Chapter 4

Sunday, January 26, 1936

Zenith

 

Being dead was awful. In fact, for many centuries after her death, Bao hadn’t felt like going anywhere or talking to anyone. The little mountain girl hid from other ghosts, and moped and pouted and felt very, very sorry for herself.

It was only just a few months ago that, through a strange chain of events, she had met Dame Honoria Gorton Rathbone in a dank, dark cave. At the time, Dame Honoria was being held prisoner by her wicked son, Percy.

Dame Honoria had asked Bao a question that changed the little ghost’s entire existence. Would Bao help her? When Bao agreed, she suddenly had a connection with the living, real world. She could touch and hold things. She could do things—from sweeping and fetching to making beds and cooking food. She could brush Dame Honoria’s hair and even give her a hug. She could, in a way, be part of a family again.

Bao had come to Birchwood with Dame Honoria, whom she called Grandmother and whom she now served. They had lived here for a few months with Johnny and Mel, and Bao had grown to love the place.

She spent a few hours every day doing chores for Grandmother. She would get the mail and make the bed and run the bathwater. But Grandmother had also ordered her to spend some time learning about her new world. Since Bao was curious by nature, this was not an unwelcome assignment.

So Bao visited each morning with Mrs. Lundgren, the ghost housekeeper, who had shown her how to do things in the kitchen. Now Bao could peel potatoes and carrots, stir pots, fry eggs, pour drinks, make sandwiches, and wash and dry dishes.

Colonel MacFarlane and his men of the ghost brigade taught her some of the games that they played when they were “at ease.” The colonel said Commander Graphic—that’s what he called Mel—felt it was important that ghosts stuck in the ether enjoy themselves, so she ordered them to have fun when they weren’t on duty.

Bao always paid attention when the grown-up ghosts talked. And ghosts, because they didn’t have much else to do, tended to gossip a lot. The colonel’s men had quite a discussion one day about Percy Rathbone and how he had managed to occupy a dead body. They debated whether it was right—taking over a body that wasn’t your own. The colonel thought it was absolutely wrong and unnatural. And, in the end, so did all the other ghost soldiers.

Bao was in total agreement. Ghosts couldn’t be blamed for wanting to have proper bodies again. What dead person wouldn’t? It was the First Impossible Thing that ghosts desired—to be in physical bodies again.

But there was something very nasty and dreadful about taking over corpses and walking about in them. Nina had a very good word to describe it. She scrunched up her face and spit it out: “Gross!” Besides, possessing another person’s body could never be as good as being in one’s own body again.

The living people at Birchwood were just as nice as the ghosts. Mel had informed Bao that no one should be illiterate. Being dead was no excuse for not being able to read. So whether Bao liked it or not—and she did like it, actually, rather a lot—Mel was teaching her how to read. They’d spent dozens of hours together, and Bao could now read books with pictures and a few sentences on each page. She was incredibly proud of that.

Bao liked Johnny a lot. Maybe too much. She had gotten into trouble haunting him without him knowing it. Big trouble. But despite being a little peeved at the nosy ghost, Johnny was showing her how to do some basic arithmetic. She was good at adding and subtracting, but multiplication wasn’t as easy. And division? Very hard.

Uncle Louie and Nina couldn’t see Bao until Mel made those ghost goggles. Still, they were always polite when they knew she was around, saying, “Hi Bao, how you doing?” And things like that. Bao, though, couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of Nina, who was alive and got to spend a lot of time with Johnny.

But now Dame Honoria wanted to take Bao away from Birchwood. They were going to go across another ocean, to Dame Honoria’s home—a place called Wickenham. Bao’s first best ghost friend, Evvie, would be coming, too. He hoped to have a reunion with his family back in the Royal Kingdom.

Bao confided to Evvie that she was sad about leaving Birchwood.

He patted her on the shoulder. “Cheer up, old girl. I’ve heard it said that the Royal Kingdom is quite the ghost’s paradise. Lots of dead people hanging around there. Of course, I haven’t been back since I drowned on my jungle expedition. I was Lord Evansham of Hurley, you know. Would have had quite the cushy life, if I had just been able to tread water a bit longer.”

 

* * *

 

It was the middle of the night, hours before their departure. Grandmother was asleep in bed, snoring loudly. In a corner of the bedroom sat Bao, glowing green in the dark. Bao, like all other ghosts, couldn’t sleep. So night was always a good time to think about everything that had happened in her life. To ask the question that had baffled her from the start.

Why had she become a ghost?

Grandmother had explained to her that only about three people out of a hundred become ghosts when they die. Their spirits manage to get only as far as the realm that they call the ether. They are trapped there and no one knows why. No one knows how to free them. They are doomed to spend eternity as ghosts.

But why couldn’t Bao have gone with her mother and father, her sisters and brothers? Were they all somewhere else, waiting for her, worrying about her? Perhaps with the great spirits up above? Or was there nothing beyond the ether but blackness and blankness?

Maybe it was a good thing that she had stayed connected to the earth. After all, Johnny had said that if she hadn’t been with them on New Year’s Eve, the whole town of Zenith might have been blown up. And that Grandmother seemed in much better spirits, having Bao around.

Maybe Bao needed to be here to take care of Grandmother’s heart. The old lady could seem kind of gruff and unfeeling at times. But she had told Bao one day that her son Percy had broken her heart, and she didn’t think it would ever mend.

Bao wondered why Percy, the son of a good mother, had done all those bad things. Why had he sent the eyeless ghost warrior Burilgi to Zenith? To blow up the whole city and kill a million people? That awful Burilgi had hit Bao, had hurt her. She still had the cuts on her hands from his dagger.

Percy said his only goal was to help the ghosts by improving their conditions. But to do that, he was willing to kill living people. So, to do good, he would have to do evil.

Bao had to agree that ghosts had gotten a “raw deal,” as Johnny liked to say. But that was no excuse for trying to murder innocent people. There had to be a better way.

Bao sighed. There were some problems that she just couldn’t solve. Shaking her head, she glanced over toward the bed and saw that the glowing alarm clock was approaching the hour of four.

It was time to wake up Grandmother.