“Well, where is he?” More scritching. “H-I-D-I-N-G.” Shar screamed, “Oh my god! Does he have a message for Maisy? His sister’s right here!” Shar scraped the glass all over the board. I watched close and it didn’t stop on any letters. Then it flew off the bottom right through goodbye.

“You were pushing it, Shar. I saw you.”

Shar looked at me and her finger made a cross on her chest. “I swear, Maisy. I swear on your life, I wasn’t trying to move it. I was just helping it go where it wanted to go.”

“Then what did she say?”

“Help him,” Shar said.

“What?”

“She said, Help him!”

Even though Shar was laughing and said I should see the look on my own face, the hair on my skin went straight up.

MAISY

I ran out of Darrell’s bedroom. Shar ran after me.

“Boo-hoo-hoo.” Shar sang it a bunch of times. “If you think it’s sucky here, then get out. Go home, you crybaby.”

“I’m not supposed to.” I wasn’t even crying.

Shar pointed at her plastic watch. “Your mother should’ve been back hours ago. What does she think this is? A motel?”

I shook my head. Her mother wasn’t there neither. Her mother was far, far away. Her mother yanked her hair and broke her arm and bumped her mouth so two of her teeth went gray. That was why she lived with Erma and only visited her mom in the summer. “But really,” Gloria told me. “She’s just at her grandmother’s. I doubt her mother’s even there.”

“Maybe she missed the bus,” I said. “Or it was late.”

“Yeah, right. I saw her drive off in Mrs. Murtry’s car.”

I looked at the door. I wanted Aunt Erma to walk in and smack Shar. Smack her right in the head. I wished I had a different best friend instead of just Shar.

“Well? What did I say?” She had her hands on her hips. “We don’t got to babysit you forever. We don’t want you here.”

I grabbed my bag and I grabbed Shar’s book, too. She didn’t want it. Darrell came out of the bathroom then. He kept turning his skull earring around and his whole ear was red and puffed up. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“I’m going home.”

“Your mom’s back?”

I didn’t answer. I opened the door and went outside on the front porch and looked at the bottom of the circle. Nighttime was all around our house. I wished Gloria would be there, but Mrs. Murtry’s car was still gone. I looked up to the top of the circle. Mrs. Spooner’s car was gone, too. I ran down the stairs.

“Hey!” Darrell called out. “What happened? Was it Shar? You got to ignore her, Maisy. She’s an asshole.”