Grandma heads deeper into the apartment, listening to the woman talk seriously about the sound of claws scraping over the floors and the cold wind that blows around her ankles whenever she comes home—about how she feels like the spirits want her gone, and isn’t it weird that her brand-new condo is haunted like this?

Shelly takes a seat in the hallway and clucks her tongue at the dog, smiling. She’s never had a pet before—too expensive—but she likes dogs. A ghost dog would be a good pet—ghosts don’t need feeding the same way living beings do.

“It’s okay,” she tells the dog, leaning toward it so Grandma’s client won’t hear her whispering. She tugs the tie off the end of the braid Grandma wove her long, dark hair into and combs her fingers through it, loosening it. “Grandma and I are going to take you for a walk.”

The dog’s tail wags even harder and Shelly lets it dance around her, nipping at the ends of her hair as she waits for Grandma to finish talking to the woman about the monster she imagines is hiding under her bed.

People are always coming by the house to see if Grandma will get rid of their ghosts—cats that wind around their ankles and trip them when they walk. Dogs that bark in the middle of the night, startling them out of sleep.

Shelly catches the dog in the ends of her hair then scoops it into her arms when Grandma and the woman come back into the hallway, scratching it under the chin. Holding it is like holding a cold wind, and when the puppy licks her face it feels like someone is rubbing an icicle against her cheek.

“Will this take long?” the lady asks, getting her wallet out of her purse. “Is $300 enough?”

Three hundred is a lot for a ghost. Most of Grandma’s clients pay in knickknacks and favors and food. Grandma doesn’t normally charge much because if people know they have a ghost, they might pay anything to get rid of them—do anything.

“Not long at all,” Grandma promises. “We’ll be out of here before you know it.”

They walk the dog to the park, and Shelly and the dog play fetch with an invisible stick until the dog fades away, finally ready to rest.

They go home and Shelly helps Grandma out of her coat. Shelly’s mother is in the kitchen and there’s a frozen lasagna in the oven.

“You’ve got to be responsible,” Grandma tells Shelly. “You can’t charge people through the nose to get rid of a ghost.”