Sometimes the critical voice in his head sounded a lot like Ching.

“Yeah. So how have the past ten years been?” Addy asked.

“You know. School, ghost, the usual.” Sanjiv really was trying to think of something interesting to say.

“Yeah. I guess we didn’t really get the ghosts we imagined, huh?”

Sanjiv immediately recalled Addy thinking she might get to have her grandmother as a ghost, the one who died when they were five. Addy had really missed her. He hadn’t been sure who would be his, but he hadn’t ever guessed he had a great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother from China. Who was also a pirate.

“I like Sven, though,” Addy quickly added. “He usually isn’t as, uh, shouty. He’s kinda strict and stuff, but I think he really wants me to be happy.”

“Yeah.” Sanjiv didn’t really know how to respond. Did Ching want him to be happy? Most of the time he would have emphatically said no. But that wasn’t quite right. She did try to make him happy, just in the most miserable ways.

“I don’t know how people de-ghost. It’d be so strange to not have him around, you know?”

“Mmm.” Sanjiv really needed to learn how to talk in full sentences with Addy.

“Hey, so this is weird . . .” Addy wasn’t looking at him.

Oh God, this was going even worse than he thought.

“Isn’t today your birthday?”

Wait, what? Sanjiv looked up. Addy was pink in the cheeks.

“Uh, yeah, it is.” Was this the best feeling anyone had ever had? Sanjiv was pretty sure it was.

“I just remembered we had to move from our house, like, the day before your birthday party. I know it’s really weird—”

“No, no, I get it. I remember the party.” Which was a lie because he hadn’t even attended his own party. He’d refused under the misguided belief that boycotting would somehow get his parents to bring Addy back.

“Oh! Hey!” Addy flicked her eyes back to the diner. “Pie. We have really, really good pumpkin pie. I’m going to get you birthday pie.”

“Oh, you don’t have to, really—”

She was so pink now. “No, no, I want to. Also, our ghosts are making out, so I feel incredibly uncomfortable and want to go inside and get you pie.”

As the door chimed behind her, Sanjiv made the mistake of turning around. He found Ching contorted into some kind of weird shape, embracing the air, her tongue licking at nothing.

Oh.

God.

Car.

Now.

He slammed the door behind him and turned the radio on. Static. Loud static was good. The best.

After a minute, a throat cleared next to him. “Is everything okay?” Ching asked. “Where did Addy go?”

Sanjiv turned the static down. “She went to get me pumpkin pie. For my birthday.”

Ching’s eyes lit up. “Mmm, pumpkin, your favorite.”