“Wait — what counties did you say?” I asked, gazing at the large stone castle before me, and stalling in the very worst way.
“Some counties here in England. Anyway, they also say—”
“Wait — we’re in England?” I looked at him, eyes wide with excitement. That was the first good news I’d heard all day. Bodhi nodded, eager to continue with his lecture, but I wasn’t interested. I was still stuck on the part that I’d just made my first international trip. “So, can we check out London? After we’re done with — um, pushing the Radiant Boy across the bridge?” I asked, discreetly crossing my fingers and hoping we could, because that would make it all worthwhile. That would be really, really cool.
Bodhi frowned, clearly annoyed, saying, “Yeah, sure, whatever. But first you need to pay attention. You need to know just what you’re dealing with here. Not to mention how nobody is pushing anybody anywhere. You will coax him, and convince him; he has to cross over on his own volition.”
I glanced at Bodhi, thinking how funny it was how one minute he was like any other normal fourteen-year-old kid using words like funner, and the next he was all serious and businesslike, using words like volition. And as someone who also likes to mix up my vocabulary a bit, I decided I’d like him for that.
But only for that.
I gazed up at the castle, overcome by excitement.
I was going to London!
Home of Robert Pattinson, Daniel Radcliffe, Princes William and Harry, not to mention my dad’s all-time favorite band, the Beatles (okay, maybe, technically, they were from Liverpool — but still, it was close enough for me).
All I had to do was rid this place of a ghost and I was there. Convince some pampered mama’s boy with an unfortunate name who refuses to give up the big house with the fancy gardens and fountains and pointy-topped turrets to move on to, well, from what I’d seen of it, a really weird school and a really uncomfortable life review.
And in that moment, I knew I could do it. Easy peasy. I had all the motivation I’d need. I mean, seriously, I was so suddenly sure of myself, I was just brimming, overflowing with confidence.
Cutting off Bodhi’s never-ending speech when I said, “Okay, so let’s cut to the chase here. What exactly am I dealing with? Just how old is this kid?” Figuring it was best to go in with a plan, and knowing his age would tell me just how to approach him.
Either he was younger than me, and therefore less scary, maybe even completely inferior in every way.
Or he was older, and, well, I’d have a little more work cut out, but nothing I couldn’t handle for sure.
“I don’t know.” Bodhi sighed. “Nobody knows. This kid’s a real enigma, a complete and total mystery.
But some say he appears to be around ten.”
“Ten?”I gaped, glancing between the castle and Bodhi. I could hardly believe my good luck. This kid, this scary ghost kid, was only ten? “Please.” I laughed, shaking my head and allowing for a slow, dramatic roll of my eyes. “I remember ten. ” I blew my bangs off my face, squared my shoulders, and straightened my skirt, preparing myself to go in. “So, where is he? Where’s this scary little ten-year-old kid? Let me at him. I’ve got a trip to London waiting for me.”
Bodhi looked at me, obviously weighing something in his mind. Clearly deciding against whatever it was, when he shrugged and said, “Fine, we’ll do it your way. For now. Follow me.”
Buttercup and I followed him across a large garden, cutting across a path of carefully trimmed hedges that made for a pretty complicated maze for those who couldn’t just walk straight through them like we could. Continuing right past the thick stone wall and emerging on the other side into a huge, oversized room with a super high ceiling, large stained-glass windows, thread worn rugs, dusty chandeliers, and, like, a ton of old things that I guessed to be priceless antiques.
“He’s said to haunt the blue room,” Bodhi whispered, even though no one was present and no one could hear us. His eyes darting all around until he spied the large, sprawling staircase, dropped his board, and skated toward it.
“So, this place has so many rooms they have to color code them?” I asked, having visited more than a few celebrity mansions in my earlier dead days, but never an actual castle, never anything quite so big and sprawling and amazing as this.
But Bodhi just shrugged, having already reached the top of the landing and tilting his head to the right as he said, “If I remember correctly, it’s that way, third door on the left.”
I stopped. Stopped right there in my tracks. Not liking the sound of that. Not liking it one measly bit.
“What do you mean if you remember correctly?” I studied him closely, trying to find some kind of tell, some kind of giveaway nervous tick, twitching eye, jerking knee, something. But other than that odd chewing of his bottom lip, I got nothing. He was stone-faced. Completely unreadable. Unwilling to give anything away. “You mean you’ve been here before, right?” I continued to probe, knowing he was hiding something, something I might very much need to know, for future use if nothing else, and I was determined to make him spill. “Was it for the Radiant Boy? Were you sent here to convince him to move on? And if you were, does that mean you failed? Does that mean you were unable to—” I raised my hands, curling my fingers into air quotes when I said, “coax and convince the ten-year-old to cross the bridge?”
He looked at me, his eyes betraying nothing when he said, “It’s a long story, Riley. One we clearly don’t have time for if you want to make it to London.” And even though his voice was curt, and more than a little dismissive, it didn’t work. I was on to him now. I could feel it in my nonexistent bones.
He’d failed, where I was about to conquer.
Ha! Some guide he was turning out to be.
“Fine.” He sighed, giving a little, but only a little. “Let’s just say you’re not the first to have a crack at this kid. Many have tried over the last, uh, several hundred years. But that just means that the bar is set so incredibly low no one’s expecting much from you now. Which is lucky, since ten bucks says you run out of there screaming the first second you lay eyes on him.”
“Ten bucks?” I rolled my eyes, swinging my blond hair over my shoulder. “Please.I can manifest mountains of ten-dollar bills, as can you. You wanna bet for real, then bet me something that’s actually worth something. Seriously, give me a little something to strive for here.”
He squinted, lips lifting at the sides when he said, “How about that trip to London? You convince the Radiant Boy to move on, you get your trip. If not—” He shrugged, leaving the rest to hang there, though the meaning was clear.
But I just shook my head. We’d already decided I was going, all I had to do was get the job done in a timely manner. No way was he changing the rules now. Not after they’d already been set.
He turned away, trying to hide the smile that snuck onto his face. The smile I didn’t have to see to know it was there. By the time he turned back again it was gone, wiped away clean, and replaced by a look of deep skepticism when he said, “Fine, you don’t run out of there screaming, you succeed where all others have failed, you actually get the Radiant Boy all the way across that bridge and I’ll teach you how to fly to London, okay? There. How’s that?”
And when he looked at me, it was clear he was proud of himself. So sure that it would never happen, that I’d fail miserably, and the whole thing would be off.
Which was fine by me. As the youngest in my family, I was used to being underestimated, and I loved nothing more than to prove everyone wrong.
“What about Buttercup? Can he fly too?”
Bodhi glanced between my dog and me and just shrugged.
“Fine,” I said, tucking my hair back behind my ears, preparing for the battle ahead, figuring the rest of the details could be worked out later. “You got yourself a deal.”
I followed alongside him as he headed down the hall, stopping abruptly when he said, “Well, this is it.”
He pointed toward a heavy, elaborately painted door just a few feet away. “The blue room. Home of your newfound friend.”
“Home of aten-year-old,” I mumbled, shaking my head.
Just about to walk right through the door when Bodhi reached toward me, his arm wavering, hovering, before he dropped it back to his side, rearranged his expression from serious to friendly, as he said, “Riley—” I turned, catching a look of real, genuine concern glinting in his eyes.
“It’s — it’s not what you think. There’s plenty more to the story. Stuff you should probably know about before you go in.”
But I just sighed and rolled my eyes, figuring it was just another stalling tactic, or some kind of psych-out. Figuring he was pretty much willing to do anything at this point, to make sure he won this one and keep me from a flying lesson he was so clearly reluctant to give.
“He’s a ghost. He’s ten. He goes by abizarre name that either is or isn’t his fault — that’s yet to be determined — and I need to convince him to move on,” I said, uncurling a finger with each point made and still left with a thumb pressed against the center of my palm. “Seriously, how hard can it be? And what’s the worst he can do? It’s not like he can kill me, you know? So, now that that’s settled, can I please have at him? I’d really like to cross this one off my list — I’ve got a flying lesson to get to.”
Bodhi looked at me, a long, hard, conflicted stare. Then he shook his head and waved me away with his hand. Maybe mumbling some stuff about wishing me good luck, about how he’d be waiting right outside for me in case I needed any help — and maybe not.
I’d never know for sure.
I’d already moved on.
Buttercup and I were already on the other side of that door.
The first thing I saw when I entered that room was No, scratch that. First let me say what it wasn’t.