by S. A. Hunter
“Hey, it was just as bad for me!”
Thankfully, Nina and Neil came back shortly and took the two ghosts home. Another tutoring session was not scheduled.
Gran came back to the living room and sat down beside Mary. Mary opened the afghan up, and Gran snuggled underneath it with her. “How do you feel?” Gran asked.
“Scared. Freaked out.”
“That’s understandable. What about physically?”
Mary shrugged. “I feel fine. I don’t feel anything that would indicate, ‘Hey, you were possessed.’ It wasn’t like with the homecoming dress. I was awake when she started taking control of me, and she worked me like a puppet. Marvin said being in me was like wearing a suit. He could see out my eyes.”
Gran leaned back and let out a groan. “I may be the worst grandmother ever.”
Mary pulled the afghan tighter around her but shook her head. “Not the worst ever.”
“Then at least for this year.”
“Maybe this month,” Mary said.
“I must be missing something. Meditation is supposed to relax and focus the mind. Not leave you wide open for possession.”
“Maybe I’m still getting meditation wrong.”
“I don’t know how. I’ll look into it.”
Wanting to change the subject because it freaked her out too much to think about, Mary asked, “Is there any news on Mr. White’s building?”
“No, I haven’t heard anything. What do you want for dinner?”
Mary shrugged. “I’m not that hungry. Whatever you want to fix.”
“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Gran asked.
Mary nodded. Gran left her on the couch to start dinner. When the phone rang, Mary reached for the cordless automatically. “I got it,” Mary yelled. When she looked at the phone, she wondered if she should really be the one answering the phone, what with the Shadowman prank calling her. But there was a number on the screen. It was Kyle.
“Hey,” she said.
“Mary?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” she said.
“Nothing. How was your day?”
“Pretty boring. What’s up?” Yeah, being possessed by an old man was boring. The wrong type of boring, but boring. Should she be crossing her fingers when she talked to anyone now?
“Do you want to hang out tomorrow night?”
“On a school night? Who’s the rebel now?”
“It’s half-price night at the bowling alley. I thought you might like it. If not, I’m only out like twenty bucks.”
“Are you sure it’s safe to go anywhere with me?”
“I’ll keep the gutter goblins back. What do you say? We’ll go from school, and I’ll have you home by nine o’clock.”
Mary could feel herself grinning. Kyle was definitely asking her out. And it was a real date. She wasn’t sure where bowling rated on the date chart, but it was definitely a date. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Great, see you then. Bye, Mary.”
“Bye, Kyle.” She turned off the phone and cuddled it. She had a date! She realized what she was doing and quickly put away the phone. She didn’t want another unexpected phone call to ruin the moment.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next day at school, Mary found Rachel during TAB. She slid into the seat beside her in the art room. “Do you want to do something tonight? Oh wait, I’m sorry. I can’t. I have a date.”
“Shut up. With who?” Rachel asked.
Mary gave her a dirty look. “Kyle’s taking me bowling.”
“And I’m not invited, right?”
“No, unless he called you, too.” Mary had a minor panic attack wondering if he had.
“No, my phone stayed mysteriously dead last night.”
“Sorry, between talking to Kyle and getting possessed, I didn’t get a chance to bug you.”
It was Rachel’s turn to give her a dirty look. “Possessed?”
“In Gran’s ongoing efforts to teach me how to control my psychic abilities, I managed to get possessed by a cranky dead septuagenarian.”
“That sounds unpleasant.”
“Yeah, he didn’t like it at all.”
“What about you?”
“That’s the weird thing. I keep like blacking out. When I tried to meditate two days ago, I zoned out for three hours without knowing it, and this time, I zoned out and somehow pulled him into me. I didn’t know what was going on until Gran shook me.”
“What does Gran think?”
Mary shook her head. “She doesn’t know what’s going on. I think we’re going to hold off trying anything new for a while.”
“What about the Shadowman?”
Mary shrugged. “All I’ve gotten are two weird phone calls. I don’t know what to make of it.”
Rachel shook her head. “I’m worried about you, Mary. It seems like a lot of stuff is out to get you. I want you to be careful.”
Mary was surprised by her friend’s concern. “Hey, it’s okay.”
“What about the Hand of Glory?”
“Maybe the box isn’t why the hand was stolen. Maybe the thief isn’t even going to make a Hand of Glory from it.”
“Oh, so someone stole it for fun? Why else would they take his hand?”
Mary sighed. “You’re right, but I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know who took the hand or why.”
“We should ask that funeral home ghost more questions. He got a good look at that woman, right?”
“He said he didn’t see her face, but he did think he’d recognize her if she showed up again.”
“So there must’ve been something distinctive about her. We should go and ask him what he remembers.”
“What will we tell the current funeral home people?”
“Say you think you forgot something like your phone and wanted to check to see it was there.”
Mary grimaced. “I don’t want to lie to them.”
“So we’ll tell them you want to talk to the dead undertaker. I’m sure they won’t show us the door.”
Mary nodded. “I know you’re right, but I wish I didn’t have to always lie to people.”
Rachel sighed. “Yeah, but I get it. Sometimes it’s just easier.”
Mary’s heart lifted a little. That sounded a little like forgiveness for Mary lying to her.
“I can’t go tonight,” Mary reminded her.
“I know. You have bowling.”
“No, I have a date,” Mary corrected.
“Yeah, yeah. Hey, do you think Kyle could take us during lunch?”
“What?”
“He has that truck, right? We can go to the funeral home during lunch.”
“I’m not going to ask Kyle to take me to a funeral home!”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m trying to be normal for him.”
“Uh, Mary. That ship has sailed and sunk.”
“But I don’t want to be constantly hitting him with my weird life.”
“Well, you want to lie to him, too? Tell him you forgot your cell phone at the funeral parlor and need to get it back?”
“No, I don’t want to lie to him.”
“Fine, I can drive us tomorrow.”
Mary twisted her hands in her lap. She knew Rachel wanted to solve this mystery sooner rather than later, but she didn’t want Kyle to add this to the list of freakish things Mary had dragged him in on. They were supposed to go bowling tonight! How mundane and normal could you get?
The bell ending TAB rang.
“I’m really sorry, Rach,” she offered.
Rachel waved off her apology. “Don’t worry about it. I get why you don’t want to use Kyle. I’ll see you at lunch.”
Mary nodded and left for class.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Mary met up with Rachel outside for lunch, except Rachel wasn’t alone. Taryn was with her.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked, not happy to see the drama girl.
“Taryn has a car. She said she can drive u
s to the funeral home to get your phone,” Rachel explained.
“Oh, that’s really nice of you, Taryn. I’d hate to waste your lunch on something like that.”
Rachel rolled her eyes at Mary.
Taryn shrugged. “It’s no big deal. So who died?”
“An old friend of my Gran’s. He didn’t have any family so she had to arrange everything.”
“That’s really sad. We should get going if we want to be back by fourth period, unless you ladies want to skip?” Taryn asked in a hopeful tone.
“I can’t. I’m supposed to be back here to meet someone for a date.”
“We can drop Mary back off and go shopping,” Rachel said.
Mary’s eyebrows rose at her offer.
Taryn smiled and led the way to her car. “You didn’t need to ask her,” Mary whispered to Rachel.
Rachel rolled her eyes again. “We’re going to the funeral home. Aren’t you glad?”
“About going to a funeral home?” Mary asked.
Taryn looked back at them curiously. “No whispering,” she teased.
“Sorry, I just feel bad about asking you to do this. I’m sure you’d rather be eating lunch or something.”
Taryn shrugged again. “It’s no big deal. Anything for friends, right?”
Mary’s eyebrows rose. Was she a friend? She barely knew the girl, and she didn’t actually like her. She stole a look at Rachel, who was smiling back at Taryn. Mary wasn’t sure about this.
They piled into the car, which was an old beater that was late for the junkyard. Mary sat in the backseat and tried to find a spot where a seat spring didn’t dig into her.
“Do you know where Graham and Sons Funeral Home is?” Mary asked as she shifted around uncomfortably. She tried to fasten the seat belt, but the clasp refused to catch. She ended up holding it together with her hand.
“Oh yeah, I park there all the time when I go to B4.”
“How do you get in?” Mary asked. B4 was a club that you had to be at least eighteen to enter.
“With my sister’s old ID. They really don’t check that closely if you aren’t trying to drink.”
“I wish I had a fake ID,” Rachel said.
“I can ask my sister if any of her friends have an old ID they could give you. It’s so great in there! They have this really great DJ on Thursday nights. And the people are just so cool there.”
Mary stayed quiet in the back. She had no desire to go to B4. Really, if it weren’t for Rachel, she’d be a shut-in. “So who are you going out with tonight?” Taryn asked her.
Mary felt a little shy about answering. She wasn’t sure if Kyle wanted everyone to know he was dating her, but Vicky knew, so that probably meant the whole school knew. It was funny really that Taryn would ask. Maybe she was just being polite? “Kyle Asher. He’s a senior.”
“That jock that’s on the football team or something?”
“Or something,” Mary agreed. She really needed to find out what sport he played. She was pretty sure it wasn’t football or basketball. And Vicky said it wasn’t wrestling, though Mary had been so sure. Maybe lacrosse?
“He plays baseball,” Rachel said.
Mary mouthed a silent “thank you” and filed that piece of important information away. Was it baseball season? Oh no, she’d have to figure out what position he played. She hoped it wasn’t shortstop. She’d never fully understood what that position did.
Taryn pulled into the funeral home's parking lot. "Do you want us to go in with you?" she asked.
"Uh, no. I'll only be a few minutes." Mary quickly slid out of the car. She went into the funeral home and called out softly, "Mr. Graham?"
Mr. Hammer stuck his head out of an office and smiled. "Hello, I'm Mr. Hammer. May I help you?"
Mary still hadn't gotten a sense of Mr. Graham. "Hi, I was hoping to speak to Mr. Graham," she said, raising her voice a little on the ghost's name.
Mr. Hamner’s smile widened. “I’m actually the owner. Mr. Graham passed away some time ago. Weren’t you here for a funeral recently?”
Mary nodded. “Yeah, I think I may have left my cell phone here. Did you find one?”
Mr. Hamner shook his head. “No, I’m afraid not. Do you know where you might have left it?”
“We were in the East Parlor,” she said.
“Well, we can look for it.”
Mary deflated a little at his helpfulness. “Thanks,” she said and followed him to the parlor they’d used for Mr. White’s funeral.
The room was empty except for a few chairs that were still set up. Mary walked along the wall, looking at the floor. She didn’t know how she was going to get Mr. Graham’s attention with Mr. Hamner here. Mr. Hamner was at the front of the room looking around. “Have you tried calling it?” he asked.
“It’s turned off,” she said.
“Of course, you would’ve turned it off for the funeral.”
She nodded and wondered how long she could draw this out. A desk phone began to ring elsewhere in the building. “That’s my phone,” Mr. Hamner apologized. “I really should get that.”
Mary smiled. “Go ahead. If I don’t find it in few minutes, I’ll go. Thank you for your help.” Mr. Hamner gave her a nod and left.
Mary let out a sigh of relief. She waited for Mr. Hamner to get back to his office. Once she was sure he was gone, she began to call softly for Mr. Graham once more.
“Hello again, do you require assistance?”
“I was hoping you could tell me a bit more about the thief that stole Mr. White’s hand,” she said.
“I’m not sure what more I can tell you.”
“Tell me everything you remember about the person. Was she tall? Short? Fat? Thin?”
“She was about your height and build.”
Ms. Smith had been slim and about her height. “Did she do anything else weird?”
“You mean beside cutting off a dead man’s hand?” Mary swallowed uncomfortably as Mr. Graham’s question reminded her about what exactly they were talking about.
“What did she use?”
“One of our scalpels to cut the flesh. Then our bone saw. She didn’t seem to have ever handled one before, but once you figure out how to turn one on, it’s not much more you need to know.”
“How did she carry the hand out?”
“She placed it in a plastic shopping bag.”
That didn’t tell her anything. She’d been in there for a while now. Mr. Hamner might come back any moment or Taryn and Rachel might appear. “Thanks, Mr. Graham. I appreciate your help.”
“I wish I could offer more.”
Mary nodded politely. She walked out. Mr. Hamner stuck his head out of his office. He was still on the phone. He put his hand over the mouthpiece. “Did you find it?”
She shook her head. “Maybe I dropped it at the cemetery.”
“I hope you find it.”
Mary waved and went back to Taryn’s car. “Did you find it?” Taryn asked.
“No, I guess it’s gone.”
“That sucks,” she said in sympathy.
“Thanks.”
Taryn dropped her off back at school. The ride back had been full of Rachel and Taryn discussing where they would go while they skipped. Mary felt like the odd girl out. She didn’t skip just for fun like Rachel did, yet she had been missing school more often than her friend recently.
“Talk to you tonight?” she asked as she got out of the car.
Rachel nodded. “I’ll call you,” she said.
Mary watched Taryn’s car leave and wondered if she’d made the right choice. She might still be uncomfortable around Taryn, but hanging out with her couldn’t be as bad as school, right? The bell rang to end lunch, and Mary knew she’d made the wrong choice.
Her afternoon classes passed uneventfully. She wasn’t even stared at or whispered about. She went to sixth period, which was still a social mine field. She made sure to go to the restroom beforehand to avoid another Vicky ambush. She wasn’t expecti
ng Cy to be waiting for her in his old seat when she came in.
“You and Vicky having a tiff?” she asked as she put down her book bag.
Cy grinned and shook his head. “No, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure, what?”
“Are you going out with Kyle tonight?”
Mary’s eyebrows shot up. “Yeah, we’re going bowling. Why?”
Cy looked at her with equally high eyebrows.
“What?” Mary asked.
“It’s just surprising since you two didn’t get along not that long ago.”
“Well, we do now.”
“Does he know about your psychic stuff?”
Mary rolled her eyes. “He was at the séance, remember? Yeah, he knows about it.”
Cy’s eyes dropped away. Mary looked around for Vicky. She was standing in the corner talking to Audrey but keeping an eye on them. She wondered if she had sent Cy over. Why was she meddling?
“Was there anything else?” she asked.
“No, I guess not. Have fun tonight.” He didn’t sound like he meant it, though.
“Yeah, thanks.”
Cy got up and went back to his seat by Vicky. Tasha took the vacated seat. She gave Mary a curious glance but focused on her notes as Mrs. Myers began class.
When class finished, Mary went out to the senior parking lot to meet up with Kyle. She wondered if Cy had asked him about her. She hoped not. She couldn’t imagine the conversation being anything but awkward. Kyle was waiting by his truck when she reached him.
“Hey, ready to go?” he asked.
“Yeah, let’s have fun.”
Kyle held the door for her as she climbed into the truck cab. She felt herself beginning to blush at the chivalry. She hoped she wouldn’t be doing that all night.
CHAPTER SEVEN
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
Mary was still surprised by this, but she had a good time bowling. Sure, there’d been some initial weirdness with the shoes, and she’d gotten stuck with a pink bowling ball, but once Kyle and she had started going, she’d had fun. The fact that she was completely awful at it hadn’t fazed her at all.
“Are you sure this isn’t one of those sports where the lower score isn’t better?”
Kyle smiled. “No, the higher score always wins.”
“But did you see how well I avoided all those pins? That takes talent.”