Free Whispered Magics by Sherwood Smith

tomorrow?”
    “Sure,” I said.
    He ran off. I climbed back inside my room. Had my mother
noticed I was gone?
    I stood still, listening.
    Nothing.
    o0o
    Next day at school in math class, my eyes itched and I
kept yawning. Though Ben sat two rows away, I never looked at him. He must have
been yawning, too, because he got yelled at twice for it.
    In English, I guess he put his head down on his desk just
after I did, because the teacher stopped talking and said sharply, “Benjamin,
if you need to sleep, you may explain why to the vice principal. Now.”
    He got up. The teacher glared at him, but never looked at me.
    I closed my eyes, and the next thing I knew the bell had rung.
    o0o
    That night I set my dad’s old-fashioned alarm clock,
because I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay awake otherwise. I put it under my
pillow, then turned off my light and lay back. The street light shone through
tree-branches, making shadows on my ceiling like bent witch fingers clawing up
the walls.
    I almost wanted to open my door, to call to Mom, but I heard
the clink of dishes, and her laughter. His laughter.
    I buried my face under the pillow and pressed my cheek against
the clock, and listened to its ticking until I went to sleep.
    o0o
    “It’s about time,” I said when I saw Ben coming slowly up the
sidewalk.
    I was sitting on the lowest branch of the tree, swinging my
feet. I’d planned it out—thought it’d look pretty cool if I was out there
waiting, like I’d been there all night.
    Ben shrugged, his bony shoulders jerking up and down. The
shadows from the streetlamp were odd on his face. Made it look lopsided.
    “Ready to run?” I asked, swinging to the ground.
    “Nah,” he said, kind of sarcastic. “What’s the big hurry?”
    I shrugged, making my shoulders jerk up and down. We walked.
    When we neared the park, Ben said suddenly, “Let’s go out
there.”
    “You mean, let them see us?”
    “Sure.” He laughed, an angry snort of a laugh. “Why not?
They’re ghosts. Are you gonna get scared if they jump and yell ‘boo’?”
    I said as carelessly as I could, “Not sure being touched by a
ghost is on my all-time want list.”
    “Like they can really hurt you,” he sneered, and without
waiting for me he launched straight across the grass toward the ghosts.
    I hesitated, wondering what could happen to me. If anything
did, my mother wouldn’t be alone at home when the phone rang. A big wash of
anger burned away all my fear. I stumbled after Ben, my heart drumming loudly
in my ears.
    Ben was right in the middle of the park by then. At first it
seemed the ghosts couldn’t see him after all, but then they stopped what they
were doing, first one or two, then four or five, then all of them. They stood,
still and silent, their outlines glowing a kind of shivery silver and blue.
    They moved toward us until they stood in a circle. I noticed
odd things; that glow and the fact that their feet didn’t make prints in the
sand, yet the cold winter wind ruffled their clothes and hair, same as ours.
Their eyes were all dark pits.
    “Hey! Can ya hear us?” Ben yelled, making me jump. He waved
his arms and stamped toward a group of them.
    They started moving, some waving their arms and stamping, and
some clapping, and some twirling around in a kind of dance.
    Their mouths were open like they were laughing, but the sound
I heard was the wind rustling the barren twigs of the park trees.
    Then flickering lights made us both duck. We looked up at the
Main Street bridge arcing over the stream that runs through the park.
Headlights jittered between the tree trunks lining the bridge.
    “They can’t see us down here,” I said. My hands and lips were
numb.
    Ben stood very still, one hand gripping the opposite shoulder,
then he turned away. “Let’s go.”
    o0o
    “. . . and the article says that if you can
talk to the spirit, you’re supposed to ask if it can see the light,” I said the
next night.
    My breath was puffing. This