Free Ghosting by Edith Pattou

must be more messed up than i thought.
    Shut the fuck up, you pathetic slacker loser,
Brendan says,
or else . . .
    and like in a dream i see his hand reaching toward the glove compartment. behind us, anil lets out a sharp exhale. and
NO!
bursts from max’s throat. brendan looks back at the three of us. he knows we know and his eyes go to slits.
    he pops open the glove compartment and in the blink of an eye that shiny black gun is in brendan’s hand.

BRENDAN
    I can’t believe those pussies went rooting
    around in my glove compartment.
    And who does that useless pothead
    think he is, mouthing off to me like that.
    Like he’s my fucking asshole dad.
    I should fucking scare the crap out of them.
    Serves them right.

MAXIE
    I feel like I’m in a bad movie,
    one with a jittery
    handheld
    camera
    recording everything.
    Including a monster
    lurking in the shadows.
    Except
    maybe the
    monster
    is sitting right there
    in front of us.
    Brendan is grinning,
    waving his
    gun.
    You know what kind of gun this is?
he says.
A double-action semiautomatic Beretta 92 F.
    Put it away, Brendan,
says Felix softly.
    Hell no. Teach you a lesson,
Brendan says, his words slurring.
    Suddenly Brendan reaches up
    and punches a button
    next to the moonroof.
    The glass panel
    silently
    slides
    open . . . .
    Then he thrusts up his hand,
    the one holding the gun,
    through the opening
    to the night sky.

EMMA
    Dare you to touch the door,
says Chloe, giggling again.
    She’s stopped halfway up the path
    to the front door,
    blocking my way.
    And then suddenly
    from the direction of the car
    comes a loud popping sound.
    What was that?
Chloe cries out, turning and stumbling toward me.
    I try to catch her, but she trips on
    a pot of flowers, knocking it over
    with a noisy clattering sound.
    She flounders, trying to recover her balance,
    (Chloe always was the world’s biggest klutz),
    and somehow she kicks over another one.
    OW!
she says, way too loud, falling sideways onto the grass.
    I hear the shattering sound
    of a third pot breaking,
    Chloe’s breath coming quickly.
    I hurt my foot,
Chloe bleats.
    Go back to the car,
I say, helping her up.
    I think it’s bleeding,
she says.
    Go back,
I whisper.
I’ll be there in a sec.
    Chloe limps her way back down the path.
    Even though I know it’s reckless, I have to go on.
    I have to know if there’s a ghost.
    My cell light fades,
    so I tap the keypad.
    Light blooms.
    I can see the broken pots,
    pink roses and dirt tumbled out
    onto the path.
    A lot of the flowers are flattened from
    Chloe trampling on them. Then I hear a
    soft sighing sound. From the house.
    Who’s there?
comes a whispery, plaintive voice.
    I see a screen door, with jagged tears in the
    metal netting. And behind the screen door
    a woman is standing. White hair haloing a shadowed face.
    My roses. Don’t hurt my roses.
    The voice is thin, worried. Unearthly.
    She moves toward me, her gnarled hands
    reaching through the screen like it’s not there.
    For just a moment I believe she
is
a ghost.
    But then I see she is reaching through the rips in the screen.
    A real-life old woman in a shapeless nightgown.
    I am suddenly ashamed.
    This is a person, a living breathing person
    whose flowers we’ve ruined.
    I’m sorry,
I whisper and back away.
    She opens the screen door,
    goes through, letting it fall shut behind her
    with a sharp thunking sound.
    I keep moving backward. She follows me
    down the path. But she stops abruptly
    in front of the first broken pot.
    She crouches beside it.
    And then I see her face crumple,
    her mouth gaping open.
    I hear a high-pitched wailing,
    so agonized and unearthly that at first
    I don’t realize it’s coming from her.
    MOTHER!
shouts another voice, urgent, coming from inside the house.
    My heart starts pounding.
    Oh god.
    What have I done?

MAXIE
    When Brendan sticks
    his gun
    up through the moonroof
    and deliberately lets off
    two shots,
    my whole body goes
    numb.
    The shots are