“Is there somebody else on this island, Rosa?”

She remained silent.

“Come out, Rosa,” I said. “Come meet my friends. You can’t stay under there all day.”

“What’s the other dork’s name?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Rosa smiled hesitantly, as if unsure what was funny.

I said, “God.”

“No it’s not!”

“What a stupid name, right?”

“He can’t call himself God.”

“Hey, I agree totally.”

“What about your other friends? Do they have stupid names too?”

“Their names are Pita, Pepper, and Elizaveta.”

“Those are better.”

“I agree.”

“Why are you here?”

“The island? One of my friends—Pepper—he works for a TV show.”

Rosa’s eyes widened. “Really?”

I nodded. “Do you know what a documentary is?”

“Not really.”

“It’s like a real-life movie. You know, like those animal shows and stuff? Only Pepper’s shows are about ghosts.”

She seemed surprised. “He knows about the ghost?”

I frowned. “What ghost?”

“The ghost on the island. The ghost that…” She bit her lip again.

I studied her silently. I had a dozen questions, but there would be time to ask her them later. Right now I needed to get her out from under the bed, to the others. They’d know how to talk to her, get her to open up. I said. “Are you hungry, Rosa?”

She nodded.

“We have water. I think we might even have a candy bar. Do you want a candy bar?”

She nodded again.

“Okay. But you have to come out of there first.”

I offered my hand to her. After a long moment, she took it.

7

We walked side by side, holding hands. I would have felt awkward doing this with a child back in the city, and I felt equally uncomfortable now. But the girl—Rosa—didn’t want to let go. She really was spooked by something. Which was what I was trying to figure out. What was the ghost she thought she’d seen? Shadows playing tricks with her eyes? A glimpse of a doll in the dark? A figment of her imagination?

Moreover, why was she on the island in the first place? Someone brought her here from Naucalpan obviously, but who? And where were they now? The island wasn’t big enough that you could lose someone on it. Sound carried out here precisely because there was little sound of anything to begin with. All Rosa had to do was yell and whoever she came with would hear her.