Sometimes, Harvey crawls along and through the bushes so he can see where the ghosts come from. Maybe from the old manhole, like what the Ninja Turtles use. He told his mom how he found signs, like his dad taught him to do. He’s seen broken sticks and tracks, a screwdriver. There are a lot of rabbit turds in there and Peggy eats those like a snack. Jason said rabbit turds is like Peggy’s Raisinets but under the bushes is also where Peggy goes to the bathroom and that is what Harvey’s mom wanted to talk about most. “You didn’t wipe your feet!” she said, and pointed to the rug.

“I saw where they stay,” he told her, but she was scrubbing with paper towels and saying his name the way she does sometimes—“Harvey, Harvey, Harvey”—so he didn’t tell her he found a big flat piece of gold and some more matches. She asked didn’t he smell what he stepped in? But, no, he didn’t, because he was watching the manhole. You have to watch or they might come out and grab you. His mom was mad or he would have said what made her laugh one time, how she said dog doo-doo was white when she was a kid. She and Jason laughed and laughed and that’s what Harvey likes to think about if scary things come in his head instead, like the Munchkins flipping your car and calling you things like shitbutt and snothead, or Lizzie with her axe, or those rich boys that killed their mama and daddy while they were watching television.

Super Monkey said, “Hey, you guys, c’mon, they’re your mom and dad and you got a big TV and cars and stuff,” and they said, “Well, sometimes a mom or dad needs to go away and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“But they shouldn’t go away,” Super Monkey said. “A mom and a dad shouldn’t go away ever and you need to just watch that big TV and you think about it.”

And then they said, okay, they would think about it.

“Honey,” his mama said, “I’ve got to go to work and you have got to go to camp. You can’t do this every morning, okay? I had no idea where you were. And wipe your feet next time, okay?”

And he said, “Okay,” and she said, “Maybe stay closer to the house,” and he said, “Okay,” but he didn’t tell her he ran and put a note on top of the manhole. Whos HEAR? he wrote in red crayon and now he can’t wait to get home from camp to go and see if they wrote back.