Chapter 18

“We could do pedicures,” Jenni suggested.

“I don’t have any nail polish,” I admitted.

Brit’s eyes went as wide as if I had declared that I didn’t like to keep food and water in the house. I had the sense Brit was one of those girls who has a tackle box full of makeup, the kind that opens up with an accordion of shelves stuffed with potions and lotions and weighs at least a hundred pounds. I was willing to bet Brit had an entire bathroom shelf full of every shade of nail polish and could rattle off their goofy names, like Tomato Kiss Sunrise, by memory.

“I could check and see if my mom has any,” I offered, even though the idea of having to touch someone else’s feet grossed me out. I wasn’t against a good pedicure, but where I lived, you went to the nail salon for that kind of thing, where only trained professionals were allowed to scrape the dead skin off your feet. It wasn’t something you asked your friends to do.

I hadn’t had a slumber party since I was a kid, and based on how this was going so far, I figured it was going to be my last one. Brit, Sam, Jenni, and Nicole were sitting on my bedroom floor, and I could tell they were bored. When Anita would come over and spend the night, we never seemed to run out of things to talk about. We’d be up all night laughing and joking. With this group, we couldn’t seem to come up with a single thing to talk about. At this rate, we were going to be reduced to the strange small talk you have with elderly relatives: favorite subject at school or what you plan to study in college. I couldn’t blame them for not wanting to be here. I didn’t want to be here, but since it was my house, there was no way I could leave. I glanced over at the clock. It was only ten p.m., which seemed a bit early to suggest that we call it a night and go to sleep. I wondered if Dick kept any board games other than Scrabble in the house.

“I know what we can do.” Nicole got up and began rummaging through the duffel bag she’d brought. She pulled out a flat board and then flipped it over so we could all see it was a Ouija board. She shook it back and forth.

“I don’t know,” Jenni said. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I mean, here.” She looked over at me and blushed. “Sorry.”

I shrugged. How could I be mad when I was thinking the same thing? Playing with a Ouija board in this house seemed like running through a tinder-dry forest playing with a flamethrower. Bad plan. Maybe later we could try juggling carving knives or swim with sharks while wearing fish suits.

“Don’t be a scaredy-cat.” Nicole plunked back down and put the board right in the middle of our circle.

“Wait a minute. I think Jenni’s right,” I said.

“I think it would be fun,” Brit insisted, scootching up closer to the board. I did my best not to roll my eyes. Brit would agree with any plan Nicole had, up to and including the cliché of jumping off a bridge.

“Sam? What do you think? You aren’t scared, are you?” Nicole asked. Sam looked back and forth between all of us.

“It might be fun,” Sam said slowly, sounding like she thought it would be as much fun as being dragged naked through a pile of broken glass. From what I knew of her so far, though, she had the spine of an earthworm; no way was she going to stand up to Nicole.

“Majority wins!” Nicole declared. She dropped the plastic triangle onto the board. “Okay, everyone touch their fingers lightly on the planchette.”

“I really don’t want to do this,” I said.

Nicole leaned back and crossed her arms. “It’s your place. What do you want to do?”

My brain scrambled to come up with something. “We could watch a movie,” I suggested.

“I thought you didn’t have any DVDs,” Brit reminded me.

“We could see what’s on cable.” It wasn’t my fault that this crappy island didn’t have a decent rental store. Back home in Seattle I didn’t have to buy DVDs. We could rent or download them like normal people. “Or we could play some other kind of game.”

“A rousing game of Monopoly. That sounds exciting,” Brit said with a snort. “Maybe later we could play with our Barbies or pretend to be veterinarians with your stuffed toys.”

My eyes narrowed. She shouldn’t be messing with Mr. Stripes. Making fun of a girl for her plush zebra was hitting below the belt. “Fine. Let’s play.” I put my fingers on the planchette.

Sam, Brit, and Nicole joined me. Jenni shook her head when we looked at her. She sat hugging her knees. Nicole closed her eyes, and Brit immediately did the same.

“Spirit world, hear our voices. Join us now,” Nicole said in a low voice.

Nothing happened. “Aren’t we supposed to ask a specific question or something?” Sam asked.

“It’s polite to give them the chance to talk first,” Nicole huffed as if she were the Miss Manners of the undead.

The tips of my fingers started to tingle. The planchette began to quiver. It slid slowly over to where the numbers were listed across the top.

“It’s moving!” Brit hissed, in case the rest of us were incapable of noticing it for ourselves.

The planchette hovered over the number one, then slid to the number two, paused, and then went to the number three and stopped.

“So it’s just counting?” Brit asked.

The planchette shook and repeated the number sequence. This time faster. Our eyes met over the board. No one said anything, and we waited to see what would happen. Then it repeated the numbers again.

“Spirit, can you tell us who you are?” Nicole asked.

123

123

123

123

I didn’t know much about the afterlife, but so far it seemed like those in the spirit world tended to repeat themselves.

“What is the point of this?” Brit grumped. “Let’s ask it something.”

“What do the numbers mean?” I asked. The triangle didn’t move.

“Ask something interesting. Who will I marry?” Brit tried.

The triangle didn’t move. It looked like Brit was headed for spinsterhood. I kept that thought to myself, since she didn’t look like the kind of person who could handle the truth.

“Spirit, can you tell me? Who is my destiny?” Nicole asked.

The triangle didn’t move at first, but then it began to slide across the board. I noticed this time that there was no tingling in my fingers. It felt different somehow.

The planchette slid over to the N, pausing for a beat, and then moved toward the A. I looked up from the board to Nicole. She was smiling. I glanced back down. I couldn’t tell for certain, but it seemed to me that her fingers looked tense. She was moving it. I was sure of it. I knew exactly what it was about to spell out. I pressed my fingers down a bit more firmly, and the triangle paused, unable to finish its journey to the T. Nicole’s eyebrows crunched together. I could feel her trying to pull it forward without looking as if she was doing it.

“What’s it trying to say?” Sam asked.

Nicole and I were locked in a fierce battle of finger strength. Our eyes met. The planchette shook underneath all our fingers. She would pull it closer to the T and I would pull it back. No way was she going to spell out Nathaniel as her destiny.

“Anyone else notice how cold it’s getting in here?” Jenni said. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms.

“It is cold,” Sam said. “Check it out, I can practically see my breath in here.”

“Would you focus?” Nicole snapped.

The tingling returned to my fingertips. In fact it moved passed a tingling. It felt like a low-level electrical shock. Sam hissed and pulled her fingers back. The planchette began shaking, then bouncing on the board. Suddenly it shot out from under our fingers and flew against the wall. We all jumped back.

“What the hell was that?” Brit asked, her voice sounding high and screechy.

“There’s something here,” Nicole intoned, her voice low. “Can you feel it?”

I wanted to say no, but my tongue was completely dry. I could feel something, and I was certain it wasn’t anything Nicole was doing. The room felt like there was an electrical charge in the air, as if lightning were suddenly going to break out in the middle of my bedroom.

BANG!

We all jumped and whirled around to face my bathroom. The door to the bathroom was closed, but it sounded like someone had kicked the tub.

BANG BANG.

Jenni looked like she wanted to cry. Brit had her hands over her mouth.

BANG BANG BANG.

It was quiet for a beat. I was just about to say something, but then it started again. BANG. BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG.

“It’s counting again. One, two, three,” Nicole said. Her face had gone white.

“Make it stop,” Brit said to me.

“I’m not doing anything,” I said, pointing out the obvious.

BANG. BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG.

Even Nicole looked shaken now. “Someone should go check it out.” The rest of the group looked at me. Figures. It might be my place, but talking to the dead hadn’t been my idea. Why was it no one expected Nicole to do any ghost busting?

I stood up. The banging stopped. I took a couple of shuffling steps toward the bathroom, but it stayed quiet. I could hear the girls breathing heavily behind me. My hand reached out. I hesitated before touching the doorknob. My heart was hammering a thousand beats per second. I made myself count to five, and then I grabbed the knob.

I flung the door open. I saw the mirror directly in front of me; only, instead of my own reflection, it flashed Evelyn’s face. Her hands were squeezing either side of her face, and her mouth was open in a scream. The mirror fell off the wall and shattered on the floor. Everyone screamed.