Free Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell Page A

instead of up at them. “I followed a butterfly down to the river, and when I got there, he was skipping rocks, smiling at me.”
    Collette tugged my sleeve. “Did he say anything?”
    “ ‘Where y’at?’ ” I murmured, suddenly full of cold.
    “That’s all?”
    I closed my eyes and nodded. I didn’t know how to make them understand that that one little question was enough.

    When Ben got done at the store, he and Collette invaded my house.
    “Most everything’s out back,” I said, shooing them off the porch. I had to untie the trash can lids to give them a look at my broken picture frames and shredded posters.
    Picking up one of my fractured ballerinas, Collette frowned. “You love this one.”
    I nodded. Looking at all my things again in daylight, I wasn’t so much scared as hurt. He’d smashed them all up for nothing, for spite.
    A twitch went up my spine when I heard rocks whispering and chittering together. Turning, I watched Ben sift his fingers through the wheelbarrow’s bin.
    “That’s them,” I said. I put a hand on Ben’s to stay him, to quiet those stones.
    Collette picked one up, turning it over. It was nothing special, just a gray old river rock worn smooth by water. She tossed it back in the pile and said, “Go get your spellbook. I wanna see what he wrote.”
    “My daddy’s sleeping,” I said, hoping that would be the end of it.
    “We know,” Collette said. “We’ll wait out here.”
    She didn’t move; I didn’t move. Not until Ben ran his fingers through the stones again. The slick hiss and click drove me right inside. I tiptoed up the stairs and clutched the book to my chest as I came back down, one foot on each step, as slow as I could.
    Even though I was relieved to have all the truth out, I had a hint of heartsickness over it. For a while, just a while, Elijah had been all mine.
    As soon as I stepped off the porch, they scrambled around me. Ben leaned over my shoulder, and Collette hung on my arm, waiting eagerly to see my proof.
    Flipping to the page, I mumbled, “I thought I imagined it at first.”
    Ben shook his head in wonder, reading aloud. “ ‘How to Talk to Elijah.’ How about that?”
    Running her fingers over the page, Collette exhaled in amazement, then jerked her head up. “That’s why you got sunburned!”
    “No, I got sunburned ’cause I fell asleep.”
    Ben touched my shoulder, and he dipped his head to look at me. “You all right?”
    It felt low to shrug him off, but I didn’t want him touching me.
    “I’m fine. I’m just tired. It took me and Daddy half the night to clean up his mess.”
    “Oooh, you think Elijah’s jealous?” Collette lit up with that idea. “What if he’s talking to you because he’s in love with you?”
    As far as I knew, and I didn’t know a whole lot, love wasn’t supposed to leave you crying in a closet with the police on their way. I shook my head. “No offense, Collette, but that’s about the dumbest thing I ever heard.”
    “Why else would he come up into your room?” Collette persisted. “He didn’t come up into mine or Ben’s, did he, Ben?”
    “Nope.” Ben flipped backward in my spellbook to read the other pages. So much for our secrets; so much for our curse on the first page.
    “And he didn’t leave us love notes. . . .”
    Making a face, I cut her off. “They’re not love notes!”
    “Close enough.” Collette turned her gaze slowly, letting it linger on Ben for a minute before she went on. “And he calls you by name. It takes a lot of energy for a ghost to talk, and he always uses some when saying your name.”
    “It’s only four letters,” I said. “It’s not like I’m Penelope or Elizabeth or anything.”
    “Or Evangeline,” Ben added, waving the book slightly. “Do any of these work?”
    Collette looked like she might yank it right out of his hands. “They all work if you do ’em right.”
    Turning the notebook around, Ben held it up to show our spell for invisibility. “No