Ruth and Alice exchanged a look.
“And we need salt. Lots of salt to pour into the middle of the cord. It will help.”
Ruth and Alice stared at me. I shot them a dark look. “Hurry. Come on. We don’t have all night.”
The two women spurred to action. Within seconds I had salt, batteries, electrical cord, everything I needed to theoretically hold a ghost.
I cut, I taped, I poured. I worked fast and furiously until I was staring at a rope with a new battery pack on one end and a line of salt running through it.
I brushed grains from my hands. “That, ladies, is how you build a lasso to wrangle a ghost.”
Alice peered at it. She scrunched up her face and leaned far, far over it. “Will it work?” she said with a mystical note in her voice.
“It’ll work.” They stared at me skeptically. “Listen, it’ll work enough to do what we need.” I glanced at their clothes. “Why are you both wearing all black?”
“This is what we wear,” Ruth said.
“You look like you’re about to rob a bank,” I said. “Let’s change it.” Wait. The black might actually work. “Never mind. You look great.” I glanced at my watch. “Just a couple more minutes and we’ll be ready to go.”
Ruth grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder. “Shouldn’t we be heading over to Truck’s house?”
I shook my head. “We’re not going there first.”
Ruth and Alice exchanged a confused look. “Then where are we going?” Ruth said.
I grinned widely. “The funeral home.”
At exactly seven twenty,the three of us loaded into Alice’s Caprice Classic.
“This is the vehicle you catch ghosts from?” I said.
“Well, since we’ve never actually been called out to catch one, it’s been pretty good,” Alice said. “But if we do end up getting work, we’ll need to put in a command center. Probably the trunk will be the best place.”
I nodded. “Sure. The trunk. Where your ghost-catching boxes are located.”
“I’ve got one cardboard box filled with water balloons,” Alice said. “Think we’ll need it tonight?”
I bit back the sarcasm threatening to come out. “Yep. I’m sure we will.”
We arrived at Tom’s Rideout Funeral Home five minutes later. “Is that place actually called Rideout? Like it’s your ride out of this life and into the next?”
Ruth unbuckled her seat belt. “It’s a bit macabre, don’t you think?”
“Slightly.”
Alice started to open her door. “Wait,” I said.
“For what?”
Screams split through the quiet night. “For that. Come on. It’s ghost-catching time.”
The two women strapped on backpacks. I have no idea what they contained. Perhaps pixie dust that captured ghosts? Right. Sure thing.
I, on the other hand, grabbed the lasso. I pulled my hair into a tight ponytail. “Are y’all ready?”
Alice and Ruth threw their handbags on their shoulders. “We’re ready.”
“Why are you bringing purses?”
