It feels silly for Grandma to say we when it’s clear she means her. Shelly looks down at the parapsychology book she’s been trying to read all evening. She didn’t find anything useful in it before, but maybe this time she’ll find something she missed. Maybe she’ll find something that will help her find her mom. She doesn’t want to sit with Mrs. Potts and her cats while Grandma works. It just makes her think more about what she’s missing. She’s tired of feeling sad all the time. She wants to do something. Helping with ghosts would be her top choice, but if her grandma’s going to cut her off from some of the work, maybe Shelly needs to look elsewhere.

“When can I go back to school?”

Grandma gives her a surprised look. “Do you want to go back? You can go back whenever you want to.”

Shelly’s not entirely sure she wants to go, but right now school sounds better than home. It’s something to distract her from the way she feels, like she’s a ghost in her own home, waiting for something to happen.

“Yeah,” she says. “I want to go back.”

“I’ll call the school tomorrow,” Grandma says. “I’ll ask them about Monday.”

• • •

Shelly sits in her own bedroom and listens to the call—Grandma talks about Shelly wanting to get out of the house and get her mind off things. She tells whoever’s on the other end—the principal or Ms. Flores, Shelly assumes—that she’ll be home and they can call if Shelly needs to leave early.

She tells Shelly, too, on the bus to school Monday morning. Shelly’s in sixth grade. She doesn’t need Grandma to come with her to school in the morning, but she’d insisted on taking her. “You don’t need to push yourself, Shelly. You can go to the office and tell them you want to call me. I’ll come get you.”

“I’m okay,” Shelly says. “I’ll be okay.”

“But if you’re not, for any reason—”

“I’ll call!” Shelly stands up as soon as the bus reaches her stop. “I’ll be okay, Grandma. I know how to use a phone.”

Shelly wouldn’t have gotten away with snapping before. Her mother would’ve said, Shell, what’s that tone of voice? and Don’t speak to your grandma like that.

Her mom can correct her when she comes back.

“Okay,” Grandma says, getting to her feet, too. “As long as you know, that’s all I ask.”

Grandma walks her into the school and to her classroom. Ms. Flores’s face creases into a mask of sympathy and sorrow as soon as she sees them. “Shelly,” she says. “It’s so good to have you back with us today. How are you feeling?”