Only Child(83)

I untied the suitcase strap and rolled out Andy’s sleeping bag next to Andy’s gravestone and I sat on it crisscross applesauce like when I was in the hideout. I got out everything from the backpack and laid it out next to me: the Buzz flashlight for when it got dark, my book, my water bottle that I filled up all the way, four granola bars, three bags of Goldfish, two string cheeses, a ham and cheese sandwich that I made after lunch today and that was going to be for dinner later, and an apple. Everything was laid out, and it looked like I was having a picnic.

The last thing I took out from the backpack was the picture of me and Andy, and I put it in between two pages of the book. I opened a bag of Goldfish, and for that I had to take my gloves off. Right away my fingers started to feel cold from the wind.

After the Goldfish were all finished, I picked up the book again and put the picture in my lap and found the page where I stopped reading at home.

“Hey, Andy,” I said. “Want me to read you some more?” I looked at the picture and I looked at the gravestone with Andy’s whole name on it, and I waited to see if it was going to feel like Andy was listening to me. “OK, I’m going to tell you what I read so far so you know what you missed, and then I’ll keep reading. OK, Andy?”





[ 49 ]


    Friendly Ghost


“SO, IN THIS ONE Jack and Annie go to Antarctica to try and find the fourth secret of happiness for Merlin, and they find a research station where researchers from all kinds of different countries work. Jack and Annie hide behind their goggles and masks and go on a trip in a helicopter to a volcano with some of the researchers. So I’m guessing someone’s going to find out they’re kids and they will probably get in huge trouble, don’t you think?”

I waited for something to happen. For something to change and make it feel like Andy was listening to me again. Nothing happened.

I read two more chapters out loud, but it was getting hard to turn the pages because my fingers were so cold. When I looked up from the book, it was like a surprise, because I was only thinking about what I was reading and I forgot about where I was and I didn’t notice that it was getting a little dark all around me.

I checked Andy’s watch: 4:58. I looked all around, but I didn’t see Charlie anywhere, so maybe it was still too early. I put my gloves back on and blew my warm breath inside the gloves, like Mommy always does to help me with cold hands. I started to feel sad a little when I thought about Mommy, so I tried to keep reading to stop thinking about her, but it’s not even possible to turn book pages with gloves on.

My whole entire body was feeling very cold, so I opened the sleeping bag and put my legs in, and that helped my legs but the rest of me was still cold.

When I was planning for my mission, I didn’t think about the darkness. I packed Buzz, but I didn’t think about how that was going to be when it got dark outside and I was at the cemetery all by myself. I only thought about how I was going to be here with Charlie and then we were going to go to my house together.

That’s not how it actually was now. It wasn’t all the way dark yet, I could still see all the gravestones around me, but in between the trees it looked dark and spooky. And all of a sudden I thought about what if Charlie wasn’t coming today? I could feel my heartbeat all the way up in my throat, and I moved closer to Andy’s gravestone and leaned against it. I pulled my backpack close and looked for Clancy.

Clancy was not in the big pocket. I checked the middle pocket and the little pocket and no Clancy anywhere. I looked all around me, because maybe he fell out earlier when I took out my other supplies, but he was nowhere. I forgot him or I lost him, I didn’t know which. No Clancy, no Charlie, no Mommy, no Daddy. Just me.

I felt like crying, and I thought I wanted to go back home, but I was too scared to get up or do any moving. I started thinking about the dead people in the graves and I couldn’t stop it. I thought about their bones in the caskets and also maybe that the dead people turn into ghosts after it gets dark. I thought about the bad guy in the white van and the scared feeling got bigger and bigger.

From the book, I pulled out the picture of me and Andy, and I could still see it a little bit in the darkness. “Andy,” I whispered. My chin was moving up and down fast and it made my teeth click together. “Andy, are you there? Can you please please be there? I really need you.” Nothing happened again. Then I remembered the angel wing charm in my pants pocket. I took one glove off and tried to stick my hand inside my pocket, but it was hard because I couldn’t even move my hand anymore, it was like stiff from the coldness. Finally, I got my hand in and I rubbed and rubbed the angel wing. “Your brother is not gone. He’s looking over you, too”—that’s what Miss Russell told me—and I tried to say this to myself over and over again in my head: “Andy’s not gone. He’s looking over me. Andy’s not gone. He’s looking over me.”

I was holding the picture of me and Andy in my other hand and all of a sudden a big wind blew against me, and I wasn’t holding the picture tight enough, and the wind ripped it out of my hand and blew it on the ground. It rolled on the ground and flew up against a gravestone and got stuck there.

“No!” I shouted and I jumped out of Andy’s sleeping bag and ran over to the gravestone to grab the picture, but the wind snatched it from me again and made it fly farther away. I tried to keep my eyes on it so it couldn’t get lost in the darkness. I ran after it and then I bumped into someone.