by Mary Lindsey
I nodded.
“Tell her to slow down and do what you say.”
“Suzanne, I want you to slow down and tell me the story from the beginning. Wait until I tell you to start.” To my amazement, she shut up.
He tightened his grip on my shoulders. “Good, Lenzi. Yes, that’s right.”
I made a halfhearted attempt to smile. He let go of my shoulders and sat back down. I sat next to him and curled my legs under me. It was a bizarre sensation to house another person’s soul in my body. Almost overwhelming. Be strong like Rose, I told myself.
“It’s all right, Lenzi. Go ahead. I’m right here.” He patted my leg.
“Okay, Suzanne, tell me slowly,” I whispered. I closed my eyes and listened as the child spoke to me about her death and what she needed from me.
“Stop for a minute, Suzanne. I’ll let you continue in a sec, okay?” I got on my knees facing Alden. “It’s a kid—a little girl—she wants to draw something for her mom. What do I do?”
“You let her have your body. Let her draw or whatever she wants. I’ll get some of Elizabeth’s crayons. Hold on.” He leapt up and strode to the kitchen, returning with a pad of paper and a handful of crayons.
I took the supplies with trembling hands. “How do I give her my body?”
“Invite her to use your hands to draw. She’ll know how to do it. Just stay close to the surface so you can hear me. Don’t retreat in too far.” He stroked my face with his fingertips. “You’re doing great, Lenzi. I’m proud of you.”
A tear rolled down my cheek. Alden wiped it away with his thumb and gave me a reassuring smile.
“Okay, Suzanne. You can use my body to color a picture if you want to.”
Oh, yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
“You’re welcome.”
“I’m right here,” Alden said.
My body began to move as if on its own. I knew it was Suzanne controlling the motion, but it was still weird to the point of being scary. Not of my own accord, I nibbled my lip and my shoulders slumped. Clutching the art supplies, I slid off the sofa onto the floor. Alden moved to the edge of the sofa watching with interest. Suzanne grabbed the blue crayon in my fist and began making dramatic strokes across the paper.
“That’s the sky!” Suzanne announced proudly from my mouth in a child’s voice.
“Very nice, Suzanne,” Alden said.
Next came jagged vertical green strokes at the bottom of the page.
“Grass?” Alden prompted.
“Mmm-hmm. Watch this!” Using my hand, she picked up the black crayon and whacked the tip on the paper, making spots in the grass. “Ants!”
Alden chuckled. “You okay in there, Lenzi?”
“Yes,” my own voice answered. Cool. I could control which one of us was in charge of my body.
“Nuh-uh. Go ’way! It’s my turn,” the child’s voice retorted from my mouth. Well, I could sort of control it, anyway.
“Play nice, Suzanne,” Alden warned, “or I’ll have to make you leave. You can’t play with Lenzi unless you’re willing to share. Okay?”
“Okay, I’ll share,” she grumbled. “I need an orange crayon. I don’t have one.”
Alden shrugged. “I’m sorry, Suzanne, but there isn’t an orange crayon.”
“B-b-but I need one for Mr. Sun. I g-g-g-gotta have orange,” the tiny voice wailed.
“I’ll have to remember to get a new box of crayons before we take on a child again, Lenzi. The old charcoal and slate days were easier,” he said.
The child was nearly hysterical. I had to do something so she’d finish her picture and get out. Through thought, I told her how to mix colors. Eventually, the wailing stopped and she picked up the yellow crayon and drew “Mr. Sun.” Then she got the red and lightly shaded over him.
“Wow, Suzanne. That was a good idea,” Alden remarked.
She made my body grin. “Yeah, Lenzi told me how. I like Lenzi.”
“I do too,” Alden said.
“Now for Mr. Jinx,” Suzanne’s voice called from my body. She had me on all fours, rocking back and forth, looking at her drawing.
“I’ve always loved resolutions with children. They make you do such random things,” Alden remarked.
“Not helpful, Alden,” I said, trying unsuccessfully to stop the rocking.
I gave up fighting her, hoping it would end sooner. She sniffled and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. Gross. At least she hadn’t picked my nose or anything.
Alden was grinning when she rolled me over on my back and held the picture up so that he could see.
“I like your picture, Suzanne. Who’s Mr. Jinx?”
“My best friend. I told my little sister, Becky, she could have him when I died.” She rolled back over and picked up the purple crayon. She began drawing vigorously, chewing on my lip the entire time. I hoped she wouldn’t gnaw my lip hard enough to draw blood.
“You still okay, Lenzi?” Alden called.
“Yes.”
“Done!” the voice of Suzanne proclaimed proudly. She held the picture up for Alden to see. Mr. Jinx appeared to be a stuffed purple cat. He had a huge grin and was sitting on the ant-filled grass. “I love Mommy” was scribbled across the sky.
“It’s beautiful, Suzanne. We’ll deliver it to your mommy. Let Lenzi come up to play now, okay?”
“NO!”
Alden stood up. “Lenzi?”
“I’m here. It’s okay. Give me a second,” my own voice answered as I sat on the sofa holding the drawing. I closed my eyes and regained control of my body, relegating Suzanne back to a voice in my head. Alden was right; I could do this.
I remained still for a few moments and through thought convinced Suzanne to cooperate.
“Okay,” I said. “She’s going to be a good girl, Alden, because she’s very sweet. Aren’t you, Suzanne?”
Yep.
“Tell me where you were when you died.”
Mommy and Daddy called it MD Anderson Hospital.
“Where did you live?”
In a brown house with a red door.
Great. That really narrowed it down. “What street did you live on?”
I don’t know.
Fantastic. There were over four million people in Houston. “When did you die?”
I don’t know.
“What school did you go to?”
Wildcat Way.
“Is there anything else?”
Give Mr. Jinx to my sister.
That was it, I marveled. That’s all that was keeping her here. She needed to give her mommy a picture and a stuffed cat to her little sister. I wondered if resolutions were all this simple. After some more questions, I had all the information she was going to give me about where Mr. Jinx was and how we could find her sister. She sounded weak and tired. By this time, her voice was barely a whisper. I assured her we’d take care of what she asked. Then I couldn’t hear her at all, but I could feel her presence in my body.
“Now, Suzanne, it’s time for you to go, okay?” There was no response, but I knew it was time. “It’s my friend Alden’s turn, so you need to go. Are you ready? Okay, Alden, let’s do it.”
Alden released his soul from his body and slid into mine. Across the room, a tiny girl in a ruffled dress waved. Her body seemed to glow blue from the inside, making her appear translucent. She blew a kiss to me and skipped into a shaft of brilliant white light.
That’s what it’s all about. Well done, Alden said.
“Thanks, now get out. I’m feeling claustrophobic. One soul in here is enough.”
As you wish, my master, he joked. You’d better go touch me, though, unless you’re starting to like pain.
I huddled on the sofa next to his lifeless body and wrapped my arms around him. “Get out, my oppressed minion.... Be gentle.”
He exited with little pain.
“Hello, friend,” he said.
“Hey.” My head was against his chest. I didn’t look up or move other than to tremble all
over. I clung to him as I rode a wave of emotion. Suzanne’s resolution was the scariest, most incredible experience of my life. The intense pull I felt toward Alden was overwhelming.
“Hey, it’s over now. Relax. You did great. Perfect. Textbook perfect,” he said.
I loosened my grip and shifted so that I faced him. I’d never felt this charged and confident. The resolution was a huge rush, and my strange, unearthly attraction to him was more than I could resist. I entwined my fingers in Alden’s thick, silky hair, and before I thought through what I was doing, I kissed him on his gorgeous mouth. Not a gentle kiss, either.
To my astonishment, he laughed. I pulled back, mortified.
“Well, you wanted to be friends,” he said, eyes twinkling. “That was friendly, I suppose.”
FIFTEEN
Stupid, I thought as Alden laughed. I couldn’t believe I had so little self-control. I’d been “friendly,” all right. “I’m so sorry, Alden. I don’t know why I did that,” I whispered. An image of Zak flashed through my head, and I cringed even more.
“It’s fine, Lenzi. I guess that’s what friends do.”
I couldn’t tell whether he was kidding or not. I seriously wanted to crawl under the sofa. Instead, I walked over to the back door and let in Spook, who trotted over, jumped on Alden’s lap, and licked his face.
“See, Lenzi? Spook and I are just friends, and she kisses me too.”
If he was trying to make me feel better, it wasn’t working. Spook barked and wagged her nubby tail—a tail so minimal she had to wag her whole back half to get the point across. The cute boy/cute dog combination was too much to resist. I smiled in spite of my misery.
Alden patted Spook and put her down on the floor, then stood up and stretched. “You did a great job, Lenzi. How do you feel?”
Other than mortified over acting totally out of character and pouncing on him? “Good. It wasn’t as awful as I thought it would be.”
“Do you need to go home, or can I take you to dinner?”
He still wanted to take me out to dinner after that? “Um, dinner would be great. I’m starving.”
“Fantastic.” He scanned me from head to toe. “Oh, wait, change of plans. Why don’t I call for Chinese takeout instead?”
I glanced down at his baggy T-shirt and too-long warm-up pants. “What? Are you telling me my wet school uniform or my chic cross-gender athletic garb isn’t the height of fashion?” I strutted across the floor like a runway model and almost tripped on the warm-ups on my turn.
Alden applauded. “I’ll buy the entire collection. I don’t see how you could look better, honestly, but I think it is a little too sophisticated for the restaurants around here. How about moo goo gai pan and an order of fried rice?”
“Great.”
“Egg roll?”
“Sure.”
“Any special requests?”
I sat back down. “No. Anything you want is fine.” He stared at me awhile. “What?” I asked.
“Nothing. You’re just really easy to get along with.”
“Why? Because I’m not a picky eater?”
“No. You’re just . . . different.”
Rose again. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry, Lenzi?” he asked, sitting down next to me.
I didn’t really have an answer that wouldn’t make me sound stupid. He looked at me until I could feel the blood heating up my face. He shook his head and dialed the Chinese restaurant. I was glad he’d dropped the subject. It would have been pretty hard to explain that I was jealous of myself.
Alden was a master with chopsticks. I finally gave up and used a fork. Between the two of us, we finished everything, including four fortune cookies.
“What do we do with Suzanne’s drawing?” I asked.
He picked up the fortune cookie wrappers and pitched them into an empty takeout container I was holding. “We deliver it to her mother and tell her little sister where the purple thing is.”
“Mr. Jinx. How do we find the mother?” I dropped the containers into the kitchen trash can.
“We have the name of the hospital and her school. Did she tell you her last name?”
I sat down next to him on the sofa. “Yes. It’s Lawrence. Suzanne Lawrence. She died of cancer. The sister is three. Suzanne was almost five. Mom goes by Susie. Probably Suzanne also. She has a dog named Fluffy. The toy is named after some cat that died when she was a baby.”
“Wow. Good job. Where’s Mr. Jinx?”
“In a shoe box behind the fake Christmas tree in the attic. She hid him so that he didn’t have to go back.” Hard as I tried, I couldn’t hold back tears. “Mr. Jinx was scared of needles.”
“Hey,” he whispered as he put his arm around me. “Hey. You saw her. She’s fine. She’s released. You helped her.”
I nodded and wiped my eyes. “Sorry. I’m just a wimp, I guess. It kind of got to me.”
The front door opened. Alden smiled. “Mom must be home. Good, she’ll get to meet you.”
Oh, no! I looked awful. Blotchy from blubbering, and wearing Alden’s clothes. I wiped my eyes on my sleeve, straightened my shirt, and finger combed my hair.
I was probably blushing purple by the time his mom walked in wearing a long, white lab coat with CAROLYN THOMAS, MD embroidered in navy blue on the pocket. I tried to wiggle out from under Alden’s arm, but he held me tighter.
“Hey, Alden. Is this Lenzi?” his mother asked with a smile.
“In the flesh,” he said cheerfully. “Lenzi, this is my mom, Carolyn.”
Even without the lab coat, Dr. Thomas would have been intimidating. She was tall, blond, and gorgeous. Shoulder-length hair framed a high-cheek-boned face.
“Hi,” I said.
“It’s nice to meet you at last, Lenzi. You’re all he’s talked about for the past week.”
I smiled. Dr. Thomas smiled back and strolled into the kitchen.
I glanced at my watch. Time had passed faster than I realized. Mom would be home by now. I pointed at my wrist and whispered, “I need to go.”
“Alden, don’t you have a report due tomorrow?” his mother called from the kitchen.
He rolled his eyes and grinned at me. “Yes, Mom, I do. I’ll get right on it. I’m taking Lenzi home first.”
“Be sure you get back soon enough to finish that report before the sun comes up. If they’re going to let you earn a degree by correspondence, you need to stay on top of it.”
Alden walked to the kitchen and kissed his mother on the cheek. “Don’t you have a cauldron to stir or a broomstick to ride around on or something?”
She laughed and ruffled his hair.
I felt silly returning home barefooted, wearing a raincoat over Alden’s clothes, and carrying a plastic bag containing my soggy uniform. It reminded me of the time I’d wet my pants in preschool.
Alden walked me to the door and we stood outside uncomfortably—like it was the end of a first date. Was letting a ghost share your body and then chowing down on Chinese takeout a date? He was waiting for me to say good-bye, looking as nervous as I felt. Should I shake his hand or kiss him good night on the cheek? Maybe I should act like Spook and just lick his face.
I didn’t know what to do. I had a boyfriend. A great boyfriend, but something in me needed Alden.
“What is this we’re doing?” I asked, shifting my weight foot to foot.
“I don’t know,” he said. “You tell me.”
My mom opened the door and saved the day. Whew. A graceful exit.
“Oh, Alden,” Mom gushed. “Please come in.”
Forget the graceful exit.
“Thanks, Ms. Anderson, but I have to get home. I have a report due tomorrow. Good night, Lenzi. It was . . . fun.”
“Yeah. Thanks for dinner.”
Alden smiled and shoved his hands into his pockets. “You’re welcome. It was my pleasure.”
Mom put her arm around me as we watched Alden drive off. “I’m glad you are finally making friends,” she
said.
A friend. Is that really what Alden was?
Zak’s set at the Last Concert Café wouldn’t be over until eleven. He was probably disappointed I didn’t come watch him play, and he’d go ballistic if he found out where I’d been, so I left my phone off to avoid having to lie . . . again. Guilt pinched the pit of my stomach.
After changing and brushing my teeth, I lay in bed waiting for my post-resolution jitters to settle. I’d finally done something that mattered—something significant. Alden was right. It made sense now. I had to be a Speaker. It was the first time in my life I’d felt completely right. I hadn’t been able to help my dad, but I could help the Hindered make things right so they could be at peace. And hanging out with Alden was a definite job perk. If only he would see me instead of Rose every time he looked at me.
Just as I closed my eyes, a sound came from my window, like when the June bugs knock against it in the summer months. Tap. Tap-tap. Tap.
Were the Hindered drawn to light like bugs? “Go away. Ghost Busters Inc. is closed for the night!”
Tap. Tap.
Dang. I was never going to get any rest. I got out of bed and shuffled to the window.
Tap tappity tap.
It wasn’t bugs or Hindered. It looked like . . . pebbles? I opened the window and stared down at Alden, who shot me a heart-melting grin.
“Took you long enough. I was about to start serenading if you didn’t notice me.”
I stared down at him, mystified.
“Please, Lenzi. Let me in before the neighbors call the cops.”
I wished I’d grabbed a bathrobe or something when the cool air gusted in the front door. The shorts and cami were fine as long as I was under my down comforter. Alden walked by me into the entry hall.
“Where’s your mom?” he whispered.
I pointed over my shoulder to the stairs. “Asleep in her room.”
“Perfect.” He brushed by me and started climbing to the second floor.
Oh, no! Not my room again! It was a disaster. In addition to the bathroom, there were three rooms upstairs: mine, at the top of the stairs, Mom’s bedroom at the far end, and a tiny bedroom where Mom stored her old client files and tax returns. Maybe I could steer him in there. “Alden, don’t—” Too late. He was in my room before I could finish my sentence.
