Free My Friends Are Dead People by Tony Ortiz Page A

far back from the curb underneath a billowy tree. Jacoby
walked up the creaky porch steps and knocked on the door.
    “ If Ray’s home, we’ll be
at Lin’s costume shop in a few minutes,” he said.
    While we all waited at the doorstep, Jacoby
took out an old photo from his pocket and stared at it. It was a
small picture, with very few creases.
    “ Who’s the photo of?” I
asked, trying to lean around him.
    Katie elbowed me in the ribs. "What you
doing?" she scolded. "Can't you see it's important to him?"
    Jacoby tucked the photo away as an elderly
man stepped out on the porch. This must have been Ray. He was
chubby and had a full set of white hair. I considered myself pale,
but this man was as white as mayonnaise.
    “ Jacoby,” he gasped,
looking surprised to see him. “It’s been a while.”
    “ Yes,” said Jacoby.
“There’s expected to be a good number of deaths this–”
    “ The games are coming to
an end, aren’t they? There we go. Oh, I say, what’s
this?”
    “ Katie and Jesse. I have
invited them along for the festival inspection–”
    “ Jesse? What a gift given to you. How do you
do?”
    “ Good,” I said, shaking
his pudgy hand, a bit confused.
    “ Did you know that Jesse
was once a powerful name in Halloween? Two thousand years ago Celts
had used your name like the Christians use ‘Jesus’ today. Your
parents must know the story. Or you were just fortunate. You can
hear that name a hundred times if you go to Ireland or France. I
once met ten Jesse’s in one day. Can you imagine? You call ‘Jesse’
and half the town turns. . . . How do you do, Katie?”
    “ I’m good."
    “ Ray, we can’t talk long,”
informed Jacoby.
    "Yes. Where are you going first?”
    “ Lin’s shop. We need to
fix Jesse up a little bit before going out.”
    “ They’re not letting in
humans today?”
    “ No.”
    “ Well, come on in. Watch
your step, Jesse and Katie. I haven't cleaned the place in
ages.”
    He shook Dorian's hand on his way in. The
living room was a mess, cluttered with piles of novels, weird
figurines, loose papers, backpacks, shoes, unopened Halloween
decorations and a pile of lamps missing shades. Ray then led us
down a long dark hallway, framed with black-and-white pictures of
dead people lying on the ground. They were the most grim pictures I
had ever seen. I hurried after Ray and Jacoby.
    “ I hope none of you are
easily thrown off-balance?” remarked Ray, making his way to a red
door at the end.
    I shook my head.
    “ Katie?"
    Katie shook her head, too.
    "Good, good. You won’t hit anywhere near
nine-twenty anyway. Jacoby, have you heard of the aircraft they’ve
been testing? It’s been turning in faster times than the
Blackbird.” He stopped at the door and turned to Katie and me.
“It’s approaching ten thousand miles per hour.”
    “ You’re forgetting about
the space shuttle,” said Jacoby. “That’s about
seventeen–”
    “ Yes, yes, Jacoby,” Ray
interrupted. “I say, very fast indeed. And you’re forgetting about
the space probe, Helios-two. What are they clocked at, Dorian?
One-fifty?”
    Dorian was staring at a photo of a woman
with a giant hole in her leg. He nodded, and Ray turned back to
us.
    “ One hundred and fifty
thousand miles per hour. I say, that’s blistering.” He opened the
door and turned to the side so we could pass him by. “Pleasure to
meet you, Jesse and Katie. Jacoby, come back for some Black
Cider.”
    “ Will do,” he
said.
    “ Jesse, Katie,” Ray added
quickly. “Breathe deeply in and out. Don’t hold it in.”
    Ray shut the door, leaving us in a backyard
overgrown with tall weeds and dead grass.
    “ Jacoby, is he a
halloween?” asked Katie.
    “ No. Human, just like
you.”
    “ Why does he have pictures
of dead people?” I said, immediately getting a push from Katie.
“What? That’s not offensive–”
    But she wasn’t talking about that. She was
trying to turn my attention to the six black creatures sleeping in
the