by Anna Meriano
The room of fifteen humans and spirits fell silent. Leo remembered the sticker-covered door to Tía Isabel’s room, heard the sad emptiness of Tía Paloma’s knock.
“I thought she had an accident,” Leo said, turning to Tía Paloma.
“A magical accident,” Belén answered when Tía Paloma didn’t speak. “She wanted to understand more about how our birth-order powers came to be, and she thought they were related to el Otro Lado. She kept experimenting, trying to see if she could make her power stronger. She wanted answers so badly, she didn’t care about the risk.”
“I didn’t know,” Isabel whispered. “Nobody told me.”
“Marisol told us,” Alma whispered. “After that time Belén fainted when we were trying to break the record for longest channeling. She said if we weren’t careful, we would end up like . . .”
“How did she know?” Isabel frowned.
Tía Paloma shrugged. “She guessed, and she came to me with her suspicions. Marisol has always been wary of power.”
Leo wanted to feel sad. She wanted to sit down on the couch in her own house, and talk to Mamá about life and death and friendship, and what it meant that her sisters gave wrong advice, and that Tía Paloma lied, and that magic might be more dangerous than she had ever imagined.
But she couldn’t do any of that until the spirits were safe. They needed a solution.
She sat on the ground in front of the gate and dipped her arm through the veil as Isabel continued to argue. She listened to the desperation in her sister’s voice. They needed a spirit who could stand on the other side of the veil and pull the spirits through. Someone—or something—who could see the gate and pass through it.
Leo could see the gate.
When her arm was inside the gate up to the shoulder, Leo bent her elbow so that her fingers poked back into the living room. With a little bit of straining, she caught one of the scraps of newspaper left behind from the dramatic opening of the portal. She held the paper between her fingers and pulled her hand into the gate once more.
The newspaper slipped through the veil, staying between her fingers as they entered the cold.
It was all the proof she needed. “I can do it,” she said. “I can be the guide.”
“What?” Caroline said.
“No!” said Tía Paloma.
“Don’t be silly, Leo,” Isabel said.
“I’m serious.” She stood up and waved her arm across the gate. “I can move in and out. I’m pretty sure I can go in and pull everyone through. Easy.”
“Leo,” Tía Paloma said, “that’s very bold of you, but you have no idea what you’re offering. None of us do. A human who can pass through the veil unaccompanied and return is . . . as far as I know it’s never been . . . it’s completely . . .”
“Unprecedented,” Caroline said.
“We have no idea what will happen if you walk through.” Tía Paloma shook her head. “It’s too much of a risk.”
“I’ll summon the guide myself,” Isabel said. “Nobody else has to be involved. I can handle it.”
“Reckless and foolhardy . . .” Abuela was talking fast and almost to herself. “Both of them, just like their aunt. . . .”
“This was my spell,” Caroline said, “I should be the one to—”
“ . . . I’ll sit on them until I disintegrate if I have to. . . .”
Leo clicked her tongue in frustration. The fear, the way her sisters stared like she was offering to throw herself into a volcano or a lion’s mouth, it was all wrong. She couldn’t say how she knew, how she could be so certain, deep in her bones, that entering the veil wouldn’t hurt her. But she was. So, to cut the argument short, to avoid wasting any more time, she crossed her arms over her chest defiantly and took one huge step backward, plunging through the veil.
Leo stumbled and fell back, landing softly in a sitting position on smooth, firm ground.
It was cold in el Otro Lado. Not cold like the weather, like freezing wind and ice, which Leo had experienced only a few times and didn’t enjoy. No, this was cold like air conditioning after a long walk in the summer, like a Popsicle against your lips or an ice pack against a bruise. It was relaxation and relief, this cold that raised goose bumps on her skin but didn’t pinch her bones.
She stood up and looked around. The Campbell living room surrounded her still, and everyone was still there, but they were all blurred by the shimmering layer of the veil. Either no one was speaking or she couldn’t hear them. Isabel might have been crying, or maybe the wetness on her face was just the blur of the magic.
The two pillars still stood tall on either side of the gate. Leo stood, reached her hand between them, and waved.
“Leo!” Isabel clapped both hands over her mouth, her voice only a little tinny coming through the veil, like Leo was hearing it through a bad phone connection. “You are in so much trouble, you, you—you little cucaracha!”
Leo poked her head out into the living room to stick out her tongue. “I told you I could do it!”
“You are such a brat!” Isabel groaned. “You are unbelievable! You are—”
“You’re kind of awesome, actually.” Alma smiled. “Even Belén and I couldn’t see you.”
Leo reached out her hand. “Mayor Rose?” she asked. “Do you want to give your speech again?”
“No, thank you.” He grinned and reached out to grip Leo’s hand, just like he had shaken it at their first meeting. “Happy to follow your lead, Leo Logroño.”
Leo gave his arm a tug, and he walked through the veil to join her.
“Aah . . .” The breath that rushed out of him warmed the cold air of el Otro Lado, then quickly faded. “Thank you—that’s much better.” He gave Leo’s hand a squeeze, then let go and . . . vanished. His body dissolved like spun sugar, light bouncing in several directions before disappearing entirely.
“Mayor Rose?” Leo asked. “Mayor Rose?”
She stuck her head back through the portal. “Um, hey everyone? Alma? Belén? Tía Paloma? Does anybody see the mayor?”
“Where did he go?” Alma asked. “He was a ghost for about two seconds and then he wasn’t. He’s gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?” Tricia gasped. “He can’t be gone! What the heck is going on?”
Leo pulled her head back into el Otro Lado, but there was no sign of Mayor Rose, just the same cool quiet that had been there before. She reentered the living room, eyebrows furrowed. “Did I do something wrong?”
Abuela stepped forward and put a hand on Tía Paloma’s shoulder. “I think I can explain,” she said.
“Explain what?” Isabel’s face looked weary and worried, her eyes still red.
“I wanted to tell you earlier, but it was just a hunch, a feeling I had.” Abuela hesitated. “I had a sense that once we got back to el Otro Lado, it wouldn’t be easy for us to hold ourselves together.”
Having just thrown herself into a mysterious portal because of a hunch, Leo had no problem believing that Abuela was right, especially now that Mayor Rose had proven her theory correct. “But why?”
“I told you before,” Abuela said. “Beyond the veil, spirits become part of everything. It takes energy to resist that pull, and we’re all so drained from our time here.”
“So you’ll run out of energy and disintegrate?” Belén asked. “Isn’t that exactly what we were trying to avoid with the spell?”
“Why did we even bother if the same thing is going to happen anyway?” Alma’s voice squeaked high and angry.
“Girls.” It was Mrs. Morales who spoke, one hand on Abuela’s shoulder as she frowned at the twins. “Please be patient. This is hard, but I promise you—your work has not been wasted. It is not the same thing.”
She explained what Leo had heard already—how losing your grip on yourself in el Otro Lado was a good thing, not a bad one. How the spirits were tired, and had spent so much energy holding themselves together in this world. They wanted to go back, and let go, and dissolve into the ocean of el
Otro Lado.
“Mayor Rose was able to give up his fears and let himself go,” Mrs. Morales said. “You shouldn’t worry about him. If we lose ourselves here, we are alone and hollow, but there, we are whole.”
“But you won’t be yourself?” Alma asked, directing her question to Abuela rather than her friend. “We won’t be able to talk to you?”
Abuela shook her head, eyes on the floor. “We spirits hang around the longest when we have earthly concerns to tie us here. Unfinished business, like we all had. With all of that put to rest, we’ll be free, untethered. It’s what happens to all spirits eventually. It’s peace. Even if I wanted to fight it, I’m afraid it would take many years for me to gather my strength,” Abuela said. “Maybe more years than a human life-span.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Leo demanded. She stepped out from the veil, but it felt colder in the living room, and she felt her hands shivering as she imagined Mayor Rose dissolving in front of her eyes. “You should have told me!”
Abuela left Mrs. Morales’s side and wiggled in between Alma and Belén, linking arms with each girl. Leo walked to them and leaned into a tangled hug, her face twisting as she buried it in Abuela’s shoulder.
“I have loved sharing this day with my granddaughters,” Abuela said. “But I’m tired, and it’s time for me to go.”
“Will you try, at least?” Leo asked. “Will you try to hold yourself together on the other side, so we can still summon you and talk to you?”
Abuela’s shoulders rose and fell with her long sigh. “The benefit of being part of everything is that I’ll always be around,” she said. “You don’t ever have to miss me, not really.”
Tricia ran across the room to wrap Mrs. Morales in a hug. “This isn’t fair,” she said. “I didn’t even know I could talk to you before, and now I can’t do it anymore.”
“You can, though,” Mrs. Morales said, stroking Tricia’s hair. “I’ll always hear.”
Isabel and Tía Paloma joined the sister group hug. Leo breathed in the smell of marigolds and herbs and candle smoke as her family warmed her cold skin.
“It isn’t fair,” Isabel murmuered.
“Oh, hush.” Abuela shook her way out of the hug and gave Isabel a light tap on the head. “We’re not suffering a tragic fate. You girls made sure of that. Now come on, Leonora. It’s past time for us to go.”
Leo shook her head furiously for three seconds. For three seconds she imagined she could really refuse. For three seconds she never let go of Abuela’s arm, and they all went home together and ate quesadillas straight off the stove with Mamá and Daddy and everyone, and there were no boundaries.
Then the three seconds ended, and Leo broke the hug. “Okay,” she said. “Who’s next?”
CHAPTER 19
GOODBYES
Old Jack gave a short and confusing speech about hydrangeas before Leo pulled him through the gate, and his spirit bloomed into a ring of light before disappearing.
Leo swore she heard a tinkling melody play when Mr. Nguyen let go of her hand.
Mr. Pérez stayed solid for about fifteen seconds, and had time to adjust his leather jacket and give Leo a salute before swirling into a swarm of lights that popped like fireworks.
Mrs. Morales reminded Tricia to be good, yell at her father, and study hard. She melted softly away the instant she crossed the veil.
Finally, Leo walked arm in arm with Abuela up to the gate.
“Ready?” Leo asked. The word felt like a wad of paper on her tongue.
“Leonora Elena, you are growing up to be quite a remarkable bruja,” Abuela said. “And I have to say, this birth-order power is going to be the envy of all your sisters.”
“Birth-order power?” Leo asked. She looked at the veil, then back to Abuela. “Is this my . . . ?”
“Your Tía Isabel believed that all the birth-order powers derive from el Otro Lado,” Abuela said. “First-borns can influence emotions by changing the energy that flows on that side of the veil. Second-borns can tap into the energy to manifest physical objects just like these cempazuchitl petals. Third-borns see beyond the veil, of course. And you, Leo, seem to be capable of passing through it.”
“I’m actually not that envious,” Belén said, smiling through watery eyes.
“But we needed a whole portal spell for me to do this,” Leo said. “Don’t most birth-order powers happen a little more easily?”
“You’re so young,” Tía Paloma said. “It’s conceivable that the power might grow stronger as you come of age. I’m not sure what that means for you, what exactly you’ll be able to do, but it’s certainly going to be interesting to watch. Oh, your mother will be so proud.”
Abuela’s black-hole eyes twinkled as she tugged Leo’s elbow. “Enough talk, Leonora. Pull me through and put this old hag to rest already, before we all die of old age.”
Leo stepped through into the cold blurry version of the living room, reached her hand out, closed her eyes, and pulled.
“Goodbye,” she whispered as the weight of Abuela’s hand in hers grew lighter, less substantial, until it was nothing at all.
“That’s it,” Caroline said. “It’s over.” Her eyes were red, and she sat on the carpet with her legs splayed in front of her like she might never move again.
Leo wanted to join her. Her heart hurt even as it glowed with pride in her friends, her family, herself. They had done it.
It should have felt better.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t lie on the floor just yet.
“Caroline?” she asked. “When does your dad get home?”
“Oh.” Caroline stared around the room, a disaster of crumpled newspaper, candle wax, and interesting spells. “It’s kind of a mess, isn’t it?”
It is, Leo thought, and she can’t even see the towering glowing gate to the afterlife in the middle of the room.
“I can help clean,” Brent said.
“We can do it,” Mai chimed in. “Don’t worry, Caroline, you can rest.”
Tricia nodded.
Just for this one second, Leo wished her friends weren’t so helpful. How was she supposed to distract Caroline if they offered to do everything for her?
“Maybe you should make some tea,” Leo tried.
“That’s a great idea,” Tía Paloma agreed. “Come on, Caroline, I’ve got you.” She held out a hand and hoisted the young bruja to her feet. “What kind of tea, love?”
Leo watched as they disappeared into the kitchen. “Okay,” she whispered, glancing around the room. “Now’s our chance.”
“Huh?” Brent asked too loudly. Leo glared her hardest glare (Abuela, help me look as scary as you, she thought). She stood in front of the gate.
“Come on, hurry.”
Mrs. Campbell wiggled out from under the couch.
Tricia, who had understood the glare better than Brent, clapped her hand over his mouth when he opened it to yell. She and Mai stared wide-eyed at Leo, who nodded.
“Please don’t tell,” she whispered.
“Explain later?” Belén asked, watching Mrs. Campbell free herself from her hiding spot with curiosity.
“I promise,” Leo said.
“Sorry if I alarmed you all,” Mrs. Campbell whispered, brushing herself off and walking to Leo. “I used to be pretty good at hide-and-seek, if I do say so myself.”
Leo tried to smile, but the edges of her mouth felt too weary. “Ready?” she asked for the seventh time, holding out her hand even though she didn’t feel ready herself. There were too many goodbyes.
“Quick,” Mrs. Campbell said softly.
So Leo went quick, pulling Caroline’s mother into el Otro Lado.
Like Mr. Pérez, Mrs. Campbell stayed solid at first, her hand keeping its shape even as Leo dropped it and turned around.
“Thank you,” Mrs. Campbell said, “for all your help.”
“Are you sure you want to go?” Leo asked, even though it might already be too late. “Are you positive you wouldn’t rather see
Caroline? And let her see you one more time?” It hurt that Abuela was gone, that this separation would be more final. But Leo wouldn’t trade it. She had spent the day with her grandmother, and that was good no matter what happened next.
Mrs. Campbell sighed. “One of the very few upsides to a long cancer battle”—she smiled wryly—“is that you get plenty of time to say goodbye. You can plan, and write letters, record videos. There was nothing much I could say that I haven’t said already. But there was something I needed to do.”
“Your unfinished business,” Leo said, “What was it?”
“I didn’t plan it,” Mrs. Campbell said. “And I certainly didn’t expect it to turn out quite like this. But when I watched Caroline visit Costa Rica, and then come back here—she felt out of place, she felt so alone. And . . . oh dear.” Mrs. Campbell’s legs had started to bubble and fizz like the top of a poured soda. “I wished for a way to show her that she wasn’t alone, with or without me. That her Costa Rican heritage isn’t lost, and her Tica family will always be part of her. That she has friends. Like Brent, and Tricia, and Mai, and especially you. That she is connected to so many people in so many ways.” She was nothing but light and dust particles from the waist down, and the tips of her fingers had started to fizz. “I hope she knows that now.”
“She does,” Leo said into the empty space where Mrs. Campbell no longer stood. “I’ll make sure she does.”
“What were you doing in there, Leo?” Caroline was in the living room, mug of tea in one hand and a mini vacuum cleaner in the other. Isabel, Tía Paloma, and the twins all stood between her and the gate, but they had failed to block her view of Leo’s reappearance.
“Oh, just . . . experimenting,” Leo said.
“I can’t believe you have enough energy for that.” Caroline laughed. “I feel like I’d be okay with a twelve-hour nap, and you’re off doing magical experiments. So what’s it like over there?”
Leo hesitated, trying to come up with something to tell her friend. “Um. It’s cool?”
There was a soft pop and a light breeze, and the light behind Leo faded. When she turned around, the light columns were collapsing down and in, their colorful foundation winding like thread on a spool back into the opening that shrank and shrank and then was gone. There was a final puff of petals, all colors, that fell to the floor.
