The Shade Riders and the Dreadful Ghosts

by Bxerk

  The booth sat between the volcano that was oozing red chunky stuff and the story of evolution display. Nova sat down next to Takeesha and Max Kim.

  Nova bit a fingernail."They’re staring at me. What’s up with that?"

  "Wow, if it's not one thing with Nova it's another,” Takeesha mumbled. Half closing her eyes, she looked away.

  Nova recoiled. Why couldn’t she be more supportive? Even Max Kim stared at Takeesha as if she were a stranger.

  "I'm going to walk around and look at the other people's work," Nova said and stomping away.

  Nova counted twenty white-faced and sweaty exhibitors all trying to deal with the ghosts’ presence. Maybe thirty more people milled about looking over exhibits. It didn’t take long for her to look at everything.

  And wherever she went, the ghosts were defiantly watching her. Why did they stare so much? Was it because she was going over to the dark side? To science? Nova was sure she didn't want to know why. She scanned her surroundings and noticed that one of the students not only displayed his exhibit but was selling it after the show. She hurried back to the table, where Benny was exhibiting to tell them the news.

  "Hey, you guys, there are four Walkie Talkies for sale over at Jomo's table. They cost six hundred dollars. If we pool our money, we can get them. Of course, I’ll have to give you an I.O.U. for now. My mom’s not here.”

  "Yeah, cool!" Max Kim jumped up and strolled over to ask his dad, who sat on the far side of the table talking to other parents, for some money.

  "Let's do it," Benny called his mom over and asked her to write out a check.

  Takeesha raised an eyebrow when Nova looked her way and held out a hand.

  “How about it Takeesha?”

  “I’m not getting a stupid Walkie Talkie.”

  “Why not? It’ll come in handy. You know, for The Shade Riders.”

  Takeesha huffed and put her head down. Oh, well. Nova figured she could get Takeesha to cooperate later. Nova looked at the boys. “Can you guys afford to buy two each? You know we are good for them.”

  “You’re lucky you caught me on a good day,” Benny said.

  When Nova kept staring at him with a question on her face he sighed and said, “Fine.” Max Kim nodded and grinned.

  “Thanks, guys.” Nova took their checks and strolled over to Jumo’s table. Jumo told Nova he was still going to need the Walkie Talkies for his display, but she could pick them up after the show. Nova skipped back to the table and carried a receipt in her hand to prove she bought them.

  Takeesha was resting her head on her arms. She lifted it to see what was going on. Her eyes were puffy as though she just woke up.

  “Wow, Takeesha, you look tired.”

  “I was out late last night.”

  Nova didn’t want to pry. She found a scrap of paper in her jeans and, borrowing Benny’s pen wrote: I.O.U. Seventy-Five bucks. She gave one to Benny and one to Max Kim. Nova looked around the gym.

  Two ghosts dressed in cowboy clothing stared. Those were the same two she saw in the hall when she was in a fight with Brenda and Amanda when Benny, Max Kim, and the autogyro came to her rescue. Nova chewed her lower lip. Her watch vibrated, and the red crystal face lit up. A live eye with a blue pupil peered out at her.

  "Don't worry, mate, I'll handle this," Leandra’s voice boomed from the watch.

  “Leandra.”

  The science fair judges approached Benny's table. They told him to fly his model autogyro in an area roped off for it. Benny grabbed his machine and wheeled over to the special place. He set it on the tile floor gently and got ready with the controls.

  Benny’s autogyro rose from the floor. The propeller quickly and noiselessly chopped the air. It hovered. Benny handling the controls shot the missiles at a target. Nova raced over curious to see what would happen. Two ghosts watched her with angry faces.

  "Watch this, you’ll be as good as gold!" Leandra said from Nova’s watch.

  A huge FIZZZZZZ split the air as a red rocket from one

  of the tables took off. Nova ducked as it came by her. Flying past Benny's autogyro, it hooked onto the footpads and knocked it into the two ghosts and against the white brick wall, slamming into the school speakers. A static sound filled the room. Nova heard the sound of a torn sheet -- rrriiippp.

  The ghosts in the room scrambled to grab on to the tables

  to stay in the gym but to no avail. They all disappeared,

  pulling down various experiments onto the floor with a crash.

  When things had settled down, everyone checked their exhibit. Some survived, and others didn’t. Benny, Nova, Max Kim and Takeesha raced over to the area where the autogyro crashed. Benny checked it over for damage.

  “Is it all right?” Nova asked.

  "Yeah, she took a spill, but she’s okay. She bounced and landed on her feet."

  "Whew, that's…really lucky," Nova said, "Hmm… I wonder where the ghosts went." Nova looked at her watch. The eye was gone. She felt much better without the ghosts staring at her. Did Leandra actually do something? Or was that just a coincidence?

  Nova ambled away from her friends and pressed one of the buttons on the watch. “Leandra are you there?” Nothing. She pressed two more buttons. Still nothing. She wished she could show Benny because she could use help figuring out the watch, but for some reason she felt it was a good idea to keep it a secret for now. She turned back to Benny’s table.

  “Well, that was weird.” Leandra’s voice. Nova looked at the watch. Her eye was back.

  “What happened?” she said.“I was trying to scare them not make them disappear. Not that I’m complaining.”

  “So, you don’t know how to defeat the ghosts?”

  “No. At least, not yet, sorry. I’ve got to go. Bye, love.”

  The science fair ended. As soon as everyone started packing up to go home, Nova picked up the Walkie Talkies - they had escaped damage. She handed them out to her friends. She noticed Takeesha’s eyes narrowing as she reached out slowly to take a Walkie Talkie like it was going to bite her. Nova’s stomach, which was still upset from the presence of the ghosts, lurched with Takeesha’s suspicion.

  The gang called their parents from a pay phone outside the school office. Nova called home and told Scott that she needed a ride now. Would he radio Mom? Scott said he would. She said thanks and hung up. Nova sighed. She leaned against a radiator in the hallway where she could watch the dark street outside as she waited for her ride.

  Nova felt exhausted, and pretty blue over Takeesha. Good thing her extended family and good friends were coming over to the farm for a get together and potluck tomorrow. She couldn’t wait. Thinking about the fun she was going to have tomorrow filled her with so much relief that tears threatened to course down her face.

  Chapter 12 Surprise

  Before the family and friends get-together the next morning, Nova’s mother told her and Scott that the hay fields were ready to be cut and baled. Their job would be to stack the bales in the haymow.

  “Great,” Nova said, “just great.”

  “Well, I can bench press 200 pounds,” Scott said, “so I can carry a bale in each hand and walk all the way to the catch pen.”

  Nova flexed her biceps. Her large muscle stretched the fabric of her shirt. “I’m stronger than you and I don’t need to work out.”

  Scott snorted. “Yeah, right.”

  “I’ll make punch and bring it out to you two tough guys.” Wilha headed into the kitchen.

  “You know, you could help us stack bales,” Nova yelled after her.

  “I can’t even lift one,” Wilha said.

  Nova sighed. “Oh, yeah.”

  Nova and Scott trudged out to the barn, climbed up to the haymow and waited. Minutes later, the sound of an old tractor huffing up the road announced Mr. Kincaid and his two sons, towing a wagon overflowing with hay bales. Nova opened the barn’s side window so their neighbors could put up the escalator. Then they attached the tractor’s power take off
– a big pulley that stuck out the side and was run by the tractor’s motor – to the escalator with a wide, leather belt.

  Soon Mr. Kincaid and his sons began unloading the wagon, and the bales crept up the hay escalator and through the window, where they hit the top of the tall grain bin. A huge dust cloud hung over everything, making Nova and Scott sneeze. Nova stood at the grain bin and tossed bales to Scott to stack for a while, and then they traded places.

  As the Kincaids found their rhythm, the bales came faster and faster up the escalator. By then, the neat stack reached half way to the rafters, and it was harder to heave a bale to the stacker on the top. They had to be carried. Nova grabbed the next one and the twine holding it together fell off. This kind of bale was called “broken.” Nova jumped down from the pile of stacked hay bales, kicked the broken one down a chute into a stall, then grabbed four bales at once and hauled them up to Scott, who raised his eyebrows. He tried to take them all himself, faltered and fell down. He tried again but couldn’t do it. Finally, he gave up and just took two at a time and stacked them.

  Nova smirked. She didn’t know where she got the strength, but she thought it was kind of clash.

  “I can’t help it if I’m weird,” Nova said throwing another bale up to the top of the stack.

  Scott shrugged.

  Soon Mr. Kincaid left to get more hay from the field. Wilha

  brought in a cooler with a spigot on the side and some plastic cups. Nova and Scott climbed down the mountain of hay bales and blew hay dust out of the cups. They poured red juice, eager to cool off.

  They had some time now to jump down the chute in the

  hallway into the huge, ten-foot tall pile of broken bales. Nova went first. “Waa hoo!”

  She moved out of the way fast as Scott came down face

  First, whooping and hollering. They jumped down a few more times before the hay had to be raked into a pile again. Nova got scratchy hay inside her clothing and dust in her hair, but it was worth it. She hurried to shake out her clothing while not exposing her bra to her brother.

  “Don’t worry,” he said, “I’ve seen everything.”

  Nova turned red.

  Soon Mr. Kincaid chugged back with more bales, which started the process all over again until there were none left in the fields, and the haymow was stacked full. Nova and Scott had built a stairway up to the grain bin so the swing could be used at the party that night.

  Nova sat on a hay bale. The sweat made the hay dust stick to her skin, making her feel like a giant cheese puff. She slurped on ice cold punch and munched on pieces of wheat kernel heads from the hay bales. This end of May hay was so tender, full of leaves and had a lot of alfalfa because they had cows that needed rich fodder to produce milk. But if the horses ate too much alfalfa they could get colic, so grass hay was also mixed with the alfalfa in the forty-acre field they owned. They traded with Mr. Kincaid for the use of some of the land. He put his cows on it to graze, and Nova and her family got hay cut, baled, and delivered to the haymow.

  “You kids better clean up for the get-together,” came Mom’s voice up the barn chute.

  “Let’s get rid of the juice.”

  Nova and Scott took the remainder of the punch in the cooler and tossed it out the top window without even looking.

  “Hey!” Mom yelled. “Now I have to change my shirt and wash my hair. Thanks a lot.”

  Nova and Scott ducked inside and laughed. “Oops. She must’ve moved. Oh, I bet she gets us back for that.”

  “I’ll be ready.” With his two arms outstretched, Scott fanned himself with his tee shirt that he removed two hours ago.

  “I get the shower first after Mom.” Nova strolled after Scott out of the haymow, down the hill, and toward the house.

  “All right, just don’t use up all the cold water.”

  Nova shuffled out of the bathroom. A horse and buggy were clopping down the long driveway. They were followed by Nova’s Uncle Pete and Carol and their three cousins on three wheel bikes with baskets on the back. They parked, got off and set their food on one of the two picnic tables. A small roller skate of a car came down next. More people arrived as Nova grabbed the food out of the kitchen and set it out on the picnic table. Soon the farm yard was packed with people.

  Nova played volleyball and then kick the can with her cousins, loving every minute of the utter chaos. Barbecue chicken, hotdogs, hamburgers, and barbecued spare ribs disappeared into hungry stomachs. Kids ran and played all around the farm. They took turns on the tire swing on the oak tree in the front yard, spinning the rider until he or she couldn’t stand up anymore. But most the kids were in the haymow with the board rope swing. The noise, pushing and shoving, and jumping down the chutes, woke up a few barn bats from their daytime slumber. They squeaked in protest. Nova’s twelve-year-old cousin Suzie screamed and ran out of the haymow pulling cobweb from her hair. A line of kids all shapes and sizes formed along one wall waiting for the swing. Soon, Nova was next in line. She stood on top of the grain bin and jumped onto the swing while in flight and soared about fifteen yards across the haymow. When the swing slowed, she was able to drag her feet through the loose hay on the floor. She tossed the swing back up to the person on the grain bin, and it started all over again.

  Nova left the haymow and strode to the cooler to get her third cola. Parents talked and played cards as mosquitoes buzzed around their heads. When the insects finally got too bad, they picked up the remainder of their potluck, grabbed their kids, and headed home. People had flashing lights on their vehicles now that it was dusk. The strobe effect gave Nova a little headache, but she stayed in the driveway to wave goodbye to her friends and family. Then she helped clean up the tables and chairs-- folding them and putting them into the garage.

  Finally, they trudged inside the farmhouse. Exhausted but still excited from the party, Nova hung around the living room and kitchen as everyone else proceeded to get ready for bed. Through the open windows, Nova heard the loud chirping of crickets and songs of the pond frogs in the horse pasture. She grabbed her unfinished rug, yarn, and rug hook and sat down at the dining room table.

  Threading the different colored yarns through the burlap backing was very soothing. Thinking back on the day, she realized she had drunk six cans of caffeinated cola. No wonder she was still up. She had also been so busy she didn’t see her filly the whole day. Nova grabbed carrots from the refrigerator and skipped out to play with Shade. The filly loved to chase her from one end of the pen to the other kicking her heels and tossing her head. Then Nova would chase her back. As Nova approached the catch pen gate, two owls hooted. She felt a cool breeze brush against her face.

  Something was wrong.

  Alone in the catch pen, Shade ran back and forth against the fence trying to get in with the other horses. She seemed alarmed, almost as if she were afraid of Nova.

  It was very dark. Nova could only see a silhouette of Shade, and it looked odd, with extra bulges across Shade’s back. Nova’s imagination went into overdrive. Did Shade have barbed wire wrapped around her body with a fence post lying across her shoulders? She’d seen a bull like that once after it had tried to push through a fence to get at better fodder.

  Nova ran over the uneven grass, fell and twisted her ankle. She crawled toward Shade on her hands and knees until she came up against a burdock bush. She rose, testing her legs to see if they’d hold her. They did, so she limped on.

  Nova hobbled over, patting Shade’s shoulder. She gave the horse carrots to try and calm her down. Shade gobbled them up instantly. Nova reached for what she thought was a post on her shoulders.

  She felt soft feathers.

  Holy chaos!

  “Hey girl,” Nova said. “So I really did see wings that first day we met.” She remembered that Shade looked like she had wings as long as she stayed in shadows. As soon as she entered the light that came into the stall, the wings disappeared. That might explain why Shade sometimes was loose in the front yard in the morning. Nova s
tarted to dance around but winced in pain from the ankle. Instead, she hooped and hollered.

  Blue Belle ran out of the barn when she heard the excitement. Since she was a herding dog, Blue Belle naturally began to chase Shade.

  Shade took a running start, then sailed right over the fence. Her golden brown wings tipped with black glistened in the moonlight.

  Nova couldn’t move. Clash!

  Blue Belle crouched low and squirmed under the barbed wire out of the catch pen and into the far pasture. She ran after Shade in a frenzy, even though the horse was gliding a yard off the ground.

  A large dust cloud bloomed in the distance.

  The nanny pygmy goat that was keeping Shade company for the night also managed to crawl under the wire and then trotted behind, bleating to her friend.

  "I can't believe it,” Nova said. “I just can’t believe it.”

  Nova shook herself back to reality and began thinking. This had to stay a secret. She opened the catch pen gate so no one would be the wiser.

  Dark gray clouds appeared in front of Nova, then transformed into two ghosts hovering in flowing robes. Nova

  watched one of them change into a grim reaper, which swung his scythe to cut the other one, now a “Nova” ghost, in two. Her

  likeness released a blood-curdling scream.

  Nova turned and ran as fast as she could with her ankle. A rut in the dirt jolted her to the ground, twisting her already sore ankle again.

  “Dear Vulcan. I don’t know if I can make it.”

  Nova got up. She limped and skidded toward the garage door, grabbed the doorknob and twisted.

  The door was locked.

  “Let me in!” She banged on the door, watching over her shoulder as the ghost drew closer with a floppy “Nova” in its claws.