Free The Poe Estate by Polly Shulman Page A

anyway. Only like one out of hundreds.”
    â€œThat’s one too many.” Mom isn’t as obsessed as Kitty with accidents and criminals, but diseases completely freak her out. She wanted to take me to the emergency room for rabies shots.
    â€œReally, Mom, it didn’t get near me.”
    â€œHow do you know? You were asleep.”
    â€œI was shut up in bed with the curtains closed. Bats can’t fly through curtains! When I heard it flapping around the room, I opened the window, and it flew out.”
    Mom frowned, wanting to believe me. We really couldn’t afford an emergency room visit. “What was all that crashing and screaming, then?”
    â€œJust me trying to get the window open. And shut again.”
    â€œAren’t bats supposed to spend the winter hibernating in bat caves? What was it doing here this time of year?”
    I shrugged. “Spring’s coming early? Or maybe it’s a vampire,” I said. “This place is spooky enough.” My voice caught.
    Mom hugged me. “Oh, honey,” she said. “I miss our house too. Now that we’re not trying to pay that mortgage, maybe I can go to nursing school. There are good jobs in health care. And work’s sure to pick up more for Dad in the spring. These things are cyclical.”
    â€œNursing? Wouldn’t that make you too sad? Because of, you know . . .” I didn’t want to say Kitty’s name. She might hear me.
    â€œI was thinking I could work with elders. Helping Cousin Hepzibah doesn’t make me sad. But this is a daytime conversation, and you need your sleep. Why don’t you come spend the rest of the night downstairs with me and Dad?”
    â€œOh, Mom! I’m not a baby. I’ll be fine—the bat’s not coming back. You should have seen how fast it went, once it found the window.”
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    I lay awake for a long time after Mom left, wondering about the bat and thinking about the broom. Of course, I’d known about ghosts for a while. Were magic brooms really so different?
    But somehow ghosts don’t seem as—I don’t know, as
weird
as flying broomsticks. I was so used to Kitty that she seemed like part of the natural world. Even though she could do things like making mean girls trip and fall and sprain their ankles. I thought of her as an extension of ordinary life. A darkextension, maybe, but still part of life.
    Magic brooms, though—that seemed impossible, like something out of a fantasy book.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    Apparently Kitty thought so too. She let me sleep, or try to, but when I stumbled blearily onto the bus the next morning, she took the seat next to me and expressed her disapproval. I should
not
be chasing bats around on flying broomsticks. For one thing, flying broomsticks were
way
more dangerous than
bicycles
, even. And I had no idea where that bat had been. Bats were like flying
rats
! It could be carrying all kinds of diseases! And I hadn’t even washed my hands afterward!
    I looked around. Evidently nobody else could see Kitty, so at least there was that. But I couldn’t really talk back—nothing enhances a girl’s reputation quite like having a fight with her invisible dead sister on the school bus.
    I got out my book—another Laetitia Flint novel that I’d borrowed from Cousin Hepzibah—and tried my best to ignore Kitty, but it was hard to drown her out. I had to read each sentence three times.
    The bus stopped to let some kids on, then lurched forward again. “Hey there, Spooky,” said Cole Farley, dropping his book bag next to me.
    â€œThat seat’s taken,” I informed him.
    â€œYeah? By who, your imaginary friend?” He threw himself down with a flourish—right through Kitty.
    I gasped. Kitty didn’t vanish. She stayed there, sort of interspersed with Cole. She looked pissed.
    Cole shivered. “Ooh, I feel an eerie chill! Is