fistful.
Wendy sighed and tried not to think about their afternoon visit to UCSF or the lonely soul in her mother’s room. Every room in the Neuro-ICU had a soul like Lauren’s—souls trapped near their bodies by the last minutes of their lives, hovering somewhere between life and death. Until their connection to their bodies snapped, they weren’t alive and weren’t dead; hovering spirits waiting for the moment they either woke up…or died.
As much as it killed her to admit it, until they were dead Wendy could do nothing for them. They were beyond her reach. Still, despite that terrible limbo, it would have been a relief to see her mother’s soul there among the others, even if her body grew weaker by the day. It would be proof that some part of her still existed.
But her soul, unlike every other soul Wendy had seen in such a state, was gone. Her mother’s soul was missing and Wendy couldn’t rest until she’d found it.
When night fell she’d go out on patrol, taking Caltrain closer and closer to the city, walking the streets every night until she was certain each section was empty, that her mother’s lost and wandering spirit hadn’t somehow taken up residence there.
Until sunset, though, Wendy could take a breather. She thought of her patrol the night before and the picture on her notebook. She thought of the kiss she’d shared that morning, how she’d pushed Eddie away. It had hurt at the time, but after all his over-the-top ogling and staring this afternoon, Wendy knew she’d done the right thing.
Maybe Eddie was right. Maybe she should’ve called the cops for that guy in the woods. It wasn’t like she’d be the first kid to jump the fence; she couldn’t get in too much trouble for it, right? But old lessons stuck and Wendy’s mother had rules about encounters like the one she’d had.
Her mother had waited until they were in the car to begin. “You and Eddie didn’t come downstairs. I thought we told you to fetch him, Winifred.”
“I tried, Mom, but he didn’t want to.” Wendy pushed back in the seat and scrubbed her palms across her cheeks. She wanted to explain further but she knew her mother’s tone when she called Wendy by her full name like that; Wendy didn’t want to push her luck and end up grounded.
“Bereavement rituals are important for the living and the dead.” The car slid backwards into the street, engine purring. Pulling to the end of the street, her mother clipped the end of each word; her knuckles were white on the steering wheel. “Some dead stick around only for the funerals, Wendy. They won’t pass into the Light on their own if they think the rituals weren’t followed just so.”
The guilt was sour in her mouth. “Was Mr. Barry angry at me?”
Her mother sighed. “Unless you spotted him, he wasn’t there, Wendy. But my point is that he could have been. They frequently are.” She looked left, then right. “We’re not going home right away. I can see now that I need to start your lessons sooner rather than later.”
“But Dad—”
“Can wait. He’s used to it.” Her mother punched the gas and the station wagon darted forward into traffic. They drove up to the high school and parked in the principal’s spot. The engine was barely off before her mother was out of the car and on the move, Wendy scrabbling to unbuckle her belt and follow. “Mom! Mom, wait!”
Tearing her skirt in thorny bushes, Wendy pushed on after her mother, trying to put her feet where her mother did, trying to slide through the gaps as neatly as her mother did. Her legs weren’t as long, though; nor was she tall enough to push back the branches her mother could. When she finally caught up with her mother she was scratched from head to toe, her hair tangled and sweaty, her cheek cut and stinging from a stray branch. “Mom,” she panted. “Why didn’t you slow down? I’m bleeding.”
“Wendy, darling, in our line of work you just have to get used to it,” her mother said, but her words were gentle. She wasn’t looking at her daughter, but instead staring intently into a backyard butting up against the edge of the woods. The chain link back here was only hip-high on Wendy, easy to jump if she needed to. A small girl, no more than three or four, was swinging on the backyard swing set. She wasn’t pumping her legs; strong hands pushed her higher and higher. She squealed happily. “Higher Grandma! Higher!”
“But…she’s dead. Right?” Wendy blinked and rubbed her eyes, thinking that perhaps the rapidly expanding twilight was playing tricks with her. “How can she do that? And can the kid see her? She can, can’t she?”
Her mother sighed. “I don’t have all the answers, Wendy-girl. But this much I do know…she died last week. I was here, picking up the body, but I couldn’t do anything then.” She pushed aside a branch and glanced around the yard. “Other than the two of them it looks all clear, but I’m not willing to risk it. It would look very strange, me showing up here like this. So you get to do it instead. Who’s going to suspect a little girl?”
“Do it?”
“Send her into the Light.”
“But, Mom, I don’t know how,” Wendy protested. “All I can do is see them!”
“You’ll figure it out.” She laid a hand on Wendy’s shoulder. “But remember, Wendy-girl. Cover your back. I had to.”
“What do you mean, you had—ow!” Wendy stumbled into the yard, her mother’s shove pushing her far enough past the bushes that she had nowhere to hide. The girl’s swing slowed; both the spirit and the little girl had spotted her immediately.
“Hi!” the little girl chirruped, jumping off the swing at the low point, stumbling when she hit the ground but catching her balance quick enough. “Do you want to swing?”
“Lacey, no,” the old lady hissed. “Stranger danger! You don’t know her name!”
“I’m Wendy,” Wendy said quickly. She swiped her hand against her cheek, feeling the hot smear of her blood against her palm. “But your grandma’s right, I don’t want to swing.”
“You…you can hear me?” The old woman hurried forward and grabbed Wendy by the shoulders. “You have to—ouch, girl! You’re hot!”
“I am?” Wendy put her wrist against her forehead. She didn’t feel any different to herself, not like she was running a temperature. Wendy shrugged. “Sorry? I can’t control it.”
“No matter. You have to go. You can’t stay here.”
“Why not?” Wendy knelt by the younger girl. “Lacey? Maybe you should go inside, okay? It’s getting awfully dark and cold. You should go wash up.”
“No!” The ghost waved her arms widely but Lacey, yawning, toddled off toward the patio door. “Lacey Marie, you come back here! Lacey!” She turned on Wendy and wagged a finger in her face. “Young lady, I know you think you’re doing the right thing, but you’re an idiot.”
“I just…I didn’t want her to see this.”
“See what?”
“See me…see me sending you into the Light.” Wendy winced.
“Sending me into the Light? Child, I turned my back on that nonsense a week ago. You think I’m going to just let you shove me into it now? Especially when there’s no sane person around to keep an eye on my granddaughter? Absolutely not.”
“But…don’t you want to go to heaven? Or whatever?”
She laughed mirthlessly. “You don’t have the slightest idea what you’re doing, do you? Look, young lady, I didn’t believe in a god when I was alive, I’m hardly about to start believing in him now. Now if you’ll excuse me —”
“Hey!” Wendy snapped, inexplicably angry with the stubborn old ghost who should’ve had the sense to go into the Light when it’d been offered the first time. If it hadn’t been for her, Wendy would be home right now, safe in her warm bed, thinking good thoughts about the kiss with Eddie, not bloody and shivering at the edge of the woods while her mother skulked somewhere in the shadows and watched her argue with a ghost. “My name is Wendy! You wouldn’t want me to start calling you ‘old fart,’ would you? And… and… okay, you don’t have a choice. Right? If you need to go into the Light, you just go, okay? Or else you’re stuck. The Light doesn’t stick around forever, you know.”
Wendy crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. She was making a huge mess of this, she could tell. Strangely, standing there with the anger bubbling was sending an odd feeling coursing through her body; an acid-
