Kayla scrolls through more entries and then clicks on a tab labeledForty-day prayer.
Many Filipinos believe that the souls of the dead wander the Earth forty days after their death. To help them pass on, the family does a forty-day prayer.
She faces me and jabs her finger at the screen. “Before you point out all the ways this isn’t logical…”
“I wasn’t going to,” I say—even though I was definitely going to.
“Consider this for a moment,” Kayla urges. “You’ve been doing all this research on dead pigs to figure out how long your dad’s ghost is staying. What if the answer is in Auntie Beth’s superstitions?”
“Again, the cells of the pig were revived after being dead for an hour,” I point out. “It’s groundbreaking scientific research!”
Kayla rudely closes the tab when I show her more of the pigs. She sighs and says, “When your dad shows up as a ghost,I don’t think that has anything to do with science, Niks. It becomes a matter of faith.”
Despite my gut telling me that the pig research has more scientific value, I try to think like how Ma would. What if the answersareall in Ma’s superstitions?
Achi and Ma had a fight about Pa’s fortieth day years ago. Ma wanted to host a big prayer service for Pa, but Achi thought it was better to do something more private. In the end, we all had to put on our everything’s-fine-with-the-Ilagan-family faces while going through another round of people telling us they were sorry for our loss.
I keep staring at the number forty on the screen. “What if… the forty-day thing doesn’t only apply to recently dead souls?” I consider. “What if…allsouls only get to wander the Earth for forty days… then maybe we start counting from when Pa’s ghost first appeared…”
“Which was a day ago, right?” Kayla confirms.
“Right…” I flip over the flyer I’ve been writing on and read the headline:39 DAYS UNTIL PROM!If this forty-day superstition is correct, then Pa’s ghost has until prom night.
And then Kayla tells me, “Time to believe in things you don’t see.”
15
Pa is hovering by the waiting area of our condominium lobby, as if he’s a visitor who needs to be buzzed in instead of a… ghost.
“Is hehere?” Kayla asks while I’m processing that Pa didn’t go away. Her hand quickly goes to the cross on her necklace and she turns on her phone’s flashlight.
I shield my eyes when the light hits my eyes. “What’re you doing?”
“Waving smoke around is supposed to drive off evil spirits.”
Pa stands to the side while Kayla looks like she’s one of those airport marshals guiding a giant plane on the runway. “I didn’t bring incense, but maybe my phone light can work,” she explains.
“Hey!” she says when I swipe the phone and turn off the light.
“My dad isn’t an evil spirit.”
“This is what happens in many horror movies,” Kayla says. “Ghosts appear looking like your friend, your dad, then they turn out to be a headless priest or a vampire-like baby.”
I tell Kayla she’s being ridiculous and leave out the fact that I had the same exact thought yesterday.
“And I would’ve never qualified to be a priest,” Pa says, chiming in.
I spend the next ten minutes assuring Kayla that Pa’s ghost isn’t headless, vampire-like, and doesn’t resemble the White Lady of Balete Drive (even though I have no idea whatshe’dlook like and have no interest in finding out, thank you very much).
Kayla inches closer to me. “So how do I greet him to show I come in peace?”
“Curtsy?” I say with a shrug.
I meant it as a joke, but Kayla goes on to do a full-body curtsy about ten feet from where Pa is actually floating.
I spin Kayla around and direct her to where Pa is located. Kayla does another bow. “Nice to meet you, Ghost Dad.”
Pa smiles. “I can’t believe this is little Kayla Tan. She was just here before,” he says, pointing to his waist.
