Free May Bird and the Ever After by Jodi Lynn Anderson Page B

He’s very smart.”
    â€œWhere’s Arista?”
    â€œBack home.”
    â€œHome?” May asked hopefully.
    â€œBack home in Belle Morte,” Pumpkin said, nibbling a finger. “Belle Morte? But what about my mom? What about Briery Swamp?”
    Pumpkin shook his head. “Oh, my.” He eyed her sadly. “You should really ask Arista.”
    â€œBut when do we see him? How far to Belle Morte?”
    Pumpkin seemed to consider, his eyebrows scrunching. “I’m not sure. I’m just a house spirit, you know. The next sign should tell us.”
    A few minutes later they drifted past a gnarled tree that curved over the water. A sign hung from it that read: FIERY FORK, 48 MILES, BELLE MORTE, 1,300,017 MILES.
    May gasped. She couldn’t even imagine how far that really was. “How long will that take?”
    Pumpkin sighed, flinging his arms behind his head dramatically. “Ages. Most of the night probably. You should rest.”
    She sank down in her seat, staying as far away from Pumpkin as possible. There was no way she was going to sleep. She stared up at the zipping stars that spread out over the dusky sky. An hour later it hadn’t gotten an ounce darker, and Pumpkin was snoring gently, his huge head lolling on his skinny neck, his wide mouth open and drooling.
    May tugged at the top of her black sparkly bathing suit nervously, then shoved her hands into the pockets of her shorts. Her hands closed on a piece of paper, and she pulled out the scroll she’d picked up at the movie theater.
    In red, drippy letters, the front of the brochure read: I’M DEAD, SO NOW WHAT ? As May watched, the letters dripped down off the page onto her hands. May lifted up her fingers to see if it was ink, but there was nothing on them.
    She opened to the next page, dazed. It was blank for a moment, and then a glowing green picture of a skinny man with a hangman’s noose around his neck appeared. He lifted his hands in the air questioningly, his shoulders shrugging. More drippy writing scrawled itself beneath him. “Don’t panic. The Afterlife can be scary! But that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable, too. Talk to your local Undertaker about ways to make the most of your Eternity. All visits are confidential!”
    May turned the page. Again it stayed blank for a moment, before a glowing blob oozed across the page. It formed itself into a jellylike mass, from which suddenly sprouted two big round eyeballs and a pair of horns. The creature smiled at May. She flinched.
    â€œThe Ever After is filled with lots of strange spirits, some you won’t recognize from your life on Earth. Don’t panic. Only a feware truly evil.” The blob creature moved its head to look behind itself, then its eyes widened in terror, as if something were chasing it. It went blobbing off the page. From the far right side of the paper, a dripping, dark, manlike creature appeared, with long gangly arms and a hunched back. His face was deformed into a mask of hatred, and he was dripping with slime. He drooled, rubbed at his nose with his forearm, and loped off the page.
    May’s blood ran cold. She quickly turned the page. What appeared there scared her even more. Two red eyes appeared on the page. “Remember, Bo Cleevil is watching you!” The eyes flared brighter red, and then disappeared, replaced by the line “Have a pleasant stay!”
    May closed the brochure. It vanished from her hands immediately.
    Pumpkin rolled over onto his side loudly, mumbling and snoring and flinging his cool arm across May’s shins. May stared at him. He was, without a doubt, the ugliest thing she had ever seen. She wondered what he had looked like when he was alive. She wondered what had happened to him to make him look the way he did now. She gently pulled her feet out from under him.
    She laid back and watched the stars zooming overhead. It reminded her of the night she and her mom