Free The Spirit House by William Sleator

he said, his serious voice coming out of the darkness, the burning end of the cigarette closing in on his fingertips, the only part of him I could see. “Very holy thing. Must be careful. Good luck if wear. But if put in low place, then not good for you, Julie. Better if you wear. You understand?” He flicked away the cigarette, a bright streak arching toward the spirit house, without turning his face from me.
    Was he really worried I would bring bad luck on myself by not treating the pendant carefully enough? Or was it simply that his feelings were hurt because I had taken off this very special gift from him? “I would never be careless with it, believe me. It’s very special to me.”
    â€œThen where you put?” His face flickered in the flame of his gold lighter, though his eyes remained shadowed. “In bag? In pocket? Or some other place?” He turned, drawing deeply on his new cigarette, and gazed directly at the spirit house for a long moment. He looked slowly back at me. “Where, Julie?”
    I couldn’t answer, panicking. He watched me. Leaves rustled, a many-voiced whisper that swelled and gradually subsided.
    â€œWhat you ask spirit for, Julie?” he said, moving suddenly toward me. He squeezed his right hand around my arm. I jerked away from him, my heart racing. He tightened his hold. His grip was very strong.
    He must have seen me standing by the spirit house. And now that the pendant was missing, it was only natural that he’d suspect what I had done. “What you ask spirit for?” he repeated, his voice tense but strangely hushed.
    How could I have forgotten to ask the spirit to protect me? “Let go of me!” I struggled to pull my arm away. “You’re hurting me!”
    â€œYou not tell me?” He squeezed harder.
    â€œNot telling you what? ” My voice cracked; in another second I’d be crying.
    â€œMai pen rai! ” he said, the foreign words quick and biting. He flung my arm away so suddenly that I staggered backward and almost fell. “ Mai pen rai . Do not care what you do!” He spoke with contempt, breathing hard. “You hear me, Julie? You not my friend. You my enemy. You hear?”
    â€œW-What?” I said, rubbing my arm, my throat tightening. It was so unlike Bia to speak in this direct, harsh way that his words had a kind of nightmarish unreality.
    â€œListen. I am not care about you.” He looked directly at the spirit house, raising his voice. “Am not care about you, Julie Kamen. Care about Gloria, care about Lynette, care about other girl. But not you. You are liar.”
    â€œLiar? You’re calling me a liar?” I was so angry that I didn’t care how loud my voice was. “ You’re the one who lies to everybody. You don’t think I noticed that? You don’t think I know what you—” I gulped the words back. Furious as I was, I was also too afraid of him now to let him know what I suspected. I started to turn away.
    â€œJulie.”
    The way he said it made me look back. He was facing the light from the deck now, I could see the fragile line of his mouth, the same lost, vulnerable expression I had noticed at school this morning. But he said nothing more.
    â€œYou’re crazy! ” I blurted out. But now there was an edge of guilt to my anger. Whatever his motivation for giving me the pendant, it had been a very great sacrifice for him. And I had discarded his gift—in an effort to trap him.
    But maybe it hadn’t really been mine to give, and the spirit knew that. Then it wouldn’t matter if I took it away from her. If I gave it to Bia, then I could stop worrying about what I had wished. Suddenly I wanted no part of any bargain with the spirit.
    I hurried to the spirit house. “Here, Bia. Take it. It really belongs to you.” I thrust my hand inside the dark little doorway, groping for the pendant.
    The spirit house was