Free Crossing Over by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel Page A

sort of lumped in
with the rest of the people on this bus, the ones who can’t see them. They seem to divide the world into two types: regular
people, and mediums. Well, not just mediums. People with abilities. Like you. They’re aware of you too—they seem to know you
are picking them up somehow.
    “Britches showed up at Mont Royal when you were touching a rock up on the overlook. I heard other voices there too, also speaking
in French. But these two are apparitions—they don’t have anything physical with them. But they seem drawn to you, Ben. I mean
both of them have come and sat near you. How long have you known you were clairaudient?”
    “All my life,” Ben told me. “My mother called the voices my ‘imaginary friends’ when I was little. I thought all kids heard
the same voices. Then my mother went frombeing amused by my imaginary friends to scared. When I got older I learned to keep
what I heard to myself. I didn’t learn there was a name for what I was, or that there were other people like me, until I was
twelve.”
    We stood together, dripping in the aisle.
    “There must be some way…,” Ben began.
    I heard voices outside the bus, saw Tim sit up and lean forward, and heard the hiss of the bus door opening. I made a guilty
jump away from Ben, but my wet sneakers connecting with the slick aisle while I was off balance caused me to lose my footing
and slip forward, toward Ben. He reached out and grabbed my hands with his, stopping me mid-fall. I yelped with surprise.
    Britches drew back from the commotion.
    “
Hochelaga
,” Britches muttered, sounding irritated.
    Ben did not let go of my hands right away.The sensation of his palms on mine was electric. For a moment I forgot that the
bus door had opened. I wanted to tell Ben I was okay, that he could let go now.
    But I didn’t want him to let go.
    “
Hochelaga
,” Ben whispered.
    “What? You heard it?”
    “Is that what Britches has been saying?”
    I nodded. My face was hot, and I didn’t need a mirror to know it was bright red.
    “I heard it!” Ben exclaimed. “Just now—”
    “What in the world is going on?”
    Ben and I let go of each other’s hands and spun to face the front of the bus.
    Mrs. Gray was standing there with her hands on her hips, and she looked, in a word, scandalized.
    “What are the two of you doing here? You’re breaking the rules! Is Jacqueline with you?”
    I shook my head miserably.
    “No, it’s just the two of us,” I said.
    Plus these two dead people.
    “We weren’t doing anything. I mean, we weren’t doing anything wrong. Bad. We were just…”
    “Just what?” Mrs. Gray gestured with her head as she asked the question, sending her velvet headband slightly askew.
    “There was something on this bus I really needed Ben to see,” I said.
    “And that was what?”
    Ben and I exchanged a quick look.
    “I can’t tell you,” I said.
    “And you expect me to—”
    “Mrs. Gray, please,” I said quickly. “You and I spent a whole week together at the Mountain House. Which I really, really
appreciated. You said I was a good friend for Jac. I think you even started to like me. I’m not atroublemaker, or a liar,
and neither is Ben. I just can’t be more specific about what we were looking for on the bus. There’s sort of, other people
involved. Who can’t speak for themselves.”
    Someone else had gotten onto the bus behind Mrs. Gray. It was my mother. I wasn’t sure whether to feel elated or mortified.
    She looked back and forth between Ben and me and Mrs. Gray. Tim the Motor Coach Operator was sitting in the front row unabashedly
watching what unfolded, his gaze bouncing back and forth between us and the chaperones like he was at a tennis match.
    “What’s going on?” my mother asked.
    “This boy was in the back of the bus with your daughter,” Mrs. Gray said. “Kat says she is unable to give an explanation for
what they were doing here. This violates school policy.”She turned back to Ben and