located halfway up the left edge of the mitten, on Lake Michigan. It’s a small town where everybody knows just about everybody or is related to just about everybody. That means if you’re seen doing anything wrong, chances are it will get back to some member of your family. Or someone that knows your family will chastise you just like they’re your parents. So, you had to be careful—WE needed to be careful about whatever we were doing. Like the time Mrs. Jessie ran out of her house and chased us with a switch because she saw us climb from Chana’s window into a tree. Chana didn’t want to do it. It was my idea, but she went along with me. And Mrs. Jessie was fast. I could feel the whip of the switch slashing through the air behind me as I ran. We got in so much trouble that day.

  “Sheena, my love. No. I mean I love you like a sister, but you’re not going anywhere with me looking like that.”

  My hand sprung up to my hair. “Oh my gosh, I forgot to comb my hair.”

  “Where is your mind at? I knew you weren’t really as calm and collected as you were putting on. Has this really got you messed up like that? Sheesh, come here.”

  I turned my back to her so she could try to do something with my hair.

  “I couldn’t possibly let Theodore see you looking like this.”

  “Not funny. Anyway, Teddy has seen me covered in mud from head to toe. This is nothing.” I tried to pull away, but Chana’s fingers gripped my hair pretty tight, putting two twists in the front and letting the back hang loose.

  “Let me look at you,” she said, spinning me around.

  “Am I presentable now, mom?”

  “Yeah, that’s better.” She licked her thumb and reached for my hairline.

  I dodged her hand. “Don’t you dare attempt to lay down my edges with your saliva.”

  “I’m not.” Chana laughed pulling back her hand.

  We rode our bikes a few blocks down to Theodore’s street. “Okay, which house is his?”

  “How am I supposed to know? Oh, look,” said Chana.

  Theodore stood in his driveway. I still had trouble getting used to seeing him without his dreads. I mean, he looked fine without them—very clean-cut, but he’d had them for about four years, and they were so long. It was an adjustment.

  “Hey, Teddy.”

  “Double trouble! What’s up?” Teddy replied without looking up from his phone.

  “Hey, Theodore. What game are you playing? Fortnite?” asked Chana.

  “What else? Battle Royale. You want in on my squad?”

  Chana looked around and pointed at herself. “Is he seriously talking to me?”

  “You asked.”

  “No, I don’t want to be on your friggen squad.”

  “Children, play nice,” I said, walking my bike between them. Chana and Teddy were friends, but they could only be nice to each other for about two seconds before they found something to disagree about. “Have you forgotten why we’re here?”

  Chana angled her head around me at Teddy. “You said Mr. Tobias lives on your street, right?”

  “Yeah, at the end of the block by the school.”

  “The brick house?”

  “No, the white house next to that one. Wait,” he said, backing up his driveway toward his bike. “I’ll go with you.”

  “The Mr. Tobias you know—is he old?”

  “Yep, like eighty years old, I think.”

  “Is he Caucasian?”

  “Yep.”

  “Friendly?”

  “I think so. We don’t see him much anymore. I think my dad said he’s in the hospital a lot.”

  “Yeah, that’s got to be him,” I replied.

  “What’s with all the questions? What do you want with him?” Teddy asked as he rode his bike without using the handlebars until we got to an intersection.

  “I-ummm…”

  “You are so nosey,” Chana accused.

  “You came to me for this information, remember?”

  “Exactly, information. I just need to ask him a question.”

  “Something you couldn’t ask your parents?”

  “They don’t know him.”

  Teddy rolled his eyes. “You know what I’m trying to say. How is your dad, though?”

  “Recovering fast. He’s home now.”

  “Wow, that’s awesome. God is good.”

  “All the time,” said Chana.

  I laughed. “You guys sound old.

  “How do you know Mr. Tobias?”

  I wished Teddy would stop asking questions, but he wouldn’t be Teddy if he didn’t. “I met him at the hospital and I-I want to check in on him.”

  Teddy stopped in front of a house. “Well, this is it.”

  We all stared at the front of the white house with black shutters. It was a boxy house with a driveway on the right side, and it had a very small front and side porch. Shrubs were planted on either side of the porches, as if placed there to break your fall if you fell off, since there were no railings.

  “Are you going to go and knock on the door?” asked Teddy.

  “Yeah, uh-huh,” I replied, but I didn’t move.

  Chana jumped off her bike. “Come on.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the door.

  “I’ll wait here,” said Teddy, already back to playing a game on his
phone.

  Chana raised her hand, and I pushed it down. “Don’t ring the doorbell.”

  “Then how will he know we’re here? You’re acting really weird.”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to see Mr. Tobias or hear what he had to say. I wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

  “Something is talking about coming for you. You need answers.”

  I stared at the ramp attached to the back of the porch. She was right. “Okay, okay,” I replied and pushed the little white button next to the door. No one answered. I pushed it again, and we waited.

  Chana tried the knob.

  “Don’t do that.”

  “It’s open.”

  “Don’t go in there,” I whispered after she was already stepping in. I pulled her by the back of her sweatshirt, but she hit my hand away.

  Did we go back in time? We walked into a kitchen with each wall covered in yellow, floral patterned, wallpaper. It was a clean house, but very old-looking. Old brown cabinets, old white appliances, and furniture from about nineteen-seventy. It was kind of vintage, I guess.

  “Mr. Tobias?” Chana called. “There are an insane amount of angel knick-knacks in this house.”

  “Yeah, really,” I replied, picking up a porcelain angel figurine with a broken wing and setting it back down.

  “Mr. Tobias?” she called again as we started down the hall to the back rooms after seeing no one was in the living room.

  Chana walked in front of me, and I held onto her sleeve, walking maybe a little too close behind her.

  The hall was dark, but the door to one of the back rooms was open, and light spilled in through slats of a blind from a window on the back wall.

  Chana pushed me forward. “Go in there. Is that him? I think he’s dead.”

  10

  “W

  hat’s taking you guys so long? I thought someone may have locked you in the basement or something,” Teddy exclaimed.

  “Shh…”

  “Mr. Tobias?” I called.

  A grey head of hair turned toward the door. He lifted his face and opened his eyes. “What?” He rubbed his eyes with thick, wrinkled fingers. “Do I know you?”

  “We met at the hospital.”

  “Heyyyyyy…,” he said, looking at Chana. “You’ve come to my house?”

  He can’t tell us apart? “No, I—me. I met you. You said we’re special, you and I.”

  “How are you special?” Teddy whispered.

  “Shush.”

  “Come on. Let them talk.” Chana pushed Teddy back toward the kitchen.

  “Wait, I want to hear this.”

  “It has nothing to do with us.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Mr. Tobias.

  “But I talked to you. Don’t you remember me?”

  He grumbled and groaned as he adjusted himself on the daybed.

  A door swung open in the hallway and a woman emerged. “Where did you guys come from?” She held a clothes basket. She’d come up from the basement and looked back and forth at Chana and Teddy in the kitchen and me at the doorway of the back bedroom.

  “Are you his grandchildren? I’m his nurse, Paige.” She walked toward the room. “You have company,” she sang with delight. “Finally. You’re alone far too much.”

  “Don’t listen to her. I’m never alone.”

  “Yes, you are and that’s why you’re so grumpy.”

  “He doesn’t remember me.”

  “Really? Don’t worry. It’ll come back to him. He forgets things sometimes, don’t ya, Mr. T.?”

  “How did they get in my house? Get them little buggers out of my house.”

  I took a step back. He looked exactly like the man from the hospital, but with a totally different demeanor.

  “Don’t be alarmed, he’s all bark. He’s calmer in the afternoons. It’s catheter time anyway, and that’s only going to make him meaner for a bit. Do you know what that is?”

  “No.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Sheena.”

  Mr. Tobias looked up at me and turned away, scowling.

  “Well, Sheena, I don’t want to be the one to break it to you, so look it up.”

  She ushered me toward the kitchen with Chana and Teddy.

  “But…”

  “It’s hard enough to get him to do it when it’s just us here. Come back later.”

  “But, Mr. Tobias!” I yelled. “Just answer one question for me…”

  The door closed behind us.

  “Give him a couple of hours,” Nurse Paige instructed through the window of the door.

  I stood in disbelief and disappointment, staring at the bare mulberry branches hanging over his fence. I knew them well. My Nana had several of the trees in her yard.

  “I can’t believe she just kicked us out. Who does that?”

  “It’s okay, Sheena. We’ll come back,” Chana insisted.

  “No, I won’t be coming back here. Maybe I was right about him.”

  “Meaning?”

  “He has dementia.”

  “Maybe so. What did you want to ask him?” asked Chana. “Was it about—”

  I shot her a look for her not to say anything. I knew she was about to mention the text message.

  “No. I was going to ask about something else. If they can—” I looked at Teddy and then back at Chana and whispered the rest. “If they can take human form.”

  Teddy looked at me like I was nuts. “Can they take human form? That’s right, I heard you. What in the world were you back there talking to him about? No, no, don’t walk away. Come back here. Don’t pick up that bike.” He climbed on his. “I’m just going to follow you, you know. What is going on?”

  Chana turned to me. “You might as well tell him.”

  She was right. I’d known Teddy almost as long as I had known Chana. You could say he was my second-best friend, and not future boyfriend.

  “Okay, but not here.”

  “Whose house?”

  “Mine,” I replied.

  We rode fast and didn’t say a word all the way there.

  “Hey, Theodore, Chana…”

  “Mama bear,” Chana responded, and gave my mom a hug.

  She giggled. “The gang's all here.”

  “Guys, go on downstairs. I want to check in on my dad. You know the way.” My dad sat on the sofa in the sitting area of my parent’s bedroom on his laptop.

  “How’s it going today, Daddy?”

  “Just fine, baby girl.”

  “I’m the only girl.”

  “So what, you’ll always be my baby girl.”

  “Dad!”

  “What?”

  I held up the wire hanger next to him. "You are not supposed to be scratching inside your cast with this.”

  “Have you ever worn a cast?”

  “No.”

  “Then you have no idea what I’m going through. That hanger is worth a million dollars to me right now. Give it back.”

  “Do you have the money?”

  “Sheena…”

  “Okay, okay. Chana and Teddy are downstairs. I bet we could wrestle you to the ground like we did as kids, but this time we would win with your broken wing and all.”

  “Don’t let this leg fool you. I can still run through walls.”

  “Yeah, uh-huh.” I kissed him on the cheek, feeling his prickly stubble. The swelling of his face from the accident had gone down, and I could recognize him again. Although his goatee was getting too long, and he was starting to look like a Billy goat, which I had no problem taunting him about.

  “Daddy, did you notice anything when you were in the hospital? Anything weird, or that you couldn’t explain?”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, anything. Anyone sneaking around or anything?”

  “I was knocked out most of the time at first, so I don’t know. Why? Do you know of something weird happening?” He looked at me like he knew me—knew what I was thinking.

>   “Nope. Just wondering. I’ve heard ghost stories.”

  “Oh, that’s where this is coming from, those old Hackley tales. Nope, nothing at all.” He went back to typing. “You know I don’t believe in that kind of mumbo-jumbo anyway.”

  “Yeah, I know. Well, I’ll be back to check on you.”

  “Tell that woman downstairs to bring me a piece of cake, and not the vegan one. I need animal products in my food.”

  “Ooo… I’m telling you called her ‘that woman.’”

  “So! I’m not afraid of her. Okay, don’t tell her that.”

  “I’m telling!”

  “I have money.”

  “Ha! You still owe me the million dollars for the hanger.”

  I ran down the stairs. “Mom, dad wants cake,” I yelled as I opened the basement door.

  “Cake? Absolutely not. I’ve got his cake. If he eats this salad, then he can have cake. It’s like I have another child, trying to get him to eat vegetables.”

  I laughed as I went downstairs. It was nice having things back to normal, other than my angel issue.

  “Finally,” Teddy said while grabbing a handful of pretzels from a bowl on top of the pool table.

  “Get that bowl off of there before you get me in trouble. Where did you get that?”

  “Your mom. Where else? At least she knows how to treat a guest.”

  “Who’s a guest? This has practically been your house since you were, like, seven.”

  “Okay, well, now that you’ve graced us with your presence, tell me everything from the beginning and don’t leave out anything. I’m talking the full podcast version. And don’t lie either. I can tell when you’re lying.”

  Chana leaned over the back of the sofa. “Oh really?” she asked, looking back and forth between us with a huge grin.

  I gave her a look that said stop it.

  “Yeah, she’s really bad at it. She bites her lip and looks off to the side.”

  “She does, doesn’t she?” Chana exclaimed and elbowed him.

  “Fine.”

  I told Teddy the whole story and realized I didn’t want to repeat it ever again. It sounded too crazy—just unbelievable. I was glad I had already typed it up and saved it on my tablet.

  I watched Teddy and bit down on a nail, waiting for his response.