You’re In The Spirit World Now - Ch. 2

Chapter 2 Audio

For the last week, Lucy felt like someone was watching her. It was a new sensation that took a while to identify because over the course of her thirteen years of life she had already filed “It feels like someone’s watching me” away as something adults put in books and movies but wasn’t actually real, like love at first sight. Now she was going to have to take a hard look at the other things she had dismissed.

This weird sensation started a week ago when she was practicing her step-back three at the park and accidentally beaned that old guy in the face with her ball. That other old guy had cursed at her—which seemed excessive considering she was still a child and it had obviously been an accident—but by the time she had helped the guy she’d hit onto his feet he was gone. And ever since then, she’d felt like someone was watching her, just outside of her peripheral vision.

The sensation did come and go. It would disappear for a while and just when she convinced herself she was imagining things it would come back. She thought about bringing it up with her parents but she hadn’t figured out a way to describe it that didn’t make her sound crazy. And knowing her parents they would just chalk it up to “hormones”, the ever present boogeyman pulling the strings on any behavior deemed undesirable in a teenager.

The only time she brought it up to anyone things didn’t go very well.

“Have you ever felt like someone was watching you?” Lucy asked Kendra when they were both on the bench during the game against Haskell Middle School. Kendra was a starter but Lucy spent most of her time on the bench. Hence why she had been practicing her step-back three in the park that day. If she was going to get any extended time on the court she needed an elite skill.

“Yeah,” Kendra said, eyes following the flow of the game. “I’ve caught skeevy dweebs checking me out every day since sixth grade.” Kendra had shown up for the first day of middle school four inches taller and with honest-to-god boobs, not the glorified mosquito bites Lucy and the rest of the girls were still sporting then. “You get used to it.”

“No, not the boys, I mean someone watching you who isn’t…there…” Lucy’s voice trailed off as she realized what she was trying to explain couldn’t really be explained. Kendra turned from the game, a rare occurrence, to look at Lucy with one eyebrow raised. Then she broke out in a big grin.

“Lucy, you’re so weird,” Kendra said. She gave Lucy a playful shove before getting up and jogging to the scorer’s table to get checked back into the game.  Great, Lucy thought, so now I’m not just the benchwarmer, I’m the weird benchwarmer. Needless to say, she didn’t bring it up with anyone else after that.

A few days after the game with Haskell, she was walking home from school, dribbling her basketball the entire way. She switched hands every time she switched streets. By now she’d worked it out so she got roughly equal time with both hands, slightly favoring her left which was her non dominant hand. She got the idea of walking home with the basketball from her dad. Really from a video her dad showed her on Youtube. Her dad was corny and always showing old basketball clips. This one was super corny. A guy named Pistol Pete. He looked like a retired pornstar. But his handle was great, she had to admit that. And she recognized some of his drills from things her current coach still had her do. The main thing that stuck with her though was the story he told of walking around town with his basketball until it became a part of him. That was badass. She never watched those clips again, but she thought about that part a lot.

She had always practiced hard. It set her apart from the other kids in her city recreational basketball leagues. Most of the kids were there for a little bit of fun. The serious kids all played club basketball but Lucy’s family couldn’t afford club basketball. Still, she practiced as much as she could. She spent hours watching WNBA players, trying to deconstruct their game. And she had been dominant in the rec leagues, but not in a way that translated to the school team. She had been a shark among minnows, now she was with other sharks. The other sharks had experience playing on good teams, with players who lived and breathed the game. Players who knew how to play as a team, to move without the ball and play team defense. Lucy’s experience was glorified one-on-one. And in that regard, she could hold her own against any of the players on the Childers Middle School team. But she was still learning how to be part of a good team. She was riding the bench because she kept missing her assignment on defense. She kept missing the extra pass on offense. Almost every game there was one play where she just stood there because she couldn’t wrap her head around what the play was supposed to be. The game was moving faster than she was used to. At least the coach liked her energy coming off the bench.

Halfway home, she got the feeling that someone was watching her. It was stronger than ever. She looked over her shoulder and could have sworn she was going to see someone standing right behind her. No one was there. She turned around, keeping her dribble going with her left hand, and almost walked right into the old guy who had cursed at her at the park.

“Woahmygod,” she yelped, stepping back and somehow keeping her dribble going. She looked around to see if anyone was out on the street to see them. No one. “What do you want?”

“Okay, I deserve that,” the man said. “Now don’t freak out when you hear what I say next.”

“Nuhuh, I don’t want to hear anything,” Lucy said, giving him a wide berth as she walked around him. “And I can scream real loud so don’t try anything.”

“No no no, it’s not like that,” he said, walking beside her and holding his hands up like he was trying to soothe a dog. “I’m not trying to kidnap you. I’m a ghost.”

The ball bounced off her foot, rolling to a stop next to the curb.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m a ghost. A spirit. An apparition.”

“Bullshit.”

“You shouldn’t swear.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“Fair enough,” he sighed. He looked off in the distance. “Fine. I’ll prove it.”

“How will you—“

He disappeared. One second he was there, the next he was gone. Not even a sparkly fadeout like on Star Trek. Just. Gone.

“Holy shit I’m crazy,” Lucy said, sitting down on the curb next to her ball. “I’m actually crazy.”

“No, you’re not crazy,” the ghost said, appearing on the curb next to her.

“That’s exactly what a crazy person’s imaginary ghost would say,” Lucy said. She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes until she saw swirling spots. When she opened her eyes the ghost was still there.

“Yep, still here,” he said. “Might as well introduce myself. Montgomery Combs, Private Eye.”

He held out his hand for her to shake. When she brought her hand to his, it went right through. Lucy almost vomited.

“Okay, that was disconcerting,” he said.

Lucy got up and started walking. Fast. She hugged the ball close to her chest. Just focus on getting home. Just focus on getting home. The man, Montgomery, followed along beside her.

“I get it, this is weird,” he said. “This wasn’t my first choice either.”

“What do you mean?” Lucy said. Why was she talking to this thing? This figment of her imagination.

“You hit my first choice in the head with a basketball at the park.”

Lucy stopped.

“The old guy?”

“What old guy—wait, Detective Reid is only like 45. Whatever, that’s not important. The thing is, as a ghost I can only imprint on one person. They are the only person who can see me. The only person I can interact with. And I chose Reid. But…”

“Then I beaned him in the head and you saw me?”

“Exactly.”

“So you…imprinted on me?”

“Yep. It sounds bad when you say it like that but yeah.”

“And you’ve been following me ever since then?”

“Pretty much,” he said. “Apparently this means I can’t get very far from you.”

Lucy gasped. “Oh my god have you been watching me pee?”

“No! Gross! I’m not a pervert, I’m a ghost.”

“Those two aren’t mutually exclusive. Seems to me ghosts would make excellent perverts.”

“Good point but still I am not a pervert.”

“Then what do you do when I’m….indisposed.”

“I go away.”

“But you just said—”

“I go somewhere not here on Earth. I…can’t really explain it. I don’t understand it myself.”

“You just go off into a void somewhere?”

“Pretty much.”

“Sounds boring.”

“Not as boring as sitting through middle school a second time.”

“The first time isn’t that great either,” Lucy muttered.

“Hey, you’re funny,” Montgomery said with the surprise of someone seeing a dog talk.

“Thanks.” Lucy kept her eyes straight ahead. She could see her house now. It took all her effort not to break into a run. She was definitely crazy but she didn’t need to advertise to the world. Yet.

“Look, I need your help,” Montgomery said.

“Tough.”

“I get it. This is weird. But I think if you help me I…I get to leave.”

Lucy stopped walking. They were in her driveway now.

“I help you and you leave?”

The ghost nodded. Lucy looked at the door to her house then back to the ghost.

“What do you need help with?”

“Solving my murder.”

“Ooookay then.” Lucy stomped to the door, doing her best to ignore the ghost as she unlocked the front door.

“I told you you weren’t my first choice.”

She walked in and slammed the door before the ghost could follow her in. She locked the door then turned around to find Montgomery standing in the entryway, having the decency to look a little apologetic.

“Doors and locks don’t mean much anymore,” he said, shrugging.

“I can’t help you solve your murder.”

“Why not?”

“First of all, I’m thirteen years old. A normal thirteen-year-old. Not Encyclopedia Brown.”

“Wow, how do you know about Encyclopedia Brown.”

“My parents are dorks.”

Montgomery nodded. “I would be the one doing the detective work. I just need you to get me to the right places in the world. Just be my physical presence.”

“Nope. Can’t do it.”

“Why not?”

“Because you aren’t real! You’re a figment of my imagination and I’m going crazy! I need to see a doctor. I need to get on medication. I need to—”

“You’re not crazy. I’m real. Just google search Montgomery Combs Broken Arrow. You’ll find my website and you’ll probably find a story in the Broken Arrow Ledger about my murder. Not a lot of murders in BA so I assume it made a splash.”

Lucy couldn’t look at the ghost anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut. “Just go away.”

“But—”

“Please.”

Silence. The ghost stopped talking. After a slow count to thirty, she opened her eyes. He was gone. That was good to know. She might be crazy but at least she could make her delusions disappear by asking nicely. Feeling unsteady on her feet, she walked down the hall to her room and threw her backpack and basketball on the bed. Then she stumbled into the kitchen for a snack. She quickly sliced an apple and got the jar of peanut butter from the cabinet. Balancing everything precariously in one arm, she snagged the iPad off the counter where it was charging.

At the table, she propped the iPad up on its stand and started slathering peanut butter on the apple slices. Once her snack was ready, she unlocked the iPad. She had planned to open Netflix but her finger went to the browser instead. Her fingers hesitated over the keyboard. Why was she doing this? Better to know for sure. She typed MONTGOMERY COMBS BROKEN ARROW in the search bar and hit enter. The first result was a news story from the Broken Arrow Ledger: Local Private Eye Killed. Accompanying the story was a picture of man in a suit, smiling at the camera in what was obviously a professional headshot. It was her ghost. Montgomery Combs.

Maybe she wasn’t crazy after all.