Zara, The Ghost Zapper

by Katrina Kahler

  Hammy floated into the room and landed on my shoulder. “Use your mind!” he said.

  “Excuse me?” I said.

  “Use your mind to blow out the candles,” Hammy ordered, jamming his face in my face.

  I brushed him off my shoulder, knocking him to the table. I didn’t need any hamster hair getting stuck in the pancake syrup. Hammy glared at me.

  “I take pancakes very seriously,” I told him.

  “Fine,” Hammy said, crossing his forearms in front of him. “Just blow out the candles with your mind.”

  I ignored him, taking in a deep breath and preparing to blow.

  “It’s good practice, honey,” Grandma encouraged, setting down a glass of milk in front of me.

  “Listen to the rat, Zara,” Grandpa added.

  “I’m not a rat!” Hammy exploded.

  I really wanted to dig into those pancakes. It looked like, if I wanted to do it in peace, I needed to at least try to blow out the candles with my mind. I gazed at the orange candle flames flickering gently back and forth, back and forth.

  “Concentrate, relax, try hard without trying hard,” Hammy whispered.

  “Let the girl think, rat!” Grandpa said.

  “Quiet, both of you!” Grandma ordered.

  I closed my eyes. I could still see the candles in my mind, burning strong. I pictured the candles fizzling out. Eyes open, the candles still flickered away. I stared down the candles, locking my gaze on them. I relaxed my mind, picturing a wave of fresh air heading from my head towards the candles.

  The candles flickered out.

  I leapt out of my chair, pointing. “I did it!”

  “Yes dear, you did,” Grandma said. “Now sit and eat your pancakes.”

  Grandpa smiled at me with half of his mouth. Hmm...something about how his eyes were half open made the hair on my head tingle.

  Hammy patted me on the arm as I sat down and sank into eating the pancakes. “Good job, Zara. Don’t get cocky.”

  As I munched away, Grandma brought me two little wrapped gifts: one in a round box, one in a long rectangular box. “Happy birthday, Zara.”

  I looked up at her and smiled, “Thanks, Grandma.”

  Grandma sat beside me. “You’re going to need these with your new responsibilities.”

  As much as I liked eating, I liked opening presents more. I ripped off the paper covering the round box, first. I hoped it might be that circular boomerang blade that I’d seen on TV! After all, I’d given Grandma heaps of hints!

  Opening up the box and shoving the tissue paper aside, I found a red yo-yo. I used to be pretty good with a yo-yo, but I hadn’t played with one for years.

  “Thanks, Grandma.” I tried my best to look excited. Maybe I should’ve tried without trying, whatever Hammy even meant by that.

  “Don’t worry,” Grandma reassured me. “It’s not a normal yo-yo.”

  “Really?” I said. What did she mean by that?

  “It’s a defensive weapon. You can use it to stun and daze ghosts,” Grandma said. “At times you need to talk to ghosts or slow them down.”

  Hammy nodded. “It’s got an ectoplasm shielding so they can’t avoid it.” He smiled. “That’s why I was so happy to see you playing with a yo-yo a couple years ago.”

  “Oh, okay,” I said.

  I reached over and opened the rectangular box. I found a long, silver, pen-shaped object: a laser pointer, like the kind people use when giving talks. I showed the pointer to Grandma. “Thanks…I do have to do a presentation in class next week. Not sure I’ll need a pointer, but it’s still cool.”

  “That’s not your normal laser pointer.” Grandpa laughed. “It’s a ghost zapper. Its beam disturbs a ghost’s energy, sending it back to where it belongs.”

  “And where is that?” I asked.

  Grandma, Grandpa, and Hammy all shook their heads. “Knowledge of that is way beyond our us,” Grandma said. “Suffice to know it puts the ghosts back at rest. That’s your duty from now on. You put ghosts who refuse to rest, to rest.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly. Part of me thought, what if I don’t want that job? Funny thing, a much bigger part of me thought, that sounds so cool.

  “Finished eating, Zara?” Grandpa asked.

  I nodded. I still didn’t like the way Grandpa looked, I could see straight through him.

  “Good,” Grandpa said, standing up and rubbing his hands together. “Now we can have some fun.”

  Grandma looked at me. “Grandpa is here to be your practice ghost. It’s always nice to practice with a friendly target before going out in the field.” Grandma turned to grandpa, “Now, Mickey go easy on the girl and no more farting.”

  “Remember, Zara,” Hammy lectured, “most ghosts can’t really hurt you, unless you think they can hurt you. Or unless you’re scared of them.”

  “Most ghosts?” I asked with a gulp.

  Hammy waved his forearms dismissively. “Don’t worry about the exceptions. They’re so rare most ghost hunters never meet them.”

  “Again with the most,” I noted.

  Grandpa stood up and walked toward me, his transparent body cutting through the table. Stopping in the table’s center, he pointed at my plate.

  The plate flew off the table and landed on my head.

  “Ouch!” I exclaimed, pulling the heavy ceramic plate off of my head. “That hurt! And now I’ve got chocolate sauce in my hair!”

  “Ah, yes,” Hammy lectured. “Powerful ghosts can use mental energies to move objects.”

  “Kind of figured that out,” I muttered, wiping the sauce from my hair with a napkin.

  “Well, I couldn’t be sure,” Hammy said. “Your grades are far from stellar. Just a little concerned about your intellectual abilities.” Hammy had a smug look on his face.

  Grandpa rubbed his hands together and said, “I’m going to teach the stuff you can’t learn in school or even on the Internet.” He pointed again, flicking his finger.

  My chair went flying backwards, carrying me with it, almost crashing into the wall.

  Grandma shot up from her seat. “Now, Mickey, don’t hurt Zara, be careful!”

  Hammy hopped down to the floor, yelling, “Stop him! Use your tools!”

  Sprawled on the floor, I aimed the laser/ghost zapper at Grandpa and pushed the trigger clip. A red beam fired out from the tip. It would have hit Grandpa dead center, right in his gut, but at the last second, his midsection swooped to the side. It was like he was made of rubber. My shot whizzed past harmlessly.

  “Ghost bodies are very flexible since there is nothing to them,” Hammy said. “That’s how the yo-yo can help.” He paused for second and itched his chin. “Plus it has another really important use that we’ll let you figure out. It will help you learn to think on the fly!”

  Grandpa pointed at a painting of a tree on the wall above me, sending it crashing down.

  “Never liked that painting,” Grandpa said, walking towards me again.

  I needed that yo-yo and fast. Scanning the room, I saw it still sitting on the table. I stretched my arm out reaching for the yo-yo. To far away to simply grab it, I held my arm out and pictured the yo-yo flying to my hand. Nothing happened.

  “Try without trying too hard,” Hammy reminded me.

  “Let it flow,” Grandma said.

  Taking a deep breath, I tried to forget about my dead grandfather approaching me. With that panic shoved aside, I concentrated on the yo-yo. Not on my hand stretching out towards the yo-yo, but bringing it too me. Much to my surprise, the yo-yo rose up from the table and floated towards me.

  “It’s not going to be that easy!” Grandpa teased. Grandpa swatted at it, but I used my mind to swerve the yo-yo past him. He stomped his foot.

  The yo-yo reached me and I immediately clasped my fingers around it. I let it dangle from my hand.

  “Oh so quick,” Grandpa said, his eyes spinning in his head locked on the yo-yo. He shook his head. The eyes stopped spinning. I flicked the yo-yo o
ut, hitting him right between the eyes. Grandpa stood there, stunned. I picked up my zapper, aimed, and fired. A red dot appeared on Grandpa’s stomach.

  Grandpa gave me two thumbs up. “Nice job, Zara!”

  Grandpa then turned even more pale and transparent. He blew Grandma a kiss then disappeared, dissolving into mist.

  Grandma and Hammy applauded as I hauled myself up from the floor.

  “Very good, Zara! I knew you could do it,” Grandma said.

  “I had my doubts,” Hammy told me. “But, it was nice to see I was wrong.”

  “I feel kind of bad about doing that to Grandpa,” I said.

  Hammy shook his head and his tail. “Don’t,” he told me. “Ghosts - even friendly ghosts - shouldn’t stay on this plane of existence for too long. Their presence messes up the balance of the universe. You did what you had to do. What you were born to do.”

  “I understand,” I said meekly, though I didn’t. Not really.

  “Now, it’s time for you to begin your duties as a ghost hunter,” Grandma told me. “We have your first assignment.”

  Hammy whispered in my ear, “Betty is old fashion, she always uses the term Ghost Hunter…”

  I retrieved my chair and sat back down at the table. Miraculously, my milk hadn’t spilled. “First assignment?”

  Grandma nodded. “We put new hunters in the field fast. Don’t worry. This one won’t be too hard. You know the old Henderson house?”

  Everybody on the street knew the old Henderson house. Nobody had lived there for years. Nobody had painted it since before that. Maria and I always talked about it being haunted.

  “Sure, I know it.”

  “Good. Once your partner gets here, we need to rid it of a couple of ghosts,” Hammy said.

  “Partner?” I said.

  Grandma nodded. “Yes, we always pair a ghost hunter with a ghost sensor. Someone who can feel different patterns of energy.”

  “I don’t know if I want a partner,” I protested.

  “That’s the way it is, Zara,” Grandma said. “Centuries of practice have taught us that teams work best. One is strong where the other is not so strong.”

  The doorbell rang.

  “Ah, that must be your partner now. Go answer the door. It’s always best if the hunter and sensor meet alone the first time,” Hammy said.

  “But…”

  “Go!” Hammy and Grandma ordered.

  I stood up from my chair and slowly walked out of the dining room. I moved even slower through the living room making my way to the door. I took a deep breath followed by another.

  The doorbell rang again and again.

  “I’m coming!” I said, reluctantly picking up my pace.

  I opened the door to find Maria on the other side. “Happy birthday!” she said, giving me a little hug.

  I looked past her to see if anyone else was coming down the sidewalk. I knew for better or for worse my sensor would be coming and I didn’t want to have to explain any of this to Maria. I barely understood what was happening myself.

  “Uh, Maria,” I said slowly. “Any other time, it would be great to see you, but right now…I’m, uh…waiting to meet someone.”

  Maria just looked at me with those big brown eyes of hers. She smacked me in the side of my arm. “Dummy, I’m your sensor.”

  Chapter 5: Walking Talking Balking

  A few minutes later, Maria and I found ourselves heading down the street towards the old Henderson house. It seemed like any other nice day with a clear, blue sky and brightly shining sun overhead, except of course for the ghost hunting bit, armed only with a yo-yo and a laser pen/ghost zapper.

  At first we walked in silence. My head filled with so many questions and so much confusion. I didn’t know where to start. Words got all jumbled up in my brain on their way to my mouth.

  “So, do your parents know about this?” I mumbled weakly.

  Maria nodded, lowering her eyes, “Yeah. Mom was a sensor, but she wanted out. So, she married a normal guy.”

  “I hardly ever see your mom these days,” I said.

  “Me, either.” Maria looked down and away. “Mom’s not handling my sensor-dom very well. She works like eighty hours a week at the law firm just to avoid me.” Maria sighed a little, then straightened back up. “Still, my dad has really stepped up. He started doing his reporting job for the Hallow Falls Gazette from home and has done all the reading and the research. He’s learned a lot and he’s taught me more.”

  “How weird is this?” I asked.

  Maria shrugged. “We’ve walked down this street hundreds of times.”

  “Never to hunt and zaps ghosts,” I noted.

  “Yeah,” she said. “We did always joke that the Henderson place was haunted.”

  The closer we got to the old Henderson house, the slower I walked. Nerves! “How long have you known about all this?” I asked.

  “Two years,” Maria said frankly. “Sensors start training at ten. Lots of mental prep.” She paused for a second. “I’ve been dying to tell you, but there’s rules...”

  “Who makes the rules?”

  “There’s a high council or committee or something or other. I don’t know much about it. Hammy or your grandma might tell us more someday if we pass this test.”

  I stopped. “This is another test?”

  Maria nodded. “Our team field test. To make sure we can function on our own.”

  “What if we fail?”

  “We won’t,” she replied. Maria took me by the arm and started pulling me. I inched forward, dragging my feet. I wanted answers and it seemed like Maria had some.

  “Why us?” I asked.

  “Why not us?” Maria countered. “We come from long lines of ghost hunters and sensors.”

  “Why here? Why our boring little town?”

  “Hallow Falls is a nexus,” Maria answered.

  “Wow!” I said.

  Maria looked at me with a tilted head. “Do you know what a nexus is?”

  “Nope, but it sounds cool.”

  “Nexuses are pathways - gates - between our plane of existence and the ghost plane of existence,” Maria told me. “Something about Hallow Falls makes that passing easier.”

  “So, what’s the big deal if a few ghosts run free?” I asked.

  Now Maria stopped walking. She gave me her ‘are you serious’ look, which she always gave me when I said something extra stupid. “You’re kidding, right?” she demanded, hands on hips.

  “Until a couple of hours ago, I had no idea there were ghosts roaming around. Now, suddenly it’s my destiny to catch them and I want to know why,” I said.

  “They upset the natural balance of this world and the worlds beyond,” Maria replied impatiently, rolling her eyes. “They tip it.”

  “That’s what Hammy said, sort of. I don’t know what that means.”

  “If they tip it too far, more and more ghosts leak into this world,” Maria said slowly, like I was a little kid...a dense little kid.

  “So what?”

  “Zara, you saw what one ghost could do, right?”

  “Yeah,” I said, recalling Grandpa throwing me against the wall.

  “Well, the more ghosts that are in an area, the more powerful they all become. They can actually join into one big hive of power.”

  “That sounds...pretty bad,” I conceded.

  Maria started walking again, picking up the pace. “Believe me, it’s terrible. That’s why I find them and you send them back.”

  “Can’t we just close the nexus?” I asked, rushing to catch up with her.

  Maria stopped walking and threw her arms up. “Of course not! We need the nexus so spirits can pass from this plane to the next! Without it, ghosts would just pile up!”

  “OK, I get it,” I said. “Sort of…”

  Maria started walking again. “Finally! Now let’s get on with it.”

  We could clearly see the Henderson place now. The house hadn’t been lived in or maintained for a long l
ong time. Some of the front of the house’s cream paint had peeled off exposing the bricks. Every window had at least one crack or had huge holes in them. The once red roof only had several holes in it. Calling it an eye-sore would be a compliment.

  A rusty, black metal railing led up to the front door. I walked up the steps and approached the door.

  “Stop!” Maria ordered.

  Turning to her, I asked, “What’s wrong?”

  She shook her head, annoyed with me. “There are some people on the street.”

  Looking around I saw Mr. James cutting his grass with an old manual powered lawn mower. Mrs. Sheldon kneeling down tinkering in her garden. A couple of kids, rode their bikes down the street.

  “So?” I said.

  “We don’t want people to see us going in there. They might get suspicious or curious or whatever,” Maria said.

  I realized the kids on the bikes wouldn’t be a problem, they weren’t paying any attention to us. But Mr. James and Mrs. Sheldon might notice us poking around where we don’t belong. It also looked like they wouldn’t be heading inside for a while. “What do we do?” I asked.

  “Not we. Me,” Maria said.

  Maria clinched her fists and closed her eyes. Her body stiffened.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Shh…”

  “But…”

  ‘Shh…”

  I kept quiet and decided to turn my attention to our neighbors. Sure enough, Mr. James and Mrs. Sheldon got up and walked into their homes.

  “Did you do that?” I asked.

  Maria nodded with just a slight wink in her eyes. “You can move things with your mind, I can make people think things with mine.”

  “Cool,” I said, even though I thought that her power may actually be better than mine.

  Maria signaled me to follow her. “We’ll go in through the back door,” she said.

  I followed.

  “Don’t worry, Zara. Your power is just as cool as mine,” she said. “Yours is more consistent. Mine only works if I can really concentrate. Plus, I can’t use it on people if they know I’m trying to use it on them.”