“You’re surrounded by spirits,” I tell her.
“I always have been. I think it’s because they know I can see them. You can see them too.” When I nod, she asks, “But why do you need to know about them, to get your mother back?”
“There’s one spirit in particular. I don’t know; she could even be a demon. I’ve seen her all my life. One day, I fell off a boat, and she was waiting for me on the ocean floor. She doesn’t have a name, but I call her the woman in black, and since the day my mother left, she has been appearing to me more and more. She’s been following me up and down this island, and I think she must have something to do with my mother’s disappearance.”
Kalinda nods, listening. “It sounds like a classic haunting to me. But why is she haunting you?” she asks.
“I think that she’s taken my mom. Stolen her away, hidden her somewhere.”
“Why would she do something like that?”
“I don’t know.”
“And besides, she could have taken your mother and disappeared entirely, if it was just your mother that she wanted.”
“Maybe she wants to tease and taunt me, the way that boy did in your old house.” But even as I say it, I know that the woman in black would have no reason to do something like that to me. “Or maybe she knows something—maybe she wants to tell me something about my mother’s disappearance.”
Kalinda takes this into consideration, before she stands straighter. “I have something important to tell you, Caroline,” Kalinda says. “Please listen carefully. There’s a chance that this woman in black has nothing to do with your mother’s disappearance at all. There’s also a chance that she only wants to speak to you, like you’ve said, and wants to tell you where your mother can be found. And then there’s the chance that she’s stolen your mother away entirely. If it’s the last possibility, and the woman in black took your mother, then they’re in the spirit world.”
“The spirit world?”
“Yes, the spirit world,” Kalinda says again. “Where all the spirits go. Not very many people are taken there, but when they are, they see incredible things. Skies of flowers, and hills made of water, creatures you can’t even imagine. That’s what I hear. If your mom was taken by the spirits …” Kalinda starts, but doesn’t seem to plan on finishing. I wait until she takes a breath and opens her mouth again. “I don’t think you’ll get her back again.”
I don’t know what to say. What do I say to that, when the thought of seeing my mother again is the only thing that’s mattered—the one thing that’s given me a purpose in this world? “That’s a lie,” I say.
“It’s not a lie,” Kalinda says. She doesn’t look offended that I even suggested it. “Once they take you, they don’t let go. You’ll be trapped in the spirit world if you go there to find her.”
“But it’s possible to get there without the spirits taking you?”
“You didn’t hear me,” she says. “It’ll be impossible to get out again.”
“That doesn’t matter,” I say, and it’s the truth. If I’m trapped there and my mother is trapped there too, then that just means I have my mom. Where we are doesn’t matter—not coming back to Water Island or Saint Thomas doesn’t matter. I can see a flinch of hurt on Kalinda’s face, though, which turns into a stony anger just a split second later, and I feel guilt twisting my insides. I feel guilty, because I know that it does matter. I would miss Kalinda. I would miss my father. I would even miss Miss Joe. But I can’t let that stop me. More than anyone else, I have missed my mother so much more, and it hurts how badly I want to see her again, how badly I want her to wrap her arms around me and tell me that everything will be fine, as long as we have each other.
And so I don’t apologize for implying that Kalinda doesn’t matter to me, because while it’s true that I would miss her terribly, it’s also true that I need my mother more. I ask, “How do I get to the spirit world?”
Kalinda looks ready to suck her teeth. I’ve never seen her so mad. But she takes a second before she says anything again. “You must remember, there’s a chance that the woman in black knows where your mother is, and is only trying to tell you the truth.”
“And there’s also a chance that she’s taken my mother.” And I feel, with all my heart, that this is exactly what has happened. Or perhaps this is what I want to have happened most of all. This would explain why my mother would leave me—this would explain that she hadn’t left me by choice.
I ask her again. “How do I get to the spirit world?”
“The eclipse,” she says. “The solar eclipse is the only time humans can leave this world for the spirits’. That’s when they become
