Her mother made her promise, that day they’d listened to The Cure in the car, not to get too caught up in the dead. She made Shelly promise that she’d have fun and be a kid, too.
Shelly’s got time to get better at that now. It’ll be a while before her hair grows back.
Grandma squeezes Shelly’s hand and they continue down the path to the newer part of the cemetery, where Shelly’s mother is buried. There’s a plaque here too, shiny and new, and Shelly lets go of Grandma’s hand so she can wipe the snow away from it.
“Hi, Mom.” Shelly opens up the bag of takeout, prying open the containers. It smells sweet and savory and delicious—it reminds her of her mother even more strongly than the smell of her shampoo or the sheets and duvet in her mother’s room. It reminds Shelly of the good memories she had with her—the secrets they had together that are no longer just Shelly’s to keep.
She sets a couple pieces of pork and a few french fries on her mother’s grave. “I brought your favorites. I asked, but they don’t do milkshakes to go. Grandma says on my birthday I can invite Isabel and we’ll go and eat in. I’ll order an extra milkshake for you then.” She pushes herself to her feet. “I love you,” she says, and Grandma rests a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. The ends of Shelly’s short hair brush against her neck in the wind, making her shiver, and she leans against her grandma for shelter from the cold. “I miss you, but I’m okay.”
Acknowledgments
There are some stories you carry with you throughout your life. For me, hearing my mom and grandfather talk about the police coming to my great-grandmother, Louisa, for help finding missing people in Chapleau was one of them. Louisa’s story stuck with me and transformed first into a short story and now into a novel. First and foremost, I want to acknowledge her for the role she played as inspiration for Shelly and her family, and my grandfather, Gordon Byce, for passing her stories down to me.
This book wouldn’t be possible without my parents, who let kid-me read anything I wanted as long as I was reading, and who supported my decision to get two degrees in creative writing. Thank you for letting me buy terrible Most Haunted Places books even though I couldn’t sleep after reading them, and to my brother, Cory, for also liking spooky things. I know I made Shelly an only child, but I promise it was nothing personal.
Thank you to my publisher Annick Press for their support, and especially to my editor, Claire Caldwell, who had faith that a short story could become a book, and without whom The Ghost Collector wouldn’t exist. I’m grateful to Claire for her insight and guidance, and for reaching out to me to begin with.
Writing a book is a marathon of a process and often boring if you’re not the writer, so a special thank you to my friends Grace Lee and Sarah King, who listened patiently while I obsessed about pacing, and to Ben Rawluk for being my writing buddy for the last eight years and for talking through countless plot problems with me. An extra-special thank you to Isabel Kim, who read my drafts and told me they were good, except where they weren’t, and who accidentally loaned Isabel her name and love of coffee machines.
Photocredit: K. Ho
Allison Mills grew up in the suburbs of Vancouver, where she spent a lot of time reading novels under her desk at school and bickering with her younger brother. As the daughter of a teacher-librarian, Allison had easy access to books of all kinds and developed a deep appreciation for writers like E. Nesbit, Diana Wynne Jones, and Ursula K. Le Guin. She also spent a lot of time scaring herself with spooky stories, a habit that grew into a lifelong fascination with ghosts. She sympathizes with them. As someone who’s both Ililiw/Cree and settler Canadian, Allison knows what it’s like to straddle boundary spaces. This preoccupation with all things ghost-related inspired her first novel, The Ghost Collector.
Despite all her covert in-class reading, Allison did like school quite a bit and now has three master’s degrees, including an MFA in creative writing. She aims to create stories like the ones she loved to read as a kid, but with more kids like her in them. When she’s not writing, Allison works as an academic librarian and archivist.
© 2019 Allison Mills (text)
Copyedited by Mary Ann Blair Proofread by Rhonda Kronyk Cold read by DoEun Kwon
Cover illustrated by Natasha Donovan. Designed by Paul Covello
Annick Press Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical—without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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This edition published in 2019 by
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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, and the participation of the Government of Canada/la participation du gouvernement du Canada for our publishing activities.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: The ghost collector / Allison Mills.Names: Mills, Allison, author.Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190070471 | Canadiana (ebook) 2019007051X | ISBN 9781773212951 (softcover) | ISBN 9781773212968 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781773212999 (PDF) | ISBN 9781773212975 (Kindle) | ISBN 9781773212982 (EPUB)Classification: LCC PS8626.I45 G56 2019 | DDC jC813/.6—dc23
Published in the U.S.A. by Annick Press (U.S.) Ltd.
Distributed in Canada by University of Toronto Press.
Distributed in the U.S.A. by Publishers Group West.
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