The Shade Riders and the Dreadful Ghosts

by Bxerk

  As Nova got off and pushed her bike along the shoulder of the road, she thought that something like this had happened before. She had concentrated on one thing, and her mind shifted to something different, and…weird things happened.

  Maybe she could shoot lasers from her eyes? Could she be like one of the heroes in the comic books? Nova thought for a while. She had to walk home anyway. Did she want to try to burn a hole into the back tire? No, she didn't want to patch two tires tonight.

  She picked up a dead maple leaf by the side of the road, concentrating on making a hole in it. Nothing happened. Nova threw down the leaf and ground it into the muddy gravel next to the road. “I wonder if I’ll ever show promise in anything I do.”

  After trudging up the final hill, Nova came to her family

  farm's gravel driveway. She ran her bike all the way down, to the white-washed, century old barn, where she dropped the bike and her books and ran inside.

  Nova stumbled past the milk house door to her left. Lambs and a steer in separate stalls were on her right. Down the corridor she ran, throwing open the two doors, one right after the other. Behind her the lambs bawled.

  Blue Belle, the family's Australian Shepherd, rushed to greet her wagging her entire rear end. In her excitement, the dog jumped up to lick a bit of sweat from Nova's face.

  "Hello, Belle." The dog jumped again, this time missing the target. Nova grabbed and pinched her own nose as the smell of the rotting straw, hay, and sawdust mixed with manure struck her. When the stalls finally thawed out enough to be mucked out in the spring, the odor was always bad enough to peel paint. She had tried to clean out a stall in the winter but the manure was frozen, and she would need a jackhammer to get it up. If her mother made enough money, they could buy barn heaters and another generator and not have the barn turn into a giant outhouse for a third of the year.

  Her mother was in the barn shoveling out a horse stall, finishing the job Nova had started two days ago.

  "Where were you, young lady? Wilha and Scott are out looking for you on their bikes." She put her hand up. "And please don't run in the barn. How many times do I have to remind you?"

  "I'll explain later. Did Chocolate have a boy or a girl?

  "It's a little filly, honey.” Mom leaned the pitchfork up against the wooden stall. “Now where were you?”

  "I was at school...and I... I…The stupid Monarch gang was bullying me again." She wanted to tell her about the ghosts, but her mother was so skeptical she could not bring herself to say anything. But then again her mother had gone to school for a long time and read up on all sorts of things, so maybe she would know what to make of them.

  Nova choked back tears and stared inside the semi-dark stall where Chocolate, the mare, and her new foal were going to stay temporarily. The filly came out of the shadows behind her mother and into the light. "Hello beautiful," Nova said.

  The filly nodded and mumbled a salutation.

  Nova gasped. Also, were those tiny golden wings on her horse? The shadow of wings disappeared like the face in the puddle, when the filly ambled into the light that shone into the stall.

  Nova blinked. It must be a trick of the shadows and light. Or maybe there was something wrong with her eyes.

  "Wait a minute." The filly had come when she was called. Her experiment actually worked! Nova had spent hours everyday grooming and talking to Chocolate and her big belly in hopes that the baby would recognize Nova's voice. She started to open the sliding door.

  "No, Nova!” her mom yelled, “She'll bite you!"

  Chocolate lunged forward and bared her huge yellow teeth. She arched her neck to rip and tear Nova or anyone who wished to harm her filly.

  Blue Belle rushed over, jumped up, and bit Chocolate hard on her sensitive nose. The surprised mare backed and cried out in frustration. The dog danced back ready for another attack. Nova used her leg to try to hold the Australian Shepherd back and then with shaky hands slammed the door and latched it.

  Nova stared at her friend – the mare. Or at least she thought she was her friend. The other dams never did that.

  "Chocolate is just protecting her young," Mom said. "Come over here, Nova."

  Nova was too stunned to move.

  Mom grabbed Nova arm just as Chocolate attacked the bars on the door. Belle barked a warning; then Chocolate huffed.

  Mom led her to a couple of bales of straw, and they sat.

  “Okay,” she said, "what happened with the Monarch gang that made you late?"

  "They called me a boy. When I wouldn't fight back, they pushed me up against the lockers, then knocked my books out of my hands, and kicked them down the hall."

  "You know, I've just about had it with that bunch of girls. Will you want to stay home for a couple of days?"

  "No, I'll be all right."

  "You sure? Last time you got pretty sick."

  "I'll manage somehow. I think."

  Mom blew air out. “What else happened in school?”

  “Well this morning, a boy named Dayton was rushed to the hospital because of his heart. He died.”

  “I’m sorry. Did you know him?”

  “Naw,” Nova said. “Kids say it was because of a pirate ghost.”

  "What? Between ghosts and the Monarch gang… I’m calling the principal that school is out of control. I won’t have my daughter walking around in a fog. Your school work is too important."

  "No, Mom."

  "Now not another word. I'll take care of it. I'll also radio Scott and Wilhelmina and tell them that you're home safe."

  Mom’s rubber boots squished as she stomped toward the house. Nova cried a little. She should be old enough to handle the stupid Monarch gang herself without her Mommy fighting her fights for her.

  “I should have kept my big mouth shut!”

  Nova took out her half-eaten candy bar and took a huge bite.

  Through her tears, Nova watched the sunset out a side barn door, saw a flash of the rainbow, heard a tiny whisper, and smelled herbs. What had happened in those two missing hours that whoever was behind the rainbow was not her friend.

  Chapter 6 Nightmares

  Nova strolled into the heated milk house and let the puppies out to run all over the floor as she cleaned the puppy pens with old newspaper. She put out some puppy food and gave them fresh water. When she was done playing with the puppies, she put them back into their pens. Nova cleaned the floor, entered the farmhouse, and took a warm shower to wash away that dog smell. Nova dried off, dressed, and opened the bathroom door. The comforting smell of spaghetti – made her mouth water. She found Mom standing over the stove top stirring the sauce.

  “Hi, Mom, that smells so good. Is it Grandma N’s secret recipe?”

  “Yep.” Mom removed the noodles and drained them in the sink. In a big pot she tossed the sauce with the noodles, then carried it out to the dining room.

  “Call Scott and Wilha, would you?”

  But she didn’t have to. The phone jumped out of its cradle as it rang. Wilha and Scott raced to get it. Nova didn’t quite see how it happened, but Wilha grabbed it, and Scott fell onto his butt with a thump. He slid across the tile floor, his feet in the air and crashed into Mom.

  “Whaaa.” Mom fell onto Scott. Noodles and tomato sauce flew everywhere.

  “Ahhh, hot! hot!” Scott yanked at his sauce-plastered shirt trying to pull it away from his skin.

  Nova covered her mouth with her hand and tried to keep a straight face. She looked over at Wilha who had rolled her lips back over her teeth and clamped down to hold back the laughter. Finally, they couldn’t hold it anymore -- they roared. Nova fell to the floor --wiping tears away. Wilha slapped her legs and held her stomach.

  “This is not funny.” Mom got up and picked a few stray noodles from her hair.

  True, their dinner was now spread across the kitchen floor and Hazel, Nova’s kitten, began to nibble on some. Mom shooed her away and picked up the pot.”Well, there’s still about three-fourths of it here. No s
econds, I guess.”

  Scott stripped off his shirt and walked to the sink to wash off his bare chest. When he turned around, Nova could see it was pink in a couple spots. He moved to the table and sat down to eat spaghetti at the table when Mom said, “get a shirt on.”

  “Yeah,” Nova said, “I don’t want to look at your hairy armpits while I’m eating.”

  “Fine.” Scott stomped to his room.

  As soon as Scott was back, and Wilha was ordered off the phone everyone sat down to enjoy what was left of Grandma N’s secret recipe.

  “So Nova, why were you so late getting home?” Scott shoved a giant slice of garlic bread with spaghetti on top into his mouth.

  Nova told them about the Monarch gang and the pirate ghost that maybe scared a boy to death.

  “I don’t really believe that a ghost can kill a person though,” she said between mouthfuls “‘cause Dayton had a heart condition, and I don’t know of anyone who has died.”

  “Speaking of someone who will die,” Mom said, “why didn’t you feed or water the dogs, Scott?”

  “Oh, I did.”

  “Then why were the bowls all bone dry and not a dog food morsel anywhere?”

  Scott threw the napkin down on his plate, shoved his chair out with a loud squeal, and stomped away from the table. He pounded the stairs as he lumbered up to his room, slammed the door and turned the hard rock music way up.

  “What is the matter with that boy?” Mom said. “Can’t he help out more around here? All he can think about is girls and cars.”

  Nova grinned and grabbed more garlic bread. “Maybe you need to pay him more.”

  Mom glared at Nova. She picked up Scott’s and her own plates and took them to the kitchen sink.

  Nova shrugged and turned to Wilha.

  “Want to play Monopoly tonight?” Wilha asked.

  “After we clean the table and do the dishes, I guess,” Nova said. “Mom, speaking of cars, didn’t we have a lot of them on the road like twenty years ago?”

  Mom came out of the laundry room and stood in the doorway with a mound of wet wool in her arms. She was drying the wool that would soon need to be carded. Then it would be felted and used in blankets for calves next winter. “That’s a long story. I think it started with the gas rationing, which drove people to drive more electric cars. But then electronic training began to move overseas so that fewer and fewer engineers were trained in the U.S. anymore. Then those that did started to work for the electronics industry in India and China. In the end, -- we’ve lost all our cars and other vehicles. We have learned to make do.”

  Nova wiped down the table. “So Scott may never get the car of his dreams?”

  “It doesn’t look that way. Can you make sure I got all the spaghetti off the tile and wall? Thanks, honey.”

  After twenty minutes of cleaning—-,spaghetti kept showing up in the most unlikely places-- Nova left the kitchen and brought her bike into the house from the barn. She sat on the living room couch, greased the chain and patched the tire. Then she examined both wheels for any worn spots. They looked if not brand new, evenly worn and sound. They should have lots of miles on them yet.

  Could she really have popped the front tire? She didn’t know. It would be so nice if she could do something that people thought was incredible.

  Suddenly there was a loud bang. Nova thought Scott was up to something, but another bang was definitely in the same room with her. Wilha was banging on the television to get it work, but the picture flipped so badly that she gave up and kneeled down in front of the upside down bike and watched Nova work. Besides, Scott’s music was still blasting from upstairs.

  When Nova was done with her bike, she set it outside on the cement slab porch, then came back in and played chess, Monopoly, and Parcheesi with Wilha on the dining room table.

  Nova didn’t discuss the rainbow with her family.

  She wanted to climb in bed early hoping for a good night’s sleep. Wilha was propped up in their bed with three pillows behind her, reading a book. Nova caught a glimpse of someone carrying a bloody ax on the back cover.

  “What are you doing reading that kind of book again?” She said. “They give you nightmares and you kick me out of bed.”

  “Oh, you’re silly. I don’t do that. Look, you interrupt me I’ll never get to the end and find out how the two housewives survive. Then I’ll have nightmares.” Wilha turned a page and eagerly read.

  Nova grabbed the book and looked around, trying to find a place to destroy it.

  “You little brat, give it back.”

  Wilha jumped out from under the blankets and landed on Nova smashing her to the bed. Wilha reached for the book.

  With a muffled cry, Nova slid out from under Wilha, still hanging onto the novel. She thought about throwing it out the window and into the bushes but decided against it because the weather had changed, and rain was coming down. She ran through the doorway and out into the living room, where she threw it into the cold ashes of the fireplace.

  “Mom!” Screamed Wilha. “Look what she did to my book!” She retrieved it from the fire pit and held it up to the light. Ashes covered the pages.

  Mom was on the couch reading. She lowered her book onto her lap. “Well, you can hardly blame her. You always manage to kick her out of bed. I don’t know how she puts up with your shenanigans over and over. Now you two go to sleep.”

  Wilha shrugged and stomped into the bathroom off the kitchen to clean up her book.

  Grateful to her mom, Nova hit the pillows of the queen size bed she shared with Wilha and fell fast asleep. That night, she dreamt about the rainbow. In the dream, She woke up to the strong smell of what she thought was ammonia, like someone was holding smelling salts under her nose. She was wet and shivering from the rain. Her bike was nearby on its kickstand, and there were three bearded, big-boned men standing together. They reminded her of the Neanderthals pictured on the cover of one of the books she had borrowed from the school library.

  Then Nova felt her half-sister’s feet press up against her back, and the dream disappeared. Nova shoved her feet aside but a minute later they were on her back again as she began to kick violently and groan in her sleep. Nova lay there fuming as her back took the beating. Finally, she sat up. What could she do to Wilha? She opened the door quietly and snuck out into the living room. Her mother must have gone to bed. Nova tiptoed through the living room and entered the kitchen. The tile floor felt cool to her bare feet. She opened the door leading to the garage and grabbed a long horse’s lead rope that was on a hook next to the door. She shuffled back to the bedroom. Nova jumped on Wilha’s legs and struggled to wrap them with the rope. Just when she thought she succeeded, Wilha knocked Nova off the mattress. Nova landed on the floor with a thump all tangled up in the sheet and blankets.

  Well, that didn’t work.

  Wilha was still thrashing about. She panted, sweated, and moaned in her sleep. Nova tried to sleep on the farthest side of the bed, but Wilha continued to kick her. Nova finally gave up and lay on the floor. She slowly fell back asleep. She was back near the rainbow, and there was a fireball hovering in front of her. But it wasn’t scary. Usually, she was afraid of fire. She had taken the trash out to burn it and burned her bangs, brow ridge and eyebrows right off. The fireball this woman was holding had fractal shapes floating inside and felt warm and inviting.

  She reached out to touch it, but the woman from her dream put her face into Nova’s and said, “Stop! Fireballs are not to be trifled with.” Nova woke up again and rolled over. She tried to get comfortable on the hard floor. She yearned to continue the dream. She thought she might be dreaming about what happened in her two missing hours.

  Oh, Wilha I’m going to get you back!

  In the morning, Nova’s mother told her to get up from her warm bed and go to school. She wondered how she had gotten back in bed. She must have been in a very deep sleep if she couldn’t remember either getting back in bed or being awakened by the rooster in the hen
house.

  Had she dreamed again? The only dream Nova remembered from last night was the one about the lady and the fireball. Oh and the Neanderthals and the bicycle. Could Neanderthals still exist? She was sure her mom told her that Modern Humans wiped them out thirty thousand years ago. Maybe Nova was getting the wrong information, or her “dream” was just that- a dream. It was getting late. Nova could already smell the bacon and the blueberry pancakes. Wilha was probably making breakfast for everyone.

  In the morning light that filtered through the curtains, Nova looked around her room. Half the room was Nova’s to decorate, and half was for her sister. Wilha filled up every inch of wall space on her half with hearts, country music stars, and her favorite flowers. Then she filled more with love poetry, kittens, horses, and musical instruments such as banjos, violins, guitars, and pianos. Her walls also had pictures of dream houses, recipes, a reply from a country music star, teddy bears, and dream clothes.

  Nova always thought Wilha’s wall looked silly like she needed all that stuff hanging in front of her to remind her what she liked.

  Nova’s wall had two items against the light-blue background, which you couldn’t even see on Wilha’s end. There was the black and white photo of three horses running through waves of the ocean and the dream catcher her mom bought her a while back. How could she be Native American? She recalled that they dressed up in bright colors and beautiful feathers in their dances. She felt that she just couldn’t relate. That she didn’t fit in anywhere.

  Nova’s mom came into the bedroom and grabbed dirty laundry from a red plastic chair and headed back out the door.

  Nova sat up in bed. "Mom?"

  "Hmm?" Mom stopped in the doorway.

  "About that horse stall you finished yesterday for me, do I still get the hundred dollars for it?" Nova said, “I could sure use that money.”

  "Don’t worry, there are other stalls for you to clean."

  "But I put two whole hours into that one. I was almost done."

  "Tough, honey," Mom said with a laugh. “I needed another stall ready, right then for a pregnant sow.”