The Shade Riders and the Dreadful Ghosts

by Bxerk

  Brenda laughed. "It's because you can't figure out if you’re a boy or a girl."

  Nova rolled her eyes. "I'm an individual and I’ll be whoever I feel like."

  "You're a liar, an idiot, and an alien from another planet." Brenda grabbed Nova's cheeks in her hands and squeezed hard.

  In spite of the pain, Nova pressed her lips together and glowered.

  Brenda grabbed Nova's books and papers and tried to pull them downward to break Nova’s grip. Nova pulled them upward and hung on. Some of the books slipped, and Brenda kicked them aside.

  "Hey! Some of those are library books." Nova watched an English book skid down the slippery hallway.

  "Tough."

  Nova bent to pick up her books and papers off the floor, but Brenda kicked them out of her hands.

  "Stand up. I'm talking to you." Brenda pulled Nova up by her grizzly bear T-shirt. Amanda stopped being Brenda's lookout and joined in pushing Nova until she was up against the lockers.

  "You aren't going anywhere until we settle this, weirdo. You're a boy, aren't you? So why don't you fight back?” Brenda poked Nova’s chest. “Oh, I get it. You're a boy who won't hit a girl, huh?"

  "I don't hit anyone!"

  Brenda reached back with her fist to let it fly into Nova’s face.

  Suddenly, Nova heard a loud crackling sound coming from all around. The bullies stopped and looked to their left and behind them near the opposite lockers across the hall. Nova felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. This was not like the feeling in the library but more like when she first arrived at school. Not only did cold seep into every pore of her body, but dry heaves racked her stomach. If she had eaten a snack, there would have been a mess.

  Then she glimpsed two ghosts haunting the hallway. They were adult men that towered over her measly height. Their clothing looked like ancient cowboy attire, and they were mirroring the girl's fight. Nova wondered if they were just trying to be funny.

  She wanted to yell at the ghosts, “Why are you mimicking us?” but they disappeared. Usually, ghosts quoted superstitions or said other things. This time they were quiet. Yet Brenda and Amanda stared at the area where the ghosts had been. Nova thought she could slip away, but stopped when she remembered the books and papers scattered across the floor. She needed some of them.

  Brenda grabbed Nova’s shirt again. “You’re not going anywhere!” She pushed Nova harder against the lockers. Nova saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She put her arm up to protect herself.

  A green remote control robotic autogyro dive-bombed the two bullies. It was the size of a breadbox, with an airplane body and a front propeller. On top of it was a helicopter propeller and on the bottom hung helicopter landing skids. It had an evil face with an angry grin painted on the nose cone. Nova saw color shooting out of the bottom.

  It launched twenty missiles, which upon impact exploded multi-colored paint into the bully’s long brown and blond hair. Both girls screamed, pulling out what was left of the yet unexploded missiles as fast as they could.

  Out of nowhere, Max Kim and Benny raced down the slippery

  hallway to Nova's rescue. Max Kim carried a periscope, as though he were spying on the fight. As he ran, he slipped

  it into one of the many pockets of his black trench coat.

  Benny's battery-powered wheelchair, flame-painted, was

  moving so fast that it reared back on its two main, dirt

  bike wheels.

  Benny leaned forward with a control box in his lap. He

  gave commands using a microphone at his mouth.

  Nova once thought Benny’s autogyro looked strange and a little dangerous, but she was finally getting used to it. Besides, the blades were too soft to hurt anything. This was going to be so clash!

  "Keep it away, keep it away," Brenda and Amanda shrieked as they ran down the hallway pulling at their hair.

  Benny and his remote control autogyro stayed right behind them. The girls’ screeches faded as they ran further away.

  "Keep away from our friend," Max Kim yelled with a slight Korean accent. Turning to face her with a grin, Max Kim pulled a bright blue scarf from one of his many pockets and changed it with sleight of hand into a blue rose for Nova. He smiled and blushed.

  "You all right?”

  "Yeah, I guess so." Nova took the flower and sniffed. “Pretty flower. I thought it was real.” The gesture cheered

  her up a bit, but then she started feeling uncomfortable. She handed back his flower. Max Kim turned it back into a scarf and slipped it into his pocket again. Nova thought she saw relief on his face.

  Nova tried to meet Max Kim's eyes, but she couldn’t. Why did she always have to be the damsel in distress? She felt she was going to cry, but that would only make her look even more damsel-like. She was just so angry.

  She got down on the floor and began picking up her books and papers. After a second, Max Kim got down and helped her. She heard what sounded like the janitor's floor scrubber running in the gym but then realized it was Benny’s wheelchair. He was coming back with the dormant machine on his lap.

  "I chased them into the east wing girl's bathroom.” Benny gave Nova and Max Kim a wink. “They were still screaming.”

  They all laughed- Nova a bit nervously. This was awkward. If she just had more a little more courage, she wouldn’t need other people to fight her battles. Now, what was she supposed to do? Date them to thank them?

  "Thanks, guys. Hmm...” Nova paused, looking over the large autogyro. “Is that going to be your science project?"

  "Yeah, I'm going to enter it, just like you said I should.” Benny shoved his hair out of his eyes. “That is if we actually have a science fair this year."

  "It worked today. Thanks." Nova patted Benny on his back then crouched and examined the painted flames she airbrushed onto his wheelchair a year ago. The paint job was already chipped and flaking in places so you couldn’t tell what they were.

  “Benny,” She said, “those flames are messed up. You have got to be more careful.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can’t have any fun.” Benny could be a bit rough with stuff. He was always like that. That’s how he had the dirt bike accident that put him in a wheelchair. But he built his special wheelchair with a little help from his dad.

  The chair had a beefed-up battery pack, a motor he got from an electric motorcycle, and a suspension system that was just strange. It was on only wheelchair ever to show up on the skate park ramps and hills.

  Benny reached over and picked up one of her books-the one on fortune telling. He glanced at it before handing it to her.

  “Are you kidding? Nova, I’ve told you, magick, ESP, psychic stuff-- all that mumbo jumbo doesn't exist. It never has. Libraries are for reading books and learning, about stuff that’s actually real.”

  "Fortune telling is real. Why else would they have written a book about it?”

  "But,” Benny said, “I’ll bet you that book doesn't tell you

  all the real secrets about the psychic business. Do you know why?"

  "No, but I'm sure you'll tell me."

  criminal. They're con-men.”

  Nova rolled her eyes and sighed. “Benny, there are a lot of strange things in life that can’t be explained. I’m hoping I’ll be able to explain them.”

  "You okay?" Max Kim said again and touched her arm. She

  realized she was close to tears. She pulled away, frowning, and brushed at her eyes.

  "I need to get going." She practically ran down the hallway before she really began to show her feelings of hopelessness.

  She yelled, "Damn it. I hate this stupid school."

  Nova rounded a corner that put her out of their sight. She hoped they wouldn't follow her. Or maybe she hoped they would.

  She imagined Max Kim and Benny saying, “Wait, Come back, Nova. We didn’t mean it.”

  "No, that was gross.” Besides her family thought she was too young to have a boyfriend, so why bother? For now
though that's what she had to stand by until she became a little older. If her half-brother and half-sister ever found out she liked a boy, they would never let her live it down.

  Nova threw her raincoat over herself and backpack, trudged outside and stood under the long roof. Various bikes splashed through puddles nearby. Nova could see her breath, she didn't shiver. The cold never seemed to bother her, not like it bothered the rest of her family.

  The rain slowed down a little, and Nova made her way to the bike rack. She unlocked the bike and wrapped the chain around the stem of the seat. Nova swung a leg over her beat-up blue bike. She was supposed to wear a helmet, but she couldn't find one to fit her big head. Cloth hats never stayed on either, unless she used a chinstrap. Nova really wanted to explore the paranormal, but Benny always seemed to burst her bubble. She rode away from the school, up a steep hill, leading out of the river valley where the town was until she was out of sight. She pulled over. Then she broke down and cried. To her surprise, a couple of cars packed with passengers passed her on the road, but no one stopped to ask what was wrong. She breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe they thought she had rain on her face. Nova looked down into a puddle to check her reflection. Except it wasn’t her in the puddle. It was the man with the closely cropped white beard. Then it was gone, and it was just her in the puddle. Was that the ghost from the library? She looked around. There wasn’t anyone near her. She looked back at the puddle. Still nothing but her own flat-nosed face.

  It must have just been the clouds, reflecting on her face in an odd way.

  Chapter 5 Prism Colors

  To get home, Nova had to go through Bardsville and then through the suburbs, then out into the countryside to her farm. It was kind of a long haul, so she pulled over at the bike shop in the town square and bought a candy bar. Why couldn't her mom be more like Takeesha's? Why did Nova have to buy all the things she needed, like school supplies and clothes?

  Well, Takeesha was spoiled. Most of the kids, she knew who were old enough worked in the fields during the summer. Except Benny, of course.

  The heavy rains had stopped, but it was still sprinkling like the tears that trickled down her cheeks.

  Why couldn’t she be stronger than this? She wanted so badly to punch Brenda and Amanda’s lights out. She imagined it all the time. But it always turned out that she couldn’t stand up to the bullies and defend herself. She munched her candy bar and scanned the various shops that had sprung up since people had stopped traveling so much —little grocery stores, a place that sold bedding, a shoe repair place.

  The rain began to pour down again over the green- striped, canvas awnings above the antiquated buildings that lined the sidewalks. Across the road, past the tulips coming up around the gazebo in the town square, she could see the

  blacksmith/veterinarian shop where her mom worked. Maybe she could ask her mom for a ride home. But no, the vet truck could only be rented for special occasions, and besides, her mom had probably already left for the day. She pocketed half of the candy bar for later, picked up her wet bike and rode as fast as she could toward home.

  She fought the urge to stare at the other businesses along the road that had sprung up lately-- fortunetellers, chiropractors, and acupuncture shops. Could Benny be right? Could these business men be con-men?

  She passed a lot of horses hitched to buggies and tied to many posts in front of the various stores. She admired them - she loved horses for as long as she could remember — as they dosed with a back leg placed forward or nibbled at one another. They were so clash. The only drawback was having to dodge all the road apples as she rode. Where were the town’s street sweepers?

  Bicycles of various shapes and sizes with motors or pedals locked into stands on the sidewalk dripped water as they waited for their riders. Someone yelled, “Nova, get out of the rain!” When Nova looked back, a door was closing. She shrugged and kept riding, her head hanging as she pedaled. Once she got out of town, there would be less manure and Nova could pick up some speed.

  The rain came down hard in intervals. When it did Nova couldn’t even hear herself swear. Even though she was wearing her raincoat, her jeans clung to her skin and rain overflowed her sneakers.

  But she continued to ride with her face down. A lone peditaxi splashed dirty water onto her pants. “What the…? Hey, thanks a lot.” A motorcycle with two drenched people arguing sped past. Nova laughed. Then the rain abruptly stopped. Moving black and gray clouds revealed the sun. The road ahead was already drying out except for a few small puddles. It looked almost as if all the rain had fallen over the town itself, and the suburbs didn’t get any.

  Not the suburbs. She was out among the farm fields that ran as far as the horizon. They were plowed after the harvest last year and looked warm and inviting. She couldn’t wait to gallop over them. If she fell off and landed in the dirt, it would be like landing on a mattress.

  But wait. She didn’t remember riding through the suburbs.

  Nova glanced down at herself. No yellow. Her raincoat was gone. What’s going on? Her book bag seemed heavier somehow. Nova pulled over and checked- there was her raincoat, dried now, and packed neatly inside.

  Her bangs that were dripping wet a few minutes ago were now dry. Nova’s jeans and sneakers were only a little damp just enough to prove that they had been wet minutes before.

  She tried to say, “What’s happening to me?” but something strange was happening to her tongue. It was dancing in and out of her mouth. She grabbed it with her fingers, but it didn't do any good. Nova felt a shiver go up her spine. What if she couldn’t get her tongue to stop moving? She glanced around for walkers, bike riders, motorcycles, any other kind of vehicle. There weren’t any. She figured she had better go home where she could get some help from her mom.

  Nova checked her watch, 3:10 p.m. What the…? She left the school at 2:43 and it said 2:52 when she entered the store to get a candy bar. She knew she had been riding more than 18 minutes—it was at least a 45-minute ride to get this far out into the country. But the second hand was still moving, and the watch seemed fine.

  Nova tried to talk but couldn't make a sound. What was going on?

  She was just about to hop back onto her bike when suddenly Nova heard a tiny whisper in her ear. It said, “Remember, ghosts ain’t exactly paranormal. Have a safe trip home, mate. See ya.” The voice was feminine and sounded like a New Zealand accent. She looked back and saw an enormous rainbow that ended right on the road. She flipped her bike around to face it and sat on the bike seat to gaze at the brilliant colors. She’d never seen the actual end of the rainbow. It was - wonderful.

  Nova tried to say, “Not paranormal? Then what are they?” but what came out was "Psycho physical synthesis is the booboo of the air nautical channeling cosmic energy field?"

  What?

  Nova could do nothing but stare at the end of the huge rainbow. Nova studied it as she never studied anything before. Soon she realized that behind the rainbow, it was still raining in torrents.

  The clouds were moving farther away down the road, toward Bardsville. And she realized the rainbow didn’t arch the way it was supposed to. It climbed straight up, getting smaller and smaller until it disappeared. Maybe it was just so huge, Nova couldn’t see the arch at the top. Each of the different colors shimmered with wavy lines. There was a clear wavy place to the far left-- even though it was clear, it rippled and waved like the ocean tide. Next was a red place, then orange, yellow, a green place where she rode her bike through, blue, indigo, violet and then another clear wavy place. "So this is what a rainbow looks like up close?" She realized she had control over her voice again.

  Each of the colors big enough to ride her bike through, Nova guessed three yards wide.

  “How incredibly clash!” It was like she splashed through a car wash and came out the other side dry.

  A bus passed her from behind, and the rainbow disappeared. The white bus splashed through puddles of water as soon as it drove over the place where t
he rainbow end had been.

  A distinct wet line was on the road perpendicular to the two yellows lines already there. On Nova's side of the road, it was dry, but the side behind where the rainbow had been, it was soaked. Trees dripped water, and puddles were everywhere.

  The bus owned by a vacuum manufacturing business, named Final Frontier, according to the sign on its back, was packed with people going to work on the second shift. They clung for dear life onto the sides and back wearing suits and ties, helmets, and elbow and kneepads. The lopsided bus, which was heavier on one side, because there were more people on that side, almost tipped over when it traveled around a corner on two side wheels.

  The passengers screamed. Nova cringed and ground her teeth.

  She’d heard about employees who got thrown from the buses or who got crushed to death. But now the news media no longer seemed to talk about it. Why was that?

  Well, if her watch wasn’t working, she had to figure out what time it was. She didn't want to ride home in the dark.

  She stretched her arm out as far as it could go with her fingers horizontal above the horizon under the sun. The number of fingers she could fit under the sun showed how much time was left before the sun was all the way down. One finger represented fifteen minutes. It was an old Indian trick. Her mother told Nova her boyfriend, Nova’s father, had shown her how to do this as they sat on a blanket in the grass and watched a romantic sunset. Apparently, it was about 5:45 p.m.

  Holy chaos! How did she lose two hours?

  A large group of bike riders pulling rickshaws and peditaxis rode past her as they tried to get their passengers somewhere on time. They were probably going to work, as second shift started soon. Some of the carts had roofs, and some had them folded down. An old bay horse trotted by pulling a wagon with a family of Christians who sang religious songs loud and clear. Maybe they saw the rainbow too.

  Nova rode hard now and got sweaty as she watched the sun sink. She stared at her front tire, and then changed her thoughts to the rainbow. Suddenly the front bike tire popped!

  "Dear Vulcan."