—I didn’t mean to get stuck in here, Danny, but I did, and we have to make the best of it. Now we have to be friends until I can figure out how to get out—

I don’t want to be your friend! You’re a girl! I don’t want a girl in my head!

Great, thought Allie, that’s what I get for skinjacking a seven-year-old.

I heard that!

And now not even her thoughts were private. This was going to take a lot of getting used to.

—Think of me as your guardian angel, Danny—

You’re an angel?

—Yes, I am— she told him, seizing onto the one idea that might make this whole thing work,—and if you want things to be okay, you have to pretend like it already is okay. You have to pretend like I’m not here—And then she made a decision.— I promise not to take over your body without your permission … if you promise to calm down and act normal—

Okay, thought Danny, but if you start making me do girly things …

“Danny, honey, talk to me,” said his mother. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Danny took a deep breath, and said, “Nothing, Mom. I’m okay now. I was … I was having a bad dream, but it went away.”

His mother hugged him. Allie was impressed that he pulled it off.— Very good— thought Allie.— They’ll probably still take you to see doctors, but if you act normal, everything will be okay—

Will they give me shots?

—I don’t think so—

Good, thought Danny, and then he asked her, Will you help me with my homework sometimes?

Sure, thought Allie. Why not. She tried to tell herself that she’d be okay with this—being a backseat driver to a second-grader, but the reality of it filled her with despair. Everlost was gone—she couldn’t see it anymore, couldn’t feel it. It was invisible to her, just as it was to Danny, or any other fleshie. She knew her body was out there somewhere, but she had no idea where to find it—and even if she did, she was still stuck inside this kid. Good going, Allie.

Don’t be sad, Allie.

And so, for Danny’s sake, she tried not to be.

CHAPTER 30
A Place on the Mantel

Five hundred miles northeast of Memphis, another skinjacker paced in the Hindenburg’s Starboard Promenade.

“Patience, Milos,” Mary said. “Patience is what we need right now.”

“But why must I spend my days running petty skinjacking errands for Pugsy Capone? That is work for Moose and Squirrel, not for me!”

Mary took his hand. “You’re doing it as a favor for me.”