Free Preloved by Shirley Marr Page A

to break it out and set it free.”
    “Uh-huh. Trying to bust a move,” I said thoughtfully.
    I started playing with the locket again.
    “Amy! Hello, Amy! Have you been listening to me? I said it’s our turn.”
    I followed Mum, with sickness growing in my stomach.
    In the dining room, Master Wu had set up a paper house on the table.
    “Are you ready?” asked Mum, concern on her face.
    “Yup.” I stood confidently, with my arms by my side.
    I looked at Logan, who had just slouched in and raised his eyebrows at the set-up.
    Master Wu started chanting some incantations really loudly and waving his arms around.
    “He’s asking for the release of the spirit,” whispered Mum.
    I was actually feeling quite terrified. “It’s like magic, like Harry Potter,” I started blabbing nervously to Logan, who had come to stand beside me. “Oh, you don’t know what Harry Potter is.”
    I watched as Master Wu folded back the little door on the paper house and reached his hand in.
    “He’s freeing the spirit by bringing it out of the place it’s currently trapped,” said Mum, the running commentary.
    I don’t know what I was hoping for. A happy ending of some sort. An easy solution where everything reverted to how it used to be. But of course that’s not real life. Real life involves pain and goodbyes.
    I turned towards Logan to ask if he was feeling more “free”.
    “Shit,” I said instead.
    Logan was fading. Literally. The edges of him – his fingers and the tips of his campus shoes – were already gone. He lifted his hands up to his face and stared at his disappearing hands.
    I had expected finally to feel relieved. I didn’t expect to feel like utter crap.
    “What did you think was going to happen, Amy?” Logan asked me. Even his voice was fading away.
    I turned back to look at Master Wu. He must be reaching inside to pull out the figurine thingy. And once he did …
    “Please Amy,” said Logan. “Don’t let it end this way. You think life is like a movie, don’t you? Do you think your movie ends like this?”
    I looked desperately at him and then back at Master Wu. Even if that was true, I wasn’t the leading lady in it. The camera wasn’t on me. It would be on Rebecca and whichever boy who happened to be smiling at her right now. I should just let this end.
    “Amy.” Logan was pleading now. His legs were almost gone and he had collapsed onto the floor. “I swear there must be a reason why only you can see me. You asked me yourself if we had a connection. That could be true. Do the right thing and find out what it is.”
    If I could only hold out for a few more seconds. Then this would all be finished with. It’d be fine. I was forcing him to move on for his own good. Then I could return to my normal dreary life.
    I looked at Logan for the last time. His eyes, normally pale, were now almost white.
    A thin, drawn-out noise pervaded the room. It took me a while to realise where the noise was coming from. It was coming from my throat. I was whining. Like a puppy.
    I threw myself at Master Wu and grabbed him by one of his sleeves.
    “Please,” I said, “please stop! Mum, help me here.”
    Mum was staring at me with her mouth open. I held onto Master Wu, who still had his hand inside the paper house.
    I needed a diversion. That’s when I thought about Mum’s favourite TV show. Ghost Whisperer .
    “Listen, Mum! The spirit is saying that he can see a light – a white light – in front of him.”
    “He?” repeated Mum. “You said it was an ‘it’. A hideous hungry ghost you picked up at a grave.”
    “Well, I lied,” I said, telling the truth by getting ready to tell another lie. “It’s a ‘he’ and he’s a Western ghost and he’s telling me he can see the light.”
    Mum motioned for Master Wu to stop. Master Wu pulled his hand out. Without the figurine thingy. Phew. I looked at Logan. He swore under his breath as his colour came flooding back and he picked himself off the