Page 27 of Ghost in the Night

“So, you really know how to talk to them? How?”

“Well. I haven’t really tried. I mean, when I did, my grandmama got real mad. It’s why she makes me wear this mojo bag. To keep bad spirits away ’cause I got the gift.”

I want to laugh, but she seems dead serious.

“You … don’t tell people that often, do you?”

She shrinks a bit. “No. Gives everybody the creeps,talking about the dead and stuff. Black people don’t even go on ghost tours and yet YOU do. So, I feel like I can trust you with this stuff.”

“Thanks. I guess it is kind of weird, right?”

“A little. Just don’t go running your mouth off about it.”

I hold my tongue. Why are ghosts such a touchy subject? Why can’t we talk about the dead? I’m sure they talk about us. But maybe she’s right. We should keep this story between us for now. Which means, no telling Kiki and Truth. Strange to think of keeping secrets from them.

I wipe my sticky hands, checking the time. “All right. Let’s go find Asher.”

“Where is this guy? ” Myah says, tapping her foot by the bench in Madison Square.

“He’ll be here! The website said they have a tour at nine p.m. tonight.”

We hang away from the crowd, closer to the sidewalk. The streets are full of people.

Myah checks the time. “I don’t want to be too late riding that City Kitty.”

“City Kitty?”

“The CAT bus, girl. Most of us take it, but it just come when it wants to.”

“Is that Myah? Myah!” someone calls out.

A boy our age with short, skinny dreads rides down the street on his bike with three other boys riding behind him.

“Who’s that?” I ask, trying not to frown but failing.

Myah’s face falls and she turns away.

The boy stands on his bike, shouting, “Myah, what you doing down here? Don’t want to be seen out, huh? Still owe them folk all that money, huh? HAHHH HAHHH!”

The boy rides off, his laugh echoing off the buildings, and his friends follow, all of them cackling and teasing as the group fades into the shadows.

“Uhhhh … What was that about?” I ask. Those boys were mad annoying.

Myah straightens and shakes her head as if nothing had happened at all. “Anyway, you had them twenty-five-cent oysters yet? Or the saltwater taffy and candied apples? Sodang loud down here. So much traffic. You probably used to that being from New York, right?”

Is she really gonna pretend some boy wasn’t just clowning her out here? I open my mouth right as I spot Asher walking toward the square.

“There he is!” I tip my chin in his direction.

Myah does a double take. “That’s your ghost expert?”

I laugh. “Come on!”

We race up the block to cut him off, hoping to have a little privacy.

“Hi, Asher! Do you remember me?” I ask him.

Startled at first, he takes me in and smiles.