Noah listened to the chaos around him, aware of Avery’s gaze on his face. The ghostly voices had gotten louder and louder, until he felt like he was sitting in a crowded bus station, but they were gradually falling silent, one after another.
He should have talked to Joe.
Their brief good-bye had barely even been that.
He should have said something more. He should have told him all the things he didn’t know how to say. How sorry he was. How much he missed him. How desperately he wished that it could have been different, that he had been paying more attention that godawful day, that he’d spotted the bump in the sand that must have been there, that somehow he’d shoved Joe out of the way…
The crying girl burst into tears.
“Sophia, no,” the kid cried out.
“What? Sophia!” Joe’s voice, raised in protest.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the crying girl wept. “I’m sorry.”
Noah straightened, sitting upright and listening intently.
“Mashallah.” The Arabic woman. She didn’t sound upset. More like relieved. “Praise be to God. Thank you, Sophia. Thank you a thousand times.”
“What is it?” Noah asked. “What did she do?”
“I’m not ready. I’m not. My parents. I was so mad, but…” The crying girl spoke between gasping sobs.
“Damn it.” Despite the words, Dillon sounded more resigned than angry.
“Sophia let go of Mona’s hand,” Rose said, next to Noah’s ear. “She didn’t follow her through the door. It’s gone now, closed after Chaupi and the others.”
Noah was conscious of an odd sensation. Relief? Was that what he was feeling? It wasn’t that he didn’t want his voices gone. The thought of life without them, of waking up to silence every day, of never needing to pretend he couldn’t hear them again, was wonderful. It would be a dream come true.
But maybe he and Sophia had something in common, because he didn’t think he was ready either.
“Most of them are gone,” Joe said. “I’m sorry, man. I know you’d like to be rid of us.”
“Hey, that’s not — I’m not — I don’t —” The words tangled on Noah’s tongue. He wanted to tell Joe how he really felt, but he wasn’t even sure how that was.
“The suspense is killing me.” Avery leaned forward, uncrossing their legs. “What’s going on?”
Noah welcomed the interruption. “Some of the ghosts are gone. But not all of them.”
“I, for one, am glad,” Nadira said. “If Misam and I must go through some random doorway into the next world, it should be a Muslim door.”
“Oh, because some random Muslim door would be so much better? I’ve heard about your Hell. It doesn’t sound pretty,” Joe said.
“What Hell is pretty? Eternal torment isn’t supposed to be fun.”
“Don’t start, Mama, Joe,” the kid said. “Bad enough that we are still stuck without making us listen to you argue. All you do is argue. Fight, fight, fight. All day long. Hell is an eternity spent listening to the two of you.”
“Misam!” Nadira sounded shocked.
“Don’t be mean to your mother,” Joe said sternly.
Noah gave a rueful shake of his head, resisting the temptation to laugh. The kid sounded pissed. But his amusement faded quickly when the kid burst into tears.
“I don’t want to be a ghost anymore. I wanted to go.” The little boy wept.
“I’m s-s-sorry.” The crying girl’s words were muffled, as if she cried alongside him. “I’m sorry.”
“We shall go, my darling boy, we shall,” his mother comforted him.
“We’ll find another doorway,” Dillon said. “A better one.”
“Not yet.” The crying girl spoke through her sobs. “We need to go talk to my parents first. I need to go talk to them.”
Uh-oh. Noah wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that.
It wasn’t that Noah didn’t want to be helpful. He was willing to do what he could for his voices. But telling some bereaved parents that he could hear their dead teenage daughter’s voice sounded… uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable.
“Um, Sophia, it might not be that easy. They might not react the way you think they will,” Dillon said.
The crying girl took a deep shaky breath and said, sounding determined, “They never listened to me while I was alive. But I’m going to make them listen to me now.”
How exactly was she going to do that when Noah was the only one who could hear her?
“Maybe you could send them a letter?” Dillon suggested. “You could get Noah to write it for you.”
Okay, that sounded like a horrible idea. Those poor people. Getting letters from their dead kid? No way. Noah could imagine how his mom would feel in like circumstances.
Nope, never going to happen.
“Your parents aren’t going to believe Noah if he writes to them,” Joe said. “They’ll just think he’s crazy. Anyone would.”
Exactly. Noah would have high-fived Joe if he could.
“I want to talk to them,” Sophia said. “See them. A letter’s not good enough. I need to say good-bye.”
Avery’s eyes were intent on Noah’s face. “What is it?”
Before Noah could explain, the door to the house burst open, the screen flying so fast that it banged into the wall. Grace emerged, followed by Lucas and Sylvie. Her color was heightened, as if she’d been moving fast, but her eyes met Noah’s and she came to an abrupt stop a few feet into the backyard.
She planted her hands on her hips. “Don’t do anything drastic. Isn’t that what I said?”
Her brother moved around her. “Dillon?”
“Uh-oh,” Rose said. “I think your family might be a little upset about this.”
“I sent them texts,” Dillon protested.
“Is he gone?” Sylvie asked Noah directly. She didn’t look as upset as Grace, but she was unsmiling.
Noah shook his head.
“Not yet?” Lucas stepped forward. “Can we, we’d like to, would it be okay if...” He raked a hand through his hair and muttered, “I wish Akira were here. We should have called her days ago.”
“She is on her honeymoon,” Grace snapped. “We are not interrupting her. We are not worrying her.” Her eyes narrowed. “Did you text her, Dillon?” She directed the words to the air, glancing around the patio as if she might spot him somewhere among the shadowed greenery lit by strings of fairy lights.
“Yes?” Dillon’s answer was tentative.
Grace glared at Noah. “Well?”
“He did, yeah,” Noah answered for Dillon.
She threw up her hands. “Unbelievable. So damn selfish.” She clenched her hands into fists and pressed her lips together. For a moment, she trembled on the verge of an explosion, but then she turned on her heel and walked out the same way she’d come in.
“Whoa.” Sylvie’s tone was hushed. She put a hand on Lucas’s arm and they exchanged glances. She shook her head slightly. The two of them seemed to be communicating without words.
Noah stood. He wanted to follow Grace. She was pissed, he could see, but he could reassure her and let her know what had happened. And that Dillon wouldn’t be leaving, at least not this evening.
Avery jumped to their feet, too. “Isn’t this exciting? Can I offer you a drink? Some wine, beer?”
“You have upset your aunt,” Nadira said.
“Didn’t you say she didn’t get angry much?” Joe sounded amused.
“I didn’t mean to be selfish. I wasn’t — I’m a ghost! I’m supposed to move on if I can! Akira would understand. I mean, I think she would. Rose?”
“Akira knows ghosts disappear. She’d be glad to know you hadn’t been caught in a vortex again. But I bet she would have liked to say good-bye in person. And, well…” Rose let her words trail off.
Sophia still hadn’t stopped crying, but with a sniff and a gulp, she said, “Just say it. She’s on her honeymoon. You’re not supposed to make people sad on their honeymoons.”
“I didn’t mean… oh, damn.”
Sylvie turned to Avery. “A drink would be great. Some sparkling water for me, if you have it? And Lucas will take a beer. And then we’d like to talk to Dillon for a couple minutes. I assume you know what’s going on, since you don’t seem confused.”
“Oh, yes, it’s been quite something.” Avery picked up the tray of empty glasses, then paused as if considering the plate with its remnants of cheese and crackers.
“Let me help you with that.” Sylvie took the plate and a few stray napkins and followed Avery into the house.
Lucas stepped closer to Noah. “You said Dillon’s not leaving tonight?”
Noah hadn’t said that. He’d thought it.
Lucas grimaced. “Sorry. I usually try to be more discreet.”
“How does that work?” Noah asked. “You hear everything people think? Doesn’t that get noisy?”
Lucas dipped his head, accepting the change of subject. “It can, yeah. Mostly it’s just ambient sound, though, unless I’m focused on someone. Crowds are a lot louder to me than they are to most people, but it’s still just crowd noise. I tune it out.”
Like I do, Noah thought. With my voices.
“Yeah, probably.”
Okay, that was just weird.
Lucas lifted his shoulders in a shrug, smile wry. “Yeah. Sorry. About Dillon…”
“Yeah,” Noah said. “Things went sorta wrong, I guess. I’m not sure how much you know, but one of the ghosts had a gate to another dimension. I’m not voting on whether it’s heaven or hell or someplace entirely different. Some of the ghosts I’ve been dragging around used it, but at least a few missed the boat. I’m not entirely sure who’s still here, but I’ve heard Dillon’s voice, so I know he is.”
Lucas nodded. “No rush, then, I guess.” He glanced around the patio the same way Grace had a few moments earlier.
Noah angled a thumb in the direction he’d last heard Dillon’s voice. Not that it really mattered, he supposed — neither of them could see Dillon — but he understood the desire to talk toward the right person.
Lucas acknowledged the gesture with a minuscule nod and turned in the indicated direction. But he didn’t speak right away. Maybe he was gathering his thoughts, maybe he just didn’t know what he wanted to say.
Or maybe he was uncomfortably aware of the audience. Noah was definitely uncomfortably aware of being an audience. What did you say to the kid you’d lost?
For that matter, what did you say to the kid you’d killed? The friend you’d failed? He had some conversations of his own that he wanted to have, but he definitely didn’t want company for them. Bad enough that the other ghosts might be there, unseen listeners to every word he wanted to share.
Lucas shot him a glance.
And worse, of course, to have someone listening to every thought that you didn’t want to share.
Sha-la-la-la, Noah thought.
Lucas chuckled.
“I hope he’s not mad at me,” Dillon said.
“Would you like some privacy, Dillon?” Nadira asked. “Should we walk away?”
“Yeah, we could go in the house,” Joe added.
Noah cleared his throat. “I can probably make it into the house without dragging Dillon along, if you’d like to be alone.”
“It’s okay.” Lucas sent a quick flash of a smile in his direction. “We said the important stuff a few months ago, I think.”
Sylvie rejoined them. She slipped her hand into Lucas’s and said briskly, “Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, Dillon. If you’re ready to move on… well, you know that’s what I’ve wanted for you. This whole being a ghost business just doesn’t seem healthy to me. But—” She glanced at Lucas, her smile loving, maybe a little rueful. “Your dad asked me to marry him and I said yes.”
“Your parents aren’t married?” Nadira sounded shocked.
“Oh, another wedding, yay! You’ll have to dance with me this time, Dillon,” Rose said.
“If we’re still here, I’ll dance with you,” Joe offered. “Been a long time since I’ve been to a good party.”
“We’ll have such fun!” Rose clapped her hands.
“We haven’t gotten into the details yet,” Sylvie said, “so we don’t know where or when. We were waiting…”
“Until we found you again,” Lucas finished for her. “We’ve been…”
He and Sylvie exchanged looks and Sylvie continued, “…concerned.”
Nadira snorted. “I don’t think that was the word they were looking for.”
“I think your mama means scared,” Misam said.
Sylvie’s phone started ringing. She pulled it out, sharing the screen with Lucas, and nodding in acknowledgement. “Thanks. We wanted you to be the first to know.” Her eyes were bright. There was a sheen to them that might have been tears, but her voice was steady as she said, “It’s okay if you can’t make it to the wedding. We want what’s best for you and if moving on is the right thing for you, you do it.”