Joseph reaches for the tapes. He feeds them into his Walkman one by one. “Je suis désolé. That means I’m sorry. I’m dead. It’s not so bad.”

“Says you,” says Estelle K. J. Park, she and her fogged-over glasses suddenly appearing beside Joseph. “With your Walkman and your constant moping. Young lady, did you know my angel’s still not up? It should be up by now!”

Joseph lets out a world-weary sigh. “Oui, oui—je connais la musique. Estelle, Shelly’s mother just died.”

Estelle stops talking and leans back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Well, shoot,” she says. “Sorry, kid. What’d you go for on her grave—something classy or something a little bold like me? How big’s the tombstone?”

Shelly doesn’t really want to talk about what her mother’s grave is going to look like. She shrugs. “Grandma did that stuff.”

“You ask your grandma for me. You tell her, too—you tell her to see about my angel. It’s taking too long.” Estelle pauses, tilting her head as she looks down at Shelly. “You’ll be all right, kid. You’ll see her again before you know it. Not like the rest of us. Nobody visits and nobody could see me if they did.”

And message delivered about her angel, Estelle is gone and Joseph and Shelly are alone again.

Shelly can feel tears prickling at the corners of her eyes and words tugging at her throat, trying to worm their way out of her. She swallows them because she won’t weep on the dead. There’s no rule against it, but she wants to be strong—she wants to seem better at this than she is.

They come out anyway.

“I can’t find her,” she says. “I miss her. I can’t remember what her voice sounds like. Not exactly. What if I forget how she smells next?”

Joseph is a ghost, so he doesn’t really get what she means. Shelly can see that on his face.

Shelly also doesn’t know who else to talk to.

“You’re a ghost,” she says. “You live here. If you see her—”

“I don’t live anywhere,” Joseph says. He pauses, nods. “But if I see her, I’ll tell her Little Shell is looking for her mother. I’ll tell her you want to hear her voice again.”