She dragged the chair into a gap next to the table, and Ethan felt a sudden suspicion building.
The suspicion was confirmed when Janie turned toward Curtis. “I’m sorry, sir – who are you?”
“Janie!” Eula scolded, before realization hit her. “Wait, you can see him?”
Janie delivered the kind of withering look that only a tween could truly pull off. “Yeah?”
“I think there’s some kind of family bond here,” Ethan said, hoping to smooth things over before they could get out of hand. “Janie, Curtis here is a ghost. Sylvie and Henry can’t see him, but your grandma can, because he’s a distant relative of hers – and that means that he’s a relative of yours, too.”
Janie seemed to contemplate that for a moment, chewing thoughtfully, before she swallowed. She paused a moment longer, before finally opening her mouth to make her grand pronouncement on the situation.
“Cool,” she said.
“Janie!” Eula hissed.
“So this is what I have to look forward to in ten years, huh?” Sylvie said thoughtfully.
“Wait,” Janie said, staring Curtis in the face. He blinked in confusion.
She then picked up the photo off the table and held it next to his head, looking back and forth between the two.
“Oh, it’s Great-Great-Grandpa Curtis!” she exclaimed.
“That’s Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa to you,” Eula said, looking a little dazed at how unconcerned Janie seemed to be at meeting the ghost of her distant ancestor.
~It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Janie,~Curtis said, looking pleased and a little overwhelmed.
“You, too,” Janie said offhandedly. She turned back to Eula. “I can see why you were hanging out with all your friends here, if there’s a ghost in town. This is way more interesting than bowling. No offense,” she quickly added, at Eula’s affronted look. “You know I like bowling! But we can do that anytime.”
Eula still looked like she wanted to defend bowling’s honor, but, Ethan was sure, she recognized that eating cake with the ghost of a dead relativewaspretty interesting.
“Why’re you here, anyway?” Janie asked Curtis. “What’s it like being dead?”
“Janie!” Eula hissed for the third time in as many minutes. She turned to Curtis. “Please forgive her – she’s young. Just ignore that second question.”
~It’s quite alright,~Curtis said with a smile.~The candor of youth is always refreshing.~He turned to Janie, his expression and posture changing slightly, and Ethan was surprised at how well he seemed to be relating to her… although, he supposed, Curtishadraised four kids of his own, and tweens from any era were probably that special brand of obnoxious. This was likely nothing he hadn’t dealt with before.
Curtis went on,~I don’t know why I’m here, to be honest. I was suddenly pulled out of the afterlife, and found myself attached to Ethan here with hardly any memories.~He gestured at Ethan, who raised a hand awkwardly.
~We came here to Girdwood Springs because I remembered that it was where I had lived, and more of my memories have come back the longer I’ve been here,~he continued.~But it appears that now we have come to an impasse.~
At Janie’s quizzical look, Chloe clarified, “We’re stumped.”
“We don’t know where to go or what to do next,” Ethan said. “We still don’t know why Curtis has been summoned back to the land of the living.”
Janie looked thoughtfully at the old photograph, scrutinizing it closely. She ran her fingers across the faded image of Curtis’s wife.
“Which is why we’re all here, talking to your grandma,” Chloe said. “Because she could see Curtis when other people couldn’t. I can see him for… other reasons,” she added, “and Ethan can see him because Curtis is attached to him, for whatever reason. But it seems like otherwise, the only people who can see him are his relatives.”
As Chloe spoke, Janie’s face moved into an expression that was a little… odd. She stared at the photograph for a few more seconds, before looking up.
“How long has Great-Grandpa Curtis been hanging around with you?” she asked in a tone that was difficult to read. Ethan noticed that she was dropping some of the ‘great’s, but he couldn’t say he blamed her. There were more than enough of them to go around.
“About two months,” Ethan replied. “Though it’s only in the past few days that I’ve been able to talk to him.”
“Two months,” Janie echoed. She bit her lip. Then she looked up from beneath her eyelashes, clearly trying for an ‘innocent little scamp’ look. “Um… it’s…maybepossible that I did this.”
The room fell into silence. Ethan wondered whether he had heard her right – but before he could formulate a question, Eula stepped in.
