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it
would be good to do it tomorrow. When they lock down the school,
everybody will be in a hurry to get home. There will be less of a
chance of anybody catching us hiding. I’ll tell my parents I’m
staying over at a friend’s house. What about your parents?”
    “What Dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Mom
pretty much lets me do whatever I want—she understands that I can
see trouble coming from a long way off.”
    “So we’re good?”
    “Sounds like a plan,” I said, trying to sound
enthusiastic.
    The waitress brought my omelet. As I ate it,
I had flashes of fluffy yellow and white chicks. I tried to feel a
sense of loss for them, but I couldn’t feel anything.
     
    *************
     
    “The girl’s been missing for nearly three
days.”
    “I know, I know, I know,” I said.
    It was Friday morning, and I was eating
breakfast alone—except for Jerry, of course.
    Jerry was being wretched. I hadn’t thought it
was possible for a ghost to be so impatient. He’d burned my toast
three times, before I finally had to make it myself.
    Now I tried to eat my scrambled eggs and
toast, while Jerry sat across from me, complaining that I was
taking too long to find Mary Jo. He sat there in his uniform,
looking like he belonged on a ghastly police-recruiting poster.
Join the police force. Serve and protect. Get your brains blown out
by an armed felon.
    “Three days is a long time to be lost in an
alternate reality. No telling how much damage might be done to the
girl. In the meantime, there have been three more accidents here
that should never have happened. Two more car accidents—minor
fender benders—and a senior citizen fell off a stepladder and broke
his leg while changing a light bulb,” he said.
    “I’m working on it. It’s not that easy, you
know?”
    “What’s the hold up?” he demanded.
    “There are cops at the school every day. The
bathroom is still off limits to students. But there is a plan,” I
said, and told him about Jack and about what we had planned for
that evening.
    He thought for a long time, and then he said,
“You know, technically, you’d still be breaking and entering, and
trespassing. Those are some very serious charges.”
    “You said I needed to find her. You didn’t
say anything about having to find her legally.”
    “I’m just saying, you’d be breaking the
law.”
    “And how could I do it without breaking the
law. I mean, I figure I have to get into the bathroom. I need to
check it out. If I can’t even check it out, there’s no way I can
find her. And how can I do that legally if it’s still a crime
scene? You can’t make an omelet without cracking a couple eggs, you
know.”
    He shrugged a thick shoulder. “I guess you’re
right. I just don’t like the idea of you breaking the law.”
    “Think of it as the lesser of two evils.
Maybe that will help.”
    “It doesn’t. I feel that I am turning you
into a juvenile delinquent.”
    “Jerry, please, just—just stop talking about
it, okay?” I said. “You keep talking, and I’ll forget the whole
thing, I swear. I didn’t want to do it from the beginning,
anyway.”
    “All right,” he said glumly.
    He still sat there, but kept his mouth shut.
I was able to eat in relative peace for a few minutes.
    “So what about this guy? Jack—is that his
name?” he asked.
    “Jack Kilgore, yeah.”
    “You like him?”
    “No, not at all,” I said.
    “But you told him about yourself, about what
you can do.”
    “Everybody has a weak moment now and
then.”
    “And you’re letting him help you with finding
Mary Jo.”
    “Jack is an idiot,” I said. “He actually
wants to help me. If he wants to be stupid, who am I to stop
him?”
    “And that’s all?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I don’t believe you,” he said.
    “Can’t you talk about the weather or
something?” I asked.
    “You have to like somebody.”
    “Who says?”
    “Life must be so lonely for you.”
    “Lonely? What are you, kidding? I have
annoying ghosts