“Don’t be dumb, Maisy. There’s always someone around.” Then she said to me, “Go on. You say something.”

I swallowed. “Hello?” All I could do was whisper.

The glass started sliding. Slow. Up to P. Then faster to E. Then real quick to A, and R. It stopped on L.

“Did you see that?” Shar said. “I wasn’t moving it. I swear I wasn’t.”

“What did it say?”

“Pearl.”

“Like pearls?” I asked. “A necklace?”

“I think that’s her name. Go on. Ask her a question.”

I didn’t want to.

“Do it before she leaves, Maisy.” Shar stuck her elbow in my ribs. “Do you think she got all day?”

“Hi Pearl,” I said. It was weird talking to nothing. “I’m Maisy Janes.”

Shar snorted. “You’re such an idiot,” she said. “Pearl don’t care who you are.” Then she put her nose almost on the board. She yelled, “Is Rowan there? We want to talk to Rowan.”

The glass scraped over the wood. W. All the way over to A. Then back to T. It started going fast all over the place. My eyes couldn’t follow the letters.

“I think it’s broken,” I said.

“No it’s not. She said she’s watching him.”

“What?”

“Pearl said she’s watching Rowan.”

Then it was spinning around. E then Y. The glass looked like it was flying away from Shar’s fingers.

“Eyes,” Shar said. “Do ghosts got eyes?”

My heart was tak-takking even faster. The glass started moving again, scrape, scrape, scrape. I saw what it spelled that time.

“Bitch.” Shar slapped her leg with her other hand. “Good thing Aunt Erma’s not here. Pearl’s got a dirty mouth.”

“You should stop moving it.”

“Who says I’m moving it?”

“It can’t move by itself.”

“It can if there’s ghosts.”

My hands were wet and my throat hurt. The hot dog chunks were hard in my middle. “I don’t want to play no more.”

“This is fun, Maisy.” Shar got closer to the board again. “I said we want to talk to Rowan. Pearl. Get Rowan.”

The glass didn’t move.

“Now!” screamed Shar.

Then slowly it scraped over to W.

Shar called out the letters. “W-A-T-E-R. Oh my god. Water. She’s talking about Rowan. Being in the water. Drowned. Did you hear that, Maisy? Pearl knows how he died. This is real!”

Shar called out more letters. “C-O-L-D. He’s cold. That means he’s cold.”

I crunched up my knees. I tried not to listen.

“Wait, it’s moving again. B-O-X. Did the man put him in a box?”

“I want to stop,” I said.

Shar yelled again, “Put Rowan on!” Then she spelled, “N-O-T.” And, “H-E-R-E.”

“Stop, Shar.”